BALCONY STORIES BY GRACE KING 1892 CONTENTS THE BALCONY A DRAMA OF THREE LA GRANDE DEMOISELLE MIMI'S MARRIAGE THE MIRACLE CHAPEL THE STORY OF A DAY ANNE MARIE AND JEANNE MARIE A CRIPPLED HOPE "ONE OF US" THE LITTLE CONVENT GIRL GRANDMOTHER'S GRANDMOTHER THE OLD LADY'S RESTORATION A DELICATE AFFAIR PUPASSE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "WALKING AWAY WITH A SHRUG OF THE SHOULDERS" "WHERE IS THAT IDIOT, THAT DOLT, THAT SLUGGARD, THAT SNAIL, WITH MY MAIL?" CHAMPIGNY "I WEPT, I WEPT, I WEPT" "HER HEART DROVE HER TO THE WINDOW" "ALL THAT DAY WAS DESPONDENCY, DEJECTION" "THIS TIME WE HAVE CAUGHT IT!" "THE QUIET, DIM-LIGHTED ROOM OF A CONVALESCENT" "LITTLE MAMMY" "TO POSE IN ABJECT PATIENCE AND AWKWARDNESS" THE SISTERS BID HER GOOD-BY WATCHING A LANDING "TURNED TO HER DOMESTIC DUTIES" THE ROOM IN THE OLD GALLERY THE FIRST COMMUNION BALCONY STORIES THE BALCONY There is much of life passed on the balcony in a country where the summer unrolls in six moon-lengths, and where the nights have to come with a double endowment of vastness and splendor to compensate for the tedious, sun-parched days. And in that country the women love to sit and talk together of summer nights, on balconies, in their vague, loose, white garments,--men are not balcony sitters,--with their sleeping children within easy hearing, the stars breaking the cool darkness, or the moon making a show of light--oh, such a discreet show of light!--through the vines. And the children inside, waking to go from one sleep into another, hear the low, soft mother-voices on the balcony, talking about this person and that, old times, old friends, old experiences; and it seems to them, hovering a moment in wakefulness, that there is no end of the world or time, or of the mother-knowledge; but, illimitable as it is, the mother-voices and the mother-love and protection fill it all,--with their mother's hand in theirs, children are not afraid even of God,--and they drift into slumber again, their little dreams taking all kinds of pretty reflections from the great unknown horizon outside, as their fragile soap-bubbles take on reflections from the sun and clouds.