Shadow of Dawn Read Online Free PDF

came the whispery voice.
     
    He’d been sitting in a chair, but he rose as
she came into the room. A lamp burned low on a table near the
chair, no doubt for the nurse’s benefit, and she watched as he set
aside what appeared to be a book.
     
    “Andrew, are you all right? I’m sorry I’ve
not been in sooner. I tried to see you this morning, but Mrs.
Shirley told me to wait.”
     
    “I hope Mrs. Shirley has not been
too…domineering. She only does what she believes I want her to do.
She’s usually right.”
     
    “Well, she’s certainly…assertive. You will
let me know if you want anything, even if Mrs. Shirley says you
mustn’t?” she asked, smiling.
     
    “Yes,” he said soberly. “I will. Would you
like to sit down?”
     
    She nodded and then remembered to say, “Yes,
I’d like that.” She settled herself into a chair, wondering a
little nervously what she would find to talk to him about. He
resumed his seat.
     
    “You must be reading according to that new
system. What is it called? I read about it in a magazine.”
    “The Braille system.”
     
    She nodded with interest. “I’ve never seen a
Braille book. Do you mind if I look at it?”
     
    He reached for the book without moving his
head and handed it to her. She opened it and flipped through the
pages, which consisted only of upraised dots, all in different
configurations.
     
    “How remarkable that a person can read this
way. Did it take you long to learn it?”
     
    He hesitated. “I have some sensation in my
right hand, enough to discern the order of the dots. It wasn’t
difficult to learn. There was a woman at the hospital who was kind
enough to teach me. Before the war started, she was a teacher at
the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis.”
     
    “What good fortune that you met her. Was it
Mrs. Shirley?”
     
    “No,” he said. “Someone else.”
     
    “What’s it about? The book, I mean?”
     
    “It’s the story of Louis Braille, the
Frenchman who developed the system. It was actually created by a
soldier named Barbier, to enable his men to read messages at night,
but it was too complex, not practical at all. Braille simplified it
and made it usable. He was blind himself, you know—blinded at the
age of three when something he was playing with pierced his eye.
Infection spread to his other eye and he lost his sight
completely.”
     
    “How sad! Somehow when I read the article I
pictured him altogether different, a rich old professor maybe,
sitting around experimenting with dots.”
     
    Andrew tilted his head toward her. “He was
only forty-three when he died of tuberculosis, caused by the
terrible conditions under which he lived. He overcame many
obstacles in his life, many setbacks and disappointments, but he
was dedicated to the idea of devising some method to enable blind
people to read and write.” He paused and added, quietly but with
feeling, “A most admirable man.”
     
    “Why, Andrew, I’ve never heard you talk like
this before. But then, we’ve never really talked about such…serious
things. There’s so much about you I don’t know. Your life before
the war, your family—”
     
    “I’ve changed. I’m not that man anymore. With
all I’ve lost, how could I not change?”
     
    “You still have me.”
     
    “Yes,” he said. “I still have you.”
     
    “I would very much enjoy reading to you
sometime, if you’d like.”
     
    His head moved in a barely perceptible nod.
“Sometimes Mrs. Shirley reads to me but…it’s somewhat lacking in
drama.”
     
    Catherine laughed. “Would you like me to read
to you now? I just finished one of Mr. Dickens’s novels, though I
don’t think it’s his most recent one. It’s very good.”
     
    “I’d like that, but some other time, I think.
You were about to go down to supper, weren’t you? And I’m ready to
retire for the night.”
     
    “All right.” Her skirts rustled loudly in the
still room as she stood up. He stood also and waited