Short Fiction Kate Chopin (best e reader for android .txt) đ
- Author: Kate Chopin
Book online «Short Fiction Kate Chopin (best e reader for android .txt) đ». Author Kate Chopin
He was now fully aware that someone was in the store. How the intruder had entered he could not guess, for the key was under his pillow with his watch and his pistol.
As cautiously as he could he donned an extra garment, thrust his bare feet into slippers, and crept out into the portico, pistol in hand.
The shutters of one of the store windows were open. He stood close to it, and waited, which he considered surer and safer than to enter the dark and crowded confines of the store to engage in what might prove a bootless struggle with the intruder.
He had not long to wait. In a few moments someone darted through the open window as nimbly as a cat. âPolyte staggered back as if a heavy blow had stunned him. His first thought and his first exclamation were: âMy God! how close I come to killinâ you!â
It was AzĂ©lie. She uttered no cry, but made one quick effort to run when she saw him. He seized her arm and held her with a brutal grip. He put the pistol back into his pocket. He was shaking like a man with the palsy. One by one he took from her the parcels she was carrying, and flung them back into the store. There were not many: some packages of tobacco, a cheap pipe, some fishing-tackle, and the flask which she had brought with her in the afternoon. This he threw into the yard. It was still empty, for she had not been able to find the âkeyâ to the whisky-barrel.
âSoâ âso, you a thief!â he muttered savagely under his breath.
âYou hurtinâ me, Mr. âPolyte,â she complained, squirming. He somewhat relaxed, but did not relinquish, his hold upon her.
âI ainât no thief,â she blurted.
âYou was stealinâ,â he contradicted her sharply.
âI wasnâ stealinâ. I was jusâ takinâ a few liâle things you all too mean to giâ me. You all treat my popa like he was a dog. Itâs onây lasâ week Mr. Mathiuin senâ âway to the city to fetch a fine buckboaâd foâ Son Ambroise, anâ heâs onây a nigga, aprĂšs tout. Anâ my popa he want a picayune tobacca? Itâs âNoââ ââ She spoke loud in her monotonous, shrill voice. âPolyte kept saying: âHush, I tell you! Hush! Somebodyâll year you. Hush! Itâs enough you broke in the stoââ âhow you got in the stoâ?â he added, looking from her to the open window.
âIt was wâen you was behine the boxes to the coal-oil tankâ âI unhookâ it,â she explained sullenly.
âAnâ you donâ know I could senâ you to Baton Rouge foâ that?â He shook her as though trying to rouse her to a comprehension of her grievous fault.
âJusâ foâ a liâle picayune oâ tobacca!â she whimpered.
He suddenly abandoned his hold upon her, and left her free. She mechanically rubbed the arm that he had grasped so violently.
Between the long row of pillars the moon was sending pale beams of light. In one of these they were standing.
âAzĂ©lie,â he said, âgo âway fâom yere quick; someone might fine you yere. Wen you want something in the stoâ, foâ yoâseâf or foâ yoâ paâ âI donâ careâ âask me foâ it. But youâ âbut you canât neva set yoâ foot inside that stoâ again. Go âway fâom yere quick as you can, I tell you!â
She tried in no way to conciliate him. She turned and walked away over the same ground she had crossed before. One of the big dogs started to follow her. âPolyte did not call him back this time. He knew no harm could come to her, going through those lonely fields, while the animal was at her side.
He went at once to his room for the store key that was beneath his pillow. He entered the store, and refastened the window. When he had made everything once more secure, he sat dejectedly down upon a bench that was in the portico. He sat for a long time motionless. Then, overcome by some powerful feeling that was at work within him, he buried his face in his hands and wept, his whole body shaken by the violence of his sobs.
After that night âPolyte loved AzĂ©lie desperately. The very action which should have revolted him had seemed, on the contrary, to inflame him with love. He felt that love to be a degradationâ âsomething that he was almost ashamed to acknowledge to himself; and he knew that he was hopelessly unable to stifle it.
He watched now in a tremor for her coming. She came very often, for she remembered every word he had said; and she did not hesitate to ask him for those luxuries which she considered necessities to her âpopaâsâ existence. She never attempted to enter the store, but always waited outside, of her own accord, laughing, and playing with the dogs. She seemed to have no shame or regret for what she had done, and plainly did not realize that it was a disgraceful act. âPolyte often shuddered with disgust to discern in her a being so wholly devoid of moral sense.
He had always been an industrious, bustling fellow, never idle. Now there were hours and hours in which he did nothing but long for the sight of Azélie. Even when at work there was that gnawing want at his heart to see her, often so urgent that he would leave everything to wander down by her cabin with the hope of seeing her. It was even something if he could catch a glimpse of Sauterelle playing in the weeds, or of ArsÚne lazily dragging himself about, and smoking the pipe which rarely left his lips now that he was kept so well supplied with tobacco.
Once, down the bank of the bayou, when âPolyte came upon AzĂ©lie unexpectedly, and was therefore unprepared to resist the shock of her sudden
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