Dr. Lavendar's PeopleDeland, Margaret Wade Campbell
General
Dr. Lavendar's People
Deland, Margaret Wade Campbell
Clergy -- Fiction; Pennsylvania -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
The old woman came fluttering down the path towards the green gate in
the privet hedge; she was smoothing her hair back from her temples,
with her strange, girlish gesture, and she was smiling, but there was a
new and solemn age in her face that made the two men look at each
other, startled and wondering.
"Dr. Lavendar! Willy!" she said, her voice breaking with joy, "Harriet
is dead--oh, Harriet is dead!"
They stopped short in the pathway. "What--what?" stammered William
King.
"Oh, Harriet is dead!" the old woman said; "and I'm so happy." She
came and leaned on the closed gate at the foot of the path, smiling up
into their faces. "She isn't hurt any more. Oh, I can breathe, I can
breathe, now," said Miss Annie, laying her withered hands upon her
throat and drawing a deep breath.
"When?" said the doctor.
"Oh, just a little while ago. As soon as she got dead I opened the
windows and let the air blow in; she likes the wind when she isn't
hurt."
William King said, suddenly, "_My God!_" and turned and ran up the
path, into the house, into the room, where, indeed, there was no more
hurting.
"Annie," Dr. Lavendar said, "were you with her?"
"Yes," Miss Annie said. "Harriet was hurt very much. But when she
smelled her bottle she stopped being hurt."
Dr. Lavendar leaned against the gate, his breath wavering; then he sat
down on the grass, and rested his forehead on his hands clasped on the
top of his stick. He was unable to speak. Miss Annie came out into
the road and looked at him curiously. After a while he said, feebly,
"Annie, tell me about it."
"Willy wouldn't give Harriet sugar in a paper to stop the hurting. And
Harriet said she couldn't get her bottle. She said it would be wrong
for her to get it."
Dr. Lavendar lifted his head with a quick gesture of relief. "What!
Harriet, didn't get it herself?"
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account