The Awakening of Helena RichieDeland, Margaret Wade Campbell
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The Awakening of Helena Richie
Deland, Margaret Wade Campbell
Women -- Fiction
"How did he know?" demanded David.
"He is very nice himself," Helena said smiling.
David meditated. "Is that gentleman my enemy?"
"Of course not! he isn't anybody's enemy," she told him reprovingly.
David turned silently to his rabbits.
"Why did you think he was your enemy?" she persisted.
"I only just hoped he wasn't; I don't want to love him."
"What!"
"If he was my enemy, I'd have to love him, you know," David explained
patiently.
Helena in her confused astonishment knew not what to reply. She
stammered something about that being wrong; of course David must love
Mr. Pryor!
"They ought to have fresh water," David interrupted thoughtfully; and
Helena had to reach into the hutch for a battered tin pan.
She watched him run to the stable and come back, holding the pan in
both hands and walking very slowly under the mottled branches of the
button-woods; at every step the water splashed over the rusty brim, and
the sunshine, catching and flickering in it, was reflected in a
rippling gleam across his serious face.
All that afternoon he permitted her to follow him about. He was gently
polite when she spoke to him but he hardly noticed her until, as they
went down through the orchard, his little hand tightened suddenly on
hers, and he pressed against her skirts.
"Are there snakes in this grass?" he asked timorously. "A snake," he
added, looking up at her confidingly, "is the only insect I am afraid
of."
She stooped down and cuddled him reassuringly, and he rewarded her by
snuggling up against her like a friendly puppy. She was very happy. As
it grew dusk and cool, and all the sky was yellow behind the black line
of the hills, she lured him into the house and watched him eat his
supper, forgetting to eat her own.
When she took him up-stairs to bed, Dr. Lavendar's directions came back
to her with a slight shock--she must hear him say his prayers. How was
she to introduce the subject? The embarrassed color burned in her
cheeks as she helped him undress and tried to decide on the proper
moment to speak of--prayers. But David took the matter into his own
hands. As he stepped into his little night-clothes, buttoning them
around his waist with slow precision, he said:
"Now I'll say my prayers. Sit by the window; then I can see that star
when I open my eyes. It's hard to keep your eyes shut so long, ain't
it?" he added confidentially.
Helena sat down, her heart fluttering in her throat. David knelt beside
her, shutting first one eye and then the other. "'Now I lay me--"' he
began in a businesslike voice. At the Amen he opened his eyes and drew
a long breath. Helena moved slightly and he shut his eyes again; "I've
not done yet.
"'Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me, Bless Thy little lamb to-night--'"
He paused and looked up at Mrs. Richie. "Can I say colt?" Before she
could reply he decided for himself. "No; colts don't have shepherds; it
has to be lamb."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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