The Opposite House: A Novel — page 31: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

26 Lhe Opposite Flouse. among the cushions like a glittering adder sunning itself, rolled in a coil, amid the moss. Her little foot was angrily tossed upward, and the sharp heel of her morocco slipper kicked the gilded carving of the furniture as if it were the sole cause of her 111- humor. Then she sulkily turned page after page of the French novel, and finally, in a fit of sudden wrath, tossed it into the niche where the flowers stood. The white blossoms fell in a dense shower on the carpet, and the long-haired lap-dog fled, barking loudly, from its velvet cushions. Heloise sprang up excitedly and paced swiftly through the drawing-room, her light morning-robe fluttered like an airy cloud around her full figure, and her embroidered flounces trailed over the floor. Folding her arms across her breast, with a gloomy look, she went to the writing-desk, and stood there pondering, with her little hands clenched as she gnawed her under-lip. “Tf he doesn’t come to-day, I ‘ll write to him!’ she muttered between her teeth. “Oh, it is really a pretty piece of business that he lets matters go so far that I, the sovereign, the omnipotent queen, must sue for his presence! Yet do I really love him? Love him? Italmost seems so, yet it should not, must not be !” Just at that moment the portiire rustled ; the dan- cer started, pressing her hand upon her heart ; the CoOMmicbooOoks.c© 5}