Quotation from: The Arrow of Gold

Written by: Joseph Conrad


"Oh, you know about the goats. My dear young Monsieur, I could
never tell when she would fling over her pretended sweetness and
put her tongue out at me. Did she tell you about a boy, the son of
pious and rich parents, whom she tried to lead astray into the
wildness of thoughts like her own, till the poor dear child drove
her off because she outraged his modesty? I saw him often with his
parents at Sunday mass. The grace of God preserved him and made
him quite a gentleman in Paris. Perhaps it will touch Rita's
heart, too, some day. But she was awful then. When I wouldn't
listen to her complaints she would say: 'All right, sister, I
would just as soon go clothed in rain and wind.' And such a bag of
bones, too, like the picture of a devil's imp. Ah, my dear young
Monsieur, you don't know how wicked her heart is. You aren't bad
enough for that yourself. I don't believe you are evil at all in
your innocent little heart. I never heard you jeer at holy things.
You are only thoughtless. For instance, I have never seen you make
the sign of the cross in the morning. Why don't you make a
practice of crossing yourself directly you open your eyes. It's a
very good thing. It keeps Satan off for the day."

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
Designed by Joan A. Smith for the CRATE project
Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
Part of the CratePreservation Project
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Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.