Adam Johnstone's SonCrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
General
Adam Johnstone's Son
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
British -- Italy -- Fiction; Divorce -- Fiction; Love stories
Clare said nothing as she sat beside him, but she looked at the opposite
wall, and her hand made an impatient little gesture as the fingers lay
on the edge of the table. Possibly, if her mother had not been on her
other side, she might have answered him. As it was, she felt that she
could not speak just then. She was very much disturbed, as though
something new and totally unknown had got hold of her. It was not only
that she hated the man for his heartlessness, while she felt that he had
some sort of influence over her, which was more than mere attraction.
There was something beyond, deep down in her heart, which was nameless,
and painful, but which she somehow felt that she wanted. And aside from
it all, she was angry with him for having stared her out of countenance,
forgetting that when she had turned upon him she had meant to do the
same by him, feeling quite sure that he could not look her in the face.
They spoke little during the remainder of the meal, for Clare was quite
willing to show that she was angry, though she had little right to be.
After all, she had looked at him, and he had looked at her. After dinner
she disappeared, and was not seen during the remainder of the evening.
When she was alone, however, she went over the whole matter
thoughtfully, and she made up her mind that she had been hasty. For she
was naturally just. She said to herself that she had no claim to the
man's secrets, which she had learned in a way of which she was not at
all proud; and that if he could keep his own counsel, he, on his side,
had a right to do so. The fact that she knew him to be heartless and
faithless by no means implied that he was also indiscreet, though when
an individual has done anything which we think bad we easily suppose
that he may do every other bad thing imaginable. Johnstone's discretion,
at least, was admirable, now that she thought of it. His bright eyes and
frank look would have disarmed any suspicion short of the certainty she
possessed. There had not been the least contraction of the lids, the
smallest change in the expression of his mouth, not the faintest
increase of colour in his young face.
So much the worse, thought the young girl suddenly. He was not only bad.
He was also an accomplished actor. No doubt his eyes had been as steady
and bright and his whole face as truthful when he had made love to Lady
Fan at sunset on the Acropolis. Somehow, the allusion to that scene had
produced a vivid impression on Clare's mind, and she often found herself
wondering what he had said, and how he had looked just then.
Her resentment against him increased as she thought it all over, and
again she felt a longing to be cruel to him, and to make him suffer just
what he had made Lady Fan endure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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