An employee strolled past.
“Porteur?” murmured Audrey timidly.
Audrey felt that she had gone back to her school days. She was helpless, and Miss Ingate was the same. She wished ardently4 that she was in Moze again. She could not imagine how she had been such a fool as to undertake this absurd expedition which could only end in ridicule5 and disaster. She was ready to cry. Then another employee appeared, hesitated, and picked up a bag, scowling6 and inimical. Gradually the man, very tousled and dirty, clustered all the bags and parcels around his person, and walked off. Audrey and Miss Ingate meekly7 following. The great roof of the station resounded8 to whistles and the escape of steam and the clashing of wagons9.
Beyond the platforms there were droves of people, of whom nearly every individual was preoccupied10 and hurried. And what people! Audrey had in her heart expected a sort of glittering white terminus full of dandiacal men and elegant Parisiennes who had stepped straight out of fashion-plates, and who had no cares—for was not this Paris? Whereas, in fact, the multitude was the dingiest11 she had ever seen. Not a gleam of elegance12! No hint of dazzling colour! No smiling and satiric13 beauty! They were just persons.
At last, after formalities, Audrey and Miss Ingate reached the foul14 and chilly15 custom-house appointed for the examination of luggage. Unrecognisable peers and other highnesses stood waiting at long counters, forming bays, on which was nothing at all. Then, far behind, a truck hugely piled with trunks rolled in through a back door and men pitched the trunks like toys here and there on the counters, and officials came into view, and knots of travellers gathered round trunks, and locks were turned and lids were lifted, and the flash of linen17 showed in spots on the drabness of the scene. Miss Ingate observed with horror the complete undoing18 of a lady’s large trunk, and the exposure to the world’s harsh gaze of the most intimate possessions of that lady. Soon the counters were like a fair. But no trunk belonging to Audrey or to Miss Ingate was visible. They knew then, what they had both privately19 suspected ever since Charing20 Cross, that their trunks would be lost on the journey.
“Oh! My trunk!” cried Miss Ingate.
Beneath a pile of other trunks on an incoming truck she had espied21 her property. Audrey saw it, too. The vision was magical. The trunk seemed like a piece of home, a bit of Moze and of England. It drew affection from them as though it had been an animal. They sped towards it, forgetting their small baggage. Their porteur leaped over the counter from behind and made signs for a key. All Audrey’s trunks in turn joined Miss Ingate’s; none was missing. And finally an official, small and fierce, responded to the invocations of the porteur and established himself at the counter in front of them. He put his hand on Miss Ingate’s trunk.
“Op-en,” he said in English.
Miss Ingate opened her purse, and indicated to the official by signs that she had no key for the trunk, and she also cried loudly, so that he should comprehend:
“No key! ... Lost!”
Then she looked awkwardly at Audrey.
“I’ve been told they only want to open one trunk when there’s a lot. Let him choose another one,” she murmured archly.
But the official merely walked away, to deal with the trunks of somebody else close by.
Audrey was cross.
“Miss Ingate,” she said formally, “you had the key when we started, because you showed it to me. You can’t possibly have lost it.”
“No,” answered Winnie calmly and knowingly. “I haven’t lost it. But I’m not going to have the things in my trunk thrown about for all these foreigners to see. It’s simply disgraceful. They ought to have women officials and private rooms at these places. And they would have, if women had the vote. Let him open one of your trunks. All your things are new.”
The porteur had meanwhile been discharging French into Audrey’s other ear.
“Of course you must open it, Winnie,” said she. “Don’t be so absurd!” There was a persuasive22 lightness in her voice, but there was also command. For a moment she was the perfect widow.
“I’d rather not.”
“The porteur says we shall be here all night,” Audrey persisted.
“Do you know French?”
“I learnt French at school, Winnie,” said the perfect widow. “I can’t understand every word, but I can make out the drift.” And Audrey went on translating the porter according to her own wisdom. “He says there have been dreadful scenes here before, when people have refused to open their trunks, and the police have had to be called in. He says the man won’t upset the things in your trunk at all.”
Miss Ingate gazed into the distance, and privately smiled. Audrey had never guessed that in Miss Ingate were such depths of obstinate23 stupidity. She felt quite distinctly that her understanding of human nature was increasing.
“Oh! Look!” said Miss Ingate casually24. “I’m sure those must be real Parisians!” Her offhandedness25, her inability to realise the situation, were exasperating26 to the young widow. Audrey glanced where Miss Ingate had pointed16, and saw in the doorway27 of the custom-house two women and a lad, all cloaked but all obviously in radiant fancy dress, laughing together.
“Don’t they look French!” said Miss Ingate.
Audrey tapped her foot on the asphalt floor, while people whose luggage had been examined bumped strenuously28 against her in the effort to depart. She was extremely pessimistic; she knew she could do nothing with Miss Ingate; and the thought of the vast, flaring29, rumbling30 city beyond the station intimidated31 her. The porteur, who had gone away to collect their neglected small baggage, now returned, and nudged her, pointing to the official who had resumed his place behind the trunks. He was certainly a fierce man, but he was a little man, and there was an agreeable peculiarity32 in his eye.
Audrey, suddenly inspired and emboldened33, faced him; she shrugged her shoulders Gallically at Miss Ingate’s trunk, and gave a sad, sweet, wistful smile, and then put her hand with an exquisite34 inviting35 gesture on the smallest of her own trunks. The act was a deliberate exploitation of widowhood. The official fiercely shrugged his shoulders and threw up his arms, and told the porteur to open the small trunk.
“I told you they would,” said Miss Ingate negligently36.
Audrey would have turned upon her and slain37 her had she not been busy with the tremendous realisation of the fact that by a glance and a gesture she had conquered the customs official—a foreigner and a stranger. She wanted to be alone and to think.
Just as the trunk was being relocked, Audrey heard an American girlish voice behind her:
“Now, you must be Miss Ingate!”
“I am,” Miss Ingate almost ecstatically admitted.
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1
compartments
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| n.间隔( compartment的名词复数 )；（列车车厢的）隔间；（家具或设备等的）分隔间；隔层 | |
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2
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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3
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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7
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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8
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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10
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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11
dingiest
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| adj.暗淡的，乏味的( dingy的最高级 )；肮脏的 | |
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12
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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13
satiric
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| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
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14
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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18
undoing
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| n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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21
espied
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| v.看到( espy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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23
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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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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25
offhandedness
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| Offhandedness's. | |
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26
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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27
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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strenuously
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| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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30
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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31
intimidated
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| v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的 | |
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32
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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33
emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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35
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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36
negligently
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37
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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38
bodyguard
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| n.护卫，保镖 | |
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