Page 378 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

LITTLE WOMEN "Natural indolence, you mean. It's really dreadful!" and Amy looked severe. "Not so bad as it seems, for I should only plague him if I went, so I might as well stay and plague you a little longer, you can bear it better, in fact I think it agrees with you excellently," and Laurie composed himself for a lounge on the broad ledge of the balustrade. Amy shook her head and opened her sketchbook with an air of resignation, but she had made up her mind to lecture 'that boy' and in a minute she began again. "What are you doing just now?" "Watching lizards." "No, no. I mean what do you intend and wish to do?" "Smoke a cigarette, if you'll allow me." "How provoking you are! I don't approve of cigars and I will only allow it on condition that you let me put you into my sketch. I need a figure." "With all the pleasure in life. How will you have me, full length or three-quarters, on my head or my heels? I should respectfully suggest a recumbent posture, then put yourself in also and call it 'Dolce far niente'." "Stay as you are, and go to sleep if you like. I intend to work hard," said Amy in her most energetic tone. "What delightful enthusiasm!" and he leaned against a tall urn with an air of entire satisfaction. "What would Jo say if she saw you now?" asked Amy impatient- ly, hoping to stir him up by the mention of her still more energetic sister's name. "As usual, 'Go away, Teddy. I'm busy!'" He laughed as he spoke, but the laugh was not natural, and a shade passed over his face, for the utterance of the familiar name touched the wound that was not healed yet. Both tone and shadow struck Amy, for she had seen and heard them before, and now she looked up in time to catch a new expression on Laurie's face—a hard bitter look, full of pain, dissatisfaction, and regret. It was gone before she could study it and the listless expression back again. She watched him for a moment with artistic pleasure, thinking how like an Italian he looked, as he lay basking in the sun with uncovered head and eyes full of southern dreaminess, for he seemed to have forgotten her and fallen into a reverie. "You look like the effigy of a young knight asleep on his tomb," she said, carefully tracing the well-cut profile defined against the dark stone. 376