Kermes

“ These country nobles used to enjoy certain privileges which enabled them to live rather better than the general mass of peasants, but these gradually faded away, and Kermelle was in a very embarrassed condition. He could not well work in the fields, and he kept in doors all day, having an occupation which could be followed under cover. When flax has ripened, it is put through a process of decortication, which leaves only the textile fibre, and this was the work which poor old Kermelle thought that he could do without loss of dignity. ”

“ When Kemerezzeman heard these words, the light in his eyes became darkness and he said, ‘O King, thou hast in thy palace women and female slaves, that have not their like in this age: may not these suffice thee without me? Do thy will with them and leave me.’ ‘Thou speakest truth,’ answered she; ‘but it is not with them that one who loves thee can heal himself of torment and fever; for when tastes and inclinations are corrupted, they hearken to other than good counsel. So leave arguing and hear what the poet says:
Seest not the fruits of the market, how of two kinds they be? ”

“ Rather do thou send one of thine officers with them into the desert and let him kill them there, out of thy sight, for, as says the adage, “When the eye sees not, the heart grieves not.”’ Kemerezzeman saw his father-in-law’s words to be just, so he sheathed his sword and turning back, sat down upon his throne and called his treasurer, a very old man, versed in affairs and in the shifts of fortune, to whom he said, ‘Go in to my sons Amjed and Asaad; bind fast their hands behind them and lay them in two chests and set them on a mule. ”

“ When Kemerezzeman saw him, he knew him and said to his father, ‘Look, O my father, at yonder poor man that is but now come in.’ So he looked and saw him clad in worn clothes and on him a patched gown worth two dirhems: his face was pale and he was covered with dust and was as he were an offcast of the pilgrimage. [39] He was groaning as groans the sick man and the needy, walking with a tottering gait and swaying right and left, and indeed there was realized in him the saying of the poet:
Lack-gold abaseth man and doth his worth away, Even as the setting sun that pales with ended day. ”

“ Meanwhile, Kemerezzeman passed the night in his lodging and on the morrow he took a hundred dinars and carried them to the old woman, the barber’s wife, who said to him, ‘Give them to thy father.’ So he gave them to the barber, and she said, ‘Hast thou done as I told thee?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he, and she said, ‘Go now to the jeweller and if he give thee the ring, put it on the top of thy finger and pull it off in haste and say to him, “O master, thou hast made a mistake; the ring is too strait.” He will say, “O merchant, shall I break it and make it again larger?” ”

“ With frantic haste Kerim tears it from the wound, but her life-blood follows it. Clasping her in his arms, he gazes on her face. Has death come to her instantly? Her eyes are closed, yet a faint flush is still upon her cheek. Then the lids slowly rise, but the orbs are fixed, and glazed. Gradually the flush vanishes and gives place to the pallid hue of death!
Ere the poor remains of the Gothic maiden can be borne away, a great clattering of horses’ feet is heard advancing; a Moslem herald gallops forward, followed by trumpeters and men-at-arms, and several knights, who ride into the plaza. ”

“ Kerr shook his head. "You are an observant young person! The fact is, I've never met him—of that I'm certain, but I believe I've seen him before, and for the life of me, I can't think where. At the moment you spoke I was trying to remember."
"Was it in this country?" Flora prompted, hopeful of fishing something definite out of this vagueness.
[Pg 91] "No, it was years ago. It must have been in England." He looked at her inquiringly, as if he expected her to help him.
"Oh, Harry's been in England," she said quickly ”

“ A look of mingled triumph and love lights up Kerim’s swarthy face and brings out the whiteness of his eyes into a revolting prominence. Already his naked arms, glittering with bracelets, are stretched out to clasp his bride, already the soft aroma of her presence comes wafting to his senses like spicy perfumes of paradise, when, by a deft and sudden movement, breaking from the strong arms which bear her up, Onesinda seizes the dagger which lies beneath his sash and with desperate courage plunges it in her breast. ”

“ If he be bearded, the mosquitoes trouble him not, and nought hinders them from me but my beard. It seems they love not bearded men.’ ‘True,’ rejoined Kemerezzeman. Then the maid brought them breakfast and they broke their fast and went out.
Kemerezzeman betook himself to the old woman, who exclaimed, when she saw him, ‘I see the marks of dalliance on thy face: tell me what thou hast seen.’ Quoth he, ‘I have seen nothing. ”

“ You alone can heal it.' As for the others of this light-hearted and laughing group of young folk, they were these: Miss Kerfoot, a fresh-coloured, plump, pleasant-looking girl, wearing much elaborate head-gear rather out of proportion to her stature; her married sister, Mrs. Lalor, a grass-widow who was kind enough to play chaperon to the young people, but whose effective black eyes had a little trick of roving on their own account—perhaps merely in quest of a joke ”

“ In summer the heat of this country is quite outrageous, and the inhabitants betake themselves to their summer houses, which are built in the waters. From nine o'clock in the morning till noon, there blows a wind, with such extreme heat, from the sands, that it is quite stifling and insufferable, and during this time the people sit in the water. The king of Kerman once sent an array of 5000 foot and 1600 horse against the king of Ormus, to compel the payment of tribute, when the whole army was stifled by that wind. The inhabitants of Ormus eat no flesh, or bread made of corn ”

“ Hit him from behind with a stool that stood on the landing. He went downstairs like a bag of old boots.”
“But—I say! The common conventions of humanity—”
“Are all very well for common people. But the point was, Kemp, that I had to get out of that house in a disguise without his seeing me. I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it. And then I gagged him with a Louis Quatorze vest and tied him up in a sheet.” ”

“ So he accepted her from him and said to Helimeh, ‘Kiss thy lord’s hand.’ Accordingly, she came out from the litter and kissing Ubeid’s hand, remounted, whilst he looked at her. Then said Kemerezzeman, ‘I commend thee to God, O Master Ubeid! Acquit me of responsibility.’ [32] ‘God acquit thee,’ answered the jeweller, ‘and bring thee in safety to thy family!’ Then he bade him farewell and went to his shop, weeping, and indeed it was grievous to him to part from Kemerezzeman, for that he had been his friend and friendship hath its claims ”

“ I knew nothing of the history of Kerfol—I was new to Brittany, and Lanrivain had never mentioned the name to me till the day before—but one couldn't as much as glance at that pile without feeling in it a long accumulation of history. What kind of history I was not prepared to guess: perhaps only that sheer weight of many associated lives and deaths which gives a majesty to all old houses. But the aspect of Kerfol suggested something more—a perspective of stern and cruel memories stretching away, like its own grey avenues, into a blur of darkness. ”

“ Kempe had been something of a pioneer in this inquest. He had not spared himself. He could not live by faith, it seemed. He must indeed again and again have come uncommonly near dying in pursuit of it. He had fasted moreover, and was now little more than a mere frame of bones within his outlandish clothes. Those boots of his—they kept forcing themselves on the attention: a worse fit than any worn by some poor desperate Tommy clambering 'over the top' in the Great War. ”

“ When Kemerezzeman came to years of manhood, his mother said to her husband, ‘How long wilt thou keep thy son Kemerezzeman sequestered from the eyes of the folk? Is he a boy or a girl?’ And he answered, ‘A boy.’ ‘If he be a boy,’ rejoined she, ‘why dost thou not carry him to the bazaar and seat him in thy shop, that he may know the folk and they him, to the intent that it may become notorious among them that he is thy son, and do thou teach him to buy and sell. ”

“ Kervyn, I've tried to be honourable and to be loyal to [pg 89] you at the same time. I've tried—I've tried—" Her childish voice faltered, almost broke, and she turned her head sharply away from him.
He dropped onto the lounge beside her, sick with anxiety, and laid his hand over hers where it lay in her lap.
"I'm afraid that you have papers in that satchel which might mean the end of the world for you," he said under his breath. "God alone knows why you carry them if you suspect their contents.... Well, I won't ask you anything more at present.... If your conscience acquits you, I do. ”

“ I replied; for, as I think I have already mentioned, the firm of Stillwood, Waterhead and Royal was held in legal circles as the synonym for rectitude of dealing quite old-fashioned.
“I hope not, Kelver, I hope not,” the old gentleman replied; “and yet, do you know, I sometimes suspect myself—wonder if I may not perhaps be a scamp without realising it. A rogue, you know, Kelver, can always explain himself into an honest man to his own satisfaction. A scamp is never a scamp to himself.” ”

“ They had to find people in whose care they could leave children and castles. But many foolish folk who knew nothing at all of what it meant to go on foot to the Holy Land, or to fight the fierce Turkish soldiers, and who had nothing to leave behind, crowded round Peter and begged him to wait for no one, but to lead them at once to the Holy City. Peter knew nothing of war, and although he did know something of the danger of the journey, he did not think how much more hard it would [Pg 16] be to find food for a thousand people than for one. ”

“ I can scarcely endure the thought of Kervyn ending that way—such a man—my friend——"
His voice seemed hoarse and he got up abruptly and walked to the window.
Ashes of roses lingered in the west; the forest was calm; not a leaf stirred in the lilac-tinted dusk.
Karen, who had been listening, stirred in the depths of her chair and clasped her fingers over her sewing.
Mrs. Courland said quietly:
"It is pleasant for any woman to have known such a man as Mr. Guild."
"Yes," said Karen. ”

“ For the first time in his life Kemp discovered that the hill-road was indescribably vast and desolate, and that the beginnings of the town far below at the hill foot were strangely remote. Never had there been a slower or more painful method of progression than running. All the gaunt villas, sleeping in the afternoon sun, looked locked and barred; no doubt they were locked and barred—by his own orders. But at any rate they might have kept a lookout for an eventuality like this! The town was rising up now, the sea had dropped out of sight behind it, and people down below were stirring. ”

“ The forehead is high and serious, and the hair, which one feels to be fine and thick and fair, is drawn off it and lies close like a cap. The eyes are neither large nor small, hazel probably, with a look at once shy and steady. A pair of beautiful long hands are crossed below the lady’s breast....
The chaplain of Kerfol, and other witnesses, averred that when the Baron came back from Locronan he jumped from his horse, ordered another to be instantly saddled, called to a young page to come with him, and rode away that same evening to the south. ”

“ Kramer was a queer mountebank sort of a chap who before conscription claimed him had been clown in a circus, and his antics and gymnastic feats had made him very popular with his fellow-troopers. He had been a good soldier too; and when he had become separated from his fellow-trooper in a sandstorm a day or more south of Swakopmund, and his companion had struggled through without him, no effort had been spared in searching for the missing man. But to no purpose; months passed and he had been almost forgotten. ”

“ It may be imagined how great was the astonishment of the peasant, when, in a few minutes, Kummas returned with the infant in his arms. When her surprise at the unexpected appearance had somewhat abated, she said to Kummas, at the same time laying her hand on his shoulder, "Neighbour, you are really better than I gave you credit for, and are an honest man. That is a splendid child. God bless it! Stout and strong as a young lion. ”

“ Then do thou take with thee a pair of saddle-bags full of gold and mount a swift hackney and I will do the like; and we will take each a spare horse. Suffer not any servant to follow us, for as soon as we reach the open country, we will go our ways.' Kemerezzeman rejoiced mightily in this plan and said, 'It is good.' Then he took heart and going in to his father, sought his leave to go out to hunt, saying as Merzewan had taught him. The King consented and said, 'O my son, a thousandfold blessed be the day that restores thee to health! ”

“ The most terrible battle she and the household at the manse ever fought was over the body of a dead kitten, which she kept from decent burial for a whole day, and which was at length taken from her arms only when she had cried herself to sleep over the loss of her pet. To grandfather and servants, to the fishermen and their wives, to the shepherds on the moors, to the children by the roadside, Phemie Keller—little soft-hearted Phemie—was an object of the tenderest interest and affection. ”