The Doom Stone by Cornell Woolrich

Author:Cornell Woolrich [Woolrich, Cornell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cornell Woolrich, The Doom Stone, Diamond, Hindi, New Orleans, Paris, Tokyo
Publisher: Renaissance Literary & talent in conjunction with the proprietor
Published: 2019-07-19T07:00:00+00:00

My dear Mr. Waters:

I must ask you to discontinue your visits.

Sincerely,

Amelia Prival

It fell out of his hands, he was so taken aback. Aunt Judith quickly stooped down and picked it up. "Ah'se also got another message, an extra-special one whut ain't writ down. She say not to pay no 'tention to dis-heah one; she make her write it. She say to wait in de garden till you see de window of her room light up—"

His face brightened again, and he passed the gardenias to her. "Take these in to her, anyway."

"Ah put 'em up in her room, so she see 'em when she go upstairs. De party whut detaining her ain't going to linger long, she going to feel a headache comin' on and ax to be excuse'; Ah know dat fo' sure."

Then, as she swiveled around to return to the house, she delivered another explosive slap at the gardener's unprotected head.

"Ah ain't said nothin'," he whined. "Why you do like that?"

"If you has, den take dat! And if you ain't, den take dat anyway!" And as she retired up the driveway she grunted something about "—traipsin' around wid dem up-river gals all dese years!"

"Ah don't think that woman got any use fo' me," he said plaintively to Waters, rubbing his skull.

As Aunt Judith passed the open door of the drawing room a moment later, she managed to hold the platter of gardenias up so Amelia Prival could see them. Dillon was sitting with his back to the door, in the act of extending a small, open white-velvet case lined in satin. "I didn't have it set," he was purring, "because you might have some preference of your own. It was purchased for me by one of my agents—"

The girl's eyes, however, were not even resting on the object in the case. They were crinkled appreciatively at the inexpensive creamy-white flowers she discerned in the dim hallway beyond. Her hand rose to her throat in a gesture of gratified pleasure. Aunt Judith was pointing in the direction of the garden from which she had just come, then pointing overhead to the room above, in strenuous pantomime. She whisked from sight like something strung on wires, just as Mrs. Prival's nasal Northern twang sounded from a hidden corner of the room where she was sitting looking on. "Amelia, Mr. Dillon is speaking to you! How kind of you, Mr. Dillon. What a beautiful diamond. Of course she accepts it!"

When Aunt Judith came downstairs again a few minutes later, without the gardenias, she was just in time to see the "Yankee Woman," as she called her, coyly backing out of the room, remarking with roguishly upthrust finger, "I know you two young people want to be alone together." She drew the two halves of the sliding door together, turned away and asked the mammy: "Did that shiftless young Southerner have the gall to come around calling on her this evening?"

"No ma'm, Ah ain't seen him," said Judith blandly, being a firm believer in telling a lie when it was in a good cause.

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