r hand upon his shoulder.
"I'm going away."
"What?"
"I'm going away to-morrow at daybreak. I'm going to school. I shan't
come back for a whole year. I'm--I'm going to leave papa and Aunt Chris
and Jim and you."
She began to sob.
"Don't," said Nicholas sharply.
"And--and you don't care a bit. You're just a stone. Oh, I don't want to
go to school!"
"I'm not a stone. I do care."
"No, you don't. And I may die and never come back any more, and you'll
forget all about me."
"I shan't. Don't, I say. Do you hear me, Genia, don't."
She looked for a handkerchief, and, failing to find one, wiped her eyes
on the horse's mane.
"What are you going to do when I am gone?"
"Work hard so you'll be proud of me when you come back."
"I shall be sixteen in two years."
"And I, twenty-one."
"You'll be a man--quite."
"You'll be a woman--almost."
"I don't think I shall like you so much then."
"I shall like you more."
"Why?" she asked quickly.
"Why? Oh, I don't know. Am I so awfully ugly, Genia?"
"Turn this way."
He obeyed her, flushing beneath her scrutiny.
"I shouldn't call you--awful," she replied at last.
"Am I so ugly, then?"
"Honour bright?"
"Of course," impatiently.
"Then you are--yes--rather."
He shook his head angrily.
"I didn't think you'd be mean enough to tell me so," he returned.
"But you asked me."
"I don't care if I did. You might have said something pleasant."
Her sensitive mouth drooped. "I never think of your being ugly when I'm
with you," she said. "It's a good, strong kind of ugliness, anyway. I
don't mind it."
He smiled again.
"Looks don't matter, anyway," she went on soothingly. "I'd rather a man
would be clever than handsome;" then she added conscientiously, "only
I'd rather be handsome myself."
He looked at her closely.
"I reckon you will be," he said. "Most women are. It's the clothes, I
suppose."
Eugenia looked down at him for an instant in silence; then she held out
her hands.
"I am going at
Notka biograficzna
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John Addington Symonds (October 5, 1840 - April 19, 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as lamour de limpossible.