“Suppose you let me drive you home, Pollyanna,” he suggested. “I want to speak to you a minute. I, was just driving out to your place to tell you,” he went on, as Pollyanna settled herself at his side. “Mr. Pendleton sent a special request for you to go to see him this afternoon, SURE. He says it's very important.”
Pollyanna nodded happily.
“Yes, it is, I know. I'll go.”
The doctor eyed her with some surprise.
“I'm not sure I shall let you, after all,” he declared, his eyes twinkling. “You seemed more upsetting than soothing1 yesterday, young lady.”
Pollyanna laughed.
“Oh, it wasn't me, truly—not really, you know; not so much as it was Aunt Polly.”
The doctor turned with a quick start.
“Your—aunt!” he ejaculated.
Pollyanna gave a happy little bounce in her seat.
“Yes. And it's so exciting and lovely, just like a story, you know. I—I'm going to tell you,” she burst out, with sudden decision. “He said not to mention it; but he wouldn't mind your knowing, of course. He meant not to mention it to HER.”
“HER?”
“Yes; Aunt Polly. And, of course he WOULD want to tell her himself instead of having me do it—lovers, so!”
“Lovers!” As the doctor said the word, the horse started violently, as if the hand that held the reins2 had given them a sharp jerk.
“Yes,” nodded Pollyanna, happily. “That's the story-part, you see. I didn't know it till Nancy told me. She said Aunt Polly had a lover years ago, and they quarrelled. She didn't know who it was at first. But we've found out now. It's Mr. Pendleton, you know.”
The doctor relaxed suddenly, The hand holding the reins fell limply to his lap.
“Oh! No; I—didn't know,” he said quietly.
Pollyanna hurried on—they were nearing the Harrington homestead.
“Yes; and I'm so glad now. It's come out lovely. Mr. Pendleton asked me to come and live with him, but of course I wouldn't leave Aunt Polly like that—after she'd been so good to me. Then he told me all about the woman's hand and heart that he used to want, and I found out that he wanted it now; and I was so glad! For of course if he wants to make up the quarrel, everything will be all right now, and Aunt Polly and I will both go to live there, or else he'll come to live with us. Of course Aunt Polly doesn't know yet, and we haven't got everything settled; so I suppose that is why he wanted to see me this afternoon, sure.”
“Yes; I can well imagine that Mr. John Pendleton does—want to see you, Pollyanna,” he nodded, as he pulled his horse to a stop before the door.
“There's Aunt Polly now in the window,” cried Pollyanna; then, a second later: “Why, no, she isn't—but I thought I saw her!”
“No; she isn't there—now,” said the doctor, His lips had suddenly lost their smile.
Pollyanna found a very nervous John Pendleton waiting for her that afternoon.
“Pollyanna,” he began at once. “I've been trying all night to puzzle out what you meant by all that, yesterday—about my wanting your Aunt Polly's hand and heart here all those years. What did you mean?”
“Why, because you were lovers, you know once; and I was so glad you still felt that way now.”
“Lovers!—your Aunt Polly and I?”
At the obvious surprise in the man's voice, Pollyanna opened wide her eyes.
“Why, Mr. Pendleton, Nancy said you were!”
The man gave a short little laugh.
“Indeed! Well, I'm afraid I shall have to say that Nancy—didn't know.”
“Never!”
“And it ISN'T all coming out like a book?”
“O dear! And it was all going so splendidly,” almost sobbed7 Pollyanna. “I'd have been so glad to come—with Aunt Polly.”
“And you won't—now?” The man asked the question without turning his head.
“Of course not! I'm Aunt Polly's.”
The man turned now, almost fiercely.
“Before you were hers, Pollyanna, you were—your mother's. And—it was your mother's hand and heart that I wanted long years ago.”
“My mother's!”
“Yes. I had not meant to tell you, but perhaps it's better, after all, that I do—now.” John Pendleton's face had grown very white. He was speaking with evident difficulty. Pollyanna, her eyes wide and frightened, and her lips parted, was gazing at him fixedly8. “I loved your mother; but she—didn't love me. And after a time she went away with—your father. I did not know until then how much I did—care. The whole world suddenly seemed to turn black under my fingers, and—But, never mind. For long years I have been a cross, crabbed9, unlovable, unloved old man—though I'm not nearly sixty, yet, Pollyanna. Then, One day, like one of the prisms that you love so well, little girl, you danced into my life, and flecked my dreary10 old world with dashes of the purple and gold and scarlet11 of your own bright cheeriness. I found out, after a time, who you were, and—and I thought then I never wanted to see you again. I didn't want to be reminded of—your mother. But—you know how that came out. I just had to have you come. And now I want you always. Pollyanna, won't you come NOW?”
The man made an impatient gesture.
“What about me? How do you suppose I'm going to be 'glad' about anything—without you? Why, Pollyanna, it's only since you came that I've been even half glad to live! But if I had you for my own little girl, I'd be glad for—anything; and I'd try to make you glad, too, my dear. You shouldn't have a wish ungratified. All my money, to the last cent, should go to make you happy.”
Pollyanna looked shocked.
“Why, Mr. Pendleton, as if I'd let you spend it on me—all that money you've saved for the heathen!”
A dull red came to the man's face. He started to speak, but Pollyanna was still talking.
“Besides, anybody with such a lot of money as you have doesn't need me to make you glad about things. You're making other folks so glad giving them things that you just can't help being glad yourself! Why, look at those prisms you gave Mrs. Snow and me, and the gold piece you gave Nancy on her birthday, and—”
“Yes, yes—never mind about all that,” interrupted the man. His face was very, very red now—and no wonder, perhaps: it was not for “giving things” that John Pendleton had been best known in the past. “That's all nonsense. 'Twasn't much, anyhow—but what there was, was because of you. YOU gave those things; not I! Yes, you did,” he repeated, in answer to the shocked denial in her face. “And that only goes to prove all the more how I need you, little girl,” he added, his voice softening13 into tender pleading once more. “If ever, ever I am to play the 'glad game,' Pollyanna, you'll have to come and play it with me.”
“Aunt Polly has been so good to me,” she began; but the man interrupted her sharply. The old irritability15 had come back to his face. Impatience16 which would brook17 no opposition18 had been a part of John Pendleton's nature too long to yield very easily now to restraint.
“Of course she's been good to you! But she doesn't want you, I'll warrant, half so much as I do,” he contested.
“Why, Mr. Pendleton, she's glad, I know, to have—”
“Glad!” interrupted the man, thoroughly19 losing his patience now. “I'll wager20 Miss Polly doesn't know how to be glad—for anything! Oh, she does her duty, I know. She's a very DUTIFUL woman. I've had experience with her 'duty,' before. I'll acknowledge we haven't been the best of friends for the last fifteen or twenty years. But I know her. Every one knows her—and she isn't the 'glad' kind, Pollyanna. She doesn't know how to be. As for your coming to me—you just ask her and see if she won't let you come. And, oh, little girl, little girl, I want you so!” he finished brokenly.
Pollyanna rose to her feet with a long sigh.
“All right. I'll ask her,” she said wistfully. “Of course I don't mean that I wouldn't like to live here with you, Mr. Pendleton, but—” She did not complete her sentence. There was a moment's silence, then she added: “Well, anyhow, I'm glad I didn't tell her yesterday;—'cause then I supposed SHE was wanted, too.”
John Pendleton smiled grimly.
“Well, yes, Pollyanna; I guess it is just as well you didn't mention it—yesterday.”
“I didn't—only to the doctor; and of course he doesn't count.”
“The doctor!” cried John Pendleton, turning quickly. “Not—Dr.—Chilton?”
“Yes; when he came to tell me you wanted to see me to-day, you know.”
“Well, of all the—” muttered the man, falling back in his chair. Then he sat up with sudden interest. “And what did Dr. Chilton say?” he asked.
Pollyanna frowned thoughtfully.
“Why, I don't remember. Not much, I reckon. Oh, he did say he could well imagine you did want to see me.”
“Oh, did he, indeed!” answered John Pendleton. And Pollyanna wondered why he gave that sudden queer little laugh.
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收听单词发音
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1
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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2
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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3
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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4
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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5
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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6
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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7
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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8
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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9
crabbed
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| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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11
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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12
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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13
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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14
puckered
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| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
irritability
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| n.易怒 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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17
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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18
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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19
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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20
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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