United States or Belize ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Popincourt's lodgings, and people turned to look at the pair, one carrying something covered with a white cloth, evidently a savoury dish of some kind the other with a cage in which a handsome canary hopped about, well pleased with the world. At Mme. Popincourt's door Mme. Glozel took the cage and went upstairs.
He began murmuring to himself, and a frown settled on his fore head. Mme. Glozel saw that she had perturbed him, and that no doubt she had roused some memories which made sombre the sunny little room where the canary sang; where, to ravish the eyes of the pessimist, was a picture of Louis XVI. going to heaven in the arms of St. Peter.
Glozel had said to her neighbours afterwards that the funeral cost over seventy-five dollars and had set up a stone to her memory on which was carved, "Chez nous autrefois, et chez Dieu maintenant" which was to say, "Our home once, and God's Home now." That done, with a sorrow which still had the peace of finality in his mind, he had turned his face to the West.
"The bird take him on my birthday to sing at her grave," he said to Mme. Glozel just before he went West. "It is in summer, my birthday, and you shall hear how he will sing there," he added in a low voice at the very door. Then he took out a ten-dollar bill, and would have given it to her to do this thing for him; but she would have none of his money.
Glozel; also all Carmen's clothes, except the dress she died in, he gave to Mme. Popincourt, on condition that she did not wear them till he had gone. The dress in which Carmen died he wrapped up carefully, with her few jewels and her wedding-ring, and gave the parcel to Mme. Glozel to care for till he should send for it or come again.
"The bird take him on my birthday to sing at her grave," he said to Mme. Glozel just before he went West. "It is in summer, my birthday, and you shall hear how he will sing there," he added in a low voice at the very door. Then he took out a ten-dollar bill, and would have given it to her to do this thing for him; but she would have none of his money.
It was towards the late afternoon of a Saturday, when the streets were full of people going to and from the shops in a marketing quarter, that Madame Glozel came to him and said: "M'sieu', I have an idea, and you will not think it strange, for you have a kind heart. There is a woman look you, it is a sad, sad story hers. She is ill and dying in a room a little way down the street.
Glozel's head was thrust out of the window three floors up, and she called to Jean Jacques to come quickly. As she bade him come, some strange premonition flashed to Jean Jacques, and with thumping heart he hastened up the staircase. Outside a bedroom door, Mme. Glozel met him. She was so excited she could only whisper. "Be very quiet," she said. "There is something strange.
Word Of The Day