I 've seen it there , off and on , for twelve years , and now I 'm taking a good-by look at it . I want you to keep still , too . I 've got a few things to think over , and I do n't want to be disturbed . '' The girl lifted herself about noiselessly and locked her hands over the bed-post . Then she laid her face down on them , biting at them silently until the marks of her teeth showed white against their red roughness . Naomi Holland did not notice her . She was looking steadfastly at the great , pearl-like sparkle in the faint-hued sky . When it finally disappeared from her vision she struck her long , thin hands together twice , and a terrible expression came over her face for a moment . But , when she spoke , her voice was quite calm . `` You can light the candle now , Eunice . Put it up on the shelf here , where it wo n't shine in my eyes . And then sit down on the foot of the bed where I can see you . I 've got something to say to you . '' Eunice obeyed her noiselessly . As the pallid light shot up , it revealed the child plainly . She was thin and ill-formed -- one shoulder being slightly higher than the other . She was dark , like her mother , but her features were irregular , and her hair fell in straggling , dim locks about her face . Her eyes were a dark brown , and over one was the slanting red scar of a birth mark . Naomi Holland looked at her with the contempt she had never made any pretense of concealing . The girl was bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh , but she had never loved her ; all the mother love in her had been lavished on her son .
When Eunice had placed the candle on the shelf and drawn down the ugly blue paper blinds , shutting out the strips of violet sky where a score of glimmering points were now visible , she sat down XXXXX the foot of the bed , facing her mother .
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