Reed Old Rose and Silver

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-91-7639-377-2
Verlag: SAGA Egmont
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 162 Seiten

Reihe: Svenska Ljud Classica

Old Rose and Silver is a novel by Myrtle Reed first published in 1909. The novel follows the lives of Rose and her widowed Aunt, Madame Francesca Bernard, along with young visitor and cousin Isabel, whose lives are changed by the return of an old friend and neighbour Colonel Kent, and his grown son, Allison. Other characters that help shape their lives in significant ways are the Crosby twins, unconventional and uninhibited youths that set society at naught, and an unconventional doctor who specializes in the impossible. Through the limited 'wide scope' descriptions the reader is not sure of the historical setting or even in which decade it's set, but it helps to understand the focus of the story; after all it's about their own little world, and how their own hearts and lives fit together in the tight confines of their town, their garden, their friendships and lives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Reed, Myrtle

Leseproben

Chapter II - WELCOME HOME
"Great news, my dears, great news!" cried Madame Bernard, gaily waving an open letter as she came into the room where Rose was sewing and Isabel experimenting with a new coiffure. "I'll give you three guesses!" "Somebody coming for a visit?" asked Isabel. "Wrong!" "Somebody coming, but not for a visit?" queried Rose. "You're getting warmer." "How can anybody come, if not for a visit?" inquired Isabel, mildly perplexed. "That is, unless it's a messenger?" "The old Kent house is to be opened," said Madame, "and we're to open it. At last we shall have neighbours!" "How exciting," Rose answered. She did not wholly share the old lady's pleasure, and wondered with a guilty consciousness of the long hours she spent at her music, whether Aunt Francesca had been lonely. "Listen, girls!" Madame's cheeks were pink with excitement as she sat down with the letter, which had been written in Paris. "MY DEAR MADAME FRANCESCA: "'At last we are coming home—Allison and I. The boy has a fancy to see Spring come again on his native heath, so we shall sail earlier than we had otherwise planned. "'I wonder, my dear friend, if I dare ask you to open the house for us? I am so tired of hotels that I want to go straight back. You have the keys and if you will engage the proper number of servants and see that the place is made habitable, I shall be more than ever your debtor. I will cable you when we start. "'Trusting that all is well with you and yours and with many thanks, believe me, my dear Madame, "'Most faithfully yours, "'RICHARD KENT.'" "How like a man," smiled Rose. "That house has been closed for over ten years, and he thinks there is nothing to be done but to unlock the front door and engage two or three servants who may or may not be trustworthy." "What an imposition!" Isabel said. "Aunt Francesca, didn't I meet Allison Kent when I was here before?" "I've forgotten." "Don't you remember? Mother brought me here once when I was a little tot. We stayed about a week and the roses were all in bloom. I can see the garden now. Allison used to come over sometimes and tell me fairy stories. He told me that the long, slender gold-trimmed bottles filled with attar of roses came from the roots of the rose bushes—don't you remember? And I pulled up rose bushes all over the garden to find out." "Dear me, yes," smiled Aunt Francesca. "How time does fly!" "You were very cross with Allison—that is, as cross as you ever could be. It seemed so queer for you to be angry at him and not at me, for I pulled up the bushes." "You were sufficiently punished, Isabel. I believe the thorns hurt your little hands, didn't they?" "They certainly did," responded the girl, with a little shudder at the recollection. "I have a scar still. That was—let me see—why, it was fifteen years ago!" "Just before I came to live with Aunt Francesca," said Rose. "You and your mother went away the same day." "Yes, we went in the morning," Isabel continued, "and you were to come in the afternoon. I remember pleading with my mother to let me stay long enough to see 'Cousin Wose.'" "Fifteen years!" Madame repeated. "Allison went abroad, then, to study the violin, and the house has been open only once since. Richard came back for a Summer, to attend to some business, then returned to Europe. How the time goes by!" The letter fell to the floor and Francesca sat dreaming over the interlude of years. Colonel Kent had been her husband's best friend, and after the pitiless sword had cleaved her life asunder, had become hers. At forty the Colonel had married a young and beautiful girl. A year later Francesca had gone to him with streaming eyes, carrying his new- born son in her arms, to tell him that his wife was dead. Drawn together by sorrow, the two had been as dear to each other as friends may be but seldom are. Though childless herself, Francesca had some of the gifts of motherhood, and, at every step, she had aided and counselled the Colonel in regard to his son, who had his mother's eyes and bore his mother's name. Discerning the boy's talent, long before his father suspected it, she had chosen the violin for him rather than the piano, and had herself urged the Colonel to take him abroad for study though the thought of separation caused her many a pang. When the two sailed away, Francesca had found her heart strangely empty; her busy hands strangely idle. But Life had taught her one great lesson, and when one door of her heart was closed, she opened another, as quickly as possible. So she sent for Rose, who was alone in the world, and, for fifteen years, the two women had lived happily together. As she sat there, thinking, some of her gay courage failed her. For the moment her mask was off, and in the merciless sunlight, she looked old and worn. Rose, looking at her with tender pity, marvelled at the ignorance of man, in asking a frail little old lady to open and make habitable, in less than a fortnight, a house of fifteen large rooms. "Aunt Francesca," she said, "let me open the house. Tell me what you want done, and Isabel and I will see to it." "Certainly," agreed Isabel without enthusiasm. "We'll do it." "No," Madame replied stubbornly. "He asked me to do it." "He only meant for you to direct," said Rose. "You surely don't think he meant you to do the scrubbing?" Madame smiled at that, and yielded gracefully. "There must be infinite scrubbing, after all these years. I believe I'll superintend operations from here. Then, when it's all done, I'll go over and welcome them home." "That is as it should be. Isabel and I will go over this afternoon, and when we come back, we can tell you all about it." "You'd better drive—I'm sure the paths aren't broken." So, after luncheon, the two started out with the keys, Madame waving them a cheery good-bye from the window. "Everything about this place seems queer to me," said Isabel. "It's the same, and yet not the same." "I know," Rose answered. "Things are much smaller, aren't they?" "Yes. The rooms used to be vast and the ceilings very far away. Now, they're merely large rooms with the ceilings comfortably high. The garden used to seem like a huge park, but now it's only a large garden. There used to be a great many steps in the stairway, and high ones at that. Now it's nothing compared with other flights. Only Aunt Francesca remains the same. She hasn't changed at all." "She's a saint," said Rose with deep conviction, as the carriage turned into the driveway. The house, set far back from the street, was of the true Colonial type, with stately white pillars at the dignified entrance. The garden was a tangled mass of undergrowth—in spite of the snow one could see that— but the house, being substantially built, had changed scarcely at all. "A new coat of paint will freshen it up amazingly," said Rose, as they went up the steps. She was thrilled with a mysterious sense of adventure which the younger woman did not share. "I feel like a burglar," she continued, putting the key into the rusty lock. "I feel cold," remarked Isabel, shivering in her furs. At last the wide door swung on its creaking hinges and they went into the loneliness and misery of an empty house. The dust of ages had settled upon everything and penetrated every nook and cranny. The floors groaned dismally, and the scurrying feet of mice echoed through the walls. Cobwebs draped the windows, where the secret spinners had held high carnival, undisturbed. An indescribable musty odour almost stifled them and the chill dampness carried with it a sense of gloom and foreboding. "My goodness!" Isabel exclaimed. "Nobody can ever live here again." "Don't be discouraged," laughed Rose. "Soap, water, sunshine, and fire can accomplish miracles." At the end of the hall a black, empty fireplace yawned cavernously. There was another in the living-room and still another in the library back of it. Isabel opened the door on the left. "Why, there's another fireplace in the dining-room," she said. "Do you suppose they have one in the kitchen, too?" "Go in and see, if you like." "I'm afraid to go alone. You come, too." There was no fireplace in the kitchen, but the rusty range was sadly in need of repair. "I'm going down cellar," Rose said. "Are you coming?" "I should say not. Hurry back, won't you?" Rose went cautiously down the dark, narrow stairway. The light was dim in the basement but she could see that there was no coal. She went back and forth several times from bin to window, making notes in a small memorandum book. She was quite determined that Aunt Francesca should be able to find no fault with her housekeeping. When she went back, there were no signs of Isabel. She went from room to room, calling, then concluded that she had gone back to the carriage, which was waiting outside. Rose took measurements for new curtains in all the rooms on the lower floor, then climbed the creaking stairway. She came upon Isabel in the sitting-room, upstairs, standing absorbed before an open desk. In her hand she held something which gleamed brightly, even in the gathering shadow. "Isabel!" she cried, in astonishment. The girl turned and came forward. Her eyes were sparkling. "Look! There's a secret drawer in the desk and I found...