I
WHEN he was away from her, while he kicked about the garage and swept the snow off the running-board and examined a cracked hose-connection, he repented1, he was alarmed and astonished that he could have flared2 out at his wife, and thought fondly how much more lasting3 she was than the flighty Bunch. He went in to mumble4 that he was “sorry, didn’t mean to be grouchy,” and to inquire as to her interest in movies. But in the darkness of the movie theater he brooded that he’d “gone and tied himself up to Myra all over again.” He had some satisfaction in taking it out on Tanis Judique. “Hang Tanis anyway! Why’d she gone and got him into these mix-ups and made him all jumpy and nervous and cranky? Too many complications! Cut ’em out!”
He wanted peace. For ten days he did not see Tanis nor telephone to her, and instantly she put upon him the compulsion which he hated. When he had stayed away from her for five days, hourly taking pride in his resoluteness6 and hourly picturing how greatly Tanis must miss him, Miss McGoun reported, “Mrs. Judique on the ‘phone. Like t’ speak t’ you ‘bout some repairs.”
Tanis was quick and quiet:
“Mr. Babbitt? Oh, George, this is Tanis. I haven’t seen you for weeks — days, anyway. You aren’t sick, are you?”
“No, just been terribly rushed. I, uh, I think there’ll be a big revival7 of building this year. Got to, uh, got to work hard.”
“Of course, my man! I want you to. You know I’m terribly ambitious for you; much more than I am for myself. I just don’t want you to forget poor Tanis. Will you call me up soon?”
“Sure! Sure! You bet!”
“Please do. I sha’n’t call you again.”
He meditated8, “Poor kid! . . . But gosh, she oughtn’t to ‘phone me at the office.... She’s a wonder — sympathy ‘ambitious for me.’ . . . But gosh, I won’t be made and compelled to call her up till I get ready. Darn these women, the way they make demands! It’ll be one long old time before I see her! . . . But gosh, I’d like to see her to-night — sweet little thing.... Oh, cut that, son! Now you’ve broken away, be wise!”
She did not telephone again, nor he, but after five more days she wrote to him:
Have I offended you? You must know, dear, I didn’t mean to. I’m so lonely and I need somebody to cheer me up. Why didn’t you come to the nice party we had at Carrie’s last evening I remember she invited you. Can’t you come around here to-morrow Thur evening? I shall be alone and hope to see you.
His reflections were numerous:
“Doggone it, why can’t she let me alone? Why can’t women ever learn a fellow hates to be bulldozed? And they always take advantage of you by yelling how lonely they are.
“Now that isn’t nice of you, young fella. She’s a fine, square, straight girl, and she does get lonely. She writes a swell9 hand. Nice-looking stationery10. Plain. Refined. I guess I’ll have to go see her. Well, thank God, I got till to-morrow night free of her, anyway.
“She’s nice but — Hang it, I won’t be MADE to do things! I’m not married to her. No, nor by golly going to be!
“Oh, rats, I suppose I better go see her.”
II
Thursday, the to-morrow of Tanis’s note, was full of emotional crises. At the Roughnecks’ Table at the club, Verg Gunch talked of the Good Citizens’ League and (it seemed to Babbitt) deliberately11 left him out of the invitations to join. Old Mat Penniman, the general utility man at Babbitt’s office, had Troubles, and came in to groan12 about them: his oldest boy was “no good,” his wife was sick, and he had quarreled with his brother-in-law. Conrad Lyte also had Troubles, and since Lyte was one of his best clients, Babbitt had to listen to them. Mr. Lyte, it appeared, was suffering from a peculiarly interesting neuralgia, and the garage had overcharged him. When Babbitt came home, everybody had Troubles: his wife was simultaneously13 thinking about discharging the impudent14 new maid, and worried lest the maid leave; and Tinka desired to denounce her teacher.
“Oh, quit fussing!” Babbitt fussed. “You never hear me whining15 about my Troubles, and yet if you had to run a real-estate office — Why, to-day I found Miss Bannigan was two days behind with her accounts, and I pinched my finger in my desk, and Lyte was in and just as unreasonable16 as ever.”
He was so vexed17 that after dinner, when it was time for a tactful escape to Tanis, he merely grumped to his wife, “Got to go out. Be back by eleven, should think.”
“Oh! You’re going out again?”
“Again! What do you mean ‘again’! Haven’t hardly been out of the house for a week!”
“Are you — are you going to the Elks18?”
“Nope. Got to see some people.”
Though this time he heard his own voice and knew that it was curt19, though she was looking at him with wide-eyed reproach, he stumped20 into the hall, jerked on his ulster and furlined gloves, and went out to start the car.
He was relieved to find Tanis cheerful, unreproachful, and brilliant in a frock of brown net over gold tissue. “You poor man, having to come out on a night like this! It’s terribly cold. Don’t you think a small highball would be nice?”
“Now, by golly, there’s a woman with savvy21! I think we could more or less stand a highball if it wasn’t too long a one — not over a foot tall!”
He kissed her with careless heartiness22, he forgot the compulsion of her demands, he stretched in a large chair and felt that he had beautifully come home. He was suddenly loquacious23; he told her what a noble and misunderstood man he was, and how superior to Pete, Fulton Bemis, and the other men of their acquaintance; and she, bending forward, chin in charming hand, brightly agreed. But when he forced himself to ask, “Well, honey, how’s things with YOU,” she took his duty-question seriously, and he discovered that she too had Troubles:
“Oh, all right but — I did get so angry with Carrie. She told Minnie that I told her that Minnie was an awful tightwad, and Minnie told me Carrie had told her, and of course I told her I hadn’t said anything of the kind, and then Carrie found Minnie had told me, and she was simply furious because Minnie had told me, and of course I was just boiling because Carrie had told her I’d told her, and then we all met up at Fulton’s — his wife is away — thank heavens!— oh, there’s the dandiest floor in his house to dance on — and we were all of us simply furious at each other and — Oh, I do hate that kind of a mix-up, don’t you? I mean — it’s so lacking in refinement24, but — And Mother wants to come and stay with me for a whole month, and of course I do love her, I suppose I do, but honestly, she’ll cramp25 my style something dreadful — she never can learn not to comment, and she always wants to know where I’m going when I go out evenings, and if I lie to her she always spies around and ferrets around and finds out where I’ve been, and then she looks like Patience on a Monument till I could just scream. And oh, I MUST tell you — You know I never talk about myself; I just hate people who do, don’t you? But — I feel so stupid to-night, and I know I must be boring you with all this but — What would you do about Mother?”
He gave her facile masculine advice. She was to put off her mother’s stay. She was to tell Carrie to go to the deuce. For these valuable revelations she thanked him, and they ambled26 into the familiar gossip of the Bunch. Of what a sentimental27 fool was Carrie. Of what a lazy brat28 was Pete. Of how nice Fulton Bemis could be —“course lots of people think he’s a regular old grouch5 when they meet him because he doesn’t give ’em the glad hand the first crack out of the box, but when they get to know him, he’s a corker.”
But as they had gone conscientiously29 through each of these analyses before, the conversation staggered. Babbitt tried to be intellectual and deal with General Topics. He said some thoroughly30 sound things about Disarmament, and broad-mindedness and liberalism; but it seemed to him that General Topics interested Tanis only when she could apply them to Pete, Carrie, or themselves. He was distressingly31 conscious of their silence. He tried to stir her into chattering32 again, but silence rose like a gray presence and hovered33 between them.
“I, uh —” he labored34. “It strikes me — it strikes me that unemployment is lessening35.”
“Maybe Pete will get a decent job, then.”
Silence.
Desperately36 he essayed, “What’s the trouble, old honey? You seem kind of quiet to-night.”
“Am I? Oh, I’m not. But — do you really care whether I am or not?”
“Care? Sure! Course I do!”
“Do you really?” She swooped37 on him, sat on the arm of his chair.
He hated the emotional drain of having to appear fond of her. He stroked her hand, smiled up at her dutifully, and sank back.
“George, I wonder if you really like me at all?”
“Course I do, silly.”
“Do you really, precious? Do you care a bit?”
“Why certainly! You don’t suppose I’d be here if I didn’t!”
“Now see here, young man, I won’t have you speaking to me in that huffy way!”
“I didn’t mean to sound huffy. I just —” In injured and rather childish tones: “Gosh almighty38, it makes me tired the way everybody says I sound huffy when I just talk natural! Do they expect me to sing it or something?”
“Who do you mean by ‘everybody’? How many other ladies have you been consoling?”
“Look here now, I won’t have this hinting!”
Humbly39: “I know, dear. I was only teasing. I know it didn’t mean to talk huffy — it was just tired. Forgive bad Tanis. But say you love me, say it!”
“I love you.... Course I do.”
“Yes, you do!” cynically40. “Oh, darling, I don’t mean to be rude but — I get so lonely. I feel so useless. Nobody needs me, nothing I can do for anybody. And you know, dear, I’m so active — I could be if there was something to do. And I am young, aren’t I! I’m not an old thing! I’m not old and stupid, am I?”
He had to assure her. She stroked his hair, and he had to look pleased under that touch, the more demanding in its beguiling41 softness. He was impatient. He wanted to flee out to a hard, sure, unemotional man-world. Through her delicate and caressing42 fingers she may have caught something of his shrugging distaste. She left him — he was for the moment buoyantly relieved — she dragged a footstool to his feet and sat looking beseechingly43 up at him. But as in many men the cringing44 of a dog, the flinching45 of a frightened child, rouse not pity but a surprised and jerky cruelty, so her humility46 only annoyed him. And he saw her now as middle-aged47, as beginning to be old. Even while he detested48 his own thoughts, they rode him. She was old, he winced49. Old! He noted50 how the soft flesh was creasing51 into webby folds beneath her chin, below her eyes, at the base of her wrists. A patch of her throat had a minute roughness like the crumbs52 from a rubber eraser. Old! She was younger in years than himself, yet it was sickening to have her yearning53 up at him with rolling great eyes — as if, he shuddered54, his own aunt were making love to him.
He fretted55 inwardly, “I’m through with this asinine56 fooling around. I’m going to cut her out. She’s a darn decent nice woman, and I don’t want to hurt her, but it’ll hurt a lot less to cut her right out, like a good clean surgical57 operation.”
He was on his feet. He was speaking urgently. By every rule of self-esteem, he had to prove to her, and to himself, that it was her fault.
“I suppose maybe I’m kind of out of sorts to-night, but honest, honey, when I stayed away for a while to catch up on work and everything and figure out where I was at, you ought to have been cannier58 and waited till I came back. Can’t you see, dear, when you MADE me come, I— being about an average bull-headed chump — my tendency was to resist? Listen, dear, I’m going now —”
“Not for a while, precious! No!”
“Yep. Right now. And then sometime we’ll see about the future.”
“What do you mean, dear, ‘about the future’? Have I done something I oughtn’t to? Oh, I’m so dreadfully sorry!”
He resolutely59 put his hands behind him. “Not a thing, God bless you, not a thing. You’re as good as they make ’em. But it’s just — Good Lord, do you realize I’ve got things to do in the world? I’ve got a business to attend to and, you might not believe it, but I’ve got a wife and kids that I’m awful fond of!” Then only during the murder he was committing was he able to feel nobly virtuous60. “I want us to be friends but, gosh, I can’t go on this way feeling I got to come up here every so often —”
“Oh, darling, darling, and I’ve always told you, so carefully, that you were absolutely free. I just wanted you to come around when you were tired and wanted to talk to me, or when you could enjoy our parties —”
She was so reasonable, she was so gently right! It took him an hour to make his escape, with nothing settled and everything horribly settled. In a barren freedom of icy Northern wind he sighed, “Thank God that’s over! Poor Tanis, poor darling decent Tanis! But it is over. Absolute! I’m free!”
收听单词发音 |
1
repented
|
|
| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
Flared
|
|
| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
lasting
|
|
| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
mumble
|
|
| n./v.喃喃而语，咕哝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
grouch
|
|
| n.牢骚，不满；v.抱怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
resoluteness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
revival
|
|
| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
meditated
|
|
| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
swell
|
|
| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
stationery
|
|
| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
groan
|
|
| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
simultaneously
|
|
| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
impudent
|
|
| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
whining
|
|
| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
unreasonable
|
|
| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
vexed
|
|
| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
elks
|
|
| n.麋鹿( elk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
curt
|
|
| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
stumped
|
|
| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
savvy
|
|
| v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
heartiness
|
|
| 诚实，热心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
loquacious
|
|
| adj.多嘴的，饶舌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
refinement
|
|
| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
cramp
|
|
| n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
ambled
|
|
| v.（马）缓行( amble的过去式和过去分词 )；从容地走，漫步 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
brat
|
|
| n.孩子；顽童 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
conscientiously
|
|
| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
distressingly
|
|
| adv. 令人苦恼地；悲惨地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
chattering
|
|
| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
hovered
|
|
| 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： |
|
|
|
|
34
labored
|
|
| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
lessening
|
|
| 减轻，减少，变小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
swooped
|
|
| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
almighty
|
|
| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
humbly
|
|
| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
cynically
|
|
| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
beguiling
|
|
| 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） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
caressing
|
|
| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
beseechingly
|
|
| adv. 恳求地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
cringing
|
|
| adj.谄媚，奉承 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
flinching
|
|
| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
humility
|
|
| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
detested
|
|
| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
winced
|
|
| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
creasing
|
|
| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的现在分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 挑檐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
crumbs
|
|
| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
yearning
|
|
| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
shuddered
|
|
| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
fretted
|
|
| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
asinine
|
|
| adj.愚蠢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
surgical
|
|
| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
cannier
|
|
| 精明的，狡猾的( canny的比较级 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
resolutely
|
|
| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
virtuous
|
|
| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |