‘There is a most heavenly moon – and I cannot see to read to you. It must be strangely lovely – the moonlight – on your lake, is it not, Mrs Osgood?’

‘It is indeed,’ she warmly agreed, looking disapprovingly on the girl, who was still giggling softly at the memory of golden-haired Araminta. ‘Take him on the cliff walk, Ellen, and do try to be more appreciative of beauty!’

‘Yes, mama,’ said Ellen, ‘I’ll be good.’

She was so good upon the moonlit walk; so gentle and sympathetic, and so honestly tried to find some point of agreement, that his feelings were too much for his judgment, and he seized her hand and kissed it. She pushed him away, too astonished for words.

‘Why, Mr Pendexter! What are you thinking of!’

Then he poured out his heart to her. He told her how he loved her – madly, passionately, irresistably. He begged her to listen to him.

‘Ah! You young Diana! You do not know how I suffer! You are so young, so cold! So heavenly beautiful! Do not be cruel! Listen to me! Say you will be my wife! Give me one kiss! Just one!’

She was young, and cold, and ignorantly cruel. She laughed at him, laughed mercilessly, and turned away.

He followed her, the blood pounding in his veins, his voice shaken with the intensity of his emotions. He caught her hand and drew her toward him again. She broke from him with a little cry, and ran. He followed, hotly, madly; rushed upon her, caught her, held her fast.

‘You shall love me! You shall!’ he cried. His hands were hot and trembling, but he held her close and turned her face to his.

‘I will not!’ she cried, struggling. ‘Let me go! I hate you, I tell you. I hate you! You are – disgusting!’ She pushed as far from him as he could.

They had reached the top of the little cliff opposite the house. Huge dark pines hung over them, their wide boughs swaying softly.

The water lay below in the shadow, smooth and oil-black.

The girl looked down at it, and a sudden shudder shook her tense frame. She gave a low moan and hid her face in her hands.

‘Ah!’ he cried. ‘It is your fate! Our fate! We have lived through this before! We will die together if we cannot live together!’

He caught her to him, kissed her madly, passionately, and together they went down into the black water.

‘It’s pretty lucky I could swim,’ said Ellen, as she hurried home. ‘And he couldn’t. The poor man! O, the poor man! He must have been crazy!’

image

  1. BOCCACCIO · Mrs Rosie and the Priest
  2. GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS · As kingfishers catch fire
  3. The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue
  4. THOMAS DE QUINCEY · On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
  5. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE · Aphorisms on Love and Hate
  6. JOHN RUSKIN · Traffic
  7. PU SONGLING · Wailing Ghosts
  8. JONATHAN SWIFT · A Modest Proposal
  9. Three Tang Dynasty Poets
  10. WALT WHITMAN · On the Beach at Night Alone
  11. KENKŌ · A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees
  12. BALTASAR GRACIÁN · How to Use Your Enemies
  13. JOHN KEATS · The Eve of St Agnes
  14. THOMAS HARDY · Woman much missed
  15. GUY DE MAUPASSANT · Femme Fatale
  16. MARCO POLO · Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls
  17. SUETONIUS · Caligula
  18. APOLLONIUS OF RHODES · Jason and Medea
  19. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON · Olalla
  20. KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS · The Communist Manifesto
  21. PETRONIUS · Trimalchio’s Feast
  22. JOHANN PETER HEBEL · How a Ghastly Story Was Brought to Light by a Common or Garden Butcher’s Dog
  23. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN · The Tinder Box
  24. RUDYARD KIPLING · The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows
  25. DANTE · Circles of Hell
  26. HENRY MAYHEW · Of Street Piemen
  27. HAFEZ · The nightingales are drunk
  28. GEOFFREY CHAUCER · The Wife of Bath
  29. MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE · How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing
  30. THOMAS NASHE · The Terrors of the Night
  31. EDGAR ALLAN POE · The Tell-Tale Heart
  32. MARY KINGSLEY · A Hippo Banquet
  33. JANE AUSTEN · The Beautifull Cassandra
  34. ANTON CHEKHOV · Gooseberries
  35. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE · Well, they are gone, and here must I remain
  36. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE · Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings
  37. CHARLES DICKENS · The Great Winglebury Duel
  38. HERMAN MELVILLE · The Maldive Shark
  39. ELIZABETH GASKELL · The Old Nurse’s Story
  40. NIKOLAY LESKOV · The Steel Flea
  41. HONORÉ DE BALZAC · The Atheist’s Mass
  42. CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN · The Yellow Wall-Paper
  43. C.P. CAVAFY · Remember, Body …
  44. FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY · The Meek One
  45. GUSTAVE FLAUBERT · A Simple Heart
  46. NIKOLAI GOGOL · The Nose
  47. SAMUEL PEPYS · The Great Fire of London
  48. EDITH WHARTON · The Reckoning
  49. HENRY JAMES · The Figure in the Carpet
  50. WILFRED OWEN · Anthem For Doomed Youth
  51. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART · My Dearest Father
  52. PLATO · Socrates’ Defence
  53. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI · Goblin Market
  54. Sindbad the Sailor
  55. SOPHOCLES · Antigone
  56. RYŪNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA · The Life of a Stupid Man
  57. LEO TOLSTOY · How Much Land Does A Man Need?
  58. GIORGIO VASARI · Leonardo da Vinci
  59. OSCAR WILDE · Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
  60. SHEN FU · The Old Man of the Moon
  61. AESOP · The Dolphins, the Whales and the Gudgeon
  62. MATSUO BASHŌ · Lips too Chilled
  63. EMILY BRONTË · The Night is Darkening Round Me
  64. JOSEPH CONRAD · To-morrow
  65. RICHARD HAKLUYT · The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake Around the Whole Globe
  66. KATE CHOPIN · A Pair of Silk Stockings
  67. CHARLES DARWIN · It was snowing butterflies
  68. BROTHERS GRIMM · The Robber Bridegroom
  69. CATULLUS · I Hate and I Love
  70. HOMER · Circe and the Cyclops
  71. D. H. LAWRENCE · Il Duro
  72. KATHERINE MANSFIELD · Miss Brill
  73. OVID · The Fall of Icarus
  74. SAPPHO · Come Close
  75. IVAN TURGENEV · Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands
  76. VIRGIL · O Cruel Alexis
  77. H. G. WELLS · A Slip under the Microscope
  78. HERODOTUS · The Madness of Cambyses
  79. Speaking of Siva
  80. The Dhammapada

LITTLEBLACKCLASSICS.COM

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PENGUIN CLASSICS

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This selection published in Penguin Classics 2015

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ISBN: 978-0-141-39743-6

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