Chapter 11 Miss Harding's Mistake

 Miss Rachel Harding kept on her way to Washington Park. It was less than a mile from her brother's house, and though she walked slowly, she got there a quarter of an hour before the time.

 

She sat down on a seat near the center of the park, and began to look around her. Poor Rachel! her heart beat quicker than it had done for thirty years, as she realized that she was about to meet one who wished to make her his wife.

 

"I hope he won't be late," she murmured to herself, and she felt of the blue ribbon to make sure that she had not forgotten it.

 

Meanwhile Jack¹ reached the park, and from a distance surveyed with satisfaction the evident nervousness of his aunt.

 

"Ain't it rich?" he whispered to himself.

 

Rachel looked anxiously for the gentleman with the red rose pinned to his coat.

 

She had to wait ten minutes. At last he came, but as he neared her seat, Rachel felt like sinking into the earth with mortification² when she recognized in the wearer a stalwart negro. She hoped that it was a mere³ chance coincidence, but he approached her, and raising his hat respectfully, said:

 

"Are you Miss Harding?"

 

"What if I am?" she demanded, sharply. "What have you to do with me?"

 

The man looked surprised.

 

"Didn't you send word to me to meet you here?"

 

"No!" answered Rachel, "and I consider it very presumptuous⁴ in you to write such a letter to me."

 

"I didn't write you a letter," said the negro, astonished.

 

"Then what made you come here?" demanded the spinster.

 

"Because you wrote to me."

 

"I wrote to you!" exclaimed Rachel, aghast.

 

"Yes, you wrote to me to come here. You said you'd wear a blue ribbon on your neck, and I was to have a rose pinned to my coat."

 

Rachel was bewildered.

 

"How could I write to you when I never saw you before, and don't know your name. Do you think a lady like me would marry a colored man?"

 

"Who said anything about that?" asked the other, opening his eyes wide in astonishment⁵. "I couldn't marry, nohow, for I've got a wife and four children."

 

Rachel felt ready to collapse⁶. Was it possible that she had made a mistake, and that this was not her unknown correspondent, Daniel?

 

"There is some mistake," she said, nervously⁷. "Where is that letter you thought I wrote? Have you got it with you?"

 

"Here it is, ma'am."

 

He handed Rachel a letter addressed in a small hand to Daniel Thompson.

 

She opened it and read:

 

"Mr. Thompson: I hear you are out of work. I may be able to give you a job. Meet me at Washington Park, Tuesday afternoon, at four o'clock. I shall wear a blue ribbon round my neck, and you may have a red rose pinned to your coat. Otherwise I might not know you.

 

"RACHEL HARDING."

 

 

"Some villain⁸ has done this," said Rachel, wrathfully. "I never wrote that letter."

 

"You didn't!" said Daniel, looking perplexed⁹. "Who went and did it, then?"

 

"I don't know, but I'd like to have him punished for it," said Rachel, energetically.

 

"But you've got a blue ribbon," said Mr. Thompson. "I can't see through that. That's just what the letter said."

 

"I suppose somebody wrote the letter that knew I wear blue. It's all a mistake. You'd better go home."

 

"Then haven't you got a job for me?" asked Daniel, disappointed.

 

"No, I haven't," said Rachel, sharply.

 

She hurriedly untied¹⁰ the ribbon from her neck, and put it in her pocket.

 

"Don't talk to me any more!" she said, frowning. "You're a perfect stranger. You have no right to speak to me."

 

"I guess the old woman ain't right in her head!" thought Daniel. "Must be she's crazy!"

 

Poor Rachel! she felt more disconsolate¹¹ than ever. There was no Daniel, then. She had been basely imposed upon. There was no call for her to sacrifice herself on the altar of matrimony. She ought to have been glad, but she wasn't.

 

Half an hour later a drooping¹², disconsolate figure entered the house of Timothy Harding.

 

"Why, what's the matter, Rachel?" asked Martha, who noticed her woe-begone expression.

 

"I ain't long for this world," said Rachel, gloomily. "Death has marked me for his own."

 

"Don't you feel well this afternoon, Rachel?"

 

"No; I feel as if life was a burden."

 

"You have tired yourself with walking, Rachel. You have been out twice to-day."

 

"This is a vale of tears," said Rachel, hysterically¹³. "There's nothin' but sorrow and misfortune to be expected."

 

"Have you met with any misfortune? I thought fortune was smiling upon us all."

 

"It'll never smile on me again," said Rachel, despondently¹⁴.

 

Just then Jack, who had followed his aunt home, entered.

 

"Have you got home so quick, Aunt Rachel?" he asked. "How did you enjoy your walk?"

 

"I shall never enjoy anything again," said his aunt, gloomily.

 

"Why not?"

 

"Because there's nothing to enjoy."

 

"I don't feel so, aunt. I feel as merry as a cricket."

 

"You won't be long. Like as not you'll be took down with fever to-morrow, and maybe die."

 

"I won't trouble myself about it till the time comes," said Jack. "I expect to live to dance at your wedding yet, Aunt Rachel."

 

This reference was too much. It brought to Rachel's mind the Daniel to whom she had expected to link her destiny, and she burst into a dismal¹⁵ sob¹⁶, and hurried upstairs to her own chamber¹⁷.

 

"Rachel acts queerly to-day," said Mrs. Harding. "I think she can't be feeling well. If she don't feel better to-morrow I shall advise her to send for the doctor."

 

"I am afraid it was mean to play such a trick on Aunt Rachel," thought Jack, half repentantly. "I didn't think she'd take it so much in earnest. I must keep dark about that letter. She'd never forgive me if she knew."

 

For some days there was an added gloom on Miss Rachel's countenance¹⁸, but the wound was not deep; and after a time her disappointment ceased to rankle¹⁹ in her too sensitive heart.

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 mortification   

n.耻辱，屈辱

参考例句：

• To my mortification, my manuscript was rejected. 使我感到失面子的是：我的稿件被退了回来。
• The chairman tried to disguise his mortification. 主席试图掩饰自己的窘迫。

3 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

4 presumptuous   

adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的

参考例句：

• It would be presumptuous for anybody to offer such a view.任何人提出这种观点都是太放肆了。
• It was presumptuous of him to take charge.他自拿主张，太放肆了。

5 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

6 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

7 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

8 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

9 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

10 untied   

松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决

参考例句：

• Once untied, we common people are able to conquer nature, too. 只要团结起来，我们老百姓也能移山倒海。
• He untied the ropes. 他解开了绳子。

11 disconsolate   

adj.忧郁的，不快的

参考例句：

• He looked so disconsolate that It'scared her.他看上去情绪很坏，吓了她一跳。
• At the dress rehearsal she was disconsolate.彩排时她闷闷不乐。

12 drooping   

adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词

参考例句：

• The drooping willows are waving gently in the morning breeze. 晨风中垂柳袅袅。
• The branches of the drooping willows were swaying lightly. 垂柳轻飘飘地摆动。

13 hysterically   

ad. 歇斯底里地

参考例句：

• The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。
• She sobbed hysterically, and her thin body was shaken. 她歇斯底里地抽泣着，她瘦弱的身体哭得直颤抖。

14 despondently   

adv.沮丧地，意志消沉地

参考例句：

• It had come to that, he reflected despondently. 事情已经到了这个地步了，他沉思着，感到心灰意懒。 来自辞典例句
• He shook his head despondently. 他沮丧地摇摇头。 来自辞典例句

15 dismal   

adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的

参考例句：

• That is a rather dismal melody.那是一支相当忧郁的歌曲。
• My prospects of returning to a suitable job are dismal.我重新找到一个合适的工作岗位的希望很渺茫。

16 sob   

n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣

参考例句：

• The child started to sob when he couldn't find his mother.孩子因找不到他妈妈哭了起来。
• The girl didn't answer,but continued to sob with her head on the table.那个女孩不回答，也不抬起头来。她只顾低声哭着。

17 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

18 countenance   

n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同

参考例句：

• At the sight of this photograph he changed his countenance.他一看见这张照片脸色就变了。
• I made a fierce countenance as if I would eat him alive.我脸色恶狠狠地，仿佛要把他活生生地吞下去。

19 rankle   

v.（怨恨，失望等）难以释怀

参考例句：

• You burrow and rankle in his heart!你挖掘并折磨他的心灵！
• The insult still rankled in his mind.他对那次受辱仍耿耿於怀。