Любимые повести на английском / Best Short Novels

She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.

She was dressed in a white little gown that came just below her knees, and a wreath of mignonettes clasped with blue slices of sapphire bound up her hair. Her pink bare feet scattered the dew before them as she came. She was younger than John – not more than sixteen.

�Hello,’ she cried softly, �I’m Kismine.’

She was much more than that to John already. He advanced toward her, scarcely moving as he drew near lest he should tread on her bare toes.

�You haven’t met me,’ said her soft voice. Her blue eyes added, �Oh, but you’ve missed a great deal!’… �You met my sister, Jasmine, last night. I was sick with lettuce poisoning,’ went on her soft voice, and her eyes continued, �and when I’m sick I’m sweet – and when I’m well.’

�You have made an enormous impression on me,’ said John’s eyes, �and I’m not so slow myself’ – �How do you do?’ said his voice.

John observed that they had been walking along the path. On her suggestion they sat down together upon the moss, the softness of which he failed to determine.

He was critical about women. A single defect – a thick ankle, a hoarse voice, a glass eye – was enough to make him utterly indifferent. And here for the first time in his life he was beside a girl who seemed to him the incarnation of physical perfection.

�Are you from the East?’ asked Kismine with charming interest.

�No,’ answered John simply. �I’m from Hades.’

Either she had never heard of Hades, or she could think of no pleasant comment to make upon it, for she did not discuss it further.

�I’m going East to school this fall,’ she said. �D’you think I’ll like it? I’m going to New York to Miss Bulge’s. It’s very strict, but you see over the weekends I’m going to live at home with the family in our New York house, because father heard that the girls had to go walking two by two.

�Your father wants you to be proud,’ observed John.

�We are,’ she answered, her eyes shining with dignity. �None of us has ever been punished. Father said we never should be. Once when my sister Jasmine was a little girl she pushed him downstairs and he just got up and limped away.