"This way, forever through the air."
The comparison flattered her, though she was astonished that Pan
Stanislav had uttered it with a serious voice, but with an inattentive
and, as it were, ironical face. He began to interest her, for he seemed
very intelligent, and more difficult to master than she had expected.
Meanwhile they arrived at Three Fountains. They visited the garden,
the church, and the chapel, in the basement of which three springs
were flowing. Pan Osnovski explained, in his kind, somewhat monotonous
voice, what he had read previously. Marynia listened with interest; but
Pan Stanislav thought,--
"Still to live three hundred and sixty-five days in a year with him,
must be a little tiresome."
That justified Pani Osnovski in his eyes for the moment; she, taking
upon herself now the new role of bird of paradise, did not rest for
a moment, not merely on the ground, but on any subject. First she
drank eucalyptus liquor, which the cloister prepared as a means
against fever; then she declared decisively that if she were a man she
would be a Trappist. Later, however, she remembered that her sailing
career would be agreeable "ever between sea and sky, as if living
in endlessness;" at last the wish to become a great, a very great
writer, gained the day against everything else,--a writer describing
the minutest movements of the soul, half-conscious feelings, desires
incompletely defined, all forms, all colors, all shades. The party
learned also, as a secret, that she was writing her memoirs, which
"that honest Yozio" considers a masterpiece; but she knows that that is
nothing, she has not the least pretensions, and she ridicules Yozio and
the memoirs.
"Yozio" looks at her with loving eyes, and with great affection on his
pimpled face, and says with a protest,--
"As to the memoirs, I beg pardon greatly."
They drove away about sundown. There were long shadows from the trees;
the sun was large and red. The distant aqueducts and the Alban hills
were gleaming in rose-color. They were halfway when the "Angelus" was
sounded in the tower of St. Paul's, and immediately after were heard a
second, a third, a tenth. Each church gave the signal to the succeeding
one; and such a mighty chorus was formed as if the whole air were
ringing, as if the "Angelus" had been sounded not merely by the city,
but the whole region, the plains, and the mountains.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account