The Travelling ThirdsAtherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
General
The Travelling Thirds
Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
Americans -- Spain -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction
Lydia seldom rebelled, but she had learned that when her father became
diplomatic she might as well smite upon stone; so she refrained from
further sarcasm, and, retreating to a seat behind the others, stared
sullenly out of the window. She was not unashamed of herself, but
longed, nevertheless, to meet again the fiery gaze of the Catalan—“the
anarchist,” she called him; it sounded far better than peasant. Zuñiga
dwindled out of her memory as the poor, artificial thing he no doubt
was. At last she had seen a blaze of admiration in the eyes of a real
man. She was not wise enough to know that it was nothing in her meagre
little personality that had roused the lightnings in a manly bosom,
merely a type of prettiness made unconventional by the setting and the
man. But the impression was made, and had she dared she would have sent
an occasional demure glance towards the young peasant behind her; as it
was she adjusted her charming profile for his delectation.
They entered the long tunnel which the train traverses before skirting
the bluffs of Tarragona. Spain does not light its railway carriages
before dark. Lydia had thrown her arm along the seat. Suddenly she
became aware that some one, as lithe and noiseless as a cat, had entered
the seat behind her. She was smitten with sudden terror, and held her
breath. A second later a pair of young and ardent lips passed as lightly
as a passing flame along her rigid hand.
“Dueño adorado!” The voice was almost at her ear. Then she knew that the
seat was empty again. Her first impulse had been to cry out; she was
terrified and furious. But she had a quick vision of a mêlée of knives
and pistols, the Guardia Civile and peasant, reinforcements from the
next car, and the death of all her party. It was the imaginative feat of
her life, and as the train ran out of the tunnel she congratulated
herself warmly and put on her hat as indifferently as Jane, who had
never known the kiss of man. She swept past her admirer with her head
high and her lids—with their curling lashes—low.
VII
“Ah!” exclaimed Captain Over, “this is Spain! Who is going to sit with
me in front?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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