Did that door move?
No. She wouldn’t go to the Jolly Seventeen. She hadn’t energy enough to caper1 before them, to smile blandly2 at Juanita’s rudeness. Not today. But she did want a party. Now! If some one would come in this afternoon, some one who liked her — Vida or Mrs. Sam Clark or old Mrs. Champ Perry or gentle Mrs. Dr. Westlake. Or Guy Pollock! She’d telephone ——
No. That wouldn’t be it. They must come of themselves.
Perhaps they would.
Why not?
She’d have tea ready, anyway. If they came — splendid. If not — what did she care? She wasn’t going to yield to the village and let down; she was going to keep up a belief in the rite4 of tea, to which she had always looked forward as the symbol of a leisurely5 fine existence. And it would be just as much fun, even if it was so babyish, to have tea by herself and pretend that she was entertaining clever men. It would!
She turned the shining thought into action. She bustled6 to the kitchen, stoked the wood-range, sang Schumann while she boiled the kettle, warmed up raisin7 cookies on a newspaper spread on the rack in the oven. She scampered8 up-stairs to bring down her filmiest tea-cloth. She arranged a silver tray. She proudly carried it into the living-room and set it on the long cherrywood table, pushing aside a hoop9 of embroidery10, a volume of Conrad from the library, copies of the Saturday Evening Post, the Literary Digest, and Kennicott’s National Geographic11 Magazine.
She moved the tray back and forth12 and regarded the effect. She shook her head. She busily unfolded the sewing-table set it in the bay-window, patted the tea-cloth to smoothness, moved the tray. “Some time I’ll have a mahogany tea-table,” she said happily.
She had brought in two cups, two plates. For herself, a straight chair, but for the guest the big wing-chair, which she pantingly tugged13 to the table.
She had finished all the preparations she could think of. She sat and waited. She listened for the door-bell, the telephone. Her eagerness was stilled. Her hands drooped14.
Surely Vida Sherwin would hear the summons.
She glanced through the bay-window. Snow was sifting15 over the ridge16 of the Howland house like sprays of water from a hose. The wide yards across the street were gray with moving eddies17. The black trees shivered. The roadway was gashed18 with ruts of ice.
She looked at the extra cup and plate. She looked at the wing-chair. It was so empty.
The tea was cold in the pot. With wearily dipping fingertip she tested it. Yes. Quite cold. She couldn’t wait any longer.
The cup across from her was icily clean, glisteningly empty.
Simply absurd to wait. She poured her own cup of tea. She sat and stared at it. What was it she was going to do now? Oh yes; how idiotic19; take a lump of sugar.
She didn’t want the beastly tea.
She was springing up. She was on the couch, sobbing20.
II
She was thinking more sharply than she had for weeks.
She reverted21 to her resolution to change the town — awaken22 it, prod23 it, “reform” it. What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They’d eat her all the sooner if she was meek24 to them. Fight or be eaten. It was easier to change the town completely than to conciliate it! She could not take their point of view; it was a negative thing; an intellectual squalor; a swamp of prejudices and fears. She would have to make them take hers. She was not a Vincent de Paul, to govern and mold a people. What of that? The tiniest change in their distrust of beauty would be the beginning of the end; a seed to sprout25 and some day with thickening roots to crack their wall of mediocrity. If she could not, as she desired, do a great thing nobly and with laughter, yet she need not be con- tent with village nothingness. She would plant one seed in the blank wall.
Was she just? Was it merely a blank wall, this town which to three thousand and more people was the center of the universe? Hadn’t she, returning from Lac-qui-Meurt, felt the heartiness26 of their greetings? No. The ten thousand Gopher Prairies had no monopoly of greetings and friendly hands. Sam Clark was no more loyal than girl librarians she knew in St. Paul, the people she had met in Chicago. And those others had so much that Gopher Prairie complacently27 lacked — the world of gaiety and adventure, of music and the integrity of bronze, of remembered mists from tropic isles28 and Paris nights and the walls of Bagdad, of industrial justice and a God who spake not in doggerel29 hymns30.
One seed. Which seed it was did not matter. All knowledge and freedom were one. But she had delayed so long in finding that seed. Could she do something with this Thanatopsis Club? Or should she make her house so charming that it would be an influence? She’d make Kennicott like poetry. That was it, for a beginning! She conceived so clear a picture of their bending over large fair pages by the fire (in a non- existent fireplace) that the spectral31 presences slipped away. Doors no longer moved; curtains were not creeping shadows but lovely dark masses in the dusk; and when Bea came home Carol was singing at the piano which she had not touched for many days.
Their supper was the feast of two girls. Carol was in the dining-room, in a frock of black satin edged with gold, and Bea, in blue gingham and an apron32, dined in the kitchen; but the door was open between, and Carol was inquiring, “Did you see any ducks in Dahl’s window?” and Bea chanting, “No, ma’am. Say, ve have a svell time, dis afternoon. Tina she have coffee and knackebrod, and her fella vos dere, and ve yoost laughed and laughed, and her fella say he vos president and he going to make me queen of Finland, and Ay stick a fedder in may hair and say Ay bane going to go to var — oh, ve vos so foolish and ve LAUGH so!”
When Carol sat at the piano again she did not think of her husband but of the book-drugged hermit33, Guy Pollock. She wished that Pollock would come calling.
“If a girl really kissed him, he’d creep out of his den3 and be human. If Will were as literate34 as Guy, or Guy were as executive as Will, I think I could endure even Gopher Prairie. “It’s so hard to mother Will. I could be maternal35 with Guy. Is that what I want, something to mother, a man or a baby or a town? I WILL have a baby. Some day. But to have him isolated36 here all his receptive years ——
“And so to bed.
“Have I found my real level in Bea and kitchen-gossip?
“Oh, I do miss you, Will. But it will be pleasant to turn over in bed as often as I want to, without worrying about waking you up.
“Am I really this settled thing called a ‘married woman’? I feel so unmarried tonight. So free. To think that there was once a Mrs. Kennicott who let herself worry over a town called Gopher Prairie when there was a whole world outside it!
“Of course Will is going to like poetry.”
III
A black February day. Clouds hewn of ponderous37 timber weighing down on the earth; an irresolute38 dropping of snow specks39 upon the trampled40 wastes. Gloom but no veiling of angularity. The lines of roofs and sidewalks sharp and inescapable.
The second day of Kennicott’s absence.
She fled from the creepy house for a walk. It was thirty below zero; too cold to exhilarate her. In the spaces between houses the wind caught her. It stung, it gnawed41 at nose and ears and aching cheeks, and she hastened from shelter to shelter, catching42 her breath in the lee of a barn, grateful for the protection of a billboard43 covered with ragged44 posters showing layer under layer of paste-smeared green and streaky red.
The grove45 of oaks at the end of the street suggested Indians, hunting, snow-shoes, and she struggled past the earth-banked cottages to the open country, to a farm and a low hill corrugated46 with hard snow. In her loose nutria coat, seal toque, virginal cheeks unmarked by lines of village jealousies47, she was as out of place on this dreary48 hillside as a scarlet49 tanager on an ice-floe. She looked down on Gopher Prairie. The snow, stretching without break from streets to devouring50 prairie beyond, wiped out the town’s pretense51 of being a shelter. The houses were black specks on a white sheet. Her heart shivered with that still loneliness as her body shivered with the wind.
She ran back into the huddle53 of streets, all the while protesting that she wanted a city’s yellow glare of shop-windows and restaurants, or the primitive54 forest with hooded55 furs and a rifle, or a barnyard warm and steamy, noisy with hens and cattle, certainly not these dun houses, these yards choked with winter ash-piles, these roads of dirty snow and clotted56 frozen mud. The zest57 of winter was gone. Three months more, till May, the cold might drag on, with the snow ever filthier58, the weakened body less resistent. She wondered why the good citizens insisted on adding the chill of prejudice, why they did not make the houses of their spirits more warm and frivolous59, like the wise chatterers of Stockholm and Moscow.
She circled the outskirts60 of the town and viewed the slum of “Swede Hollow.” Wherever as many as three houses are gathered there will be a slum of at least one house. In Gopher Prairie, the Sam Clarks boasted, “you don’t get any of this poverty that you find in cities — always plenty of work — no need of charity — man got to be blame shiftless if he don’t get ahead.” But now that the summer mask of leaves and grass was gone, Carol discovered misery61 and dead hope. In a shack62 of thin boards covered with tar-paper she saw the washerwoman, Mrs. Steinhof, working in gray steam. Outside, her six-year-old boy chopped wood. He had a torn jacket, muffler of a blue like skimmed milk. His hands were covered with red mittens63 through which protruded64 his chapped raw knuckles65. He halted to blow on them, to cry disinterestedly66.
A family of recently arrived Finns were camped in an abandoned stable. A man of eighty was picking up lumps of coal along the railroad.
She did not know what to do about it. She felt that these independent citizens, who had been taught that they belonged to a democracy, would resent her trying to play Lady Bountiful.
She lost her loneliness in the activity of the village industries — the railroad-yards with a freight-train switching, the wheat-elevator, oil-tanks, a slaughter-house with blood-marks on the snow, the creamery with the sleds of farmers and piles of milk-cans, an unexplained stone hut labeled “Danger-. Powder Stored Here.” The jolly tombstone-yard, where a utilitarian67 sculptor68 in a red calfskin overcoat whistled as he hammered the shiniest of granite69 headstones. Jackson Elder’s small planing-mill, with the smell of fresh pine shavings and the burr of circular saws. Most important, the Gopher Prairie Flour and Milling Company, Lyman, Cass president. Its windows were blanketed with flour-dust, but it was the most stirring spot in town. Workmen were wheeling barrels of flour into a box-car; a farmer sitting on sacks of wheat in a bobsled argued with the wheat-buyer; machinery70 within the mill boomed and whined71, water gurgled in the ice-freed mill-race.
The clatter72 was a relief to Carol after months of smug houses. She wished that she could work in the mill; that she did not belong to the caste of professional-man’s-wife.
She started for home, through the small slum. Before a tar-paper shack, at a gateless gate, a man in rough brown dogskin coat and black plush cap with lappets was watching her. His square face was confident, his foxy mustache was picaresque. He stood erect73, his hands in his side-pockets, his pipe puffing74 slowly. He was forty-five or — six, perhaps.
“How do, Mrs. Kennicott,” he drawled.
She recalled him — the town handyman, who had repaired their furnace at the beginning of winter.
“Oh, how do you do,” she fluttered.
“My name ‘s Bjornstam. ‘The Red Swede’ they call me. Remember? Always thought I’d kind of like to say howdy to you again.”
“Ye — yes —— I’ve been exploring the outskirts of town.”
“Yump. Fine mess. No sewage, no street cleaning, and the Lutheran minister and the priest represent the arts and sciences. Well, thunder, we submerged tenth down here in Swede Hollow are no worse off than you folks. Thank God, we don’t have to go and purr at Juanity Haydock at the Jolly Old Seventeen.”
The Carol who regarded herself as completely adaptable75 was uncomfortable at being chosen as comrade by a pipe- reeking76 odd-job man. Probably he was one of her husband’s patients. But she must keep her dignity.
“Yes, even the Jolly Seventeen isn’t always so exciting. It’s very cold again today, isn’t it. Well ——”
Bjornstam was not respectfully valedictory78. He showed no signs of pulling a forelock. His eyebrows79 moved as though they had a life of their own. With a subgrin he went on:
“Maybe I hadn’t ought to talk about Mrs. Haydock and her Solemcholy Seventeen in that fresh way. I suppose I’d be tickled80 to death if I was invited to sit in with that gang. I’m what they call a pariah81, I guess. I’m the town badman, Mrs. Kennicott: town atheist82, and I suppose I must be an anarchist83, too. Everybody who doesn’t love the bankers and the Grand Old Republican Party is an anarchist.”
Carol had unconsciously slipped from her attitude of departure into an attitude of listening, her face full toward him, her muff lowered. She fumbled84:
“Yes, I suppose so.” Her own grudges85 came in a flood. “I don’t see why you shouldn’t criticize the Jolly Seventeen if you want to. They aren’t sacred.”
“Oh yes, they are! The dollar-sign has chased the crucifix clean off the map. But then, I’ve got no kick. I do what I please, and I suppose I ought to let them do the same.”
“What do you mean by saying you’re a pariah?”
“I’m poor, and yet I don’t decently envy the rich. I’m an old bach. I make enough money for a stake, and then I sit around by myself, and shake hands with myself, and have a smoke, and read history, and I don’t contribute to the wealth of Brother Elder or Daddy Cass.”
“You —— I fancy you read a good deal.”
“Yep. In a hit-or-a-miss way. I’ll tell you: I’m a lone52 wolf. I trade horses, and saw wood, and work in lumber-camps — I’m a first-rate swamper. Always wished I could go to college. Though I s’pose I’d find it pretty slow, and they’d probably kick me out.”
“You really are a curious person, Mr. ——”
“Bjornstam. Miles Bjornstam. Half Yank and half Swede. Usually known as ‘that damn lazy big-mouthed calamity-howler that ain’t satisfied with the way we run things.’ No, I ain’t curious — whatever you mean by that! I’m just a bookworm. Probably too much reading for the amount of digestion86 I’ve got. Probably half-baked. I’m going to get in ‘half-baked’ first, and beat you to it, because it’s dead sure to be handed to a radical87 that wears jeans!”
They grinned together. She demanded:
“You say that the Jolly Seventeen is stupid. What makes you think so?”
“Oh, trust us borers into the foundation to know about your leisure class. Fact, Mrs. Kennicott, I’ll say that far as I can make out, the only people in this man’s town that do have any brains — I don’t mean ledger-keeping brains or duck- hunting brains or baby-spanking brains, but real imaginative brains — are you and me and Guy Pollock and the foreman at the flour-mill. He’s a socialist88, the foreman. (Don’t tell Lym Cass that! Lym would fire a socialist quicker than he would a horse-thief!)”
“Indeed no, I sha’n’t tell him.”
“This foreman and I have some great set-to’s. He’s a regular old-line party-member. Too dogmatic. Expects to reform everything from deforestration to nosebleed by saying phrases like ‘surplus value.’ Like reading the prayer-book. But same time, he’s a Plato J. Aristotle compared with people like Ezry Stowbody or Professor Mott or Julius Flickerbaugh.”
“It’s interesting to hear about him.”
He dug his toe into a drift, like a schoolboy. “Rats. You mean I talk too much. Well, I do, when I get hold of somebody like you. You probably want to run along and keep your nose from freezing.”
“Yes, I must go, I suppose. But tell me: Why did you leave Miss Sherwin, of the high school, out of your list of the town intelligentsia?”
“I guess maybe she does belong in it. From all I can hear she’s in everything and behind everything that looks like a reform — lot more than most folks realize. She lets Mrs. Reverend Warren, the president of this-here Thanatopsis Club, think she’s running the works, but Miss Sherwin is the secret boss, and nags89 all the easy-going dames90 into doing something. But way I figure it out —— You see, I’m not interested in these dinky reforms. Miss Sherwin’s trying to repair the holes in this barnacle-covered ship of a town by keeping busy bailing91 out the water. And Pollock tries to repair it by reading poetry to the crew! Me, I want to yank it up on the ways, and fire the poor bum92 of a shoemaker that built it so it sails crooked93, and have it rebuilt right, from the keel up.”
“Yes — that — that would be better. But I must run home. My poor nose is nearly frozen.”
“Say, you better come in and get warm, and see what an old bach’s shack is like.”
She looked doubtfully at him, at the low shanty94, the yard that was littered with cord-wood, moldy95 planks96, a hoopless wash-tub. She was disquieted97, but Bjornstam did not give her the opportunity to be delicate. He flung out his hand in a welcoming gesture which assumed that she was her own counselor98, that she was not a Respectable Married Woman but fully77 a human being. With a shaky, “Well, just a moment, to warm my nose,” she glanced down the street to make sure that she was not spied on, and bolted toward the shanty.
She remained for one hour, and never had she known a more considerate host than the Red Swede.
He had but one room: bare pine floor, small work-bench, wall bunk99 with amazingly neat bed, frying-pan and ash- stippled100 coffee-pot on the shelf behind the pot-bellied cannon- ball stove, backwoods chairs — one constructed from half a barrel, one from a tilted101 plank-and a row of books incredibly assorted102; Byron and Tennyson and Stevenson, a manual of gas-engines, a book by Thorstein Veblen, and a spotty treatise103 on “The Care, Feeding, Diseases, and Breeding of Poultry104 and Cattle.”
There was but one picture — a magazine color-plate of a steep-roofed village in the Harz Mountains which suggested kobolds and maidens105 with golden hair.
Bjornstam did not fuss over her. He suggested, “Might throw open your coat and put your feet up on the box in front of the stove.” He tossed his dogskin coat into the bunk, lowered himself into the barrel chair, and droned on:
“Yeh, I’m probably a yahoo, but by gum I do keep my independence by doing odd jobs, and that’s more ‘n these polite cusses like the clerks in the banks do. When I’m rude to some slob, it may be partly because I don’t know better (and God knows I’m not no authority on trick forks and what pants you wear with a Prince Albert), but mostly it’s because I mean something. I’m about the only man in Johnson County that remembers the joker in the Declaration of Independence about Americans being supposed to have the right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’
“I meet old Ezra Stowbody on the street. He looks at me like he wants me to remember he’s a highmuckamuck and worth two hundred thousand dollars, and he says, ‘Uh, Bjornquist ——’
“‘Bjornstam’s my name, Ezra,’ I says. HE knows my name, all rightee.
“‘Well, whatever your name is,’ he says, ‘I understand you have a gasoline saw. I want you to come around and saw up four cords of maple106 for me,’ he says.
“‘So you like my looks, eh?’ I says, kind of innocent.
“‘What difference does that make? Want you to saw that wood before Saturday,’ he says, real sharp. Common workman going and getting fresh with a fifth of a million dollars all walking around in a hand-me-down fur coat!
“‘Here’s the difference it makes,’ I says, just to devil him. ‘How do you know I like YOUR looks?’ Maybe he didn’t look sore! Nope,’ I says, ‘thinking it all over, I don’t like your application for a loan. Take it to another bank, only there ain’t any,’ I says, and I walks off on him.
“Sure. Probably I was surly — and foolish. But I figured there had to be ONE man in town independent enough to sass the banker!”
He hitched107 out of his chair, made coffee, gave Carol a cup, and talked on, half defiant108 and half apologetic, half wistful for friendliness109 and half amused by her surprise at the discovery that there was a proletarian philosophy.
At the door, she hinted:
“Mr. Bjornstam, if you were I, would you worry when people thought you were affected110?”
“Huh? Kick ’em in the face! Say, if I were a sea-gull, and all over silver, think I’d care what a pack of dirty seals thought about my flying?”
It was not the wind at her back, it was the thrust of Bjornstam’s scorn which carried her through town. She faced Juanita Haydock, cocked her head at Maud Dyer’s brief nod, and came home to Bea radiant. She telephoned Vida Sherwin to “run over this evening.” She lustily played Tschaikowsky — the virile111 chords an echo of the red laughing philosopher of the tar-paper shack.
(When she hinted to Vida, “Isn’t there a man here who amuses himself by being irreverent to the village gods — Bjornstam, some such a name?” the reform-leader said “Bjornstam? Oh yes. Fixes things. He’s awfully112 impertinent.”)
IV
Kennicott had returned at midnight. At breakfast he said four several times that he had missed her every moment.
On her way to market Sam Clark hailed her, “The top o’ the mornin’ to yez! Going to stop and pass the time of day mit Sam’l? Warmer, eh? What’d the doc’s thermometer say it was? Say, you folks better come round and visit with us, one of these evenings. Don’t be so dog-gone proud, staying by yourselves.”
Champ Perry the pioneer, wheat-buyer at the elevator, stopped her in the post-office, held her hand in his withered113 paws, peered at her with faded eyes, and chuckled114, “You are so fresh and blooming, my dear. Mother was saying t’other day that a sight of you was better ‘n a dose of medicine.”
In the Bon Ton Store she found Guy Pollock tentatively buying a modest gray scarf. “We haven’t seen you for so long,” she said. “Wouldn’t you like to come in and play cribbage, some evening?” As though he meant it, Pollock begged, “May I, really?”
While she was purchasing two yards of malines the vocal115 Raymie Wutherspoon tiptoed up to her, his long sallow face bobbing, and he besought116, “You’ve just got to come back to my department and see a pair of patent leather slippers117 I set aside for you.”
In a manner of more than sacerdotal reverence118 he unlaced her boots, tucked her skirt about her ankles, slid on the slippers. She took them.
“You’re a good salesman,” she said.
“I’m not a salesman at all! I just like elegant things. All this is so inartistic.” He indicated with a forlornly waving hand the shelves of shoe-boxes, the seat of thin wood perforated in rosettes, the display of shoe-trees and tin boxes of blacking, the lithograph119 of a smirking120 young woman with cherry cheeks who proclaimed in the exalted121 poetry of advertising122, “My tootsies never got hep to what pedal perfection was till I got a pair of clever classy Cleopatra Shoes.”
“But sometimes,” Raymie sighed, “there is a pair of dainty little shoes like these, and I set them aside for some one who will appreciate. When I saw these I said right away, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if they fitted Mrs. Kennicott,’ and I meant to speak to you first chance I had. I haven’t forgotten our jolly talks at Mrs. Gurrey’s!”
That evening Guy Pollock came in and, though Kennicott instantly impressed him into a cribbage game, Carol was happy again.
V
She did not, in recovering something of her buoyancy, forget her determination to begin the liberalizing of Gopher Prairie by the easy and agreeable propaganda of teaching Kennicott to enjoy reading poetry in the lamplight. The campaign was delayed. Twice he suggested that they call on neighbors; once he was in the country. The fourth evening he yawned pleasantly, stretched, and inquired, “Well, what’ll we do tonight? Shall we go to the movies?”
“I know exactly what we’re going to do. Now don’t ask questions! Come and sit down by the table. There, are you comfy? Lean back and forget you’re a practical man, and listen to me.”
It may be that she had been influenced by the managerial Vida Sherwin; certainly she sounded as though she was selling culture. But she dropped it when she sat on the couch, her chin in her hands, a volume of Yeats on her knees, and read aloud.
Instantly she was released from the homely123 comfort of a prairie town. She was in the world of lonely things — the flutter of twilight124 linnets, the aching call of gulls125 along a shore to which the netted foam126 crept out of darkness, the island of Aengus and the elder gods and the eternal glories that never were, tall kings and women girdled with crusted gold, the woful incessant127 chanting and the ——
“Heh-cha-cha!” coughed Dr. Kennicott. She stopped. She remembered that he was the sort of person who chewed tobacco. She glared, while he uneasily petitioned, “That’s great stuff. Study it in college? I like poetry fine — James Whitcomb Riley and some of Longfellow — this ‘Hiawatha.’ Gosh, I wish I could appreciate that highbrow art stuff. But I guess I’m too old a dog to learn new tricks.”
With pity for his bewilderment, and a certain desire to giggle128, she consoled him, “Then let’s try some Tennyson. You’ve read him?”
“Tennyson? You bet. Read him in school. There’s that:
And let there be no (what is it?) of farewell
When I put out to sea,
But let the ——
Well, I don’t remember all of it but —— Oh, sure! And there’s that ‘I met a little country boy who ——’ I don’t remember exactly how it goes, but the chorus ends up, ‘We are seven.’ ”
“Yes. Well —— Shall we try ‘The Idylls of the King?’ They’re so full of color.”
“Go to it. Shoot.” But he hastened to shelter himself behind a cigar.
She was not transported to Camelot. She read with an eye cocked on him, and when she saw how much he was suffering she ran to him, kissed his forehead, cried, “You poor forced tube-rose that wants to be a decent turnip129!”
“Look here now, that ain’t ——”
“Anyway, I sha’n’t torture you any longer.”
She could not quite give up. She read Kipling, with a great deal of emphasis:
There’s a REGIMENT130 a-COMING down the
GRAND Trunk ROAD.
He tapped his foot to the rhythm; he looked normal and reassured131. But when he complimented her, “That was fine. I don’t know but what you can elocute just as good as Ella Stowbody,” she banged the book and suggested that they were not too late for the nine o’clock show at the movies.
That was her last effort to harvest the April wind, to teach divine unhappiness by a correspondence course, to buy the lilies of Avalon and the sunsets of Cockaigne in tin cans at Ole Jenson’s Grocery.
But the fact is that at the motion-pictures she discovered herself laughing as heartily132 as Kennicott at the humor of an actor who stuffed spaghetti down a woman’s evening frock. For a second she loathed133 her laughter; mourned for the day when on her hill by the Mississippi she had walked the battlements with queens. But the celebrated134 cinema jester’s conceit135 of dropping toads136 into a soup-plate flung her into unwilling137 tittering, and the afterglow faded, the dead queens fled through darkness.
VI
She went to the Jolly Seventeen’s afternoon bridge. She had learned the elements of the game from the Sam Clarks. She played quietly and reasonably badly. She had no opinions on anything more polemic138 than woolen139 union-suits, a topic on which Mrs. Howland discoursed140 for five minutes. She smiled frequently, and was the complete canary-bird in her manner of thanking the hostess, Mrs. Dave Dyer.
Her only anxious period was during the conference on husbands.
The young matrons discussed the intimacies141 of domesticity with a frankness and a minuteness which dismayed Carol. Juanita Haydock communicated Harry’s method of shaving, and his interest in deer-shooting. Mrs. Gougerling reported fully, and with some irritation142, her husband’s inappreciation of liver and bacon. Maud Dyer chronicled Dave’s digestive disorders143; quoted a recent bedtime controversy144 with him in regard to Christian145 Science, socks and the sewing of buttons upon vests; announced that she “simply wasn’t going to stand his always pawing girls when he went and got crazy-jealous if a man just danced with her”; and rather more than sketched146 Dave’s varieties of kisses.
So meekly147 did Carol give attention, so obviously was she at last desirous of being one of them, that they looked on her fondly, and encouraged her to give such details of her honeymoon148 as might be of interest. She was embarrassed rather than resentful. She deliberately149 misunderstood. She talked of Kennicott’s overshoes and medical ideals till they were thoroughly150 bored. They regarded her as agreeable but green.
Till the end she labored151 to satisfy the inquisition. She bubbled at Juanita, the president of the club, that she wanted to entertain them. “Only,” she said, “I don’t know that I can give you any refreshments152 as nice as Mrs. Dyer’s salad, or that simply delicious angel’s-food we had at your house, dear.”
“Fine! We need a hostess for the seventeenth of March. Wouldn’t it be awfully original if you made it a St. Patrick’s Day bridge! I’ll be tickled to death to help you with it. I’m glad you’ve learned to play bridge. At first I didn’t hardly know if you were going to like Gopher Prairie. Isn’t it dandy that you’ve settled down to being homey with us! Maybe we aren’t as highbrow as the Cities, but we do have the daisiest times and — oh, we go swimming in summer, and dances and — oh, lots of good times. If folks will just take us as we are, I think we’re a pretty good bunch!”
“I’m sure of it. Thank you so much for the idea about having a St. Patrick’s Day bridge.”
“Oh, that’s nothing. I always think the Jolly Seventeen are so good at original ideas. If you knew these other towns Wakamin and Joralemon and all, you’d find out and realize that G. P. is the liveliest, smartest town in the state. Did you know that Percy Bresnahan, the famous auto153 manufacturer, came from here and —— Yes, I think that a St. Patrick’s Day party would be awfully cunning and original, and yet not too queer or freaky or anything.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
caper
|
|
| v.雀跃，欢蹦；n.雀跃，跳跃；续随子，刺山柑花蕾；嬉戏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
blandly
|
|
| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
den
|
|
| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
rite
|
|
| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
leisurely
|
|
| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
bustled
|
|
| 闹哄哄地忙乱，奔忙( bustle的过去式和过去分词 )； 催促 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
raisin
|
|
| n.葡萄干 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
scampered
|
|
| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
hoop
|
|
| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
embroidery
|
|
| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
geographic
|
|
| adj.地理学的，地理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
tugged
|
|
| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
drooped
|
|
| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
sifting
|
|
| n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
ridge
|
|
| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
eddies
|
|
| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
gashed
|
|
| v.划伤，割破( gash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
idiotic
|
|
| adj.白痴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sobbing
|
|
| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
reverted
|
|
| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
awaken
|
|
| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
prod
|
|
| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
meek
|
|
| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
sprout
|
|
| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
heartiness
|
|
| 诚实，热心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
complacently
|
|
| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
isles
|
|
| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
doggerel
|
|
| n.拙劣的诗，打油诗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
hymns
|
|
| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
spectral
|
|
| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
apron
|
|
| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
hermit
|
|
| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
literate
|
|
| n.学者；adj.精通文学的，受过教育的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
maternal
|
|
| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
ponderous
|
|
| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
irresolute
|
|
| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
specks
|
|
| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
trampled
|
|
| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
gnawed
|
|
| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
billboard
|
|
| n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
ragged
|
|
| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
grove
|
|
| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
corrugated
|
|
| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
jealousies
|
|
| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
dreary
|
|
| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
devouring
|
|
| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
pretense
|
|
| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
lone
|
|
| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
huddle
|
|
| vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
primitive
|
|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
hooded
|
|
| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
clotted
|
|
| adj.凝结的v.凝固( clot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
zest
|
|
| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
filthier
|
|
| filthy（肮脏的，污秽的）的比较级形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
59
frivolous
|
|
| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
outskirts
|
|
| n.郊外，郊区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
shack
|
|
| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
mittens
|
|
| 不分指手套 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
protruded
|
|
| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
knuckles
|
|
| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
disinterestedly
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
utilitarian
|
|
| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
sculptor
|
|
| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
granite
|
|
| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
whined
|
|
| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
clatter
|
|
| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
erect
|
|
| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
puffing
|
|
| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
adaptable
|
|
| adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
reeking
|
|
| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
valedictory
|
|
| adj.告别的；n.告别演说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
tickled
|
|
| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
pariah
|
|
| n.被社会抛弃者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
atheist
|
|
| n.无神论者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
anarchist
|
|
| n.无政府主义者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
fumbled
|
|
| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
grudges
|
|
| 不满，怨恨，妒忌( grudge的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
digestion
|
|
| n.消化，吸收 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
radical
|
|
| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
socialist
|
|
| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
nags
|
|
| n.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的名词复数 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的第三人称单数 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
dames
|
|
| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
bailing
|
|
| （凿井时用吊桶）排水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
bum
|
|
| n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
crooked
|
|
| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
shanty
|
|
| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
moldy
|
|
| adj.发霉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
planks
|
|
| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
disquieted
|
|
| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
counselor
|
|
| n.顾问，法律顾问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
bunk
|
|
| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
stippled
|
|
| v.加点、绘斑，加粒( stipple的过去式和过去分词 )；（把油漆、水泥等的表面）弄粗糙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
tilted
|
|
| v. 倾斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
assorted
|
|
| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
treatise
|
|
| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
poultry
|
|
| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
maidens
|
|
| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
maple
|
|
| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
hitched
|
|
| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
defiant
|
|
| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
friendliness
|
|
| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
virile
|
|
| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
vocal
|
|
| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
besought
|
|
| 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) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
slippers
|
|
| n. 拖鞋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
lithograph
|
|
| n.平板印刷，平板画；v.用平版印刷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
smirking
|
|
| v.傻笑( smirk的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
advertising
|
|
| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
homely
|
|
| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
gulls
|
|
| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
foam
|
|
| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
giggle
|
|
| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
turnip
|
|
| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
regiment
|
|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
loathed
|
|
| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
conceit
|
|
| n.自负，自高自大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
toads
|
|
| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
unwilling
|
|
| adj.不情愿的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
polemic
|
|
| n.争论，论战 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
woolen
|
|
| adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
discoursed
|
|
| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
intimacies
|
|
| 亲密( intimacy的名词复数 )； 密切； 亲昵的言行； 性行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
irritation
|
|
| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
disorders
|
|
| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
controversy
|
|
| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
sketched
|
|
| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
meekly
|
|
| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
honeymoon
|
|
| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
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： |
|
|
|
|
152
refreshments
|
|
| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
auto
|
|
| n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |