Short Fiction Kate Chopin (best e reader for android .txt) đ
- Author: Kate Chopin
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And now Placide was going to marry Euphrasie. He could not recall the time when he had not loved her. Somehow he felt that it began the day when he was six years old, and Pierre, his fatherâs overseer, had called him from play to come and make her acquaintance. He was permitted to hold her in his arms a moment, and it was with silent awe that he did so. She was the first white-faced baby he remembered having seen, and he straightway believed she had been sent to him as a birthday gift to be his little playmate and friend. If he loved her, there was no great wonder; everyone did, from the time she took her first dainty step, which was a brave one, too.
She was the gentlest little lady ever born in old Natchitoches parish, and the happiest and merriest. She never cried or whimpered for a hurt. Placide never did, why should she? When she wept, it was when she did what was wrong, or when he did; for that was to be a coward, she felt. When she was ten, and her mother was dead, Mme. Duplan, the Lady Bountiful of the parish, had driven across from her plantation, Les ChĂȘniers, to old Pierreâs very door, and there had gathered up this precious little maid, and carried her away, to do with as she would.
And she did with the child much as she herself had been done by. Euphrasie went to the convent soon, and was taught all gentle things, the pretty arts of manner and speech that the ladies of the âSacred Heartâ can teach so well. When she quitted them, she left a trail of love behind her; she always did.
Placide continued to see her at intervals, and to love her always. One day he told her so; he could not help it. She stood under one of the big oaks at Les ChĂȘniers. It was midsummer time, and the tangled sunbeams had enmeshed her in a golden fretwork. When he saw her standing there in the sunâs glamour, which was like a glory upon her, he trembled. He seemed to see her for the first time. He could only look at her, and wonder why her hair gleamed so, as it fell in those thick chestnut waves about her ears and neck. He had looked a thousand times into her eyes before; was it only today they held that sleepy, wistful light in them that invites love? How had he not seen it before? Why had he not known before that her lips were red, and cut in fine, strong curves? that her flesh was like cream? How had he not seen that she was beautiful? âEuphrasie,â he said, taking her handsâ ââEuphrasie, I love you!â
She looked at him with a little astonishment. âYes; I know, Placide.â She spoke with the soft intonation of the creole.
âNo, you donât, Euphrasie. I did nâ know myseâf how much tell jusâ now.â
Perhaps he did only what was natural when he asked her next if she loved him. He still held her hands. She looked thoughtfully away, unready to answer.
âDo you love anybody better?â he asked jealously. âAnyone jusâ as well as me?â
âYou know I love papa better, Placide, anâ Maman Duplan jusâ as well.â
Yet she saw no reason why she should not be his wife when he asked her to.
Only a few months before this, Euphrasie had returned to live with her father. The step had cut her off from everything that girls of eighteen call pleasure. If it cost her one regret, no one could have guessed it. She went often to visit the Duplans, however; and Placide had gone to bring her home from Les ChĂȘniers the very day of Offdeanâs arrival at the plantation.
They had traveled by rail to Natchitoches, where they found Pierreâs no-top buggy awaiting them, for there was a drive of five miles to be made through the pine woods before the plantation was reached. When they were at their journeyâs end, and had driven some distance; up the long plantation road that led to the house in the rear, Euphrasie exclaimed:â â
âWây, thereâs someone on the gallâry with papa, Placide!â
âYes; I see.â
âIt looks like someone fâom town. It musâ be Mr. Gus Adams; but I donâ see his horse.â
âââT ainât no one fâom town that I know. Itâs bounâ to be someone fâom the city.â
âOh, Placide, I should nâ wonder if Harding & Offdean have sent someone to look after the place at lasâ,â she exclaimed a little excitedly.
They were near enough to see that the stranger was a young man of very pleasing appearance. Without apparent reason, a chilly depression took hold of Placide.
âI tole you it was nâ yoâ lookout fâom the firsâ, Euphrasie,â he said to her.
IVWallace Offdean remembered Euphrasie at once as a young person whom he had assisted to a very high perch on his clubhouse balcony the previous Mardi Gras night. He had thought her pretty and attractive then, and for the space of a day or two wondered who she might be. But he had not made even so fleeting an impression upon her; seeing which, he did not refer to any former meeting when Pierre introduced them.
She took the chair which he offered her, and asked him very simply when he had come, if his journey had been pleasant, and if he had not found the road from Natchitoches in very good condition.
âMr. Offdeân only come sence yistiday, Euphrasie,â interposed Pierre. âWe been talkâ plenty âbout de place, him anâ me. I been tole âim all âbout itâ âva! Anâ if Mr. Offdeân want
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