“Why, Amelia—Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop!” he cried, “and Mrs. Standish, Mrs. Barbourton, Mrs. Trales, Mrs. Langdon—how do you do?”
He went, of course, straight to Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop’s side, the side that sheltered Amelia, and he tried to take the hands of both women at once. Amelia gave him hers coldly, without a word and without a look. He grew weak, inane4, and laughed uneasily.
“Delightful morning,” he said, “this country air down here is—”
“Morley,” said Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, severely5, “take that seat at the foot of the table.”
He obeyed, meekly6. The ladies, he thought, from the rustle7 of their skirts, withdrew themselves subtly. The only glances they vouchsafed8 him were side-long and disapproving9. He found it impossible to speak, and so waited. He could not recall having experienced similar sensations since those menacing occasions of boyhood when he had been sent to the library to await his father’s coming.
“Delightful morning, indeed!” Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop said, in her most select tones. “Delightful morning to bring us poor old ladies down into the country!”
“I bring you down!” ejaculated Vernon.
“Morley,” she said, “I don’t wish to have one word from you, not one; do you understand? Your talent for speech has caused trouble enough as it is. Lucky we shall be if we can undo10 the half of it!”
Vernon shrank.
“Morley Vernon,” Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop continued, “do you know what I have a notion to do?”
“No, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop,” he said in a very little voice.
“Well, sir, I’ve a notion to give you a good spanking11.”
Vernon shot a glance at her.
“Oh, you needn’t look, sir,” she continued, “you needn’t look! It wouldn’t be the first time, as you well know—and it isn’t so many years ago—and I have your mother’s full permission, too.”
The chain of ladylike sympathy that passed about the table at this declaration was broken only when its ends converged12 on Vernon. Even then they seemed to pinch him.
“Your poor, dear mother,” Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop went on, “insisted, indeed, on coming down herself, but I knew she could never stand such a trip. I told her,” and here Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop paused for an instant, “I told her that I thought I could manage.”
There was a vast significance in this speech.
The waiter had brought the substantials to the ladies, and Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop began eating determinedly13.
“It was, of course, just what I had always predicted,” she went on, in a staccato that was timed by the rise of her fork to her lips, “I knew that politics would inevitably15 corrupt16 you, soon or late. And now it has brought you to this.”
“To what?” asked Vernon, suddenly growing bold and reckless. Amelia had not given him one glance; she was picking at her chop.
Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, raising her gold glasses and setting them aristocratically on the bridge of her nose, fixed17 her eyes on Vernon.
“Morley,” she said, “we know. We have heard and we have read. The Chicago press is an institution that, fortunately, still survives in these iconoclastic18 days. You know very well, of course, what I mean. Please do not compel me to go into the revolting particulars.” She took her glasses down from her nose, as if that officially terminated the matter.
“But really, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop,” said Vernon. He was growing angry, and then, too, he was conscious somehow that Miss Greene was looking at him. His waiter, John, timidly approached with a glance at the awful presence of Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, and said:
“Yo’ breakfus, Senato’, is gettin’ col’.”
“That may wait,” said Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, and John sprang back out of range.
Vernon was determined14, then, to have it out.
“Really, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop, jesting aside—”
“Jesting!” cried Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, “jesting! Indeed, my boy, this is quite a serious business!” She tapped with her forefinger19.
“Well, then, all right,” said Vernon, “I don’t know what I’ve done. All I have done has been to champion a measure—and I may add, without boasting, I hope, with some success—all I have done has been to champion a measure which was to benefit your sex, to secure your rights, to—”
“Morley!” Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop said, cutting him short. “Morley, have you indeed fallen so low? It is incomprehensible to me, that a young man who had the mother you have, who had the advantages you have had, who was born and bred as you were, should so easily have lost his respect for women!”
“Lost my respect for women!” cried Vernon, and then he laughed. “Now, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop,” he went on with a shade of irritation20 in his tone, “this is too much!”
Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop was calm.
“Have you shown her any respect?” she went on. “Have you not, on the contrary, said and done everything you could, to drag her down from her exalted21 station, to pull her to the earth, to bring her to a level with men, to make her soil herself with politics, by scheming and voting and caucusing22 and buttonholing and wire-pulling? You would have her degrade and unsex herself by going to the polls, to caucuses23 and conventions; you would have her, no doubt, in time, lobbying for and against measures in the council chamber24 and the legislature.”
Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop paused and lifted her gold eye-glasses once more to the bridge of her high, aristocratic nose.
“Is it that kind of women you have been brought up with, Morley? Do we look like that sort? Glance around this table—do we look like that sort of women?”
The ladies stiffened25 haughtily26, disdainfully, under the impending27 inspection28, knowing full well how easily they would pass muster29.
“And, if that were not enough,” Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop went on inexorably, “we come here to plead with you and find you hobnobbing with that mannish thing, that female lawyer!”
She spoke30 the word female as if it conveyed some distinct idea of reproach. She was probing another chop with her fork. She had sent the pot of coffee back to the kitchen, ordering the waiter to tell the cook that she was accustomed to drink her coffee hot.
“And now, Morley Vernon, listen to me,” she said, as if he were about to hear the conclusion of the whole matter. “If you have any spark of honor left in you, you will undo what you have already done. This resolution must be defeated in the Senate to-day; I am down here to see that it is done. We go to the State House after breakfast, and these ladies will assist me in laying before each member of the Senate this matter in its true and exact light. As for our rights,” she paused and looked at him fixedly31, “as for our rights, I think we are perfectly32 capable of preserving them.”
Her look put that question beyond all dispute.
“And now,” she resumed, “you would better take a little breakfast yourself; you look as if you needed strength.”
Vernon rose. He stood for an instant looking at Amelia, but she glanced at him only casually33.
“I suppose, Amelia, I shall see you later in the morning?”
“I suppose so, Mr. Vernon,” she said. “But pray do not let me keep you from rejoining your companion.” She was quite airy, and lifted her coffee-cup with one little finger quirked up higher than he had ever seen it before.
He went back to where Miss Greene sat, and where his breakfast lay.
“My goodness!” he said, seating himself. “I’ve had a time!”
“I should imagine so,” said Miss Greene.
She was just touching34 her napkin to her lips with a final air. She carefully pushed back her chair, and rose from the table.
“I beg your pardon,” he stammered35, getting up himself, “I’ll see you after breakfast.”
Miss Greene bowed. Then she left the dining-room.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
swell
|
|
| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
colossal
|
|
| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
subdued
|
|
| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
inane
|
|
| adj.空虚的，愚蠢的，空洞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
meekly
|
|
| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
rustle
|
|
| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
vouchsafed
|
|
| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
disapproving
|
|
| adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
undo
|
|
| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
spanking
|
|
| adj.强烈的，疾行的；n.打屁股 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
converged
|
|
| v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
determinedly
|
|
| adv.决意地；坚决地，坚定地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
inevitably
|
|
| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
corrupt
|
|
| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
iconoclastic
|
|
| adj.偶像破坏的，打破旧习的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
forefinger
|
|
| n.食指 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
irritation
|
|
| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
caucusing
|
|
| v.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的现在分词 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
23
caucuses
|
|
| n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
stiffened
|
|
| 加强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
haughtily
|
|
| adv. 傲慢地, 高傲地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
impending
|
|
| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
inspection
|
|
| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
muster
|
|
| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
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： |
|
|
|
|
31
fixedly
|
|
| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
casually
|
|
| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
stammered
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |