C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

“ There was an illusive glitter of rings, just such rings as June had worn, one emerald, one diamond. A dark streak across the ice-white throat showed her famous black pearls; and, strangest thing of all, the green light which glimmered through filmy folds of scarf was born apparently in a glittering emerald brooch.
At first the vision—which might have come through the wall of the room, for all we could tell—floated toward Robert. None save spirit eyes could have made him out distinctly in the darkness that was lit only by the small green gleam. ”

“ Gazing wistfully back, as one does gaze at places one fears never to see again, the Castle of the Nymphs looked like a fantastic water-flower standing up out of the green river, on its thick stem of rock. Then it was gone; for our time was not quite our own, and we dared not linger, lest the boat with our Betters should arrive at the meeting place before we reached it in the car. But there were compensations, for almost with every moment the gorge grew grander. Cascades sparkled in the sun like blowing diamond-dust. ”

“ We felt the swift whirr of its wings, which almost took our breath away, and made the Aigle quiver; but like a bull that meets its enemy with lowered horns, the brave car's bonnet seemed to defy the wind and face it squarely. We swept on toward the snow-reaches whence the wind-torrent came. Soon we were on the flat plateau of the Causse, where last year's faded grass was frosted white, and a torn winding-sheet wrapped the limbs of a dead world. There was no beauty in this death, save the wild beauty of desolation, and a grandeur inseparable from heights. ”

“ The town looked cold, and modern, and conceited after the melancholy charm of Arles and the mediæval aspect of Avignon; but that was only as we drove to our stately hotel in its large, dignified square. Afterward—after the inevitable lunching and unpacking—when I started out once again in the society of my adopted relative, I prayed to be forgiven.
A gale was blowing, but little cared we. A toque or a picture-hat make all the difference in the world to a woman's impressions, even of Paradise—if the wind be ever more than a lovely zephyr there. ”

“ And then I heard June coolly—no, hotly!—propose that they should be married at once, at once!
Even I floated sympathetically on a rose-colored wave of love, as I listened and looked, so where must Lorillard have floated—he who had adored, and never had hoped?
In one of his own plays, the noble hero would have put June from him in super-unselfishness, declaiming:
“No, beloved; I cannot accept this sacrifice, made on a mad impulse. I love you too much to take you for my own.” But, thank Heaven, real men aren't built on those stiff lines! ”

“ Bending out from the front seat of the motor, my gaze plunged far down into the beds of foaming rivers, or soared far up to the dazzling white world of snow and steely sky toward which we steadily forged on. Oh, there was no hope of hiding the snow now from those whom it might concern! But Lady Tumour still believed, perhaps, that we should avoid it.
The higher the Aigle rose, climbing the wonderful road of snakelike twistings and turnings above sheer precipices, the more thrilling was the effect of the savage landscape upon our souls—those of us who consciously possess souls. ”

“ I do not wish to marry an Arab, only to go from my father's harem and be a prisoner in the harem of a stranger whom I could not love as I love my father. So one of my silly dreams is that I meet one day a handsome and splendid Roumi—an officer—of I do not know what country. But he is noble and brave. Somehow he sees my face. There are many dreams about this, and it happens in different ways. He loves me—is it not vain and conceited to think he could, just from seeing my face for an instant?—but, of course, because he is a Roumi and I am an Arab girl we can never be anything to one another. ”

“ She had not a throb of love in her heart for the weary-looking, pale prince with the high-arched eyebrows and nose of distinguished shape; but she had told herself many times that love had died for her, with the sweetness of youth, like a bird in a shut cage in a dark room. She meant to get what was left in life, and it seemed that for a pretty girl without money or position there was just one way of getting it. ”

“ No farther than the inn could any wheeled thing go; and having justified my presence by buttoning Lady Turnour up in her coat, and finding her muff under several rugs, I stood by the car, gazing after the couple as they trudged off along the path to the hidden fairy fountain of Vaucluse. When they should have got well ahead I meant to go too, for if a cat may look at a king, a lady's maid may try to drink—if she can—a few drops from the cup of a great poet's inspiration. ”

“ The glow and colour of the shops and houses seem only to intensify the grimness and grayness of that Roman background, the immense wall of the arena. Greece you see in the eyes of the beautiful, stately women, young and old, in their classic features, and the moulding of their noble figures. (No wonder Epistemon urged his giant to let the beautiful girls of Arles alone!) You feel Greece, too, in the soft charm of the atmosphere, the dreamy blue of the sky, and the sunshine, which is not quite garish golden, not quite pale silver ”

“ The sash wound round her waist was violet, and so were the pearl-sewn velvet slippers on her little gray silk-stockinged feet.
The negress, whose sole duty in life it was to serve this girl and the younger half-sister, had been washing Laila's hair, and it hung round her shoulders in a long, black, waveless veil. For a pure-blooded Arab she was fair, her skin being like old ivory faintly gilded, without a trace of color except in the lips, which were duskily pink, the tint known as old rose. ”

“ The car plunged boldly through the veil of deep blue shadow which hung, ghostlike, over the serpentine curves of the white road; and out of its twilight-mystery rose always the faint singing of a little river that ran beside us, under the steep gray wall of towering rock. At the top of the gorge a surprise of beauty waited for us as our way led along a sinuous road cut into the swelling mountain-side. Far off lay the sea, with an army of tremendous purple rocks hurling themselves headlong into the molten gold of the water, like a drove of mammoths. All the world was gold and royal purple. ”

“ How sweet must have been the air then, how blue the river background, and how melodious the low song of a distant weir!
To-day the air was faintly acrid with the scent of bonfire smoke, the odor of autumn, and the sounds of wind and water over the weir were sad as a song of homesickness.
I tapped an old-fashioned knocker upon a low green door. An elderly maid appeared. I saw by the bleak glint of a pale eye that she meant to say “Not at home,” and hastened to forestall her. ”

“ He waited a moment, but Mary spoke no word.
The instant Don's eyes fell on the small handwriting, he realized that it was Louis Delenski's. His heart leaped, then missed a beat. Then he regained some command of himself and read:
My beloved: In life and death I am changelessly yours, and you are mine. Nothing and no one can come between, to part us. No distance can separate the one from the other. Wear this bracelet on your beautiful arm—the left, because it is nearer the heart; and know that in my heart your image lives always. ”

“ I had never imagined that life could be so glorious, and our future together, Jim's and mine, stretched before us like a dream of joy. We were going to live in the dear old Abbey which had been the home of the Courtenayes for hundreds and hundreds of years, and travel when we liked. Because we were so much in love and so perfectly happy, I yearned to make at least a few thousand other people happy also, though it did seem impossible that any one else on earth could be as happy as we were. ”

“ A band from Clermont-Ferrand was making music, but the ball was to be opened by the marquise and her guests, who were to honour their servants by dancing the first dance with them. Each noble lady was to select a cook, butler, footman, chauffeur, or groom, according to her pleasure; and each noble lord was to lead out the female worm which least displeased his eye.
Hardly had I time to dive deep into the wave of domesticity, when the great moment arrived, and a spray of aristocracy sprinkled the top of that heavy wave, with the dazzling sparkle of its jewels and its beauty. ”