CHAPTER XVIII

 "Yes?" inquired Mme. Castanado. "Well?"

 

"Ah, surely!" cried several, "Tha'z not all?"

 

Mme. De l'Isle appealed to her husband: "Even two, three hun'red mile', that din'n' bring the line of Canada, I think."

 

"No, but, I suppose, of the Ohio."

 

"And that undergroun' railway!" said Scipion.

 

"Yes," Mme. Alexandre agreed, "but that story remain' unfinizh' whiles that uncle of Mr. Chezter couldn' return at his home."

 

"Not even his State," ventured mademoiselle.

 

"But he did," Chester said; "he came back."

 

M. Dubroca spoke¹ up: "Oh, 'tis easy to insert that, at the en'--foot-note."

 

"And Hardy²?" asked Beloiseau, "him and yo' uncle, they di'n' shoot either the other?"

 

"I believe they did, each the other. I never quite understood the hints I got of it, till now. I know that six months in bed with a back full of somebody's buckshot saved my uncle's life."

 

"From lynching! That also muz' be insert'!"

 

Chester thought not. "No, centre the interest in the runaway³ family, as in mademoiselle's 'Clock in the Sky.'" And so all agreed.

 

A second time he walked home with mademoiselle, under the same lenient⁴ escort as before. One thus occupied, by moonlight, can moralize as he cannot with any larger number. "It's hard enough at best," he said, "for us, in our pride of race, to sympathize--seriously--in the joys, the hopes, the sufferings of souls under dark skins yet as human as ours if not as white."

 

"Yes, 'tis true. Only one man, Mr. Chester, I ever knew, myself, who did that."

 

"Your father?"

 

"Yes, my dear father."

 

"Will you not some day tell me his story?"

 

"Mr. Castanado will tell you it. Any of those will tell you."

 

"I can't question them about you, and besides----"

 

"Well, here is my gate. 'And besides--' what?"

 

"Besides, why can't you tell me?"

 

"Ah, I'll do that--'some day,' as you say."

 

The gate-key went into the lock.

 

"But, mademoiselle, our 'Clock in the Sky'--our 'Angel of the Lord'--shan't we join them?"

 

"Ah, they are already one, but you have yet to hear that first manuscript, and that is so very separate--as you will see."

 

"Isn't it also a story of dark skins?"

 

"Ah, but barely at all of souls under them; those souls we find it so hard to remember."

 

"Chère fille"--M. De l'Isle had come up, with Mme. Alexandre--"the three will go gran'ly together! Not I al-lone perceive that, but Scipion also--Castanado--Dubroca. Mr. Chester, my dear sir, the pewblication of that book going to be heard roun' the worl'! Tha'z going produse an epoch⁵, that book; yet same time--a bes'-seller!"

 

Mademoiselle beamed. "Does Mr. Chester think 'twill be that? A best-seller?"

 

Chester couldn't prophesy⁶ that of any book. "They say not even a publisher can tell."

 

"Hah!" monsieur cried, "those cunning pewblisher'! they pref-er not to tell."

 

"Some poetry," Chester continued, urged by mademoiselle's eyes, "doesn't pay the poets over a few thousand a year--per volume; while some novels pay their authors--well--fortunes."

 

"That they go," madame broke in, "and buy some palaces in Italie! And tha'z but the biginning; you have not count' the dramatization--hundreds the week! and those movie'--the same! and those tranzlation'!"

 

"Well, I think we will be satisfied, Mr. Chester, with the tenth of that, eh?"

 

Chester's reply was drowned in monsieur's: "No, my child! But nine-tenth' maybe, yes! No-no-no! if those pewblisher' find out you are satisfi' by one-tenth, one-tenth is all you'll ever see!"

 

"Ah," said mademoiselle to madame, "even the one-tenth I mustn't tell to my aunts. They wouldn't sleep to-night. And myself--'publication, dramatization, movies, translation'--I believe I'll lie awake till daylight, making that into a song--a hymn⁷!"

 

A wonderful sight she was, pausing in the open gate, with the little high-fenced garden at her back, a street-lamp lighting⁸ her face. Chester harked back to that first manuscript. It "ought not to wait another week," he declared.

 

"No," monsieur said, "and since we all have read that egcept only you."

 

Chester looked to mademoiselle: "Then I suppose I might read it with the Castanados alone."

 

"No," madame put in, "you see, you can't riturn at Castanado's immediately to-morrow or next day. That next day, tha'z Sunday, but you don't know if madame goin' to have the stren'th for that fati-gue. Yet same time you can't wait forever! And bisside', yo' Aunt Corinne, Aunt Yvonne--Mr. Chezter he's never have that lugsury to meet them, and that will be a very choice o'casion for Mr. Chezter to do that, if----"

 

"If he'll take the pains," the niece broke in, "to call Sunday afternoon. Then I'll have the manuscript back from Mr. Castanado and we'll read it to my Aunt Corinne and my Aunt Yvonne, all four together in the garden."

 

"Yes, yet not in this li'l' garden in the front, but in the large, far back from the house, in the h-arbor of 'oneysuckle and by the side of the li'l' lake, eh?" So prompted madame.

 

"Assuredly," said the smiling girl; "not in the front, where is no room for a place to sit down!"

 

Chester's acceptance was eager. Then once more the batten gate closed and the key grated between him and Aline--marvellous, marvellous Aline Chapdelaine.

1 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 hardy   

adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的

参考例句：

• The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
• He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。

3 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

4 lenient   

adj.宽大的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• The judge was lenient with him.法官对他很宽大。
• It's a question of finding the means between too lenient treatment and too severe punishment.问题是要找出处理过宽和处罚过严的折中办法。

5 epoch   

n.(新)时代；历元

参考例句：

• The epoch of revolution creates great figures.革命时代造就伟大的人物。
• We're at the end of the historical epoch,and at the dawn of another.我们正处在一个历史时代的末期，另一个历史时代的开端。

6 prophesy   

v.预言；预示

参考例句：

• He dares to prophesy what will happen in the future.他敢预言未来将发生什么事。
• I prophesy that he'll be back in the old job.我预言他将重操旧业。

7 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。

8 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。