William Faulkner, SANCTUARY â WordPress.com - literature save 2

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"Where did he think you were?" "He thought I was in school." "You were in hiding, then, because something had happened to you and you dared not--" "I object!" Horace said. "The question is lead--" "Sustained," the Court said. "I have been on the point of warning you for some time, Mr. Attorney, but defendant would not take exception for some reason." The District Attorney bowed toward the Bench. He turned to the witness and held her eyes again. "Where were you on Sunday morning, May twelfth?" "I was in the crib." The room sighed, its collective breath hissing in the musty silence. Some new<strong>com</strong>ers entered, but they stopped at the rear of the room in a clump and stood there. Temple's head had moved again. The District Attorney caught her gaze and held it. He half turned and pointed at Goodwin. "Did you ever see that man before?" She gazed at the District Attorney, her face quite rigid, empty. From a short distance her eyes, the two spots of rouge and her mouth, were like five meaningless objects in a small heart-shaped dish. "Look where I am pointing." "Yes." "Where did you see him?" "In the crib." "What were you doing in the crib?" "I was hiding." "Who were you hiding from?" "From him." "That man there? Look where I am pointing." "Yes." "But he found you." "Yes." "Was anyone else there?" "Tommy was. He said--" "Was he inside the crib or outside?" "He was outside by the door. He was watching. He said he wouldn't let--" "Just a minute. Did you ask him not to let anyone in?" "Yes." "And he locked the door on the outside?" "Yes. "But Goodwin came in." "Yes." "Did he have anything in his hand?" "He had the pistol." "Did Tommy try to stop him?" "Yes. He said he--" "Wait. What did he do to Tommy?" She gazed at him.
"He had the pistol in his hand. What did he do then?" "He shot him." The District Attorney stepped aside. At once the girl's gaze went to the back of the room and became fixed there. The District Attorney returned, stepped into her line of vision. She moved her head; he caught her gaze and held it and lifted the stained corncob before her eyes. The room sighed, a long hissing breath. "Did you ever see this before?" "Yes." The District Attorney turned away. "Your honor and gentlemen, you have listened to this horrible, this unbelievable, story which this young girt has told you; you have seen the evidence and heard the doctor's testimony; I shall no longer subject this ruined, defenseless child to the agony of--" he ceased; the heads turned as one and watched a man <strong>com</strong>e stalking up the aisle toward the Bench. He walked steadily, paced and followed by a slow gaping of the small white faces, a slow hissing of collars. He had neat white hair and a clipped moustache like a bar of hammered silver against his dark skin. His eyes were pouched a little. A small paunch was buttoned snugly into his immaculate linen suit. He carried a panama hat in one hand and a slender black stick in the other. He walked steadily up the aisle in a slow expulsion of silence like a prolonged sigh, looking to neither side. He passed the witness stand without a glance at the witness, who still gazed at something in the back of the room, walking right through her line of vision like a runner crossing a tape, and stopped before the bar above which the Court had half-risen, his arms on the desk. "Your Honor," the old man said, "is the Court done with this witness?" "Yes, sir, Judge," the Court said; "yes, sir. Defendant, do you waive--" The old man turned slowly, erect above the held breaths, the little white faces, and looked down at the six people at the counsel table. Behind him the witness had not moved. She sat in her attitude of childish immobility, gazing like a drugged person above the faces, toward the rear of the room. The old man turned to her and extended his hand. She did not move. The room expelled its breath, sucked it quickly in and held it again. The old man touched her arm. She turned her head toward him, her eyes blank and all pupil above the three savage spots of rouge. She put her hand in his and rose, the platinum bag slipping from her lap to the floor with a thin clash, gazing again at the back of the room. With the toe of his small gleaming shoe the old man flipped the bag into the corner where the jury-box joined the Bench, where a spittoon sat, and steadied her down from the dais. The room breathed again as they moved on down the aisle. Half way down the aisle the girl stopped again, slender in her smart open coat, her blank face rigid, then she moved on, her hand in the old man's. They returned down the aisle, the old man erect beside her, looking to neither side, paced by that slow whisper of collars. Again the girl stopped. She began to cringe back, her body arching slowly, her arm tautening in the old man's grasp. He bent toward her, speaking; she moved again, in that shrinking and rapt abasement. Four younger men were standing stiffly erect near the exit. They stood like soldiers, staring straight ahead until the old man and the girl reached them. Then they moved and surrounded the other two, and in a close body, the girl hidden among them, they moved toward the door. Here they stopped again; the girl could be seen shrunk against the wall just inside the door, her body arched again. She appeared to be clinging there, then the five bodies hid her again and again in a close body the group passed through the door and disappeared. The room breathed: a buzzing sound like
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William Faulkner SANCTUARY First pu
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"Through all them trees?" Popeye sa
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and stooped above an open packing c
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somebody else's wife, you start off
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Tommy guffawed, in undertone. The r
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"Some women want a man to marry a c
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slanted against the glare. The brok
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small clouds rosy with sunlight dro
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"Putty hard walkin', aint it?" he s
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stand fer nobody drinkin' hyer cep
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They went on in the path. Popeye wa
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we stopped at Dumfries and he went
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worth, and all the rest of it you t
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"Here," Gowan said across the table
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there, he said, stopping, then he s
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They swung Gowan onto the bed. His
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at her with a quality furious and q
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"A rat?" she wailed, "a rat? Open t
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The blind man's stick clattered aga
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Temple sprang back into the kitchen
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house. Instead he went on across th
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she was about halfway back to the h
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"Goodwin and I were both talking. H
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him who was already dead singing ab
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"And go on back to Kinston until th
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"You dont think I am lawyer enough,
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kept on talking, sitting there in h
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"No," he said, "I didn't. I didn't
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together, listening to the hot minu
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They reached Memphis in mid-afterno
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glared with choleric ferocity, thei
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and hurled the covers over her head
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owl and pitcher and a row of towels
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"But that girl," Horace said. "she
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"Yes; Gowan. And, by the Lord, he'd
Page 71 and 72: Horace. He could hear them breathin
Page 73 and 74: delicate paradox, as though the Cre
Page 75 and 76: shoulders and his gestures. The tra
Page 77 and 78: She took shape vaguely, approaching
Page 79 and 80: As the train neared Memphis Virgil
Page 81 and 82: "Caint be her husband," Fonzo said.
Page 83 and 84: When they reached home Fonzo stoppe
Page 85 and 86: "This is Snopes," he said. "How're
Page 87 and 88: "And what's your price?" Horace sai
Page 89 and 90: special bed made and sent down here
Page 91 and 92: to herself sitting on the bed, list
Page 93 and 94: teacher in school and it was a litt
Page 95 and 96: Temple turned from the door and sto
Page 97 and 98: she smoked swiftly, moving about th
Page 99 and 100: toward his armpit. He caught her wr
Page 101 and 102: still alive; she felt long shudderi
Page 103 and 104: and black and navy blue, and glitte
Page 105 and 106: "Beer? Beer? Is somebody--" "Put th
Page 107 and 108: They began to talk politely, in dec
Page 109 and 110: "I knew it all the time," Miss Reba
Page 111 and 112: "Going down to Jackson for a couple
Page 113 and 114: Two days before it opened Snopes em
Page 115 and 116: "Then I guess it's time to think ab
Page 117 and 118: "Yes," she said. She held the bon-b
Page 119 and 120: man is going to let me walk out of
Page 121: "Sustained," the Court said. "Strik
Page 125 and 126: loomed. In the yard, beneath the ba
Page 127 and 128: he said, when Horace descended from
Page 129 and 130: "The strikers. I dont care a damn w
Page 131 and 132: "What's your name? Calvin Coolidge?
Page 133 and 134: "Sure. Tell it to them. I dont know
Page 135: he quit jerking his neck and stood
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