DOI article:
D'Arcy, Ella: The pleasure-pilgrim
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21806#0049
By Ella D’Arcy 45
her to teil me so. She looked at me with that cryptic smile of hers ;
c She’d like you to do so, I’m sure,’ she finally remarked, and
pirouetted away. Though it didn’t come off, owing to my bash-
fulness, it was then that Miss Dodge appropriated the silk bodice j
and Providence, taking pity on Miss Thayer’s forced inactivity,
sent along March, a young fellow reading for the army, with
whom she had great doings. She fooled him to the top of his bent -y
sat on his knee ; gave him a lock of her hair, which, having no
scissors handy, she burned off with a cigarette taken from his
mouth ; and got him to offer her marriage. Then she turned
round and laughed in his face, and took up with a Dr. Weber, a
Cousin of the Baron’s, under the other man’s very eyes. You
never saw anything like the unblushing coolness with which she
would permit March to catch her in Weber’s arms.”
“ Come,” Campbell protested, “aren’t you drawing it rather
strong ? ”
“On the contrary, I’m drawing it mild, as you’ll discover pre-
sently for yourself; and then you’ll thank me for forewarning you.
For she makes love—desperate love, mind you—to every man she
meets. And goodness knows how many she hasn’t met, in the
course of her career, which began presumably at the age of ten,
in some (Am'ur’can ’ hotel or watering-place. Look at this.”
Mayne fetched an alpenstock from a corner of the hall ; it was
decorated with a long succession of names, which, ribbon-like, were
twisted round and round it, carved in the wood. “ Read them,”
insisted Mayne, putting the stick in Campbell’s hands. “You’ll
see they’re not the names of the peaks she has climbed, or the
towns she has passed through ; they’re the names of the men she
has fooled. And there’s room for more ; there’s still a good deal
of space, as you see. There’s room for yours.”
Campbell glanced down the alpenstock—reading here a name,
there
her to teil me so. She looked at me with that cryptic smile of hers ;
c She’d like you to do so, I’m sure,’ she finally remarked, and
pirouetted away. Though it didn’t come off, owing to my bash-
fulness, it was then that Miss Dodge appropriated the silk bodice j
and Providence, taking pity on Miss Thayer’s forced inactivity,
sent along March, a young fellow reading for the army, with
whom she had great doings. She fooled him to the top of his bent -y
sat on his knee ; gave him a lock of her hair, which, having no
scissors handy, she burned off with a cigarette taken from his
mouth ; and got him to offer her marriage. Then she turned
round and laughed in his face, and took up with a Dr. Weber, a
Cousin of the Baron’s, under the other man’s very eyes. You
never saw anything like the unblushing coolness with which she
would permit March to catch her in Weber’s arms.”
“ Come,” Campbell protested, “aren’t you drawing it rather
strong ? ”
“On the contrary, I’m drawing it mild, as you’ll discover pre-
sently for yourself; and then you’ll thank me for forewarning you.
For she makes love—desperate love, mind you—to every man she
meets. And goodness knows how many she hasn’t met, in the
course of her career, which began presumably at the age of ten,
in some (Am'ur’can ’ hotel or watering-place. Look at this.”
Mayne fetched an alpenstock from a corner of the hall ; it was
decorated with a long succession of names, which, ribbon-like, were
twisted round and round it, carved in the wood. “ Read them,”
insisted Mayne, putting the stick in Campbell’s hands. “You’ll
see they’re not the names of the peaks she has climbed, or the
towns she has passed through ; they’re the names of the men she
has fooled. And there’s room for more ; there’s still a good deal
of space, as you see. There’s room for yours.”
Campbell glanced down the alpenstock—reading here a name,
there