"Please hang your hat and coat up there."
Behind the curtain she found three pegs4 and a looking-glass; which articles, if she had not been too nervous to observe closely, might have struck her as being even suspiciously new. She had no coat on, but she had a hat, which she hung upon one of the pegs, with a breathless feeling, as if the simple action, in that strange place, stood to her as an emblem5 of the passage she was about to take from the old world to the new; as she hung up her hat, with Mr. Gibb's stony6 gaze fixed7 on her coldly from behind, it almost seemed to her that with it she hung up her freedom, and passed into servitude. Nor was this feeling lessened8 by the unaccustomed, and unnatural9, rigidity10 of Mr. Gibb's bearing; she being unaware11 of the fact that Mr. Hooper had informed the young gentleman, not ten minutes before she came, that if he did not treat her with the profound and distant respect with which a divinity ought to be treated, the consequences would be serious for him. While she was still touching12 her hair with her fingers, as a girl must do when she has just taken her hat off, he inquired, with what he felt to be cutting coldness--
"Have you quite finished?"
"Yes, Eustace, I--I think I have--quite, thank you."
She stepped that way, Mr. Gibb moving as stiffly as if he had a poker14 down his back. She found Mr. Hooper seated at a table which was littered with a number of papers and documents which were of a most portentous15 looking nature, over one of which he was bending with an air of earnest preoccupation which, it is to be feared, had been put on about thirty seconds before she had entered the room, and would be taken off in less than thirty seconds after she had left it.
"Miss Lindsay has come, sir." As Mr. Gibb made this announcement Mr. Hooper looked up with a start, which was very well done, as if nothing could have surprised him more; he rose, a little doubtfully, as if the professional cares of this world were almost more than he could bear.
"Miss Lindsay? Yes, yes, quite so; Miss Lindsay, of course. I hope, Miss Lindsay, I see you well."
"Quite well, thank you."
She ignored the hand which he extended, possibly in a moment of absence of mind, in a manner which seemed to him to be marked; he trusted Mr. Gibb had not noticed it before he left the room. He continued to be as professional in his manner as he knew how.
"Miss Lindsay--eh--might I--eh--ask you to take a seat?"
"Thank you, sir, I prefer to stand."
Really this young woman was trying; she was reversing the positions; it was she who was keeping him at a distance, not he her; there was something in the way in which she said "sir" which made him wince16; however, he was still professional.
"Quite so, Miss Lindsay, quite so--whichever you prefer. Now, Miss Lindsay, here are some papers of a--of an abstract nature; privacy with regard to them is of the first importance; serious consequences might result were their character to become known outside these chambers17." The jobbing secretary inclined her head; he thought she did it very gracefully18. "Now, what I require are copies of these papers; you understand, copies--perfectly19 clean copies. How long do you think it will take you to let me have them?"
"There seem to be a good many."
"There are--oh, there are; quite a number; only they are not all of the same character. Now, for instance, how long will it take you to let me have a perfectly clean copy of that?"
He held out what looked like a musty document, consisting of several foolscap pages, covered with close writing on both sides of each page. She turned it nervously20 over.
"Is it--is it to be typed?"
"Certainly; oh yes, emphatically."
"What--what machine have you?" He mentioned the maker's name; fortunately it was on one of the same maker's machines she had learnt. "I told you that I had not used a machine recently; I fear, therefore, that I may be rather awkward at first, so that I can hardly tell how long it will take me to let you have a perfectly clean copy of this. There--there appears to be a good deal of it."
"There does--oh yes, I admit it, there does--and of course I shouldn't want an absolutely clean copy." She looked at him; there was something in her look which caused him to look away, with some appearance of confusion; he realized that he had made a mistake. "By that I--I should wish you to understand that--that I shouldn't require you to destroy the entire document merely--merely because of one slight error."
She spoke21 with what seemed to him to be magisterial22 severity; he felt that there was more than a touch of that severity in her demeanour.
"You said that you wanted perfectly clean copies, and you shall have perfectly clean copies; I quite understand that only perfectly clean copies will be of the slightest use. I hope you do not think that I wish you to put up with indifferent work. I merely wished to point out that I am afraid that I may be a little clumsy at first."
She turned to go.
"The--the typewriter's in the next room."
"I saw it as I came in."
"Pray--pray allow me to open the door for you." But she would not.
"If you don't mind, sir"--the stress upon that "sir"!--"I would rather open it for myself; and I do hope that you won't allow a difference in sex to alter the relations which ought to exist between employer and employed. You wouldn't open the door for Eustace Gibb; I would like you to regard me in the same light as you do him."
No, he certainly would not open the door for Eustace Gibb, but the idea of regarding her in the same light as Mr. Gibb was preposterous23; the trouble was that he could only see her through a golden haze24. The typewriter was in the next room to Mr. Hooper's, with beyond it the lobby which Mr. Gibb termed his office; the room was known to Mr. Gibb as the waiting-room, though no one had ever been known to wait in it. It was furnished with an old wooden table, and three older wooden chairs, and nothing else. On the table was the typewriter, and a plentiful25 supply of paper. After about an hour's interval26, Mr. Hooper, who felt as if he were a prisoner in his own rooms, began to find himself in a state of fidgetiness which was beyond endurance. It was ridiculous to suppose that he did not dare to venture into the presence of his own jobbing secretary, yet--he did not dare. What was worse, he found himself incapable27 of smoking in the room next to her, and that in spite of her expressed desire that he should treat her as he treated Mr. Gibb. When the tension had reached a point at which he could stand it no longer, snatching up his hat, he burst into the room with an air of haste, seeming, when he was in it, to realize her presence there with a touch of surprise.
"Miss Lindsay!--oh yes, yes, quite so. And--and how are we getting on?"
The moment he had asked he saw that he had made another mistake. This time there was something on her face which moved him in a manner which really did surprise him. She looked as if she had at least been near to tears, and still was not far off.
"I--I'm not getting on at all well," she said.
"I've not the slightest doubt, Miss Lindsay, that you are getting on much better than you imagine."
"I--I suppose I ought to know how I am getting on."
"But your--yours is such a strenuously28 high standard."
"I--I've spoilt I don't know how many sheets of paper."
"What does it matter how many sheets of paper you spoil? The more you spoil the better I'll be pleased."
"Will you? Then all I can say is that if I--I spoil many more I shall know that I'm not fit for the situation which you've been so kind as to offer me, and--I shall go."
"Really you must not talk like that." He picked up one of the ominously29 numerous sheets of paper which lay at her side, all of which had plainly had at any rate some slight acquaintance with the machine. "Now this is not at all bad."
"There are three errors in the first line."
"Are there? So many as that?"
"And five in the second."
"Indeed! you don't say so!"
"And the third line's wrong altogether."
"I'm not sure that I ever had any facility; I can see that now; I'm afraid I only used to play at typing."
"Then in that case you shall copy them by hand; I'm disposed to think that perhaps good clear writing is best after all."
"Copy them by hand?" Suddenly a look came on her face which actually frightened him; his words had evidently been to her an occasion of serious offence. "I applied31 for your situation, Mr. Hooper, in the belief that I could work a typewriter; you gave it me on that understanding. If, now, it turns out that I cannot work a typewriter it would look as if I had applied for your situation under false pretences32; do you suppose that I will continue to hold it knowing that to be the case, and that you are paying me for something which it turns out I cannot do? Either you shall have perfectly clean typewritten copies, Mr. Hooper, or I must resign; I will not go through the farce33 of pretending to occupy a position for which I have been proved to be unfit."
He could have answered her many things, but he answered her nothing; he was afraid. Instead, he shuffled34 out of the room, excusing himself.
"I've a most pressing appointment, Miss Lindsay." He was longing35 for a pipe; the appointment was to smoke, all by himself, in the Temple Gardens. "When I return I've no doubt you'll have advanced beyond your expectations. Rome wasn't built in a day; you must persevere36, persevere!" In the office Mr. Hooper, placing his hand on King Solomon's shoulder, whispered in his ear, as if anxious not to be overheard, "Mr. Gibb, I am inclined to the opinion that having a divinity on the premises37 is not all lavender."
To which Mr. Gibb replied, with a sigh, as if he himself was vaguely38 conscious of a feeling of being "cribbed, cabined and confined"--
"No, sir; that's what I was thinking."
For two days Nora continued to wrestle39 with the typewriter, and on the third something happened which ultimately resulted in another upheaval40 of the world for her. She had found the "document" which she had to copy--it was one of those which Mr. Hooper had discovered stuffed up the chimney--not easy to decipher, which perhaps was not surprising; she was puzzling over a part of it which seemed even worse than usual when the office door was opened, and a masculine person came striding in who had not even troubled to remove his hat. At sight, however, of the girl poring over that refractory41 passage, with her pretty brows all creased42, off came his hat; but no sooner was he uncovered than, with something in his bearing which almost suggested that he was unconscious of what he was doing, he stood and stared. The girl glanced up and looked at him. For some seconds there was silence; then, seeming to come to himself with a start, he ejaculated--.
"I beg your pardon; I--I'd no idea!"
He did not stay to explain what he had no idea of, but passed into Mr. Hooper's room beyond. As he entered Mr. Hooper rose from his chair; then stared in his turn, as if this was not at all the kind of person he had expected to see.
"Frank!" he exclaimed. "What on earth has brought you here?"
The gentleman addressed as Frank replied to the question with a statement which was sufficiently43 startling.
Mr. Hooper, as was not unnatural, stared still more.
"You've seen what?"
"Of course I don't mean that I've seen an actual ghost, but I feel as if I had."
"What's given you such a very curious feeling at this hour of the morning? And what's brought you here, anyhow?"
The gentleman addressed seemed genuinely disturbed.
"I'll tell you, what's brought me if you'll give me time; I'm in a frightful45 mess, that's what's brought me; but before I tell you anything, you tell me who--who's that girl in the next room?"
Mr. Hooper's bearing betrayed annoyance46, which was perhaps caused by the singularity of the other's demeanour.
"The lady in the next room, whom you speak of as 'that girl,' is----"
There was a tapping; the door was opened; the girl in question entered, the "document" over which she had been puzzling in her hand. She crossed to Mr. Hooper.
"I beg your pardon if I am interrupting you, but there is something here which I cannot make out; I thought that perhaps you would not mind telling me what it is before you become really engaged."
Mr. Hooper took the paper which she held out to him, with a glance towards the gentleman who had just now entered, in which there was a hint of mischief47.
"Will you allow me to present to you my cousin, Mr. Frank Clifford? Frank, this is Miss Lindsay."
"Lindsay!" Mr. Clifford was staring more than ever. "Lindsay! Not--not--I beg your pardon, but--would you mind telling me if you are related to Mr. Donald Lindsay of Cloverlea?"
"I am his daughter."
"His--daughter? Thank you; thank you."
He sank on to a chair as one who had been dealt a crushing blow. Nora's bearing was frigid48; the stranger's unexpected question had touched in her a chord of memory which hurt her more than she would have cared to say. She returned to Mr. Hooper.
He explained, to the best of his ability, which was not much greater than hers. When she had gone back to her own apartment, Mr. Hooper said to his visitor, with what was possibly meant to be an air of politeness--
"May I venture to inquire if that is how you generally behave when you're introduced to a lady, Frank? because if it is I shall know better than to attempt to introduce you to another."
Mr. Clifford's reply was remarkable50.
"I told you that when I first saw her I felt as if I had seen a ghost; now I know my instinct was right; I have seen a ghost. If you knew--what I know, and had had to go through what I've had to go through, and still have to go through, you would understand how meeting Donald Lindsay's daughter like this makes it seem to me as if the hand of God had been stretched out of the skies."
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1
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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pegs
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| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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6
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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7
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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8
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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11
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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12
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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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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14
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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15
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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16
wince
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| n.畏缩，退避，（因痛苦，苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动；v.畏缩，退缩，退避 | |
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17
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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18
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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19
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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21
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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22
magisterial
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| adj.威风的，有权威的；adv.威严地 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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24
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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25
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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26
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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27
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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28
strenuously
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| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
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29
ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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30
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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31
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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32
pretences
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| n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称 | |
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33
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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34
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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35
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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persevere
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| v.坚持，坚忍，不屈不挠 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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39
wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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40
upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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41
refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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42
creased
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的过去式和过去分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 皱皱巴巴 | |
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43
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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44
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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45
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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46
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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47
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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48
frigid
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| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
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49
illegible
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| adj.难以辨认的，字迹模糊的 | |
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50
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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