A man turned the corner—a tall, rather young man who wore a shapeless suit of gray, a limp collar, a flowing bow tie, a soft hat; and who had a trick of throwing his leg out and around as he walked and toeing in with the right font.
He turned in, grinning cheerfully and waving a lean hand. He mounted the steps. Sue sat erect2, gripping the arms of her chair, eyes bright, and laughed nervously3.
“Henry,” she cred, “you're hopeless! Where's the new suit? You're not a bit respectable.”
He seated himself on the porch railing and gazed ruefully downward.
“Sue, I'm sorry. Plum forgot. And I swore I'd never disgrace you again. I am hopeless. You're right.” Then he laughed—irresponsibly, happily, like a boy.
She stared at him. “What is it, Henry?”
“Everything, child! You see before you the man who has just conquered the world. All of it. And no worlds left. Mr. Alexander H. Bates.”
“Oh,” said she, thinking swiftly back—“your novel!”
“Right. My novel.”
“But it isn't finished, Henry.”
“Not quite half done.”
“Then, how can—”
He raised a long hand and rose. He gazed down benignly4 at her. “The greatest publisher in these U. S. has had the good fortune to read the first fourteen chapters. A whisper blew to me yesterday of the way things were going—before I wrote you. But the word this morning was not a whisper. Susan. It was an ear-splitting yell. Mister Greatest Publisher personally sent for me. Told me he had been looking for me—exactly me!—these twenty-eight years. And here I am. Money now if I need it. And do I need it? God, do I need it! And fame later—when I get the book done. Now, child, tell me how glad you are. At once.”
He walked the porch; came back and stood before her; grinned and grinned.
She could not find words. Soberly her eyes followed him. Her set mouth softened5. Her tightened6 muscles relaxed until she was leaning back limp in the chair.
“Isn't it the devil, Sue!” said he. “The one thing my heart was set on was to wear that good suit. Sue, I was going to put it all over this suburb of yours—just smear7 'em! And look—I have to go and forget. Nothing comes out to see you but the same disgraceful old gipsy. How could I?”
Sue leaned forward. “Henry, I'm glad. I love this old suit. But there's a button coming loose—there, on your coat.”
“I know, Sue. I sewed at it, but it doesn't hold. I'm meaning to stop at a tailor's, next time I'm over toward Sixth Avenue.”
She was studying his face now. “You're happy, Henry,” she said.
“Well—in a sense! In a sense!”
“It is a good thing you came. I was forgetting about happiness.”
“I know. One does.” He consulted his watch. “It's five-twenty-two now, Sue. And we're catching9 the five-thirty-eight back to town.”
She did not speak. But her eyes met his, squarely; held to them. It was a forthright11 eye-to-eye gaze, of the sort that rarely occurs, even between friends, and that is not soon forgotten. Sue had been white, sitting there, when he came and after. Now her color returned.
He bent12 over and took her elbow. The touch of his hand was a luxury. Her lids drooped13; her color rose and rose. She let him almost lift her from the chair. Then she went in for her hat and coat; still silent. They caught the five-thirty-eight.
“What are we going in for?” she asked, listless again, when they had found a seat in the train.
“Oh, come! You know! To see the almost famous Sue Wilde of Greenwich Village—”
“Not of the Village now, Henry!”
“—in the film sensation of the decade. Nature, suggested and directed by Jacob Zanin, written by Eric Mann, presented by the Nature Film Producing Company, Adolph Silverstone, President. You see, I've been getting you up, Sue.”
She was staring cut the window gloomily.
“I swore I wouldn't go, Henry.”
“But that would be a shame.”
“I know—of course. But—Henry, you don't understand. Nobody understands! I'm not sure I can stand it to sit there and see myself doing those things—and have to talk with people I know, and—”
“I think I could smuggle14 you in,” said he, thoughtful. “This isn't a little movie house, you know. It's a regular theater. There ought to be a separate gallery entrance. That would make it easy.”
She changed the subject. “Where shall we eat, Henry?”
“The Parisian?”
She shook her head. “Let's go to Jim's.”
To Jim's they went; and it seemed to him whimsically watchful15 eyes that she had an occasional moment of being her old girlish self as they strolled through the wandering streets of Greenwich Village and stepped down into the basement oyster16 and chop house that had made its name a full generation before Socialism was more than a foreign-sounding word and two generations before cubism, futurism, vorticism, imagism, Nietzsche, the I. W. W., Feminism and the Russians had swept in among the old houses and tenements17 to engage in the verbal battle royal that has since converted the quaint18 old quarter from a haunt of rather gently artistic19 bohemianism into a shambles20 of dead and dismembered and bleeding theories. Jim's alone had not changed. Even the old waiter who so far as any one knew had always been there, shuffled21 through the sprinkling of sawdust on the floor; and the familiar fat grandson of the original Jim was still to be seen standing22 by the open grill23 that was set in the wall at the rear end of the oyster bar.
The Worm suggested thick mutton chops and the hugely delectable24 baked potatoes without which Jim's would not have been Jim's. Sue smiled rather wanly25 and assented26. Her air of depression disturbed him; his own buoyancy sagged27; he found it necessary now and then to manufacture talk. This was so foreign to the quality of their friendship that he finally laid down his knife and fork, rested his elbows on the table and considered her.
“Sue,” he remarked, “it's getting to you, isn't it—the old Village.”
She tried to smile, and looked off toward the glowing grill.
“Why don't you come around and have a look at the rooms? I haven't changed them. Only your pictures are gone. Even your books are on the mantel where you used to keep them. It might hook things up for us, so we could get to feeling and talking like ourselves. What do you say—could you stand it?”
She tried to look at him, tried to be her old frank self; but without marked success. The tears were close. She had to compress her lips and study the table-cloth for a long moment before she could speak.
“I couldn't, Henry.” Then with an impulse that was more like the Sue that he knew, she reached out and rested her hand on his arm. “Try not to mind me, Henry. I can't help it—whatever it is. I don't seem to have much fight left in me. It's plain enough that I shouldn't have tried to come in. It was just a crazy reaction, anyway. You caught me when I had been hurt. I was all mixed....”
She was excluding him from her little world now; and this was least like her of all the things she had been saying and doing. But if the Worm was hurt he did not show it. He merely said:
“Sue, of course, you've been going through a nervous crisis, and it has taken a lot out of you.”
“A lot, Henry,” she murmured.
“One thing strikes me—superficial, of course—I doubt if you've had enough exercise this summer.”
“I know,” said she. “To-day I tried a few steps—that—old Russian dance, you know—”
“I'd love to see you do it, Sue.”
She shook her head. “I've lost it—everything.”
“You were stiff, of course.”
“It was painful. I just couldn't dance. I don't like to think of it, Henry.”
He smiled. “One thing—I've decided28 to make you walk to the theater. It's two miles. That'll stir your pulse a bit. And we'll start now.”
She looked soberly at him. “You've lost nothing, Henry. The work you've done hasn't taken it out of you.”
“Not a hit. On the contrary, Sue.”
“I know. I feel it.”
“No more of the old aimlessness, Susan. No more books—except a look at yours now and then, because they were yours. God, girl, I'm creating! I'm living! I'm saying something. And I really seem to have it to say. That's what stirs you, puts a tingle29 into your blood.”
She studied him a moment longer, then lowered her eyes. “Let's be starting,” she said.
“Up Fifth Avenue, Sue?”
“Oh, yes, Henry!”
They walked eastward30 on Waverly Place, across Sixth Avenue. She paused here and looked up almost fondly at the ugly, shadowy elevated structure in the twilight31. A train roared by.
“I haven't seen the city for two months,” she said.
“That's a long time—-for a live person,” said he.
The dusty foliage32 of Washington Square appeared ahead. Above it like a ghost of the historic beauty of the old Square, loomed33 the marble arch. The lights of early evening twinkled from street poles and shone warmly from windows.
They turned up the Avenue whose history is the history of a century of New York life. Through the wide canyon34 darted35 the taxis and limousines36 that marked the beginnings of the city's night activity. The walks were thronged37 with late workers hurrying to their homes in the tenements to the south and west.
The Parisian restaurant was bright with silver, linen39 and electric lights behind the long French windows. He caught Sue giving the old place a sober, almost wistful glance.
At Fourteenth Street they encountered the ebb40 of the turbid41 human tide that at nightfall flows east and west across the great Avenue and picked their way through.
Above Fourteenth Street they entered the deep dim canyon of loft42 buildings. The sweatshops were here from which every noon and every night poured forth10 the thousands upon thousands of toilers—underfed, undersized, prominent of nose, cheek-bones and lips, gesticulating, spreading and shambling of gait, filling the great Avenue with a low roar of voluble talk in a strange guttural tongue—crowding so densely43 that a chance pedestrian could no more than drift with the slow current.
The nightly torrent44 was well over when Sue and the Worm walked through the blighted45 district, but each was familiar with the problem; each had played some small part in the strikes that stirred the region at intervals46. Sue indeed pointed47 out the spot, just below Twenty-third Street where she had been arrested for picketing48. And the Worm noted49 that she had steadied perceptibly as the old associations bit by bit reasserted their claims on her life. She was chatting with him now, nearly in the old, easy, forthright way. By the time the huge white facade50 of the Public Library came into view, with its steps, terraces, railings and misty51 trees, and the crosstown cars were clanging by just ahead at Forty-second Street, and they were meeting an occasional bachelor diner-out hurrying past in dinner-coat and straw hat, the Worm found himself chuckling52 again. They turned west on Forty-second Street, crossing Sixth Avenue, Broadway and Seventh Avenue, passing the glittering hotel on a famous corner and heading for the riotously53 whirling, darting54, blazing devices in colored light by means of which each theater of the congested group sought to thrust itself most violently upon the bewildered optic nerves of the passer-by.
Opposite one of these the Worm took Sue's arm, very gently, and halted her on the curb55. The evening throng38 brushed past, heedless of the simply dressed girl who yet was oddly, boyishly slim and graceful8 of body, and who was striking of countenance56 despite the weariness evident about the rather strongly modeled mouth and the large, thoughtful green eyes; heedless, as well, of the lank57, shabbily dressed young man who held her arm and bent earnestly over her. They were atoms in the careering metropolis58, uncounted polyps in the blind, swarming59, infinitely60 laborious61 structure that is New York. And they thought themselves, each, the center of the universe.
“Sue, dear,” said he, “here we are. You're about to see yourself. It will be an experience. And it won't be what you're thinking and—yes, dreading62. I've seen it—”
She glanced up in surprise.
“Last night—an exhibition to the newspaper men.” The emotion in his voice was evident. She glanced up again, something puzzled. “It was last night—afterward—that I decided on bringing you in. I wouldn't for anything in the world have missed having you here to-night. Though, at that, if Mr. Greatest Publisher hadn't warmed my soul with that wonderful blast of hot air I probably shouldn't have had the nerve. Of course I knew it would be an ordeal63. It's been on my conscience every minute. But I had to bring you, and I believe you'll understand why, two hours from now. I'm hoping you will, Sue.”
He hesitated. She waited. Suddenly then, he hurried her across the busy street and into the dim shelter of the gallery entrance.
“Zanin was out in front,” said he, “With some of the newspaper boys, but I got you by.”
Many individuals and groups were detaching themselves from the endless human stream and turning in between the six-foot lithographs64 at the main entrance to the theater. More and more steadily65 as Sue and the Worm stood in the shadow of the lesser66 doorway67 they had chosen, the crowds poured in. Others were turning in here toward the gallery and tramping up the long twisting stairway.
“Big house!” chuckled68 the Worm. “Oh, they'll put it across, Sue. You wait! Zanin's publicity69 has been wonderful. It would have disturbed you, girl—but it's rather a shame you haven't followed it.”
Sue seemed not to hear him. She was leaning out from the doorway, trying to make out the subjects of the two big lithographs. She finally slipped across to the curb and studied them a moment. Both were of herself, half-clad in the simple garment of an island savage70; over each picture was the one word, “NATURE,” under each the two words, “SUE WILDE.”
She hurried back and started up the stairs. The Worm saw that she was flushing again and that her mouth wore the set look.
On a landing, holding her back from a group ahead, he said: “Do you know, Sue, part of the disturbance71 you feel is just a shrinking from conspicuousness72, from the effective thing. Self-consciousness! Isn't it, now?”
But she turned away and kept on.
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1
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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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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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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benignly
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| adv.仁慈地，亲切地 | |
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5
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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6
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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7
smear
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| v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑 | |
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8
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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9
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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10
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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forthright
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| adj.直率的，直截了当的 [同]frank | |
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12
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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13
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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15
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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16
oyster
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| n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人 | |
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17
tenements
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| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
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18
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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19
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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20
shambles
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| n.混乱之处；废墟 | |
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21
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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22
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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grill
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| n.烤架，铁格子，烤肉；v.烧，烤，严加盘问 | |
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24
delectable
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| adj.使人愉快的；美味的 | |
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wanly
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| adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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28
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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29
tingle
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| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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30
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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32
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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33
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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34
canyon
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| n.峡谷，溪谷 | |
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35
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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36
limousines
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| n.豪华轿车( limousine的名词复数 )；（往返机场接送旅客的）中型客车，小型公共汽车 | |
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37
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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39
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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40
ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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41
turbid
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| adj.混浊的，泥水的，浓的 | |
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42
loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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43
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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44
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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45
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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46
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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47
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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48
picketing
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| [经] 罢工工人劝阻工人上班，工人纠察线 | |
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49
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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50
facade
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| n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表 | |
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51
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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52
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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53
riotously
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| adv.骚动地，暴乱地 | |
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54
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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55
curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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56
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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57
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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58
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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59
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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60
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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61
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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62
dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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63
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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64
lithographs
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| n.平版印刷品( lithograph的名词复数 ) | |
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65
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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66
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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67
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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68
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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70
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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71
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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72
conspicuousness
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| 显著，卓越，突出； 显著性 | |
参考例句： |
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