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A ROMANCE OF SUMMER SEAS
A ROMANCE OF SUMMER SEAS
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This ebook edition has been proofed and corrected for errors and compiled to be read with without errors!
***
Varina Banks Howell Davis (May 7, 1826 – October 16, 1906) was an American author who was best-known as the First Lady of the Confederate States of America, second wife of President Jefferson Davis.
*****
An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER XX.
"Of course we spent part of everyday sightseeing, although it was too warm to do much in that direction; but the delight with which Minerva poked around among the shops, both native and foreign, was so pretty and unaffected that neither Ralstone nor I had the heart to order her out of the sun. Indeed, we loved her so that she bullied us in a gentle way, and Beauvais fairly got down and worshipped his ' goddess of wisdom,' as he called her.
"Her father's consent was delayed, as I fancied everything was behind-hand in which Primrose had a ringer, but it came by and by; and with an untold amount of hurrying to and fro and running about from post to pillar, Ralstone got his preparations made in time for me to see the wedding and yet catch the Empress of India, and so home by the Canadian Pacific.
"Probably it was a silly curiosity, but I was extremely anxious to see how the great Dai Butsu would appear to Minerva's love-lighted eyes, so the day before their marriage and my departure I persuaded them over to Kamakura.
" Do not be afraid; I will not detain you by describing the beauty of the country along the coast or the wonders of the temples. You would find no pleasure in it, but those two were fit to be introduced to Japanese fairy-land, for they had eyes to see and hearts to feel its charm.
"We went to visit the statue in the afternoon, when the level sun showed Buddha at his best, and I shall never forget the picture of Minerva as she stood with flower-laden hands gazing into the serene smile of the great bronze image. At first I was disappointed, because she only wondered and admired—everybody does. I had hoped for some original sensation in her, for she was so unlike other people that you never expected her to be conventional. Evidently the idol fascinated her mightily, and as I watched her face a gradual change swept over it, a terror loomed up in her eyes, she turned pale, and, dropping her flowers, pressed closer to Ralstone.
" ' Take me away, please!' she cried. ' He looks as if nothing mattered, as if everything was changeable. Please let us go away.'
"Ralstone was puzzled. 'All right, little girl,' he said, reassuringly; 'you are just overtired; the ride was too much for you.'
" He tucked her into the 'riksha with anxious tenderness, and we set off on our way homeward. But I do not think that it was fatigue that depressed Minerva; I believe the child was over full of her own happiness, and, like most happy people, radically self-centred. In her imagination her love and her lover formed an axis around which the whole universe revolved; therefore the mysterious smile of the image, fraught with its lesson of the evanescence of human passion and human life, shocked her into a realization of the insignificance of her joy in the great sum of existence. Naturally she recoiled from the silent preacher, for a message of peace to the happy is but' foolishness to the Greeks'; but if Ralstone dies, or if their love grows cold, she will not be afraid of the Dia Butsu any longer. She will understand then the blessing of eternal calm....
***
Varina Banks Howell Davis (May 7, 1826 – October 16, 1906) was an American author who was best-known as the First Lady of the Confederate States of America, second wife of President Jefferson Davis.
*****
An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER XX.
"Of course we spent part of everyday sightseeing, although it was too warm to do much in that direction; but the delight with which Minerva poked around among the shops, both native and foreign, was so pretty and unaffected that neither Ralstone nor I had the heart to order her out of the sun. Indeed, we loved her so that she bullied us in a gentle way, and Beauvais fairly got down and worshipped his ' goddess of wisdom,' as he called her.
"Her father's consent was delayed, as I fancied everything was behind-hand in which Primrose had a ringer, but it came by and by; and with an untold amount of hurrying to and fro and running about from post to pillar, Ralstone got his preparations made in time for me to see the wedding and yet catch the Empress of India, and so home by the Canadian Pacific.
"Probably it was a silly curiosity, but I was extremely anxious to see how the great Dai Butsu would appear to Minerva's love-lighted eyes, so the day before their marriage and my departure I persuaded them over to Kamakura.
" Do not be afraid; I will not detain you by describing the beauty of the country along the coast or the wonders of the temples. You would find no pleasure in it, but those two were fit to be introduced to Japanese fairy-land, for they had eyes to see and hearts to feel its charm.
"We went to visit the statue in the afternoon, when the level sun showed Buddha at his best, and I shall never forget the picture of Minerva as she stood with flower-laden hands gazing into the serene smile of the great bronze image. At first I was disappointed, because she only wondered and admired—everybody does. I had hoped for some original sensation in her, for she was so unlike other people that you never expected her to be conventional. Evidently the idol fascinated her mightily, and as I watched her face a gradual change swept over it, a terror loomed up in her eyes, she turned pale, and, dropping her flowers, pressed closer to Ralstone.
" ' Take me away, please!' she cried. ' He looks as if nothing mattered, as if everything was changeable. Please let us go away.'
"Ralstone was puzzled. 'All right, little girl,' he said, reassuringly; 'you are just overtired; the ride was too much for you.'
" He tucked her into the 'riksha with anxious tenderness, and we set off on our way homeward. But I do not think that it was fatigue that depressed Minerva; I believe the child was over full of her own happiness, and, like most happy people, radically self-centred. In her imagination her love and her lover formed an axis around which the whole universe revolved; therefore the mysterious smile of the image, fraught with its lesson of the evanescence of human passion and human life, shocked her into a realization of the insignificance of her joy in the great sum of existence. Naturally she recoiled from the silent preacher, for a message of peace to the happy is but' foolishness to the Greeks'; but if Ralstone dies, or if their love grows cold, she will not be afraid of the Dia Butsu any longer. She will understand then the blessing of eternal calm....
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