“Where’s everybody?” asked Brevet. “May we come in?”
“Yes, indeed, come in!” Courage answered, cordially. “Indeed, I am glad to see you, for I’m as blue as can be.” 107"So are we,” said Brevet, sitting disconsolately7 down in a huge armchair that made him look more disconsolate6 than ever “Uncle Harry8’s hardly spoken to me all the way.” Harry made no denial and dropped into the nearest chair.
“And you’ll be bluer still, Brevet, to find that no one’s at home,” Courage added. “They have all gone up to Arlington.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter,” Brevet replied, philosophically9, “we shall see them all tomorrow when we come down to see you off; but what we all care the most about is your going, Miss Courage. Grandnana a cries every time she thinks of it, and Uncle Harry says it will be just like a funeral all the time for him until he is able to go back to the office, and I’m just as miserable10 as I can be.”
“Well, it’s very kind of you all,” sighed Courage. “It seems to me there never were two such dear places as Homespun and Ellis-mere, and you cannot imagine how I hate to leave them.”
“What will you all do anyway when you get back to New York?” Brevet asked, a little sullenly11, as though he felt in his heart that really they were to blame for going.
“Well, we are not going because we want to, Brevet,” Courage answered almost sharply, 108for she was herself just down-spirited enough to be a trifle touchy12 and childish. “There is no reason why Mary Duff and Sylvia and I should stay since the Bennetts will not be here to be cared for.”
“But what is the reason for your going home, Miss Courage?” asked Brevet, determined13 to have the whole situation explained.
“Well, Mary Duff is needed at the hospital, where she has charge, you know, of a whole ward14 full of little babies; and, as for Sylvia and me, our home is there you know—we belong there—and I shall try very hard to find something to fill up all my time, for that is the only way for me to manage now that I no longer have Miss Julia.”
“But do people always belong to just one place?”
“No, not always,” Courage was forced to admit.
“Well, you and Brevet seem to be having things all your own way,” said Harry, really speaking for the first time since he had entered.
“Yes; I was thinking it would be more polite if you should join in the conversation,” Courage answered, colouring a little, for she had felt annoyed at Harry’s apparently15 moody16 silence.
“Well,” he added, slowly, “I do not know 109on the whole that there is anything for me to say.”
“Then why did you come?”
“Simply to see you once more.”
“And what was the use of that?” Courage asked, she hardly knew why.
“No use, simply to enjoy the pathetic sort of pleasure of all last times; but I do not myself understand why you could not have stayed on and made us a visit? You would have made my grandmother very happy.”
“Oh, Harry, come off!” said Brevet, who had unavoidably acquired a boy’s measure of slang, and who was old enough to appreciate when Harry was not his frank, honest self. “That’s all stuff about Grandnana—you want Miss Courage to stay for yourself just as much as Grandnana wants her for herself and I want her for myself.”
“‘Children and fools speak the truth,’” said Harry, looking straight at Courage.
“Yes, that’s the blessed beauty of them,” looking straight back at him.
“Other people don’t dare,” said Harry.
“Other people lack courage.”
“I quite agree with you. I know a fellow who feels that with Courage he could defy the whole world.”
“Brevet,” said Courage, folding away the 110mended dress, “there is a pile of pictures yonder that I have been collecting from the magazines and papers for your scrap-book. Bring them here and let us look them over.”
Brevet was not to be diverted. It was always one thing at a time with him. The pictures could wait—he couldn’t. He had one or two questions yet to ask, and he came and stood beside Courage as though to compel her undivided attention.
“But why couldn’t you visit us? Didn’t you want to?”
“Yes, I should have been glad to come, Brevet; I cannot explain to you why I couldn’t.”
“I suppose it was because there wasn’t anything particular for you to do; you always want to be doing something. Now, Miss Courage, I have heard Grandnana say that if Uncle Harry would bring a wife home to Ellismere some day she would give her all the housekeeping. Now, don’t you think you could come that way, because then you would have a great deal to do?”
“Can you not stop this child?” said Courage, turning with a look of indignant appeal to Harry.
“He is doing very well,” Harry answered, without looking up. 111Brevet, intent upon his own line of thought, paid not the least attention to either of the last remarks.
“Now, Miss Courage,” resting one arm on her chair and speaking thoughtfully and slowly, “couldn’t you—don’t you think you could—perhaps—be Uncle Harry’s wife and so belong up to our house and have lots of things to do?”
“Yes, couldn’t you—perhaps?” said Harry, very earnestly.
Courage gave one glance toward Harry, and then sat gazing straight at Brevet with a look on her face as though endeavouring to frame some sort of answer; while Brevet, with appeal in his eyes more eloquent17 than words, waited in solemn silence for her answer.
“But, Brevet,” she said, at last, “are you sure, perfectly18 sure that your Uncle Harry would not mind?”
“Perfectly sure!” but not so much as looking toward Harry, so completely did he regard the matter as resting wholly between Courage and himself.
“Well, then, Brevet, I believe I could.”
Then for the first time Brevet showed an inclination19 to include Harry in the conversation, but for that matter he had to, for Harry was close beside Courage now. “There,” he 112said, with a great sigh of relief, “what did I tell you? Perhaps she doesn’t care enough to do it for you, but she cares enough to do it for us all three together.”
“Run, Brevet!” said Courage. “See, there is Mary coming with the mail. Run, and bring it quickly.”
Brevet scampered20 off in high feather, and Courage instantly straightened herself up and looked accusingly at Harry.
“Do you mean to say that you actually talked all this over with Brevet?”
“No,” he answered, never looking so handsome or so happy in his life. “He talked it all over with me. He seemed to think it the one way out of the difficulty.”
“And you knew he was—he was going to say all this to me?”
“No, I never so much as dreamt it for a minute, I assure you, or that he was going to take matters into his own hands. On the contrary, I wanted to come alone this afternoon, but come he would. He had evidently thought out his own course of action, and I shall bless him for it all my life.”
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1
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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4
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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5
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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6
disconsolate
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| adj.忧郁的，不快的 | |
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7
disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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8
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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9
philosophically
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| adv.哲学上；富有哲理性地；贤明地；冷静地 | |
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10
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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12
touchy
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| adj.易怒的；棘手的 | |
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13
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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14
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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15
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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16
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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17
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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18
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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19
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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20
scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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