The Secret Power - Marie Corelli (books to get back into reading TXT) š
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āYes! I want to see her again!ā A puzzled look contracted her brows. āSince she spoke to me I have always thought of her,āI cannot get her out of my mind! She just HOLDS meāyes!āin one of her little white hands! There are few women like that I think!āwomen who hold the souls of others as prisoners till they choose to let them go!ā
Mr. Senator Gwent was fairly nonplussed. This dark-eyed Spanish beauty with her romantic notions was almost too much for him. Had he met her in a novel he would have derided the author of the book for delineating such an impossible character,ābut coming in contact with her in real life, he was at a loss what to say. Especially as he himself was quite aware of the mysterious āholdā exercised by Morgana Royal on those whom she chose to influence either near or at a distance. After a few seconds of deliberation he answeredā
āYesāI should say there are very few women of that rather uncomfortable sort of habit,āthe fewer the better, in my opinion. Now Miss Manella Soriso, remember what I say to you! Donāt think about being āheldā by anybody except by a lover and husband! See? Play the game! With such looks as God has given you, it should be easy! Win your āgodā away from his thunderbolts before he begins havoc with them from his miniature Olympus. If he wants the āmoonā (and possibly he doesnāt!) he wonāt say no to a star,āitās the next best thing. Seriously now,āāand Gwent threw away the end of his cigar and laid a hand gently on her armāābe a good girl and think over what Iāve said to you. Marry him if you can!āit will be the making of him!ā
Manella gazed about her in the darkness, bewildered. A glittering little mob of fire-flies danced above her head like a net of jewels.
āOh, you talk so strangely!ā she saidāāYou forget!āI am a poor girlāI have no moneyāā
āNeither has he,āāand Gwent gave a short laugh. āBut he could make a million dollars to-morrowāif he chose. Having only himself to consider, he DOESNāT choose! If he had YOU, heād change his opinion. Seatonās not the man to have a wife without keeping her in comfort. I tell you again, you can be the making of him. You can save his life!ā
She clasped her hands nervously. A little gasping sigh came from her lips.
āOh!āSanta Madonna!āto save his life!ā
āAh, just that!ā said Gwent impressivelyāāThink of it! Iām not speaking liesāthatās not my way. The man is making for himself what we in the European war called a ādanger zone,ā where everybody not āin the knowā was warned off hidden mines. Hidden mines! Heās got them! Thatās so! You can take my word! Itās no good looking for them, no one will ever find them but himself, and he thinks of nothing else. But if he fell in love with YOU---ā
She gave a hopeless gesture.
āHe will notāhe thinks nothing of meānothing!āno!āthough he says I am beautiful!ā
āOh, he says that, does he?ā and Gwent smiledāāWell, heād be a fool if he didnāt!ā
āAh, but he does not care for beauty!ā Manella went on. āHe sees it and he smiles at it, but it does not move him!ā
Gwent looked at her in perplexity, not knowing quite how to deal with the subject he himself had started. Truth to tell his nerves had been put distinctly āon edgeā by Seatonās cool, calculating and seemingly callous assertion as to the powers he possessed to destroy, if he chose, a nation,āand all sorts of uncomfortable scraps of scientific information gleaned from books and treatises suggested themselves vividly to his mind at this particular moment when he would rather have forgotten them. As, for exampleāāA pound weight of radio-active energy, if it could be extracted in as short a time as we pleased, instead of in so many million years, could do the work of a hundred and fifty tons of dynamite.ā This agreeable fact stuck in his brain as a bone may stick in a throat, causing a sense of congestion. Then the words of one of the āpulpit thunderersā of New York rolled back on his earsāāThis world will be destroyed, not by the hand of God, but by the wilful and devilish malingering of Man!ā Another pleasant thought! And he felt himself to be a poor weak fool to even try to put up a girlās beauty, a girlās love as a barrier to the output of a destroying force engineered by a terrific human intention,āit was like the old story of the Scottish heroine who thrust a slender arm through the great staple of a door to hold back the would-be murderers of a King.
āBeauty does not move him!ā she said.
She was right. Nothing was likely to move Roger Seaton from any purpose he had once resolved upon. What to him was beauty? Merely a āfortuitous concourse of atomsā moving for a time in one personality. What was a girl? Just the young āfemale of the speciesāāno more. And love? Sexual attraction, of which there was enough and too much in Seatonās opinion. And the puzzled Gwent wondered whether after all he would not have acted more wiselyāor diplomaticallyāin accepting Seatonās proposal to part with his secret to the United States Government, even with the proviso and State pledge that it was to be āusedā should occasion arise, rather than leave him to his own devices to do as he pleased with the apparently terrific potentiality of which he alone had the knowledge and the mastery. And while his thoughts thus buzzed in his head like swarming bees, Manella stood regarding him in a kind of pitiful questioning like a child with a broken toy who can not understand āwhyā it is broken. As he did not speak at once she took up the thread of conversation.
āYou see how it is no use,ā she said. āNo use to think of his ever loving ME! But love for HIMāah!āthat I have, and that I will ever keep in my heart!āand to save his life I would myself gladly die!ā
Gwent uttered a sound between a grunt and a sigh.
āThere it is! You women always run to extremes! āGladly dieā indeed! Poor girl, why should you ādieā for him or for any man! Thatās sheer sentimental nonsense! Thereās not a man that ever lived, or that ever will live, thatās worth the death of a woman! Thatās so! Men think too much of themselvesātheyāve been killing women ever since they were bornāitās time they stopped a bit.ā
Manellaās beautiful eyes expressed bewilderment.
āKilling women? Is that what they do?ā
āYes, my good girl!āthat is what they do! The silly trusting creatures go to them like lambs, and get their throats cut! In marriage or out of itāthe throat-cutting goes on, for men are made of destructive stuff and love the sport of killing. They are never satisfied unless they can kill somethingāa bird, a fox or a woman. Iām a man myself and I know!ā
āYOU would kill a woman?ā Manellaās voice was a horrified whisper.
Gwent laughed.
āNo,ānot I, my child! Iām too old. Iāve done with love-making and āsportā of all kinds. I donāt even drive a golf-ball, in make- believe that itās a woman Iām hitting as fast and far as I can. Oh, yes!āyou stare!āyou are wondering why, if I have such ideas, I should suggest love-making and marriage to YOU,āwell, I donāt actually recommend it!ābut Iām rather thinking more of your āgodā than of you. You might possibly help him a bitāā
āAh, I am not clever!ā sighed Manella.
āNoāyouāre not cleverāthank God for it! But youāre devotedāand devotion is sometimes more than cleverness.ā He paused, reflectively. āWell, Iāll have to go away tomorrowāit wouldnāt be any use my staying on here. In fact, Iād rather be out of the way. But Iāve a notion I may be able to do something for Seaton in Washington when I get backāin the meantime Iāll leave a letter for you to give himāā
āYou will not write of me in that letter!ā interrupted the girl, hastily. āNoāyou must notāyou could not!---ā
Gwent raised a deprecating hand.
āDonāt be afraid, my girl! Iām not a cad. I wouldnāt give you away for the world! Iāve no right to say a word about you, and I shall not. My letter will be a merely business oneāyou shall read it if you like---ā
āOh no!āāshe said at once, with proud frankness; āI would not doubt your word!ā
Gwent gave her a comprehensively admiring glance. Even in the dusk of evening her beauty shone with the brilliance of a white flower among the dark foliage. āWhat a sensation she would make in New York!ā he thoughtāāWith those glorious eyes and that hair!ā
And a vague regret for his lost youth moved him; he was a very wealthy man, and had he been in his prime he would have tried a matrimonial chance with this unspoilt beautiful creature,āit would have pleased him to robe her in queenly garments and to set the finest diamonds in her dark tresses, so that she should be the wonder and envy of all beholders. He answered her last remark with a kindly little nod and smile.
āGood! You neednāt doubt it ever!āāhe saidāāIf at any time you want a friend you can bet on Sam Gwent. Iām a member of Congress and you can always find me easily. But remember my adviceādonāt make a āgodā of any man;āhe canāt live up to it---ā
As he spoke a sudden jagged flash of lightning tore the sky, followed almost instantaneously by a long, low snarl of thunder rolling through the valley. Great drops of rain began to fall.
āCome along! Let us get in!ā and Gwent caught Manellaās handāāRun!ā
And like children they ran together through the garden into the Plaza lounge, reaching it just before a second lightning flash and peal of thunder renewed double emphasis.
āStorm!ā observed a long-faced invalid man in a rocking-chair, looking at them as they hurried in.
āYes! Storm it is!ā responded Gwent, releasing the hand of his companionāāGood-night, Miss Soriso!ā
She inclined her head graceful, smiling.
āGood-night, Senor!ā
CHAPTER XIV
Convention is still occasionally studied even in these unconventional days, and Morgana Royal, independent and wealthy young woman as she was, had subscribed to its rule and ordinance by engaging a chaperone,āa ādear old English lady of title,ā as she had described her to the Marchese Rivardi. Lady Kingswood merited the description thus given of her, for she was distinctly a dear old English lady, and her title was the least thing about her, especially in her own opinion. There was no taint of snobbery in her simple, kindly disposition, and when her late husband, a distinguished military officer, had been knighted for special and splendid service in the war, she had only deplored that the ruin of his health and disablement by wounds, prevented him from taking any personal pleasure in the āhonour.ā His death followed soon after the Kingās recognition of his merit, and she was left with his pension to live upon, and a daughter who having married in haste repented at leisure, being deserted by a drunken husband and left with two small children to nourish and educate. Naturally, Lady Kingswood took much of their care upon herselfābut the pension of a war widow will not stretch further than a given point, and she found it both necessary and urgent to think of some means by which she could augment her slender income. She was not a clever woman,āshe had no special talents,āher eyes would not stand her in good stead for plain sewing,
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