Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"Well, then, the mystery is no mystery at all," she said. "On that very
same day--the day your darky sent your clothes to the cleaner's--I had
two of Dallam's suits sent down to be pressed. That little man at the
tailor shop--Pedaloski--found this paper crumpled up in your pocket and
took it out and then later forgot where he had found it. So, as I
understand, he tried to read it, seeking for a clue to its ownership. He
can't read much English, you know, so probably he has had no idea then
or thereafter of the meaning of it; but he did know enough English to
make out the name of Wybrant. Look at it and you'll see my name occurs
twice in it, but your name does not occur at all. So don't you see what
happened--what he did? Thinking the paper must have come from one of my
husband's pockets, he smoothed it out as well as he could and folded it
up and pinned it to the sleeve of Dallam's blue serge and sent it here.
My maid found it when she was undoing the bundle before hanging up the
clothes in Dallam's closet, and she brought it to me, thinking, I
suppose, it was a bill from the cleaner's shop, and I read it. Simple
enough explanation, isn't it, when you know the facts?"
"Simple," he agreed, "and yit at the same time sort of wonderful too.
And whut did you do when you read it?"
"I was stunned at first. I tried at first not to believe it. But I
couldn't deceive myself. Something inside of me told me that it was
true--every word of it. I suppose it was the woman in me that told me.
And somehow I knew that you had written it, although really that part
was not so very hard a thing to figure out, considering everything. And
somehow--I can't tell you why though--I was morally sure that after you
had written it some other person had forbidden your making use of it in
any way, and instinctively--anyhow, I suppose you might say it was by
instinct--I knew that it had reached me, of all persons, by accident and
not by design.
"I tried to reach you--you were gone away. But I did reach that funny
little man Pedaloski by telephone, and found out from him why he had
pinned the paper on Dallam's coat. I did not tell my husband about it.
He doesn't know yet. I don't think I shall ever tell him. For two days,
judge, I wrestled with the problem of whether I should send for my
mother and tell her that now I knew the thing which all her life she had
guarded from me. Finally I decided to wait and see you first, and try to
find out from you the exact circumstances under which the paper was
written, and the reason why, after writing it, you crumpled it up and
hid it away.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account