Pierre and Jean (Peter and John) by Guy de Maupassant (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ...How often he had dreamed of those familiar names, as if he had known the country. Oh if he could only go, at once, no matter where, and never return, never write, never let them know what had become of him But no; he must return home, go back to the paternal house and go to bed. No, he would not return yet, he would await daylight. The voices of the sirens pleased him. He arose and walked up and down like an officer on duty. Another enormous and mysterious ship came on behind the first. It was an English steamer returning from India. He saw several others emerging, one after another, out of the impenetrable shadows. Then as the dampness of the fog was becoming intolerable, Pierre went on toward the city. He was so cold that he entered a sailor's tavern for a glass of grog; and when the hot and peppery brandy had burned his palate and throat, hope revived within him. He had been mistaken, perhaps. He knew his vagabond imagination so well No doubt he was deceived. He had accumulated the proofs as we build up an indictment against an innocent person; always so easy to condemn when we wish to believe him guilty. After a good night's sleep he would certainly think otherwise. Having reached this conclusion he hastened home, and, by mere force of will he at last fell into unconsciousness. CHAPTER V. Pierre tossed about restlessly on his bed, for an hour or two, in the agitation of a troubled sleep. When he awoke, in the obscurity of his chamber, even before thought had been rekindled within him, he felt that painful oppression, that uneasiness of soul that survives even in sleep. It seemed as if the calamity, the shock of which merely hurt him the previous day, had, during his rest, glided into his very flesh, bruising and harassing it like a fever....