Just before dinner, Major Wentworth Caswell found me. It was impossible to avoid
him. He insisted on buying me a drink and pulled two one-dollar bills from his
pocket. Again I saw a torn dollar fixed with blue paper, with a corner missing.
It was the one I gave Uncle Caesar. How strange, I thought. I wondered how
Caswell got it.
Uncle Caesar was waiting outside the hotel the next afternoon. He took me to
Miss Adair's house and agreed to wait there until we had finished our business.
Azalea Adair did not look well. I explained the agreement to her. She signed
it. Then, as she started to rise from the table, Azalea Adair fainted and fell
to the floor. I picked her up and carried her to the old red sofa. I ran to
the door and yelled to Uncle Caesar for help. He ran down the street. Five
minutes later, he was back with a doctor.
The doctor examined Miss Adair and turned to the old black driver.
"Uncle Caesar," he said, "run to my house and ask my wife for
some milk and some eggs. Hurry!"
Then the doctor turned to me. "She does not get enough to eat," he
said. "She has many friends who want to help her, but she is proud.
Mrs. Caswell will accept help only from that old black man. He was once her
family's slave."
"Mrs. Caswell." I said in surprise. "I thought she was Azalea
Adair."
"She was," the doctor answered, "until she married Wentworth
Caswell twenty years ago. But he's a hopeless drunk who takes even the
small amount of money that Uncle Caesar gives her."
After the doctor left I heard Caesar's voice in the other room. "Did he
take all the money I gave you yesterday, Miss Azalea?" "Yes,
Caesar," I heard her answer softly. "He took both dollars."
| avoid | evitar, esquivar |
| faint | desmayarse |
| fall | caerse |
| pick somebody up | levantar a alguien |
| yell | gritar |
| proud | orgulloso |
| slave | esclavo |
| hopeless | sin remedio |
| drunk | borracho |
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