Her eye was caught by something lying on a sofa--something
covered with a cloth. It looked almost like a child lying there
asleep--so fast asleep that it did not stir at all. Judith moved
across to the sofa and drew the cloth aside. With its head upon a
cushion was lying there a very large doll, beautifully dressed in
white lace, its eyes closed, and a little wreath of dead flowers
in its hair.
"It looks almost as if it had died too," said Judith.
She did not ask herself why she said "as if it had died
too"--perhaps it was because the place was so still--and
everything so far away--that the flowers had died in the strange,
little deserted garden on the roof.
She did not hear any footsteps--in fact, no ghost of a sound
stirred the silence as she stood looking at the doll's sleep--but
quite quickly she ceased to bend forward, and turned round to
look at something which she knew was near her. There she was--and
it was quite natural she should be there--the little girl with
the face like a white flower, with the quantity of burnished
coppery hair and the smile which deepened the already deep dimple
near her mouth.
"You have come to play with me," she said.
"Yes," answered Judith. "I wanted to come all night. I could not
stay down-stairs."
"No," said the child; "you can't stay down-stairs. Lift up the
doll."
They began to play as if they had spent their lives together.
Neither asked the other any questions. Judith had not played with
other children, but with this one she played in absolute and
lovely delight. The little girl knew where all the toys were, and
there were a great many beautiful ones. She told Judith where to
find them and how to arrange them for their games. She invented
wonderful things to do--things which were so unlike anything
Judith had ever seen or heard or thought of that it was not
strange that she realized afterwards that all her past life and
its belongings had been so forgotten as to be wholly blotted out
while she was in the Closed Room. She did not know her playmate's
name, she did not remember that there were such things as names.
Every moment was happiness. Every moment the little girl seemed
to grow more beautiful in the flower whiteness of her face and
hands and the strange lightness and freedom of her movements.
There was an ecstasy in looking at her--in feeling her near.
Not long before Judith went down-stairs she found herself
standing with her outside the window in among the withered
flowers.
"It was my garden," the little girl said. "It has been so hot and
no one has been near to water them, so they could not live."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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