Those early business days had been shared by another girl, gay Alice Ray, and to this partner of her joys and sorrows Susanna gave her heart. It almost broke when Allen Morehouse married[54] Alice and carried her off to the Far West. The two corresponded for years, but gradually the epistolary bond dissolved. Miss Frink grew more and more absorbed in business, and the courageous3, cheery chum of her girlhood came seldom to her mind until one day she received a letter signed “Adèle Lumbard.” It enclosed a picture of Alice Ray similar to one in Miss Frink’s possession, and the writer claimed to be Alice’s granddaughter. She stated that she was alone in the world having been divorced after an unhappy marriage, and, not knowing which way to turn, had thought of the friend her grandmother had loved so devotedly4, and wondered if for the sake of auld6 lang syne7 Miss Frink would be willing to see her and give her advice as to what to do.
Divorced! Susanna Frink’s eyebrows8 drew together. The lady of the old school had no patience with divorce. But here was Alice Ray’s granddaughter. Susanna looked at the picture, a smiling picture that through all the ups and downs of her life had stood on her dresser: an enlargement of it hung on her wall. There was no other picture in the room. Memories stirred. She had no sense of outgoing warmth toward the writer of the letter; but a divorce was a scandalous thing. What had the[55] girl done? Worse still, what was she likely to do if left to herself?
Miss Frink had no private charities. She gave through her secretary to the worthy9 organizations whose business it was to look after such matters, and troubled herself no further about them. Her secretary took care that the frequent letters of appeal should never reach her, but when he read Mrs. Lumbard’s, and saw the photograph, he knew that this did not come under the usual head; and so Miss Frink was now looking into Alice Ray’s sweet eyes, and the smile which seemed to express confidence that her good pal10 Susanna would not fail her.
Miss Frink sent for Adèle Lumbard, and that young woman’s heart bounded with relief and hope. She knew all about Miss Frink—indeed, so closely had she kept apprised11 of her reputation for cold shrewdness that she had grave doubts as to the reception of her letter, and the curt12 lines of invitation rejoiced her. The old photograph was returned to her without comment.
When she reached the big house, it was no surprise to have a maid show her to her room and tell her that Miss Frink would see her in the drawing-room in an hour.
[56]
A sensitive soul would have been chilled by such a reception. Adèle Lumbard’s soul was not sensitive, but her body was, and she wholly approved of the linen13 in her bathroom and on her bed, fine in texture14 and all monogrammed. She liked the chaise longue and the luxurious15 chairs. Her windows looked out on heavy-leafed maples16 and graceful17 birches rising from a perfectly18 kept lawn. A pergola and a fountain were charmingly placed.
“If she’ll only take a fancy to me!” thought Adèle.
Those piercing eyes of Miss Frink’s studied the pretty woman who entered the room at the appointed time. Perhaps there had been stirrings of hope that the newcomer might bring reminders19 of the one being she had loved with all her heart. If so, the hope died. Adèle’s dark eyes and ivory skin surmounted20 by the fluffy21, snowy hair were striking, but as unlike the cheery brown and rose of sweet Alice Ray as it was possible to imagine.
Miss Frink’s cold dry hand gave the plump smooth one a brief shake.
“Be seated, Mrs. Lumbard!”
[57]
“I am sorry you got a divorce. I am a woman of the old school,” was the uncompromising reply.
“You wouldn’t wish me to live with a bad man?” The dark eyes opened with childlike appeal.
“No; but you needn’t have divorced him.”
“You talk like a Southerner.”
“Yes. Didn’t Grandmother tell you her son went South and married there?”
“Perhaps. I don’t remember. How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. You’re looking at my hair. In a single night, Aunt Susanna—Oh, excuse me,” with apparently24 sudden shyness, “Grandmother always spoke25 of you to us all as our Aunt Susanna. We were taught to love your picture.”
Miss Frink felt slightly pitiful toward that “single night” statement and she kept the thought of her Alice in mind.
[58]
“No wonder. I’m glad to see you don’t paint your face or dye your hair.”
The dark eyebrows lifted in surprise. “That’s the way I was raised, Aunt Susanna,” was the meek28 reply.
“Well, you’d better stay on here a while,” said Miss Frink at last, “and we’ll think what it will be best for you to do. Let us see. How long ago did Alice—did your grandmother die?”
The dark eyes looked off in thought. “I was a little girl. It must be about fifteen years now.”
Miss Frink nodded.
“What an old Tartar!” thought Adèle that night as she went to bed; but she had landed, as she expressed it to herself, and possession was nine points of the law. She hugged herself for her cleverness in eschewing29 rosy30 cheeks and having nothing on her hands but the slender wedding ring.
In the careful study she had made of Miss Frink and her surroundings before coming here, she had learned about Leonard Grimshaw. The rumor31 was that, although Miss Frink had not really adopted him, he was the closest factor in her life; and when Adèle met him at dinner that first evening, and found that he was not a[59] guest, but living in the house, she realized still further his importance. Realized also that he might resent her claims, and so she set herself to win his regard; while he, hearing her call Miss Frink “Aunt Susanna” unrebuked, understood that she was to be accepted.
They quickly formed a tacit alliance. Adèle’s efforts to get on intimate terms with the Queen of Farrandale were steadily32 repulsed33, but her pride was not hurt as she observed that Miss Frink treated everybody with the same brusqueness. She discerned that the one sentiment of her hostess’s life was still a living memory. The two pictures Miss Susanna kept near her proved it, and one day, a week after Adèle’s arrival, when the lawyer came and was closeted alone with Miss Frink for an hour, Mrs. Lumbard felt jubilantly certain that the visit was for the purpose of inserting her own name in the old lady’s will.
Adèle longed to become necessary in some way to her hostess. It was absurd for Leonard’s young cousin to be coming every day to read to her. She made an excuse to read something aloud one day, but Miss Frink interrupted her.
“I am blunt, Adèle. I don’t have time for beating about the bush, and your reading makes me nervous. It’s all vowels34.”
[60]
“I’m sorry, Aunt Susanna,” returned the young woman meekly35. “I do so wish I could do something for you—the little while I’m here.” The guest was always referring to the brevity of her visit, but weeks were slipping by. “Do you care for music?”
“Yes, moderately,” said Miss Frink carelessly. “There’s a Steinway grand down in the drawing-room. I don’t know when it has been touched.”
“Oh, go ahead any evening. I don’t want a racket in the daytime.”
So that very evening Adèle, in the simple black georgette gown which made her white throat and arms dazzling, sat down at the piano in the empty drawing-room and had the triumph of seeing Miss Frink come through the portières in evident surprise, and sit down with folded hands to listen to the finished runs that were purling across the neglected keys.
It was two weeks after Adèle’s arrival that Rex and Regina ran away; and, in the excitement of Hugh’s illness, Mrs. Lumbard had sufficient adroitness37 not to risk irritating Miss Frink’s rasped nerves. The piano was closed and she effaced38 herself as much as possible.
[61]
The secretary’s exasperation39 at the intrusion of the young hero beneath their roof amused her. He confided40 to her the paralyzing proof of Miss Frink’s indulgence in the matter of the cigarettes.
“Oh, if she would only go around the family!” sighed Adèle.
“That would certainly be the shortest way out of the house for you,” he said dryly.
Adèle colored. “You know very well you’d like it, too.”
“If I did, that would be a very different matter. I’m disgusted with the women of to-day.”
The secretary was sitting at his desk, and Mrs. Lumbard was in the usual pose of hunting for a book which she always adopted in her visits to the study lest the lady of the old school should come in upon their interview. Grimshaw had a sort of fascination42 for her inasmuch as his position was certainly the one nearest the throne, and he had a large and undisputed authority in Miss Frink’s affairs. Adèle’s closest watch had never been able to discern any evidence of personal attachment43 in Miss Frink for her secretary, and he certainly had no[62] cause of jealousy44 for Adèle on that score. This fact, more than her physical attractiveness, caused him to accept her friendly overtures45 and even to relieve himself occasionally in an exasperated46 burst of confidence.
For the first five years of his employment by Miss Frink he had been youthfully docile47, attentive48, and devoted5 to learning her business affairs. At the end of that period she invited him for convenience to reside in her house, and from that time on he had been playing for the large stake which everybody believed he would win.
He learned her likes and dislikes, never allowed his devotion to lapse49 into servility, and, with apparent unconsciousness of catering50 to her, kept early hours, read a great deal, and played with her endless games of double solitaire.
She sometimes suggested that he seek a wider social life, but to such hints he always replied, with a demure51 dignity in amusing contrast to her brusque strength, that his manner of life suited him excellently, but that if she wished to entertain he was at her service. Miss Frink at times thought remotely that she should like to entertain. She had taken much interest in perfecting the details of her home, inside and[63] out; but, when she came up against the question of setting a definite date and issuing invitations, she was stirred with the same apprehensions52 a fish might be supposed to undergo if asked to take a stroll around the garden. She spoke of the matter sometimes, and her secretary bowed gravely and assured her that he was quite ready to take her orders; but the fish always turned away from such considerations and dived a little deeper into the congenial discussion of her business matters.
Leonard Grimshaw thought very highly of himself in the present, and had many secret plans for an important and powerful future.
“I am disgusted with the women of to-day,” he said.
“Why shouldn’t we smoke as well as you?” asked Adèle.
“I don’t,” he returned finally, his eyes fixed54 on the papers on his desk. “You try it once here, and you’ll find it will be a few degrees worse than Damaris bobbing her hair.”
“Poor youngster,” said Adèle. “I must say, Aunt Susanna—”
“Well, what?” said Miss Frink, suddenly coming into the room, “Aunt Susanna what?”—she[64] went to the desk and threw down some papers. “File those, Grim. Speak, and let the worst be known, Adèle.”
The secretary certainly admired his colleague as he rose to his feet. Without altering her pose, Adèle’s voice melted into the meek and childlike tone of her habit.
“I was speaking of what a marvel55 it is that you have had no reaction from the excitement of that dreadful day. That is what it is to be a thoroughbred, Aunt Susanna.”
“Thorough-nothing,” snorted the lady. “What was the use of my lying down and rolling over because I wasn’t hurt?”
“And Rex is all right again, isn’t he?” said Adèle.
“Yes, he’s got over his scratch, and the new coachman does you credit, Grim. He has decent ideas about a check rein56. Order the horses for me at three. Dr. Morton says it will not hurt Mr. Stanwood to go for a short drive.”
Miss Frink hurried out of the room, and the two she left in it stared at each other. Adèle smothered57 a laugh behind a pretty hand, but the secretary had forgotten her smooth diplomacy58 in his annoyance59.
“I wonder if she is going with him. The[65] nurse is quite enough,” he said, as if to himself.
“I wish she’d ask me to go,” said Adèle. “I haven’t had a glimpse of him since I saw him lifted out of the road.”
“Nor she, much,” said Grimshaw. “She has had the nurse make frequent reports, but she hasn’t been in the sick-room at all. Why should she be bothered?”
“No reason, of course. She is not exactly a mush of love and sympathy. What I was really going to say, Leonard, was that I don’t see how a young attractive man like you entombs himself away from his kind the way you do, and must have done for years.”
Grimshaw raised his eyebrows as one accepting his due, and brushed back his thin crest60 of hair, with a careless hand.
“I work pretty hard,” he said.
Adèle looked apprehensively61 toward the door, then back at him.
“Is it always like this?” she breathed in a hushed voice.
“Like what?”
“Days all alike. Evenings all alike.” Adèle clenched62 her hands. “Nobody coming, nobody going. Why haven’t you dried up and blown away!”
Grimshaw regarded her. She had undoubtedly[66] become somewhat of a safety-valve for his feelings, since the day when Miss Frink brought a foreign body into the ordered régime of the big silent house, but he could do without her. He would rather do without everybody. His eyes behind the owl64 spectacles had a slight inimical gleam.
“Why do you stay if you don’t like it?” he returned.
The young woman straightened up resentfully.
“For the same reason you do,” she retorted.
“That is a very silly remark,” he said coldly. “A business man stays by his business interests.”
She regarded him in silence, and her stiff posture65 relaxed. He was powerful and she was powerless. She had put herself in his power many times. He could undo63 her with Miss Frink any hour.
“I’m alone in the world, Leonard,” she said, suddenly becoming self-pitying. “I’m so glad to have found a friend in you. Don’t desert me. I’d love Aunt Susanna if she would let me.”
“Better not try it on,” returned the secretary dryly, and again seated himself at his desk.
“But I’m human!” she exclaimed, suddenly appealing, “and I’m young. Can’t we ever[67] have any fun? Aren’t there any trusties in this prison?”
“Adèle!” He looked up suddenly and his voice cracked. “Keep these ideas to yourself, if you please. This is no prison. You can go free any day.”
She caught her breath. She longed to tell him he was a cautious prig; but for the first time she felt afraid of him. He had confided in her somewhat in his irritation66 at the stranger upstairs, but that idea was no longer a novelty, and now she felt that he was safely withdrawing into his shell.
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1
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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devotedly
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| 专心地； 恩爱地； 忠实地； 一心一意地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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auld
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| adj.老的，旧的 | |
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syne
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| adv.自彼时至此时，曾经 | |
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8
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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9
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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13
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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14
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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15
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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maples
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| 槭树，枫树( maple的名词复数 )； 槭木 | |
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17
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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19
reminders
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| n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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pestering
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的现在分词 ) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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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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curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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loathe
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| v.厌恶，嫌恶 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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eschewing
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| v.（尤指为道德或实际理由而）习惯性避开，回避( eschew的现在分词 ) | |
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30
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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32
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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vowels
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| n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 ) | |
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meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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36
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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37
adroitness
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38
effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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39
exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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40
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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41
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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42
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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43
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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44
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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45
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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46
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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47
docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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48
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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49
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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50
catering
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| n. 给养 | |
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51
demure
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| adj.严肃的；端庄的 | |
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52
apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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53
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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54
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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55
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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56
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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57
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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58
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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59
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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60
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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61
apprehensively
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| adv.担心地 | |
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62
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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64
owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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65
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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66
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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