To-day she had whispered all her shortcomings into his ear through the grating of the confessional; he knew them so well! There were many other penitents1 waiting to be heard, and he was about to dismiss her with a hasty blessing2 when she arrested him, and in hesitating, faltering3 accents told him of her love for the locksmith, the husband of another woman. A slap in the face would not have startled Father Fochelle more forcibly or more painfully. What soul was there on earth, he wondered, so hedged about with innocence4 as to be secure from the machinations of Satan! Oh, the thunder of indignation that descended5 upon Mamzelle Fleurette’s head! She bowed down, beaten to earth beneath it. Then came questions, one, two, three, in quick succession, that made Mamzelle Fleurette gasp6 and clutch blindly before her. Why was 278she not a shadow, a vapor7, that she might dissolve from before those angry, penetrating8 eyes; or a small insect, to creep into some crevice9 and there hide herself forevermore?
“Oh, father! no, no, no!” she faltered10, “he knows nothing, nothing. I would die a hundred deaths before he should know, before anyone should know, besides yourself and the good God of whom I implore11 pardon.”
Father Fochelle breathed more freely, and mopped his face with a flaming bandana, which he took from the ample pocket of his soutane. But he scolded Mamzelle Fleurette roundly, unpityingly; for being a fool, for being a sentimentalist. She had not committed mortal sin, but the occasion was ripe for it; and look to it she must that she keep Satan at bay with watchfulness12 and prayer. “Go, my child, and sin no more.”
Mamzelle Fleurette made a détour in regaining13 her home by which she would not have to pass the locksmith’s shop. She did not even look in that direction when she let herself in at the glass door of her store.
Some time before, when she was yet ignorant of the motive14 which prompted the act, 279she had cut from a newspaper a likeness15 of Lacodie, who had served as foreman of the jury during a prominent murder trial. The likeness happened to be good, and quite did justice to the locksmith’s fine physiognomy with its leonine hirsute16 adornment17. This picture Mamzelle Fleurette had kept hitherto between the pages of her prayer book. Here, twice a day, it looked out at her; as she turned the leaves of the holy mass in the morning, and when she read her evening devotions before her own little home altar, over which hung a crucifix and a picture of the Empress Eugénie.
Her first action upon entering her room, even before she unpinned the dotted veil, was to take Lacodie’s picture from her prayer book and place it at random18 between the leaves of a “Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise,” which was the undermost of a pile of old books that stood on the corner of the mantelpiece. Between night and morning, when she would approach the holy sacrament, Mamzelle Fleurette felt it to be her duty to thrust Lacodie from her thoughts by every means and device known to her.
280The following day was Sunday, when there was no occasion or opportunity for her to see the locksmith. Moreover, after partaking of holy communion, Mamzelle Fleurette felt invigorated; she was conscious of a new, if fictitious19, strength to combat Satan and his wiles20.
On Monday, as the hour approached for Lacodie to appear, Mamzelle Fleurette became harassed21 by indecision. Should she call in the young girl, the neighbor who relieved her on occasion, and deliver the store into the girl’s hands for an hour or so? This might be well enough for once in a while, but she could not conveniently resort to this subterfuge22 daily. After all, she had her living to make, which consideration was paramount23. She finally decided24 that she would retire to her little back room and when she heard the store door open she would call out:
“Is it you, Monsieur Lacodie? I am very busy; please take your paper and leave your cinq sous on the counter.” If it happened not to be Lacodie she would come forward and serve the customer in person. She did not, of course, expect to carry out this performance 281each day; a fresh device would no doubt suggest itself for tomorrow. Mamzelle Fleurette proceeded to carry out her programme to the letter.
“Is it you, Monsieur Lacodie?” she called out from the little back room, when the front door opened. “I am very busy; please take your paper—”
“Ce n’est pas Lacodie, Mamzelle Fleurette. C’est moi, Augustine.”
It was Lacodie’s wife, a fat, comely25 young woman, wearing a blue veil thrown carelessly over her kinky black hair, and carrying some grocery parcels clasped close in her arms. Mamzelle Fleurette emerged from the back room, a prey26 to the most contradictory27 emotions; relief and disappointment struggling for the mastery with her.
“No Lacodie to-day, Mamzelle Fleurette,” Augustine announced with a certain robust28 ill-humor; “he is there at home shaking with a chill till the very window panes29 rattle30. He had one last Friday” (the day he had not come for his paper) “and now another and a worse one to-day. God knows, if it keeps on-well, 282let me have the paper; he will want to read it to-night when his chill is past.”
Mamzelle Fleurette handed the paper to Augustine, feeling like an old woman in a dream handing a newspaper to a young woman in a dream. She had never thought of Lacodie having chills or being ill. It seemed very strange. And Augustine was no sooner gone than all the ague remedies she had ever heard of came crowding to Mamzelle Fleurette’s mind; an egg in black coffee—or was it a lemon in black coffee? or an egg in vinegar? She rushed to the door to call Augustine back, but the young woman was already far down the street.
点击收听单词发音
1 penitents | |
n.后悔者( penitent的名词复数 );忏悔者 | |
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2 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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3 faltering | |
犹豫的,支吾的,蹒跚的 | |
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4 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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5 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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6 gasp | |
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
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7 vapor | |
n.蒸汽,雾气 | |
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8 penetrating | |
adj.(声音)响亮的,尖锐的adj.(气味)刺激的adj.(思想)敏锐的,有洞察力的 | |
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9 crevice | |
n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝;缺口 | |
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10 faltered | |
(嗓音)颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 ); 支吾其词; 蹒跚; 摇晃 | |
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11 implore | |
vt.乞求,恳求,哀求 | |
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12 watchfulness | |
警惕,留心; 警觉(性) | |
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13 regaining | |
复得( regain的现在分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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14 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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15 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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16 hirsute | |
adj.多毛的 | |
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17 adornment | |
n.装饰;装饰品 | |
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18 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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19 fictitious | |
adj.虚构的,假设的;空头的 | |
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20 wiles | |
n.(旨在欺骗或吸引人的)诡计,花招;欺骗,欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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21 harassed | |
adj. 疲倦的,厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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22 subterfuge | |
n.诡计;藉口 | |
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23 paramount | |
a.最重要的,最高权力的 | |
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24 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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25 comely | |
adj.漂亮的,合宜的 | |
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26 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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27 contradictory | |
adj.反驳的,反对的,抗辩的;n.正反对,矛盾对立 | |
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28 robust | |
adj.强壮的,强健的,粗野的,需要体力的,浓的 | |
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29 panes | |
窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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30 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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