Short Fiction Kate Chopin (best e reader for android .txt) đ
- Author: Kate Chopin
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Mademoiselle St. Denys Godolph paled suddenly and her voice was unsteady when she replied:â â
âYou are too considerate, Monsieur. Will you be so kine to give me the name of the scholar whom you desire to intâoduce into this school?â She knew it as well as he.
âWhatâs your name, youngster? Out with it!â cried LaballiĂšre, striving to shake the little free mulatto into speech; but he stayed as dumb as a mummy.
âHis name is AndrĂ© Giestin. You know him. He is the sonââ â
âThen, Monsieur,â she interrupted, âpermit me to remine you that you have made a seâious mistake. This is not a school conducted foâ the education of the colored population. You will have to go elsewâere with yoâ protĂ©gĂ©.â
âI shall leave my protĂ©gĂ© right here, Mademoiselle, and I trust youâll give him the same kind attention you seem to accord to the others;â saying which LaballiĂšre bowed himself out of her presence. The little Giestin, left to his own devices, took only the time to give a quick, wary glance round the room, and the next instant he bounded through the open door, as the nimblest of four-footed creatures might have done.
Mademoiselle St. Denys Godolph conducted school during the hours that remained, with a deliberate calmness that would have seemed ominous to her pupils, had they been better versed in the ways of young women. When the hour for dismissal came, she rapped upon the table to demand attention.
âChilâren,â she began, assuming a resigned and dignified mien, âyou all have been witness today of the insult that has been offered to yoâ teacher by the person upon whose lanâ this schoolhouse stanâs. I have nothing further to say on that subjecâ. I only shall add that tomorrow yoâ teacher shall senâ the key of this schoolhouse, together with her resignation, to the gentlemen who compose the school-boaâd.â There followed visible disturbance among the young people.
âI ketch that liâle mâlatta, I make âim see sightâ, yas,â screamed one.
âNothing of the kine, Mathurin, you musâ take no such step, if only out of consideration foâ my wishes. The person who has offered the affront I consider beneath my notice. AndrĂ©, on the other hanâ, is a chile of good impulse, anâ by no means to blame. As you all perceive, he has shown moâ taste and judgment than those above him, fâom whom we might have espected good breeding, at least.â
She kissed them all, the little boys and the little girls, and had a kind word for each. âEt toi, mon petit Numa, jâespĂšre qâun autreââ âShe could not finish the sentence, for little Numa, her favorite, to whom she had never been able to impart the first word of English, was blubbering at a turn of affairs which he had only miserably guessed at.
She locked the schoolhouse door and walked away towards the bridge. By the time she reached it, the little âCadians had already disappeared like rabbits, down the road and through and over the fences.
Mademoiselle St. Denys Godolph did not cross the trestle the following day, nor the next nor the next. LaballiĂšre watched for her; for his big heart was already sore and filled with shame. But more, it stung him with remorse to realize that he had been the stupid instrument in taking the bread, as it were, from the mouth of Mademoiselle St. Denys Godolph.
He recalled how unflinchingly and haughtily her blue eyes had challenged his own. Her sweetness and charm came back to him and he dwelt upon them and exaggerated them, till no Venus, so far unearthed, could in any way approach Mademoiselle St. Denys Godolph. He would have liked to exterminate the Giestin family, from the great-grandmother down to the babe unborn.
Perhaps Giesten suspected this unfavorable attitude, for one morning he piled his whole family and all his effects into wagons, and went away; over into that part of the parish known as lâIsle des MulĂątres.
LaballiĂšreâs really chivalrous nature told him, beside, that he owed an apology, at least, to the young lady who had taken his whim so seriously. So he crossed the bayou one day and penetrated into the wilds where Madame St. Denys Godolph ruled.
An alluring little romance formed in his mind as he went; he fancied how easily it might follow the apology. He was almost in love with Mademoiselle St. Denys Godolph when he quitted his plantation. By the time he had reached hers, he was wholly so.
He was met by Madame mĂšre, a sweet-eyed, faded woman, upon whom old age had fallen too hurriedly to completely efface all traces of youth. But the house was old beyond question; decay had eaten slowly to the heart of it during the hours, the days, and years that it had been standing.
âI have come to see your daughter, madame,â began LaballiĂšre, all too bluntly; for there is no denying he was blunt.
âMademoiselle St. Denys Godolph is not presently at home, sir,â madame replied. âShe is at the time in New Orleans. She fills there a place of high trusâ anâ employment, Monsieur LaballiĂšre.â
When Suzanne had ever thought of New Orleans, it was always in connection with Hector Santien, because he was the only soul she knew who dwelt there. He had had no share in obtaining for her the position she had secured with one of the leading dry-goods firms; yet it was to him she addressed herself when her arrangements to leave home were completed.
He did not wait for her train to reach the city, but crossed the river and met her at Gretna. The first thing he did was to kiss her, as he had done eight years before when he left Natchitoches parish. An hour later he would no more have thought of kissing Suzanne than he would have tendered an embrace to the Empress of China. For by that time he had realized that she was no longer twelve nor he twenty-four.
She could hardly believe the man who met her to be the Hector of old.
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