Overhead the doorbell was ringing imperatively8, without interruption, even as it must have been ringing for many minutes before she was consciously awake.
Dimly she felt that this alarm by night must portend9 something strange and terrible.
And still she held her hand, wondering. Who could it be? Not Quard: for she had seen him leave New York. Never Marbridge: that were unthinkable! Hattie Morrison, perhaps.... And that meant....
The bell ground on implacably.
At length she found courage to adjust the chain-bolt and open the door to the limit permitted by that guard.
In the outer hallway a gas-jet burned, turned low, diffusing10 just enough illumination to show her the figure, somehow indefinitely familiar in spite of its style, of a man in a chauffeur's uniform: a young and wiry man clothed in khaki coat and breeches and leather leggins, and wearing a cap with visor shadowing heavily his narrow, sharp-featured countenance11.
As the door opened he removed his finger from the bell-push, and drove home recognition with his voice.
"Miss Thursby live here? I got a message for her."
Joan gasped12: "Butch!"
"It's me, all right," her brother admitted crisply in his well-remembered tone of irony13. "You certainly are one sincere little sleeper14. I been ringing here—"
"How did you get in?"
"Rang up the janitor—if that matters. Lis'n: you betta hustle15 into your clothes quick 's you can if you wanta get home in time to say good-bye to the old woman."
"Mother!" Joan shrilled16. "What—what's the matter—?"
"Dyin'," Butch told her briefly17 and without emotion. "She said she wanted to see you. So get a move on. My car's waitin', and I dassent leave it alone. Hustle—y' understand?"
"Yes, yes!" Joan promised with a sob18. "I'll hurry, Butch—"
"See you do, then!"
The boy swung about smartly and disappeared down the well of the stairway.
Joan closed the door, and leaned against it, panting. Suppose he had wanted to come in!...
For the moment, this was her sole coherent thought.
Then, rousing, she crept stealthily back to the darkened bedroom, gathered up her clothing with infinite precautions against noise, and returned to the sitting-room19 to dress in feverish20 haste....
There was an open taxicab waiting in front of the door. As she came out, Butch bent21 over and cranked the motor. Straightening up, he waved her curtly22 into the body of the car.
"Jump in and shut the door," he ordered briefly, climbing into the driver's seat.
"But—Butch—"
"Doncha hear me? Get in and shut that door. We got no time to waste chinnin' here."
Abashed23 and frightened, the girl obeyed.
Immediately Butch had the cab in motion, tearing eastward24 at lawless speed through streets whose long ranks of yawning windows, seen fugitively in the formless dusk of early morning, seemed to look down leering, as if informed with terrible intelligence.
She shut out the sight of them with hands that covered her face until the swift rush of cool air steadied and sobered her, so that she grew calmer in the knowledge that, in veritable fact (and this was all that really mattered) "nobody knew"....
Then, sitting up, she composed herself, and with deft25 fingers completed the adjustment of her garments. By the time she had finished her toilet, aided by a small mirror inset between the forward windows, Butch was stopping the cab before the East Seventy-sixth Street tenement26.
Bending back, he unlatched the door and swung it open.
"You go on up," he ordered. "I'll be around before long—gotta run this machine back to the garage."
Joan stepped quickly to the sidewalk, and shut the door.
"All right," she responded, and added, almost timidly, avoiding her brother's eyes: "Thank you, Butch."
He grunted28 unintelligibly29 and, as Joan moved up the stoop, threw in the power again and drew swiftly away down the street.
For an instant Joan held back in the vestibule, sickened to recognize anew the home of dirt and squalor she had fled, a long lifetime since, it seemed, and struggling with almost invincible30 repugnance31 for the ordeal32 awaiting her at the head of those five weary flights.
Then, more through instinct than of her will, her finger pressed the call-button beneath the Thursby letter box.
The latch27 clicked. She pushed the door open, moved reluctantly into the shadows and addressed herself wearily to the stairs, inhaling33 with a keen physical disgust the heavy and malodorous atmosphere in which her youth had been shaped toward womanhood.
As the dining-room door admitted her, she checked again, almost tempted34 to question the soundness of those faculties35 which insisted that more than a year had passed, rather than an hour or two, since she had left that mean and sordid36 place.
Above the dining-table blazed and wheezed37 a single gas-jet, whose ragged38 bluish flame was yet sufficiently39 strong to turn to the colour of night the dull dawnlight outside the air-shaft windows. It revealed to her not a single article of furniture other than as memory placed it, and showed her, seated on the far side of the table, her father lifting a heavy and sullen40 face from the note-book between his soiled fat fingers, that inevitable41 sheaf of dope lying at his elbow.
There was no sort of greeting, in proper sense, between these two. For a little neither spoke42. Joan hesitated, with shoulders against the panels of the door, in an attitude instinctively43 defiant44 and defensive45. Thursby looked her up and down, a louring sneer46 marking his recognition of his daughter's finery.
Suddenly, explosively, she found her tongue: "How's ma?"
Thursby jerked a thumb in the direction of the bedrooms.
"She died an hour ago," he said slowly, "just after Ed went to find you. Edna's in there."
Joan made a gesture of horror.
"My God!" she said throatily, and turned away.
A moment later, loud cries of lamentation47 ringing through the flat testified that she had found her sister.
点击收听单词发音
1 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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2 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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3 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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4 fumbling | |
n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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5 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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6 eyelids | |
n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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7 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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8 imperatively | |
adv.命令式地 | |
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9 portend | |
v.预兆,预示;给…以警告 | |
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10 diffusing | |
(使光)模糊,漫射,漫散( diffuse的现在分词 ); (使)扩散; (使)弥漫; (使)传播 | |
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11 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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12 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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13 irony | |
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
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14 sleeper | |
n.睡眠者,卧车,卧铺 | |
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15 hustle | |
v.推搡;竭力兜售或获取;催促;n.奔忙(碌) | |
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16 shrilled | |
(声音)尖锐的,刺耳的,高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17 briefly | |
adv.简单地,简短地 | |
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18 sob | |
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
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19 sitting-room | |
n.(BrE)客厅,起居室 | |
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20 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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21 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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22 curtly | |
adv.简短地 | |
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23 abashed | |
adj.窘迫的,尴尬的v.使羞愧,使局促,使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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25 deft | |
adj.灵巧的,熟练的(a deft hand 能手) | |
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26 tenement | |
n.公寓;房屋 | |
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27 latch | |
n.门闩,窗闩;弹簧锁 | |
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28 grunted | |
(猪等)作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 ); (指人)发出类似的哼声; 咕哝着说 | |
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29 unintelligibly | |
难以理解地 | |
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30 invincible | |
adj.不可征服的,难以制服的 | |
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31 repugnance | |
n.嫌恶 | |
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32 ordeal | |
n.苦难经历,(尤指对品格、耐力的)严峻考验 | |
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33 inhaling | |
v.吸入( inhale的现在分词 ) | |
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34 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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35 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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36 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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37 wheezed | |
v.喘息,发出呼哧呼哧的喘息声( wheeze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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39 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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40 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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41 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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42 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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43 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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44 defiant | |
adj.无礼的,挑战的 | |
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45 defensive | |
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的 | |
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46 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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47 lamentation | |
n.悲叹,哀悼 | |
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