Phantoms by Ivan Turgenev--Delphi Classics (Illustrated) by Ivan Turgenev
Author:Ivan Turgenev [TURGENEV, IVAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 16 of 53 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-08-09T00:00:00+00:00
XVIII
The night was cold, dull, grey; there was a feeling of rain in the air. To my amazement, I found no one under the oak; I walked several times round it, went up to the edge of the wood, turned back again, peered anxiously into the darknessâ¦. All was emptiness. I waited a little, then several times I uttered the name, Alice, each time a little louder,⦠but she did not appear. I felt sad, almost sick at heart; my previous apprehensions vanished; I could not resign myself to the idea that my companion would not come back to me again.
âAlice! Alice! come! Can it be you will not come?â I shouted, for the last time.
A crow, who had been waked by my voice, suddenly darted upwards into a tree - top close by, and catching in the twigs, fluttered his wingsâ¦. But Alice did not appear.
With downcast head, I turned homewards. Already I could discern the black outlines of the willows on the pondâs edge, and the light in my window peeped out at me through the apple - trees in the orchard â peeped at me, and hid again, like the eye of some man keeping watch on me â when suddenly I heard behind me the faint swish of the rapidly parted air, and something at once embraced and snatched me upward, as a buzzard pounces on and snatches up a quailâ¦. It was Alice sweeping down upon me. I felt her cheek against my cheek, her enfolding arm about my body, and like a cutting cold her whisper pierced to my ear, âHere I am.â I was frightened and delighted both at onceâ¦. We flew at no great height above the ground.
âYou did not mean to come to - day?â I said.
âAnd you were dull without me? You love me? Oh, you are mine!â
The last words of Alice confused meâ¦. I did not know what to say.
âI was kept,â she went on; âI was watched.â
âWho could keep you?â
âWhere would you like to go?â inquired Alice, as usual not answering my question.
âTake me to Italy â to that lake, you remember.â
Alice turned a little away, and shook her head in refusal. At that point I noticed for the first time that she had ceased to be transparent. And her face seemed tinged with colour; there was a faint glow of red over its misty whiteness. I glanced at her eyes ⦠and felt a pang of dread; in those eyes something was astir â with the slow, continuous, malignant movement of the benumbed snake, twisting and turning as the sun begins to thaw it.
âAlice,â I cried, âwho are you? Tell me who you are.â
Alice simply shrugged her shoulders.
I felt angry ⦠I longed to punish her; and suddenly the idea occurred to me to tell her to fly with me to Paris. âThatâs the place for you to be jealous,â I thought. âAlice,â I said aloud, âyou are not afraid of big towns â Paris, for instance?â
âNo.â
âNot even those parts where it is as light as in the boulevards?â
âIt is not the light of day.
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