The Wings of Icarus: Being the Life of one Emilia FletcherAlma-Tadema, Laurence
General
The Wings of Icarus: Being the Life of one Emilia Fletcher
Alma-Tadema, Laurence
Epistolary fiction
_June 4th._--Their eyes met once at supper, only once, and they did
not look at each other when they said good night. Which means most,
to look or not to look? I cannot read clearly yet. And one can
certainly twice ask the same person to pass the salt without its
meaning anything. This is very ugly in me; my better self is filled
with sorrow. Surely it must be in every one's power to quell the
visions of the inmost eye when they rise sinfully, to close their
ears against such whisperings as now I listen to.
I must fight this. Doubt is Love's murderer.
_June 6th._--Constance should not have said that; there was no need.
Why have I come upstairs and left them together? I am raving mad.
And now to cry like a baby! I have cried every day for five days;
this is monstrous! I think that if some one came and whipped me, I
might feel better. This is some sickness, surely; relaxed nerves,
quick blood. I shall write it all down carefully, calling on what
sense I have left to be judge. Of course the judge will laugh. But
first I will wash my face.
In the beginning, Constance said she was not sure she liked him. Let
me remember his first words about her, the day after her arrival. I
brought him into the drawing-room, and put his hand into hers,
saying, "Here is your friend."
He was very shy, and hardly looked at her. "We are meeting under
inauspicious circumstances, Mrs. Norris," said he. "We have heard so
much about each other that I, at least, cannot reconcile the
strangeness of your person with the intimate affection I have so
long had for you in my thoughts."
Constance laughed.
"It _is_ funny, isn't it?" said she. "I know what you mean. I
thought I knew you quite well, and you're not at all the sort of
person I thought you were."
Gabriel did not stay long; I went with him to the door when he left,
and he said:
"She is prettier than her photograph. I like her, Emilia." I was so
glad.
Constance soon began to take an interest in him; he amused her.
"He is the queerest creature I ever saw," she said; "I can't set
eyes on him without laughing; he is too comic."
Then she fell ill, poor love! They did not meet for a long time. And
every day, when Gabriel came to fetch me for my walk, he only asked
after her as he should have asked after my dearest friend. Of
course, when she got better and he sat with us daily to help me to
amuse her, they were thrown more together. It was a great joy to me
to see how well they got on.
Then she began to tease him. They never talked very much, for all
that. When I come to think of it, it was early last month that
Constance began to say, "How is your friend this morning?" or "I
haven't seen Gabriel for two days; I miss him; he makes me laugh."
But I did not notice it then.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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