FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410  
411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   >>  
ench clock that ought not to have been just there. Ah, the teacups! Here at last was something to touch a fibre of my brain, but a pain came with the effort of memory. So my eyes went back to my grandfather in the window. His face was now become black as Scipio's, and he wore a red turban and a striped cotton gown that was too large for him. And he was sewing. This was monstrous! I hurried over to the tea-cups, such a twinge did that discovery give me. But they troubled me near as much, and the sea-coal fire held strange images. The fascination in the window was not to be denied, for it stood in line with the houses and the trees. Suddenly there rose up before me a gate. Yes, I knew that gate, and the girlish figure leaning over it. They were in Prince George Street. Behind them was a mass of golden-rose bushes, and out of these came forth a black face under a turban, saying, "Yes, mistis, I'se comin'." "Mammy--Mammy Lucy!" The figure in the window stirred, and the sewing fell its ample lap. "Now Lawd'a mercy!" I trembled--with a violence unspeakable. Was this but one more of those thousand voices, harsh and gentle, rough and tender, to which I had listened in vain this age past? The black face was hovering over me now, and in an agony of apprehension I reached up and felt its honest roughness. Then I could have wept for joy. "Mammy Lucy!" "Yes, Marse Dick?" "Where--where is Miss Dolly?" "Now, Marse Dick, doctah done say you not t' talk, suh." "Where is Miss Dolly?" I cried, seizing her arm. "Hush, Marse Dick. Miss Dolly'll come terectly, suh. She's lyin' down, suh." The door creaked, and in my eagerness I tried to lift myself. 'Twas Aunt Lucy's hand that restrained me, and the next face I saw was that of Dorothy's mother. But why did it appear so old and sorrow-lined? And why was the hair now of a whiteness with the lace of the cap? She took my fingers in her own, and asked me anxiously if I felt any pain. "Where am I, Mrs. Manners?" "You are in London, Richard." "In Arlington Street?" She shook her head sadly. "No, my dear, not in Arlington Street. But you are not to talk." "And Dorothy? May I not see Dorothy? Aunt Lucy tells me she is here." Mrs. Manners gave the old mammy a glance of reproof, a signal that alarmed me vastly. "Oh, tell me, Mrs. Manners! You will speak the truth. Tell me if she is gone away?" "My dear boy, she is here, and under this very roof. And you sh
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410  
411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   >>  



Top keywords:

window

 

Street

 

Dorothy

 

Manners

 

Arlington

 
figure
 

turban

 

sewing

 
eagerness
 

restrained


sorrow
 
creaked
 

mother

 

doctah

 
effort
 

memory

 

terectly

 

seizing

 

signal

 
alarmed

vastly

 

reproof

 
glance
 

anxiously

 

teacups

 

fingers

 
London
 

Richard

 
whiteness
 
cotton

striped

 

Suddenly

 
houses
 

girlish

 

Behind

 

golden

 

George

 

Prince

 

leaning

 
denied

discovery

 

twinge

 

hurried

 

troubled

 

strange

 
images
 

fascination

 

bushes

 

listened

 
tender