They had spent the earlier hours of the evening in Angelo’s studio. There, in frankness and utter sincerity1, the little company had discussed its prospects2.
No one blamed Petite Jeanne for the part she had played. Being endowed with tender and kindly3 souls, they one and all felt that under the same conditions they would have acted in an identical manner.
“It is of little consequence,” Angelo had declared magnanimously. “We should never have succeeded under that management. The opera was doomed4. And once a failure always a failure in the realm of playland.”
195
“What does it matter?” Dan Baker’s kindly old eyes had lighted with a smile. “You have youth and love and beauty, all of you. How can you ask for more?”
This speech had seemed quite wonderful at the time. But to these girls sitting on their bed, facing facts, the future did not seem rosy5. With only two weeks’ room rent paid, with less than ten dollars between them, with no income save Florence’s meager6 pay, and with bleak7 old winter close at hand, they could not but dread8 what lay ahead.
“Jeanne,” Florence said at last, as if to change the subject, “was the gypsy who chased you, on that morning when you fell into Merry’s cellar, among those you saw at the Forest Preserve?”
“No,” the little French girl said thoughtfully. “No, I am sure he was not.”
“Then,” said her companion, “we had better put his Majesty9, the little God of Fire, back to rest in his hole in the floor. You may need him yet.”
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“I am sure we shall.” The little French girl’s tone carried assurance. “That opera is beautiful, very, very beautiful. And what is it the poet says?
“‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever.’
“And still another:
“‘All that is at all
Lasts forever, past recall.’
“If these things are true, how can our beautiful opera fail to live? Believe me, our time will yet come.
“Yes, yes, we must hide the little Fire God very carefully indeed.”
Three weeks passed. Trying weeks they were to the little French girl; weeks in which her faith and courage were severely10 tested.
As proof of her faith in the beautiful thing Angelo and Swen had created, she kept up her dancing. Sometimes in Angelo’s studio, sometimes in her own small room, sometimes humming snatches of the score, sometimes with Swen beating the battered11 piano, she danced tirelessly on. There were times, too, when those hardy12 souls who went to walk in the park on these bleak days saw a golden haired sprite dancing in the sun. This, too, was Jeanne.
197
But when winter came sweeping13 down, when on one memorable14 November day she awoke and found the window ledge15 piled high with snow and heard the shriek16 of a wind that, whirling and eddying17 outside, seemed never to pause, she despaired a little.
“This American winter,” she murmured. “It is terrible.”
And how could it seem otherwise to her? In her beloved France it snowed a little. But the snow was soon gone. No drifts three feet high, no blocked traffic, no terrible thermometer dropping to twenty below. Besides, when winter came in France, the gypsies, “folding their tents like the Arabs,” drifted away toward the south where it was always summer.
198
By drawing the covers up over her head she was able to shut out from her eyes the sight of the drifting snow and from her ears the sound of the shrieking18 wind. But she could not hide from her alert mind the fact that her money was gone, that the rent was overdue19, nor that Florence’s pitiful salary, if such it might be called, sufficed only to supply them with the plainest of food.
In these last days she had gone less seldom to Angelo’s studio. Matters were no better there. And, though for her sake Angelo and his companions kept up a continuous chatter20 about future successes and good times just around the corner, she knew in her heart that they, too, were discouraged.
“There are the traveling bags,” she told herself now, as she threw back the covers and sat up. “Those three pigskin traveling bags down there in Angelo’s studio. I have fifteen dollars invested in them. Kay King has always said: ‘You may have the money back any time.’
“Perhaps,” she thought soberly, “it is wrong of me to keep them. But to sell them seems like betraying a friend. To cast all those beautiful treasures, bestowed21 upon my good friend by those who loved him best, before the eyes of curious, grasping and often stupid people, and to say ‘Come, buy these,’ certainly does seem like the betrayal of a friend.
199
“And he was so kind to me!” She closed her eyes and saw it all again. “I was so young. The ship, the sea, all the people were so strange. And America. It, at first, was even worse. But he, big-hearted man that he was, treated me as his own daughter. He made everything seem so simple, so joyous22, so much like a lark23. How can I? Oh, how can I?” She wrung24 her slender hands in agony. “How can I permit them to be sold?
“And yet,” she thought more calmly, “it has been more than three weeks since I wrote that letter to his hotel in New York. There has been time for it to reach England and for the reply to come. I have heard nothing. Perhaps he is dead.
“No reply,” she thought again. “There may have been one, and yet I may not have known it.”
This was true. Since she did not wish to carry the heavy bags to her room, she had left them at Angelo’s studio, and in writing the letter had given only that address.
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“I have not been to the studio for three days. A letter may await me. I shall go to-day. If he reclaims25 the bags, he will repay me. Perhaps there will be a tiny reward. Then all will be well again. Ah, yes, why despair?”
Thus encouraged, she hopped26 out of bed, did ten minutes of shadow-dancing and then, having hopped into her clothes, set about the business of making toast and coffee over an electric plate.
“Life,” she murmured as she sipped27 her coffee, “is after all very, very sweet.”
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收听单词发音
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1
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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2
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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3
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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4
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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5
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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6
meager
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| adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的 | |
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7
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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8
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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9
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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10
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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11
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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12
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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13
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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14
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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15
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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16
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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17
eddying
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| 涡流，涡流的形成 | |
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18
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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19
overdue
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| adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的 | |
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20
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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21
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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23
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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24
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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25
reclaims
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| v.开拓( reclaim的第三人称单数 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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26
hopped
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| 跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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27
sipped
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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