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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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15 tail, in token of owning my acquaintance. “A beautiful animal!” I commenced again. “Do you intend parting with the little ones, madam?” “They are not mine,” said the amiable hostess, more repellingly than Heathcliff himself could have replied. “Ah, your favourites are among these!” I continued, turning to an obscure cushion full of something like cats. “A strange choice of favourites!” she observed scornfully. Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits. I hemmed once more, and drew closer to the hearth, repeating my comment on the wildness of the evening. “You should not have come out,” she said, rising and reaching from the chimney-piece two of the painted canisters. Her position before was sheltered from the light; now, I had a distinct view of her whole figure and countenance. She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding: small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, they would have been irresistible; fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there. The canisters were almost out of her reach; I made a motion to aid her; she turned upon me as a miser might turn if any one attempted to assist him in counting his gold. “I don’t want your help,” she snapped; “I can get them for myself.” “I beg your pardon,” I hastened to reply. |
