“I coasted and danced and played hide and seek till I’m utterly1 worn out,” she said, “and I think I shall sleep for a week!”
“But I’m going away to-morrow,” said Philip, detaining her a moment.
“But you’re coming back next week. I’ll promise to be awake by then. But now I’m going to hibernate2, like a bear! Good-night, everybody!” and Patty ran upstairs without further ceremony.
But as, in her pretty blue négligée, she sat before the mirror brushing her long hair, Mona, Daisy, and Adèle all came into her room, quite evidently with a determination to chat.
“You’re an old sleepy-head, Patty,” declared Adèle. “You may sleep as late as you like in 226 the morning, but we want to have a little confab now, about lots of things.”
“Nicht, nein, non, no!” cried Patty, jumping up and brandishing3 her hair-brush. “I know perfectly4 well what your confabs mean,—an hour or more of chattering5 and giggling6! Come in the morning,—I’m going to have my chocolate upstairs to-morrow,—and I’ll give you all the information you want. But as for to-night, skip, scoot, scamper7, and vamoose, every dear, sweet, pretty little one of you!”
Laughingly, Patty pushed the three out of her room, and closing the door after them, turned its key, unheeding their protests, and returned to her hair-brushing.
“It’s no use, Patricia,” she said, talking to herself in the mirror, as she often did, “letting those girls keep you up till all hours! You need your beauty sleep, to preserve what small pretence9 to good looks you have left.”
Patty was not really vain of her pretty face, but she well knew that her delicate type of beauty could not stand continuous late hours without showing it, and Patty was not mistaken when she claimed for herself a good share of common sense.
But as she brushed away at the golden tangle10 227 of curls, she heard a light tap at her door, which sounded insistent11, rather than mischievous12.
“Who is it?” she asked, as she rose and went toward the door.
“It’s Daisy,” said a low voice. “Let me in, Patty, just for a minute.”
So Patty opened the door, and Daisy Dow came in.
“I want to tell you something,” she said, as Patty stood waiting, brush in hand. “I don’t really want to tell you a bit,—but Jim says I must,” and Daisy looked decidedly cross and ill-tempered.
Patty realised that it was a bother of some kind, and she said, gently, “Leave it till morning, Daisy; we’ll both feel brighter then.”
“No; Jim said I must tell you to-night. Oh, pshaw, it’s nothing, anyway! Only there was a letter for you from Bill Farnsworth, and I took it from May, and kept it for a while, just to tease you. I was going to give it to you to-morrow, anyway; but Jim came and asked me about it, and made such a fuss! Men are so silly!”
“Why, no, Daisy, it isn’t anything much; only you know people do like to have letters that belong to them! But, as you say, it’s nothing 228 to make a fuss about. Incidentally, I believe it’s a State’s prison offence,—or would be if you opened it. You didn’t, did you?”
“Of course not!” said Daisy; “but I knew it was only a card, like ours, and I just kept it back for fun.”
“It doesn’t seem to me an awfully13 good joke,—but never mind that. Give me the letter, and we’ll call it square, and I won’t have you arrested or anything.”
Patty spoke14 lightly, but really she was deeply annoyed at this foolish trick of Daisy’s. However, since Jim had found out the truth and made Daisy own up, there was no great harm done.
“I haven’t got the letter,” said Daisy. “I left it downstairs, but we can get it in the morning. I’m sure it’s only a card; it is just the same size and shape as ours.”
“Daisy, what did you do it for?” And Patty looked the girl in the eyes, in a real curiosity to know why she should descend15 to this petty meanness.
“Because you’re such a favourite,” said Daisy, truthfully. “Everybody likes you best, and everybody does everything for you, and you get everything, and I wanted to tease you!” 229
Patty grasped the girl by her shoulders, and shook her good-naturedly, while she laughed aloud. “Daisy, you do beat the dickens! You know that foolish little temper of yours is too silly for anything, and if you’d conquer it you’d be a whole lot nicer girl! You’re just as pretty as anybody else, and just as jolly and attractive, but you get a notion that you’re slighted when you’re not; and that makes you ill-tempered and you lose half your charm. Don’t you know that if you want people to love you and admire you, you must be sunshiny and pleasant?”
“Huh, that isn’t my nature, I s’pose. I can’t help my quick temper. But, anyway, Patty, you’re a dear not to get mad,—and I’ll give you the letter the first thing in the morning.”
“Where is it, Daisy?”
“Oh, I just stuck it between two volumes of a cyclop?dia, on a shelf in the library. So, you see, we can’t get it till morning; but it will be safe there, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worrying,” and Patty smiled, as Daisy said a somewhat abrupt16 good-night, and went away.
There were still a few embers of a wood fire 230 glowing on the hearth17, and Patty sat down before it in a big arm-chair.
“I don’t know why I’m so glad,” she said to herself, her weariness all gone now. “But I did feel neglected to have Little Billee send the other girls cards, and leave me out. I’d like to see it; I hardly glanced at theirs,—though I remember, they weren’t very pretty. I’d like to see Little Billee again, but I don’t suppose I ever shall. Well, there are plenty of other nice boys in the world, so it doesn’t matter much. All the same, I’d like to see that card. I believe I’ll go down and get it. There’s always a low light in the hall, and I can feel it between the books.”
Patty hesitated for some time, but finally her impatience18 or curiosity got the better of her, and she softly opened her door and peeped out. There were low lights in the halls, and as she listened over the banister and heard no sounds, Patty began to creep softly down the stairs. Her trailing robe of light blue crêpe de chine was edged with swansdown, and she drew it about her, as she noiselessly tiptoed along in her slippered19 feet.
The hall light shone dimly into the library, through which Patty could see a brighter light in 231 the smoking-room beyond. She listened a moment, but hearing no voices, concluded she could creep into the library, capture her card, and return undiscovered.
“And, anyway,” she thought to herself, “there can’t be anybody in the smoking-room, or I would hear them talking.”
It was easy to proceed without a sound by stepping softly along the thick rugs, and as Patty knew exactly where the cyclop?dias were shelved, she made straight for that bookcase. It was next to the smoking-room doorway20, and as Patty reached it, she peeped around the portière to make sure that the next room was unoccupied.
But to her surprise, she saw Philip Van Reypen stretched out in a big arm-chair in front of the fire. His eyes were closed, but Patty saw he was not asleep, as he was slowly smoking a cigar. Patty saw him sidewise, and she stood for a second contemplating21 the handsome profile and the fine physique of the man, who looked especially graceful22 in his careless and unconscious position.
Almost holding her breath, lest he should hear her, Patty moved noiselessly to the shelves, being then out of sight behind a portière. 232
By slow, careful movements, it was easy enough to move the books silently, and at last she discovered the blue envelope, tucked between two of them. She drew it out without a sound,—careful lest the paper should crackle,—and started to retrace23 her stealthy steps upstairs again, when she saw the hem8 of the portière move the veriest trifle.
“A mouse!” she thought to herself, with a terrified spasm24 of fear, for Patty was foolishly afraid of mice.
Unable to control herself, she sprang up into a soft easy-chair and perched on the back of it.
The springs of the chair gave a tiny squeak26, scarcely as loud as a mouse might make, yet sufficient to arouse Van Reypen from his reverie.
He sprang up, and pushing aside the portière, switched on the light, to see Patty sitting on the low, tufted back of the chair, her hair streaming about her shoulders, and her face expressing the utmost fear and horror.
“Well!” he observed, looking at her with a smile,—“well!”
“Oh, Philip,” whispered Patty, in a quaking voice, “it’s a mouse! an awful mouse!”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?” and Philip folded his arms, and stood gazing 233 at the pretty, frightened figure on the chair back.
His amused calm quieted Patty’s nerves, which had really been put on edge by her uncontrollable aversion to mice, and she returned, cheerfully, “I suppose I shall have to stay up here the rest of my life, unless you can attack and vanquish27 the fearsome brute28.”
“I shall not even try,” said Philip, coolly, as he turned to throw away his cigar, “because I like to see you sitting up there. However, as there may be danger of another attack from the enemy, and as this chair is almost entirely29 unoccupied, I shall camp out here at your feet, and keep guard over your safety.”
He seated himself on the arm of the same chair, while Patty sat on its low, cushioned back. She drew her blue gown more closely about her, and cast wary30 glances toward the corner, where the enemy was presumably encamped.
“I think perhaps the danger is over,” she said. “And if you’ll go back to the smoking-room, I will make a brave effort to get away unharmed.”
“Watch me go,” said Philip, showing no signs of moving. “However, if it will set your mind at rest, I’ll tell you that it wasn’t a mouse. I 234 don’t believe they have such things in this well-regulated household.”
“But I saw it!” declared Patty, positively31.
“Saw a mouse?”
“Well, not exactly that, but I saw that little tassel32 on the portière wiggle, so it must have been a mouse.”
“Patty, you are the most ridiculous little goose on the face of this earth! Your imagination is something marvellous! Now I’ll inform you that the reason that tassel moved, was because I threw a match at it. I aimed for a waste-basket and hit the curtain, but I had no idea that I should find myself so surprised at the result!”
Patty dimpled and giggled33. “It is surprising, isn’t it?” she said, feeling much more light-hearted since her fears were relieved regarding the mouse. “And I’m not sure it’s altogether correct, that you and I should be down here alone after midnight.”
“Fiddlestrings!” exclaimed Philip. “Don’t be a silly! And besides, Jim is about somewhere, and Adèle has been bobbing in and out.”
“There was no one in the halls when I came down. And I think, Philip, I’d better go back.” 235
“What did you come down for, anyhow?”
For some unexplained reason, Patty suddenly felt unwilling34 to tell what she had come for. Bill’s letter was hidden in the folds of her voluminous blue gown, and she couldn’t quite bring herself to tell Philip that she came down for that.
“Oh, I was wakeful,” she said, “and I came down to get a—a book.”
“H’m; and you thought you’d take a volume of the Britannica back with you, to read yourself to sleep?”
Patty had to laugh at this, for in the corner where they were, the shelves contained nothing but cyclop?dias and dictionaries.
“But they’re really very interesting reading,” she declared.
“And this is the little girl who was so sleepy she had to run off to bed as soon as the party was over! Patty, Patty, I’m afraid you’re not telling me the truth! Try again.”
“Well, then,—well, then, I came down because,—because I was hungry!”
“Ah, that’s better. Anybody has a right to be hungry, or even afraid of mice,—but no one has a right to lug35 a whole cyclop?dia upstairs to read oneself to sleep.” 236
“I wasn’t going to take all the volumes,” said Patty, demurely36, and then she jumped down from her perch25. “I’ll just see which one I do want,” and pretending to read the labels, she deftly37 slipped her letter back between the volumes, unseen by Van Reypen.
“You little goose, you,” said Philip, laughing. “Stop your nonsense, and let’s go and forage38 in the dining-room for something to eat. We might as well have some good food while we’re about it.”
“But I’m not exactly in proper dinner garb,” said Patty, shaking out her blue folds, and trailing her long robe behind her.
“Nonsense! I don’t know much about millinery, but you never wore anything more becoming than all that fiddly-faddly conglomeration39 of blue silk and white fur.”
“It isn’t fur,—it’s down.”
“Well, I said you were a goose,—so it’s most appropriate.”
“But it’s swansdown.”
“Well, be a swan, then! Be anything you like. But come on, let’s make for the dining-room. We’ll probably find Jim there, but don’t make any noise, or everybody upstairs will think we’re burglars and shoot us.” 237
Philip switched off the library light, and taking Patty’s hand, led her through the dim hall and into the dining-room. At the end of this room was a wide bay window, which let in a perfect flood of moonlight.
“Oh,” exclaimed Patty, “what a picture! From my room you couldn’t tell it was moonlight at all.”
The picture from the window was a far sweep of hills, white with snow, and glistening40 in the moonlight. In the foreground, evergreen41 trees, laden42 with snow, stood about like sentinels,—and a big, yellow three-quarter moon was nearing the western horizon.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Philip?” whispered Patty, almost awed43 at the sight.
“Yes, dear,” he said, still holding her hand in both his own. “Patty, you have a wonderful appreciation44 of the beautiful.”
“Nobody could help loving such a sight as that.”
“And nobody could help loving such a girl as you!” exclaimed Philip, drawing her into his arms. “Patty, darling, you know I love you! Patty, do care for me a little bit, won’t you?”
“Don’t, Philip,” and Patty drew gently away 238 from him. “Please don’t talk to me like that! Oh, I oughtn’t to be here! Let me go, Philip,—I know this isn’t right.”
“It is right, Patty, darling; because I love you, and I want you for all my own. Say you love me, and that will make everything all right!”
“But I don’t, Philip.” And Patty’s voice carried a hint of tears.
“But you will, dear; you must, because I love you so. Patty, I have always loved you, I think, since I first saw you on the stairs at Aunty Van’s that evening. Do you remember?”
“Yes, I remember; but please, Philip, let me go now, and don’t talk to me this way. I don’t want you to!”
“You’re frightened, Patty, that’s all; and perhaps I ought not to have spoken just now; but you looked so sweet, in the moonlight, with that wonderful hair of yours curling about your shoulders, that I just couldn’t help it.”
“I’ll forgive you, Philip, if you’ll forget this whole occurrence.”
“Forget it? Why, Patty, what do you mean? I never forget it for a single moment! I was sitting there to-night, dreaming of you. I wasn’t asleep, you know, I was just thinking about you, and wondering how soon I might tell 239 you my thoughts. You’re so young, dear,—I’m half a dozen years older than you are,—but I want you, my little Patty. Mayn’t I hope?”
“You’re quite right, Philip. I am too young to think of such things. So cut it out for a couple of years, and then I’ll see about it!”
“Patty, you rogue45, how can you speak like that? Don’t you love me a least little bit?”
“Not a teenty weenty speck46! And if you don’t give me something to eat, I won’t even like you.”
“Well, here’s a bargain, then,—if I find something nice for you to eat, will you like me a whole lot?”
“I do like you a whole lot, anyway; but I don’t love you and I’m not going to love anybody, ever! I do think being grown-up is a regular nuisance, and I wish I was a little girl again, with my hair down my back!”
“Incidentally, your hair is down your back.”
“Well, I don’t care,” and Patty shook her curly mane. “I wear it that way in tableaux48 and things, so what’s the difference?”
“There isn’t any difference. We’ll pretend you’re a tableau47.”
“All right, I’ll be Patience on a Monument, waiting for some supper.” 240
“That was Little Tommy Tucker.”
“No; he sang for his supper. I’m not going to sing.”
“For Heaven’s sake, don’t! Your top notes would bring the whole crowd down here! Patty, if you’ll promise to love me some time, I’ll stop teasing you now.”
“Oh, Philip, I’d do ’most anything to have you stop teasing me now! But how can I tell who I’m going to love when I get old enough to love anybody?”
“Well, you don’t love anybody yet, do you?”
“I do not!” and Patty shook her head with great emphasis.
“Then I have a fair show, anyway.” And Philip drew the curtain that shut out the moonlight, and switched on the electric light.
“Exit Romance!” he said, “and enter Comedy! Now, Patty, you’re my little playmate; we’re just two kiddies in the pantry, stealing jam,—that is, if we can find any jam.”
“The pantry’s the place,” said Patty; “there’s nothing in the sideboard but biscuit and raisins49.”
“They don’t sound very good to me. To the pantry!”
Into the pantries they went, and there, in 241 cupboards and iceboxes, found all sorts of good things.
Cold turkey, game paté, jellies, custards, cakes, and all varieties of food.
“This is ever so much more fun than moonlight,” said Patty, as she perched herself on a table, there being no chair, and held a partridge wing in one hand and a macaroon in the other. “Could you find me a glass of milk, Philip?”
“Yes, indeed; anything you want, my Princess.”
“I thought you said Jim was about,” Patty remarked.
“He was,” returned Philip, calmly. “I saw him go upstairs as we came in the dining-room.”
“Did he see us?”
“Sure! He grinned at me and I grinned at him. I didn’t invite him to come with us,—so being a polite gentleman, he didn’t come. He doesn’t mind our eating up his food. He’s awful hospitable50, Jim is.”
“Well, I’ve had enough of his food, and now I’m going back to my downy couch. If I don’t see you to-morrow before you leave,—good-bye, Philip.”
“That’s a nice, casual way to say good-bye to a man who has just proposed to you!” 242
“Good gracious! Was that a proposal?”
“Well, rather! What did you think it was? A sermon, or just a bit of oratory51?”
“Do you know, Philip, truly I didn’t realise it at the time,” and Patty’s smile was very provoking, as she looked up into his face.
“Would your answer have been different if you had?” he asked, eagerly.
“Oh, no, not that! But I just want you to understand that I don’t consider it a real proposal,” and Patty laughed and ran away, leaving Philip to “clear up” the pantry.
She stopped a moment in the library, long enough to get her blue letter, and then scuttled52 up the stairs and into her own room.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
hibernate
|
|
| v.冬眠，蛰伏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
brandishing
|
|
| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
chattering
|
|
| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
giggling
|
|
| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
scamper
|
|
| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
hem
|
|
| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
pretence
|
|
| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
tangle
|
|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
insistent
|
|
| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
mischievous
|
|
| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
descend
|
|
| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
abrupt
|
|
| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
hearth
|
|
| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
impatience
|
|
| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
slippered
|
|
| 穿拖鞋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
contemplating
|
|
| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
retrace
|
|
| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
spasm
|
|
| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
perch
|
|
| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
squeak
|
|
| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
vanquish
|
|
| v.征服，战胜；克服；抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
brute
|
|
| n.野兽，兽性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
wary
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
positively
|
|
| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
tassel
|
|
| n.流苏，穗；v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
giggled
|
|
| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
unwilling
|
|
| adj.不情愿的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
lug
|
|
| n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
demurely
|
|
| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
deftly
|
|
| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
forage
|
|
| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
conglomeration
|
|
| n.团块，聚集，混合物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
glistening
|
|
| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
evergreen
|
|
| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
laden
|
|
| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
awed
|
|
| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
appreciation
|
|
| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
rogue
|
|
| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
speck
|
|
| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
tableau
|
|
| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
tableaux
|
|
| n.舞台造型，（由活人扮演的）静态画面、场面；人构成的画面或场景( tableau的名词复数 )；舞台造型；戏剧性的场面；绚丽的场景 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
raisins
|
|
| n.葡萄干( raisin的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
hospitable
|
|
| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
oratory
|
|
| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
scuttled
|
|
| v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |