The City of Pleasure : $b a fantasia on modern themesBennett, Arnold
General
The City of Pleasure : $b a fantasia on modern themes
Bennett, Arnold
English fiction -- 20th century
“Alone. There is no danger. Besides, one of us must remain here, and one
person can more easily keep out of sight than two. My fear is that the
boat may be used again. The patrol is not to prevent the boat
being used. He is not to show himself; he is merely to observe. You
understand?”
“Then you insist on my going?”
“No, I entreat you to go.”
And without more words she went. It was her figure, and not the figure
of Rosie, that Mr. Jetsam had seen in the gardens when he peeped out of
the window of Mrs. Ilam’s bedroom.
Carpentaria, now alone, recommenced from a fresh spot his vigil over
the closed house. He argued with himself with much ingenuity as to
what point the persons who wished to enter it would choose for their
appearance, but he could decide nothing. They might, he thought, come by
the avenue, or round by the back from the other side of the buildings of
the Central Way, or even through the gardens. He was growing impatient
of a delay apparently interminable, and then his glance happened to
wander upwards to the roof of the house. He could not see the roof
itself, because he was now too near the wall, but it appeared to him
that he detected a phenomenon above the roof which was somewhat unusual.
He walked carefully away from the house until the expanse of roof became
visible; and, indeed, he had not been mistaken. There was a radiance
there. The small square pane of the attic, flat with the surface of the
roof itself, was illuminated, and sent up a faint shaft of light into
the sky.
Instantly he saw his own shortcomings as a counter-schemer against
schemers. He had assumed that the schemers were not already in the
house, whereas he had had no grounds for such an assumption. The
schemers were most obviously in the house, and they had most obviously
been there for a considerable time, since no one could have recently
entered it without his knowledge. He was angry with the schemers, and he
was more angry with himself, and one of those wild ideas seized him--one
of those ideas which could only occur to a Carpentaria. He would
catch these schemers himself, by his own devices, and he would do it
leisurely, dramatically, and effectively. He would make such a capture
as never had been made before. He did not know precisely who the
schemers were, nor their numbers, nor their nefarious occupations in
the house; and he did not care. When once he was in the toils of a
grand romantic idea he cared for nothing except the execution of it. He
laughed with joy.
“Why do you laugh?” said a voice behind him.
It was Pauline, who had returned. She had given the instructions to the
patrol.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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