Anna Alice Chapin

Name: The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt
Author: Anna Alice Chapin

The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

Summary

“The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt”, published in 1912–14, is a work by Anna Alice Chapin. It explores elements such as Pippa, Désirèe and San Bernardino.

Quotes from The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (Anna Alice Chapin)

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ Pippa had felt as if she were passing through some strange troll country in a German fairy tale. Surely in such a world as this were the terrible kobold women, and the werewolves that hunt in the dark of the moon,
Then, in the dawning, she had lifted the shade in her stateroom and looked out upon rolling mountain reaches and shifting miles of mist, and a sort of uplift had come to her. For she was of those who receive impressions with almost magical speed and certainty. In all her travels she was forever rocked by the mood of the place. Perhaps that was why she had kept young so long. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ She had never outgrown the fleeting moods wherein the joy of life pulses unreasoningly. To-day the past and its dark places were lost—-charmed away by the smell of the orange trees and the rapturous blue sky of California.
They were halted just on the edge of the valley, which is veritably all one great garden. The big orange groves and important ranches were farther down, below San Bernardino, but already there were small farms and tiny clusters of orange trees. Pippa gasped with the wonder of that scent which assails one's senses like the fumes of a divine anesthetic. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ He was a bright-eyed French peasant, clean and brown, with a ready smile on his wrinkled face, and a ready courtesy. The two of them made Philippa welcome exquisitely, plied her with the simple fare, and circled her about with that sense of gracious welcome and unaffected compliment which the Latin races can so warmly and delicately convey. All three talked happily in French, and Philippa could almost have dreamed herself back in one of her beloved country villages of France. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ And all about was the scent of the orange trees, and a glamour like that of a fairy tale.
It was quite suddenly that the interruption came. Philippa, speaking a trifle more loudly than usual, was astounded to hear a movement and a cry in the next room. The old couple, paling and trembling, met each other's eyes, and the woman hurried from the room.
“What is it?” asked Pippa, in a startled whisper. A vague sense of terror was creeping over her, clouding the fanciful, gay mood of the early morning
Madame,” said the old peasant huskily, “it is our son—our one boy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ And Pippa, feeling certain rings upon her finger heavier than ever ball and chain could be to a convict, answered steadily:
“I am happy—and I am—good. I have gone up into the light, not down into the darkness. I have fallen on no evil day. There is nothing for you to grieve about, Gervais—nothing—nothing!”
A light came into his face, and his arms sank back. The merciful lids, closing, shut out the painful agony of his sightless eyes.
“Kiss me good-by, Désirèe,” he murmured. And she did so, gently, as one might kiss the dead. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ And though I could paint many things, and dreamed then of becoming a great artist, it was always you whom I wanted to paint—you, just you—in a hundred ways! With your splendid hair loose about you, or kneeling in prayer, or laughing, with your arms full of flowers—always you! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ Her husband straightened up. “When our boy dies, Hélene,” he said resolutely. “Le bon Dieu will not spare him to us; it is not to be.”
“He will, at least,” said the gentle old lady, “have died with the happiness blooming in his heart. He will have been reassured—strengthened—— Madame, are you ill—or faint?”
Pippa looked at her; for an instant she swayed slightly.
“It was all true,” she said tonelessly. “It was I—I—— He used to call me—Désirèe!” ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anna Alice Chapin, The Woman With a Past — V.—A Moment's Halt (1912–14)

“ Let him believe that you are, indeed, his lost Désirèe.”
In silence, Pippa rose and followed the old woman into the inner room.
In a great chair near the open window sat a man; a man with prematurely white hair and eyes in which the tragic anxiety of blind burned always like a devouring flame, a flame without light. ”

Anna Alice Chapin

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