Miles stood by the schoolroom window, hands jingling1 in pockets, as he surveyed a prospect2, sufficiently3 grey and drear to make any diversity doubly welcome, and at his words there came the sound of a general pushing-back of chairs, as the four other occupants of the room dashed forward to share in the view.
They jostled each other with the scant4 courtesy which brothers and sisters are apt to show each other in early days; five big boys and girls, ranging between the ages of eight and nineteen. Miles kept his central position by reason of superior strength, a vigorous dig of his pointed5 elbow being enough to keep trespassers at a distance. Betty darted6 before him and nimbly dropped on her knees, the twins stood on either side of the window-sill, while poor Pam grumbled7 and fretted8 in the background, dodging9 here and there to try all positions in turn, and finding each as unsatisfactory as the last.
The Square gardens looked grey and sodden10 with the desolation of autumn in a city, and the road facing the window was empty, except for two female figures—a lady, and a girl of sixteen, who were slowly approaching the corner. The lady was dressed in black, the girl was noticeably smart, in a pretty blue costume, with dainty boots on her tiny feet, and a fur cap worn at the fashionable angle on her golden head.
“That’s a new dress,—the fifth I’ve seen her in this month!” sighed Betty enviously11. “Wearing it on an afternoon like this, too. The idea! Serve her right if it were soaked through!”
“Look at her mincing12 over the puddles13! She’d rather go a mile out of her way than get a splash on those precious boots. I’m sure by the look of them that they pinch her toes! I am glad you girls don’t make ninnies of yourselves by wearing such stupid things.”
“Can’t! Feet too big!” mumbled14 Jill, each cheek bulging15 in turn with the lump of toffee which she was mechanically moving from side to side, so as to lengthen16 the enjoyment17 as much as possible.
“Can’t! Too poor! Only four shillings to last out till the end of the quarter!” sighed Betty, dolorous18 again.
“Boots! Boots! What boots? Let me see her boots. It’s mean! You won’t let me see a thing!” cried Pam, pushing her shaggy head round Miles’ elbow, and craning forward on the tip of her toes. “I say! She’s grander than ever to-day, isn’t she?”
“Look at the umbrella! About as thick as a lead pencil!” scoffed19 Jill, flattening20 her nose against the pane21. “Aunt Amy had one like that when she came to stay, and I opened it, because mother says it spoils them to be left squeezed up, and she was as mad as a hatter. She twisted at it a good ten minutes before she would take it out again. She’d never get mine straight! I’ve carried things in it till the wires bulge22 out like hoops23. An umbrella is made for use; it’s bosh pretending it’s an ornament24. ... They are going a toddle25 round the Square between the showers for the benefit of the Pet’s complexion26. I’m glad I haven’t got one to bother about!”
“True for you!” agreed Miles, with brotherly candour. “You are as brown as a nigger, and the Pet is like a big wax-doll—yellow hair, blue eyes, pink cheeks, all complete. Not a bad-looking doll, either. I passed quite close to her one day, and she looked rattling27. She’ll be a jolly pretty girl one of these days.”
“Oh, if you admire that type. Personally, I don’t care for niminy-piminies. You never see her speaking, but I daresay if you poked28 her in the right places she would bleat29 out ‘Mam-ma! Pa-pa!’ ... Now watch!” cried Betty dramatically. “When she gets to the corner, she will peer up at this window beneath her eyelashes, and mince31 worse than ever when she sees us watching. Don’t shove so, Pam! You can see quite well where you are. Now look! She’s going to raise her head.”
The five heads pressed still more curiously32 against the pane, and five pairs of eyes were fixed33 unblinkingly upon the young girl who was daintily picking her way round the corner of the Square. The fur cap left her face fully34 exposed to view, and, true to Betty’s prophecy, as she reached a certain point in the road she turned her head over her shoulder and shot a quick glance at the window overhead. Quicker than lightning the pretty head went round again, and the pink cheeks grew crimson35 at the sight of those five eager faces watching her every movement.
Jack36 and Jill burst into loud laughter, Betty’s upper lip curled derisively37, but Miles’ thin face showed an answering flush of colour, and he backed into the room, exclaiming angrily—
“I say, this is too much of a good thing! I don’t know what you all mean by swarming38 round me wherever I go! Why can’t you leave a fellow alone? Can’t I even look out of the window without having you all on my back? A nice effect it must have to see the whole place blocked up, as if we were staring at a Lord Mayor’s show!”
Betty sat down by the table and took up the blouse on which she had been working for the last three months. The sleeves had been taken out and replaced twice over, and the collar-band obstinately40 refused to come right. By the time it was finished it would be hopelessly out of date, which Betty considered as one of the many contrary circumstances of life which continually thwarted41 her good endeavours.
“Don’t worry yourself. She will enjoy being stared at!” she said coldly. “She knows we watch her coming in and out, and shows off all her little tricks for our benefit. She’s the most conceited42, stuck-up, affected43 little wretch44 I ever saw, without a thought in her head but her clothes, and her own importance. I wouldn’t have anything to do with her for the world!”
“Jolly good thing then that you are never likely to get a chance! Her people will never trouble to call upon us; they are much too high and mighty45. That’s no reason, though, why you should be so down on the poor little soul. I should have thought that you would have felt sorry for her, cooped up with that old governess all her time, with not a soul to keep her company! But girls are such cads—they never play fair.”
Miles strode out of the room in a fume46, and Betty’s lips compressed themselves into a thin straight line, the meaning of which the others knew full well. To incur47 Miles’ displeasure was Betty’s bitterest punishment, and the “Pampered Pet” was not likely to fare any better at her hands in consequence of his denouncement. Jill beckoned48 furtively49 to Jack. There was no chance of any more fun in the schoolroom now that Miles had departed, and Betty was in the sulks; it would be wise to go and disport50 themselves elsewhere. They left the room arm-in-arm, heads almost touching51, as they whispered and giggled52 together, the most devoted53 pair of twins that ever existed, and eight-year-old Pam leant her elbows on the table and stared fixedly54 at her big sister.
Betty was seventeen, nearly grown-up, inasmuch as she had left school, and now took classes to complete her education. Her blue serge dress came down to her ankles, and she made a gallant55 attempt to “do up” her hair in the style of the period. Mrs Trevor considered the style too elaborate for such a young girl, but after all it did not much matter what was aimed at, since every morning someone exclaimed innocently, “You’ve done your hair a new way, Betty!” and was fully justified56 in the remark. One day Betty’s ambition ran to curls and waves, and she appeared at the breakfast-table with a fuzz worthy57 of a negress. The next day better judgment58 prevailed, when she brushed hard for ten minutes, and then pinned on a hair-net, with the result that she looked a veritable little Puritan; and between these extremes ranged a variety of effects, only possible of achievement to an amateur with no experience, but boundless59 ambition.
If you could have honestly pronounced Betty pretty, you would have satisfied the deepest longing60 of her heart. She gazed in the glass every morning, twisting her head from side to side, and deciding irrevocably that she was hideous61, a fright, a perfect freak, while all the time an obstinate39 little hope lingered that perhaps after all, in becoming clothes, and when she was in a good temper, she might look rather ... nice! Chestnut62 hair, such a pretty colour, but so little of it that it would not “go” like other girls’; dark grey eyes with curly black lashes30; an impertinent little nose, and a mouth just about twice as big as those possessed63 by the ladies in mother’s Book of Beauty downstairs. At the best she could only be “pretty” or a “sweet-looking girl,” and she pined to be beautiful and stately, and to reign64 as a queen over the hearts of men.
Poor Betty! Many a girl of seventeen lives through the same tragedy in secret, but they are not all fortunate enough to possess an adoring younger sister who thinks her all that she fain would be.
Pam put out a little ink-stained hand, and stroked the half-finished blouse admiringly.
“It’s going to be lubly, Bet! It hardly shows a bit where you joined it. You’ll soon have finished it now.”
“No, I shan’t,” snapped Betty. “There’s heaps to do still, and it’s getting too cold for cottons. Just my luck! I always seem to be making mistakes. It wasn’t my fault that that stupid girl looked up and caught us watching.”
The underlying65 thought showed itself in the sudden change of subject, but Pam was not surprised, for in her quiet, shrewd little way she had divined it long ago.
“But you said she’d look up, so you could have moved if you liked. I don’t think it was very perlite,” she said solemnly. “There were all four of you at the window, and my eyes peeping round Miles’ back. I expect it looked pretty fearful. She went purple, didn’t she? It’s horrid66 to blush! I did once when I got a prize before people, and I hated it.”
“Oh, you! You are a modest little mouse. The Pet is quite different. Nasty thing, she might have been satisfied without making mischief67 between Miles and me! She has everything that she wants, and that I want, and haven’t got. She’s pretty, and rich, and has a lovely big house and heaps of people to wait upon her, and nice things, and—everything! You can’t think how I hate her!”
Pam leant her thin arms on the table, and meditated68 for a long, thoughtful moment. When she spoke69, it was, as usual, to deliver herself of the unexpected.
“That’s what you call ‘envy, hatred70, and malice,’ I s’pose,” she said thoughtfully, and Betty’s head came up with a jerk to turn upon her a glance of suspicious inquiry71.
No! The round, grey eyes were as clear, as innocent, as guilelessly adoring as she had ever seen them. They gazed into her own without a shadow of self-consciousness, and as she met that gaze Betty flushed, and the irritable72 lines disappeared from her face as if wiped out by a sponge.
“One for you, Pam,” she cried, laughing. “I am a pig! A nice big elder sister I am, to set you such an example! I’m cross, dear. Everything has gone wrong the whole day long. You had better run off and leave me alone, or I’ll snap again. I feel all churned up inside! This is only a temporary lapse73.”
“There’s scones74 for tea; I saw the bag in the pantry. S’pose I went downstairs and coaxed75 cook to toast them? You said yourself toasted scones were soothing76. If Miles smells them he’s sure to come,” said Pam shrewdly, and Betty leant forward and kissed her impetuously on the cheek.
“There’s one comfort,” she cried; “I’ve got you, and the Pet hasn’t! You are the comfort of my old age, Pamela, my child. Yes, toasted! And lots of butter, and leave the door wide open, so that the smell may get out, and lure77 Miles back.”
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1
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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2
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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7
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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enviously
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| adv.满怀嫉妒地 | |
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mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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puddles
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| n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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14
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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16
lengthen
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| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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18
dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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19
scoffed
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| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
flattening
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| n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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23
hoops
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| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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toddle
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| v.（如小孩）蹒跚学步 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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27
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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28
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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29
bleat
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| v.咩咩叫，(讲)废话，哭诉；n.咩咩叫，废话，哭诉 | |
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30
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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mince
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| n.切碎物；v.切碎，矫揉做作地说 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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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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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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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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derisively
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| adv. 嘲笑地，嘲弄地 | |
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38
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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40
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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41
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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42
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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44
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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45
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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46
fume
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| n.(usu pl.)(浓烈或难闻的)烟，气，汽 | |
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47
incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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48
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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50
disport
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| v.嬉戏，玩 | |
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51
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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52
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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54
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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55
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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56
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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57
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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58
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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59
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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60
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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63
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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64
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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65
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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66
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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67
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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68
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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69
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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70
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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71
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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72
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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73
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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74
scones
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| n.烤饼，烤小圆面包( scone的名词复数 ) | |
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75
coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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76
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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77
lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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