The Shoulders of Atlas: A NovelFreeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins
General
The Shoulders of Atlas: A Novel
Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins
New England -- Fiction
"What are you saying?" she had asked Lucy, sharply. And Lucy had
lied. "I said what a pleasant day it is," she replied.
"You said it in French."
"Yes, mother."
"Next time say it in English," said Mrs. Ayres.
Of course, if Lucy had lied to her mother, she had lied to her. She
had lied in two languages. "She must be a very strange girl," thought
Rose. She resolved that she could not go to see Lucy very often, and
a little pang of regret shot through her. She had been very ready to
love poor Lucy.
Presently, as Rose sat beside the window, she heard footsteps on the
gravel sidewalk outside the front yard, and then a man's figure came
into view, like a moving shadow. She knew the figure was a man
because there was no swing of skirts. Her heart beat fast when the
man opened the front gate and shut it with a faint click. She
wondered if it could be Horace, but immediately she saw, from the
slightly sidewise shoulders and gait, that it was Henry Whitman. She
heard him enter; she heard doors opened and closed. After a time she
heard a murmur of voices. Then there was a flash of light across the
yard, from a lighted lamp being carried through a room below. The
light was reflected on the ceiling of her room. Then it vanished, and
everything was quiet. Rose thought that Sylvia and Henry had retired
for the night. She almost knew that Horace was not in the house. She
had heard him go out after supper and she had not heard him enter. He
had a habit of taking long walks on fine nights.
Rose sat and wondered. Once the suspicion smote her that possibly,
after all, Lucy had spoken the truth, that Horace was with her. Then
she dismissed the suspicion as unworthy of her. She recalled what
Sylvia had said; she recalled how she herself had heard Lucy lie. She
knew that Horace could not be fond of a girl like that, and he had
known her quite a long time. Again Rose's young rapture and belief in
her own happiness reigned. She sat still, and the moon at last sailed
out of the feathery clasp of the elm branches, and the whole
landscape was in a pale, clear glow. Then Horace came. Rose started
up. She stood for an instant irresolute, then she stole out of her
room and down the spiral stair very noiselessly. She opened the front
door before Horace could insert his key in the latch.
Horace started back.
"Hush," whispered Rose. She stifled a laugh. "Step back out in the
yard just a minute," she whispered.
Horace obeyed. He stepped softly back, and Rose joined him after she
had closed the door with great care.
"Now come down as far as the gate, out of the shadows," whispered
Rose. "I want to show you something."
The two stole down to the gate. Then Rose faced Horace in full glare
of moonlight.
"Look at me," said she, and she stifled another laugh of pure,
childish delight.
Horace looked. Only a few of the stones which Rose wore caught the
moonlight to any extent, but she was all of a shimmer and gleam, like
a creature decked with dewdrops.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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