小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » The Woman in the Alcove » CHAPTER VII
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER VII
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
SO it was—Rosalind! He sat in his office and stared at the blotter on his desk.... It was a green blotter——-For years after Eldridge Walcott could not see a green blotter without a little, sudden sense of upheaval1; he would walk into a plain commercial office—suddenly the walls hovered2, the furniture moved subtly—even the floor grew a little unsteady before he could come with a jerk to a green blotter on the roller-top desk—and face it squarely. The blotter on his own desk was exchanged for a crimson3 one—the next day. He would have liked to change everything in the room. The very furniture seemed to mock him—to question....
 
So it was—Rosalind! Rosalind—was like that—! His heart gave a quick beat—like a boy’s—and stood still.... Rosalind was like that—for—somebody else.... He stared at the blotter and drew a pad absently toward him.
 
The office boy stuck his head in the door and drew it back. He shook it at a short, heavy man with a thinnish, black-grey beard who was hovering4 near. “He told me not to disturb him—not for anybody,” the boy said importantly.
 
The man took a card from his pocket and wrote on it. “Take him that.” The boy glanced at the name and at the thin, blackish beard. There was a large wart5 on the man’s chin where the beard did not grow. The boy’s eyes rested on it—and looked away to the card. “I ’ll—ask him—” he said.
 
The man nodded. “Take him that first.”
 
The boy went in.
 
The man walked to the window and looked down; the thick flesh at the back of his neck overlapped6 a little on the collar of his well-cut coat and the heavy shoulders seemed to shrug7 themselves under the smooth fit.
 
The boy’s eyes surveyed the back respectfully. “You’re to come in,” he says.
 
The man turned and went in and Eldridge Walcott looked up. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”
 
“That’s all right.” The man sat down a little heavily—as if he were tired. “That’s all right. I waited because I wanted to see you. I want some one to do—a piece of work—for me—”
 
“Yes?”
 
“I don’t care to have my regular man on it—”
 
“You have Clarkson, don’t you?”
 
“Yes—I have Clarkson.” The man waited. “Clarkson’s all right—for business,” he said. “I want a different sort—for this.”
 
He felt in the pocket of his coat and drew out a letter, and then another, and held them, looking down at them absently, turning them over in his hand.
 
“It’s a divorce—” he said. He went on turning the letters in his hand but not looking at them. “I’ve waited as long as I could,” he added after a minute. “It’s no use—” He laid the letters on the desk. “It took a detective—and money—to get ’em. I reckon they’ll do the business,” he said.
 
Eldridge reached out his hand for them. The man’s errand startled him a little. He had been going over divorce on the green blotter when the boy came in. He opened the letters slowly. A little faint perfume drifted up—and between him and the words came a sense of the blackish-grey beard and the wart in among it. He had stared at it, fascinated, while the man talked.... He could imagine what it might mean to a woman, day after day. He focussed his attention on the letter—and read it and took up the other and laid it down....
 
“Yes—Those are sufficient,” he said almost curtly8. He took up his pen. “Your middle initial is J?”
 
“Gordon J.,” said the man.
 
Eldridge traced the name. “And your wife?”
 
The man stared at him.
 
“Her full name—” said Eldridge.
 
“Her name is Cordelia Rose—Barstow,” said the man.
 
Eldridge wrote it efficiently9. “Do you name any one as co-respondent?”
 
“I name—his name is—” The man gulped10 and his puffy face was grim. “John E. Tower is his name,” he said slowly.
 
Eldridge filled in the paper before him and laid a blotter across it. “That is sufficient. I will file the application to-morrow. There will be no trouble. She will not contest it—?”
 
The man swallowed a little. “No—She wants—to be free—” He ended the words defiantly11, but with a kind of shame.
 
Eldridge made no reply. He was seeing a quiet figure, with bent12 head, smiling at something—something that shut him out. He looked across to the man.
 
The man’s eyes met his. “That’s all you need—is it?” He seemed a little disappointed. “No more to it than this?”
 
“That’s all,” said Eldridge.
 
But the man did not get up. “I don’t know how it happened,” he said. “You see, I never guessed—not till two weeks—ten days ago or so.”
 
“I see—”
 
“I’d always trusted Cordelia—I hadn’t ever thought as she could do anything like that—not my wife!”
 
“One doesn’t usually expect it of one’s—own wife.” Eldridge laughed a little, but it was not unkindly, and the man seemed to draw toward him.
 
“I’ve never mentioned it—except to that detective, and I didn’t tell him—any more than I had to—He didn’t seem to need much telling—” he said dryly. “He seemed to sense just about what had been going on—without telling.”
 
“Yes—?” Eldridge was looking thoughtfully into the greyish-black beard with the round lump in it.
 
“He’s got the facts. It took him just two weeks—to get ’em.” His hand motioned toward the letters, but there was something in the face—a kind of puffy appeal.
 
Eldridge nodded. “They know what to do,” he said quietly.
 
“I hadn’t even mistrusted,” said the man. His eyes were looking at something that Eldridge could not see—something that seemed to come from a faint perfume in the room.... “I can see it plain enough now—looking back.... You don’t mind my telling you—a little—about it.” Eldridge shook his head. The man seemed a kind of lumbering13 boy, yet he was a shrewd, keen man in business.
 
“It might help—you know—” he said. “I thought you’d ask me, probably—I’d kind of planned to tell you, I guess.” He laughed a little awkwardly.
 
“Go ahead,” said Eldridge.
 
“He was my friend, you see. And I brought him home with me and made ’em friends.... I can see now, looking back, what a fool I was—about it. But I didn’t see it—then. I don’t know now what it was about him.... He’s old as I be—and I’ve got the money. I can give her everything she wants—more than he can. But I know now that from the first day she see him she was curious about him.... I’d brought him home to dinner one night—It was just after we were married.... I always kind of think of him that night—the way he looked at table—he’s tall—You know him—?”
 
Eldridge nodded. He was seeing the tall, distinguished14 figure—and beside it a humped-up one across his desk.
 
“We had red lamp-shades and candles and flowers—Everything shining, you know—Cordelia likes ’em that way.... When I try to think how it started I see ’em the way they looked that first night. I was proud of ’em both. I felt as if Cordelia belonged to me—and as if he did, too—in a way—” He looked at Eldridge. “I’d put him on to a good thing in business—!”
 
“Yes.”
 
“He and Cordelia laughed and talked the whole evening—kind o’ took it up—back and forth—the way you’d play ball. I could see Cordelia liked him. I was a fool. I’d waited about getting married till I had money enough to give a woman—to give her everything—and when she’d got it I never see there might be—something else she’d want.... I don’t just know what now—” He shook his head.
 
“Some days, since I’ve got sure of it, I’ve felt as if it couldn’t be so—as if she couldn’t have gone on living with me and having that other life—I didn’t know about—shut away from me—and I loving her....” The little, clear alcove15 moved before Eldridge and moved away. He was making absent marks on the edge of the pad before him.
 
The man sighed. “Well—It isn’t any use! That’s all, I guess—” Eldridge looked up. “Had you thought of—winning her back?”
 
The man shook his head. “I couldn’t do it.” He looked at him as if wondering whether he would understand. “There’s something about her I don’t get at,” he said slowly.
 
“Isn’t there something about any woman you don’t get at?” said Eldridge.
 
“That’s it!” assented16 the man. “It isn’t just Cordelia. It’s all of them—in back of ’em, somehow. I can’t tell you just how it is, but I’ve thought of it a lot—I guess there isn’t anything I haven’t thought of—since I knew—lying awake nights and thinking. Somehow, I knew, the first day it came to me—I knew there wasn’t any use... since the day I come on ’em at Merwin’s.”
 
The lawyer’s hand, making its little marks, stopped—and went on. “They were at Merwin’s—together?” he said.
 
“Everybody goes to Merwin’s,” said the man. “It wasn’t their being there; it was the way they looked when I saw ’em.... They were sitting in one of them little alcove places, you know—”
 
Eldridge nodded. Yes—he knew.
 
“The curtains were open—wide open,” said the man. “Anybody could ’a’ looked in. There wasn’t anything wrong about it. But I saw their faces—both of ’em—and I knew.... They were just sitting quiet—the way people do when they’re alone.... There’s something different about the way people sit—when they’re alone—by themselves—I don’t know as you’ve ever noticed it?”
 
“I have noticed it,” said Eldridge. “Quiet and happy—” said the man, “and not talking—and not needing to talk.” He took up his hat. “Well—you know where to find me. I shan’t bother you like this again——” He stood up.
 
Eldridge held out a hand. “I am glad you told me. It helps—to understand—the case.”
 
The man’s thick face looked at him. “I don’t understand it myself,” he said, “but I’ve got to go through with it.”
 
 

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 upheaval Tp6y1     
n.胀起,(地壳)的隆起;剧变,动乱
参考例句:
  • It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
  • The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。
2 hovered d194b7e43467f867f4b4380809ba6b19     
鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫
参考例句:
  • A hawk hovered over the hill. 一只鹰在小山的上空翱翔。
  • A hawk hovered in the blue sky. 一只老鹰在蓝色的天空中翱翔。
3 crimson AYwzH     
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色
参考例句:
  • She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
  • Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。
4 hovering 99fdb695db3c202536060470c79b067f     
鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫
参考例句:
  • The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
  • I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。
5 wart fMkzk     
n.疣,肉赘;瑕疵
参考例句:
  • What does the medicaments with remedial acuteness wet best wart have?治疗尖锐湿疣最好的药物有什么?
  • Flat wart is generally superficial,or sometimes a slight itching.扁平疣一般是不痛不痒的,或偶有轻微痒感。
6 overlapped f19155784c00c0c252a8b4dba353c5b8     
_adj.重叠的v.部分重叠( overlap的过去式和过去分词 );(物体)部份重叠;交叠;(时间上)部份重叠
参考例句:
  • His visit and mine overlapped. 他的访问期与我的访问期有几天重叠。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Our visits to the town overlapped. 我们彼此都恰巧到那小城观光。 来自辞典例句
7 shrug Ry3w5     
v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)
参考例句:
  • With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩,走出了房间。
  • I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。
8 curtly 4vMzJh     
adv.简短地
参考例句:
  • He nodded curtly and walked away. 他匆忙点了一下头就走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The request was curtly refused. 这个请求被毫不客气地拒绝了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 efficiently ZuTzXQ     
adv.高效率地,有能力地
参考例句:
  • The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
  • Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。
10 gulped 4873fe497201edc23bc8dcb50aa6eb2c     
v.狼吞虎咽地吃,吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 );大口地吸(气);哽住
参考例句:
  • He gulped down the rest of his tea and went out. 他把剩下的茶一饮而尽便出去了。
  • She gulped nervously, as if the question bothered her. 她紧张地咽了一下,似乎那问题把她难住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 defiantly defiantly     
adv.挑战地,大胆对抗地
参考例句:
  • Braving snow and frost, the plum trees blossomed defiantly. 红梅傲雪凌霜开。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
13 lumbering FA7xm     
n.采伐林木
参考例句:
  • Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
  • Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家,伐木业十分重要。
14 distinguished wu9z3v     
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的
参考例句:
  • Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
  • A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。
15 alcove EKMyU     
n.凹室
参考例句:
  • The bookcase fits neatly into the alcove.书架正好放得进壁凹。
  • In the alcoves on either side of the fire were bookshelves.火炉两边的凹室里是书架。
16 assented 4cee1313bb256a1f69bcc83867e78727     
同意,赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The judge assented to allow the prisoner to speak. 法官同意允许犯人申辩。
  • "No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women -- they're too noble. “对,”汤姆表示赞同地说,“他们不杀女人——真伟大!


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533