[Antonina by Wilkie Collins]@TWC D-Link bookAntonina CHAPTER 5 10/15
His large, angular features stand out in gaunt contrast to his shrivelled cheeks. His dry, matted hair has been burnt by the sun into a strange tawny brown.
His expression is one of fixed, stern, mournful thought.
As he steps stealthily along, advancing towards Antonina, he mutters to himself, and clutches mechanically at his garments with his lank, shapeless fingers.
The radiant moonlight, falling fully upon his countenance, invests it with a livid, mysterious, spectral appearance: seen by a stranger at the present moment, he would have been almost awful to look upon. This was the man who had intercepted Vetranio on his journey home, and who had now hurried back so as to regain his accustomed post before his master's return, for he was the same individual mentioned by Numerian as his aged convert, Ulpius, in his interview with the landholder at the Basilica of St.Peter. When Ulpius had arrived within a few paces of the girl he stopped, saying in a hoarse, thick voice-- 'Hide your toy--Numerian is at the gates!' Antonina started violently as she listened to those repulsive accents. The blood rushed into her cheeks; she hastily covered the lute with her robe; paused an instant, as if intending to speak to the man, then shuddered violently, and hurried towards the house. As she mounted the steps Numerian met her in the hall.
There was now no chance of hiding the lute in its accustomed place. 'You stay too late in the garden,' said the father, looking proudly, in spite of all his austerity, upon his beautiful daughter as she stood by his side.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|