United States or Indonesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Good night," and she disappeared in the dark space she had opened, and closed the jalousies softly after her. Cissie Dildine's conviction that marriage would cure Peter of his mission persisted in the mulatto's mind long after the glamour of the girl had faded and his room had regained the bleak emptiness of a bachelor's bedchamber.
He saw a woman's figure standing close to the casement, and out of the darkness Cissie Dildine's voice asked in its careful English: "Peter, may I come in?" For a full thirty seconds Peter Siner stared at the girl at the window before, even with her prompting, he thought of the amenity of asking her to come inside. As a further delayed courtesy, he drew the Heppelwhite chair toward her.
"For a walk." The old negress tilted her head aslant and looked fixedly at him. "You's gwine to dat Cissie Dildine's, Peter." Peter looked at his mother, surprised and rather disconcerted that she had guessed his intentions from his mere footsteps. The young man changed his plans for his walk, and began a diplomatic denial: "No, I'm going to walk by myself. I'm tired; I'm played out."
Cissie Dildine's contribution tailed out the one hundred dollars that Peter needed, and after he had finished his meal, the mulatto set out across the Big Hill for the white section of the village, to complete his trade. It was Peter's program to go to the Planter's Bank, pay down his hundred, and receive a deed from one Elias Tomwit, which the bank held in escrow.
For some reason Peter felt that he should assume Tump's place as Cissie Dildine's husband and protector. Had Tump lived, Peter might have gone North in peace, if not in happiness. Now such a journey, without Cissie, had become impossible. He had a feeling that it would not be right. As for the disgrace of marrying such a woman as Cissie Dildine, Peter slowly gave that idea up.
Next day the Siner-Pack fight was the focus of news interest in Hooker's Bend. White mistresses extracted the story from their black maids, and were amused by it or deprecated Cissie Dildine's morals as the mood moved them. Along Main Street in front of the village stores, the merchants and hangers-on discussed the affair.
Word Of The Day