The Plains of Silence Author:Alice Askew General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1907 Original Publisher: Cassell and company, limited Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com ... more »where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II IN THE MOONLIGHT " So you have only just left school, Miss Merton, and now you have come to South Africa to look after papa -- happy papa." Karl Rheingert drew his chair a little closer to Pearl's as he spoke, and stared at her with his black gleaming eyes. Her pale beauty attracted him, and he hoped the fierce South African sun would not impair the delicacy of Pearl's wonderful complexion ; he was impressed, too, by her air of distinction and aloofness. She looked like a little princess, so he told himself, for all that she was Merton's daughter -- Richard Merton, swaggering in style at the Fort Wellington Hotel, though he was well known to be in a tight corner and to have burnt his fingers rather badly over his last speculation -- and other men's fingers as well. Pearl frowned. How she disliked this man ! She loathed his nasal voice, his dark, unhealthy skin, his lack of inches and lean body. Was he old ? Was he young ? She really could not say, but she felt he was repulsive and unwholesome. She noticed how black his finger nails were, and she hated his flashing diamond stud, and most of all she disliked having to talk to him. It was almost worse than talking to Mrs. Schletter, she thought, though the Jewess was bad enough withher effusive friendliness. She had even gone as far already as to pat Pearl caressingly on her arm, and had praised the girl's hair to her face. " I left school last term" -- Pearl spoke in short, hard tones -- " but I did not come straight out to South Africa. I was staying with the parents of my greatest fri...« less