The Reef by Edith Wharton
page 170 of 411 (41%)
page 170 of 411 (41%)
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by the hypnotic effect of the fresh air; and Effie,
kneeling, on the hearth, softly but insistently sought to implant in her terrier's mind some notion of the relation between a vertical attitude and sugar. Darrow took a chair behind the little girl, so that he might look across at her mother. It was almost a necessity for him, at the moment, to let his eyes rest on Anna's face, and to meet, now and then, the proud shyness of her gaze. Madame de Chantelle presently enquired what had become of Owen, and a moment later the window behind her opened, and her grandson, gun in hand, came in from the terrace. As he stood there in the lamp-light, with dead leaves and bits of bramble clinging to his mud-spattered clothes, the scent of the night about him and its chill on his pale bright face, he really had the look of a young faun strayed in from the forest. Effie abandoned the terrier to fly to him. "Oh, Owen, where in the world have you been? I walked miles and miles with Nurse and couldn't find you, and we met Jean and he said he didn't know where you'd gone." "Nobody knows where I go, or what I see when I get there-- that's the beauty of it!" he laughed back at her. "But if you're good," he added, "I'll tell you about it one of these days." "Oh, now, Owen, now! I don't really believe I'll ever be |
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