Hugo: A Fantasia on Modern Themes

orders to continue his vigil

might have som

' said Simon the cellarer. 'It is eight

e cup, then,

sical pain in the region of the heart. He wished he could step off Love as one steps o

d to him?' he demanded half

im exactly as much

ured angrily, 'am I or am

e was rather a splendid and Byronic fig

ly edition worthy of a true amateur-bound by Rivière. Like all wise and lettered men, Hugo consulted Boswell in the grave crises of life, and to-night he happ

of mankind,' he asserted to the dome, 'there have only been t

ove that passion is folly, filled the vast apartment. The rushing violin passages, and every call of Aphrodite, intoxicated his soul and rais

sir,' said Simon Shawn, intru

wered lightly. 'But it all

the insisting

s Cam

d he been so astounded, staggered, charmed,

gasped after a

wn efface

Mr.

you sit

bsolutely regular features had the proud Tennysonian cast. But the coldness of Tennysonian damsels was not hers. Whether she had Latin blood in her veins, or whether Nature had peculiarly gifted her out of sheer caprice, she possessed in a high degree that indescribable demeanour, at once a defiance and a surrender, a question and an answer, a confession and a denial, which is

had never seen t

r the rapture of men in summer twilights, and over the white dress was thrown a very rich pearl-tinted opera-cloak, which only partly concealed the curves of the shoulders, and poised a

, throwing back her cloak on the left side with a

hispered, sea

de, and it thrilled him. And she wa

am in the midst of. What is the w

ammered Hu

ed scrutinizin

Be frank. Do you know,' she asked in a different tone, 'or

he began, 'I

have taken my courage in both hands in order to come to you to-night. I may have lost my situati

it distresses me to hear y

d w

ble, let me add, of hiding her distinction from the common crowd. For what purpose of your own you came into my shop, I can't guess. But ne

e looked at

place persons are saying that I have fallen in lo

tell you?

hs that a believer can't keep to himself.' He paused, expectant. 'A woman less fine than you would have protested against this sudden avowal, w

a desolating smile-'why do you have m

ad proved too much for his scruples. He had, however, till that day discovered little of importance for his pains-merely that her parents, who were dead, had kept a small milliner's shop in Edgware Road, that her age was t

fac

at all, and that to explain to the woman you love wh

pursued Camilla, with a strange emphas

have been in a position of some slight delicacy. What your relations are with Mr. Francis Tudor I have never sought to inquire, but I have always doubted the bona fides of Mr.

gaze touched and convinced her. She looked

me how it is that I, to whom you pay thirty-six shillings a week, a

ich are quite foreign to our business relations. I give it you. Beyond that I permit myself no thoughts except such as any man is enti

ietly, producing a revolver from the folds of her cloak, 'I picke

se gong across the room, and pulled the trigger several time

. 'Pardon the din. I di

asked Simon Shawn, ap

pated him

en't! By Jove, you aren't! What is it? What have you been through? What is this pl

ve all that I sa

he said

was going to be friendly with he