British Columbia -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Revenge -- Fiction; Sawmills -- Fiction
"All li', savvy plenty," said Sam. "My cookee good dinner for
Missus. Five dolla mo' velly good. My cookee velly good: makee
litty gal stop allo same wifo."
And he went back to the kitchen, solemn and satisfied, but very
curious to see the litty piecee gal when she was washed.
It was all an amazing dream for poor Jenny. If it had not been for
the black bruise on her knee she would have thought herself in some
new world. For the house was beautifully built and lined inside with
red cedar. The furniture was as good as any in the City, for the
tragedy of Quin's life was, that he had met a white woman, and had
fallen in love with her three years ago. They were to have been
married, but the woman found out about his past history, his
character as a squaw-man, and threw him over. He had prepared the
house for her. The dead Haida girl Lily had come instead. Jenny
dreamed and wondered and half forgot that she was not good to be
there. Quin was very strong, "hyu skookum," and his house was to be
hers, and he would prevent Pete killing her. As she got into the hot
water the tears ran down her face. But the bath was pleasant, and
she was not too degraded to enjoy the cleanliness of things; and the
hot water eased the tension of her mind, and it seemed suddenly as if
her life with Pete was something very far off, hardly to be
remembered.
And then she handled the clothes she was to wear, and the mere woman
woke in her heart. Here was linen far better than that she had
helped to wash for Mrs. Alexander before Pete had come and taken her
from Kamloops! It was beautiful linen to her eye, and in spite of
everything the pleasure she found in it was wonderful, for though she
did not know it, her skin was tender and delicate and had always
suffered from the stuff she had worn.
There were silk stockings!
"Mista Quin he very gleat man," said Jenny, awestruck. "Much better
than any I ever see, never nanitsh any like 'em."
When she got them on she took up the dress. It was also silk, but
not like the monstrous tartan the cause of all her woe. It was a
dark red and fine and supple, for Lily had seen it in her last days
at Victoria and Quin had bought it for her, knowing that she would
never wear it. She died with it on her bed: her dead hand touched
it. It made another klootchman nearly happy.
"I aflaid to wear it," said Jenny as she held it up, "it too
beautiful for poor me. I don't know where I am: I feel silly, all
like a dleam."
She looked at the big glass and saw herself white clad, and with the
red silk in her hands. Her shoulders were white: her sun-tanned neck
showed how white they were. And the red was lovely.
She put it on and she almost screamed with pleasure.
"I 'most like a lady, like Missis Alexander," she cried. And indeed
there was no prettier lady within a hundred miles.
She stood and looked at herself and trembled.
"Oh, oh," said Jenny.
And then she found that the dress fastened up the back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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