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It was a Sunday evening, bright and summery. He was doing his homework and his mother was sitting on the carpet in one of her periodic fits of tidying out the drawers of the mahogany sideboard. The boy heard the bottom stair creak under Aunt Mary's light footstep. She knocked and put her head round the door and said that she was walking to Devotions. She was dressed in her good coat and hat and was just easing her fingers into her second glove. The boy saw her stop and pat her hair into place before the mirror in the hallway. Devotions could take anything from twenty minutes to three quarters of an hour, depending on who was saying it.
那是一個周日的晚上，有種夏天特有的明亮。他在做功課，他的媽媽正坐在地毯上，進行著紅木餐具柜抽屜的定期清潔工作。男孩聽到樓梯最下面一階傳來嘎吱聲，那是瑪麗叔祖母特有的輕微腳步聲。她敲了一下門，把頭探進來，說她要走著去祈禱。她穿著一件質地很好的外套，戴著帽子，正在慢慢帶上她的第二只手套。男孩看見她停了下來，在走廊的鏡子前輕輕拍了拍整理自己的頭發。祈禱會持續20分鐘到45分鐘，這要取決于講話人。
The boy left his homework and went upstairs and into his aunt's sitting room. He stood in front of the bureau wondering, then he reached for the keys. He tried several before he got the right one. The desk flap screeched as he pulled it down. He pretended to look at the postcards again. Then he put them away and reached for the bundle of letters. The elastic band was thick and old, brittle almost and when he took it off its track remained on the wad of letters. He carefully opened one and took out the letter and unfolded it.
男孩放下了功課，走上樓去，進入了叔祖母的客廳。他站在書桌前琢磨著，然后找到了鑰匙。他試了好幾把后才找到那把正確的鑰匙。他拉開書桌擋板時，發出了刺耳的聲音。他假裝再看一次那些明信片然后他把它們放在一邊，拿起了那捆信件。橡皮筋很粗而且很舊，快斷了。當他取下橡皮筋時，那捆信上還留著它的痕跡。他小心翼翼地打開一個信封，取出信，然后展開了信紙。
