The Loom of Destiny
Tiddlywinks said nothing, but he watched the tall man with the white teeth as a cat watches a mouse. Even his mamma at last noticed it, and made it a rule to send him up to bed immediately dinner was finished. There he used to roll and toss, and think of the burning injustice of it all, and wonder what his papa would say if he only knew. Then he would sit up in bed and listen to the sound of the music, while his mamma was singing down in the drawing-room. He was passionately fond of hearing his mamma sing, and after a time he grew bolder and used to go out and stand at the banister of the stairway and listen. Then he would steal downstairs, and even creep up the dim hallway, and push under the portière and stand there motionless, in his long, white nightgown, listening with rapt attention. As soon as he saw the music was ending, he would slip back through the doorway and run shivering up to bed.
One night, as he climbed the stairs after the singing had come to an end, he stopped and listened, for he heard his mamma talking in a frightened way.
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