DOI article:
Greenwood, Frederick: The gospel of content
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21215#0018
14 The Gospel of Content
and since this poor little supper was a piece of fish scarce bigger
than her hand, it was all the more likely to spoil and the less
could be spared in damage. So I quietly took my seat in a position
which more naturally commanded the view out of window than or
the cooking Operations, and waited to be again addressed.
On the mantel-board a noisy little American clock ticked as ir
its mission was to hurry time rather than to measure it, the frying-
pan fizzed and bubbled without any abatement of its usual habit
or any sense of compunction, now and then the child tossed upon
the bed from one pretty attitude to another ; and that was all that
could be heard, for Madame Vernet's movements were as silent as
the movements of a shadow. In almost any part of that small
room she could be seen without direct looking; but at a moment
when she seemed Struck into a yet deeper silence, and because of
it, I ventured to turn upon her more than half an eye. Standing
rigidly still, she was staring at the door in an intensity of listening
that transfigured her. But the door was closed, and I with the
best of hearing directed to the same place could detect no new
sound : indeed, I dare swear that there was none. It was merely
accidental that just at this moment the child, with another toss of
the lovely black head, opened her eyes wide ; but it deepened the
impressiveness of the scene when her mother, seeing the little one
awake, placed a finger on her own lips as she advanced nearer to
the door. The gesture was for silence, and it was obeyed as if in
understood fear. But still there was nothing to be heard without,
unless it were a push of soft drizzle against the window-panes.
And this Madame Vernet herseif seemed to think when, after a
little while, she turned back to the fire—her eyes mere agates
again which had been all ablaze.
Stooping to the fender, she had now got her fish into one warm
plate, and had covered it with another, and had placed it on the
broad
and since this poor little supper was a piece of fish scarce bigger
than her hand, it was all the more likely to spoil and the less
could be spared in damage. So I quietly took my seat in a position
which more naturally commanded the view out of window than or
the cooking Operations, and waited to be again addressed.
On the mantel-board a noisy little American clock ticked as ir
its mission was to hurry time rather than to measure it, the frying-
pan fizzed and bubbled without any abatement of its usual habit
or any sense of compunction, now and then the child tossed upon
the bed from one pretty attitude to another ; and that was all that
could be heard, for Madame Vernet's movements were as silent as
the movements of a shadow. In almost any part of that small
room she could be seen without direct looking; but at a moment
when she seemed Struck into a yet deeper silence, and because of
it, I ventured to turn upon her more than half an eye. Standing
rigidly still, she was staring at the door in an intensity of listening
that transfigured her. But the door was closed, and I with the
best of hearing directed to the same place could detect no new
sound : indeed, I dare swear that there was none. It was merely
accidental that just at this moment the child, with another toss of
the lovely black head, opened her eyes wide ; but it deepened the
impressiveness of the scene when her mother, seeing the little one
awake, placed a finger on her own lips as she advanced nearer to
the door. The gesture was for silence, and it was obeyed as if in
understood fear. But still there was nothing to be heard without,
unless it were a push of soft drizzle against the window-panes.
And this Madame Vernet herseif seemed to think when, after a
little while, she turned back to the fire—her eyes mere agates
again which had been all ablaze.
Stooping to the fender, she had now got her fish into one warm
plate, and had covered it with another, and had placed it on the
broad