He opened the door and drew her in.
“Kitty, do you remember the time you sat out there with your bee-sting and your bottle? Nobody ever showed me more consideration than that, not even your mother.”
Kathleen threw her hat and jacket into the sewing-chair and walked about, touching3 things to see how dusty they were. “I’ve been wondering if you didn’t need me to come in and clean house for you, but it’s not so bad as they report it. This is the first time I’ve called on you since you’ve been here alone. I’ve turned in from the walk more than once, but I’ve always run away again.” She paused to warm her hands at the little stove. “I’m silly, you know; such queer things make me blue. And you still have Augusta’s old forms. I don’t think anything ever happened to her that amused her so much. And now, you know, she’s quite sentimental4 about their being here. It’s about Agusta sic that I came, Papa. Did you know that she had lost some of her savings5 in the Kinkoo Copper6 Company?”
“Augusta? Are you sure? What a shame!”
“Yes. She was sewing for me last week. I noticed that she seemed depressed7 and hadn’t much appetite for lunch — which, you know, is unusual for Augusta. She was ashamed to tell any of us about it, because it seems she’d asked Louie’s advice, and he told her not to invest in that company. But a lot of the people in her church were putting money into it, and of course that made it seem all right to her. She lost five hundred dollars, a fortune for her, and Scott says she’ll never get a cent of it back.”
“Five hundred dollars,” murmured St. Peter. “Let me see, at three dollars a day that means one hundred and sixty-six days. Now what can we do about it?”
“Of course we must do something. I knew you’d feel that way, Father.”
“Certainly. Among us, we must cover it. I’ll speak to Rosamond to-night.”
“You needn’t, dear.” Kathleen tossed her head. “I have been to her. She refuses.”
“Refuses? She can’t refuse, my dear. I’ll have a word to say.” The firmness of his tone, and the quick rush of claret colour under his skin, were a gratification to his daughter.
“She says that Louie took the trouble to speak to his banker and to several copper men before he advised Augusta; and that if she doesn’t learn her lesson this time, she will do the same thing over again. Rosamond said they would do something for Augusta later, but she didn’t say what.”
“Leave Rosamond to me. I’ll convince her.”
“Even if you can do anything with her, she’s determined8 to make Augusta admit her folly9, and it can’t be done that way. Augusta is terribly proud. When I told her her customers ought to make it up to her, she was very haughty10 and said she wasn’t that kind of a sewing-woman; that she gave her ladies good measure for their money. Scott thought we could buy stock in some good company and tell her we had used our influence and got an exchange, but that she must keep quiet about it. We could manage some such little fib, she knows so little about business. I know I can get the Dudleys and the Browns to help. We needn’t go to the Marselluses.”
“Wait a few days. It’s a disgrace to us as a family not to make it up ourselves. On her own account, we oughtn’t to let Rosamond out. She’s altogether too blind to responsibilities of that kind. In a world full of blunders, why should Augusta have to pay scrupulously11 for her mistakes? It’s very petty of Rosie, really!”
Kathleen started to speak, stopped and turned away. “Scott will give a hundred dollars,” she said a moment later.
“That’s very generous of him. I’ll give another, and Rosie shall make up the rest. If she doesn’t, I’ll speak to Louie. He’s an absolutely generous chap. I’ve never known him to refuse to give either time or money.”
Kathleen’s eyes suddenly brightened. “Why, Daddy, you have Tom’s Mexican blanket! I never knew he gave it to you. I’ve often wondered what became of it.” She picked up from the foot of the box-couch a purple blanket, faded in streaks12 to amethyst13, with a pale yellow stripe at either end.
“Oh, yes, I often get chilly14 when I lie down, especially if I turn the stove out, which your mother says I ought always to do. Nothing could part me from that blanket.”
“He wouldn’t have given it to anybody but you. It was like his skin. Do you remember how horsey it smelled when he first brought it over and showed it to us?”
“Just like a livery stable! It had been strapped15 behind the saddle on so many sweating cow-ponies. In damp weather that smell is still perceptible.”
Kathleen stroked it thoughtfully. “Roddy brought it up from Old Mexico, you know. He gave it to Tom that winter he had pneumonia16. Tom ought to have taken it to France with him. He used to say that Rodney Blake might turn up in the Foreign Legion. If he had taken this, it might have been like the wooden cups that were always revealing Amis and Amile to each other.”
St. Peter smiled and patted her hand on the blanket. “Do you know, Kitty, I sometimes think I ought to go out and look for Blake myself. He’s on my conscience. If that country down there weren’t so everlastingly17 big — ”
“Oh, Father! That was my romantic dream when I was little, finding Roddy! I used to think about it for hours when I was supposed to be taking my nap. I used to swim rivers and climb mountains and wander about with Navajos, and rescue Roddy at the most critical moments, when he was being stabbed in the back, or drugged in a gambling-house, and bring him back to Tom. You know Tom told us about him long before he ever told you.”
“You children used to live in his stories. You cared more about them than about all your adventure books.”
“I still do,” said Kathleen, rising. “Now that Rosamond has Outland, I consider Tom’s mesa entirely18 my own.”
St. Peter put down the cigarette he had just lighted with anticipation19. “Can’t you stay awhile, Kitty? I almost never see anyone who remembers that side of Tom. It was nice, all those years when he was in and out of the house like an older brother. Always very different from the other college boys, wasn’t he? Always had something in his voice, in his eyes . . . One seemed to catch glimpses of an unusual background behind his shoulders when he came into the room.”
Kathleen smiled wanly20. “Yes, and now he’s all turned out chemicals and dollars and cents, hasn’t he? But not for you and me! Our Tom is much nicer than theirs.” She put on her jacket and went out of the study and quickly down the stairs. Her father, on the landing, looked after until she disappeared. When she was gone he still stood there, motionless, as if her were listening intently, or trying to fasten upon some fugitive21 idea.
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收听单词发音
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1
kerosene
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| n.(kerosine)煤油，火油 | |
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2
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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3
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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4
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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5
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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6
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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7
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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11
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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12
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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13
amethyst
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| n.紫水晶 | |
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14
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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15
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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16
pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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17
everlastingly
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| 永久地，持久地 | |
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18
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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19
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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20
wanly
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| adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地 | |
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21
fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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