The electric arcs swung white light up and down the station, the smoke of a sidetracked freight hung low and heavy in the valley, the teams of the afternoon drivers were rattling1 across the high bridge, their occupants looking with laughing interest on the scene below. Suddenly with shriek2 and roar the Southern train was in.
"Vir—gin—i—a."
"Vir—gin—i—a."
[Pg 174]
"Rah—rah—rah!"
The men gave a great yell. A young girl in one of the coaches flung up a window and looked out.
"Rah—rah—rah!"
The young girl snapped down the window. Another face, curious and likewise pretty, showed at the pane3. The young men were wildly enthusiastic.
"Vir—gin—i—a."
"Vir—gin—i—a—" The yell drowned all other sounds, and Lawson was astonished to see, as it ended, Frances springing from her trap a few yards away and hastening forward. The conductor waited gallantly4 at the steps of one of the coaches, the porter came down another flight, laden5 with bundles, and at the door, their cheeks showing red with suppressed fun and excitement behind their veils, appeared the two pretty young women.
"Vir—gin—i—a—." The yell died away as the men saw the professor's daughter greeting the arrivals with laughing welcome. They fell to guying each other mercilessly.[Pg 175] But Lawson, standing7 not far away, came at once to Frances' assistance.
"Let me help you!" He reached for some of the bundles.
"Oh, thank you! Mr. Lawson, these are my Richmond friends, Miss Rowan, Mr. Lawson! Miss Martin!"
The young women held out their gloved hands and Lawson welcomed them impressively. He assisted them into the trap with careful gallantry, the strangers, both of them, in the back seat, the packages stored at their feet. Frances was subduing8 the antics of Starlight, who after standing quietly when there was need, took occasion to seem shocked at the engine now that his driver was in place and he felt the touch of the reins10 on his bit, and to stand protestingly on his hind6 feet and paw the air.
The strangers were frightened. "Can you manage him, Frances?" cried one.
"Oh, let me get out!" the other pleaded.
"We'll come up on the street car!" Miss Rowan declared, white with fear.
"Sit still!" commanded Frances, shortly.[Pg 176] "Come down, Starlight! behave yourself!" she reached for the whip.
"Don't strike him! There's no telling what he would do!" begged the visitors. Lawson, near, stalwart and interested, seemed a godsend.
"Do come with us!" pleaded Elizabeth Martin, who in all emergencies turned to the nearest man.
"There's no need," he began. Starlight had all fours on solid earth once more.
"Jump in!" laughed Frances, nodding to the empty seat; she pulled Starlight around, waited a second for Lawson to get in, and then came down sharply on Starlight's flank with the whip. The horse made a plunge11, straight for the platform, the men scattered12 right and left, and Starlight went snorting up the winding13 road to the street above.
"Let Mr. Lawson drive!" besought14 Miss Martin.
Frances looked laughingly at the young man beside her. That other opportunity and this were all she could have wished to put them on a commonplace footing. The[Pg 177] old position and power and knowledge to hold her own, were all she wished for. Lawson looking into the clear, gray eyes felt a thrill of gratitude15 for the fortune which had befriended him.
Still, her answer may have held some hidden meaning for him, for he flushed a little when he heard it. "I prefer to hold my own reins myself," she said carelessly; "you know I never would stand much managing."
Lawson turned to talk to the young women behind him; so, he could watch furtively16 Frances' face and her cheek where the rose hue17 flickered19, the white in the midst of it.
The streets were filled with the afternoon crowd, students in groups or alone, young women, older women, children; fancy turnouts and farmers' wagons20, high carts, and heavy low ones filled with cordwood, young women in short skirts and heavy boots, young women in all the finery of new fall clothes and furs, loitering by the houses set flush upon the street, or by box-hedged gardens, the houses far back, or by smooth lawns.
[Pg 178]
The crowd was dense21, but through it Frances glimpsed Edward Montague. He had seen her a minute earlier and was watching her wistfully, with a keen pang22 at his heart that now when he had seen her first for so long a time, she should be one of a gay party with that handsome young fellow at her side. She drew rein9, soon as she saw him, and Edward hurried out to her.
"So glad to see you, Mr. Montague!" She leaned and gave him her hand. "Let me introduce you!" She named the young women. "You know Mr. Lawson?"
"Happy to have that pleasure!" said Lawson stiffly, remembering Susan's words.
"You must come and see us!" with a backward glance to her guests.
"I shall. I have just been out to your house."
"You have?"
"I met your father at the post-office; he told me you were home!"
"And forgot I was going to the station?"
"He did not mention it, but," quickly as if[Pg 179] in defence of his absent friend, "I left him waiting for you at home."
"We will hurry then; good-by!"
"Good-by!" He did not add that the professor had insisted on his return, and that he had accepted, but he carried with him a happy consciousness of the fact.
Frances had the same cordial invitation for Lawson, when they parted. She knew well that the young city women visiting the University in the middle of the term expected a good time, and a good time chiefly along one line. So while the professor was welcoming them in the hall, she lingered on the doorstep.
"You must help me make them enjoy their visit," she said, knowing she could not ask a better aide.
"I will, I shall be delighted!" answered Lawson fervidly23.
"And bring your friends!"
"I shall bring them this evening."
"I wonder—Elizabeth, Mary, are you very tired?" she called through the open door.
[Pg 180]
"Not a bit!" they chorussed.
"Very well—this evening!" She gave him her hand. He stood a little to the side of the step and they were out of sight through the half-opened door. He held her hand closely and looked straight in her eyes, questioningly, compellingly, but Frances looked back calmly and carelessly, and wrenched24 herself free. "Good-by!" she called from the door.
Lawson went on to his room and threw himself moodily25 into the chair before the fire. It was smouldering. He punched it viciously and banged the blower over it.
"Beastliest way of heating a fellow's room I ever saw!" he grumbled26, "I vow27 I'll freeze before mid-winter!"
He slipped into his smoking-jacket, turned on the glare of the light, pulled table and Morris chair before the fire, and sat down, book in hand, to some pretence28 of study, but other cases than legal thronged29 his mind. He flung the note-book on the table, wrenched off the blower, and then, with a half sigh of content at the blazing coals in[Pg 181] the grate, he sank back in his chair. He watched the flicker18 of the flames in the chimney's mouth; yellow and white and red and violet, the tongues of burning gas flared30 up the rough, black chimney's mouth, and the coals below glowed red and redder. But Lawson, looking at them dreamingly, was seeing the way he must go, and was growing stronger in his determination.
He would win her, yes! He had begun merely as a diversion from the study he sometimes liked and sometimes disliked, sometimes dreamed to win fame through and sometimes was intolerantly impatient of, counting, in a bitter moment, nothing worth effort.
He had begun, too, by draping traditions about Frances, every one of which, she had freed herself from; and he had ended by unquestioning acceptance of the fact that this woman, puzzling beyond his ken31, was the one thing of the hour he desired.
The memory of Susan's words only strengthened his obstinacy32. The shield Frances kept about her, thin as gauze, [Pg 182]impenetrable as steel, which he had fended33 aside once and once again, but made his fight the more interesting. He had no fault to find at any point of the situation,—only a wild impatience34 that he should have been thrust back when he felt attainment35 within his grasp.
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1
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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2
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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3
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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4
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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5
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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6
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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7
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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8
subduing
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| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
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9
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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10
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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11
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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12
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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13
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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14
besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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15
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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16
furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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17
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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18
flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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19
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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21
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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22
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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23
fervidly
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| adv.热情地，激情地 | |
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24
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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25
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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26
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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27
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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28
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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29
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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31
ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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32
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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33
fended
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| v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的过去式和过去分词 )；挡开，避开 | |
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34
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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35
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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