California -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American; Western stories
The storm had passed, and the sun was shining quite cheerily in the
eastern recitation room the next morning when Miss Kate, whose seat
was nearest the window, placing her hand pathetically upon her heart,
affected to fall in bashful and extreme agitation upon the shoulder of
Carry, her neighbor. “HE has come,” she gasped in a thrilling whisper.
“Who?” asked Carry sympathetically, who never clearly understood when
Kate was in earnest. “Who?--Why, the man who rescued us last night! I
saw him drive to the door this moment. Don't speak; I shall be better in
a moment--there!” she said, and the shameless hypocrite passed her hand
pathetically across her forehead with a tragic air.
“What can he want?” asked Carry, whose curiosity was excited. “I don't
know,” said Kate, suddenly relapsing into gloomy cynicism. “Possibly to
put his five daughters to school; perhaps to finish his young wife, and
warn her against us.”
“He didn't look old, and he didn't seem like a married man,” rejoined
Addy thoughtfully.
“That was his art, you poor creature!” returned Kate scornfully. “You
can never tell anything of these men, they are so deceitful. Besides,
it's just my fate!”
“Why, Kate,” began Carry, in serious concern.
“Hush! Miss Walker is saying something,” said Kate, laughing.
“The young ladies will please give attention,” said a slow, perfunctory
voice. “Miss Carry Tretherick is wanted in the parlor.”
Meantime Mr. Jack Prince, the name given on the card, and various
letters and credentials submitted to the Rev. Mr. Crammer, paced the
somewhat severe apartment known publicly as the “reception parlor” and
privately to the pupils as “purgatory.” His keen eyes had taken in the
various rigid details, from the flat steam “radiator,” like an enormous
japanned soda cracker, that heated one end of the room to the monumental
bust of Dr. Crammer that hopelessly chilled the other; from the Lord's
Prayer, executed by a former writing master in such gratuitous variety
of elegant calligraphic trifling as to abate considerably the serious
value of the composition, to three views of Genoa from the Institute,
which nobody ever recognized, taken on the spot by the drawing teacher;
from two illuminated texts of Scripture in an English letter, so
gratuitously and hideously remote as to chill all human interest, to a
large photograph of the senior class, in which the prettiest girls were
Ethiopian in complexion, and sat, apparently, on each other's heads
and shoulders. His fingers had turned listlessly the leaves of
school-catalogues, the SERMONS of Dr. Crammer, the POEMS of Henry Kirke
White, the LAYS OF THE SANCTUARY and LIVES OF CELEBRATED WOMEN. His
fancy, and it was a nervously active one, had gone over the partings
and greetings that must have taken place here, and wondered why the
apartment had yet caught so little of the flavor of humanity; indeed, I
am afraid he had almost forgotten the object of his visit when the door
opened, and Carry Tretherick stood before him.
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