The Brute. Kummer Frederic Arnold

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ hesitated a moment, then went on impetuously. “Is duty after all everything in the world? Is there not a duty to ourselves as well as to others? May not one duty conflict with another, and make it hard to know which one we ought to follow? Must two people make themselves utterly wretched, to give happiness to a third? Isn’t it somehow sort of unequal – paying too great a price for a thing that is not worth it?”

      She did not answer him, nor did he expect her to do so. He was in reality only thinking aloud – expressing the thoughts which had been uppermost in his mind for the past three weeks, and, woman-like, she took refuge in silence, for she knew that were she to answer him truthfully she would agree with him.

      “If two people love each other enough, doesn’t it make up for anything else in the world? We can’t control our feelings. We can’t help it, if love comes to us and takes from us everything in our lives, and leaves nothing behind but itself. There must be some purpose in it all. If there is nothing left to us but love, why should we have to give that up as well, and go on and on in wretched misery to the end? I can’t do it – and yet, I know that I must.”

      She trembled as she heard his words – so unlike the care-free man she had come to know. He had changed very much, in these past few weeks. The lines of suffering in his face were new to it, and only a great emotion could have set them there. He loved her with a strong, compelling love, and he was wrestling with the vital problems of duty and right. She, on her part, loved him because of what pleasure he had given her, and was wrestling with no problems whatever. Her only thought at the moment was a great desire to have him put his arms about her and crush her to him. This, however, he did not know, for he had idealized her and invested her with all manner of high qualities and virtues which she by no means possessed. She had begun to feel just a trifle annoyed by his constant self-control. Somehow it seemed to belittle her own powers of attraction. She feared, at times, that he might, casting prudence, duty – honor to the winds, overwhelm her in a wild and rapturous outburst of love, but the fact that he had not done so, up to now, annoyed her a little, and almost made her desire the more that he would. She liked to feel that West was a firebrand, that she herself was keeping him at a distance – she did not enjoy the thought that he was controlling himself in spite of her. He pedestaled her as a paragon of virtue, a creature of restraint, which he, a devastating male, had caused to love him. She was in reality far more frail than he, and the more he held aloof, the more she burned for his caresses. Passion had made her shameless.

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

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

СКАЧАТЬ