'The vanity of the creature!' cried Wogan. 'D'ye think if she saw you
she would run at you and butt you in the chest with her head?'
'No,' says Kelly quickly. 'I do not. But--well, if she saw us here she
would at the least look this way.'
'Would she?' asked Wogan. ''Faith, my friend, you'll have to go to
school again. Your ignorance of the ways of women is purely
miraculous. She does not look this way, therefore she does not know
you are here! She looks to every other quarter; observe, she stops and
gazes at nothing with the keenest absorption, but she will not look
this way. Oh, indeed, indeed, my simple logician, she does not know
you are here. Again she comes on--in this direction, you'll observe,
but how carelessly, as though her pretty feet knew nothing of the path
they take. See, she stops at the dial. Mark how earnestly she bends
over it. There's a great deal to observe in a dial. One might think it
was a clock and, like herself, had stopped. There's a peach tree she's
coming to. A peach tree in blossom. I'll wager you she'll find
something very strange in those blossoms to delay her. There, she
lifts them, smells them--there's a fine perfume in peach blossoms--she
peers into them, holds them away, holds them near. One might fancy
they are the first peach blossoms that ever blossomed in the world.
Now she comes on again just as carelessly, but perhaps the
carelessness is a thought too careful, eh? However, she does not look
this way. Watch for her surprise, my friend, when she can't but see
you. She will be startled, positively startled. Oh, she does not know
you are here.'
The girl walked to the steps, mounted them, her face rose above the
level of the wall.
'Oh,' she cried, 'Mr. Kelly!' in an extremity of astonishment. Wogan
burst out into a laugh.
'What is it?' asked Rose.
'Sure, Mr. Kelly will tell you,' said Wogan, and he strolled to the
end of the walk, turned, walked down the steps and so left them
together.
'What was it amused Mr. Wogan?' asked Rose of Kelly as soon as Wogan
had vanished. The Parson left the question unanswered. He balanced
himself on one foot for a bit then on the other, and he began at the
end, as many a man has done before.
'I can bring you nothing but myself,' said he, 'and to be sure myself
has battered about the world until it's not worth sweeping out of your
window.'
'Then I won't,' said she with a laugh. The laugh trembled a little,
and she looked out over the river and the fields of Provence with eyes
which matched the morning.
'You won't!' he repeated, and then blundered on in a voice of intense
commiseration. 'My dear, I know you love me.'
It was not precisely what Rose expected to hear, and she turned
towards the Parson with a look of pride. 'And of course I love you
too,' he said lamely.
'You might almost have begun with that,' said she with a smile.
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