They sat in the dim little room where Amelia could look across the corridor to the elevator, expecting every moment the coming of Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop. Now that they found themselves alone and face to face with the necessity of reconciliation3, a constraint4 had fallen on them. Amelia constantly kept her eye on the elevator. Men were passing and repassing the open door, going to or coming from the bar-room, and their loud talk and laughter beat in waves into the dim little retreat of the lovers.
As Vernon sat there he imagined that all that talk was of him; more than all, that all that laughter was at him—though there was no more of either than there was every evening when the legislators came over to the hotel for dinner. At last Amelia turned to him.
“You’ve got the blues5, haven’t you?” she said. It would seem that somehow he did her an injustice6 by having the blues.
“No,” he answered.
“Then what’s the matter?” she demanded.
Vernon glanced at her, and his glance carried its own reproach.
“Oh!” she said, as if suddenly recalling a trivial incident. “Still worrying about that?”
“Well,” Vernon answered, “it has some seriousness for me.”
Amelia, sitting properly erect7, her hands folded in her lap, twisted about and faced him.
“You don’t mean, Morley, that you are sorry it didn’t pass, do you?”
“It puts me in rather an awkward position,” he said. “I suppose you know that.”
“I don’t see how,” Amelia replied.
“Well,” Vernon explained, “to stand for a measure of that importance, and then at the final, critical moment, to fail—”
“Oh, I see!” said Amelia, moving away from him on the couch. “Of course, if you regret the time, if you’d rather have been over in the Senate than to have been with me—why, of course!” She gave a little deprecating laugh.
Vernon leaned impulsively8 toward her.
“But, dear,” he said, “you don’t understand!”
“And after your begging me to come down to Springfield to see you!” Amelia said. Her eyes were fixed9 on the elevator, and just at that moment the car came rushing down the shaft10 and swished itself to a stop just when, it seemed, it should have shattered itself to pieces at the bottom. The elevator boy clanged the iron door back, and Maria Greene stepped out.
“There she is now!” said Amelia, raising her head to see. Miss Greene paused a moment to reply to the greeting of some one of the politicians who stopped to speak to her.
Amelia’s nose was elevated.
“And so that’s the wonderful hair you all admire so much, is it?” she said.
“Well,” replied Vernon, almost defiantly11, “don’t you think it is rather exceptional hair?”
Amelia turned on him with a look of superior and pitying penetration12.
“Does that shade deceive you?” she asked. She smiled disconcertingly, as she looked away again at Maria Greene. The woman lawyer was just leaving the politicians.
“And to think of wearing that hat with that hair!” Amelia went on. “Though of course,” she added with deep meaning, “it may originally have been the right shade; the poor hat can’t be expected to change its color.”
Vernon had no answer for her.
“I wonder what explanation she’ll have for her defeat,” said Amelia in a tone that could not conceal13 its spirit of triumph.
“I’m not worried about that,” said Vernon. “I’m more concerned about the explanation I’ll have.”
“Dearest!” exclaimed Amelia, swiftly laying her hand on his. Her tone had changed, and as she leaned toward him with the new tenderness that her new manner exhaled14, Vernon felt a change within himself, and his heart swelled15.
“Dearest,” she said, in a voice that hesitated before the idea of some necessary reparation, “are you really so badly disappointed?”
He looked at her, then suddenly he drew her into his arms, and she let her head rest for an instant on his shoulder; but only for an instant. Then she exclaimed and was erect and all propriety16.
“You forget where we are, dear,” she said.
“I don’t care about that,” he replied, and then glancing swiftly about in all directions, he kissed her.
“Morley!” she cried, and her cheeks went red, a new and happy red.
They sat there, looking at each other.
“You didn’t consider, you didn’t really consider her pretty, did you?” Amelia asked.
“Why, Amelia, what a question!”
“But you didn’t? Don’t evade17, Morley.”
“Oh well, now, she’s not bad looking, exactly, but as for beauty—well, she’s rather what I’d call handsome.”
“Handsome!” Amelia exclaimed, drawing back.
“Why, yes. Don’t you see, dear?” Vernon was trying to laugh. “Can’t you see the distinction? We call men handsome, don’t we? Not pretty, or anything like that. But women! Ah, women! Them we call, now and then, beautiful! And you, darling, you are beautiful!”
They were face to face again, both smiling radiantly. Then Amelia drew away, saying:
“Morley, don’t be ridiculous.”
“But I’m dead in earnest, dear,” he went on. “And I think you ought to make some sort of amends18 for all the misery19 you’ve caused me.”
“You poor boy!” she said, with the pity that is part of a woman’s triumph.
“I did it,” he said, “just because I love you, and have learned in you what women are capable of, what they might do in politics—”
“In politics! Morley! Can you imagine me in politics? I thought you had a more exalted20 opinion of women; I thought you kept them on a higher plane.”
“But you—” Vernon laughed, and shook his head at the mystery of it, but did not go on.
“Why, Morley, would you want to see your mother or your sister or me, or even Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop in politics?”
“Well,” he said, with a sudden and serious emphasis, “not Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop exactly. She’d be chairman of the state central committee from the start and, well—the machine would be a corker, that’s all.”
The elevator was rushing down again in its perilous21 descent, and when its door flew open they saw Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop come out of the car. Vernon rose hastily.
“There she is,” he said. “We mustn’t keep her waiting.”
Amelia rose, but she caught his hand and gave it a sudden pressure.
“But you haven’t answered my question,” she said, with a continuity of thought that was her final surprise for him. “Are you so very badly disappointed, after all?”
“Well, no,” he said. “I don’t think it would do. It would—well, it would complicate22.”
Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop was standing23 in the door, peering impatiently into the dim little room. They started toward her.
“Anyway, dear heart,” Amelia whispered as they went, “remember this—that you did it all for me.”
The End
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1
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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2
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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3
reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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4
constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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5
blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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6
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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7
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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8
impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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9
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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10
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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11
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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12
penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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13
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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14
exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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15
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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16
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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17
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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18
amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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19
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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20
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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21
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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22
complicate
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| vt.使复杂化，使混乱，使难懂 | |
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23
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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