The Green Ray by Jules Verne

Author:Jules Verne [Verne, Jules]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, classics, illus, SF
ISBN: 9781478288725
Google: jXRLMQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1478288728
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2012-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII

NEW PLANS

The return to Oban was hardly as pleasant as the drive to Seil had been; they had set out confident of success, and were going back defeated.

If Miss Campbell’s disappointment could possibly have been increased, it was owing to the fact of its being caused by Aristobulus Ursiclos. She had some reason to blame this great culprit and vent her wrath on his head, and she made good use of the privilege. Her uncles would have been very ill-advised had they tried to defend him. No! it was perfectly evident that this clumsy fellow, of whom they were little thinking, had taken the boat and sailed right in front of the sunset on purpose, and such a wrong could never be forgiven.

Needless to say that after this rating, Aristobulus, who tried to excuse himself by ridiculing the idea of the Green Ray, returned by boat to Oban, and it was well he did, for probably he would not have been offered a seat in the carriage, nor one on the box even.

Thus twice the sun had set under conditions quite favourable to the observation of the phenomenon, and twice Miss Campbell had exposed her eyesight to the dazzling glare, all in vain! First of all the rescue of Oliver Sinclair, and then Aristobulus’s boat had caused her to miss opportunities which might be long in recurring! It is true the circumstances were not the same in both cases, and Miss Campbell made excuses for the one as much as she blamed the other, so who could have accused her of partiality?

The following day Oliver Sinclair was sauntering dreamily along the sea-shore.

“Who was this Mr. Ursiclos? A relation of Miss Campbell’s, or simply a friend? At any rate, he was evidently on very familiar terms with the family from the way in which the young lady scolded him for his awkwardness. But what could it matter to Oliver Sinclair? If he wished to know, he had but to ask either of the two brothers.” This was precisely what the young man did not care to do.

However, he had plenty of opportunities of doing so, scarcely a day passed without meeting the brothers—who could natter himself that he had ever seen the one without the other?—and sometimes their niece with them, walking along the shore. They talked of all kinds of things, but especially of the weather, which in the open air is not always a mere excuse for something to say. Would they ever get another perfect evening, to enable them to try their fortune at the island of Seil once more? They had their doubts about it; indeed, since those two fine days, the 2nd and 14th of August, the sky had been very uncertain; there were nothing but storm-clouds, hazy horizons, and twilight mists, enough to drive to despair any student of astronomy anxious to make a survey of some particular corner of the celestial globe!

Why not confess that Oliver Sinclair was now bewitched with the Green

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