The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lifted Masks, by Susan Glaspell
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Title: Lifted Masks
Stories
Author: Susan Glaspell
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7368]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on April 21, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFTED MASKS ***
Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
LIFTED MASKS
STORIES BY
SUSAN GLASPELL
1912
[Dedication]
To
THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND
JENNIE PRESTON
CONTENTS
I
"ONE OF THOSE IMPOSSIBLE AMERICANS"
II
THE PLEA
III FOR LOVE OF THE HILLS
IV
FRECKLES M'GRATH
V
FROM A TO Z
VI
THE MAN OF FLESH AND BLOOD
VII HOW THE PRINCE SAW AMERICA
VIII THE LAST SIXTY MINUTES
IX
"OUT THERE"
X
THE PREPOSTEROUS MOTIVE
XI
HIS AMERICA
XII THE ANARCHIST: HIS DOG
XIII AT TWILIGHT
LIFTED MASKS
I"ONE OF THOSE IMPOSSIBLE AMERICANS"
"N'avez-vous pas--" she was bravely demanding of the clerk when she
saw that the bulky American who was standing there helplessly
dangling two flaming red silk stockings which a copiously coiffured
young woman assured him were _bien chic_ was edging nearer her.
She was never so conscious of the truly American quality of her
French as when a countryman was at hand. The French themselves had
an air of "How marvellously you speak!" but fellow Americans
listened superciliously in an "I can do better than that myself"
manner which quite untied the Gallic twist in one's tongue. And so,
feeling her French was being compared, not with mere French itself,
but with an arrogant new American brand thereof, she moved a little
around the corner of the counter and began again in lower voice:
"_Mais, n'avez_--"
"Say, Young Lady," a voice which adequately represented the figure
broke in, "_you_, aren't French, are you?"
She looked up with what was designed for a haughty stare. But what
is a haughty stare to do in the face of a broad grin? And because it
was such a long time since a grin like that had been grinned at her
it happened that the stare gave way to a dimple, and the dimple to a
laughing: "Is it so bad as that?"
"Oh, not your French," he assured her. "You talk it just like the
rest of them. In fact, I should say, if anything--a little more so.
But do you know,"--confidentially--"I can just spot an American girl
every time!"
"How?" she could not resist asking, and the modest black hose she
was thinking of purchasing dangled against his gorgeous red ones in
friendliest fashion.
"Well, Sir--I don't know. I don't think it can be the
clothes,"--judicially surveying her.
"The clothes," murmured Virginia, "were bought in Paris."
"Well, you've got _me_. Maybe it's the way you wear 'em. Maybe
it's 'cause you look as if you used to play tag with your brother.
Something--anyhow--gives a fellow that 'By jove there's an American
girl!' feeling when he sees you coming round the corner."
"But why--?"
"Lord--don't begin on _why_. You can say _why_ to
anything. Why don't the French talk English? Why didn't they lay
Paris out at right angles? Now look here, Young Lady, for that
matter--_why_ can't you help me buy some presents for my wife?
There'd be nothing wrong about it," he hastened to assure her,
"because my wife's a mighty fine woman."
The very small American looked at the very large one. Now Virginia
was a well brought up young woman. Her conversations with strange
men had been confined to such things as, "Will you please tell me
the nearest way to--?" but preposterously enough--she could not for
the life of her have told why--frowning upon this huge American--fat
was the literal word--who stood there with puckered-up face swinging
the flaming hose would seem in the same shameful class with snubbing
the little boy who confidently asked her what kind of ribbon to buy
for his mother.
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Lifted Masks; stories by Glaspell, Susan, 1882-1948
655 Reads
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