TOM SAWYER ABROAD TOM SAWYER, DETECTIVE
AND 16 OTHER STORIES - online book

Home Main Menu Order Support About Search



Share page  


Previous Contents Next

414 Loves of A. Fitz Clarence and Rosa Ethelton
Clarence. There ! You are both good people, and I like you; so I am going to trust you together while I attend to a few household affairs. Sit down, Rosannah ; sit down, Alonzo. Good-bye; I sha'n't be gone long."
Alonzo had been bowing and smiling all the while, and motioning imaginary young ladies to sit down in imaginary chairs, but now he took a seat himself, mentally saying, "Oh, this is luck! Let the winds blow now, and the snow drive, and the heavens frown! Little I care!"
While these young people chat themselves into an acquaintanceship, let us take the liberty of inspecting the sweeter and fairer of the two. She sat alone, at her graceful ease, in a richly furnished apartment which was manifestly the private parlor of a refined and sensi­ble lady, if signs and symbols may go for anything. For instance, by a low, comfortable chair stood a dainty, top-heavy workstand, whose summit was a fan­cifully embroidered shallow basket, with varicolored crewels, and other strings and odds and ends protrud­ing from under the gaping lid and hanging down in negligent profusion. On the floor lay bright shreds of Turkey red, Prussian blue, and kindred fabrics, bits of ribbon, a spool or two, a pair of scissors, and a roll or so of tinted silken stuffs. On a luxurious sofa, up­holstered with some sort of soft Indian goods wrought in black and gold threads interwebbed with other threads not so pronounced in color, lay a great square of coarse white stuff, upon whose surface a rich bou­quet of flowers was growing, under the deft cultivation of the crochet-needle. The household cat was asleep on this work of art. In a bay-window stood an easel with an unfinished picture on it, and a palette and brushes on a chair beside it. There were books every­where: Robertson's Sermons, Tennyson, Moody and