"
To come back some day! Would the bird ever return to its cage? But he
thanked her. When she went away he stood on the doorstep holding the
candle till she had almost reached the house. But Em was that evening in
no hurry to enter, and, instead of going in at the back door, walked with
lagging footsteps round the low brick wall that ran before the house.
Opposite the open window of the parlour she stopped. The little room, kept
carefully closed in Tant Sannie's time, was well lighted by a paraffin
lamp; books and work lay strewn about it, and it wore a bright, habitable
aspect. Beside the lamp at the table in the corner sat Lyndall, the open
letters and papers of the day's post lying scattered before her, while she
perused the columns of a newspaper. At the centre table, with his arms
folded on an open paper, which there was not light enough to read, sat
Gregory. He was looking at her. The light from the open window fell on
Em's little face under its white kapje as she looked in, but no one glanced
that way.
"Go and fetch me a glass of water!" Lyndall said, at last.
Gregory went out to find it; when he put it down at her side she merely
moved her head in recognition, and he went back to his seat and his old
occupation. Then Em moved slowly away from the window, and through it came
in spotted, hard-winged insects, to play round the lamp, till, one by one,
they stuck to its glass, and fell to the foot dead.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292