On the last Saturday in April, the New York “Times” published an account of the strike complications which were delaying Alexander’s New Jersey1 bridge, and stated that the engineer himself was in town and at his office on West Tenth Street.
On Sunday, the day after this notice appeared, Alexander worked all day at his Tenth Street rooms. His business often called him to New York, and he had kept an apartment there for years, subletting2 it when he went abroad for any length of time. Besides his sleeping-room and bath, there was a large room, formerly3 a painter’s studio, which he used as a study and office. It was furnished with the cast-off possessions of his bachelor days and with odd things which he sheltered for friends of his who followed itinerant4 and more or less artistic5 callings. Over the fireplace there was a large old-fashioned gilt6 mirror. Alexander’s big work-table stood in front of one of the three windows, and above the couch hung the one picture in the room, a big canvas of charming color and spirit, a study of the Luxembourg Gardens in early spring, painted in his youth by a man who had since become a portrait-painter of international renown7. He had done it for Alexander when they were students together in Paris.
Sunday was a cold, raw day and a fine rain fell continuously. When Alexander came back from dinner he put more wood on his fire, made himself comfortable, and settled down at his desk, where he began checking over estimate sheets. It was after nine o’clock and he was lighting8 a second pipe, when he thought he heard a sound at his door. He started and listened, holding the burning match in his hand; again he heard the same sound, like a firm, light tap. He rose and crossed the room quickly. When he threw open the door he recognized the figure that shrank back into the bare, dimly lit hallway. He stood for a moment in awkward constraint9, his pipe in his hand.
“Come in,” he said to Hilda at last, and closed the door behind her. He pointed10 to a chair by the fire and went back to his worktable. “Won’t you sit down?”
He was standing11 behind the table, turning over a pile of blueprints12 nervously13. The yellow light from the student’s lamp fell on his hands and the purple sleeves of his velvet14 smoking-jacket, but his flushed face and big, hard head were in the shadow. There was something about him that made Hilda wish herself at her hotel again, in the street below, anywhere but where she was.
“Of course I know, Bartley,” she said at last, “that after this you won’t owe me the least consideration. But we sail on Tuesday. I saw that interview in the paper yesterday, telling where you were, and I thought I had to see you. That’s all. Good-night; I’m going now.” She turned and her hand closed on the door-knob.
Alexander hurried toward her and took her gently by the arm. “Sit down, Hilda; you’re wet through. Let me take off your coat — and your boots; they’re oozing15 water.” He knelt down and began to unlace her shoes, while Hilda shrank into the chair. “Here, put your feet on this stool. You don’t mean to say you walked down — and without overshoes!”
Hilda hid her face in her hands. “I was afraid to take a cab. Can’t you see, Bartley, that I’m terribly frightened? I’ve been through this a hundred times today. Don’t be any more angry than you can help. I was all right until I knew you were in town. If you’d sent me a note, or telephoned me, or anything! But you won’t let me write to you, and I had to see you after that letter, that terrible letter you wrote me when you got home.”
Alexander faced her, resting his arm on the mantel behind him, and began to brush the sleeve of his jacket. “Is this the way you mean to answer it, Hilda?” he asked unsteadily.
She was afraid to look up at him. “Didn’t — didn’t you mean even to say goodby to me, Bartley? Did you mean just to — quit me?” she asked. “I came to tell you that I’m willing to do as you asked me. But it’s no use talking about that now. Give me my things, please.” She put her hand out toward the fender.
Alexander sat down on the arm of her chair. “Did you think I had forgotten you were in town, Hilda? Do you think I kept away by accident? Did you suppose I didn’t know you were sailing on Tuesday? There is a letter for you there, in my desk drawer. It was to have reached you on the steamer. I was all the morning writing it. I told myself that if I were really thinking of you, and not of myself, a letter would be better than nothing. Marks on paper mean something to you.” He paused. “They never did to me.”
Hilda smiled up at him beautifully and put her hand on his sleeve. “Oh, Bartley! Did you write to me? Why didn’t you telephone me to let me know that you had? Then I wouldn’t have come.”
Alexander slipped his arm about her. “I didn’t know it before, Hilda, on my honor I didn’t, but I believe it was because, deep down in me somewhere, I was hoping I might drive you to do just this. I’ve watched that door all day. I’ve jumped up if the fire crackled. I think I have felt that you were coming.” He bent16 his face over her hair.
“And I,” she whispered, — “I felt that you were feeling that. But when I came, I thought I had been mistaken.”
Alexander started up and began to walk up and down the room.
“No, you weren’t mistaken. I’ve been up in Canada with my bridge, and I arranged not to come to New York until after you had gone. Then, when your manager added two more weeks, I was already committed.” He dropped upon the stool in front of her and sat with his hands hanging between his knees. “What am I to do, Hilda?”
“That’s what I wanted to see you about, Bartley. I’m going to do what you asked me to do when you were in London. Only I’ll do it more completely. I’m going to marry.”
“Who?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter much! One of them. Only not Mac. I’m too fond of him.”
Alexander moved restlessly. “Are you joking, Hilda?”
“Indeed I’m not.”
“Then you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I know very well. I’ve thought about it a great deal, and I’ve quite decided17. I never used to understand how women did things like that, but I know now. It’s because they can’t be at the mercy of the man they love any longer.”
Alexander flushed angrily. “So it’s better to be at the mercy of a man you don’t love?”
“Under such circumstances, infinitely18!”
There was a flash in her eyes that made Alexander’s fall. He got up and went over to the window, threw it open, and leaned out. He heard Hilda moving about behind him. When he looked over his shoulder she was lacing her boots. He went back and stood over her.
“Hilda you’d better think a while longer before you do that. I don’t know what I ought to say, but I don’t believe you’d be happy; truly I don’t. Aren’t you trying to frighten me?”
She tied the knot of the last lacing and put her boot-heel down firmly. “No; I’m telling you what I’ve made up my mind to do. I suppose I would better do it without telling you. But afterward19 I shan’t have an opportunity to explain, for I shan’t be seeing you again.”
Alexander started to speak, but caught himself. When Hilda rose he sat down on the arm of her chair and drew her back into it.
“I wouldn’t be so much alarmed if I didn’t know how utterly20 reckless you CAN be. Don’t do anything like that rashly.” His face grew troubled. “You wouldn’t be happy. You are not that kind of woman. I’d never have another hour’s peace if I helped to make you do a thing like that.” He took her face between his hands and looked down into it. “You see, you are different, Hilda. Don’t you know you are?” His voice grew softer, his touch more and more tender. “Some women can do that sort of thing, but you — you can love as queens did, in the old time.”
Hilda had heard that soft, deep tone in his voice only once before. She closed her eyes; her lips and eyelids21 trembled. “Only one, Bartley. Only one. And he threw it back at me a second time.”
She felt the strength leap in the arms that held her so lightly.
“Try him again, Hilda. Try him once again.”
She looked up into his eyes, and hid her face in her hands.
收听单词发音 |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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subletting
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| v.转租( sublet的现在分词 ) | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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itinerant
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| adj.巡回的；流动的 | |
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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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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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7
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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8
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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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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12
blueprints
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| n.蓝图，设计图( blueprint的名词复数 ) | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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14
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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17
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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18
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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19
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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20
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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