Bliss, and other stories
voice floated upon the air, and it was all part of the silence as he
was part of it. Suddenly, as the voice rose, soft, dreaming, gentle, he
knew that it would come floating to him from the hidden leaves and his
peace was shattered. What was happening to him? Something stirred in
his breast. Something dark, something unbearable and dreadful pushed in
his bosom, and like a great weed it floated, rocked . . . it was warm,
stifling. He tried to struggle to tear at it, and at the same
moment—all was over. Deep, deep, he sank into the silence, staring at
the tree and waiting for the voice that came floating, falling, until
he felt himself enfolded.
. . . . .
In the shaking corridor of the train. It was night. The train rushed
and roared through the dark. He held on with both hands to the brass
rail. The door of their carriage was open.
“Do not disturb yourself, Monsieur. He will come in and sit down when
he wants to. He likes—he likes—it is his habit. . . . _Oui, Madame, je
suis un peu souffrante. . . . Mes nerfs._ Oh, but my husband is never
so happy as when he is travelling. He likes roughing it. . . . My
husband. . . . My husband. . . .”
The voices murmured, murmured. They were never still. But so great was
his heavenly happiness as he stood there he wished he might live for
ever.
Transcriber’s Note
Images of the source text used in this transcription are available
through the Internet Archive.
The following changes to the text were noted:
p. 2: Two subdued chirrups: “Thank you, Mrs. Samuel Josephs”—Added a
period after “Josephs”.
p. 3: The buggy tiwnkled away in the sunlight—Changed “tiwnkled” to
“twinkled”.
p. 14: lifted up his oat tails.—Changed “oat” to “coat”.
p. 101: the _garçon_ was hauing up the boxes—Changed “hauing” to
"hauling".
p. 169: I have sung that music many times.”—Inserted a closing single
quotation mark before the closing double quotation mark.
p. 154: It doesn’t matter at all, darling.” said the good
friend.—Changed period after “darling” to a comma.
p. 187: “That,” she said, “is most becoming,”—Comma after “becoming”
changed to a period.
p. 190: opening the French window to let Klaymongso into the garden,
cries.—Changed the period after “cries” to a colon.
p. 201: What a _genius_ Mr Peacock was.—Inserted a period after “Mr”.
p. 202: There she was—off again Now she—Inserted a period after
“again”.
p. 210: “That's where the ice pudding is to be,” said Cook—Added a
period to the end of the sentence.
p. 215: “I’m hanged if I won’t,” cried Father. I won’t—Inserted an
opening double quotation mark between “Father.” and “I won’t”.
p. 258: “I think I ought to gonow.”—Divided “gonow” into two words.