Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then a low rumble of drums muttered as she stole from the stage, the personification of vindictive triumph, and all at once the great concourse of people in the auditorium seemed to strain forward, conscious that the climax of the evening, the wonderful solo dance by the Wielitzska, was about to begin.
In the dark, slender girl before her, whose pale, beautiful face called to mind some rare and delicate flower, she recognised the living embodiment of her brother's transgression that brother who had made Diane Wielitzska his wife and the mother of his child. All she had anticipated of evil consequence at the time of the marriage had crystallised into hard fact.
It gave a brief resume of Kit Raynham's short life up to date, referred to the distinguished career which had been predicted for him, and, in mentioning that he was one of the set of brilliant young folks of whom Magda Wielitzska, the well-known dancer, was the acknowledged leader, it conveyed a very slightly veiled hint that he, in particular, was accounted one of her most devoted satellites.
"I think" Davilof spoke with slow intensity "I think she's a soulless piece of devil's mechanism." And turning abruptly, he swung out of the box, slamming the door behind him. Quarrington frowned. With his keen perceptions it was not difficult for him to divine what lay at the back of Davilof's bitter criticism. The man was in love hopelessly in love with the Wielitzska.
The flower-girl treasured the smile of the great Wielitzska in her memory for many a long day, while in the arid months that were to follow Magda treasured the sweet fragrance of that spontaneous gift. Half an hour later the doors of the grey house where the Sisters of Penitence dwelt apart from the world opened to receive Magda Vallincourt, and closed again behind her.
And she could visualise the stern, fanatical woman, obsessed by her idea of disciplining Magda and of counteracting the effects of her brother's marriage with Diane Wielitzska, opening the letter and, after perusal, calmly sealing it up in its envelope again and returning it to the sender. "Magda never had that letter, Michael," she repeated. "Listen!"
"You didn't think it possible that anyone could meet the Wielitzska without regarding the event as a piece of stupendous good luck and being appropriately overjoyed, did you?" he pursued relentlessly. Magda pressed her lips together. Then, with an effort: "No," she admitted.
When finally the curtain fell on what the critics characterised next day as "the most appealing performance of The Swan-Maiden which Mademoiselle Wielitzska has yet given us," she received an absolute ovation.
Quarrington had every intention of politely excusing himself. Instead of which he found himself replying: "With pleasure if Mademoiselle Wielitzska won't think I'm intruding." Lady Arabella chuckled. "Well, she intruded on you that day in the fog, didn't she? So you'll be quits." She glanced impatiently round the box. "Where on earth has Davilof vanished to? Has he gone up in flame?"
She had discarded the family surname for professional purposes, and appeared in public under the name of Wielitzska "to save the reigning Vallincourts from a soul convulsion," as she observed with a twinkle. During the last year, influenced by the growing demands of her vocation, she had quitted her godmother's hospitable roof and established herself in a house of her own.
Word Of The Day