Carmen by Prosper Mérimée
page 22 of 82 (26%)
page 22 of 82 (26%)
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"The same as ever. There shall be an end to it!" he hissed between his
teeth, with a savage glance at her. Meanwhile the _gitana_ was still talking to him in her own tongue. She became more and more excited. Her eyes grew fierce and bloodshot, her features contracted, she stamped her foot. She seemed to me to be earnestly pressing him to do something he was unwilling to do. What this was I fancied I understood only too well, by the fashion in which she kept drawing her little hand backward and forward under her chin. I was inclined to think she wanted to have somebody's throat cut, and I had a fair suspicion the throat in question was my own. To all her torrent of eloquence Don Jose's only reply was two or three shortly spoken words. At this the gipsy cast a glance of the most utter scorn at him, then, seating herself Turkish-fashion in a corner of the room, she picked out an orange, tore off the skin, and began to eat it. Don Jose took hold of my arm, opened the door, and led me into the street. We walked some two hundred paces in the deepest silence. Then he stretched out his hand. "Go straight on," he said, "and you'll come to the bridge." That instant he turned his back on me and departed at a great pace. I took my way back to my inn, rather crestfallen, and considerably out of temper. The worst of all was that, when I undressed, I discovered my watch was missing. Various considerations prevented me from going to claim it next day, or requesting the _Corregidor_ to be good enough to have a search made for it. I finished my work on the Dominican manuscript, and went on |
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