The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur SymonsDowson, Ernest Christopher
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The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons
Dowson, Ernest Christopher
Authors, English; English poetry
'You make me afraid,' she said, turning her large, troubled eyes on
her companion, 'you make me afraid, of myself chiefly, but a little of
you. You suggest so much to me that is new, strange, terrible. When
you speak, I am troubled; all my old landmarks appear to vanish; I
even hardly know right from wrong. I love you, my God, how I love you!
but I want to go away from you and pray in the little quiet church,
where I made my first Communion. I will come to the world's end with
you; but oh, Sebastian, do not ask me, let me go. You will forget me,
I am a little girl to you, Sebastian. You cannot care very much for
me.'
The man looked down at her, smiling masterfully, but very kindly. He
took the mutinous hand, with its little sprig of heather, and held it
between his own. He seemed to find her insistence adorable; mentally,
he was contrasting her with all other women whom he had known,
frowning at the memory of so many years in which she had no part. He
was a man of more than forty, built large to an uniform English
pattern; there was a touch of military erectness in his carriage which
often deceived people as to his vocation. Actually, he had never been
anything but artist, though he came of a family of soldiers, and had
once been war correspondent of an illustrated paper. A certain
distinction had always adhered to him, never more than now when he was
no longer young, was growing bald, had streaks of gray in his
moustache. His face, without being handsome, possessed a certain
charm; it was worn and rather pale, the lines about the firm mouth
were full of lassitude, the eyes rather tired. He had the air of
having tasted widely, curiously, of life in his day, prosperous as he
seemed now, that had left its mark upon him. His voice, which usually
took an intonation that his friends found supercilious, grew very
tender in addressing this little French girl, with her quaint air of
childish dignity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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