"Look here, Fred," he said, "you can't live on your future commission from Cousin Eliza. Don't you think you've had about enough of this kind of thing?"
"I do not!" she said. "You can sponge my head between rounds, but you can't stop the mill. I don't pull off the gloves till I see it through. And I'm twenty-two dollars ahead of last month!"
She had induced him to go with her and Zip to see the tiny furnished cottage she had hired for the summer[Pg 136] in Lakeville—the cheerfully vulgar suburb of Laketon where persons of her own sort played at farming. Lakeville was only a handful of flimsy frame houses scattered3 along under the trees close to the sedgy edge of the lake. Wooden piers4 ran out into deep water, and, when the season opened, collected joggling fleets of skiffs and canoes about their slimy piles. As yet, the houses were unoccupied, but the spirit of previous tenants5, as indicated by names painted above the doors—"Bide-a-Wee," and "Herestoyou"—had been very social. Sentimental6 minds were confessed in "Rippling7 Waves," and "Sweet Homes." Fred's "bungalow," its shingled8 sides weathered to an inoffensive gray, was labeled, over its tiny piazza9, "Sunrise Cottage."
"I think that's why I took it," she told Mr. Weston, when, having inspected its shoddy interior and paused on the porch to look at the far-off church spire10 of Laketon, they wandered down to a ledge11 of rock that jutted12 out into the lake; "women are going to raise the sun of freedom!"
"I hope they won't, accidentally, raise Cain," he murmured. "Fred, the lamp on your center-table almost put my eyes out! Do the Lakevillians really think that kind of junk beautiful?"
"They do. But don't be cocky; we thought it beautiful ourselves not so very long ago—if it was only expensive enough! Look at the parlor13 in Payton Street."
"That magenta14 shade with the autumn leaves on it is the most horrible thing I ever saw," he said, shuddering15.
[Pg 137]
"I shall have lots of candles and a student's lamp to mitigate16 it," she comforted him.
They had settled down on the rock, Zip dozing17 against Fred's knee. It was an exquisite18 May afternoon. Everything was very still; once a bird fluted19 in the distance, and once, on the piazza of a boarded-up cottage, a chipmunk20 scurried21 through the drift of last year's leaves. A haze22 of heat lay on the water that crinkled sometimes under a cat's-paw of wind, and then lapped faintly in the sedges. The woods, crowding close to the shore, were showing the furry23 grayness of young oak leaves, and here and there a maple24 smoldered25 into flame. Frederica, absently poking26 a twig27 under patches of lichen28 and flaking29 them off into the water, was saying to herself that in about six months Howard Maitland would be at home.
"Lakeville is so unnecessarily hideous," Mr. Weston meditated30; "I can't see why you should like it."
"Because my friends come here—people who work! I'm going to start a suffrage31 club for them."
"How grateful they will be!" he said. His amiability32 when he was bored was very marked.
"But I had to cave," Fred said, "about having Flora33 here when I stay all night. The Childs family felt they would be compromised if people in Laketon knew that Billy-boy's niece flocked by herself in Lakeville. The Childses are personages in Laketon! Aunt Bessie is the treasurer34 of the antis, and runs a gambling-den on Thursday afternoons—she calls it her Bridge Club. And Billy-boy has a Baconian Club, Saturday nights. My, how useful they are! As my unconventionality would injure[Pg 138] their value to society, I said I would hold Flora's hand. How much use do you suppose Flora would be if thieves broke in to steal?"
"She would be another scream. And you'll like to have her wash the dishes for you."
"Flora is too much in love to wash dishes well," Fred said. "Besides, I don't mind washing 'em, and I do it well. The idea that women who think can't do things like that is silly. We do housework, or any other work, infinitely35 better than slaves."
"'Slaves' being your mothers and grandmothers?"
Frederica nodded, prying36 up a piece of moss37 and snapping the twig off short.
"Oh, Fred, you are very funny!"
"Glad I amuse you. Pitch me that little stick under your foot."
He handed it to her, and she began to dig industriously38 into the cracks and crevices39 of the old gray rock. "The idea of calling Mrs. Holmes a slave is delightful40," he said.
"She is a slave to her environment! Do you think she would have dared to do the things I do?"
"She wouldn't have wanted to."
"You evade41. Well, I suppose you belong to another generation." Arthur Weston winced42. "Don't you think it's queer," she ruminated43, "that a man like Howard Maitland is satisfied to fool around with shells?" Whenever she spoke44 of Howard, a dancing sense of happiness rose like a wave in her breast. "Why doesn't he get into politics, and do something!" she said. Her voice was disapproving45, but her eyes smiled.
[Pg 139]
"Perhaps he likes to keep his hands clean."
"Oh," she said, vehemently47, "that's what I hate about men. The good ones, the decent ones, are so afraid of getting a speck48 of dirt on themselves! That's where women—not Grandmother's kind—are going to save the world. They won't mind being smirched to save the race!"
"Frederica," her listener said, calmly, "when that time comes, may God have mercy on the race. Your grandmother (I speak generically) thought she saved the race by keeping clean."
"And letting men be—" she paused to find a sufficiently49 vehement46 word. "It's the double standard that has landed us where we are; it has made men vile50 and kept women weak. We'll go to smash unless we have one standard."
"Which one?" he asked; "yours or ours?"
"You know perfectly51 well," she said, for once affronted52.
"I only asked for information. There's no denying that there are members of your sex who rather incline to our poor way of doing things. Oh, not that we are not a bad lot; only, to be our equals, it isn't necessary to sit in the gutter53 with us. Continue to be our sup—"
"Let's cut out bromides," she said. "You (I, also, speak generically)—"
"Thanks so much!"
"—have pulled enough of your 'superiors' down to share your gutter. It's time now for men to get out of the gutter and come up to us."
"You breathe such rarefied air," he objected. He really wished that on a day of such limpid54 loveliness she would[Pg 140] stop undressing life. He liked to be amused, but once in a while Frederica was just a little too amusing, and he was in the faintest degree bored, as one is bored by a delightful and obstreperous55 child. He gazed dreamily into the spring haze, watched a ripple56 spread over the lake, and noted57 a leaning willow58 dip its flowing fingers into the water.
"Did you see that fish jump?" he asked.
Frederica gave a disgusted grunt2. "Men are all alike. You talk common sense to them and they go to sleep!"
DID YOU SEE THAT FISH JUMP
"DID YOU SEE THAT FISH JUMP?" HE ASKED. FREDERICA
GAVE A DISGUSTED GRUNT
"My dear Freddy," he confessed, "you have enunciated59 a deep truth. The average poor devil of a male creature, toiling60 and slaving and digging into common sense to make a living, isn't very keen on having it crammed61 down his throat on his afternoon out. Not that I am that kind of person. I find your 'common sense' very diverting."
A little patch of red burned in her cheeks. "That's what has kept women slaves—'diverting' men! I believe you prefer fools, every one of you."
"We like our own kind," he teased her.
"Oh," she said, with sudden passion, "I am in earnest, and you won't be serious! This is a real thing to me, this emancipation62 of women. It means—a new world!"
"Yet this world," he began—the world before them, with its blue serenity63 of a gentle sky, its vitality64 of bursting buds and warm mists and cool, lapping water; the world of a woman's soul and body—was not this enough for any one? Why struggle for change? Why try to upset the existing order? And Frederica, speaking of such ugly things, was so very upsetting! As she spoke[Pg 141] she looked at him with the naked innocence65 which marks the mind of the reformer—that noble and ridiculous mind which, seeing but one thing, loses so completely its sense of proportion. The facts she flung at him he would have hidden from the eyes of girls. Yet he knew that they were facts.... He had protested that women should trust the chivalry66 of men, and she had burst out: "Thank you, I prefer to trust the ballot67! 'Chivalry,' and women working twelve hours a day in laundries! 'Chivalry,' and women cleaning spittoons in beer-saloons! 'Chivalry,' and prostitution! No, sir! unless his personal interests are concerned, man's 'chivalry' is a pretty rotten reed for women to lean on!"
The crude words in which she swept away his comfortable evasions68 made him cringe, but he could not deny their accuracy, nor avoid the deduction69 that one of the reasons there continued to be "ugly" things in the world was that until now the eyes of women had been holden that they should not see them. Men had done this. Men had created a code which made it a point of honor and decency70 to hide the truth from women; to shield them, not from the effect of facts, but from the knowledge of facts!
Frederica's knowledge was dismaying to Arthur Weston, both from tenderness for her and from his own esthetic71 sensitiveness; it was all so unlovely!
"How do other men take this sort of talk?" he asked; "the Childs boys, for instance?"
"Bobby and Payton? I would as soon talk to Zip as to them! They are like their father; they have chubby72[Pg 142] minds. Laura is the only intelligent person in that family. She gave in to Billy-boy about the parade," Fred said, regretfully, "but she did go with me last week when I talked suffrage to the garment-workers. I tell you what—it took sand for Laura to do that! Uncle William was hopping—not at her, of course, but at wicked Freddy; and Bobby and Payton cursed me out for leading Laura into temptation."
"How about Maitland?" he asked. He had taken Frederica's hand and was examining her seal ring. She let her fingers lie in his as lightly as though his hand had been Zip's head, and he found himself wishing that she were less amiable73.
"Howard?"—her eyes brimmed suddenly with sunshine; "oh, Howard doesn't belong on the same bench with the chubby Childses! He thinks,—and he entirely74 agrees with me."
"Which proves that he thinks?"
She saw the malice75 of his question, and rather sharply drew her hand from his.
"When is he coming home?" Weston asked.
"November," she said, shortly, and gave a flake76 of lichen a vicious jab that tossed it out into the water.
"How's he getting along with his shells?"
"All right, I guess. I don't hear from him very often. He's left the region of mails. I've sent him a good many pamphlets and an abstract of a paper I'm writing for the annual meeting of the league. One of these days he'll stop puddling round with shells and do something, I hope. I won't let up on him till he does."
[Pg 143]
"Merely being a fairly decent fellow isn't enough for you?"
"Not nearly enough!"
"Oh, Fred, how young you are!" he sighed; then pulled Zip's tail and was snapped at.
Suddenly he looked her straight in the face. "Are you engaged to him?" he demanded, harshly.
"Heavens, no!" she said, laughing.
His hands tightened77 around his knees; he opened his lips, then closed them hard. "I almost made a fool of myself," he told himself, afterward78. However, his possibilities for folly79 were not visible to Frederica, who continued to lay down the law as to the work a man ought to do in the world. "When we get the vote," she said, "we'll show you what a citizen's responsibilities are."
"Thanks so much," he murmured. "You are going to do all the things we do, I suppose?"
"Of course," she said, joyfully80; "everything—and a lot you don't do because you are too lazy!"
"I suppose you will leave us the right to propose?"
"I'll share it with you," she said, and they both laughed.
"Oh, my dear Fred," he said, "I must come back to the chestnut81: you are our superiors, and we like you to be. I suppose that's because we are born hunters and are keen for the unattainable. We won't bag the game if it roosts on our fists."
"Well," s he reassured82 him, springing to her feet, "I'm not going to roost on your fist; don't be afraid!"
"Try me," he said, under his breath. But she did not hear him.
[Pg 144]
"Come, Zippy, we must go home," she said, and extended a careless hand to Arthur Weston, as if to help him rise. He pretended not to see it.
("The next thing will be a wheeled chair!" he told himself, hotly.)
点击
收听单词发音
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1
advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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3
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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4
piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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6
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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7
rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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8
shingled
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| adj.盖木瓦的；贴有墙面板的v.用木瓦盖(shingle的过去式和过去分词形式) | |
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9
piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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12
jutted
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| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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13
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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14
magenta
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| n..紫红色（的染料）；adj.紫红色的 | |
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15
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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16
mitigate
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| vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和 | |
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17
dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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18
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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19
fluted
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| a.有凹槽的 | |
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chipmunk
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| n.花栗鼠 | |
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21
scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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23
furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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24
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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25
smoldered
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| v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的过去式 ) | |
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26
poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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27
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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28
lichen
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| n.地衣, 青苔 | |
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flaking
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| 刨成片，压成片； 盘网 | |
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30
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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31
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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32
amiability
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| n.和蔼可亲的，亲切的，友善的 | |
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33
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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35
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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36
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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37
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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38
industriously
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39
crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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40
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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41
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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42
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
ruminated
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| v.沉思( ruminate的过去式和过去分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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44
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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45
disapproving
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| adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 ) | |
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46
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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47
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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48
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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49
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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50
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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51
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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52
affronted
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| adj.被侮辱的，被冒犯的v.勇敢地面对( affront的过去式和过去分词 )；相遇 | |
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53
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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54
limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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55
obstreperous
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| adj.喧闹的，不守秩序的 | |
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56
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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57
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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58
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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59
enunciated
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| v.（清晰地）发音( enunciate的过去式和过去分词 )；确切地说明 | |
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60
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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61
crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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62
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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63
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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64
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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65
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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66
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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67
ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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68
evasions
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| 逃避( evasion的名词复数 )； 回避； 遁辞； 借口 | |
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69
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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70
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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71
esthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的；悦目的，雅致的 | |
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72
chubby
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| adj.丰满的，圆胖的 | |
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73
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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74
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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75
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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76
flake
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| v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片 | |
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77
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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78
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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79
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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80
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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81
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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82
reassured
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| 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) | |
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