By Shore and Sedge by Bret Harte (first e reader txt) đ
- Author: Bret Harte
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âI have said nothing, and will say nothing, if you wish it,â said Rosey hastily; âbut others may find out how you live here. This is not fit work for you. You seem to be aâa gentleman. You ought to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or in a bank,â she continued timidly, with a vague enumeration of the prevailing degrees of local gentility.
He dropped her hand. âAh! does not Mademoiselle comprehend that it is BECAUSE I am a gentleman that there is nothing between it and this? Look!â he continued almost fiercely. âWhat if I told you it is the lawyer, it is the doctor, it is the banker that brings me, a gentleman, to this, eh? Ah, bah! What do I say? This is honest, what I do! But the lawyer, the banker, the doctor, what are they?â He shrugged his shoulders, and pacing the apartment with a furtive glance at the half anxious, half frightened girl, suddenly stopped, dragged a small portmanteau from behind the heap of bales and opened it. âLook, Mademoiselle,â he said, tremulously lifting a handful of worn and soiled letters and papers. âLookâthese are the tools of your banker, your lawyer, your doctor. With this the banker will make you poor, the lawyer will prove you a thief, the doctor will swear you are crazy, eh? What shall you call the work of a gentlemanâthisââhe dragged the pile of cushions forwardââor this?â
To the young girlâs observant eyes some of the papers appeared to be of a legal or official character, and others like bills of lading, with which she was familiar. Their half-theatrical exhibition reminded her of some play she had seen; they might be the clue to some story, or the mere worthless hoardings of a diseased fancy. Whatever they were, de Ferrieres did not apparently care to explain further; indeed, the next moment his manner changed to his old absurd extravagance. âBut this is stupid for Mademoiselle to hear. What shall we speak of? Ah, what SHOULD we speak of in Mademoiselleâs presence?â
âBut are not these papers valuable?â asked Rosey, partly to draw her hostâs thoughts back to their former channel.
âPerhaps.â He paused and regarded the young girl fixedly. âDoes Mademoiselle think so?â
âI donât know,â said Rosey. âHow should I?â
âAh! if Mademoiselle thought soâif Mademoiselle would deignââ He stopped again and placed his hand upon his forehead. âIt might be so!â he muttered.
âI must go now,â said Rosey, hurriedly, rising with an awkward sense of constraint. âFather will wonder where I am.â
âI shall explain. I will accompany you, Mademoiselle.â
âNo, no,â said Rosey, quickly; âhe must not know I have been here!â She stopped. The honest blush flew to her cheek, and then returned again, because she had blushed.
De Ferrieres gazed at her with an exalted look. Then drawing himself to his full height, he said, with an exaggerated and indescribable gesture, âGo, my child, go. Tell your father that you have been alone and unprotected in the abode of poverty and suffering, butâthat it was in the presence of Armand de Ferrieres.â
He threw open the door with a bow that nearly swept the ground, but did not again offer to take her hand. At once impressed and embarrassed at this crowning incongruity, her pretty lip trembled between a smile and a cry as she said, âGood-night,â and slipped away into the darkness.
Erect and grotesque de Ferrieres retained the same attitude until the sound of her footsteps was lost, when he slowly began to close the door. But a strong arm arrested it from without, and a large carpeted foot appeared at the bottom of the narrowing opening. The door yielded, and Mr. Abner Nott entered the room.
IVWith an exclamation and a hurried glance around him, de Ferrieres threw himself before the intruder. But slowly lifting his large hand, and placing it on his lodgerâs breast, he quietly overbore the sick manâs feeble resistance with an impact of power that seemed almost as moral as it was physical. He did not appear to take any notice of the room or its miserable surroundings; indeed, scarcely of the occupant. Still pushing him, with abstracted eyes and immobile face, to the chair that Rosey had just quitted, he made him sit down, and then took up his own position on the pile of cushions opposite. His usually underdone complexion was of watery blueness; but his dull, abstracted glance appeared to exercise a certain dumb, narcotic fascination on his lodger.
âI mout,â said Nott, slowly, âhev laid ye out here on sight, without enny warninâ, or dropped ye in yer tracks in Montgomery Street, wherever ther was room to work a six-shooter in comfâably? Johnson, of Petalunyâhim, ye know, ez had a game eyeâfetched Flynn cominâ outer meetinâ one Sunday, and it was only on account of his wife, and she a second-hand one, so to speak. There was Walker, of Contra Costa, plugged that young Sacramento chap, whose name I disremember, full oâ holes just ez HE was sayinâ âGood byâ to his darter. I mout hev done all this if it had settled things to please me. For while you and Flynn and that Sacramento chap ez all about the same sort oâ men, Roseyâs a different kind from their sort oâ women.â
âMademoiselle is an angel!â said de Ferrieres, suddenly rising, with an excess of extravagance. âA saint! Look! I cram the lie, ha! down his throat who challenges it.â
âEf by mamâselle ye mean my Rosey,â said Nott, quietly laying his powerful hands on de Ferrieresâs shoulders, and slowly pinning him down again upon his chair, âyeâre about right, though she ainât mamâselle yet. Ez I was sayinâ, I might hev killed you off-hand if I hed thought it would hev been a good thing for Rosey.â
âFor her? Ah, well! Look, I am ready,â interrupted de Ferrieres, again springing to his feet, and throwing open his coat with both hands. âSee! here at my heartâfire!â
âEz I was sayinâ,â continued Nott, once more pressing the excited man down in his chair, âI might hev wiped ye outâand mebbee ye wouldnât hev keeredâor YOU might hev wiped ME out, and I mout hev said, âThankâee,â but I reckon this ainât a case for whatâs comfâable for you and me. Itâs whatâs good for ROSEY. And the thing to kalkilate is, whatâs to be done.â
His small round eyes for the first time rested on de Ferrieresâs face, and were quickly withdrawn. It was evident that this abstracted look, which had fascinated his lodger, was merely a resolute avoidance of de Ferrieresâs glance, and it became apparent later that this avoidance was due to a ludicrous appreciation of de Ferrieresâs attractions.
âAnd after weâve done THAT we must kalkilate what Rosey is, and what Rosey wants. Pâraps, ye allow, YOU know what Rosey is? Pâraps youâve seen her prance round in velvet bonnets and white satin slippers, and sich. Pâraps youâve seen her readinâ tracks and vâyages, without waitinâ to spell a word, or catch her breath. But that ainât the Rosey ez I know. Itâs a little child ez uster crawl in and out the tail-board of a Mizzouri wagon on the alcali pizoned plains, where there wasnât another bit of Godâs mercy on yearth to be seen for miles and miles. Itâs a little gal as uster hunger and thirst ez quiet and mannerly ez she now eats and drinks in plenty; whose voice was ez steady with Injins yelling round her nest in the leaves on Sweetwater ez in her purty cabin up yonder. THATâS the gal ez I know! Thatâs the Rosey ez my ole woman puts into my arms one night arter we left Laramie when the fever was high, and sez, âAbner,â sez she, âthe chariot is swinginâ low for me to-night, but thar ainât room in it for her or you to git in or hitch on. Take her and rare her, so we kin all jine on the other shore,â sez she. And Iâd knowed the other shore wasnât no Kaliforny. And that night, pâraps, the chariot swung lower than ever before, and my ole woman stepped into it, and left me and Rosey to creep on in the old wagon alone. Itâs them kind oâ things,â added Mr. Nott thoughtfully, âthat seem to pint to my killinâ you on sight ez the best thing to be done. And yet Rosey mightnât like it.â
He had slipped one of his feet out of his huge carpet slippers, and, as he reached down to put it on again, he added calmly: âAnd ez to yer marrying HER it ainât to be done.â
The utterly bewildered expression which transfigured de Ferrieresâs face at this announcement was unobserved by Nottâs averted eyes, nor did he perceive that his listener the next moment straightened his erect figure and adjusted his cravat.
âEf Rosey,â he continued, âhez read in vyâges and tracks in Eyetalian and French countries of such chaps ez you and kalkilates youâre the right kind to tie to, mebbee it mout hev done if youâd been livinâ over thar in a pallis, but somehow it donât jibe in over here and agree with a shipâand that ship lying comfâable ashore in San Francisco. You donât seem to suit the climate, you see, and your general gait is likely to stampede the other cattle. Agin,â said Nott, with an ostentation of looking at his companion but really gazing on vacancy, âthis fixed up, antique style of yours goes better with them ivy kivered ruins in Rome and Palmyry that Roseyâs mixed you up with, than it would yere. I ainât saying,â he added as de Ferrieres was about to speak, âI ainât sayinâ ez that child ainât smitten with ye. It ainât no use to lie and say she donât prefer you to her old father, or young chaps of her own age and kind. Iâve seed it afor now. I suspicioned it afor I seed her slip out oâ this place to-night. Thar! keep your hair on, such ez it is!â he added as de Ferrieres attempted a quick deprecatory gesture. âI ainât askin yer how often she comes here, nor what she sez to you nor you to her. I ainât asked her and I donât ask you. Iâll allow ez youâve settled all the preliminaries and bought her the ring and sich; Iâm only askinâ you now, kalkilatin youâve got all the keerds in your own hand, what youâll take to step out and leave the board?â
The dazed look of de Ferrieres might have forced itself even upon Nottâs one-idead fatuity, had it not been a part of that gentlemanâs system delicately to look another way at that moment so as not to embarrass his adversaryâs calculation. âPardon,â stammered de Ferrieres, âbut I do not comprehend!â He raised his hand to his head. âI am not wellâI am stupid. Ah, mon Dieu!â
âI ainât sayinâ,â added Nott more gently, âez you donât feel bad. Itâs natâral. But it ainât business. Iâm asking you,â he continued, taking from his breast-pocket a large wallet, âhow much youâll take in cash now, and the rest next steamer day, to give up Rosey and leave the ship.â
De Ferrieres staggered to his feet despite Nottâs restraining hand. âTo leave Mademoiselle and leave the ship?â he said huskily, âis it not?â
âIn course. Yer can leave things yer just ez you found âem when you came, you know,â continued Nott, for the first time looking around the miserable apartment. âItâs a business job. Iâll take the bales back agâin, and you kin reckon up what youâre out, countinâ Rosey and loss oâ time.â
âHe wishes me to goâhe has said,â repeated de Ferrieres to
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