登陆注册
4619100000069

第69章 Spanish Iris(4)

Peter, you will have to watch that mouth of yours. It's an awfully betraying feature. So long as it's occupied with politics and the fads and the foibles and the sins and the foolishness and the extravagances of humanity, it's all very well. But if you ever get in trouble or if ever your heart hurts, or you get mad enough to kill somebody, that mouth of yours is going to be a most awfully revealing feature, Peter.

You will have hard work to settle it down into hard-and-fast noncommittal lines."Peter looked at the girl steadily.

"Have you specialized on my mouth?" he asked.

"Huh-umph!" said Linda, shaking her head vigorously. When Ispecialize I use a pin and a microscope and go right to the root of matters as I was taught. This is superficial. I am extemporizing now.""Well, if this is extemporizing," said Peter, "God help my soul if you ever go at me with a pin and a microscope.""Oh, but I won't!" cried Linda. "It wouldn't be kind to pin your friends on a setting board and use a microscope on them. You might see things that were strictly private. You might see things they wouldn't want you to see. They might not be your friends any more if you did that. When I make a friend I just take him on trust like I did Donald. You're my friend, aren't you, Peter?""Yes, Linda," said Peter soberly. "Put me to any test you can think of if you want proof.""But I don't believe in PROVING friends, either," said Linda. "Ibelieve in nurturing them. I would set a friend in my garden and water his feet and turn the sunshine on him and tell him to stay there and grow. I might fertilize him, I might prune him, and Imight use insecticide on him. I might spray him with rather stringent solutions, but I give you my word I would not test him.

If he flourished under my care I would know it, and if he did not I would know it, and that would be all I would want to know. Ihave watched Daddy search for the seat of nervous disorders, and sometimes he had to probe very deep to find what developed nerves unduly but he didn't ever do any picking and raveling and fringing at the soul of a human being merely for the sake of finding out what it was made of; and everyone says I am like him.""I wish I might have known him," said Peter.

"Don't I wish it!" said Linda. "Now then, Peter, go ahead. Read your article."Peter opened a packing case, picked out a sheaf of papers, and sitting opposite Linda, began to read. He was dumbfounded to find that he, a man who had read and talked extemporaneously before great bodies of learned men, should have cold feet and shaking hands and a hammering heart because he was trying to read an article on America for Americans before a high-school Junior.

But presently, as the theme engrossed him, he forgot the vision of Linda interesting herself in his homemaking, and saw instead a vision of his country threatened on one side by the red menace of the Bolshevik, on the other by the yellow menace of the Jap, and yet on another by the treachery of the Mexican and the slowly uprising might of the black man, and presently he was thundering his best-considered arguments at Linda until she imperceptibly drew back from him on the packing case, and with parted lips and wide eyes she listened in utter absorption. She gazed at a transformed Peter with aroused eyes and a white light of patriotism on his forehead, and a conception even keener than anything that the war had brought her young soul was burning in her heart of what a man means when he tries to express his feeling concerning the land of his birth. Presently, without realizing what she was doing, she reached for her pad and pencils and rapidly began sketching a stretch of peaceful countryside over which a coming storm of gigantic proportions was gathering.

Fired by Peter's article, the touch of genius in Linda's soul became creative and she fashioned huge storm clouds wind driven, that floated in such a manner as to bring the merest suggestion of menacing faces, black faces, yellow faces, brown faces, and under the flash of lightning, just at the obscuring of the sun, a huge, evil, leering red face. She swept a stroke across her sheet and below this she began again, sketching the same stretch of country she had pictured above, strolling in cultivated fields, dotting it with white cities, connecting it with smooth roadways, sweeping the sky with giant planes. At one side, winging in from the glow of morning, she drew in the strong-winged flight of a flock of sea swallows, peacefully homing toward the far-distant ocean. She was utterly unaware when Peter stopped reading. Absorbed, she bent over her work.

When she had finished she looked up.

"Now I'll take this home," she said. "I can't do well on color with pencils. You hold that article till I have time to put this on water-color paper and touch it up a bit here and there, and Ibelieve it will be worthy of starting and closing your article."She pushed the sketches toward him.

"You little wonder!" said Peter softly.

"Yes, 'little' is good," scoffed Linda, rising to very nearly his height and reaching for the lunch basket. " 'Little' is good, Peter. If I could do what I like to myself I would get in some kind of a press and squash down about seven inches.""Oh, Lord!" said Peter. "Forget it. What's the difference what the inches of your body are so long as your brain has a stature worthy of mention?""Good-bye!" said Linda. "On the strength of that I'll jazz that sketch all up, bluey and red-purple and jade-green. I 11 make it as glorious as a Catalina sunset."As she swung the car around the sharp curve at the boulders she looked back and laughingly waved her hand at Peter, and Peter experienced a wild desire to shriek lest she lose control of the car and plunge down the steep incline. A second later, when he saw her securely on the road below, he smiled to himself.

"Proves one thing," he said conclusively. "She is over the horrors. She is driving unconsciously. Thank God she knew that curve so well she could look the other way and drive it mentally.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 盛世独宠之天玑

    盛世独宠之天玑

    前世,好友一碗汤药让她成为石女,她从身份贵重的国公府嫡女跌落成下堂弃妇,最后含恨而亡。悲愤而亡,幸得重生。这一世,她必会手刃仇人,所有害她的人,欠她的人,她誓要亲手讨回!这一世,她必会保持本心,活出自己的精彩!这一世,她也必要多生几个孩子,让那些前世看她笑话的人都睁大眼睛瞧瞧,她沈天玑并不是不能生的!呃……这什么破愿望?
  • 十曲玄天蛛

    十曲玄天蛛

    姜老三巧凿如意盏聪明儿好学遇良师故事发生在明朝嘉靖年间,在瓜州有个姜家集,住着一家石匠,名叫姜老三,妻子杨氏,还有一个小儿子,名叫姜延全家以凿石为生这一年,姜老三在打石头时,得到一块洁白无瑕的美玉他喜不胜喜,仔细地端详着,越看越爱看,他想:如果把这个东西雕成一个物品,那不更美了吗?雕个什么呢!他思来想去,决定雕一个酒盏经过了无数个不眠之夜,迎送了多少个月落日出,老石匠熬尽了心血,终于将酒盏外形凿制成功继而,他又施展了自己的全部的技艺,在酒盏里雕刻了两条腾云驾雾的蛟龙,中间镶一颗鲜红的小珍珠。
  • 倾世名医,废材绝色小姐

    倾世名医,废材绝色小姐

    新书《一丹之缘》已经发布,欢迎来收藏,评论。 当再一次出现在乐家时,乐月褪去废材名称成为天才人物,成为以前虐她欺她之人难以到达的高度。什么?要灭了她,哼,她有一堆伙伴,还有一个她救回来的妖孽分分钟轰你成渣。情景一:"娘子,来抱抱",乐月突然望着一个呆呆的眼睛,一脸不思议的指了指自己。而某妖孽却一脸认真道:"娘子,你怎么连自己身份都忘了?"。这认真装得乐月都差点信了。 欢迎进群:634440713
  • 产宝

    产宝

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 伯爵的意外新娘

    伯爵的意外新娘

    没落贵族之后凯瑟琳·索恩伯里小姐任教于教区学校,过着简朴宁静的生活——直到一次意外的事故让她与风度翩翩的斯丹宁菲尔德伯爵不期而遇。身为贵族绅士的伯爵竟然聘请她为侄女的家庭教师!他为她的天姿绝色倾倒,不能自拔;她为他的阳刚帅气折服,不能自已。然而,除了社会地位的天壤之别,他俩的爱情遭遇了更大的障碍,几乎无法超越……王子与灰姑娘的故事能否成为现实?
  • 唐王屋山中岩台正一先生庙碣

    唐王屋山中岩台正一先生庙碣

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 爆宠萌妻:邪魅总裁有点坏

    爆宠萌妻:邪魅总裁有点坏

    她就像神秘礼物一样从天而降,被吃干抹净后男人食髓知味。薄墨辰,传闻中克妻又是GAY的帝国总裁,却在深夜化身饿狼,将小妻子拆腹入骨。次次逃离失败,她当好一个替身新娘的角色,沉沦在他给予的温柔之中,到头来却发现他隐藏着的秘密竟然是……“想跑?你就认命吧,我克妻,你命硬,正好合适……。”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 重生之幸运小小妻

    重生之幸运小小妻

    前世她美艳、妖娆。结局却是烈火焚身,尸骨无存。今生她聪明、自负。结局却是背弃亲人,客死他乡。她带着两世的记忆重生,结局又会怎样被改写?如果说前世的结局是世事无常,造化弄人。那‘今生’的下场就是她咎由自取。站在命运的岔路口,她还会像前世一样的选择吗?答案当然是不。踢走极品亲友,拉着爸妈,牵着哥哥。凭借自己幸运的第六感。这一世她一定要让他们过的幸福。【重生不可控,计划不如变化快】咦?为什么只是救救亲人,展展好运,一大家子的命运全都改变了?纳尼?她的计划不是平淡幸福的人生吗?为什么多出这么计划之外的事情?哦买噶!身边这男人是怎么回事?她的计划里有男人吗?怎么还甩都甩不掉呢?额?原来她已经被某人预谋许久了…那她还跑得掉吗?原本计划的生活是小富即安康。可随着种种的变化,她发现‘小富’这词已经不适用了。本文一对一女主好运多多,但不万能。有些自私,绝不圣母。文中出现事物名称等纯属虚构,请勿当真。喜欢文文的亲留个爪印哈,么么哒…
  • 高上神霄宗师受经式

    高上神霄宗师受经式

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 女宾

    女宾

    《女宾》是波伏瓦的第一部小说。当波伏瓦在文学创作上感到一筹莫展时,萨特对她说,为什么她不把自己写进作品里呢。于是她受到启发,创作了《女宾》。在小说中,她不仅写了自己,而且还有她的终生伴侣萨特,以及他们的朋友奥尔嘉。此书一经出版,就引起了广泛的注意和评论,奠定了波伏瓦在法国文坛上的地位。它所描写的恋人模式,波伏瓦用一生的时间身体力行,并为此饱受诟病。