"Sorensen, Virginia - Plain Girl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sorensen Virginia)

Esther was sitting up too, and saw Ruth get out of bed and run to the window. It was like a strange dream. Ruth flung the window wide to the night and spoke
out of it. "Yes! Yes, I am coming down!" she called. Her teeth were chattering, but she laughed and turned as if she were dancing and leaned down and kissed
Esther upon the mouth. "Go back to sleep now, my dear," she said. "Esther, do you know it is Hans out there? He has come for me!"

How beautiful Ruth looked, there in the light in her white nightgown, laughing, her hands trembling. Her hair was hanging down to her waist and she gathered
it up and tucked it under her cap properly. She put on her clothes as if it were day again already. Esther heard her go into the hall and knew how she

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must feel her way down the dark stairs. A door opened and closed again. Then voices, at first excited and then gradually quiet. Hans' voice. Then Ruth's
voice. Like Father's and Mother's earlier, turn and turn about, but mostly Hans did the talking and Ruth said, "Yes, yes." Esther knew without hearing
the words. Not one sound came from her parents' room; in the morning they must pretend to be surprised to find Hans there.

Now, Esther thought, there would be a wedding in this very house. Then Ruth would go away, but she would not be sorry to go now, because she would be going
with Hans, her sweetheart. For the rest of the night they would make their plans. They would decide when to announce their coming marriage. They would
decide on which Tuesday or which Thursday in November they would have their wedding. They would decide what relatives they would go to visit, first, second,
third. They would talk about building a house and where they would live until it was finished.

Esther could hardly wait until it should be light and time to go down. At breakfast there would be laughter and happiness today, and all the plans would
be told.

Some day- The thought was so strange and .wonderful that Esther sat up in bed again. Some day when

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she had finished at the school and had filled a huge carved chest with things she had made, somebody would come and shine a light into this same window
for her. Whoever would it be? Somebody short and plump like Hans? No, no. Somebody tall and handsome and full of gay spirits and laughter. Like Dan . .
.

She lay down again, for the nights were getting cooler lately, but she was not sleepy in the least. It wasn't of Ruth she was thinking now, but only of
Dan. At school, he had said, he was called Dan instead of Daniel, and liked it very much. She had called him Dan when they were alone; that was one of
their secrets together. Now it was always as Dan that she thought of him.

Why couldn't he have stayed here at home until he could go with Sarah, who loved him? He could have gone, then, to a fine new house on the place Father
had planned he should have for his own. All the People would have been singing and laughing and playing games at his wedding, and his old friends would
have tossed him over the fence. Father would have smiled, and Mother, and everybody, and they could all pay visits after the wedding, back and forth.

How was it for Dan now? How had it been to go?

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And where? How? Often Esther seemed to be speaking to him. Among what people do you sing now, Dan, with your big voice? Who hears you laughing? Who cares
what you eat, and what you wear, and whether you are warm enough when you go to bed at night?

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Some people come and go and it never matters very much, except, of course, to the few who love them in their family. But when Dan came or went, everybody