The Amouretta landscape, and other storiesAdams, Adeline
General
The Amouretta landscape, and other stories
Adams, Adeline
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
Nothing loath, Grammer unlocked one of the small drawers of her cabinet,
and took from it a packet of ancient letters. In the heart of the packet
was a square of brownish paper, on which was traced a circle about six
inches in diameter, with two projecting lacelike ears. One might call
it a plan view of the bowl of the porringer. Little Lydia Fairlee had
drawn it by the simple expedient of laying the object upside down on the
paper, and pencilling around the outline. Evidently the pierced handles
had attracted the child, for these had been drawn with great care. In
the space beneath, she had done her own hand, by the same process. Many
a time Felix had fitted his own five fingers over that symbol. Once
his hand had been a rather good fit, but of late, it had been growing
steadily beyond bounds.
“Yes, sir,” Madam Bradford was saying, “that’s the drawin’, and I can
assure you I was well cuffed by Aunt Car’line for usin’ up her paper.
Those days, folks didn’t throw paper araound, the way they do to-day. I
suppose, ef I’d be’n a child these times, I’d ’a’ had Sattidy drawin’
lessons, and I hope I could ’a’ profited by ’em. But nobody ever gave me
a chance at Pharaoh’s hosses.”
Felix grinned, guiltily.
“Anyways, your great-grandfather saved up that drawin’, pretty car’ful!
We found it among his papers. And when I’m through, I shall leave it
to you, along with the silver cover. You’re the one that loves lovely
things.”
Felix was too well used to that reference, “when I’m through,” to feel
it very deeply other than as a part of the porringer story. But he
was an affectionate child, and there being no spectators, he gave his
grandmother the kiss she wanted. Then he fitted the cover over the
drawing, as he had often done before.
“And there was a picture of Lafayette on the side of the bottom part?”
Madam Bradford suddenly switched to her most modern style of speech. She
often took a sly pleasure in disconcerting her hearers by making these
lightning changes.
“An engraving is the correct term, I believe.” There was a world of
prunes and prisms in her tone. “An engraving upon silver, executed in
Paris. And underneath it was engraved, all in the French language,
‘Lafayette in Egypt.’ Your great-grandmother, who was quite a French
scholar for those days, used to translate it for me. Very Frenchy writing
it was, too; very Frenchy and flourishy. And in the picture, I mean
the engraving, there was Lafayette on donkey-back, plain as anything,
all wrapped up in a big cloak, and right alongside was a man, his
body-servant, I expect, urging the donkey on. I can see it in my mind to
this day. If I was a drawer, I could draw it for you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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