Somehow or other his brain wasn’t functioning properly. His imagination wasn’t yielding up the customary assortment4 of bizarre ideas and freak suggestions from which he always was able to select one particular inspiration to serve the need of the moment. To make the situation more exasperating5 the last words of Meyerfield kept bobbing up in his train of thought. He could see and hear the manager of the famous “Meyerfield Frolics” as he had stood in the lobby of the New National Theatre in Washington the night before, smoking the inevitable6 cigar and talking in a loud booming voice.
“Remember,” Meyerfield had announced with great impressiveness, “I want you to smear7 us all over the front page of every paper in Baltimore. We’ve never played the ‘Frolics’ there and we’ve got to have ’em properly introduced. I’m depending upon you to plant something that will stir that town up like an earthquake. Get the girls into it some way. They’re the best card we have.”
As Jimmy slouched in his seat the memory of a hundred spectacular exploits which he had engineered swam through his mind, but he couldn’t fasten on a new idea or on anything that hadn’t been worked and re-worked. He was just beginning his first season with Meyerfield and that worthy8 was a showman who expected results.
A memory picture of Lolita flashed into his mind and with it came the realizing sense that her silence was perhaps responsible for his present frame of mind. Since he said good-bye to her in New York a week before to go ahead of the “Frolics” there had been only two letters from her, letters written on the first two days of their separation. In the last she had mentioned, with great enthusiasm, that she had signed a contract to play a tiny part with a road company which was to regale9 the theatre-goers of the small towns in the Middle West with a chaste10 little farce11 then sensationally12 successful in New York. It was called “Ursula’s Undies,” and it was a dainty affair designed to provoke the curiosity of that type of male who carries around a pen-holder with a little glass-eye piece at one end. You look in at his suggestion (he’s sure to ask you) and you behold13 a couple of large and lumpy females in one-piece bathing suits in what is alleged14 to be a scene suggestive of Oriental abandon. “Ursula’s Undies” wasn’t even as wicked as that, but its advertising15 manager distinctly sought to convey the impression that it was too terrible for words and Jimmy had been moved to remonstrate16 with Lolita by means of a telegram in which he had rather peremptorily17 directed her to throw up her job and “get into something decent.”
There had been no reply to this wire nor to a frantic18 series of letters which had followed it and Jimmy had begun to fancy that morning that all was lost. He turned and looked out at the endless procession of fleeting19 telegraph poles and at the dreary20 landscape apparently21 afloat in a shimmering22 haze23 of mist which had followed a drizzling24 rain. He was aroused from his reveries by a pleasant voice, a voice with something a bit “precious” in its soft cadences25, a voice that betokened26 a rather too thick overlay of what Jimmy scornfully called “culchaw.”
“Good morning, Mr. Martin,” said the voice. “What’s the matter? You seem sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”
Jimmy turned and recognized the speaker, a tall young man who wore enormous tortoise shell spectacles, an impeccable two button cutaway and a smile in which there was a touch of supercilious27 superiority. He was one of Jimmy’s pet aversions, a highbrow press agent—J. Herbert Denby by name—who was “doing a little special literary work,” as he himself described it, ahead of a company that was presenting a repertoire28 of dank and morbid29 Scandinavian plays on tour. He had been associate editor of a literary magazine and had written a number of choice essays on what he called the “new movement in the theatre” which had been published in more or less obscure periodicals and which had been undoubtedly30 unread by a vast multitude of persons. He was now enjoying his first experience in the business world of the theatre and he had met Jimmy a few nights before in Washington. His abysmal31 ignorance of practicalities had aroused a sympathetic feeling in the latter which had been later completely dissipated by his patronizing manner. His company was to be Jimmy’s “opposition” in Baltimore, and he was journeying there on the same errand that Jimmy was.
“Good morning,” grunted32 Jimmy. “What’s that you say?”
“I say that you seem sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,” responded Mr. Denby, sitting down in the next chair with great deliberation and carefully disposing of the tails of his coat. “By that I mean that you seem lost in abstraction, as it were.”
“Not as it were,” replied Jimmy. “As it is. I’m certainly lost in abstraction all right, all right, only I never called it that before. The old idea box ain’t workin’ right. It’s back firin’ on me.”
“What’s the problem?” asked Mr. Denby judicially33. “Maybe I can be of some slight assistance. We represent opposite poles of the world of the theatre, but an interchange of thought may clear up the situation.”
“The problem is one that can’t be cleared up by a flossy little piece of writin’ marked ‘not duplicated in your city,’ old scout,” replied Jimmy disconsolately34. “Essays ain’t any more use in this situation than curry35 combs in a garage.”
“But perhaps I may be able to venture a practical suggestion that might be of value,” persisted the other.
“Practical suggestion!” snorted Jimmy. “Not a chance. You fellows are all right, I guess, for this Ibsen stuff, but you don’t know anything about girl shows, not a single, little thing.”
“I presume you mean the chorus girls,” suggested Mr. Denby. “Do you wish to use them in some way for publicity36 purposes?”
“You’re talking,” said Jimmy. “I not only wish to I’ve got to. I’ve got to smear ’em over the front pages of all the papers in Baltimore to keep my job. And, believe me, Baltimore is some tight town when it comes to handin’ out space for the showshops. The lid’s on and you’ve got to murder someone to get it off.”
Mr. J. Herbert Denby cocked his head at a thoughtful angle and gazed judicially through his spectacles.
“It mightn’t be a bad idea,” he said finally, weighing every word carefully, “to get a delegation37 of prominent citizens to meet them at the station with automobiles38. Had you thought of that?”
Jimmy turned a look of concentrated scorn on him that would have caused an ordinary mortal to shrivel up and pass quietly and unobtrusively into a state of complete dissolution, but it had no such effect on J. Herbert. He simply smiled a superior smile and awaited an answer.
“And it would be a good stunt39, too,” snapped Jimmy, “to get the Governor of the State to dance the tango with Madeline La Verne in the waiting room of the station and to arrange to have the professors at the university carry all the girls on their backs up to the hotel. For the love of Mike, talk sense, man.”
“Of course, they would have to be extremely prominent citizens,” went on J. Herbert Denby, utterly40 ignoring Jimmy’s biting sarcasm41, “the leading men of the city. It might be possible to arrange to have them go over to Washington in their cars and bring the young ladies to Baltimore in them instead of just meeting them at the station. That would add a touch of piquancy42 to the proceedings43 that——”
He got no farther, for Jimmy choked off further utterance44 by springing up and grabbing both his hands in wild exultation45, almost upsetting the porter who was emptying a bottle of mineral water for the man in the next seat.
“You’ve got it, you old highbrow son-of-a-gun,” he shouted. “You don’t know how good it is yourself. You know that old stuff about ‘and a child shall lead them on.’ Well, that’s you. No offense46, mind you, no offense, but you are a child in this line. I’ve got a notion to kiss you right out in public.”
J. Herbert backed away and almost landed in the lap of a stout47 party who was reading a paper.
“Please don’t,” he murmured. “Please don’t, I pray. It would embarrass me fearfully.”
The stout party turned to his companion and spoke48 quietly under the cover of his hand.
“Nuts,” he confided49. “Pure Brazilian.”
Jimmy bade J. Herbert Denby a most enthusiastic farewell at the station in Baltimore.
“There’s a dinner coming to you, old George B. Bookworm,” he shouted as he jumped into a taxicab, “a nice young dinner with a little grape on the sidelines and no stops for way-stations when we get our feet under the table. See you later, old dear.”
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收听单词发音
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1
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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2
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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3
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4
assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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5
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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6
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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7
smear
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| v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑 | |
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8
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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9
regale
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| v.取悦，款待 | |
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10
chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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11
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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12
sensationally
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13
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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14
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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15
advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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16
remonstrate
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| v.抗议，规劝 | |
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17
peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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18
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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19
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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20
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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21
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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22
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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23
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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24
drizzling
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| 下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 ) | |
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25
cadences
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| n.（声音的）抑扬顿挫( cadence的名词复数 )；节奏；韵律；调子 | |
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26
betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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28
repertoire
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| n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表 | |
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29
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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30
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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31
abysmal
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| adj.无底的，深不可测的，极深的；糟透的，极坏的；完全的 | |
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32
grunted
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| （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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33
judicially
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| 依法判决地，公平地 | |
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disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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35
curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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36
publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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37
delegation
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| n.代表团；派遣 | |
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38
automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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39
stunt
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| n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长 | |
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40
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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41
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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42
piquancy
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| n.辛辣，辣味，痛快 | |
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43
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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44
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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45
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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46
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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48
spoke
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| 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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49
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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