CHAPTER XV. JOHN'S COURTSHIP.

O LIVER didn't go back to his native village. Mr. Kenyon sent on his trunk, and thus obviated¹ the necessity. Our hero took up his quarters at a cheap hotel until, with the help of John Meadows, he obtained a room in St. Mark's Place. The room was a large square one, tolerably well furnished. The price asked was four dollars a week.

"That is rather more than I ought to pay just for a room," said Oliver.

"I'll tell you how you can get it cheaper," said John Meadows.

"How?"

"Take me for your room-mate. I'll pay a dollar and a half toward the rent."

Oliver hesitated, but finally decided² to accept John's offer. Though his fellow-clerk was not altogether to his taste, it would prevent his feeling lonely, and he had no other acquaintances to select from.

"All right," he said.

"Is it a bargain?" said John, delighted. "I'll give my Bleecker Street landlady³ notice right off. Why, I shall feel like a prince here!"

"Then this is better than your room?"

"You bet! That's only big enough for a middling sized cat, while this――"

"Is big enough for two large ones," said Oliver, smiling.

"Yes, and a whole litter of kittens into the bargain. We'll have a jolly time together."

"I hope so."

"Of course," said John seriously, "when I get married that'll terminate the contract."

"Do you think of getting married soon?" asked Oliver, surprised and amused.

"I'll tell you about it," said John, with the utmost gravity. "Last month I had my fortune told."

"Well?"

"It was told by Mme. Catalina, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter; so, of course, she wasn't a humbug⁴."

"Does that make any difference—being the seventh daughter?"

"Of course it does. Well, she told me that I should marry a rich widow, and ever after live in luxury," said John, evidently elated by his prospects⁵.

"Did you believe her?"

"Of course I did. She told things that I knew to be true about the past, and that convinced me she could foretell⁶ the future."

"Such as what?"

"She told me I had lately had a letter from a person who was interested in me. So I had. I got a letter from Charlie Cameron only a week before. Me and Charlie went to school together, so, of course, he feels interested in me."

"What else?"

"She said a girl with black eyes was in love with me."

"Is that true?"

John nodded complacently⁷.

"Who is it?"

"I don't know her name, but I've met her two or three times on the street, and she always looked at me and smiled."

"Struck with your looks, I suppose," suggested Oliver.

John stroked an incipient⁸ mustache and stole a look into the glass.

"Looks like it," he said.

"If she were only a rich widow you wouldn't mind cultivating her acquaintance?"

"I wish she were," said John thoughtfully.

"You haven't any widow in view, have you?"

"Yes, I have," said John, rather to Oliver's surprise.

"Who is it?"

"Her husband used to keep a lager-beer saloon on Bleecker Street, and now the widow carries it on. I've enquired⁹ about, and I hear she's worth ten thousand dollars. Would you like to see her?"

"Very much," answered Oliver, whose curiosity was excited.

"Come along, then. We'll drop in and get a couple of glasses of something."

Following his guide, or rather side by side, Oliver walked round to the saloon.

"Does she know you admire her?" enquired Oliver.

"I don't," said John. "I admire her money."

"Would you be willing to sell yourself?"

"For ten thousand dollars? I guess I would. That's the easiest way of getting rich. It would take me two hundred years, at eight dollars a week, to make such a fortune."

They entered the saloon. Behind the counter stood a woman of thirty-five, weighing upward of two hundred pounds. She looked good-natured, but the idea of a marriage between her and John Meadows, a youth of nineteen, seemed too ridiculous.

"What will you have?" she asked, in a Teutonic accent.

"Sarsaparilla and lager!" answered John.

Frau Winterhammer filled two mugs in the most business-like manner. She evidently had no idea that John was an admirer.

In the same business-like manner she received the money he laid on the counter.

John smacked¹⁰ his lips in affected¹¹ delight.

"It is very good," he said. "Your lager is always good, Mrs. Winterhammer."

"So!" replied the good woman.

"That's so!" repeated John.

"Then perhaps you comes again," said the frau, with an eye to business.

"Oh, yes; I'll be sure to come again," said John, with a tender significance which was quite lost upon the matter-of-fact lady.

"And you bring your friends, too," she suggested.

"Yes; I will bring my friends."

"Dat is good," said Mrs. Winterhammer, in a satisfied tone.

Having no excuse for stopping longer the two friends went out.

"What do you think of her, Oliver?" asked John.

"There's a good deal of her," answered Oliver, using a non-committal phrase.

"Yes, she's rather plump," said John. "I don't like a skeleton, for my part."

"She doesn't look much like one."

"She's good-looking; don't you think so?" enquired John, looking anxiously in his companion's face.

"She looks pleasant; but, John, she's a good deal older than you."

"She's about thirty."

"Nearer forty."

"Oh, no, she isn't. And she's worth ten thousand dollars! Think, Oliver, how nice it would be to be worth ten thousand dollars! I wouldn't clerk it for old Bond any more, I can tell you that."

"Would you keep the saloon?"

"No, I'd let her keep that and I'd set up in something else. We'd double the money in a short time and then I'd retire and go to Europe."

"That's all very well, John; but suppose she won't have you?"

John smiled—a self-satisfied smile.

"She wouldn't reject a stylish¹² young fellow like me—do you think she would? She'd feel flattered to get such a young husband."

"Perhaps she would," said Oliver, who thought John under a strange hallucination. "You must invite me to the wedding whenever it comes off, John."

"You shall be my groomsman," answered John confidently.

A week later John said to Oliver after supper:

"Oliver, I'm goin' to do it."

"To do what?"

"I'm goin' to propose to the widder to-night."

"So soon!"

"Yes; I'm tired of workin' for old Bond; I want to go in for myself."

"Well, John, I wish you good luck, but I shall be sorry to lose you for a room-mate."

"Lend me a necktie, won't you, Oliver? I want to take her eye, you know."

So Oliver lent his most showy necktie to his room-mate, and John departed on his important mission.

About half an hour later John rushed into the room in a violent state of excitement, his collar and bosom¹³ looking as if they had been soaked in dirty water, and sank into a chair.

"What's the matter?" asked Oliver.

"I've cast her off!" answered John in a hollow voice. "She is a faithless deceiver."

"Tell me all about it, Jack¹⁴."

John told his story. He went to the saloon, ordered a glass of lager, and after drinking it asked the momentous¹⁵ question. Frau Winterhammer seemed surprised, said "So!" and then called "Fritz!" A stout¹⁶ fellow in shirt-sleeves came out of a rear room, and the widow said something to him in German. Then he seized John's arms, and the widow deliberately¹⁷ threw the contents of a pitcher¹⁸ of lager in his face and bosom. Then both laughed rudely, and John was released.

"What shall you do about it, John?" asked Oliver, with difficulty refraining from laughing.

"I have cast her off!" he said gloomily, "I will never enter the saloon again."

"I wouldn't," said Oliver.

Oliver would have felt less like laughing had he known that at that very moment Ezekiel Bond, prompted by Mr. Kenyon, was conspiring¹⁹ to get him into trouble.

1 obviated   

v.避免，消除（贫困、不方便等）( obviate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 landlady   

n.女房东，女地主

参考例句：

• I heard my landlady creeping stealthily up to my door.我听到我的女房东偷偷地来到我的门前。
• The landlady came over to serve me.女店主过来接待我。

4 humbug   

n.花招，谎话，欺骗

参考例句：

• I know my words can seem to him nothing but utter humbug.我知道，我说的话在他看来不过是彻头彻尾的慌言。
• All their fine words are nothing but humbug.他们的一切花言巧语都是骗人的。

5 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

6 foretell   

v.预言，预告，预示

参考例句：

• Willow trees breaking out into buds foretell the coming of spring.柳枝绽青报春来。
• The outcome of the war is hard to foretell.战争胜负难以预卜。

7 complacently   

adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地

参考例句：

• He complacently lived out his life as a village school teacher. 他满足于一个乡村教师的生活。
• "That was just something for evening wear," returned his wife complacently. “那套衣服是晚装，"他妻子心安理得地说道。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

8 incipient   

adj.起初的，发端的，初期的

参考例句：

• The anxiety has been sharpened by the incipient mining boom.采矿业初期的蓬勃发展加剧了这种担忧。
• What we see then is an incipient global inflation.因此，我们看到的是初期阶段的全球通胀.

9 enquired   

打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问

参考例句：

• He enquired for the book in a bookstore. 他在书店查询那本书。
• Fauchery jestingly enquired whether the Minister was coming too. 浮式瑞嘲笑着问部长是否也会来。

10 smacked   

拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He smacked his lips but did not utter a word. 他吧嗒两下嘴，一声也不言语。
• She smacked a child's bottom. 她打孩子的屁股。

11 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

12 stylish   

adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的

参考例句：

• He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
• What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。

13 bosom   

n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的

参考例句：

• She drew a little book from her bosom.她从怀里取出一本小册子。
• A dark jealousy stirred in his bosom.他内心生出一阵恶毒的嫉妒。

14 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

15 momentous   

adj.重要的，重大的

参考例句：

• I am deeply honoured to be invited to this momentous occasion.能应邀出席如此重要的场合，我深感荣幸。
• The momentous news was that war had begun.重大的新闻是战争已经开始。

17 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

18 pitcher   

n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手

参考例句：

• He poured the milk out of the pitcher.他从大罐中倒出牛奶。
• Any pitcher is liable to crack during a tight game.任何投手在紧张的比赛中都可能会失常。

19 conspiring   

密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They were accused of conspiring against the king. 他们被指控阴谋反对国王。
• John Brown and his associates were tried for conspiring to overthrow the slave states. 约翰·布朗和他的合伙者们由于密谋推翻实行奴隶制度的美国各州而被审讯。