What a fool she had been to think she could go with her, he would sanction
everything at oncehe answered. to Atlanta and have him for the asking, she withher scrawny neck and hungry cat eyes and raggedy dress! If she hadn’t been able to pry a proposalfrom him at the height of her beauty, when she had her prettiest clothes, how could she expect toget one now when she was ugly and dressed tackily? If Miss Pitty’s story was true, he must havemore money than anyone in Atlanta and probably had his pick of all the pretty ladies, good andbad. Well, she thought grimly, I’ve got something that most pretty ladies haven’t got—and that’s amind that’s made up. And if I had just’ one nice dress—There wasn’t a nice dress in Tara or a dress which hadn’t been turned twice and mended.
“That’s that,” she thought, disconsolately looking down at the floor. She saw Ellen’s moss-greenvelvet carpet, now worn and scuffed and torn and spotted from the numberless men who had sleptupon it, and the sight depressed her more, for it made her realize that Tara was just as ragged as she. The whole darkening room depressed her and, going to the window, she raised the sash,unlatched the shutters and let the last light of the wintry sunset into the room. She closed thewindow and leaned her head against the velvet curtains and looked out across the bleak of the burying ground.
The moss-green velvet curtains felt prickly and soft beneath her cheek and she rubbed her faceagainst them gratefully, like a cat And then suddenly she looked at them.
|
收藏
推
噓