Novels and Tales (Volume 18) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1909. Excerpt: ... groups. She couldn't help it, poor girl; nature had made her conspicuous -- important, as the painters say. She paid for it by the corresponding exposure, the danger that people would, as I had said to Mrs. Peck, enter into her affairs. Jasper Nettlepoint went down at certain times to see his mother, and I watched for one of these occasions -- on the third day out -- and took advantage of it to go and sit by Miss Mavis. She wore a light blue veil drawn tightly over her face, so that if the smile with which she greeted me rather lacked intensity I could account for it partly by that. "Well, we 're getting on--we 're getting on," I said cheerfully, looking at the friendly twinkling sea. "Are we going very fast?" "Not fast, but steadily. Ohne Hast, ohne Rast -- do you know German?" "Well, I've studied it -- some." "It will be useful to you over there when you travel." "Well yes, if we do. But I don't suppose we shall much. Mr. Nettlepoint says we ought," my young woman added in a moment. "Ah of course he thinks so. He has been all over the world." "Yes, he has described some of the places. They must be wonderful. I did n't know I should like it so much." "But it is n't 'Europe' yet " I laughed. Well, she did n't care if it was n't. "I mean going on this way. I could go on for ever -- for ever and ever." "Ah you know it's not always like this," I hastened to mention. "Well, it's better than Boston." "It is n't so good as Paris," I still more portentously noted. "Oh I know all about Paris. There's no freshness in that. I feel as if I had been there all the time." "You mean you've heard so much of it?" "Oh yes, nothing else for ten years." I had come to talk with Miss Mavis because she was attractive, but I had been rather conscious of the absence of a good topic, not feeling at liberty t...