Home Lights and ShadowsArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
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Home Lights and Shadows
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
American fiction -- 19th century; Domestic fiction; Short stories
At last after remaining in prison for nearly an hour, Mrs. Fairview,
who by this time was beginning to suffer, besides excessive fatigue,
from a sharp pain through her breast to her left shoulder blade, and
who was painfully aware that she had taken a cold that would, in all
probability, put her in bed for a week, determined to make her
escape at all hazards. Mr. Beebe showed no disposition to go, and
might remain for an hour longer. Throwing an apron over her head and
face, she softly opened the door, and gliding past her visiter,
escaped into the hall, and ran panting up stairs. Mr. Beebe raised
his head at this unexpected invasion of the parlor, but on
reflection concluded that the person who so suddenly appeared and
disappeared was merely a servant in the family.
About an hour afterwards, finding that Mrs. Fairview did not return,
Mr. Beebe left his card on the table, and departed in his usual
comfortable state of mind.
Poor Mrs. Fairview paid dearly for her part in this transaction. A
severe attack of inflammation of the lungs followed, which came near
resulting in death. It was nearly three weeks before she was able to
leave her room, and then her physician said she must not venture out
before the mild weather of the opening spring.
A few days after the lady was able to go about the house again, Mr.
Bebee called to congratulate her on her recovery. Two of her
children were in the parlor; one eleven years old, and the other a
child in her fourth year.
"O, you naughty man, you!" exclaimed the latter, the moment she saw
Mr. Bebee. The oldest of the two children, who understood in a
moment what her little sister meant, whispered: "H-u-s-h!--h-u-s-h!
Mary!"
"What am I naughty about, my little sis?" said Mr. Bebee.
"O, because you are a naughty man! You made my mother sick, so you
did! And mother says she never wants to look in your face again. You
are a naughty man!"
"Mary! Mary! Hush! hush!" exclaimed the elder sister, trying to stop
the child.
"Made your mother sick?" said Mr. Bebee. "How did I do that?"
"Why, you shut her up in that little room there, all in the cold,
when you were here and staid so long, one day. And it made her
sick--so it did."
"Shut her up in that room! what does the child mean?" said Mr.
Bebee, speaking to the elder sister.
"Mary! Mary! I'm ashamed of you. Come away!" was the only response
made to this.
Mr. Bebee was puzzled. He asked himself as to the meaning of this
strange language. All at once, he remembered that after he had been
sitting in the parlor for an hour, on the occasion referred to, some
one had come out of the little room referred to by the child, and
swept past him almost as quick as a flash. But it had never once
occurred to him that this was the lady he had called to visit, who,
according to the servant, was not at home.
"I didn't shut your mother up in that room, Mary," said he, to the
child.
"O, but you did. And she got cold, and almost died."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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