United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But presently I heard a voice say softly, and in a tone that seemed to address nobody in particular me least of all: "We Neopalians like a man who can be angry, and I began to think you never would." "I am not the least angry," said I, with great indignation. I hate being told that I am angry when I am merely showing firmness.
In fact, I thought it prudent to be ready for any trouble that the Old World notions of the Neopalians might occasion. But in my heart I meant to be very popular with them; for I cherished the generous design of paying the whole tribute out of my own pocket, and of disestablishing in Neopalia what seems to be the only institution in no danger of such treatment here the tax-gatherer.
The Neopalians were, as they stated, in answer to my questions, brothers; their names were Spiro and Demetri, and they informed us that their family had served the lords of Neopalia for many generations. Hearing this, I was less inclined to resent the undeniable reserve and even surliness with which they met my advances.
For the Neopalians like a man to follow, and they like that man to be a Stefanopoulos; so they would shut their eyes to much, in order that Constantine might marry me and become lord." She stated all this in a matter-of-fact way, disclosing no great horror of her countrymen's moral standard.
"Since I was so foolish as to waste my money on revolvers," said I, with an inquiring glance at Hogvardt. "The evening air will not hurt them," said he; and we each stowed a revolver in our pockets. We felt, I think, rather ashamed of our timidity, but the Neopalians certainly looked rough customers. Then I turned the handle of the door. The door did not open. I pulled hard at it.
My first impulse was to go straight to the spot; but I had begun by now to doubt whether the Neopalians were not unsophisticated in quite as peculiar a sense as that in which they were good-hearted; so I called Denny and Hogvardt, bidding the latter to bring his lantern with him. Thus protected, I stepped out of the door, in the direction from which the sigh had come.
Word Of The Day