Dorothy, and Other Italian StoriesWoolson, Constance Fenimore
General
Dorothy, and Other Italian Stories
Woolson, Constance Fenimore
Americans -- Italy -- Fiction; Italy -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American
"It is so warm this evening that I can have all the windows open,"
Dorothy went on. "Take the lamp out, Nora, please, and let in the
moonlight; I like to see it shining across the floor." She lay in
silence for some minutes looking at the radiance. They had cut off her
hair, thinking that its length and thickness might be taking something
from her small store of strength. Her face, with the boyish locks,
looked very childlike. "Do you remember that song, Aunt
Charlotte,'Through the long days'? The moonlight makes me think of it.
First, Felicia Philipps sang it one moonlight evening over at Villa
Dorio. Then, after we were married, some one sang it here in the garden,
and Alan said, when it was over-- Oh, if I could only tell him once, just
once, that I _did_ love him! He never believed it--he never knew--"
"Don't cry, dear. _Don't._"
"No; I don't cry very often now," Dorothy answered, her breast rising in
one or two long sobs. "Last spring Waddy dared to sing that song
again--Alan's song! I could not see him after that.
"Through the long days, the long days and the years--"
"It will tire you to sing, dear."
"No; I like it." And then, in a faint little thread of a voice, barely
audible, but very sweet, she sang, lying there in the moonlight, the
beautiful song:
"Through the long days, the long days and the years,
What will my loved one be,
Parted from me, parted from me,
Through the long days and years?
"Never, ah, never on earth again--"
It was her last song. Three days later she died. She passed away so
quietly that they did not know it was death; they thought she was
asleep.
When at last they learned what it was, Mrs. North, standing beside the
couch, white and stern, said, with rigid lips, "The doctors did not tell
us."
But the doctors did not know.
A TRANSPLANTED BOY
I
Lorenzo came into the hall, bell in hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account