Once more my bracelet1 disappeared and reappeared, as it had before--at night. And this time the scratching woke me from a sound sleep, and, as before, I saw a tiny point of light caught in the gold, and in this way watched it creep about a foot inside of the room by my bed and then stop. And this time, after it had rested for a moment, it moved again with a jerk, for about two inches. Then, very quietly, the door at the head of my bed closed, and I heard the click of the door-knob, after which the key fell from the lock and clattered2 loudly on the floor. . . .
I lay there shaking and gasping3, and wishing that even Amy were with me. But Amy and I were not good friends at that time. . . . Well, that night I got up, switched on my lights, and picked up the bracelet. I tried to be a sport, and so I said, “Hello; glad to see you back!” but my voice wasn’t the sort that should have gone with those words. Then I put the bracelet up and was just about to turn off the lights when I heard my door open perhaps an inch and close quickly. And I turned in time to see a hand reach in to get the flashlight which lay on the table by my bed.
Shakily I said, “Who is that?” but no one answered.
And I went to the door and looked out, but no one was in sight. . . . From down the hall I could hear Uncle Archie snoring, and then Amy coughed. Nothing was the matter with them. I closed my door and locked it, although I did not see what good locks would be against a force of the sort I was meeting. But--it seemed safer.
Every sound from the street rose to bother me and make me think that there was something outside the door. Every creak in the furniture made me jump. I sat huddled4 up in a big chair, warmly wrapped in a blanket, but shaking as if I had two hundred and nine chills all at once. And every once in a while I would think I heard a footstep in the hall.
“If this goes on,” I thought, “I do not see how I can stand it.” And at that time I decided5 to give up the bracelet and have peace. For everything looks blacker at night, and in those dark hours it is easy to give up and let yourself be beaten.
A half an hour after that, perhaps, I heard the beginning of day in the whir of motors, and nothing ever sounded so good to me. I wanted light, most terribly.
And as all things that seem as far away as graduation, or your first low-necked dress, or your first train, it eventually came, and then I lay down, and slept.
When I got up the next morning Aunt Penelope was nice to me for the first time since she thought I’d stolen Evelyn’s violets. That is, I mean she felt like being kind. Before, she had been elaborately polite, and as just as she could possibly be, but I felt that this was because she would be uncomfortable if she weren’t, not because her instincts pointed6 my way with gentleness. And I was so glad that I had to swallow a great many times as fast as possible, and couldn’t say good-morning to Uncle Archie, who got in with his greeting first and “Huh-ed” at me twice before I could respond.
“My dear child,” said Aunt Penelope, “are you ill?”
I said I was all right, I guessed, but that I hadn’t slept very well.
“Come here,” she said.
I did.
She took my hands in hers and then laid a hand on my cheek. “Hot,” she said. “Suppose we stay home from school to-day?”
I nodded.
“And do a little petting of ourselves?” she went on.
I said I thought that would be nice.
“Amy will take a note to Miss Gardner,” Aunt Penelope continued, “and we’ll be cosily7 fixed8 at home and have Doctor Vance come in.” And then she looked at me searchingly, patted my hand and sent me to my place. I didn’t eat much, I didn’t feel like it and I was too busy thinking, for I had decided, with daylight, that I would not give up. Uncle Archie got up, before we had finished, as he always does, and as he went by my place laid five dollars by it. I did think that was dear of him.
I asked if I might be excused, and followed him to the hall and here I thanked him. He grunted9 and looked over my head, and you can imagine my surprise when he said, “Guess you haven’t been very happy, lately, have you?”
I replied that I supposed it was my fault if I had not been, and then (I don’t know what made me, for I had become used to having people think wrong of me) I added, “I did not take those violets.”
“Huh----” he grunted.
“I don’t care enough for them,” I went on. “I prefer daisies to orchids10, just as I prefer fishing to thé dansants.”
“Fishing,” said Uncle Archie, and he stared down at the surface of the hall table, which shines highly where it isn’t covered with a lovely piece of brocade. “I used to fish,” he said, “but my soul--that was a long time ago!” and he sighed. I got the impression that he had liked it lots, and I think it seemed to him as if it had happened a long time past in his life and that he had grown away from it in spirit too, and somehow couldn’t go back. I felt very sorry for him.
When I went back to the dining-room I found Evelyn just trailing in, wearing a négligé and looking pretty, but tired. She was fretful about a frock that had not come when she expected it and sat toying with her breakfast and complaining about everything. And as always, when she began this, Amy started to say that she had nothing to wear, and that her clothes were the worst looking in school and that she was ashamed to go. And then she began to cry.
I was disgusted, and I thought Evelyn ought to be ashamed to start it, for bad temper is just as catching11 as measles12 or mumps13, and anyone who gives it to the public should be punished in some way.
Aunt looked tried.
“What is the matter with you?” she asked. “I never sit down that you and Amy don’t ask for something, and I’m sure I don’t see where you got that habit----”
(I almost smiled at that.) Then she looked at a little tiny diamond-trimmed wrist-watch she wears, spoke14 sharply to Amy of the time, added a word about her own engagements, and both she and Amy left. Evelyn and I, who had not finished eating, were alone.
And I did an awful thing, but it was a satisfaction. I told Evelyn just what I thought of her. She started it.
“What is the matter with people?” she said. “Sometimes they’re simply on edge. . . . Here I come in, make a calm statement about needing frocks, and Amy begins to cry. . . . Anyone can see that I need more than a child of her age does. . . .”
“People are all pigs,” I said, “and want more than they have and more and more and more, and that is the reason you’re so unhappy. You started the bad temper,” I continued (it really was interesting, for she had let her mouth open in astonishment15, and astonishment evidently relaxed the spring, for it stayed so), “and then--you wonder what made it. Any girl like Amy looks up to an older sister, and when the older sister complains the entire time, why--she does too! And that’s the reason,” I stated with entire frankness, “that you’re going to miss happiness. You think frocks and having things makes it--well, things and frocks don’t. Responsibility and love and giving make a return, and they only. . . . Look here,” I paused for a moment, and then went on, “Amy adores you, she patterns herself over you; therefore she is beginning to be cross to aunt and never to say a decent thing at home and to complain all the time. That’s what she sees in you----”
Evelyn stood up.
“And,” I hurried on before she could break in, “she will miss real love, as you will, because real love hasn’t enough money for motors and frocks and all she wants. And I think real love is lucky, for all he would get would be a request for more money, complaints and no consideration. Look at Uncle Archie,” I added, and I went on at length about his caring for fishing and never doing it and how he never sat down to a meal without a request of some sort, from one of them, for money.
“That whole business has soured this family,” I said, “and I am glad you are not going to let it sour another--since money is evidently most important to you.”
Then I left. Evelyn had plenty of time to speak, but she didn’t; and what is more she didn’t speak about it later, or tell Aunt Penelope of what I had done. I know it was frightful16 of me, but, as I said, it was a satisfaction, for I had come in the library one afternoon hunting a book and found Evelyn and Mr. Apthorpe sitting there before a fire. The heavy rugs muffled17 my footsteps and before I could speak and let them know I was there, I heard, “Four thousand--oh, Herbert, I don’t see how we could. I love you, but how could we manage on that!” And he hadn’t come to call since, so I knew how it ended.
That was what made me so mad--to see her throw away that chance (for it was a big one if she did care) because of greed.
Several weeks went by after that and everyone but Evelyn was nicer to me. She wasn’t unpleasant, but she didn’t notice me. The Doctor said I was a little nervously18 upset, and that commanded Amy’s respect and made the girls in school splendid to me. Hardly a day went by that I didn’t get gum-drops or a French pastry19 or have someone offer to let me wear their violets for a half-hour. I liked that. And more for the spirit than for the benefits which I received from it.
Mr. Kempwood was splendid to me all that time and took me for lots of nice drives and to the theatre several times. We became better and better friends, and he began to seem less old and more “S. K.,” a chum.
One night he sent a new servant up to ask if I cared to go walking with him before dinner. I was in the dining-room helping20 Ito serve aunt’s friends who had been playing auction21 and were ready to be tea-ed up. When I hunted the man to give him my answer I couldn’t find him, until, looking down the long hall which leads toward the sleeping-rooms, I saw him step from my room.
“I beg pardon,” he said, as he reached me, “but I heard a window go up in that room, and then a heavy tool drop. It sounded like a sneak22 thief and I went to see. . . . The window was open, miss, and there is a bit of wood broken from the sill. I beg pardon if I did wrong, but there seemed to be no one about but the party of ladies and I thought immediate23 action necessary.”
I said it was all right and thanked him. And I found something he had not seen--and that was that the lock of the window was broken.
Someone had been there, and with intent fixed that window so it could be opened. It was the one which led out on the little iron grilled24 balcony. That was the night I set the trap. If I recall correctly, it was the night before Thanksgiving. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter was that five people wore bandages on their right hands the next day--so--how could I tell who had found the trap?
Nothing seemed to work out as I hoped it would, everything only made more confusion; and I felt--Madam Jumel smile!
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1
bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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2
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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3
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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4
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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5
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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6
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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7
cosily
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| adv.舒适地，惬意地 | |
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8
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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9
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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10
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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11
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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12
measles
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| n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子 | |
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13
mumps
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| n.腮腺炎 | |
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14
spoke
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| 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 | |
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15
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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16
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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17
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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18
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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19
pastry
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| n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点 | |
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20
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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21
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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22
sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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23
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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24
grilled
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| adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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