mona lisa smile

mona lisa smile
reflection: his look denoted abstraction from me and my business. I
was obliged to recall him to a theme which was of necessity one of
close and anxious interest to me.
'What is the employment you had in view, Mr. Rivers? I hope this
delay will not have increased the difficulty of securing it.'
'Oh, no; since it is an employment which depends only on me to
give, and you to accept.'
He again paused: there seemed a reluctance to continue. I grew
impatient: a restless movement or two, and an eager and exacting
glance fastened on his face, conveyed the feeling to him as
effectually as words could have done, and with less trouble.
mona lisa smile
'You need be in no hurry to hear,' he said: 'let me frankly tell
you, I have nothing eligible or profitable to suggest. Before I
explain, recall, if you please, my notice, clearly given, that if I
helped you, it must be as the blind man would help the lame. I am
poor; for I find that, when I have paid my father's debts, all the
patrimony remaining to me will be this crumbling grange, the row of
scathed firs behind, and the patch of moorish soil, with the yew-trees
and holly-bushes in front. I am obscure: Rivers is an old name; but of
mona lisa smile