"Heavens!" said Warwickson from where he lay smoking on the bed. He spoke2 in a dismal3 voice. This tone, it is said, had earned him his popular name of Great Grief.
From different points of the compass Wrinkles looked at the little cupboard with a tremendous scowl4, as if he intended thus to frighten the eggs into becoming more than two, and the bread into becoming a loaf. "Plague take it!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, shut up, Wrinkles!" said Grief from the bed.
Wrinkles sat down with an air austere5 and virtuous6. "Well, what are we going to do?" he demanded of the others.
Grief, after swearing, said: "There, that's right! Now you're happy. The holy office of the inquisition! Blast your buttons, Wrinkles, you always try to keep us from starving peacefully! It is two hours before dinner, anyhow, and——"
"Well, but what are you going to do?" persisted Wrinkles.
Pennoyer, with his head afar down, had been busily scratching at a pen-and-ink drawing. He looked up from his board to utter a plaintive8 optimism. "The Monthly Amazement9 will pay me to-morrow. They ought to. I've waited over three months now. I'm going down there to-morrow, and perhaps I'll get it."
His friends listened with airs of tolerance10. "Oh, no doubt, Penny, old man." But at last Wrinkles giggled11 pityingly. Over on the bed Grief croaked12 deep down in his throat. Nothing was said for a long time thereafter.
The crash of the New York streets came faintly to this room.
Occasionally one could hear the tramp of feet in the intricate corridors of the begrimed building which squatted13, slumbering14, and old, between two exalted15 commercial structures which would have had to bend afar down to perceive it. The northward16 march of the city's progress had happened not to overturn this aged17 structure, and it huddled18 there, lost and forgotten, while the cloud-veering towers strode on.
Meanwhile the first shadows of dusk came in at the blurred19 windows of the room. Pennoyer threw down his pen and tossed his drawing over on the wonderful heap of stuff that hid the table. "It's too dark to work." He lit a pipe and walked about, stretching his shoulders like a man whose labour was valuable.
When the dusk came fully7 the youths grew apparently20 sad. The solemnity of the gloom seemed to make them ponder. "Light the gas, Wrinkles," said Grief fretfully.
The flood of orange light showed clearly the dull walls lined with sketches21, the tousled bed in one corner, the masses of boxes and trunks in another, a little dead stove, and the wonderful table. Moreover, there were wine-coloured draperies flung in some places, and on a shelf, high up, there were plaster casts, with dust in the creases22. A long stove-pipe wandered off in the wrong direction and then turned impulsively23 toward a hole in the wall. There were some elaborate cobwebs on the ceiling.
"Well, let's eat," said Grief.
"Eat," said Wrinkles, with a jeer24; "I told you there was only two eggs and a little bread left. How are we going to eat?"
Again brought face to face with this problem, and at the hour for dinner, Pennoyer and Grief thought profoundly. "Thunder and turf!" Grief finally announced as the result of his deliberations.
"Well, if Billie Hawker was only home——" began Pennoyer.
"But he isn't," objected Wrinkles, "and that settles that."
Grief and Pennoyer thought more. Ultimately Grief said, "Oh, well, let's eat what we've got." The others at once agreed to this suggestion, as if it had been in their minds.
Later there came a quick step in the passage and a confident little thunder upon the door. Wrinkles arranging the tin pail on the gas stove, Pennoyer engaged in slicing the bread, and Great Grief affixing25 the rubber tube to the gas stove, yelled, "Come in!"
The door opened, and Miss Florinda O'Connor, the model, dashed into the room like a gale26 of obstreperous27 autumn leaves.
"Why, hello, Splutter!" they cried.
"Oh, boys, I've come to dine with you."
It was like a squall striking a fleet of yachts.
Grief spoke first. "Yes, you have?" he said incredulously.
"Why, certainly I have. What's the matter?"
They grinned. "Well, old lady," responded Grief, "you've hit us at the wrong time. We are, in fact, all out of everything. No dinner, to mention, and, what's more, we haven't got a sou."
"What? Again?" cried Florinda.
"Yes, again. You'd better dine home to-night."
"But I'll—I'll stake you," said the girl eagerly. "Oh, you poor old idiots! It's a shame! Say, I'll stake you."
"Certainly not," said Pennoyer sternly.
"What are you talking about, Splutter?" demanded Wrinkles in an angry voice.
Florinda divested29 herself of her hat, jacket, and gloves, and put them where she pleased. "Got coffee, haven't you? Well, I'm not going to stir a step. You're a fine lot of birds!" she added bitterly, "You've all pulled me out of a whole lot of scrape—oh, any number of times—and now you're broke, you go acting30 like a set of dudes."
Great Grief had fixed31 the coffee to boil on the gas stove, but he had to watch it closely, for the rubber tube was short, and a chair was balanced on a trunk, and two bundles of kindling32 was balanced on the chair, and the gas stove was balanced on the kindling. Coffee-making was here accounted a feat33.
Pennoyer dropped a piece of bread to the floor. "There! I'll have to go shy one."
Wrinkles sat playing serenades on his guitar and staring with a frown at the table, as if he was applying some strange method of clearing it of its litter.
Florinda assaulted Great Grief. "Here, that's not the way to make coffee!"
"What ain't?"
"Why, the way you're making it. You want to take——" She explained some way to him which he couldn't understand.
"For heaven's sake, Wrinkles, tackle that table! Don't sit there like a music box," said Pennoyer, grappling the eggs and starting for the gas stove.
Later, as they sat around the board, Wrinkles said with satisfaction, "Well, the coffee's good, anyhow."
"'Tis good," said Florinda, "but it isn't made right. I'll show you how, Penny. You first——"
"Oh, dry up, Splutter," said Grief. "Here, take an egg."
"I don't like eggs," said Florinda.
"Take an egg," said the three hosts menacingly.
"I tell you I don't like eggs."
"Take—an—egg!" they said again.
"Oh, well," said Florinda, "I'll take one, then; but you needn't act like such a set of dudes—and, oh, maybe you didn't have much lunch. I had such a daisy lunch! Up at Pontiac's studio. He's got a lovely studio."
The three looked to be oppressed. Grief said sullenly34, "I saw some of his things over in Stencil's gallery, and they're rotten."
"Yes—rotten," said Pennoyer.
"Rotten," said Grief.
"Oh, well," retorted Florinda, "if a man has a swell35 studio and dresses—oh, sort of like a Willie, you know, you fellows sit here like owls36 in a cave and say rotten—rotten—rotten. You're away off. Pontiac's landscapes——"
"Landscapes be blowed! Put any of his work alongside of Billie Hawker's and see how it looks."
"Oh, well, Billie Hawker's," said Florinda. "Oh, well."
At the mention of Hawker's name they had all turned to scan her face.
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收听单词发音
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1
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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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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3
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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6
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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7
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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8
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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9
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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10
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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11
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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13
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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14
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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15
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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18
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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19
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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20
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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22
creases
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
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impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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jeer
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| vi.嘲弄，揶揄；vt.奚落；n.嘲笑，讥评 | |
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25
affixing
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| v.附加( affix的现在分词 )；粘贴；加以；盖（印章） | |
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26
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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27
obstreperous
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| adj.喧闹的，不守秩序的 | |
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28
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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29
divested
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| v.剥夺( divest的过去式和过去分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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30
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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31
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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32
kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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33
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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34
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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35
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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36
owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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