“Hello, Claude, glad to see you around again! Sickness can’t do much to a husky young farmer like you. With old fellows, it’s another story. I’m just starting off to have a look at my alfalfa, south of the river. Get in and go along with me.”
They went out to the open car that stood by the sidewalk, and when they were spinning along between fields of ripening2 grain Claude broke the silence. “I expect you know what I want to see you about, Mr. Royce?”
The older man shook his head. He had been preoccupied3 and grim ever since they started.
“Well,” Claude went on modestly, “it oughtn’t to surprise you to hear that I’ve set my heart on Enid. I haven’t said anything to her yet, but if you’re not against me, I’m going to try to persuade her to marry me.”
“Marriage is a final sort of thing, Claude,” said Mr. Royce. He sat slumping4 in his seat, watching the road ahead of him with intense abstraction, looking more gloomy and grizzled than usual. “Enid is a vegetarian5, you know,” he remarked unexpectedly.
Claude smiled. “That could hardly make any difference to me, Mr. Royce.”
The other nodded slightly. “I know. At your age you think it doesn’t. Such things do make a difference, however.” His lips closed over his half-dead cigar, and for some time he did not open them.
“Enid is a good girl,” he said at last. “Strictly speaking, she has more brains than a girl needs. If Mrs. Royce had another daughter at home, I’d take Enid into my office. She has good judgment6. I don’t know but she’d run a business better than a house.” Having got this out, Mr. Royce relaxed his frown, took his cigar from his mouth, looked at it, and put it back between his teeth without relighting it.
Claude was watching him with surprise. “There’s no question about Enid, Mr. Royce. I didn’t come to ask you about her,” he exclaimed. “I came to ask if you’d be willing to have me for a son-inlaw. I know, and you know, that Enid could do a great deal better than to marry me. I surely haven’t made much of a showing, so far.”
“Here we are,” announced Mr. Royce. “I’ll leave the car under this elm, and we’ll go up to the north end of the field and have a look.”
They crawled under the wire fence and started across the rough ground through a field of purple blossoms. Clouds of yellow butterflies darted7 up before them. They walked jerkily, breaking through the sun-baked crust into the soft soil beneath. Mr. Royce lit a fresh cigar, and as he threw away the match let his hand drop on the young man’s shoulder. “I always envied your father. You took my fancy when you were a little shaver, and I used to let you in to see the water-wheel. When I gave up water power and put in an engine, I said to myself: ‘There’s just one fellow in the country will be sorry to see the old wheel go, and that’s Claude Wheeler.’”
“I hope you don’t think I’m too young to marry,” Claude said as they tramped on.
“No, it’s right and proper a young man should marry. I don’t say anything against marriage,” Mr. Royce protested doggedly8. “You may find some opposition9 in Enid’s missionary10 motives11. I don’t know how she feels about that now. I don’t enquire12. I’d be pleased to see her get rid of such notions. They don’t do a woman any good.”
“I want to help her get rid of them. If it’s all right with you, I hope I can persuade Enid to marry me this fall.”
Jason Royce turned his head quickly toward his companion, studied his artless, hopeful countenance13 for a moment, and then looked away with a frown.
The alfalfa field sloped upward at one corner, lay like a bright green-and-purple handkerchief thrown down on the hillside. At the uppermost angle grew a slender young cottonwood, with leaves as light and agitated14 as the swarms15 of little butterflies that hovered16 above the clover. Mr. Royce made for this tree, took off his black coat, rolled it up, and sat down on it in the flickering17 shade. His shirt showed big blotches18 of moisture, and the sweat was rolling in clear drops along the creases19 in his brown neck. He sat with his hands clasped over his knees, his heels braced20 in the soft soil, and looked blankly off across the field. He found himself absolutely unable to touch upon the vast body of experience he wished to communicate to Claude. It lay in his chest like a physical misery21, and the desire to speak struggled there. But he had no words, no way to make himself understood. He had no argument to present. What he wanted to do was to hold up life as he had found it, like a picture, to his young friend; to warn him, without explanation, against certain heart-breaking disappointments. It could not be done, he saw. The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young. The only way that Claude could ever come to share his secret, was to live. His strong yellow teeth closed tighter and tighter on the cigar, which had gone out like the first. He did not look at Claude, but while he watched the wind plough soft, flowery roads in the field, the boy’s face was clearly before him, with its expression of reticent22 pride melting into the desire to please, and the slight stiffness of his shoulders, set in a kind of stubborn loyalty23. Claude lay on the sod beside him, rather tired after his walk in the sun, a little melancholy24, though he did not know why.
After a long while Mr. Royce unclasped his broad, thick-fingered miller’s hands, and for a moment took out the macerated cigar. “Well, Claude,” he said with determined25 cheerfulness, “we’ll always be better friends than is common between father and son-inlaw. You’ll find out that pretty nearly everything you believe about life — about marriage, especially — is lies. I don’t know why people prefer to live in that sort of a world, but they do.”
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1
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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2
ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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3
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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4
slumping
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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5
vegetarian
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| n.素食者；adj.素食的 | |
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6
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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7
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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8
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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9
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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10
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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11
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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12
enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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13
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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14
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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15
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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16
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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17
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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18
blotches
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| n.（皮肤上的）红斑，疹块( blotch的名词复数 )；大滴 [大片]（墨水或颜色的）污渍 | |
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19
creases
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
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20
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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21
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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22
reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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23
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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24
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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25
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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