I know this was so.
I know it was a challenge, a defiance, an ordeal by combat; and
the knowledge hurt me, so that I felt like a Dathan or Abiram who
had laid hand on the Ark of the Covenant (for the soul of a
woman, by heaven! is a holy thing), and I wished that the earth
could open and swallow me up.
We sat down to table in the middle of the great room--a quiet
corner on the balcony away from the band is not to Carlotta's
taste--like any conventional party of four, and at first talked
of indifferent matters. Conciergerie dinner-parties in the
Terror always began with a discussion of the latest cure for
megrims, or the most fashionable cut of a panier. Presently
Pasquale who had been talking travel with Judith appealed to me.
"What year was it, Ordeyne, that I came home from Abyssinia?"
"I forget," said I. "I only remember you presenting me with that
hideous thing hanging in my passage, which you called a
dulcimer."
_"Gage d'amour?"_ smiled Judith.
Pasquale laughed and twirled his swaggering moustache.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272