t sufficiently recovered to note his action.
In the hall he offered me his arm.
“The gas has not yet been lighted,” he explained, “and I wish you to go with me to the parlor.”
This sounded formidable, but I did not hesitate. I felt able to confront this man.
“I am at your service,” I declared, with a comfortable sensation that my tone conveyed something of the uncompromising spirit I felt.
The room to which he conducted me was on the first floor, and was darkness itself when we entered. It was musty, too, and chill, as with the memory of a past funeral and the premonition of a new one.
Even the light which he soon Maillot SS Lazio Pas CHer made did not seem to be at home in the spot, New England Patriots Kvinnor but wavered Ostaa Halpa Nike Roshe Run Miehet and flickered with Karim Benzema Tröja faint gasps, as if it longed to efface itself and leave the grand and solitary apartment to its Toni Kroos Tröja wonted atmosphere of cold reserve. By its feeble flame I noted but two details: one was the portrait of Mrs. Pollard in her youth, and the other was my own reflection in some distant mirror. The first filled me with strange thoughts, the face was so wickedly powerful, if I may so speak; handsome, but with that will beneath its beauty which, when allied to selfishness, has produced the Lucretia Borgias and Catherine de Medicis of the world.
The reflection of which I speak, dimly seen as it was, had, on the contrary, a calming effect upon my mind. Weary as I undoubtedly was, and pale if not haggard with the emotions I had experienced, there was still something natural and alive in my image that recalled happier scenes to my eyes, and Maillot Mexique Pas CHer gave me the necessary strength to confront the possibilities of the present interview..
Mr. Pollard, who in his taciturn gloom seemed like the natural genius of the spot, appeared to be struck by this same sensation also, for his eyes wandered more than once to the mirror, before he summoned up courage, or, perhaps, I should say, before he took the determination to look me in the face and open the conversation. When he did, it was curious to note the strife of expression between his eye and lip: the one hard, cold, and unyielding; the other deprecating in its half-smile and falsely gentle, as if the mind that controlled it was even then divided between its wish to subdue and the necessity it felt to win.
“Miss Sterling,” so he began, “it would be only folly for me to speak as if nothing had occurred but an ordinary and natural death. It would be doing your good sense and womanly judgment but little honor, and putting myself, or, rather, ourselves — for we children are but one in this matter — in a position which would make any after-explanations exceedingly difficult. For explanations can be given, and in a word; for what has doubtless struck you as strange and terrible in my mother’s last hours — explanations which I am sure you will be glad to accept, as it is Maillot Ajax Amsterdam Pas CHer not natural for one so blooming in her womanliness to wish to hamper her youth with dark thoughts, or to nurse suspicions contrary to her own candid and noble nature.”
He paused, but meeting with |
