CHAPTER II THE LETTER

 THE City Hall clock struck twelve, and Polly Dudley was still awake. The circumstances of the afternoon were passing before her. What David had said and what she had said, when he had laughed and when he had been silent, what they had seen on the way—it was all there in the procession that had no end. Just now they were at the corner of Webster Street, where it joined Clayton Avenue. An Italian boy with a push-cart was on the cross-walk, and Polly and David waited to let him pass. A young man was coming towards them, a handsome young man in a shining car. Now he was lifting his hat with his usual splendid smile, the smile that showed his gleaming, perfect teeth—

 

“Oh!” Polly breathed suddenly, “that was it! Now I know! How could he be so silly! But it was! It is always some such little thing.”

 

At last she had discovered the direct cause of her lover’s changed mood. She remembered how brilliantly Russell Ely had smiled to her as he passed, and then until this moment she had forgotten him altogether. Didn’t David want her even to bow to any one! But Russell was a member of the College Club! This explained everything.[9] It seemed hours before sleep came to halt the wearying thoughts.

 

Polly was called from breakfast to greet David.

 

“We are not going to start as early as I expected,” he said, “not before nine. So I thought I would—just run up and say good-morning.” He smiled in almost his own cordial way.

 

The girl beamed up at him. She never harbored a pique¹, and now she began to chat as gayly as usual, in seeming forgetfulness of yesterday.

 

David, however, could not so lightly throw off the past. Recollections lingered to hamper² his actions and retard³ his tongue. But he let his eyes rest upon Polly in gratification, laughing at her little pleasantries, and finally enjoying the present quite as if nothing in past or future could have any evil power for him. The parting was vastly different from that of the day before.

 

After he had gone Polly ran upstairs humming a song. How glad she was that he had come!

 

The days seemed long without David. Since they returned from college they had been much together, and now she missed him. The Randolphs were away, and Patricia and the rest could not quite fill the gap. The ladies of June Holiday Home always welcomed her with delight, and she called there occasionally; but their increased freedom of action carried them out-of-doors more than formerly⁴, and she was apt not to find those at home whom she most wished to see. Then, too,[10] the place had never seemed just the same since her beloved “Nita” had left it forever.

 

She was returning, one afternoon, from a shopping excursion with Leonora, when she was overtaken by Russell Ely. He drove up to the curb⁵, and threw open the door of his car.

 

“Will you ride up the hill?” he asked.

 

In a moment she was whirling along the shady avenue, arranging her bundles comfortably in her lap and listening to her companion’s bright talk.

 

“This is a pleasant lift for me,” she said. “I have been round in the shops ever since luncheon⁶, and I am tired.”

 

“I shouldn’t have dared to ask you if that guardsman of yours were in town; but since the length of New England is between us I thought I might venture.”

 

Polly laughed, and they talked on and on, until she noticed that they had not turned at the corner nearest home.

 

“You don’t mind going a little farther, do you?” he asked. “I seldom get a glimpse of you nowadays. What do you say to running up to Castleboro Inn for some toast and tea? The air is just right for a drive.”

 

But Polly refused, although the invitation became urgent; so the young man reluctantly left her at the hospital entrance.

 

“What would David say?” raced through her[11] head and would not stop. “What would David say? What would David say?”

 

“He won’t know it!” Polly retorted. “And it’s all right if he should.”

 

“What would David say? What would David say?”

 

Polly went indoors and made herself ready for dinner.

 

“What would David say? What would David say?” accompanied her upstairs and down, and even to the dining-room door. Once at the table in the presence of her father and mother, the teasing voice vanished. Yet it returned the minute she was alone, and kept up the vexing⁷ question until it was finally lost in sleep.

 

Every morning came a letter from David, and Polly was invariably at the door to take it from the carrier. Sometimes it was little more than a note; but oftener it spread itself over page after page in familiar, affectionate talk.

 

Two days after Russell Ely had brought her up the hill, an envelope with David’s well-known superscription was put into Polly’s hand. At first it seemed no more than the envelope itself, so thin it was. Then Polly saw that a single sheet was inside.

 

“Guess he was in a hurry,” she told herself, as she hastened up to her room.

 

She sat down by the broad window and noted⁸ the slight unevenness⁹ of the address. David’s[12] chirography was a continual wonder to Polly, every line, every curve, according to rule. To-day, however, the “P” was a wee bit out of proportion, the “D” was slightly out of alignment¹⁰, while the name showed a trifling¹¹ tendency to run downhill.

 

“Well!” she exclaimed under her breath, “what’s going to happen?” She dwelt upon it with a smile. Then she took up her paper-cutter and ran it under the flap.

 

Her fingers were growing eager, and with a happy flutter of heart she pulled out the sheet.

 

As she started to read, her face held a smile, but instantly a stare swept it away. Her eyes seemed to pierce the paper. They blazed with something like anger.

 

“‘Appeal’!” she muttered scornfully, “‘appeal,’ indeed!”

 

The letter fluttered to the floor, her hands went up to her face, and she began to cry.

 

“Oh, David! David!” she whispered, “how could you! It isn’t true! You know it isn’t true!”

 

She sat there a long time. Then she picked up the sheet and read it again. Her face grew hard and resentful.

 

“‘Smile of understanding’! He won’t want me to smile at all pretty soon.” She sighed. “By next week he’ll be ‘appealing’ to me. He’ll be sure to come back, if I keep still. He always does. I know David! I’ve half a mind not to answer[13] him when he does ‘appeal.’ Let him have a taste of his own porridge.”

 

She went over the letter again, slowly, sentence by sentence.

 

Miss Polly: Since it is plainly evident that you desire your freedom from the slender bonds that bind¹² us together, I wish to assure you that from this moment they are broken, and you are free as if they had never been. To continue the relations which have existed between us for the few years past would only pile up wretchedness for us both, and it is best to annul¹³ them. Many times I have foreseen this. On the day we took that walk to Chimney Hill and I noted the smile of understanding which passed between you and that darned Ely, I knew that sooner or later this would come. Yesterday when I heard of your intimacy¹⁴ with the same unbearable¹⁵ puppy, your rides alone with him as soon as I was out of the way, convinced me that the time for the break has arrived. You need not attempt any explanation or appeal. My mind is made up forever. Nothing can change my decision.

Very truly yours

David Gresham Collins

 

“‘Slender bonds’!” she muttered. “I didn’t know that I was bound at all, though I act as if I were. Of course, I’m ‘free,’ and I will be free, too, David Collins! As if you must tell me so! I wish I’d gone over to the Inn with Russell—I will next time he asks me. I won’t be under David’s thumb any longer! To think of his making such a fuss because I rode up with Russell—just rode up the hill with him!

 

[14] “But how did he hear of my being with him?” Polly questioned. “We didn’t meet anybody—yes, Doris Gaylord was out on the veranda¹⁶. She may have seen me. I didn’t think so. Anything she knew, Marietta’d know—that is sure. And by this time Marietta may be up there herself.”

 

She pondered the matter for some minutes, while alternately her face flushed and paled.

 

“Could Marietta—?” She shut her lips with a contemptuous little breath. “Let her!” she scorned. “I won’t follow David Collins’s lead.”

1 pique   

v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气

参考例句：

• She went off in a fit of pique.她一赌气就走了。
• Tom finished the sentence with an air of pique.汤姆有些生气地说完这句话。

2 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。

3 retard   

n.阻止，延迟；vt.妨碍，延迟，使减速

参考例句：

• Lack of sunlight will retard the growth of most plants.缺乏阳光会妨碍大多数植物的生长。
• Continuing violence will retard negotiations over the country's future.持续不断的暴力活动会阻碍关系到国家未来的谈判的进行。

4 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

5 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

6 luncheon   

n.午宴，午餐，便宴

参考例句：

• We have luncheon at twelve o'clock.我们十二点钟用午餐。
• I have a luncheon engagement.我午饭有约。

7 vexing   

adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• It is vexing to have to wait a long time for him. 长时间地等他真使人厌烦。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Lately a vexing problem had grown infuriatingly worse. 最近发生了一个讨厌的问题，而且严重到令人发指的地步。 来自辞典例句

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

9 unevenness   

n. 不平坦，不平衡，不匀性

参考例句：

• This unevenness comes about because topics are developed in a logical order. 所以出现这种不平衡，是因为课题是按逻辑顺序展开的。
• I sanded the corners to take away any unevenness in the joints. 我用砂纸磨边边角角的地方，去除接头处的不均。

10 alignment   

n.队列；结盟，联合

参考例句：

• The church should have no political alignment.教会不应与政治结盟。
• Britain formed a close alignment with Egypt in the last century.英国在上个世纪与埃及结成了紧密的联盟。

11 trifling   

adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的

参考例句：

• They quarreled over a trifling matter.他们为这种微不足道的事情争吵。
• So far Europe has no doubt, gained a real conveniency,though surely a very trifling one.直到现在为止,欧洲无疑地已经获得了实在的便利，不过那确是一种微不足道的便利。

12 bind   

vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬

参考例句：

• I will let the waiter bind up the parcel for you.我让服务生帮你把包裹包起来。
• He wants a shirt that does not bind him.他要一件不使他觉得过紧的衬衫。

13 annul   

v.宣告…无效，取消，废止

参考例句：

• They have the power to alter or annul inappropriate decisions of their own standing committees.他们有权改变或者撤销本级人民代表大会常务委员会不适当的决定。
• The courts later found grounds to annul the results,after the king urged them to sort out the "mess".在国王敦促法庭收拾烂摊子后，法庭随后宣布废除选举结果。

14 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

15 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。

16 veranda   

n.走廊；阳台

参考例句：

• She sat in the shade on the veranda.她坐在阳台上的遮荫处。
• They were strolling up and down the veranda.他们在走廊上来回徜徉。