The cabby has his point of view. It is more single-minded, perhaps, than that of a follower1 of any other calling. From the high, swaying seat of his hansom he looks upon his fellow-men as nomadic2 particles, of no account except when possessed3 of migratory4 desires. He is Jehu, and you are goods in transit5. Be you President or vagabond, to cabby you are only a Fare, he takes you up, cracks his whip, joggles your vertebrae and sets you down.
When time for payment arrives, if you exhibit a familiarity with legal rates you come to know what contempt is; if you find that you have left your pocketbook behind you are made to realise the mildness of Dante's imagination.
It is not an extravagant6 theory that the cabby's singleness of purpose and concentrated view of life are the results of the hansom's peculiar7 construction. The cock-of-the-roost sits aloft like Jupiter on an unsharable seat, holding your fate between two thongs8 of inconstant leather. Helpless, ridiculous, confined, bobbing like a toy mandarin9, you sit like a rat in a trap--you, before whom butlers cringe on solid land--and must squeak10 upward through a slit11 in your peripatetic12 sarcophagus to make your feeble wishes known.
Then, in a cab, you are not even an occupant; you are contents. You are a cargo13 at sea, and the "cherub14 that sits up aloft" has Davy Jones's street and number by heart.
One night there were sounds of revelry in the big brick tenement- house next door but one to McGary's Family Cafe. The sounds seemed to emanate15 from the apartments of the Walsh family. The sidewalk was obstructed16 by an assortment17 of interested neighbours, who opened a lane from time to time for a hurrying messenger bearing from McGary's goods pertinent18 to festivity and diversion. The sidewalk contingent19 was engaged in comment and discussion from which it made no effort to eliminate the news that Norah Walsh was being married.
In the fulness of time there was an eruption20 of the merry-makers to the sidewalk. The uninvited guests enveloped21 and permeated22 them, and upon the night air rose joyous23 cries, congratulations, laughter and unclassified noises born of McGary's oblations to the hymeneal scene.
Close to the curb24 stood Jerry O'Donovan's cab. Night-hawk was Jerry called; but no more lustrous25 or cleaner hansom than his ever closed its doors upon point lace and November violets. And Jerry's horse! I am within bounds when I tell you that he was stuffed with oats until one of those old ladies who leave their dishes unwashed at home and go about having expressmen arrested, would have smiled--yes, smiled--to have seen him.
Among the shifting, sonorous26, pulsing crowd glimpses could be had of Jerry's high hat, battered27 by the winds and rains of many years; of his nose like a carrot, battered by the frolicsome28, athletic29 progeny30 of millionaires and by contumacious31 fares; of his brass-buttoned green coat, admired in the vicinity of McGary's. It was plain that Jerry had usurped32 the functions of his cab, and was carrying a "load." Indeed, the figure may be extended and he be likened to a bread-waggon if we admit the testimony33 of a youthful spectator, who was heard to remark "Jerry has got a bun."
From somewhere among the throng34 in the street or else out of the thin stream of pedestrians35 a young woman tripped and stood by the cab. The professional hawk's eye of Jerry caught the movement. He made a lurch36 for the cab, overturning three or four onlookers37 and himself-- no! he caught the cap of a water-plug and kept his feet. Like a sailor shinning up the ratlins during a squall Jerry mounted to his professional seat. Once he was there McGary's liquids were baffled. He seesawed38 on the mizzenmast of his craft as safe as a Steeple Jack39 rigged to the flagpole of a skyscraper40.
"Step in, lady," said Jerry, gathering41 his lines. The young woman stepped into the cab; the doors shut with a bang; Jerry's whip cracked in the air; the crowd in the gutter42 scattered43, and the fine hansom dashed away 'crosstown.
When the oat-spry horse had hedged a little his first spurt44 of speed Jerry broke the lid of his cab and called down through the aperture45 in the voice of a cracked megaphone, trying to please:
"Where, now, will ye be drivin' to?"
"Anywhere you please," came up the answer, musical and contented46.
"'Tis drivin' for pleasure she is," thought Jerry. And then he suggested as a matter of course:
"Take a thrip around in the park, lady. 'Twill be ilegant cool and fine."
"Just as you like," answered the fare, pleasantly.
The cab headed for Fifth avenue and sped up that perfect street. Jerry bounced and swayed in his seat. The potent47 fluids of McGary were disquieted48 and they sent new fumes49 to his head. He sang an ancient song of Killisnook and brandished50 his whip like a baton51.
Inside the cab the fare sat up straight on the cushions, looking to right and left at the lights and houses. Even in the shadowed hansom her eyes shone like stars at twilight52.
When they reached Fifty-ninth street Jerry's head was bobbing and his reins53 were slack. But his horse turned in through the park gate and began the old familiar nocturnal round. And then the fare leaned back, entranced, and breathed deep the clean, wholesome54 odours of grass and leaf and bloom. And the wise beast in the shafts55, knowing his ground, struck into his by-the-hour gait and kept to the right of the road.
Habit also struggled successfully against Jerry's increasing torpor56. He raised the hatch of his storm-tossed vessel57 and made the inquiry58 that cabbies do make in the park.
"Like shtop at the Cas-sino, lady? Gezzer r'freshm's, 'n lish'n the music. Ev'body shtops."
"I think that would be nice," said the fare.
They reined59 up with a plunge60 at the Casino entrance. The cab doors flew open. The fare stepped directly upon the floor. At once she was caught in a web of ravishing music and dazzled by a panorama61 of lights and colours. Some one slipped a little square card into her hand on which was printed a number--34. She looked around and saw her cab twenty yards away already lining62 up in its place among the waiting mass of carriages, cabs and motor cars. And then a man who seemed to be all shirt-front danced backward before her; and next she was seated at a little table by a railing over which climbed a jessamine vine.
There seemed to be a wordless invitation to purchase; she consulted a collection of small coins in a thin purse, and received from them license63 to order a glass of beer. There she sat, inhaling64 and absorbing it all--the new-coloured, new-shaped life in a fairy palace in an enchanted65 wood.
At fifty tables sat princes and queens clad in all the silks and gems66 of the world. And now and then one of them would look curiously67 at Jerry's fare. They saw a plain figure dressed in a pink silk of the kind that is tempered by the word "foulard," and a plain face that wore a look of love of life that the queens envied.
Twice the long hands of the clocks went round, Royalties68 thinned from their al fresco69 thrones, and buzzed or clattered70 away in their vehicles of state. The music retired72 into cases of wood and bags of leather and baize. Waiters removed cloths pointedly73 near the plain figure sitting almost alone.
Jerry's fare rose, and held out her numbered card simply:
"Is there anything coming on the ticket?" she asked. A waiter told her it was her cab check, and that she should give it to the man at the entrance. This man took it, and called the number. Only three hansoms stood in line. The driver of one of them went and routed out Jerry asleep in his cab. He swore deeply, climbed to the captain's bridge and steered74 his craft to the pier75. His fare entered, and the cab whirled into the cool fastnesses of the park along the shortest homeward cuts.
At the gate a glimmer76 of reason in the form of sudden suspicion seized upon Jerry's beclouded mind. One or two things occurred to him. He stopped his horse, raised the trap and dropped his phonographic voice, like a lead plummet77, through the aperture:
"I want to see four dollars before goin' any further on th' thrip. Have ye got th' dough78?"
"Four dollars!" laughed the fare, softly, "dear me, no. I've only got a few pennies and a dime79 or two."
Jerry shut down the trap and slashed80 his oat-fed horse. The clatter71 of hoofs81 strangled but could not drown the sound of his profanity. He shouted choking and gurgling curses at the starry82 heavens; he cut viciously with his whip at passing vehicles; he scattered fierce and ever-changing oaths and imprecations along the streets, so that a late truck driver, crawling homeward, heard and was abashed83. But he knew his recourse, and made for it at a gallop84.
At the house with the green lights beside the steps he pulled up. He flung wide the cab doors and tumbled heavily to the ground.
"Come on, you," he said, roughly.
His fare came forth85 with the Casino dreamy smile still on her plain face. Jerry took her by the arm and led her into the police station. A gray-moustached sergeant86 looked keenly across the desk. He and the cabby were no strangers.
"Sargeant," began Jerry in his old raucous87, martyred, thunderous tones of complaint. "I've got a fare here that--"
Jerry paused. He drew a knotted, red hand across his brow. The fog set up by McGary was beginning to clear away.
"A fare, sargeant," he continued, with a grin, "that I want to inthroduce to ye. It's me wife that I married at ould man Walsh's this avening. And a divil of a time we had, ‘tis thrue. Shake hands wid th' sargeant, Norah, and we'll be off to home."
Before stepping into the cab Norah sighed profoundly.
"I've had such a nice time, Jerry," said she.
1 follower | |
n.跟随者;随员;门徒;信徒 | |
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2 nomadic | |
adj.流浪的;游牧的 | |
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3 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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4 migratory | |
n.候鸟,迁移 | |
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5 transit | |
n.经过,运输;vt.穿越,旋转;vi.越过 | |
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6 extravagant | |
adj.奢侈的;过分的;(言行等)放肆的 | |
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7 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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8 thongs | |
的东西 | |
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9 Mandarin | |
n.中国官话,国语,满清官吏;adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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10 squeak | |
n.吱吱声,逃脱;v.(发出)吱吱叫,侥幸通过;(俚)告密 | |
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11 slit | |
n.狭长的切口;裂缝;vt.切开,撕裂 | |
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12 peripatetic | |
adj.漫游的,逍遥派的,巡回的 | |
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13 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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14 cherub | |
n.小天使,胖娃娃 | |
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15 emanate | |
v.发自,来自,出自 | |
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16 obstructed | |
阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 ); 堵塞; 阻碍; 阻止 | |
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17 assortment | |
n.分类,各色俱备之物,聚集 | |
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18 pertinent | |
adj.恰当的;贴切的;中肯的;有关的;相干的 | |
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19 contingent | |
adj.视条件而定的;n.一组,代表团,分遣队 | |
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20 eruption | |
n.火山爆发;(战争等)爆发;(疾病等)发作 | |
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21 enveloped | |
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22 permeated | |
弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 ); 遍布; 渗入; 渗透 | |
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23 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
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24 curb | |
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制 | |
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25 lustrous | |
adj.有光泽的;光辉的 | |
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26 sonorous | |
adj.响亮的,回响的;adv.圆润低沉地;感人地;n.感人,堂皇 | |
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27 battered | |
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损 | |
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28 frolicsome | |
adj.嬉戏的,闹着玩的 | |
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29 athletic | |
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的 | |
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30 progeny | |
n.后代,子孙;结果 | |
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31 contumacious | |
adj.拒不服从的,违抗的 | |
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32 usurped | |
篡夺,霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 ); 盗用; 篡夺,篡权 | |
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33 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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34 throng | |
n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集 | |
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35 pedestrians | |
n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 ) | |
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36 lurch | |
n.突然向前或旁边倒;v.蹒跚而行 | |
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37 onlookers | |
n.旁观者,观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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38 seesawed | |
v.使上下(来回)摇动( seesaw的过去式和过去分词 );玩跷跷板,上下(来回)摇动 | |
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39 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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40 skyscraper | |
n.摩天大楼 | |
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41 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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42 gutter | |
n.沟,街沟,水槽,檐槽,贫民窟 | |
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43 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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44 spurt | |
v.喷出;突然进发;突然兴隆 | |
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45 aperture | |
n.孔,隙,窄的缺口 | |
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46 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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47 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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48 disquieted | |
v.使不安,使忧虑,使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 fumes | |
n.(强烈而刺激的)气味,气体 | |
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50 brandished | |
v.挥舞( brandish的过去式和过去分词 );炫耀 | |
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51 baton | |
n.乐队用指挥杖 | |
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52 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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53 reins | |
感情,激情; 缰( rein的名词复数 ); 控制手段; 掌管; (成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的)保护带 | |
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54 wholesome | |
adj.适合;卫生的;有益健康的;显示身心健康的 | |
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55 shafts | |
n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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56 torpor | |
n.迟钝;麻木;(动物的)冬眠 | |
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57 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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58 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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59 reined | |
勒缰绳使(马)停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 ); 驾驭; 严格控制; 加强管理 | |
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60 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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61 panorama | |
n.全景,全景画,全景摄影,全景照片[装置] | |
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62 lining | |
n.衬里,衬料 | |
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63 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
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64 inhaling | |
v.吸入( inhale的现在分词 ) | |
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65 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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66 gems | |
growth; economy; management; and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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67 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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68 royalties | |
特许权使用费 | |
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69 fresco | |
n.壁画;vt.作壁画于 | |
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70 clattered | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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71 clatter | |
v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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72 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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73 pointedly | |
adv.尖地,明显地 | |
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74 steered | |
v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 );操纵;控制;引导 | |
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75 pier | |
n.码头;桥墩,桥柱;[建]窗间壁,支柱 | |
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76 glimmer | |
v.发出闪烁的微光;n.微光,微弱的闪光 | |
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77 plummet | |
vi.(价格、水平等)骤然下跌;n.铅坠;重压物 | |
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78 dough | |
n.生面团;钱,现款 | |
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79 dime | |
n.(指美国、加拿大的钱币)一角 | |
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80 slashed | |
v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 );鞭打;割破;削减 | |
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81 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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82 starry | |
adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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83 abashed | |
adj.窘迫的,尴尬的v.使羞愧,使局促,使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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85 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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86 sergeant | |
n.警官,中士 | |
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87 raucous | |
adj.(声音)沙哑的,粗糙的 | |
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