Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Toys of Peace, and other papers by Saki
page 32 of 214 (14%)
everywhere.

"Hundreds of wolves," said the Hamburg merchant, who was a man of strong
imagination.

Moved by some impulse which she could not have explained, the Baroness
left her guests and made her way to the narrow, cheerless room where the
old governess lay watching the hours of the drying year slip by. In
spite of the biting cold of the winter night, the window stood open. With
a scandalised exclamation on her lips, the Baroness rushed forward to
close it.

"Leave it open," said the old woman in a voice that for all its weakness
carried an air of command such as the Baroness had never heard before
from her lips.

"But you will die of cold!" she expostulated.

"I am dying in any case," said the voice, "and I want to hear their
music. They have come from far and wide to sing the death-music of my
family. It is beautiful that they have come; I am the last von
Cernogratz that will die in our old castle, and they have come to sing to
me. Hark, how loud they are calling!"

The cry of the wolves rose on the still winter air and floated round the
castle walls in long-drawn piercing wails; the old woman lay back on her
couch with a look of long-delayed happiness on her face.

"Go away," she said to the Baroness; "I am not lonely any more. I am one
of a great old family . . . "
DigitalOcean Referral Badge