| OCR Text |
Show 40 THE DA RK FOREST "oh! that's so English! So cautious! THE SCHOOL-HOLT SE lIow T hate vour caution! Why cant you say at once that vou haven't/made 11p your mind about him-because that's the truth isn'tiitt I Wish he would not sit there. looking at me, and ndt talking to the others. He ought to talk to them, but he's afrai d that they‘ll laugh at his Russian. 41 crowded," I said, "and I think too that you'd like to see some of the country properly. It's a lovely evening-only thirty versts. . . . Will you wait and come with me ?" He agreed at once; he had been, all day, very quiet, watching, with that rather clumsy expression of his, the It's not vcrv good his expression of a dog who had been taught by his master some Russmn, is it? I can‘t help laughing mvsel f sbnictinies!" Her English was extremely good. Sohmtimc s she used tricks which he had half-forgotten and would presently be a. word in its wrong sense; she had one or two charm in little phrases of her own: "\Vhat a purpose to?" instead When I made my suggestion he flung one look at Marie lvanovna. She was busied over some piece of luggage, and half-turned her head, smiling at him: "Ah, do go, John-yes? We will be so cr-rowded. . . . It will be very nice for you driving." I fancied that I heard him sigh. He tried to help the ladies with their luggage, handed them the wrong parcels, dropped delicate packages, apologised, blushed, was very of: "Why?" and sometimes a double negative. her r's more than is our habit. ii She rolled I I said, lookin str.'rr .i ‘ ' ' "It's a t.remerfd01181lIiiiidnth b ) liiiil , Tog us havm ' g vou. I can see that although I‘ve known him so short a time. He's a very lucky man and-and-if his luck were to go I think that he'd simply die. There! That isn't a ver '15 l. h thing to have said, is it t" y Hg IS "W hy did you say it ?" she cried sharply. "You don't trust me. You think-" "I think nothing," I answered. "Onlv he's not like ordSilnary men. He's so much younger than his age." suddfnia: 1:11:36 tiiuep ftileh:mfngestIlook. The light seemed though for help. There were at::1is liii tleil CS sought mine as "Oh! Then want gm Iupdoabru pt"toand be gcod t 0 l'ile'l' nm. li. she whisp i ered. 7 . JOIHCd the others. HLate i n the afteinoo ~ n an automobi-le arrived and carried 0 most of our partv, I was compelled to remain for :j‘tell‘allhours, {111d intended to drive, looking forward indeed ic ong quiet Silence of the spring evening. Moved bv some sudden im pulse I suggested to Trenchard that he should wait and drive with me: "The car will be very expected to remember. hot, collected dust from I know not where. . . . Once I heard a sharp, angry voice: "John! Oh! . . ." I could not believe that it was Marie Ivanovna. Of course she. was hot and tired and had slept, last night, but little. The ear, of watched by an inquisitive but strangely apathetic crowd green the peasants, snorted its way dowu the little streets, trees blowing and the starlings chattering. In a moment the starlings and our two selves seemed to have the whole dead little town to ourselves. I saw quite clearly that lie was unhappy; he could never disguise his feelings; as he waited for the trap to appear he had the same lost and abandoned appearance that he had on my first vision of him at the l'etrograd station. The soldier who was to drive us smiled as he saw me. "Only thirty versts, your honour . . . or, thank God. even less. It will take us no time." He was a large clumsy one of tho creature, like an eager overgrown puppy; he was |
