Villa Rubein Author:John Galsworthy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II A BREAKFAST PARTY IT was early morning four days later, and Harz had been out sketching. He was loitering homewards. The shadows of the clouds ... more »passed like breaths across the vines and vanished on the jumbled roofs and green- topped spires of the town. A strong sweet wind was blowing from the mountains, there was a stir in the branches of the trees, and flakes of the late blossom drifted by. Amongst the soft green pods of a kind of poplar chafers buzzed, and numbers of their little brown bodies were strewn about the path. He passed a bench where a girl sat putting up her sketching things. A puff of wind whirled her drawing to the ground; Harz ran to pick it up. She took it from him with a bow; but, as he turned away, she tore the sketch across. "Ah!" he said; "why did you do that?" This girl, who stood with a bit of the torn sketch in either hand, was slight and straight; and her face was earnest and serene. She gazed at Harz with large, clear, greenish eyes; her lips and chin defiant, her forehead tranquil. " I don't like it, that was why." "Will you let me look at it? I am a painter." "It isn't worth looking at, but—if you wish " He put the two halves of the sketch together, and studied it. "You see!" she said at last; "I told you Harz did not answer, still looking at the sketch. The girl frowned. Harz asked her suddenly: "Why do you paint?" She coloured, and said: " Show me what is wrong." " I cannot show you what is wrong, there is nothing wrong—but why do you paint?" "I don't understand," she said. Harz shrugged his shoulders. " You 've no business to do that," said the girl in a hurt voice; " I want to know." Harz suddenly became excited. " Your heart is not in it," he said. She looked at him, start...« less