Part 1 (1/2)
The Lost World
by Arthur Conan Doyle
CHAPTER I
”There Are Heroiserton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,--a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a ood-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self If anything could have driven ht of such a father-in-law I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company, and very especially to hear his views upon bi an authority
For an hour orI listened to his ood, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange
”Suppose,” he cried with feeble violence, ”that all the debts in the world were called up simultaneously, and immediate payment insisted upon,--what under our present conditions would happen then?”
I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me for my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the roo
At last I was alone with Gladys, and theI had felt like the soldier aits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope; hope of victory and fear of repulse alternating in his mind
She sat with that proud, delicate profile of hers outlined against the red curtain How beautiful she was! And yet how aloof! We had been friends, quite good friends; but never could I get beyond the saht have established with one of my fellow-reporters upon the Gazette,--perfectly frank, perfectly kindly, and perfectly unsexual My instincts are all against a wo too frank and at her ease withbegins, tie from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure--these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion Even in my short life I had learned as much as that--or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct
Gladys was full of every woed her to be cold and hard; but such a thought was treason That delicately bronzed skin, ale liquid eyes, the full but exquisite lips,--all the stigmata of passion were there But I was sadly conscious that up to now I had never found the secret of drawing it forth However, co ht She could but refuse me, and better be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother
So farand uneasy silence, when two critical, dark eyes looked round atreproof ”I have a presenti to propose, Ned I do wish you wouldn't; for things are so much nicer as they are”
I drew oing to propose?” I asked in genuine wonder
”Don't women always know? Do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares? But--oh, Ned, our friendshi+p has been so good and so pleasant! What a pity to spoil it! Don't you feel how splendid it is that a youngwoman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?”
”I don't know, Gladys You see, I can talk face to face with--with the station-ine how that official cahing ”That does not satisfy me in the least I want my arms round you, and your head onfrons that I proposed to de, Ned,” she said ”It's all so beautiful and natural until this kind of thing comes in! It is such a pity! Why can't you control yourself?”
”I didn't invent it,” I pleaded ”It's nature It's love”
”Well, perhaps if both love, it may be different I have never felt it”
”But you must--you, with your beauty, with your soul! Oh, Gladys, you were made for love! You must love!”
”One must wait till it comes”
”But why can't you love me, Gladys? Is it my appearance, or what?”
She did unbend a little She put forward a hand--such a gracious, stooping attitude it was--and she pressed back my head Then she looked into my upturned face with a very wistful smile
”No it isn't that,” she said at last ”You're not a conceited boy by nature, and so I can safely tell you it is not that It's deeper”
”My character?”
She nodded severely
”What can I do to mend it? Do sit down and talk it over No, really, I won't if you'll only sit down!”