United States or Gabon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"O comrade dear," said Florian, "you who loved merriment, there is a feast afoot on this strange night, and my heart is sad that you are not here to share in the feasting. Come, come, Tiburce, a right trusty friend you were to me; and, living or dead, you should not fail to make merry at my wedding." Thus he spoke. White mists were rising, and it was Walburga's Eve.
But how time does fly, to be sure!" And Florian was perturbed. "For this is an awkward thing, and Tiburce has played me an unworthy trick. He never did know when to leave off joking; but such posthumous frivolity is past endurance. For, see now, in what a pickle it has landed me!
So do you quit talking nonsense about immortality and sacraments." "But, still," cried Florian, "love is immortal. Yes, I repeat to you, precisely as I told Tiburce, love is immortal." Then says Dame Melicent, nodding her shriveled old head: "When I was young, and was served by nimbler senses and desires, and was housed in brightly colored flesh, there were a host of men to love me.
With that rapidity of decision which was one of the distinctive characteristics of his organization, he resolved to ask an audience of the governor, meantime requesting the keeper not to hasten Louis's departure. Bonaparte was an excellent pupil, beloved in the school, and highly esteemed by the Marquis Tiburce Valence. His request was immediately complied with.
Florian thought of his dead comrade and of the love which had been between them a love more perfect and deeper and higher than commonly exists between men and the thought came to Florian, and was petulantly thrust away, that Adelaide loved ignorantly where Tiburce d'Arnaye had loved with comprehension.
At this moment, along the Quai d'Orsay, gallops up a strong detachment of the mounted Municipal Guard, led by General Peyronet Tiburce Sebastiani, brother of the Marshal and uncle of the unhappy Duchess of Praslin.
But something he had overlooked; something there was he had meant to do, and had not done: and a troubling consciousness of this lurked at the back of his mind like a small formless cloud. All day, while bustling about other matters, he had groped toward this unapprehended thought. Now he had it: Tiburce.
"Surely it will not take long to toss off a third cup. Nay, comrade, who were once so dear, let us two now drink our last toast together. Then go, in Sclaug's name, and celebrate your marriage. But before that let us drink to the continuance of human mirth-making everywhere." Florian drank first. Then Tiburce took his turn, looking at Florian as Tiburce drank slowly.
Then, too, the appearance of a gray man now sat to the left of that which had been Tiburce d'Arnaye, and this newcomer was marked so that all might know who he was: and Florian's heart was troubled to note how handsome and how admirable was that desecrated face even now. "But I must go," said Florian, "lest they miss me at Storisende, and Adelaide be worried."
Tiburce said then, "And now, young Florian, you who were once so dear to me, it is to your welfare I drink." "I drink to yours, Tiburce." Tiburce drank first: and Florian, having drunk in turn, cried out, "You have changed beyond recognition!" "You have not changed," Tiburce d'Arnaye replied again. "Now let me tell you of our pastimes yonder." With that he talked of exceedingly curious matters.
Word Of The Day