“Will you please tell me where I can get into touch with Mr. Mills’ company?” Patricia might have been calling up the freight office to put a tracer on a lost shipment of ground barley4.
“I asked you where I could get in touch with Mr. Mills’ company. This is important.” Patricia spoke into a dead telephone. The snippy one in Cohen’s office had hung up.
While Patricia was still furious, she wrote a note to Gary. And, since her chin had squared itself and her head ached and she hated her job and the laundry had lost the collar to her favorite vestee, Patricia’s note read like this:
“Los Angeles, Calif.
“June 17, 1921.
“Gary Herbert Marshall,
“Cohen’s Studio,
“Hollywood, Calif.
“Dear Sir:
“Very truly,
“P. Connolly.”
Patricia mailed this letter along with a dozen invoices7, fourteen “please remits” and a letter to the main office in Kansas City. She felt better after she had poked8 it into the mail box. She could even contemplate9 buying a new vestee set without calling the laundry names.
Patricia waited a week and then called Cohen’s studio again. She was quite prepared for another snub, and perhaps that is the reason why she got it. Mr. Mills’ company was on location; and Patricia could believe that or not, just as she chose. Patricia did not believe it. She barked a request for Mr. Gary Marshall.
“We do not deliver telephone messages to actors,” the snippy one informed Patricia superciliously10, and hung up before Patricia could enunciate11 the scathing12 retort she had ready.
That night at seven o’clock Patricia called Gary’s apartment. Her mood was such, when she dialed the number, that a repair man had to come the next day and replace a broken spring in the instrument. She held the receiver to her ear a full five minutes and listened to the steady drone of the bell calling Gary. Had Gary been there to answer, he would have had a broken engagement within five minutes to hold him awake nights.
After awhile little Pat Connolly wiped the tears of rage from her eyes and called the landlady13 of Gary’s apartment.
The landlady assured her that Mr. Marshall hadn’t been near the place for two weeks. At least, she had not seen him. He might have come in late and gone out early—a good many of her tenants14 did—and in that case she wouldn’t be so apt to see him. But she hadn’t noticed him around last Sunday, and most generally she did see him Sundays because he slept late and if she didn’t see him she was pretty sure to hear his voice in the hall speaking to some one. She could always tell Mr. Marshall’s voice as far as she could hear it, it was so pleasant——
“Oh, my good heavens!” gritted15 Patricia and followed the example of the snippy office girl at Cohen’s. She hung up while the landlady was still talking. Which was not polite of Patricia, but excusable.
Well, perhaps Gary was out on location. But that seemed strange, because even after quarrels Gary had never failed to call Patricia up and let her know that he was leaving town. After quarrels his voice would be very cool and dignified16, it is true; but nevertheless he had never before failed to let her know that he was leaving town.
Patricia spent another week in mentally reviewing that last evening with Gary and in justifying17 herself for everything she had said to him. Gary really did need to be told the plain truth, and she had told him. If he wanted to go away and nurse his injured vanity and sulk, that merely proved how much he had needed the plain truth told him.
She waited until Friday morning. On Friday, because she had not heard from Gary, and because she had lain awake Thursday night telling herself that she was thankful she had found him out in time, and that it didn’t make a particle of difference to her whether she ever heard from him or not, Patricia manufactured an errand down town for her employers. Because she was a conscientious18 young woman she attended to the manufactured errand first. Immediately thereafter she marched into the branch office of the Examiner.
In years Patricia’s chin had never looked so square. She was not in the habit of wetting her pencil, but now she stood at the ad counter, licked an indelible pencil defiantly20, and wrote this, so emphatically that the pad was marked with the imprint21 of the letters seven pages deep:
WANTED: Man to take charge of small cattle ranch19 in Nevada. Open range, living springs, imp2. Completely furnished on shares. Phone 11270 Sun.
Patricia read this over twice with her lips buttoned in tightly. Then she licked the pencil again—indelibly marking her pink tongue for an inch down the middle—and inserted just before the ’phone number, the word “permanent” and drew two lines underneath22 for emphasis. This was meant as a trenchant23 warning to Gary Marshall that he need not trouble himself any further concerning Patricia’s investment nor about Patricia herself, for that matter.
Patricia paid the display ad rate and marched out, feeling as irrevocably committed to cynical24 maidenhood25 as if she had taken the veil. Men as such were weak, vain creatures who thought to hold the heart of a woman in the curve of an eyelash. Meaning, needless to say, Gary Marshall’s eyelash which should not longer hold the heart of Patricia Connolly.
Patricia’s telephone began ringing at six o’clock on Sunday morning and continued ringing spasmodically until ten minutes past twelve, when Patricia dropped the receiver off the hook and let it dangle26, thereby27 giving the busy signal whenever 11270 was dialed.
For six hours and ten minutes Patricia had felt a definite sinking sensation in her chest when a strange voice came to her over the ’phone. She would have wanted to murder any one who so much as hinted that she hoped to hear Gary say expostulatingly, “For heck’s sake, Pat, what’s the big idea of this ad? I can’t feature it!”
Had she heard that, Patricia would have gloried in telling him, with the voice that went with the square chin, that she was sorry, but the place was already taken. Then she would have hung up and waited until he recovered from that wallop and called again. Then—well, Patricia had not decided28 definitely just what she would do, except that she was still firmly resolved upon being an old maid.
At seven o’clock in the morning the first man called to see her. Patricia was ready for him, clothed in her office tailored suit and her office manner. The man’s name was Hawkins, and he seemed much surprised to find that a young woman owned the “small cattle ranch in Nevada.”
Hawkins informed Patricia, in the very beginning of their conversation, that he was a fair man who never yet had cheated any one out of a nickel. He said that if anything he was too honest, and that this was the reason why he hadn’t a ranch of his own and was not independent. He said that he invariably let the other fellow have the big end of a bargain, rather than have the load on his conscience that he had possibly not been perfectly29 square. As to cheating a woman, well, he hinted darkly that killing30 was too good for any man who would take advantage of a woman in a business deal. Hawkins was so homely31 that Patricia knew he must be honest as he said he was. She believed practically everything he said, and by eight o’clock on a calm Sunday morning, P. Connolly and James Blaine Hawkins were partners in the ranch at Johnnywater.
James Blaine Hawkins was so anxious that Patricia should have practically all the profits in the deal, that he dictated32 terms which he facetiously33 urged her never to tell on him; they were so one-sided (Patricia’s side). Hawkins, in his altruistic34 extravagance, had volunteered to devote his time, labor35 and long experience in cattle raising, to almost the sole benefit of Patricia. He was to receive merely two thirds of the increase in stock, plus his living expenses. For good measure he proposed to donate the use of his car, charging Patricia only for the gas and oil.
Patricia typed the agreement on her machine, using all the business phrases she had learned from taking dictation in the office. The document when finished was a beautiful piece of work, absolutely letter perfect and profusely36 decorated with whereases, be it therefore agreeds and—of course—hereofs, party of the first parts and party of the second parts. Any lawyer would have gasped37 over the reading. But James Blaine Hawkins considered it a marvelous piece of work and said so. And Patricia was mightily38 pleased with herself and drew a sigh of relief when James Blaine Hawkins had departed with a signed copy of the Patricia-made AGREEMENT OF CONTRACT in his pocket. Patricia held the original; held it literally39 for the next two hours. She read it over and over and couldn’t see where one word could be changed for the betterment of the document.
“And what’s the use of haggling40 and talking and whittling41 sticks over a simple thing like this?” Patricia asked a critical world. “Mr. Hawkins knew what he wanted to do, and I knew what I wanted to do—and talking for a week wouldn’t have accomplished42 anything at all. And anyway, that’s settled, and I’ve got Johnnywater off my mind for the next five years, thank Heaven. Gary Marshall can go on smirking43 the rest of his life if he wants to. I’m sure it’s absolutely immaterial to me.”
Gary Marshall was so absolutely immaterial to Patricia that she couldn’t sleep nights, but lay awake telling herself about his absolute immateriality. She was so pleased over her agreement with James Blaine Hawkins that her boss twice stopped his dictation to ask her if she were sick or in trouble. On both occasions Patricia’s glance turned him red in the face. And her “Certainly not” gave the poor man a guilty feeling that he must have insulted her somehow.
Patricia formed a habit of walking very fast from the car line to Rose Court and of having the key to her mail box in her fingers when she turned in from the street. But she absolutely did not want or expect to receive a letter from Gary Marshall.
Curiously44, Cohen’s telephone number kept running through her mind when her mind had every reason to be fully45 occupied with her work. She even wrote “Hollywood 741” when she meant to write “Hollister, Calif.” on a letter she was transcribing46. The curious feature of this freak of her memory is that Patricia could not remember firm telephones that she used nearly every day, but was obliged to keep a private list at her elbow for reference.
Patricia did not call Hollywood 741. She did, however, write a second stern request for her papers which Gary had taken away.
On the heels of that, Patricia’s boss—a kindly man in gold-bowed spectacles and close-cropped whiskers—gave Patricia a terrific shock when she had taken the last letter of the morning’s correspondence and was slipping the rubber band over her notebook.
“Oh, by the way, Miss Connolly, day after to-morrow I leave for Kansas City. I’m to have charge of the purchasing department there, and I should like to have you with me if you care to make the change. The salary will be twenty-five a month more—to start; if the work justifies47 it, I think you could safely look forward to another advance. And of course your traveling expenses will be met by the firm.”
Patricia twisted her pencil in the rubber band. “My laundry won’t be back till Friday,” she informed him primly48. “But I suppose I can go out there and pay for it and have it sent on by mail. What train are you taking, Mr. Wilson?”
In this manner did the dauntless Patricia meet the shock of opportunity’s door slamming open unexpectedly in her face. Patricia did not know that she would like Kansas City. She had a vague impression of heat and cyclones49 whenever she thought of the place. But it seemed to her a Heaven-sent chance to show Gary Marshall just how immaterial he was in her life.
She debated the wisdom of sending back Gary’s ring. But the debate did not seem to get much of anywhere. She left for Kansas City with the ring still on her finger and the hope in her heart that Gary would be worried when he found she was gone, and would try to find her, and would fail.
And Providence50, she told herself confidently, had surely been looking after her all along and had sent James Blaine Hawkins to take that darned Johnnywater white elephant off her hands just nicely in time for the boss to offer her this change. And she didn’t care how much she hated Kansas City. She couldn’t hate it half as much as she hated Los Angeles.
It merely illustrates51 Patricia’s firmness with herself that she did not add her reason for hating Los Angeles. In May she had loved it better than any other place on earth.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
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： |
|
|
|
|
2
imp
|
|
| n.顽童 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
impersonal
|
|
| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
barley
|
|
| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
dubbed
|
|
| v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
invoices
|
|
| 发票( invoice的名词复数 )； （发货或服务）费用清单； 清单上货物的装运； 货物的托运 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
poked
|
|
| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
contemplate
|
|
| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
superciliously
|
|
| adv.高傲地；傲慢地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
enunciate
|
|
| v.发音；（清楚地）表达 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
scathing
|
|
| adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
landlady
|
|
| n.女房东，女地主 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
tenants
|
|
| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
gritted
|
|
| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
dignified
|
|
| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
justifying
|
|
| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
conscientious
|
|
| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
ranch
|
|
| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
defiantly
|
|
| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
imprint
|
|
| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
underneath
|
|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
trenchant
|
|
| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
cynical
|
|
| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
maidenhood
|
|
| n. 处女性, 处女时代 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
26
dangle
|
|
| v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
thereby
|
|
| adv.因此，从而 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
homely
|
|
| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
dictated
|
|
| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
facetiously
|
|
| adv.爱开玩笑地；滑稽地，爱开玩笑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
altruistic
|
|
| adj.无私的，为他人着想的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
profusely
|
|
| ad.abundantly | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
mightily
|
|
| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
haggling
|
|
| v.讨价还价( haggle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
whittling
|
|
| v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
smirking
|
|
| v.傻笑( smirk的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
transcribing
|
|
| （用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的现在分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
justifies
|
|
| 证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
primly
|
|
| adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
cyclones
|
|
| n.气旋( cyclone的名词复数 )；旋风；飓风；暴风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
illustrates
|
|
| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |