Short Fiction Kate Chopin (best e reader for android .txt) đ
- Author: Kate Chopin
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And he at once wrote out the check for twenty-five dollars, and handed it to the red-faced man with the tips of his fingers.
It seemed very good to Doctor John-Luis to have the boy sitting again at his fireside; and so natural, too. He seemed to be the incarnation of unspoken hopes; the realization of vague and fitful memories of the past.
When Mamouche kept on crying, Doctor John-Luis wiped away the tears with his own brown silk handkerchief.
âMamouche,â he said, âI want you to stay here; to live here with me always. To learn how to work; to learn how to study; to grow up to be an honorable man. An honorable man, Mamouche, for I want you for my own child.â
His voice was pretty low and husky when he said that.
âI shall not take the key from the door tonight,â he continued. âIf you do not choose to stay and be all this that I say, you may open the door and walk out. I shall use no force to keep you.â
âWhat is he doing. Marsh?â asked Doctor John-Luis the following morning, when he took the coffee that Marshall had brought to him in bed.
âWho dat, sah?â
âWhy, the boy Mamouche, of course. What is he doing?â
Marshall laughed.
âHe kneelinâ down dah on de floâ. He keep on sayinâ, âHail, Mary, full oâ grace, de Lord is wid dee. Hail, Mary, full oâ graceââ âtâree, foâ times, sah. I tell âim, Wat you sayinâ yoâ prayer dat away, boy?â He âlow dat wâat his granâma larn âim, ter keep outen mischief. Wâen de devil say, âTake dat gate offen de hinge; do dis; do dat,â he gwine say târee Hail Mary, anâ de devil gwine tuân tail anâ run.â
âYes, yes,â laughed Doctor John-Luis. âThatâs StĂ©phanie all over.â
âAnâ I tell âim: See heah, boy, you drap a couple oâ dem Hail Mary, anâ quit studyinâ âbout de devil, anâ sot yoâseâf down ter wuk. Dat the oniest way to keep outen mischief.â
âWhat business is it of yours to interfere?â broke in Doctor John-Luis, irritably. âLet the boy do as his grandmother instructed him.â
âI ainât desputinâ, sah,â apologized Marshall.
âBut you know. Marsh,â continued the doctor, recovering his usual amiability. âI think well be able to do something with the boy. Iâm pretty sure of it. For, you see, he has his grandmotherâs eyes; and his grandmother was a very intelligent woman; a clever woman, Marsh. Her one great mistake was when she married ThĂ©odule PelotĂ©.â
Madame CĂ©lestinâs DivorceMadame CĂ©lestin always wore a neat and snugly fitting calico wrapper when she went out in the morning to sweep her small gallery. Lawyer Paxton thought she looked very pretty in the gray one that was made with a graceful Watteau fold at the back: and with which she invariably wore a bow of pink ribbon at the throat. She was always sweeping her gallery when lawyer Paxton passed by in the morning on his way to his office in St. Denis Street.
Sometimes he stopped and leaned over the fence to say good morning at his ease; to criticise or admire her rosebushes; or, when he had time enough, to hear what she had to say. Madame CĂ©lestin usually had a good deal to say. She would gather up the train of her calico wrapper in one hand, and balancing the broom gracefully in the other, would go tripping down to where the lawyer leaned, as comfortably as he could, over her picket fence.
Of course she had talked to him of her troubles. Everyone knew Madame CĂ©lestinâs troubles.
âReally, madame,â he told her once, in his deliberate, calculating, lawyer-tone, âitâs more than human natureâ âwomanâs natureâ âshould be called upon to endure. Here you are, working your fingers offââ âshe glanced down at two rosy fingertips that showed through the rents in her baggy doeskin glovesâ ââtaking in sewing; giving music lessons; doing God knows what in the way of manual labor to support yourself and those two little onesââ âMadame CĂ©lestinâs pretty face beamed with satisfaction at this enumeration of her trials.
âYou right, Judge. Not a picayune, not one, not one, have I lay my eyes on in the pasâ foâ months that I can say CĂ©lestin give it to me or senâ it to me.â
âThe scoundrel!â muttered lawyer Paxton in his beard.
âAnâ pourtant,â she resumed, âthey say heâs making money down rounâ Alexandria wâen he wants to work.â
âI dare say you havenât seen him for months?â suggested the lawyer.
âItâs good six monthâ since I see a sight of CĂ©lestin,â she admitted.
âThatâs it, thatâs what I say; he has practically deserted you; fails to support you. It wouldnât surprise me a bit to learn that he has ill treated you.â
âWell, you know, Judge,â with an evasive cough, âa man that drinksâ âwâat can you expecâ? Anâ if you would know the promises he has made me! Ah, if I had as many dollaâ as I had promise from CĂ©lestin, I would nâ have to work, je vous garantis.â
âAnd in my opinion, madame, you would be a foolish woman to endure it longer, when the divorce court is there to offer you redress.â
âYou spoke about that befoâ, Judge; Iâm goinâ think about that divoâce. I believe you right.â
Madame CĂ©lestin thought about the divorce and talked about it, too; and lawyer Paxton grew deeply interested in the theme.
âYou know, about that divoâce, Judge,â Madame CĂ©lestin was waiting for him that morning, âI been talking to my family anâ my frienâs, anâ itâs me that tells you, they all plumb againsâ that divoâce.â
âCertainly, to be sure; thatâs to be expected, madame, in this community of Creoles. I warned you that you would meet with opposition, and would have to face it and brave it.â
âOh, donât fear, Iâm going to face it! Maman
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