An Open-Eyed Conspiracy; An Idyl of SaratogaHowells, William Dean
General
An Open-Eyed Conspiracy; An Idyl of Saratoga
Howells, William Dean
New York (State) -- Fiction; Saratoga (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Saratoga Springs (N.Y.) -- Fiction
did not find her so very much cleaner herself. I cannot see children
beaten without a heartache, and I continued to suffer for this small
wretch even after he had avenged himself by eating a handful of peanut
shells, which would be sure to disagree with him and make his mother more
trouble. In fact, I experienced no relief till his mother, having spent
her insensate passion, gathered him up with sufficient tenderness, and
carried him away. Then, for the first time, I noticed a girl sitting in
a chair just outside the kiosk, and showing a graceful young figure as
she partly turned to look after the departing mother and her child. When
she turned again and glanced in my direction, at the noise I made in
placing my chair, I could see two things—that she had as much beauty as
grace, and that she was disappointed in me. The latter fact did not
wound me, for I felt its profound impersonality. I was not wrong in
myself; I was simply wrong in being an elderly man with a grey beard
instead of the handsome shape and phase of youth which her own young
beauty had a right to in my place. I was not only not wounded, but I was
not sorry not to be that shape and phase of youth, except as I hate to
disappoint any one.
Her face was very beautiful; it was quite perfectly beautiful, and of
such classic mould that she might well have been the tutelary goddess of
that temple (if it was a temple, and not a kiosk), in the white duck
costume which the goddesses were wearing that summer. Her features were
Greek, but her looks were American; and she was none the less a goddess,
I decided, because of that air of something exacting, of not quite
satisfied, which made me more and more willing to be elderly and
grey-bearded. I at least should not be expected to supply the worship
necessary to keep such a goddess in good humour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account