rainy day
Through the rain-drenched windows a cold white light entered, flooding the stack room with its iron tiers of slumbering7 volumes, and, here at the barrier-like counter, illumining faintly the rebellious8 brown hair of the girl who, with pen in hand, bent9 over the pile of catalogue cards. The library was very still, so still that the sibilation[192] of the moving pen sounded portentously11 loud. Now and then the rustle12 of a turning leaf or the scraping of feet on the floor came from around the corner of the arched doorway13 where sat a solitary14 occupant of the reading room. Save for these two the library was deserted15. The hands of the clock above the commemorative tablet pointed16 to a quarter past twelve and the stack-boy and the assistant librarian had both gone to their luncheons17.
A more prolonged scraping of feet, followed by the sound of a moving chair, caused the girl at the desk to raise her head and pause at her work. A little frown of annoyance18 gathered and then gave place to a smile of humorous resignation as footfalls sounded on the echoing silence. From the reading room emerged a tall, thin youth of about twenty, a youth with a[193] pale, cadaverous face lighted by a pair of patient, contemplative brown eyes which looked strangely incongruous and out of place. He carried two books which he laid apologetically on the counter.
“Excuse me, Miss Hoyt,” he said gently.
“Yes, Mr. Winkley?” she asked, looking up.
“Have—What did you say, please?” she asked startledly.
“Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, please,” he repeated in his patient voice. She turned hurriedly and disappeared into the stack room. Once out of sight she leaned against one of the cases and laughed silently and hysterically21.
[194]
“Oh,” she thought, “if he doesn’t stop it and go away I shall have to—to—I shall go crazy!”
Presently, with a final gasp22, she brushed the back of her hand across her eyes and went on down the concrete aisle23 in search of the volume. Out at the counter, the youth, left to himself, watched her while she was in sight and then leaned across to peer at the neatly24 arranged cards. She had left her handkerchief beside her work. With a timorous25 glance about him, he reached forward, picked it up and with a quick, vehement26 movement pressed it to his thin, unsmiling lips. He held it so a moment, his brown eyes staring widely through the rain-bleared window as though beholding27 visions. Then, as her steps came back toward him, he laid the handkerchief again in its place, straightened himself and waited.
[195]
“Here it is, Mr. Winkley,” she said soberly.
“Thank you. I am sorry to trouble you,” he answered gravely.
“It is only what I am here for,” she answered coldly, taking up her pen once more. He remained for an instant looking at the bent head. Then, lifting the Anatomy of Melancholy from the counter, he turned and walked slowly and quite noiselessly back to his table. But as he went the ghost of a sigh trembled across the silence.
The girl raised her head with a despairing glance toward the reading room, jabbed her pen viciously into the ink-stand and went on with her writing. The clock overhead ticked slowly and softly. The rain swished past the windows.
But presently a new sound made[196] itself heard. Dim at first, it grew insistently28 until the girl heard it and again lifted her head and listened with a new light in her violet eyes.
Chug-chug, chug-chug-chug, chug-chug!
big blue touring car
Automobiles30 are not common in Ellington, especially after the summer colony departs, and the approach of this one brought a tinge31 of color to the soft cheeks and a flutter to the heart of the librarian. So often during the past three months she had listened with straining ears to the panting of an automobile29 on the road below! Usually the sound had died away again in the distance, and she had told herself, sighing, that she was very glad. But to-day the sounds increased every instant. The chug-chug was slower now and more labored32; the car had left the village road and[197] was climbing the circling gravelled drive to the library. Every beat brought an answering beat from her heart.
Oh, it was foolish! she told herself angrily. And she didn’t want it to happen! She hoped it wouldn’t! Resolutely33 she began her work again, but the noise of the approaching machine seemed to fill the world with a tumult35 of sound. Then, close at hand, the measured chugs suddenly became hurried and incoherent, as though the intruding36 monster was violently incensed37 at being stopped. Then—silence, appalling38, portentous10! With white face the girl bent closer to her desk, her pen tracing quivering figures and letters. The outer door opened and closed again with a muffled39 jar. She heard the swish ... swish of the inner doors as they swung inward[198] and back. Firm footfalls sounded on the oaken floor. Very different they were from the soft tread of the library habitué, and there was a determined40, resolute34 character to them that put the brown-haired librarian in a panic. Oh, how she wished that she had fled while there had been time! She no longer doubted; the unexpected, which all along had been the expected, had happened; the thing which she had feared, and always hoped for, had come to pass. The steps came nearer, straight from the doorway, scorning the longer and quieter paths provided by the cocoa-fibre matting. The brown head still bent over the desk. Then the footsteps stopped. A terrible silence fell over the room. There was no help for it.
Slowly, reluctantly the girl raised her head.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
pallid
|
|
| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
westward
|
|
| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
enveloped
|
|
| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
ponderous
|
|
| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
deluging
|
|
| v.使淹没( deluge的现在分词 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
slumbering
|
|
| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
rebellious
|
|
| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
portentous
|
|
| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
portentously
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
rustle
|
|
| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
luncheons
|
|
| n.午餐，午宴( luncheon的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
anatomy
|
|
| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
hysterically
|
|
| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
gasp
|
|
| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
aisle
|
|
| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
neatly
|
|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
timorous
|
|
| adj.胆怯的，胆小的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
vehement
|
|
| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
beholding
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
insistently
|
|
| ad.坚持地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
automobile
|
|
| n.汽车，机动车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
automobiles
|
|
| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
tinge
|
|
| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
labored
|
|
| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
resolutely
|
|
| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
resolute
|
|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
tumult
|
|
| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
intruding
|
|
| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的现在分词)；把…强加于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
incensed
|
|
| 盛怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
appalling
|
|
| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
muffled
|
|
| 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） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |