They were pretty hands, of a shapeliness delicate and fine. “The best things she's got!” a cold-blooded girl friend said of them, and meant to include Alice's mind and character in the implied list of possessions surpassed by the notable hands. However that may have been, the rest of her was well enough. She was often called “a right pretty girl”—temperate praise meaning a girl rather pretty than otherwise, and this she deserved, to say the least. Even in repose8 she deserved it, though repose was anything but her habit, being seldom seen upon her except at home. On exhibition she led a life of gestures, the unkind said to make her lovely hands more memorable9; but all of her usually accompanied the gestures of the hands, the shoulders ever giving them their impulses first, and even her feet being called upon, at the same time, for eloquence10.
So much liveliness took proper place as only accessory to that of the face, where her vivacity11 reached its climax12; and it was unfortunate that an ungifted young man, new in the town, should have attempted to define the effect upon him of all this generosity13 of emphasis. He said that “the way she used her cute hazel eyes and the wonderful glow of her facial expression gave her a mighty14 spiritual quality.” His actual rendition of the word was “spirichul”; but it was not his pronunciation that embalmed15 this outburst in the perennial16 laughter of Alice's girl friends; they made the misfortune far less his than hers.
Her mother comforted her too heartily17, insisting that Alice had “plenty enough spiritual qualities,” certainly more than possessed18 by the other girls who flung the phrase at her, wooden things, jealous of everything they were incapable19 of themselves; and then Alice, getting more championship than she sought, grew uneasy lest Mrs. Adams should repeat such defenses “outside the family”; and Mrs. Adams ended by weeping because the daughter so distrusted her intelligence. Alice frequently thought it necessary to instruct her mother.
Her morning greeting was an instruction to-day; or, rather, it was an admonition in the style of an entreaty20, the more petulant21 as Alice thought that Mrs. Adams might have had a glimpse of the posturings to the mirror. This was a needless worry; the mother had caught a thousand such glimpses, with Alice unaware22, and she thought nothing of the one just flitted.
“For heaven's sake, mama, come clear inside the room and shut the door! PLEASE don't leave it open for everybody to look at me!”
“There isn't anybody to see you,” Mrs. Adams explained, obeying. “Miss Perry's gone downstairs, and——”
“Mama, I heard you in papa's room,” Alice said, not dropping the note of complaint. “I could hear both of you, and I don't think you ought to get poor old papa so upset—not in his present condition, anyhow.”
Mrs. Adams seated herself on the edge of the bed. “He's better all the time,” she said, not disturbed. “He's almost well. The doctor says so and Miss Perry says so; and if we don't get him into the right frame of mind now we never will. The first day he's outdoors he'll go back to that old hole—you'll see! And if he once does that, he'll settle down there and it'll be too late and we'll never get him out.”
“I do try to,” the mother sighed. “It never was much use with him. I don't think you understand him as well as I do, Alice.”
“There's one thing I don't understand about either of you,” Alice returned, crisply. “Before people get married they can do anything they want to with each other. Why can't they do the same thing after they're married? When you and papa were young people and engaged, he'd have done anything you wanted him to. That must have been because you knew how to manage him then. Why can't you go at him the same way now?”
Mrs. Adams sighed again, and laughed a little, making no other response; but Alice persisted. “Well, WHY can't you? Why can't you ask him to do things the way you used to ask him when you were just in love with each other? Why don't you anyhow try it, mama, instead of ding-donging at him?”
“'Ding-donging at him,' Alice?” Mrs. Adams said, with a pathos24 somewhat emphasized. “Is that how my trying to do what I can for you strikes you?”
“Never mind that; it's nothing to hurt your feelings.” Alice disposed of the pathos briskly. “Why don't you answer my question? What's the matter with using a little more tact on papa? Why can't you treat him the way you probably did when you were young people, before you were married? I never have understood why people can't do that.”
“Perhaps you WILL understand some day,” her mother said, gently. “Maybe you will when you've been married twenty-five years.”
“There are questions you can't answer to young people, Alice.”
“You mean because we're too young to understand the answer? I don't see that at all. At twenty-two a girl's supposed to have some intelligence, isn't she? And intelligence is the ability to understand, isn't it? Why do I have to wait till I've lived with a man twenty-five years to understand why you can't be tactful with papa?”
“You may understand some things before that,” Mrs. Adams said, tremulously. “You may understand how you hurt me sometimes. Youth can't know everything by being intelligent, and by the time you could understand the answer you're asking for you'd know it, and wouldn't need to ask. You don't understand your father, Alice; you don't know what it takes to change him when he's made up his mind to be stubborn.”
Alice rose and began to get herself into a skirt. “Well, I don't think making scenes ever changes anybody,” she grumbled26. “I think a little jolly persuasion27 goes twice as far, myself.”
“'A little jolly persuasion!'” Her mother turned the echo of this phrase into an ironic28 lament29. “Yes, there was a time when I thought that, too! It didn't work; that's all.”
“Perhaps you left the 'jolly' part of it out, mama.”
For the second time that morning—it was now a little after seven o'clock—tears seemed about to offer their solace30 to Mrs. Adams. “I might have expected you to say that, Alice; you never do miss a chance,” she said, gently. “It seems queer you don't some time miss just ONE chance!”
But Alice, progressing with her toilet, appeared to be little concerned. “Oh, well, I think there are better ways of managing a man than just hammering at him.”
Mrs. Adams uttered a little cry of pain. “'Hammering,' Alice?”
“If you'd left it entirely31 to me,” her daughter went on, briskly, “I believe papa'd already be willing to do anything we want him to.”
“That's it; tell me I spoil everything. Well, I won't interfere32 from now on, you can be sure of it.”
“Please don't talk like that,” Alice said, quickly. “I'm old enough to realize that papa may need pressure of all sorts; I only think it makes him more obstinate33 to get him cross. You probably do understand him better, but that's one thing I've found out and you haven't. There!” She gave her mother a friendly tap on the shoulder and went to the door. “I'll hop34 in and say hello to him now.”
As she went, she continued the fastening of her blouse, and appeared in her father's room with one hand still thus engaged, but she patted his forehead with the other.
“Poor old papa-daddy!” she said, gaily35. “Every time he's better somebody talks him into getting so mad he has a relapse. It's a shame!”
Her father's eyes, beneath their melancholy36 brows, looked up at her wistfully. “I suppose you heard your mother going for me,” he said.
“I heard you going for her, too!” Alice laughed. “What was it all about?”
“Oh, the same danged old story!”
“You mean she wants you to try something new when you get well?” Alice asked, with cheerful innocence37. “So we could all have a lot more money?”
At this his sorrowful forehead was more sorrowful than ever. The deep horizontal lines moved upward to a pattern of suffering so familiar to his daughter that it meant nothing to her; but he spoke38 quietly. “Yes; so we wouldn't have any money at all, most likely.”
“Oh, no!” she laughed, and, finishing with her blouse, patted his cheeks with both hands. “Just think how many grand openings there must be for a man that knows as much as you do! I always did believe you could get rich if you only cared to, papa.”
But upon his forehead the painful pattern still deepened. “Don't you think we've always had enough, the way things are, Alice?”
“Not the way things ARE!” She patted his cheeks again; laughed again. “It used to be enough, maybe anyway we did skimp39 along on it—but the way things are now I expect mama's really pretty practical in her ideas, though, I think it's a shame for her to bother you about it while you're so weak. Don't you worry about it, though; just think about other things till you get strong.”
“You know,” he said; “you know it isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world for a man of my age to find these grand openings you speak of. And when you've passed half-way from fifty to sixty you're apt to see some risk in giving up what you know how to do and trying something new.”
“My, what a frown!” she cried, blithely40. “Didn't I tell you to stop thinking about it till you get ALL well?” She bent41 over him, giving him a gay little kiss on the bridge of his nose. “There! I must run to breakfast. Cheer up now! Au 'voir!” And with her pretty hand she waved further encouragement from the closing door as she departed.
Lightsomely descending42 the narrow stairway, she whistled as she went, her fingers drumming time on the rail; and, still whistling, she came into the dining-room, where her mother and her brother were already at the table. The brother, a thin and sallow boy of twenty, greeted her without much approval as she took her place.
“Nothing seems to trouble you!” he said.
“No; nothing much,” she made airy response. “What's troubling yourself, Walter?”
“Don't let that worry you!” he returned, seeming to consider this to be repartee43 of an effective sort; for he furnished a short laugh to go with it, and turned to his coffee with the manner of one who has satisfactorily closed an episode.
“Walter always seems to have so many secrets!” Alice said, studying him shrewdly, but with a friendly enough amusement in her scrutiny44. “Everything he does or says seems to be acted for the benefit of some mysterious audience inside himself, and he always gets its applause. Take what he said just now: he seems to think it means something, but if it does, why, that's just another secret between him and the secret audience inside of him! We don't really know anything about Walter at all, do we, mama?”
Walter laughed again, in a manner that sustained her theory well enough; then after finishing his coffee, he took from his pocket a flattened45 packet in glazed46 blue paper; extracted with stained fingers a bent and wrinkled little cigarette, lighted it, hitched47 up his belted trousers with the air of a person who turns from trifles to things better worth his attention, and left the room.
Alice laughed as the door closed. “He's ALL secrets,” she said. “Don't you think you really ought to know more about him, mama?”
“I'm sure he's a good boy,” Mrs. Adams returned, thoughtfully. “He's been very brave about not being able to have the advantages that are enjoyed by the boys he's grown up with. I've never heard a word of complaint from him.”
“About his not being sent to college?” Alice cried. “I should think you wouldn't! He didn't even have enough ambition to finish high school!”
Mrs. Adams sighed. “It seemed to me Walter lost his ambition when nearly all the boys he'd grown up with went to Eastern schools to prepare for college, and we couldn't afford to send him. If only your father would have listened——”
Alice interrupted: “What nonsense! Walter hated books and studying, and athletics48, too, for that matter. He doesn't care for anything nice that I ever heard of. What do you suppose he does like, mama? He must like something or other somewhere, but what do you suppose it is? What does he do with his time?”
“Why, the poor boy's at Lamb and Company's all day. He doesn't get through until five in the afternoon; he doesn't HAVE much time.”
“Well, we never have dinner until about seven, and he's always late for dinner, and goes out, heaven knows where, right afterward49!” Alice shook her head. “He used to go with our friends' boys, but I don't think he does now.”
“Why, how could he?” Mrs. Adams protested. “That isn't his fault, poor child! The boys he knew when he was younger are nearly all away at college.”
“Yes, but he doesn't see anything of 'em when they're here at holiday-time or vacation. None of 'em come to the house any more.”
“I suppose he's made other friends. It's natural for him to want companions, at his age.”
“Yes,” Alice said, with disapproving50 emphasis. “But who are they? I've got an idea he plays pool at some rough place down-town.”
“Oh, no; I'm sure he's a steady boy,” Mrs. Adams protested, but her tone was not that of thoroughgoing conviction, and she added, “Life might be a very different thing for him if only your father can be brought to see——”
“Never mind, mama! It isn't me that has to be convinced, you know; and we can do a lot more with papa if we just let him alone about it for a day or two. Promise me you won't say any more to him until—well, until he's able to come downstairs to table. Will you?”
Mrs. Adams bit her lip, which had begun to tremble. “I think you can trust me to know a FEW things, Alice,” she said. “I'm a little older than you, you know.”
“That's a good girl!” Alice jumped up, laughing. “Don't forget it's the same as a promise, and do just cheer him up a little. I'll say good-bye to him before I go out.”
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, I've got lots to do. I thought I'd run out to Mildred's to see what she's going to wear to-night, and then I want to go down and buy a yard of chiffon and some narrow ribbon to make new bows for my slippers—you'll have to give me some money——”
“If he'll give it to me!” her mother lamented51, as they went toward the front stairs together; but an hour later she came into Alice's room with a bill in her hand.
“He has some money in his bureau drawer,” she said. “He finally told me where it was.”
There were traces of emotion in her voice, and Alice, looking shrewdly at her, saw moisture in her eyes.
“Mama!” she cried. “You didn't do what you promised me you wouldn't, did you—NOT before Miss Perry!”
“Miss Perry's getting him some broth,” Mrs. Adams returned, calmly. “Besides, you're mistaken in saying I promised you anything; I said I thought you could trust me to know what is right.”
“So you did bring it up again!” And Alice swung away from her, strode to her father's door, flung it open, went to him, and put a light hand soothingly52 over his unrelaxed forehead.
“Poor old papa!” she said. “It's a shame how everybody wants to trouble him. He shan't be bothered any more at all! He doesn't need to have everybody telling him how to get away from that old hole he's worked in so long and begin to make us all nice and rich. HE knows how!”
Thereupon she kissed him a consoling good-bye, and made another gay departure, the charming hand again fluttering like a white butterfly in the shadow of the closing door.
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1
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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enamel
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| n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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sauciness
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| n.傲慢，鲁莽 | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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embalmed
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| adj.用防腐药物保存（尸体）的v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的过去式和过去分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气 | |
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perennial
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| adj.终年的；长久的 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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evading
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| 逃避( evade的现在分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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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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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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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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hop
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| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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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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skimp
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| v.节省花费，吝啬 | |
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blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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repartee
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| n.机敏的应答 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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47
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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athletics
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| n.运动，体育，田径运动 | |
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49
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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disapproving
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| adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 ) | |
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51
lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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