The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
'You'll never attain to them, you lazy Southron. Tell as about your camp
life.'
'There's very little to tell. Drill, smoke, loaf--begging your pardon
for the rough expression of a rough fact--drill again. As one day is, so
is another; they're all alike.'
'Well, tell us about your getting wounded, then, and the fight. George
will not get wounded himself, in spite of my repeated requests to that
effect.'
And so Moore fought his battle over again, in the midst of which Miss
Berkeley dropped out of the talk, folded some soft brilliant net over
her light dress, and went down the walk leading to the shore, and he did
not see her again that night.
After that he spent much of his time below stairs. Much alone; there
were walks and rides in which he could take no part. Despite of George's
prediction, he had peace and quiet, and gathered strength hourly.
Whatever of graciousness he _had_ seen or fancied in Miss Berkeley's
manner in that first unexpected meeting had all vanished. A subtile,
unconquerable something shut her out from all friendliness of speech or
action. She went about the house in her slow, abstracted way, or in her
other mood, with sudden darting motions like a swallow, or dreamed all
day beside the summer sea, coming back browner and with mistier looks in
her gray eyes, but always alone and unapproachable. So that in half a
dozen days he had not received as many voluntary sentences from her.
But one morning the clouds had gathered black and heavy. The sea fogs
had pitched their tents to landward, and their misty battalions were
driving gray across the landscape. Dim reaches of blank water--lay
beyond, weltering with an uneasy, rocking motion against the low, dark
sky. White, ghostly sea birds wheeled low, a fretful wind grieved about
the house, and a New England northeast storm was in progress. She was
standing at the window, looking out with eyes farther away than ever
over the haze-draped sea. Some fine, heavy material, the same indistinct
hue as the day outside, fell about her in large, sweeping folds. A
breath of sudden, penetrating perfume struck across his senses as he
approached her. 'And gray heliotrope!' he said; but the heliotrope
vanished as she turned and displayed the blaze of carnations at her
throat, and the gleam of crimson silk under the jaunty zouave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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