登陆注册
26135100000059

第59章

Vaguely though he retained such details, he felt sure she was wearing the dress he had seen her in every evening in Paris.It was a ****** enough dress, black, and transparent on the arms and shoulders, and he would probably not have recognized it if she had not called his attention to it in Paris by confessing that she hadn't any other."The same dress? That proves that she's forgotten!" was his first half-ironic thought; but the next moment, with a pang of compunction, he said to himself that she had probably put it on for the same reason as before: simply because she hadn't any other.

He looked at her in silence, and for an instant, above Effie's bobbing head, she gave him back his look in a full bright gaze.

"Oh, there's Owen!" Effie cried, and whirled away down the gallery to the door from which her step-brother was emerging.As Owen bent to catch her, Sophy Viner turned abruptly back to Darrow.

"You, too?" she said with a quick laugh."I didn't know----" And as Owen came up to them she added, in a tone that might have been meant to reach his ear: "I wish you all the luck that we can spare!"About the dinner-table, which Effie, with Miss Viner's aid, had lavishly garlanded, the little party had an air of somewhat self-conscious festivity.In spite of flowers, champagne and a unanimous attempt at ease, there were frequent lapses in the talk, and moments of nervous groping for new subjects.Miss Painter alone seemed not only unaffected by the general perturbation but as tightly sealed up in her unconsciousness of it as a diver in his bell.To Darrow's strained attention even Owen's gusts of gaiety seemed to betray an inward sense of insecurity.After dinner, however, at the piano, he broke into a mood of extravagant hilarity and flooded the room with the splash and ripple of his music.

Darrow, sunk in a sofa corner in the lee of Miss Painter's granite bulk, smoked and listened in silence, his eyes moving from one figure to another.Madame de Chantelle, in her armchair near the fire, clasped her little granddaughter to her with the gesture of a drawing-room Niobe, and Anna, seated near them, had fallen into one of the attitudes of vivid calm which seemed to Darrow to express her inmost quality.Sophy Viner, after moving uncertainly about the room, had placed herself beyond Mrs.Leath, in a chair near the piano, where she sat with head thrown back and eyes attached to the musician, in the same rapt fixity of attention with which she had followed the players at the Francais.The accident of her having fallen into the same attitude, and of her wearing the same dress, gave Darrow, as he watched her, a strange sense of double consciousness.To escape from it, his glance turned back to Anna; but from the point at which he was placed his eyes could not take in the one face without the other, and that renewed the disturbing duality of the impression.Suddenly Owen broke off with a crash of chords and jumped to his feet.

"What's the use of this, with such a moon to say it for us?"Behind the uncurtained window a low golden orb hung like a ripe fruit against the glass.

"Yes--let's go out and listen," Anna answered.Owen threw open the window, and with his gesture a fold of the heavy star-sprinkled sky seemed to droop into the room like a drawn-in curtain.The air that entered with it had a frosty edge, and Anna bade Effie run to the hall for wraps.

Darrow said: "You must have one too," and started toward the door; but Sophy, following her pupil, cried back: "We'll bring things for everybody."Owen had followed her, and in a moment the three reappeared, and the party went out on the terrace.The deep blue purity of the night was unveiled by mist, and the moonlight rimmed the edges of the trees with a silver blur and blanched to unnatural whiteness the statues against their walls of shade.

Darrow and Anna, with Effie between them, strolled to the farther corner of the terrace.Below them, between the fringes of the park, the lawn sloped dimly to the fields above the river.For a few minutes they stood silently side by side, touched to peace beneath the trembling beauty of the sky.When they turned back, Darrow saw that Owen and Sophy Viner, who had gone down the steps to the garden, were also walking in the direction of the house.As they advanced, Sophy paused in a patch of moonlight, between the sharp shadows of the yews, and Darrow noticed that she had thrown over her shoulders a long cloak of some light colour, which suddenly evoked her image as she had entered the restaurant at his side on the night of their first dinner in Paris.A moment later they were all together again on the terrace, and when they re-entered the drawing-room the older ladies were on their way to bed.

Effie, emboldened by the privileges of the evening, was for coaxing Owen to round it off with a game of forfeits or some such reckless climax; but Sophy, resuming her professional role, sounded the summons to bed.In her pupil's wake she made her round of good-nights; but when she proffered her hand to Anna, the latter ignoring the gesture held out both arms.

"Good-night, dear child," she said impulsively, and drew the girl to her kiss.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 女人的心理,男人的思维

    女人的心理,男人的思维

    以结婚为目的的谈恋爱,就是对自己耍流氓!只有女人最了解女人,也只有男人最了解男人。这是一本讲两性社交心理的书,是资深女性PUA绛妖精集大成之作,涵盖两性交往的诸多方面,具有很强的实际操作指导能力。与很多心灵鸡汤不同,本书有非常真实的案例,细节丰富,几乎都是日常能遇到的情况,有非常高的实际操作含金量。绛妖精点评犀利,表达到位,在点醒你的同时,更是提供稳准狠一学就会的社交技能!让你在实战中对症下药,读懂社交当中的异性心理,从此只赢不输。
  • 魔界异神

    魔界异神

    千年黑魅恶意附身,幸运少年无意间获得超人异能。他将如何面对这段不同凡响的修真之路!四百年一次的天劫即将来临,看主人公如何带领修真者走出死亡阴影,一步步打开通往封神界的道路……
  • 宠妻为患:神君诱捕36计

    宠妻为患:神君诱捕36计

    内脏器官外露者,勿进;四肢脑袋等有任何一部分不在原位者,勿进;流血不止者,勿进。我可不想每天做完生意,连饭都吃不下去。你以为谁都和司冥那变态一样,每天将十八层地狱巡逻一圈还能优哉游哉的喝两口小酒?”本神君守着一座城,做着起死回生的买卖,没事和司冥那厮抢抢生意,日子颇为舒心。直到——美人计?开什么玩笑?那大魔头残忍嗜血,捏死个神仙眼都不眨一下,让我去勾引他?去你妹的三界苍生,本神君不干!咦?这大魔头有点眼熟?打住!剧情发展怎么有点不对劲,这到底是谁勾引谁啊!你一个魔头长成这副模样诱惑本神君,老实说你到底有什么企图?男人勾唇浅浅一笑,“小离,挣扎总是徒劳无功的,反抗总是被镇压的。你就从了我吧!”
  • 特警狂妃:王爷轻点爱

    特警狂妃:王爷轻点爱

    她是21世纪惊艳绝伦的首席女特警,却在一次执行任务时意外来到异世。举目无亲的她用智慧开辟了一片天地,同时也锁住了那个人的心。他是异世的王爷,清心寡欲,从不为红颜美人动心,直到遇见了她。“瑶儿,嫁给我。”男子学着现代的礼仪单膝下跪。“不抬平妻,不娶妾室,不纳通房,可?”她淡然提出要求,浑然不知这话惊掉了多少人的下巴。“遇瑶儿前,未曾想过娶妻,遇瑶儿后,娶妻未曾想过别人。”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 竹马诱妻:玩转霸情邪少

    竹马诱妻:玩转霸情邪少

    八年夫妻,相敬如宾,同床异梦的相处模式让莫小桐觉得婚姻生活味同嚼蜡。只是,她怎么也没有想到,有一天会在自己的床上,抓到老公和亲妹妹干那事。父兄坠楼,被迫离婚,小三来袭还是自己的亲妹子。一夜之间,莫小桐从人人艳羡的豪门千金,沦为下堂弃妇。害她家破人亡的罪魁祸首竟然是她的前夫,她发誓,一定要报仇。她在最狼狈的时刻,重遇八年前被自己无情抛弃的他。当失婚女遭遇初恋旧情人,她是该勇敢去爱?还是安静地离开?从痴情到背叛,从深爱到决裂,当她被逼入绝境,她方才明白,原来,真相的背后,永远是无法启齿的阴暗与龌龊,而自己所有的不幸,都缘自于那一场温柔的背叛……
  • 斗破大圣

    斗破大圣

    如来假仁假义,道貌岸然,西天取经更是一个骗局,一代坑佛如来,坑死了孙悟空。被一棒子打死的,并非六耳弥猴而是真正的孙悟空。真真假假乱世人,假假真真定乾坤。欲知后事请看斗破大圣,一杀成仁二杀取义三杀,杀出一个朗朗乾坤!四杀,杀出一片清明天地!五杀,杀出天地祥和!
  • 爱不过一个轮回

    爱不过一个轮回

    我叫孟月然,我的身上发生了太多不可思议的事情。僵尸男朋友,强敌是狐狸精……这还不算怪,我被卷入了一个迷局之中,而我要做的是帮助妖怪警察解开迷局。这个迷局也就是我的考验,我必须解开它,它有个古老的名字,叫做‘轮回’。
  • 请叫我仙道大人

    请叫我仙道大人

    仙家张彩儿?那是我的双修伴侣。人界的张紫娟?那是我的闪婚妻子。妖界的七彩猫妖?那是我的贴身美女保镖。道家的美女掌门?那是觊觎我身体的腹黑御姐。.......我叫林天。我为房中术代言。
  • 远古古仙

    远古古仙

    一个远古的少年修仙强者,在一次仙劫中肉身破灭,千年过后又重现凡间,他将上演着非凡的重修旅程。
  • 断剑邪仙

    断剑邪仙

    贫民区出身的玄玉原本算得上是天才,有天赋有悟性有神剑,还有喜欢的人和好兄弟,却因为一场异变失去了所有!他是否能在绝境中焕发新生?且看一个失去一切的废人带着一柄如废铁般的泰阿剑走上世界的巅峰!————————————————推荐和点击不是最重要的,重要的是您的评论、收藏和鼓励!