[The Master of Silence by Irving Bacheller]@TWC D-Link bookThe Master of Silence CHAPTER VIII 4/10
My seat at the table was almost directly opposite Rayel.
His grave and dignified demeanor was made doubly conspicuous by the coquettish airs and ready tongue of the young lady who sat beside him.
Under a steady fire of compliments and questions and artful glances I saw that he began to grow uneasy. "That was a beautiful portrait you painted!" exclaimed Miss Paddington, looking sentimental. "Thank you," said he; "my cousin also admires it, but I must own that it does not quite suit me." "Perhaps you are an admirer of the lady it represents," said she, peering shyly into his eyes.
"The Count de Montalle has fallen in love with her and has borrowed the portrait from my father." "Ze picture--ah! monsieur, it is beautiful," said the Count, who sat near them.
"But ze lady--she sat for me long ago and I had ze honor myself to paint her portrait." He was a thin, wiry Frenchman, with small, black eyes, a forehead sloping to a bald crown, an aquiline nose and a pointed chin, adorned with an imperial.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|