The Cup of Trembling, and Other StoriesFoote, Mary Hallock
General
The Cup of Trembling, and Other Stories
Foote, Mary Hallock
United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
But these incongruities, especially the one of dress, might easily have
escaped a pair of eyes so confiding and unworldly as those of the young
girl in the opposite section; they had escaped her, but not the
incongruity of youth with so much sadness. The girl and her father had
boarded the car at Omaha, escorted by the porter of one of the forward
sleepers on the same train. They had come from farther East. The old
gentleman appeared to be an invalid; but they gave little trouble. The
porter had much leisure on his hands, which he bestowed in arrears of
sleep on the end seat forward. The conductor made up his accounts in the
empty drawing-room, or looked at himself in the mirrors, or stretched
his legs on the velvet sofas. He was a young fellow, with a tendency to
jokes and snatches of song and talk of a light character when not on
duty. He talked sometimes with the porter in low tones, and then both
looked at the pair of travelers in No. 8, and the younger man seemed
moodily aware of their observation.
On the first morning out from Omaha the old gentleman kept his berth
until nine or ten o'clock. At eight his daughter brought him a cup of
chocolate and a sandwich, and sat between his curtains, chatting with
him cozily. In speaking together they used the language of the Society
of Friends.
The young man opposite listened attentively to the girl's voice; it was
as sweet as the piping of birds at daybreak. Phebe her father called
her.
Afterward Phebe sat in the empty section next her father's. The table
before her was spread with a fresh napkin, and a few pieces of old
household silver and china which she had taken from her lunch-basket.
She and her father were economical travelers, but in all their
belongings there was the refinement of modest suitability and an
exquisite cleanliness. Her own order for breakfast was confined to a cup
of coffee, which the porter was preparing in the buffet-kitchen.
"Would you mind changing places with me?"
The young man in No. 8 spoke to his companion, who sat opposite reading
a newspaper. They changed seats, and by this arrangement the younger
could look at Phebe, who innocently gave him every advantage to study
her sober and delicate profile against the white snow-light, as she sat
watching the dreary cattle-ranges of Wyoming swim past the car window.
Her hair had been brushed, and her face washed in the bitter alkaline
waters of the plains, with the uncompromising severity of one whose
standards of personal adornment are limited to the sternest ideals of
neatness and purity. Yet her fair face bloomed, like a winter sunrise,
with tints of rose and pearl and sapphire blue, and the pale gold of
winter sunshine was in her satin-smooth hair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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