The Project Gutenberg EBook of Balcony Stories, by Grace E. King

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Title: Balcony Stories

Author: Grace E. King

Release Date: March 8, 2004 [EBook #11514]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BALCONY STORIES ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Bradley Norton and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

BALCONY STORIES

BY

GRACE KING

1892

CONTENTS

THE BALCONY

A DRAMA OF THREE

LA GRANDE DEMOISELLE

MIMI'S MARRIAGE

THE MIRACLE CHAPEL

THE STORY OF A DAY

ANNE MARIE AND JEANNE MARIE

A CRIPPLED HOPE

"ONE OF US"

THE LITTLE CONVENT GIRL

GRANDMOTHER'S GRANDMOTHER

THE OLD LADY'S RESTORATION

A DELICATE AFFAIR

PUPASSE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"WALKING AWAY WITH A SHRUG OF THE SHOULDERS"

"WHERE IS THAT IDIOT, THAT DOLT, THAT SLUGGARD, THAT SNAIL, WITH MY
MAIL?"

CHAMPIGNY

"I WEPT, I WEPT, I WEPT"

"HER HEART DROVE HER TO THE WINDOW"

"ALL THAT DAY WAS DESPONDENCY, DEJECTION"

"THIS TIME WE HAVE CAUGHT IT!"

"THE QUIET, DIM-LIGHTED ROOM OF A CONVALESCENT"

"LITTLE MAMMY"

"TO POSE IN ABJECT PATIENCE AND AWKWARDNESS"

THE SISTERS BID HER GOOD-BY

WATCHING A LANDING

"TURNED TO HER DOMESTIC DUTIES"

THE ROOM IN THE OLD GALLERY

THE FIRST COMMUNION

BALCONY STORIES

THE BALCONY

There is much of life passed on the balcony in a country where the
summer unrolls in six moon-lengths, and where the nights have to come
with a double endowment of vastness and splendor to compensate for the
tedious, sun-parched days.

And in that country the women love to sit and talk together of summer
nights, on balconies, in their vague, loose, white garments,--men
are not balcony sitters,--with their sleeping children within easy
hearing, the stars breaking the cool darkness, or the moon making a
show of light--oh, such a discreet show of light!--through the vines.
And the children inside, waking to go from one sleep into another,
hear the low, soft mother-voices on the balcony, talking about this
person and that, old times, old friends, old experiences; and it seems
to them, hovering a moment in wakefulness, that there is