The two opponents remained motionless for some time, facing and watching each other with mutual vigilance. At the end, a burning flush spread over Brousselle’s cheeks, and blood seemed to spurt out of his bloodshot eyes, along with his infuriated look. At the same time, with a leap as quick as that of a starving tiger spotting a prey, he …Read more »

The two enemies looked at each other silently. Each of them seemed to be waiting for the other one to provoke him. From the muted rage spread over Brousselle’s face, one could have thought for a moment that some deadly insult was about to shoot from his tense white lips. This didn’t happen, though. After a violent but short inner struggle, Laure’s stepfather managed to hold back his fury. He soon smiled proudly, as a man who was able to …Read more »

There’s nothing like a secret weighs;
Too heavy ’tis for women tender;
And, for this matter, in my days,
I’ve seen some men of female gender.

To prove his wife, a husband cried,
(The night he knew the truth would hide,)
‘O Heavens! What’s this? O dear — I beg
I’m torn — O! O! I’ve laid an egg!’ …Read more »

And yet isn’t she perfectly happy ? Her room looks like a small chapel. You know I often lack servants, but I manage without them and no one could tell. All is neat and tidy, everything is squeaky clean in the house. You can certainly say that Perrine has the most pleasant interior. Would you believe she doesn’t even seem …Read more »

Aramis bit his lips. “Nothing! nothing! Your pardon, I meant to say…”
“What?”
“That if we were inclined – if we took a fancy to make an excursion by
sea, we could not.”
“Very good! and why should that vex you? A fine pleasure, ma foi! For my part, I don’t regret it at all. What I regret is certainly not the more or less amusement we can find at Belle-Isle; what I regret, Aramis, is Pierrefonds; is Bracieux; is le Valon; is my beautiful France! Here weare not in France, my dear friend; we are – I know not where. Oh! I tell you …Read more »

A shepherd, neighbour to the sea,
Lived with his flock contentedly.
His fortune, though but small,
Was safe within his call.
At last some stranded kegs of gold
Him tempted, and his flock he sold,
Turn’d merchant, and the ocean’s waves …Read more »

“What sort of a person do you take me for?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you know anything, why conceal it from me? If you do not know anything, why did you write so warningly?”
“True, true, I was very wrong, and I regret having done so, Raoul. It seems nothing to write to a friend and say ‘Come;’ but to have this friend face to face, to feel him tremble, and breathlessly and anxiously wait to hear what one hardly dare tell him, is very different.”
“Dare! I have courage enough, if …Read more »