The Brass Bed
- Автор: Флора Флетчер
- Год: 1956
- Язык: английский
- Год: Lion Books
- Жанр: Романы для взрослых
Электронная книга - «The Brass Bed». Краткое содержание книги:
...and the root of it all lay hidden in the secret of THE BRASS BED.
When I awoke in the morning, which was the morning of Sunday, it was just beginning to get light, even though the days were still long, and so I knew it was very early. I dressed and made some coffee and drank it and thought about going to Jolly’s. Since it was so early, I decided that I would walk in order to give time a chance to pass, and I went downstairs and started. It was quite a long way and took quite a long while, but when I got there it was still very early to be getting anywhere on a Sunday morning. I rang the bell and waited, but no one came. There was usually a maid around, but she only came in during the day, and chances were she didn’t come in at all Sundays, and at any rate she certainly wasn’t there at this time. Trying the door and finding it unlocked in keeping with Jolly’s fine attitude of indifference toward such things, I opened it and went into the hall and upstairs to the hall there and down the hall to Jolly’s room.
To that time, I had never been in the room, though I had received a couple of invitations, and I stopped inside the door and looked at things. There were some sleek, low pieces of furniture nestled in the deep pile of a white carpet, and across the room between two windows, as incongruous as an old-fashioned spittoon in a modern lounge, was a high brass bed with a high polish, and in the bed, an orchid growing in the spittoon, was Jolly asleep.
I went over and sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her, and she looked like a small girl, a child, and very lovely. I wanted to kiss her, but I didn’t, and she must have felt me there, a feeling that penetrated sleep and drew her slowly to awareness, because after a while her eyes opened and widened as she looked up at me, and she smiled slowly and lifted her arms.
“Darling,” she said.
“I was just sitting here wanting to kiss you,” I said.
“Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Why not? You know very well that I am always more than willing. Would you like to kiss me now?”
“Yes.”
“Then I suggest that you do it at once.”
I did. I leaned over and kissed her and sat up again.
“I’m very happy that you’ve come,” she said.
“Are you?”
“Yes, I am. Very happy. Would you like to come to bed with me?”
“I would like to, but I won’t.”
“Why are you here, then? It must be very early.”
“It’s pretty early, all right. I came because I wanted to see you and couldn’t wait any longer.”
“That’s nice. It gives me pleasure to know that you want to see me. Have you been here before? I can’t quite remember.”
“No. This is the first time.”
“Well, it is good that you are getting used to it immediately now that things have changed for the better. Do you like my room?”
“I like it fine, but there is something about it that I can’t understand.”
“What is it?”
“This bed. It’s old-fashioned and ugly and doesn’t fit.”
“It is not ugly. As I see it, it is beautiful.”
“Really? How do you see it?”
“What I mean is, it has significance and stands for something.”
“I’m afraid I still don’t understand.”
“Do you want to? Are you sure you actually do? I’ll explain it if you do, because I love you and will tell you anything, but perhaps it is something you should simply quit wondering about.”
“No. I would rather understand about it.”
“All right, then. It is necessary to tell you that I was very poor as a child. Do you know what poor means? Sometimes it means not having anything but what is necessary, but other times it means not even having the necessary things, and that is what it meant in my case. I didn’t have any father that I can remember, you understand, and my mother worked around at things but was unable to earn much money. This was her bed. I bought it for her when I was quite young. All her life she had wanted a bright brass bed, because it was to her a symbol of luxury and amounting to something, and it’s rather pathetic to think that such a thing could be such a symbol, and maybe that will make you understand how bad it was with her. She got sick and was dying, and it didn’t look like she was ever going to have the brass bed, so I went out and got it for her. Fortunately, I was very pretty, and once I had got the idea of how to do it, it was not difficult. I went out and met this man who had quite a lot of money, and he gave me some of it when he was finished with me. He was not a bad sort of man, quite generous and considerate, and I remember him kindly. With the money he gave me, I was able to buy the brass bed, and my mother slept in it for almost a year and died in it, and it made her happy.”
She stopped telling me about it, and her eyes were deep and quiet and did not seem to mirror pain or regret or any particular pride, and I felt sick, and I loved her, but it was an afflicted love.
“All right,” I said. “You don’t have to tell any more.”
“Well, there really isn’t anything more to tell. Do you mind a great deal that I got the bed the way I did?”
“I think I can understand it.”
“Honestly? Do you also understand why I have kept it and why it is significant?”
“Yes. It is a symbol of having plenty instead of nothing or very little. As things developed, it became the symbol of Kirby’s money. I told you two days ago that you would not divorce him because of the money, just as you will not give up this bed as the symbol of it, and that is now more apparent to me than ever.”
“I concede that it’s true, and the part about the religion was only something I tried to believe. Fortunately, however, it is now not necessary either to divorce Kirby or to give up the money. Everything has suddenly become quite simple.”
“Has it?”
“Yes, of course it has. Surely you can see that.”
“I was wondering if everything hasn’t become hopelessly complicated.”
“Oh, nonsense, Felix. Why do you want to talk like that? It is apparent that we can now get married comfortably, and that’s all there is to it.”
“Don’t you think we had at least better wait until after Kirby’s body has been found?”
She took a deep breath and held it for a moment, and a little color came out in spots above the bones of her cheeks, and I thought at first that she was angry, but then I saw that she was only puzzled and perhaps a little hurt.
“Why did you say that?” she said. “Do you think that I should be sorry that Kirby is dead?”
“It’s not a small thing for a man to die. Maybe we should all be sorry.”
“I can’t follow that, Felix. I really can’t. It is quite obvious that he was an impediment and that everything is much better now that he is dead. Why on earth should we be sorry?”