The tea things stood between them on the very gate-legged table acquired at Crawl Hill, and in which the impresario6 insisted upon feeling a whimsical part interest. Flora had just returned from a luncheon7 party—they had met, as a matter of fact, on her threshold—and as they sipped8 and chatted she informally lifted off a hat of faun straw and figured silk, thrusting the pins back into it, with the veil still where it had been brushed up out of the way across the crown. She laid the hat aside and touched her hair comfortably. His response to the geniality9 of this hour of early twilight10, with a small clock ticking somewhere, was very whole-hearted, though of course sentimental11, because everything about the impresario was sentimental.
Some turn or other in the talk presently brought up the subject of his rings. “I’ve been noticing them,” she smiled. “It seems to me I’ve never seen so many—and some of the ‘stones’ seem quite wonderful!”
“I know,” he laughed, “there are a good many more than there ought to be, but I get so attached to each new one that drops into my hands, I couldn’t bear to give any of ’em up.”
“Good gracious!” she exclaimed. “Do they really come as easily as all that?”
“Oh, well,” he confided12, “it’s become a sort of custom that when one of my songbirds is offered a contract by one[66] of the big managers and has to leave me—and I want to tell you I’ve discovered more than one now famous star and given the boost to begin with!—then I get a ring in remembrance. Sometimes it will be a great big stone—like this one, you see? Then again a more modest size, like this one. It depends,” he added confidentially13, “a little on the contract; but I love every single ring on my fingers exactly the same, because each one stands for a songbird.”
“A songbird who has flown away,” she murmured, her fine eyes a little sad.
“Yes,” he sighed. “But it can’t be helped, and it doesn’t mean, you know, that they don’t go right on being loyal. We all have to make our way in the world. Lord, if it isn’t one thing it’s another! Money’s the main difficulty, and what can you hope to do if you never had any?”
Ah, what indeed? The impresario set down his cup thoughtfully; and a moment later she sympathetically brought out her own special phase of that curious irony14 they had spoken of at the auction4. “No one would think, to see how ‘entrenched’ we look, that I’d be out of here, ‘bag and baggage,’ early in the morning!”
“What?” cried Mr. Curry, really quite shaken.
“Tomorrow!”
“It’s really heart-breaking,” she admitted slowly, “though when I’ve had time to grow a little interested in the new ‘apartment’ it won’t matter. But it did strike me as so irresistibly16 funny, sitting here with you ‘over the teacups,’ that at eight o’clock the men will be at the door for my trunks!”
Suddenly he leaned toward her with great earnestness. “Miss Utterbourne, I want to ask you a favour.”
“Yes?” Her brows were arched in cordial interrogation.
“It—it’s about this table—table we bought,” he said, quite steadily17 despite the brazen18 pronoun, and fixing her with his honest, eager gaze.
“Of course,” she laughed softly, and with a subtle note of warm joyousness19, “I’ve always thought of it as ‘our’ table! I shall never think of it otherwise!”
“Well, I want to ask you,” he continued, earnestly thumping20 with one sparkling finger, “not to leave the table behind.” She coloured a little, and he pressed on: “I want you to take it with you to the new apartment for a kind of nucleus—to begin building around!”
“Ah,” she sighed lightly, but with a gently glowing graciousness, “you’re a diabolical21 tempter at my elbow, for I’m sure you know my weakness for ‘gate-legged’ tables!”
“Well,” she laughed, blushing still more happily, “then I’m afraid the table will have to go along, really, though I’m sure the people who are subletting23 will notice! What would sound most plausible24, do you think?” She was growing quite excited. “For it would hardly do to tell quite the facts—would it?”
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1
curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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2
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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auctions
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| n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 ) | |
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impresario
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| n.歌剧团的经理人；乐团指挥 | |
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7
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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8
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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geniality
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| n.和蔼，诚恳；愉快 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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13
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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14
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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15
nibbling
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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16
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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19
joyousness
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| 快乐，使人喜悦 | |
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20
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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21
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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23
subletting
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| v.转租( sublet的现在分词 ) | |
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24
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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