Among the men assigned to various tasks there gradually appeared a number who slighted their work. From carelessness they drifted into utter incompetency6 and downright laziness. Groups of these loafers began to hang around the house daily.
When they had spent the last penny of their credit at the general store of the community, they began to steal. Not a day or night passed but complaints of thefts were made from every department of the colony. One of the most serious of [187]these burglaries was the robbery of the winery of an enormous quantity of the most valuable wines.
Drunkenness had already become one of the serious problems of the Brotherhood, and the right to buy of the steward7 had been denied a large number of men and several women. These people began at once to show signs of intoxication8. It was plain that the thieves had hidden this wine and that they were carrying on a secret traffic with those to whom it had been forbidden.
With the increase of reckless drunkenness another evil grew with alarming rapidity, the carousing9 of boisterous10 men and women. One of them very quickly passed the limits of tolerance11. She was in many respects the most beautiful girl in the colony, barely nineteen years old, with luxuriant blond hair, and big, wide, staring baby-blue eyes. She had with it all a smile so saucy12, so winsome13, so elfish, and yet so innocent, it was impossible for the average man or woman to think ill of her. To every appeal of Barbara she merely showed her pretty white teeth in a winsome smile, promised her anything she asked, and proceeded to do as she liked.
At last her room was declared an intolerable nuisance by a committee appointed to enter the complaint on behalf of her neighbours on the floor on which she lived. The night before this [188]committee appealed to Barbara two boys had fought a desperate fist duel14 in this room. The noise had roused the neighbours, and the case could no longer be ignored by the executive council.
Barbara was sent to this room with full power to deal with the offender15.
"Good heavens," cried the girl, her big blue eyes opening wide with injured innocence16, "how could I help it? They're both in love with me. I don't care a rap for either one of them, but they got to fighting, and I couldn't stop them. I threw a pitcher17 of water on them, but they kept right on. I'd have called the police, but there was none to call. It wasn't my fault."
"But my dear Blanche," pleaded Barbara, "can't you see that you are bringing scandal and disgrace into the colony?"
"It's not me!" the pretty lips pouted18. "It's these old women who are talking. Let them shut their mouths and attend to their own business. I'm not bothering them."
"You deny the accusations19 they bring against your good name?" Barbara said, with some surprise.
"Of course I deny them," she snapped. "I've got to have some fun, haven't I? I can't help it that a dozen boys come to see me and nobody ever sees the old tabbies who lie about [189]me, can I? I can't help it that they are old and ugly, can I?"
Barbara had ceased to listen to the glib20 tongue, whose lying chatter21 tired her. She looked about the room with increasing amazement22. It was stuffed with presents of every conceivable description. Costly23 rugs adorned24 the floor. Soft pillows filled the couch by the window. Dainty and expensive works of art adorned her mantel, and the richest and most beautiful underwear lay in a smoothly25 laundered26 pile on her luxuriant bed.
"And how did you get all these costly and beautiful things, my dear?" Barbara asked, with a touch of sarcasm27.
The big blue eyes opened wide again with wonder.
"Why, the boys who are in love with me gave them. Why shouldn't they? I can't help it that they are foolish, can I? God made them so."
"And you accepted these rich and costly things in perfect innocence of the evil meaning others might put on them?"
"Of course! How can I keep their tongues from wagging? Life's too short. I have but one life to live. I can't waste it worrying over nothing."
[190]For the first time in her career Barbara stood face to face with naked evil—with a liar28 to whom a lie was good—a radiantly beautiful girl to whom shame was sweet.
For a moment the thought was suffocating29. She looked out of the window at the infinite blue sea until the tears slowly blinded her. The first doubt of her theory of life crept into her heart and threw its shadow over the ideal of the new world she had built.
She took the girl's hand, slipped her arm around her neck, kissed the soft, shining hair, and sobbed30:
"Poor little foolish sister! I'm afraid you've broken my heart to-day."
"I haven't done a thing! Honestly, I haven't!" the lusty young liar rattled31 on and on, in a hundred silly, vain protests, which Barbara never heard.
She left the room at length with a sickening sense of defeat, though the girl had promised her on the honour of her soul never again to give the slightest cause for complaint.
Many a day she had trudged32 through the streets of the great city, after hours of nerve-racking struggles with sin and shame and despair in the old world, but she had always come home at night with a heart singing a battle-hymn of victory. She knew the cause of all the pain, and [191]she had given her life to right the wrong. Nothing daunted33 her, nothing disconcerted her. In the end triumph was sure, and while she felt this there could be no such thing as failure.
She stood before the full meeting of the executive council, honestly reported the case, and for the first time tasted the bitterness of defeat, helpless, complete, and overwhelming. While she was talking a peculiar34 expression in Wolf's cold gray eyes suddenly caught her attention and fixed35 her gaze on him with a curious fascination36 and horror. Wolf was quick to note her look, recovered himself and smiled in his old fatherly, friendly way.
"Don't worry, comrade. We've got to meet and settle such questions. They are merely the inheritance of civilization. It will take a little time, that's all."
But as Barbara's gaze lingered on the heavy brutal37 lines of Wolf's massive figure and she caught again the gleam of his gray eyes a sickening sense of foreboding gripped her heart.
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1
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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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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incompetency
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| n.无能力，不适当 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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9
carousing
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| v.痛饮，闹饮欢宴( carouse的现在分词 ) | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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saucy
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| adj.无礼的；俊俏的；活泼的 | |
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winsome
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| n.迷人的，漂亮的 | |
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duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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17
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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18
pouted
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
accusations
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| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
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glib
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| adj.圆滑的，油嘴滑舌的 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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26
laundered
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| v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的过去式和过去分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入） | |
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27
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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33
daunted
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| 使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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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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36
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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37
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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