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In the Closed Room
by
The room was rather large and the light in it was dim. There were no shutters, but the blinds were drawn down. Judith went to one of the windows and drew its blind up so that the look of the place might be clear to her. There were two windows and they opened upon the flat roof of an extension, which suggested somehow that it had been used as a place to walk about in. This, at least, was what Judith thought of at once–that some one who had used the room had been in the habit of going out upon the roof and staying there as if it had been a sort of garden. There were rows of flower pots with dead flowers in them–there were green tubs containing large shrubs, which were dead also–against the low parapet certain of them held climbing plants which had been trained upon it. Two had been climbing roses, two were clematis, but Judith did not know them by name. The ledge of the window was so low that a mere step took her outside. So taking it, she stood among the dried, withered things and looked in tender regret at them.
“I wish they were not dead,” she said softly to the silence. “It would be like a garden if they were not dead.”
The sun was hot, but a cool, little breeze seemed straying up from among the trees of the Park. It even made the dried leaves of the flowers tremble and rustle a little. Involuntarily she lifted her face to the blue sky and floating white clouds. They seemed so near that she felt almost as if she could touch them with her hand. The street seemed so far–so far below–the whole world seemed far below. If one stepped off the parapet it would surely take one a long time to reach the earth. She knew now why she had come up here. It was so that she might feel like this–as if she was upheld far away from things–as if she had left everything behind–almost as if she had fallen awake again. There was no perfume in the air, but all was still and sweet and clear.
Suddenly she turned and went into the room again, realizing that she had scarcely seen it at all and that she must see and know it. It was not like any other room she had seen. It looked more simple, though it was a pretty place. The walls were covered with roses, there were bright pictures, and shelves full of books. There was also a little writing desk and there were two or three low chairs, and a low table. A closet in a corner had its door ajar and Judith could see that inside toys were piled together. In another corner a large doll’s house stood, looking as if some one had just stopped playing with it. Some toy furniture had been taken out and left near it upon the carpet.
“It was a little girl’s room,” Judith said. “Why did they close it?”
Her eye was caught by something lying on a sofa–something covered with a cloth. It looked almost like a child lying there asleep–so fast asleep that it did not stir at all. Judith moved across to the sofa and drew the cloth aside. With its head upon a cushion was lying there a very large doll, beautifully dressed in white lace, its eyes closed, and a little wreath of dead flowers in its hair.
“It looks almost as if it had died too,” said Judith.
She did not ask herself why she said “as if it had died too”–perhaps it was because the place was so still–and everything so far away–that the flowers had died in the strange, little deserted garden on the roof.
She did not hear any footsteps–in fact, no ghost of a sound stirred the silence as she stood looking at the doll’s sleep–but quite quickly she ceased to bend forward, and turned round to look at something which she knew was near her. There she was–and it was quite natural she should be there–the little girl with the face like a white flower, with the quantity of burnished coppery hair and the smile which deepened the already deep dimple near her mouth.