Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the ElephantHolt, Mathew Joseph
History
Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant
Holt, Mathew Joseph
Kentucky -- Fiction; Kentucky -- History
After exchanging her hat she called upon Mrs. Allen. The Allen home, an
old red brick house with massive colonial pillars, a slate roof, thick
walls and large rooms with high ceilings, was more than sixty years old;
and Judge Allen, who was fifty-five, had been born in it. Several of the
rooms had open fire places. It had first been heated in that way; then
with grates and a large anthracite stove; then a furnace had been
installed. Recently it had been remodeled and fitted with steam heating
and the most modern electrical appliances. These things were now
demanded by the servants, who refused service in houses not having them.
The Judge would not permit the open fire place of the library to be
removed. They used this as a sitting and informal reception room and an
open fire was kept burning from October to May. One of his clients who
had an extensive woodland on Elkhorn, furnished the oak and hickory
logs. It was in this room that Mrs. Allen received Jeannette.
Mrs. Allen was about fifty years of age, with beautiful, wavy, white
hair. She and Jeannette were of the same weight, one hundred and thirty
pounds, though Jeannette was more than an inch taller. Both had the
general appearance of women who trace their lineage from English
ancestry, through the cavalier stock of Colonial Virginia; brunettes, of
clear cut feature and slender, graceful bodies; eyes either gray or
brown—Mrs. Allen’s were brown, Jeannette’s were gray.
When shown into the library, she took a seat in a great chair in an
alcove which commanded a view of the street, and while waiting sat
thinking how many times John might have sat in that place and perhaps in
that very chair. Mrs. Allen came to the door, where she stood looking at
Jeannette a moment or two, until she turned her head and saw her; then
she stepped forward and took Jeannette’s hands and stood looking her in
the face.
“You are just as John said you looked; a serene and beautiful face; eyes
that make even an old mule trust you.” Then she put her arms about her
and kissed her; and led her back to the chair in which she had been
sitting.
“Mrs. Allen, I believe I would have known you anywhere. John had your
nose and eyes and the same general expression. I am glad I look as John
said I did. If you had shown surprise at my appearance I would have been
disappointed.”
“I do not understand how John could have described you so accurately. I
could have picked you out among the hundreds of girls in the University.
There are many things we will never be able to understand.”
Mrs. Allen did most of the talking; telling Jeannette all about John
from the first hour she held him in her arms, until he died with her
arms about him. They shed no tears, feeling that he was with them and
wished they should be happy when together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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