She went slowly up stairs, hearing the low murmur6 of voices from the sitting-room7 where Cornelia and Jack8 Duffy were still secluded9. Even the thought of that satisfactorily-budding romance did not cheer her as it had done earlier in the day. As she had told Cannon10, she was not the woman she had been. Old age was coming on her and with it a softening11 of her iron nature. She wanted her son, her Benjamin, dearly beloved with all the forces of her maturity[237] as his father had been with all the glow of her youth.
In her own room she threw aside the lace curtains, and looking out on the splendor12 of the afternoon, determined13 to seek cheer in the open air. Like all Californians she had a belief in the healing beneficence of air and sunlight. As the sun had soothed14 Berny of her sense of care so now it wooed her enemy also to seek solace15 in its balm. She rang for the servant and ordered the carriage. A few minutes later, clad in rich enshrouding black, a small and fashionable bonnet16 perched on her head, she slowly made her way down stairs and out to the sidewalk where the victoria, glittering in the trim perfection of its appointments and drawn17 by a pair of well-matched chestnuts18, stood at the curb19.
The man on the box touched his hat with respectful greeting and the Chinese butler, who had accompanied her down the steps, arranged the rug over her knees and stepped back with the friendly “good-by,” which is the politeness of his race. They respected, feared, and liked her. Every domestic who had ever worked in Delia Ryan’s service from the first “hired girl” of her early Shasta days to the staff that now knew the rigors20 of her dominion21, had found her a just and generous if exacting22 mistress. She had never been unfair, she had never been unkind. She was one of themselves and she knew how to[238] manage them, how to make them understand that she was master, and that no drones were permitted in her hive; how to make them feel that she had a heart that sympathized with them, not as creatures of an alien class remotely removed from her own, but as fellow beings, having the same passions, griefs and hopes as herself.
As the carriage rolled forward she settled back against the cushioned seat and let her eyes roam over the prospect24. It was the heart of the afternoon, still untouched by chill, not a breath stirring. Passing up the long drive which leads to the park, the dust raised by wheels hung ruddy in the air. The long shadows of trees striped the roadway in an irregular black pattern, picked out with spatterings of sunshine, like a spilled, gold liquid. Belts of fragrance25, the breaths of flowering shrubs26, extended from bushy coppices, and sometimes the keen, acrid27 odor of the eucalyptus28 rose on the air. From this lane of entrance the park spread fan-like into a still, gracious pleasance. The rich, golden light slept on level stretches of turf and thick mound-shaped groups of trees. The throb29 of music—the thin, ethereal music of out-of-doors—swelled and sank; the voices of children rose clear and fine from complicated distances, and once the raucous31 cry of a peacock split the quietness, seeming to break through the pictorial32 serenity33 of the lovely, dreamy scene.
[239]Mrs. Ryan sat without movement, her face set in a sphinx-like profundity34 of expression. People in passing carriages bowed to her but she did not see them and their salutes36 went unreturned. Her vision was bent37 back on scenes of her past, so far removed from what made up the present, so different and remote from her life to-day, that it did not seem as if the same perspective could include two such extremes. Even her children were not links of connection between those old dead times and now. They had been born when Con1’s fortunes were in the ascendant. They had known none of the privations of the brave days when she and her man had faced life together, young, and loving, and full of hope.
The carriage ascended38 a slight rise, and the sea, a glittering plain, lay in full view. It met the sky in a white dazzle of light. All its expanse coruscated39 as if each wave was crested40 with tinsel, and where they receded41 from the beach it was as though a web of white and shining tissue was drawn back, torn and glistening42, from the restraining clutch of the sand. The smooth bareness of fawn-colored dunes43 swept back from the shore. They rose and fell in undulations, describing outlines of a suave44, fluid grace, lovely as the forms of drifting snow, or the swell30 of waves. Ocean and dunes, for all the splendor of sky and sun that overarched and warmed them, suggested a gaunt, primeval desolation. They[240] had the loneliness of the naked earth and the unconquerable sea—were a bit of the primordial45 world before man had tamed and softened46 it.
Mrs. Ryan swept them with a narrow, inward gaze which saw neither, but, in their place, the house in Virginia City, where she and Con had lived when they were first married in the early sixties. It was of “frame”—raw, yellow boards with narrow strips of wood nailed over every seam to keep the wind out. There had been a rough porch on one side where her wash-tub had stood. Out-of-doors there in the summer weather she had bent over the wash-board most of the day. She had made enough money to furnish the prospect hole that Con was working, with tools and miner’s supplies. Little Dick was born there; he had died afterward47 in Shasta. He used to lie in a wash-basket on the soiled linen48 in the sun. He would have been forty-five now, sixteen years older than Dominick.
She gave an order to the coachman who, drawing up, turned the horses, and the carriage started on its return trip. The sun was behind it, painting with level, orange rays the thick foliage49 of trees and the backs of foot passengers. Whatever it touched had the appearance of being overlaid with a gilded50 glaze51 through which its natural colors shone, deepened and brilliant.
Mrs. Ryan’s memories had leaped from Virginia City to Shasta. After Con’s prospect at[241] Gold Hill had “petered” they had moved to California, been members of that discouraged route which poured, impoverished52 in pocket and enfeebled in health, from the wreck53 of the gutted54 Nevada camp back to their own Golden State and its beguiling55 promises. They had opened a grocery in Shasta in sixty-eight, first a little place where Con and she waited behind the counter, then, when they began to prosper56, a big store on the corner. “Ryan’s” was written over the entrance in the beginning, when they had no money to spend, in black on a strip of canvas, after that in gold letters on a handsome sign. She had kept the books there while Con had managed the business, and they had done well. It was the beginning of their prosperity and how they had worked for it! Night after night up till midnight and the next morning awake before the birds. Two children had died there and three had been born. It had been a full life, a splendid life, the best a woman could know, working for her own, making them a place in the world, fighting her way up, shoulder to shoulder with her man.
Money had been her goal. She had not wanted to hoard57 it; of itself it meant nothing to her. She had wanted it for her children: to educate them better than she had been educated, to give them the advantages she had never known, to buy pleasures and position and consideration for[242] them. She had felt the insignificance58 of poverty, and she was determined that they should never feel it. They should have the power that it seemed to Delia Ryan money alone gave, the thing she had none of, when, in her ragged59 girlhood, she winced60 and chafed61 under the dominance of those she felt to be her inferiors. She was a materialist62 by nature, and life had made her more of one. Money conquered, money broke the trail that led everywhere, money paid the gate entrance to all paradises. That was what she had always thought. And now when she was close on seventy, and her strength to fight for the old standards and ward23 off the creeping chill of age was weakened, she had come to realize that perhaps it was not the world-ruling power she had thought it. She had come to see it could turn upon one in strange ways. It carried power and it carried a curse. Dominick, whose life it was to have made brilliant, whose career it was to have crowned, Dominick had lost all through it.
She was thinking this as the carriage swept into the wider reach of the drive near the band stand. Though the music was still throbbing63 on the air, people were already leaving. Broken lines were detaching themselves from the seated mass in the chairs, disappearing among the trees, and straggling out into the road. The wheels of the victoria almost brushed the shoulders[243] of a little party that moved in irregular file between the grass edge and the drive. Mrs. Ryan let her uninterested glance touch the hatted heads of the women and then move forward to the man who headed the column. He held by the hand a pretty, fair-haired child, who, leaning out from his restraining grasp, walked a little before him, looking back laughingly into his face. Mrs. Ryan’s eyes, alighting on his back, became suddenly charged with a fierce fixity of attention. The carriage overhauled64 him and before he looked up she leaned forward and saw his profile, the brow marked by a frown, the child’s gay prattle65 causing no responsive smile to break the brooding gravity that held his features.
As he felt the vibration66 of the wheel at his shoulder he started aside and looked up. When he recognized his mother his face reddened, and, with a quick smile, he lifted his hat. Her returning salute35 was serious, almost tragically67 somber68. Then the victoria swept on, and he and the child, neither for a moment speaking, looked after the bonneted69 head that soared away before them with a level, forward vibration, like a floating bird, the little parasol held stiffly erect70 on its jointed71 handle.
As Mrs. Ryan passed down the long park entrance she thought no more of the past. The sight of her son, heading the file of his wife’s relations, his face set in an expression of heavy[244] dejection, scattered72 her dreams of retrospect73 with a shattering impact. She had never seen him look so frankly74 wretched; and to intensify75 the effect of his wretchedness was the sprawling76 line of Iversons which surrounded him. They seemed, to her furious indignation, like a guard cutting him off from his kind, imprisoning77 him, keeping him for themselves. They were publicly dragging him at their chariot wheels for all the world to see. His wife instead of getting less was getting more power over him. She had made him ask for the invitation to the ball and now she made him escort herself and her sisters about on holidays.
The old woman’s face was dark with passion, her pale lips set into a tight line. Money! Money might make trouble and bring disappointment, but it would talk to those people. Money was all they were after. Well, they could have it!
She let three days go by before she made the move she had determined on ten minutes after she had passed Dominick. The Wednesday morning following that Sunday—apparently a day of innocuous and simple happenings, really so fraught78 with Fate—she put on her outdoor things and, dispensing79 with the carriage, went down town on the car to see Bill Cannon.
The Bonanza80 King’s office was on the first floor of a building owned by himself on one of the finest Montgomery Street corners. It had been built in the flush times of the Comstock and[245] belonged to that epoch81 of San Francisco architecture where long lines of windows were separated by short columns and overarched by ornate embellishments in wood. As Mrs. Ryan approached, the gold letters on these windows gleamed bravely in the sun. They glittered even on the top-story casements82, and her eye, traveling over them, saw that they spelled names of worth, good tenants83 who would add to the dignity and revenues of such an edifice84. She owned the corner opposite, and it gave her a pang85 of emulative86 envy to notice how shabby her building looked, a relic87 of the sixties which showed its antiquity88 in walls of brick, painted brown, and a restrained meagerness of decoration in the matter of cornices. For some time she had been thinking of tearing it down and raising a new, up-to-date structure on the site. It would yield a fine interest on the investment and be a good wedding jointure for Cornelia.
With her approach heralded89 by a rustling90 of rich stuffs and a subdued91 panting, she entered the office. A long partition down one side of the room shut off an inner sanctum of clerks. Through circular openings she could see their faces, raised expectantly from ledgers92 as their ears caught the frou-frou of skirts and a step, which, though heavy, was undoubtedly93 feminine. She stopped at one of the circular openings where the raised face looked older and graver than its[246] fellows, and inquired for Mr. Cannon, giving her name. In a moment the clerk was beside her, knocking at a door which gave egress94 to still more sacred inner precincts. Opening this, he bowed her into the dimly-lit solemnity of the Bonanza King’s private office. Back in the outer room among the clerks he relieved the strained curiosity of their faces with the remark,
“Greek’s meeting Greek in there. It’s Mrs. Con Ryan.”
The private office looked out on an alley95 shut in a perpetual twilight96 by the towering walls of surrounding buildings. The long windows that ran from the floor to the ceiling could not let in enough light ever to make it a bright room, and the something of dimness seemed appropriate to the few massive pieces of furniture and the great safe in the corner, with its lock glimmering97 from the dusk of continual shadow. Men from windows across the alley could look into the office and see to whom Bill Cannon was talking, and it was known that, for this reason, he had another suite98 of rooms on one of the upper floors. But that that most competent of business women, Con Ryan’s widow, should come to his lair99 to parley100 with him was natural enough, and if the watchers across the alley saw her it only added to their sober respect for the man who was visited in his office by the richest woman in California.
[247]She did not waste time beating about the bush. Sitting beside the desk, facing the pale light from the long windows, she very quickly plunged101 into the matter of her errand. It was a renewal102 of the conversation of the previous Sunday. Cannon sat in his swivel chair, looking meditatively103 at her. He had expected her, but not so soon, and as he watched her his face showed a mild friendly surprise breaking through its observant attention. It would have been difficult for any one, even so astute104 a woman as Mrs. Ryan, to guess that her request for his assistance in severing105 Dominick’s marriage bonds was affording the old man the keenest gratification.
Their talk lasted nearly an hour. Before the interview ended they had threshed out every aspect of the matter under discussion. There would be no loose ends or slighted details in any piece of work which engaged the attention of this bold and energetic pair of conspirators106. The men on the other side of the alley looked down on them, wondering what business was afoot between Mrs. Con Ryan and Bill Cannon, that they talked so long in the big dim office with its gloomy mahogany furniture and the great black safe looming107 up in the corner.
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1
con
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| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
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2
grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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3
numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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5
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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6
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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7
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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8
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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9
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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10
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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11
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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12
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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13
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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14
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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15
solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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17
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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18
chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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19
curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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rigors
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| 严格( rigor的名词复数 )； 严酷； 严密； （由惊吓或中毒等导致的身体）僵直 | |
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21
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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22
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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23
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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24
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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26
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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acrid
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| adj.辛辣的，尖刻的，刻薄的 | |
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eucalyptus
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| n.桉树，桉属植物 | |
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29
throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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30
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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31
raucous
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| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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32
pictorial
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| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
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33
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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profundity
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| n.渊博；深奥，深刻 | |
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35
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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36
salutes
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| n.致敬，欢迎，敬礼( salute的名词复数 )v.欢迎，致敬( salute的第三人称单数 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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37
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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38
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
coruscated
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| v.闪光，闪烁( coruscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
crested
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| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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41
receded
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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42
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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43
dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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44
suave
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| adj.温和的；柔和的；文雅的 | |
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45
primordial
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| adj.原始的；最初的 | |
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46
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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47
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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48
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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49
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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50
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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51
glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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52
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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53
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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54
gutted
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| adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏 | |
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55
beguiling
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| adj.欺骗的，诱人的v.欺骗( beguile的现在分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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56
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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57
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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58
insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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59
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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60
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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materialist
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| n. 唯物主义者 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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64
overhauled
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| v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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65
prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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66
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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tragically
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| adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地 | |
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somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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bonneted
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| 发动机前置的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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jointed
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| 有接缝的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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73
retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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75
intensify
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| vt.加强；变强；加剧 | |
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76
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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imprisoning
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| v.下狱，监禁( imprison的现在分词 ) | |
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78
fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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79
dispensing
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| v.分配( dispense的现在分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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80
bonanza
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| n.富矿带，幸运，带来好运的事 | |
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81
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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82
casements
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| n.窗扉( casement的名词复数 ) | |
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83
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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85
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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86
emulative
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| adj.好胜 | |
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87
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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88
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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89
heralded
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| v.预示( herald的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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90
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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ledgers
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| n.分类账( ledger的名词复数 ) | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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egress
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| n.出去；出口 | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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100
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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101
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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102
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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103
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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104
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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105
severing
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的现在分词 )；断，裂 | |
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106
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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107
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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