“Not many,” responded Miranda importantly, “but my cousin Hannah Heath
has. You know she’s ben up there for a spell visitin’ an’ they say there
was lots of gentlemen in love with her. There’s one in particular used to
come round a good deal. It might be him come round to see ef it’s true
Hannah’s goin’ to get married to Lem Skinner. Know what this fellow’s name
is?”
“You don’t say! Well now it might be. No, I don’t rightly remember his
name. Seems though it was something like Church er Chapel. ’Melia could
tell ye, but she’s busy.”
“Where’s he at? Mebbe I could get a glimpse o’ him. I’d jest like to know
ef he was comin’ to bother our Hannah.”
“Well now. Mebbe you could get a sight o’ him. There’s a cupboard between
his room an’ the room back. It has a door both sides. Mebbe ef you was to
slip in there you might see him through the latch hole. I ain’t usin’ that
back room fer anythin’ but a store-room this spring, so look out you don’t
stumble over nothin’ when you go in fer it’s dark as a pocket. You go
right ’long in. I reckon you’ll find the way. Yes, it’s on the right hand
side o’ the hall. I’ve got to set here an’ finish these potatoes er
dinner’ll be late. I’d like to know real well ef he’s one o’ Hannah
Heath’s beaux.”
Miranda needed no second bidding. She slipped through the hall and store
room, and in a moment stood before the door of the closet. Softly she
opened it, and stepped in, lifting her feet cautiously, for the closet
floor seemed full of old boots and shoes.
It was dark in there, very dark, and only one slat of light stabbed the
blackness coming through the irregular shape of the latch hole. She could
hear voices in low tones speaking on the other side of the door. Gradually
her eyes grew accustomed to the light and one by one objects came out of
the shadows and looked at her. A white pitcher with a broken nose, a row
of bottles, a bunch of seed corn with the husks braided together and hung
on a nail, an old coat on another nail.
Down on her knees beside the crack of light went Miranda. First her eye
and then her ear were applied to the small aperture. She could see nothing
but a table directly in front of the door about a foot away on which were
quills, paper, and a large horn inkstand filled with ink. Some one
evidently had been writing, for a page was half done, and the pen was laid
down beside a word.
The limits of the latch hole made it impossible for Miranda to make out
any more. She applied her ear and could hear a man’s voice talking in low
insinuating tones, but she could make little of what was said. It drove
her fairly frantic to think that she was losing time. Miranda had no mind
to be balked in her purpose. She meant to find out who was in that room
and what was going on. She felt a righteous interest in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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