He halted the automobile7 before Dede's door, and met her with his same rushing tactics, enclosing her in his arms before a word could be uttered. Not until afterward8, when she had recovered herself from him and got him seated, did he begin to speak.
"I've done it," he announced. "You've seen the newspapers, of course. I'm plumb9 cleaned out, and I've just called around to find out what day you feel like starting for Glen Ellen. It'll have to be soon, for it's real expensive living in Oakland these days. My board at the hotel is only paid to the end of the week, and I can't afford to stay after that. And beginning with to-morrow I've got to use the street cars, and they sure eat up the nickels."
He paused, and waited, and looked at her. Indecision and trouble showed on her face. Then the smile he knew so well began to grow on her lips and in her eyes, until she threw back her head and laughed in the old forthright10 boyish way.
"When are those men coming to pack for me?" she asked.
And again she laughed and simulated a vain attempt to escape his bearlike arms.
"Dear Elam," she whispered; "dear Elam." And of herself, for the first time, she kissed him.
She ran her hand caressingly11 through his hair.
"Your eyes are all gold right now," he said. "I can look in them and tell just how much you love me."
"They have been all gold for you, Elam, for a long time. I think, on our little ranch12, they will always be all gold."
"Your hair has gold in it, too, a sort of fiery13 gold." He turned her face suddenly and held it between his hands and looked long into her eyes. "And your eyes were full of gold only the other day, when you said you wouldn't marry me."
She nodded and laughed.
"You would have your will," she confessed. "But I couldn't be a party to such madness. All that money was yours, not mine. But I was loving you all the time, Elam, for the great big boy you are, breaking the thirty-million toy with which you had grown tired of playing. And when I said no, I knew all the time it was yes. And I am sure that my eyes were golden all the time. I had only one fear, and that was that you would fail to lose everything. Because, dear, I knew I should marry you anyway, and I did so want just you and the ranch and Bob and Wolf and those horse-hair bridles14. Shall I tell you a secret? As soon as you left, I telephoned the man to whom I sold Mab."
She hid her face against his breast for an instant, and then looked at him again, gladly radiant.
"You see, Elam, in spite of what my lips said, my mind was made up then. I—I simply had to marry you. But I was praying you would succeed in losing everything. And so I tried to find what had become of Mab. But the man had sold her and did not know what had become of her. You see, I wanted to ride with you over the Glen Ellen hills, on Mab and you on Bob, just as I had ridden with you through the Piedmont hills."
The disclosure of Mab's whereabouts trembled on Daylight's lips, but he forbore.
But Dede shook her head, and on that one point refused to be comforted.
"Now, I've got an idea," Daylight said, hastening to get the conversation on less perilous16 ground. "We're running away from cities, and you have no kith nor kin5, so it don't seem exactly right that we should start off by getting married in a city. So here's the idea: I'll run up to the ranch and get things in shape around the house and give the caretaker his walking-papers. You follow me in a couple of days, coming on the morning train. I'll have the preacher fixed17 and waiting. And here's another idea. You bring your riding togs in a suit case. And as soon as the ceremony's over, you can go to the hotel and change. Then out you come, and you find me waiting with a couple of horses, and we'll ride over the landscape so as you can see the prettiest parts of the ranch the first thing. And she's sure pretty, that ranch. And now that it's settled, I'll be waiting for you at the morning train day after to-morrow."
"You are such a hurricane."
"Well, ma'am," he drawled, "I sure hate to burn daylight. And you and I have burned a heap of daylight. We've been scandalously extravagant19. We might have been married years ago."
Two days later, Daylight stood waiting outside the little Glen Ellen hotel. The ceremony was over, and he had left Dede to go inside and change into her riding-habit while he brought the horses. He held them now, Bob and Mab, and in the shadow of the watering-trough Wolf lay and looked on. Already two days of ardent20 California sun had touched with new fires the ancient bronze in Daylight's face. But warmer still was the glow that came into his cheeks and burned in his eyes as he saw Dede coming out the door, riding-whip in hand, clad in the familiar corduroy skirt and leggings of the old Piedmont days. There was warmth and glow in her own face as she answered his gaze and glanced on past him to the horses. Then she saw Mab. But her gaze leaped back to the man.
"Oh, Elam!" she breathed.
It was almost a prayer, but a prayer that included a thousand meanings Daylight strove to feign21 sheepishness, but his heart was singing too wild a song for mere22 playfulness. All things had been in the naming of his name—reproach, refined away by gratitude23, and all compounded of joy and love.
"Oh, Elam!"
And all that was in her voice was in her eyes, and in them Daylight glimpsed a profundity25 deeper and wider than any speech or thought—the whole vast inarticulate mystery and wonder of sex and love.
Again he strove for playfulness of speech, but it was too great a moment for even love fractiousness to enter in. Neither spoke. She gathered the reins27, and, bending, Daylight received her foot in his hand. She sprang, as he lifted and gained the saddle. The next moment he was mounted and beside her, and, with Wolf sliding along ahead in his typical wolf-trot, they went up the hill that led out of town—two lovers on two chestnut28 sorrel steeds, riding out and away to honeymoon29 through the warm summer day. Daylight felt himself drunken as with wine. He was at the topmost pinnacle30 of life. Higher than this no man could climb nor had ever climbed. It was his day of days, his love-time and his mating-time, and all crowned by this virginal possession of a mate who had said "Oh, Elam," as she had said it, and looked at him out of her soul as she had looked.
They cleared the crest31 of the hill, and he watched the joy mount in her face as she gazed on the sweet, fresh land. He pointed32 out the group of heavily wooded knolls33 across the rolling stretches of ripe grain.
"They're ours," he said. "And they're only a sample of the ranch. Wait till you see the big canon. There are 'coons down there, and back here on the Sonoma there are mink34. And deer!—why, that mountain's sure thick with them, and I reckon we can scare up a mountain-lion if we want to real hard. And, say, there's a little meadow—well, I ain't going to tell you another word. You wait and see for yourself."
They turned in at the gate, where the road to the clay-pit crossed the fields, and both sniffed35 with delight as the warm aroma36 of the ripe hay rose in their nostrils37. As on his first visit, the larks38 were uttering their rich notes and fluttering up before the horses until the woods and the flower-scattered39 glades40 were reached, when the larks gave way to blue jays and woodpeckers.
"We're on our land now," he said, as they left the hayfield behind. "It runs right across country over the roughest parts. Just you wait and see."
As on the first day, he turned aside from the clay-pit and worked through the woods to the left, passing the first spring and jumping the horses over the ruined remnants of the stake-and-rider fence. From here on, Dede was in an unending ecstasy41. By the spring that gurgled among the redwoods grew another great wild lily, bearing on its slender stalk the prodigious42 outburst of white waxen bells. This time he did not dismount, but led the way to the deep canon where the stream had cut a passage among the knolls. He had been at work here, and a steep and slippery horse trail now crossed the creek43, so they rode up beyond, through the somber44 redwood twilight45, and, farther on, through a tangled46 wood of oak and madrono. They came to a small clearing of several acres, where the grain stood waist high.
"Ours," Daylight said.
"Sweet mountain hay," she cried. "The kind Mab likes."
And throughout the ride she continued to utter cries and ejaculations of surprise and delight.
"And you never told me all this!" she reproached him, as they looked across the little clearing and over the descending50 slopes of woods to the great curving sweep of Sonoma Valley.
"Come," he said; and they turned and went back through the forest shade, crossed the stream and came to the lily by the spring.
Here, also, where the way led up the tangle47 of the steep hill, he had cut a rough horse trail. As they forced their way up the zigzags51, they caught glimpses out and down through the sea of foliage52. Yet always were their farthest glimpses stopped by the closing vistas53 of green, and, yet always, as they climbed, did the forest roof arch overhead, with only here and there rifts54 that permitted shattered shafts55 of sunlight to penetrate56. And all about them were ferns, a score of varieties, from the tiny gold-backs and maidenhair to huge brakes six and eight feet tall.
Below them, as they mounted, they glimpsed great gnarled trunks and branches of ancient trees, and above them were similar great gnarled branches.
Dede stopped her horse and sighed with the beauty of it all.
"It is as if we are swimmers," she said, "rising out of a deep pool of green tranquillity57. Up above is the sky and the sun, but this is a pool, and we are fathoms58 deep."
They started their horses, but a dog-tooth violet, shouldering amongst the maidenhair, caught her eye and made her rein26 in again.
They cleared the crest and emerged from the pool as if into another world, for now they were in the thicket59 of velvet-trunked young madronos and looking down the open, sun-washed hillside, across the nodding grasses, to the drifts of blue and white nemophilae that carpeted the tiny meadow on either side the tiny stream. Dede clapped her hands.
"It's sure prettier than office furniture," Daylight remarked.
"It sure is," she answered.
And Daylight, who knew his weakness in the use of the particular word sure, knew that she had repeated it deliberately60 and with love.
They crossed the stream and took the cattle track over the low rocky hill and through the scrub forest of manzanita, till they emerged on the next tiny valley with its meadow-bordered streamlet.
And as the words left his lips there was a wild series of explosive thrumming as the old quail arose from all about Wolf, while the young ones scuttled62 for safety and disappeared miraculously63 before the spectators' very eyes.
He showed her the hawk's nest he had found in the lightning-shattered top of the redwood, and she discovered a wood-rat's nest which he had not seen before. Next they took the old wood-road and came out on the dozen acres of clearing where the wine grapes grew in the wine-colored volcanic64 soil. Then they followed the cow-path through more woods and thickets65 and scattered glades, and dropped down the hillside to where the farm-house, poised66 on the lip of the big canon, came into view only when they were right upon it.
Dede stood on the wide porch that ran the length of the house while Daylight tied the horses. To Dede it was very quiet. It was the dry, warm, breathless calm of California midday. All the world seemed dozing67. From somewhere pigeons were cooing lazily. With a deep sigh of satisfaction, Wolf, who had drunk his fill at all the streams along the way, dropped down in the cool shadow of the porch. She heard the footsteps of Daylight returning, and caught her breath with a quick intake68. He took her hand in his, and, as he turned the door-knob, felt her hesitate. Then he put his arm around her; the door swung open, and together they passed in.
该作者的其它作品
《The Sea-Wolf海狼》
《白牙 White Fang》
《The Son of the Wolf狼孩儿》
该作者的其它作品
《The Sea-Wolf海狼》
《白牙 White Fang》
《The Son of the Wolf狼孩儿》
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1
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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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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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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attainable
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| a.可达到的，可获得的 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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forthright
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| adj.直率的，直截了当的 [同]frank | |
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caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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bridles
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| 约束( bridle的名词复数 )； 限动器； 马笼头； 系带 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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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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18
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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19
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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feign
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| vt.假装，佯作 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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23
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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profundity
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| n.渊博；深奥，深刻 | |
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rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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28
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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29
honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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31
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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knolls
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| n.小圆丘，小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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mink
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| n.貂，貂皮 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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aroma
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| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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39
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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42
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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43
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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44
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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45
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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46
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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47
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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48
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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49
nibbled
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的过去式和过去分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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50
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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51
zigzags
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| n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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53
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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54
rifts
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| n.裂缝( rift的名词复数 )；裂隙；分裂；不和 | |
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55
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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56
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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57
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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58
fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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61
quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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62
scuttled
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| v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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64
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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65
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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66
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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67
dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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intake
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| n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口 | |
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