The room was rather large and the light in it was dim. There were
no shutters, but the blinds were drawn down. Judith went to one
of the windows and drew its blind up so that the look of the
place might be clear to her. There were two windows and they
opened upon the flat roof of an extension, which suggested
somehow that it had been used as a place to walk about in. This,
at least, was what Judith thought of at once--that some one who
had used the room had been in the habit of going out upon the
roof and staying there as if it had been a sort of garden. There
were rows of flower pots with dead flowers in them--there were
green tubs containing large shrubs, which were dead also--against
the low parapet certain of them held climbing plants which had
been trained upon it. Two had been climbing roses, two were
clematis, but Judith did not know them by name. The ledge of the
window was so low that a mere step took her outside. So taking
it, she stood among the dried, withered things and looked in
tender regret at them.
"I wish they were not dead," she said softly to the silence. "It
would be like a garden if they were not dead."
The sun was hot, but a cool, little breeze seemed straying up
from among the trees of the Park. It even made the dried leaves
of the flowers tremble and rustle a little. Involuntarily she
lifted her face to the blue sky and floating white clouds. They
seemed so near that she felt almost as if she could touch them
with her hand. The street seemed so far--so far below--the whole
world seemed far below. If one stepped off the parapet it would
surely take one a long time to reach the earth. She knew now why
she had come up here. It was so that she might feel like this--as
if she was upheld far away from things--as if she had left
everything behind--almost as if she had fallen awake again. There
was no perfume in the air, but all was still and sweet and clear.
Suddenly she turned and went into the room again, realizing that
she had scarcely seen it at all and that she must see and know
it. It was not like any other room she had seen. It looked more
simple, though it was a pretty place. The walls were covered with
roses, there were bright pictures, and shelves full of books.
There was also a little writing desk and there were two or three
low chairs, and a low table. A closet in a corner had its door
ajar and Judith could see that inside toys were piled together.
In another corner a large doll's house stood, looking as if some
one had just stopped playing with it. Some toy furniture had been
taken out and left near it upon the carpet.
"It was a little girl's room," Judith said. "Why did they close
it?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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