Moths by Ouida — page 190: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

& 1860 moras. the air sweet, the sea, when the rise of the road brought it inte view, was blue as the sky, and the fishing-fleets were on it. Vere closed her eyes as the bright marine picture came in sight, and felt the tears rise into them. Only three years before, she had been Vere Herbert, coming on the dusty sands below, with no more knowledge or idea of the world’s pomps, and vanities, and sins, and vices, than any one of the bright-eyed deer that were now living out.their happy lives under the oak shadows of Bulmer Chase. Only three years before! | Zourofi, lying back in the little carriage, looked at her through his half-shut eyelids. ‘* Ma chere,” he said, with his little rough laugh, ‘‘ we ought _ to feel very sweet emotions, you and I,’returning here. Tell me are you a la hauteur de ’occasion? I fear I am not, Perhaps, after a glass of sherry, the proper emotion may visit me.” Vere made no reply. Her eyes, wide-opened now, were look- ing straight forward: she drove her ponies steadily. ‘‘Whatdoyou feel?” he persisted. ‘‘ itis aninteresting return, Pray tell me.” ‘*T have ceased to analyze what I. feel,” she answered, in her clear cold voice. ‘‘1 prefer to stifle it.” ‘. You are very courteous!” ‘*{T think you have very often said yourself that courtesy is not one of the obligations of marriage. You ask me for the truth, I tell you the truth.” j ; In two years of the world have you not learned a pretty lie et?” : dige No. I shall not learn it in twenty years.” ‘*Do you know that there are times when you answer me s0 that J could beat you like a dog?” ‘“‘I dare say.” - Ts that all you say?” ‘What should Isay? If you beat me, it would not hurt me much more than other things.” Zouroft was silent. He saw that she drove her ponies on tran- quilly, and that her blush-rose cheek neither flushed nor paled. Master of her body and mind, present and future, though he was, he had a sullen sense of her escaping him always, and he had as _ sullen a respect for her courage and her calmness. ‘“‘She would be a mother of young lions!” he thought, as Lam- artine thought of Delphine Gay, and he felt bitter against her that his sons had died. They reached Felicite as the sun set over the sea, where the low shores by the Caen were hidden ina golden mist, The dressing= bell was ringing in the Gothic clock-tower; the tribe of canary- hued lackeys were bending to the ground in the beautiful cedar- wood hall, with its pointed arches, and its illuminated shields, which had captivated the young eyes of Vere Herbert. Madame Nelaguine had arrived before them, and her welcome, ‘wit, and careful tact saved them from the terrors and the tedium 7 of a tete-a-tete. | ** Are you glad to come here, Vera?” she asked, | se \ | | ! “COMmIgcbOOKS Col