The Damascus Road (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. " The commander and officers of trie Prometheus beg M. to do them trie honor of passing the evening of February 15th, 188-, on board. At the anchorage of Saint Nicholas. Dancing." About sixty cards thus inscribed had profoundly agitated the high society of Ehodes. They were at last to see a real ball; to waltz to the strains of a real band, instead of a worn-out piano. The salon of a modest Kokona was to be replaced by the deck of an immense warship; the dancers were to be French naval officers, the most gallant officers in the world. By eight o'clock in the evening the first guests presented themselves, offering nothing remarkable in appearance. It must be admitted it threw some discouragement in the souls of the young officers, who had advanced in turn toward the open deck to offer their arms to the ladies and conduct them to the " ball room." One of these hard-workingfellows passed Neuvillars, who, returning unaccompanied, said sotto voce: " This is a fine lot we have before us." " Courage!" replied the ensign; " it appears, according to the commander's account, that we are preserving the prestige of the old French gallantry. As for myself, I long to propose a change of turns with the happy mortal who has just taken his watch until midnight. Lucky fellow! from the quarterdeck he cannot see this procession of caricatures. " Soon, however, the rapidly approaching launches showed a decided improvement in their freight. At last, at the stroke of nine, the really fashionable guests arrived. " Ha, here is the last batch," exclaimed Neuvillars, as he stepped forward to receive a late comer, dull and uninteresting looking in her simple black toilet, followed by a man with iron-gray hair. He offered the lady his arm without seeing her features, which were...