A Cigarette-maker's RomanceMacmillan, 1912 - 252 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
A. E. W. MASON afraid Akulina answered the Count anxiety asked Vjera began better cigarette colour Cossack Count Skariatine Count thought course cried Vjera dark dear doll door Dumnoff exclaimed eyes face felt fifty marks fingers Fischelo friends gentleman girl give glance glass Grabofsky hair hand happened head heart Herr Fischelowitz Herr Schmidt Hofbräuhaus honour hour husband inquired JAMES LANE ALLEN Johann Schmidt knew kvass laughed leaned light MARION CRAWFORD matter MAURICE HEWLETT morning mujik Munich never night once parcel piece police-station policeman poor Count poor Vjera porter promise RHODA BROUGHTON Russian samovar seemed side silence sleep smiled stood street suddenly suppose sure swivel knife tell thank thing thought to-day to-morrow tobacco tobacconist tone took turned voice wait walked watched Wiener Gigerl wife window witz word
Popular passages
Page 121 - ... She started on seeing him, hesitated and then laid her hand upon the same knob which Schmidt had pulled so often in vain. "It is of no use to ring," he said, quietly. "I have given it up." " Herr Schmidt ! " exclaimed the girl in evident delight. It was Vjera. "Yes — but, in Heaven's name, Vjera, what are you doing here at this hour of the night? You ought to be at home and asleep." "Oh, you have not heard the dreadful news," cried poor Vjera in accents of distress. "Oh, if we cannot get in...
Page 139 - Laps follow after them, dragging painfully their laden sledges in the broad track left by the thousands of galloping beasts — a day's journey, and they are yet far from the sea, and the trail is yet broad. On the second day it grows narrower, and there are stains of blood to be seen ; far on the distant plain before them their sharp eyes distinguish in the direct line a dark, motionless object, another and then another. The race has grown more desperate and more wild as the stampede neared the...
Page 138 - They grow unruly, and it is hard to harness them in the light sledge. As the days pass, the Laps watch them more and more closely, well knowing what will happen sooner or later. And then at last, in the northern twilight, the great herd begins to move. The impulse is simultaneous, irresistible, their heads are all turned in one direction. They move slowly at first, biting still, here and there, at the bunches of rich moss. Presently the slow step becomes a trot, they crowd closely together, while...
Page 1 - ... room of a tobacconist's shop is not perhaps the spot which a writer of fiction would naturally choose as the theatre of his play, nor does the inventor of pleasant romances, of stirring incident, or moving love-tales feel himself instinctively inclined to turn to Munich as to the city of his dreams. On the other hand, it is by no means certain that, if the choice of a stage for our performance were offered to the most contented among us, we should be satisfied to speak our parts and go through...
Page 139 - Ever swifter and more terrible in their motion, the ruthless herd has raced onward, careless of the slain, careless of food, careless of any drink but the sharp salt water ahead of them. And when at last the Laplanders reach the shore their deer are once more quietly grazing, once more tame and docile, once more ready to drag the sledge whithersoever they are guided. Once in his life the reindeer must taste of the sea in one long, satisfying draught, and if he is hindered he perishes. Neither man...
Page 192 - Now, if you only stayed here for a little while," said the captain, persuasively, " say a couple of years, no doubt things would right themselves. Anything might happen in two years. Mind, it's not your father's idea, it's mine. I'd do anything for him ; he has done me many a good turn in his time, and I want to pay him back." Miss Hartley, softening somewhat, thanked him. " And what is two years at your time of life ? " continued the captain, brightly. " Nothing. Why, I'm going away for that time...
Page 139 - Laps hasten to gather up their last unpacked possessions, their cooking utensils and their wooden gods. The great herd break together from a trot to a gallop, from a gallop to a break-neck race, the distant thunder of their united tread reaches the camp during a few minutes, and they are gone to drink of the polar sea. The Laps follow after them, dragging painfully their laden sledges in the broad track left by the thousands of galloping beasts — a day's journey, and they are yet far from the sea,...
Page 138 - ... things were gone for ever, arose the great longing for one more breath of liberty, for one more ride over the boundless steppe, for one more draught of the sour kvass, of the camp brew of rye and malt. The longing for such things, for one thing almost unattainable, is in man and beast at certain times. In the distant northern plains, a hundred miles from the sea, in the midst of the Laplander's village, a young reindeer raises his broad muzzle to the north wind, and stares at the limitless distance...
Page 223 - ... of his love for the girl, and the love that she had shown, his other preoccupation is forgotten, till the clocks striking midnight rouse him. Wednesday is ended. Then, and only then, does he know — that he has been mad. As in a vision of horror, he saw himself standing there, as he had stood there many times before, listening for the last stroke, and suddenly awaking from the dream to the crushing disappointment of the reality. For one brief and terrible moment his whole memory was restored...