United States or Mayotte ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Two looking-glasses were fixed against the walls, and in front of one of them was a sort of shelf, or dresser, covered with small pots of some ungodly looking materials of a pasty appearance rouge, grease-paint, cocoa-butter, and heaven knows what beside with black stuff, white stuff, yellow stuff, paint-brushes, gum-pots, powder-puffs, and discoloured rags spread about in not very picturesque confusion.
My kitchen was resplendent with saucepans, kettles, pots and pans, and plates and dishes, ranged upon the dresser, or hung from the walls. A joint of meat was always roasting before the fire, and a cook of my own race appeared to spend her life in basting it, for I never failed to find her thus employed when Rose was so kind as to take me into my kitchen.
"Yes it's that Italian who got away " Simultaneously with her last word, a succession of sharp cracks tumbled in through the open window. Kismine uttered a little cry, took a penny with fumbling fingers from a box on her dresser, and ran to one of the electric lights. In an instant the entire chateau was in darkness she had blown out the fuse. "Come on!" she cried to him.
Lawyer Quince dropped the hoe with a clatter and stood regarding her open-mouthed. He was a careful man with his property, and the stout door boasted a good lock. He sped to the house on tip-toe, and taking the key from its nail on the kitchen dresser returned to the shed, and after another puzzled glance at the sleeping girl locked her in.
The room was just as we had left it an April evening years ago, and on the dresser lay the great backgammon board, so dusty that one could not read the lettering on it; 'Life is like a game of hazard; the skilful player will make something of the worst of throws'; but what unskillful players we had been, how bad our throws, how little we had made of them!
But her mother came round to look for something in the drawers of the dresser, and as she passed her daughter she said in a low voice 'Sylvie, be a good lass. I set a deal o' store by learning, and father 'ud never send thee to school, as has stuck by me sore. If Philip, sitting with his back to them, heard these words he was discreet enough not to show that he heard.
"Good Lord!" said he, picking himself up, "what lungs she has got! I shall have a singing in my ears to my dying day. Yar! it went through my head like a knife." Sam picked up the cook, and she, after a time, picked up her pots, giving, however, an occasional squall, and holding on by the dresser, under the impression that another earthquake was coming.
The image of it grew in my mind: the mahogany bed with its poppy counterpane and creamy curtains, and the steps at the side by which she was wont to enter it; and the 'prie-dieu', whence her soul had been lifted up to God. And the dresser with her china and silver upon it, covered by years of dust. For I had once stolen the key from Willis's bunch, crept in, and crept out again, awed.
I went to the ladies, and there took them and walked to the Mayor's to show them the present, and then to the Dock, where Mr. Pierce, she being somewhat old and handsome, and painted and fine, and had a very handsome maid with her, which we take to be the marks of a bawd. But Mrs. Pierce says she is a stranger to her and met by chance in the coach, and pretends to be a dresser.
Soon she had the child in her bed and they were looking at pictures. Later she went back to her husband. It cost her no slight effort of will, and it was a relief to find him gone. On her dresser he had left a note: "I am sorry, dear it was all my fault. I was a fool a clumsy fool. But remember there is plenty of time and be certain absolutely that everything will be all right."
Word Of The Day