There was an expression of doubt and perplexity in Helen’s face. She was considering whether it would be possible to make known to her father her engagement at the theatre, without, at the same time, revealing the motive4 which had led her to seek it. She was assured that her father would feel deeply pained if he knew the real state of the case, and she dreaded5 that he might object to her keeping her engagement. While she was hesitating, her father suddenly turned from his work and met her glance.
“A penny for your thoughts, Helen,” he said, with unwonted playfulness.
“My thoughts!” and she blushed consciously. “I am afraid, papa, they are not worth so much.”
“How cool and refreshing6 is the air!” mused7 Mr. Ford8, as he stood for a moment at the window. “Mark how beautifully the clouds are tinged9 with the faintest flush of red. Well have the old poets spoken of morning as ‘rosy-fingered.’ Would you like to go out for a walk, Helen?”
Helen looked up at the clock. It lacked yet two hours of the time for rehearsal11. There would be plenty of time for a walk, which, with her father, was never a long one.
94“Perhaps I shall be able to say something about my engagement, on the way,” she thought.
She silently got her bonnet12, and, placing her hand in that of her father, descended13 the stairs into the street. Here all was life and activity. In the early morning of a pleasant day the streets of a great city present a pleasant and cheerful aspect. Everything is full of stir and bustle14. Even the jaded15 dray-horse pricks16 up his ears, and shows some signs of life. Boys and girls expend17 their superabundant activity in bounding along the sidewalk, and even the man of business seems lightened of a portion of his cares. There is a subtile electricity in the air, which unconsciously affects the spirits of all, and lights up many faces with vague hopefulness.
Helen yielded herself up to the influences of the morning, and a quiet sense of happiness stole over her. She thought how beautiful in itself is the gift of life, and how glad we ought to be for the bright sunshine, and the clear, refreshing air, and the beautiful earth. The conflicts of life were lost sight of. She forgot, in the exhilaration of her spirits, that the days were sometimes dark, and the clouds leaden. Her father seemed affected18 in a similar way. A faint flush crept to his wan19 cheek, and his step became more elastic20.
“How the difficulties and embarrassments21 of our daily lives fade away in this glorious sunshine!” he said, musingly23. “Sometimes I have had fears that my discovery would never prove available; but to-day success seems almost within my grasp. It would be a sin to doubt, when all Nature whispers auguries24 of hope.”
“You must succeed, papa,” said Helen, cheerfully.
“So I feel now. I catch the inspiration of this cooling breeze. It breathes new life into me. It gives me fresh courage to work, for the end draws near.”
Mr. Ford relapsed into silence, and Helen walked quietly 95by his side, occupied with her own thoughts. All at once she became sensible that she had attracted the attention of a little knot of boys, who were conversing25 together in a low tone, pointing first to her, and then to a large placard posted conspicuously26 on the wall beside her.
“That’s she!” she heard pronounced in an audible voice. “I saw her last night.”
Following the direction of their fingers, she started in surprise on reading, in large capitals, her own name. It was the bill of the evening’s entertainment in the theatre at which she was engaged. The surprise was so unexpected, that she uttered a half-exclamation, which, however, was sufficient to draw her father’s attention to the bill.
THE TALENTED YOUNG VOCALIST,
MISS HELEN FORD,
WILL MAKE HER SECOND APPEARANCE THIS EVENING IN A POPULAR SONG.
“It is very strange,” said Mr. Ford, stopping short as he read this announcement; “some one having the same name with you, Helen?”
“No, papa,” said she, in a low voice.
“No?” repeated her father, in surprise. “Then you don’t see the name.”
“Will you promise not to be angry with me, papa, if I tell you all.”
“Angry! Am I often angry with you, Helen?”
“No, no! I did not mean that. But perhaps you will think I have done wrong.”
“I am still in the dark, Helen.”
“Then,” said the young girl, hurriedly, and with flushed face, “that is my name. I am the Helen Ford whose name is on the bill.”
“Yes, papa. I have been wanting to tell you all this morning; but I hardly knew how.”
“I don’t understand. Have you ever sung there?”
“Last night, for the first time.”
Helen proceeded to give her father a circumstantial account of her interview with the manager, her repulse28 at first, and her subsequent engagement. She added that she had hesitated to tell him, lest he should object to her accepting it. She next spoke10 of her first appearance upon the stage,—how at first she was terrified at sight of the crowded audience, but had succeeded in overcoming her timidity, and lost all consciousness of her trying position in the enjoyment29 of singing.
“You have forgotten one thing, Helen,” said her father, gravely. “You have not told me what first gave you the idea of singing in public.”
“It was Martha,” said Helen, in some embarrassment22, foreseeing what was coming. “One day I sang in her room, and she was so well pleased, that she told me I might one day become a public singer.”
“And that was all, Helen?”
“What else should there be, papa?” she answered, evasively.
“Indeed, I do not know. I thought it might be because you supposed we were poor, and wished to earn some money. But you see, Helen, there is no need of that;” and he drew out his pocket-book, and displayed to the child’s astonished gaze the roll of bills which Mr. Sharp had insisted on loaning him the day previous.
“Indeed, papa, I had no idea you were so rich.”
“A kind friend lent me this money yesterday.”
“Who was it, papa?”
97“You remember a man who came to see us a fortnight since,—a tall man with a white hat?”
“Yes, papa.”
“He lent me the money.”
“Did you ask him, papa?”
“No; it was his own generous offer.”
“But suppose he should want you to pay it by and by, and you did not have the money?” suggested Helen, uneasily.
“There is no fear on that score. He desires to assist me with my invention, and suggested, very properly, that with improved materials my progress would become more rapid. Once let me succeed, and I shall be able to repay the loan, if it were twice as large. He will never think of asking me for it before. He is a very generous-hearted man, Helen, and he only called it a loan because he knew that I should be unwilling30 to accept a gift.”
Helen could not gainsay31 her father’s words. She could not conceive of any evil purpose on the part of Mr. Sharp; yet, somehow, an unaccountable sense of anxiety and apprehension32 of coming evil, in connection with this loan, would force itself upon her mind.
“Perhaps,” said Mr. Ford, with a sudden thought, “you may need something that I can buy you,—some article of dress, or perhaps you may require an additional sum for the purchase of our daily necessaries. I am so much occupied in other ways that I do not always think of these things.”
“No, papa,” said Helen, hurriedly. “I do not need anything.”
Then, yielding to an uncontrollable impulse, she exclaimed, “Dear papa, do not use any of this money. Pray, return it to this man, and tell him you do not need it.”
“But it will be very useful to me, Helen. Besides, it 98would be a very uncivil way of meeting such a generous offer. You are a foolish child. What has put this fancy into your head?”
“I don’t know,” said Helen, slowly; “but I feel as if this money may do us some harm.”
“What possible harm can come of it?” asked Mr. Ford, surprised at the child’s earnestness.
“I do not like to think that you are in anybody’s power, papa.”
“We are all in the power of God, my child.”
“I did not mean that, papa.”
“And He is abundantly able to shield us from evil. Is it not so, Helen?”
Helen was silenced, but not wholly convinced. This was the more remarkable33, since nothing was more foreign to her nature than to cherish distrust of any living thing. Even now, her feeling was rather an instinctive34 foreboding than any clearly-defined suspicion. The presence of Mr. Sharp, polite and affable as he appeared, had not impressed her pleasantly,—why, she could not tell. Oftentimes children are truer in their instinctive perception of character than their elders. It is fortunate that, in the absence of that knowledge which experience alone can give, they should be provided with this safeguard against the evil designs of those who might injure them.
Nine o’clock pealed35 from the lofty steeple of Trinity. Helen heard the strokes as one by one they rang out upon the air, and she was warned of the near approach of the hour for rehearsal.
“It is nearly time for rehearsal,” she said, looking up in her father’s face. “Shall I go?”
“Do you really wish to go, Helen?”
“I really wish it, papa.”
“Then I will not interfere36 to prevent you. I have so 99much confidence in you, my child, that I am willing to trust you where others might suffer harm.”
The father and child parted. One returned to his humble37 lodging38 in the fourth story back; the other wended her way to the theatre.
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1
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
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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3
resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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4
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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5
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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6
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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7
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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8
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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9
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
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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11
rehearsal
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| n.排练，排演；练习 | |
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12
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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13
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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14
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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15
jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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16
pricks
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| 刺痛( prick的名词复数 )； 刺孔； 刺痕； 植物的刺 | |
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17
expend
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| vt.花费，消费，消耗 | |
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18
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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19
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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20
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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21
embarrassments
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| n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 )；难堪；局促不安；令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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22
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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23
musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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24
auguries
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| n.（古罗马）占卜术，占卜仪式( augury的名词复数 )；预兆 | |
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25
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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26
conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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27
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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28
repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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29
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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30
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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31
gainsay
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| v.否认，反驳 | |
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32
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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33
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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34
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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35
pealed
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| v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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37
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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38
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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