It was his plan to give part of this summer to Tom Outland’s diary — to edit and annotate4 it for publication. The bother was that he must write an introduction. The diary covered only about six months of the boy’s life, a summer he spent on the Blue Mesa, and in it there was almost nothing about Tom himself. To mean anything, it must be prefaced by a sketch5 of Outland, and some account of his later life and achievements. To write of his scientific work would be comparatively easy. But that was not all the story; his was a many-sided mind, though a simple and straightforward6 personality.
Of course Mrs. St. Peter had insisted that he was not altogether straightforward; but that was merely because he was not altogether consistent. As an investigator7 he was clear-sighted and hard-headed; but in personal relations he was apt to be exaggerated and quixotic. He idealized the people he loved and paid his devoir to the ideal rather than to the individual, so that his behaviour was sometimes a little too exalted8 for the circumstances — “chivalry of the cinema,” Lillian used to say. One of his sentimental9 superstitions10 was that he must never on any account owe any material advantage to his friends, that he must keep affection and advancement11 far apart, as if they were chemicals that would disintegrate12 each other. St. Peter thought this the logical result of Tom’s strange bringing-up and his early associations. There is, he knew, this dream of self-sacrificing friendship and disinterested13 love down among the day-labourers, the men who run the railroad trains and boats and reapers14 and thrashers and mine-drills of the world. And Tom had brought it along to the university, where advancement through personal influence was considered honourable15.
It was not until Outland was a senior that Lillian began to be jealous of him. He had been almost a member of the family for two years, and she had never found fault with the boy. But after the Professor began to take Tom up to the study and talk over his work with him, began to make a companion of him, then Mrs. St. Peter withdrew her favour. She could change like that; friendship was not a matter of habit with her. And when she was through with anyone, she of course found reasons for her fickleness16. Tom, she reminded her husband, was far from frank, though he had such an open manner. He had been consistently reserved about his own affairs, and she could not believe the facts he withheld17 were altogether creditable. They had always known he had a secret, something to do with the mysterious Rodney Blake and the bank account in New Mexico upon which he was not at liberty to draw. The young man must have felt the change in her, for he began that winter to make his work a pretext18 for coming to the house less often. He and St. Peter now met in the alcove19 behind the Professor’s lecture room at the university.
One Sunday, shortly before Tom’s Commencement, he came to the house to ask Rosamond to go to the senior dance with him. The family were having tea in the garden; a few days of intensely warm weather had come on and hurried the roses into bloom. Rosamond happened to ask Tom, who sat in his white flannels20, fanning himself with his straw hat, if spring in the South-west was as warm as this.
“Oh, no,” he replied. “May is usually chilly21 down there — bright sun, but a kind of edge in the wind, and cool nights. Last night reminded me of smothery May nights in Washington.”
Mrs. St. Peter glanced up. “You mean Washington City? I didn’t know you had ever been so far east.”
There was no denying that the young man looked uncomfortable. He frowned and said in a low voice: “Yes, I’ve been there. I suppose I don’t speak of it because I haven’t very pleasant recollections of it.”
“How long were you there?” his hostess asked.
“A winter and spring, more than six months. Long enough to get very home-sick.” He went away almost at once, as if he were afraid of being questioned further.
The subject came up again a few weeks later, however. After Tom’s graduation, two courses were open to him. He was offered an instructorship22, with a small salary, in the Physics department under Dr. Crane, and a graduate scholarship at Johns Hopkins University. St. Peter strongly urged him to accept the latter. One evening when the family were discussing Tom’s prospects23, the Professor summed up all the reasons why he ought to go to Baltimore and work in the laboratory made famous by Dr. Rowland. He assured him, moreover, that he would find the atmosphere of an old Southern city delightful24.
“Yes, I know something about the atmosphere,” Tom broke out at last. “It is delightful, but it’s all wrong for me. It discourages me dreadfully. I used to go over there when I was in Washington, and it always made me blue. I don’t believe I could ever work there.”
“But can you trust a child’s impression to guide you now, in such an important decision?” asked Mrs. St. Peter gravely.
“I wasn’t a child, Mrs. St. Peter. I was as much grown up as I am now — older, in some ways. It was only about a year before I came here.”
“But, Tom, you were on the section gang that year! Why do you mix us all‘ up?” Kathleen caught his hand and squeezed the knuckles25 together, as she did when she wanted to punish him.
“Well, maybe it was two years before. It doesn’t matter. It was long enough to count for two ordinary years,” he muttered abstractedly.
Again he went away abruptly26, and a few days later he told St. Peter that he had definitely accepted the instructorship under Crane, and would stay on in Hamilton.
During that summer after Outland’s graduation, St. Peter got to know all there was behind his reserve. Mrs. St. Peter and the two girls were in Colorado, and the Professor was alone in the house, writing on volumes three and four of his history. Tom was carrying on some experiments of his own, over in the Physics laboratory. He and St. Peter were often together in the evening, and on fine afternoons they went swimming. Every Saturday the Professor turned his house over to the cleaning-woman, and he and Tom went to the lake and spent the day in his sail-boat.
It was just the sort of summer St. Peter liked, if he had to be in Hamilton at all. He was his own cook, and had laid in a choice assortment27 of cheeses and light Italian wines from a discriminating28 importer in Chicago. Every morning before he sat down at his desk he took a walk to the market and had his pick of the fruits and salads. He dined at eight o’clock. When he cooked a fine leg of lamb, saignant, well rubbed with garlic before it went into the pan, then he asked Outland to dinner. Over a dish of steaming asparagus, swathed in a napkin to keep it hot, and a bottle of sparkling Asti, they talked and watched night fall in the garden. If the evening happened to be rainy or chilly, they sat inside and read Lucretius.
It was on one of those rainy nights, before the fire in the dining-room, that Tom at last told the story he had always kept back. It was nothing very incriminating, nothing very remarkable29; a story of youthful defeat, the sort of thing a boy is sensitive about — until he grows older.
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1
smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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valid
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| adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的 | |
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annotate
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| v.注解 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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8
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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disintegrate
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| v.瓦解，解体，（使）碎裂，（使）粉碎 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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reapers
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| n.收割者，收获者( reaper的名词复数 )；收割机 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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fickleness
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| n.易变；无常；浮躁；变化无常 | |
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withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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alcove
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| n.凹室 | |
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flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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instructorship
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| （大学）讲师职位（或职务） | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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knuckles
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| 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 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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discriminating
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| a.有辨别能力的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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