"More tea and less ice, please," he said, nodding between the candles and over the bowl of lilacs to the girl at the head of the table. "I don't see why women put so much ice in these queer-shaped glasses, anyhow. All ice and no tea makes—"
The glass he had handed her came down with a crash, and Mary
Cary's hands were beaten together in sudden excited dismay.
"Oh, my goodness! Guess what we've done—/guess/ what we've done!" she repeated over and over, and now it was her elbows with which the table was thumped2. "It is your fault, John! You know I haven't a bit of memory about some things, and you ought to have reminded me! I told you not to let me forget! You know I told you!"
"In the name of thunderation!" John Maxwell put down his fork and pushed back his chair. "Is it hydrophobia or hysterics or brain trouble or—For the love of mercy—"
"What time is it? Do you suppose we have time to go now, or is it too late? Why /did/ you let me forget?" And now, standing3 up, Mary Cary looked despairingly first at John and then at the clock, at sight of which she sank back limply in her chair.
"Would you mind telling me what crime we've committed?" John got up and filled his glass with tea.
"It's worse than a crime. It's a discourtesy. Anybody might forgive any sort of sin, but nobody forgives rudeness. The council meeting will be nothing to this."
"But what have we done?" John, still standing, put one, two, three lumps of sugar in his tea. "I thought you were having a fit, and convulsions were going to follow. You scared me silly. What's the fuss about?"
She leaned forward dejectedly, elbows on the table, then put her hand over the sugar-bowl. "You can't have four lumps! You know sweet things don't suit you. We were to take tea with Mrs. Deford to-night. You knew we were, and you didn't remind me. Sit down. You haven't a bit of manners."
"Good heavens! Is that what you've been making all this row about?
I thought something was the matter." He put down the sugar-tongs,
went back to his seat, and took out his watch. "Quarter-past eight.
What time were we to be there?"
"Seven o'clock. Everybody has supper at seven o'clock in Yorkburg."
"Too late now." He put his watch back and helped himself to another piece of fried chicken. "Terrible in you to forget such a thing as that! Terrible! But I'm much obliged to you for doing it. I was so afraid you'd remember, I—"
Her hands dropped on the table and she half rose. "Didn't you forget, too? John Maxwell, do you mean—"
"I do. These certainly are good rolls." He broke one open and let the steam escape. "Mrs. McDougal and I have much the same opinion of Mrs. Deford, and what's the use of taking tea with people you don't like? No, I didn't forget, and if you'd remembered and made me go, I'd gone. As you didn't, I took the part of wisdom and opened not my mouth. Your lack of memory is excuse enough for both. Can I have some more tea? These glasses are frauds. I'm not going to have glasses this shape when I get married."
"Indeed you are! I like this shape. I mean when I get married I'm always going to use this kind." She put the glass down. "I'm not going to give you another drop. You didn't forget and you didn't remind me. Don't you know what it is going to mean? To-morrow everybody in town will be told of my rude behavior—and the asylum5 will be blamed for it. Everything I do wrong socially is attributed to my childhood's lack of opportunities for knowing enough, and everything I do wrong in every other way is due to my later opportunities for knowing too much. Mrs. Deford doesn't like me, anyhow, doesn't approve of me, and this will end us."
"That won't be bad for you. Do you like Mrs. Deford?"
"No, I don't. I don't exactly know why, either. I see very little of her, and she is polite enough. Too polite. She doesn't ring right."
"Then what did you accept her invitation to tea for?" He put out his hand to bring back the plate Hedwig was removing. "What have I done that my supper should be taken from me? I'm not through."
"There some salad is now, sir." And Hedwig looked helplessly first at the head and then at the foot of the table.
"Oh, all right." He waved her away. "I just didn't want to be held up." He put his elbows on the table, and his chin on the back of his hands and looked at the girl in front, whose eyes were fastened indignantly on him. "If you don't like her why did you accept her invitation?"
"If that isn't Adamic! Why did /I/ accept her invitation? I didn't until you had done so first. You said you'd come with pleasure. I thought you meant it. You were almost gushing6."
"And you were almost crushing. You were so indifferent I tried to be polite enough for two. When a woman hits you in the face with an invitation you don't expect a man to run, do you? I always accept, but never go if I can manage to stay away. And I generally manage. It is purely7 automatic, written or spoken, this 'Thank you so much. I will come with pleasure.' Some people would say it in their sleep if waked suddenly."
"Some people mean it."
"I know they do. It takes little to give some people pleasure. Parties and picnics and teas, and even dinners, with the wrong sort of mixtures, are the breath of life to certain types. But I am like you, I don't like Mrs. Deford. She is a friend of mother's and visits her at the blink of an eye. I always have business out of the city when she is at the house. She puts her head on the side when she talks. I can stand almost any kind of woman but that kind. She's got a tongue, too, like Mrs. McDougal's friend, one that tells all it knows and makes up what it doesn't. Why aren't you eating your salad?"
She pushed back her plate and reached for an olive from a dish near the bowl of lilacs. "I don't want it. I don't like asparagus."
"Then what in the name of heaven did you have it for?"
"You like it. Do you mean Mrs. Deford doesn't tell the truth?"
Mary Cary sat suddenly upright, her eyes like big turquoises9, staring unbelievingly at him.
"And you were going to take supper with her to-night; going to sit at the table with some one you knew was untruthful? Wanted me to go—"
"My dear Mary—" He turned to Hedwig, who was bringing in a bowl of raspberries. "Will you please get me some tea from the pantry, Hedwig? Your mistress is very stingy with tea. Bring it in a pitcher10, will you? I have only a glass thimble to put it in, and it's more convenient to have the pitcher by my own side. What were we talking about? Was I going to sit at the table with some one I knew was untruthful? If I didn't I'd eat alone pretty often. You may be a learned lady in many things, Miss Cary, but you still have many things to learn. One is the infinite variety of liars11 there are in life and the many assortments12 in which lies may be labelled.
"My grievance13 against Mrs. Deford isn't merely that she is an— exaggerater, let us say, but she's such a lover of lucre14, clean or not. She can smell money on the way, and the chance of any one's getting it is sufficient cause for her cultivation15 of friendship. You don't want to know her. It's better to be polite to her, but she's a good kind to let alone." He looked at his watch. "Nine o'clock. Well, something has got to be done. What's the best fairy-tale to make up?"
"I'm not going to make up a fairy-tale." Mary Cary rose from the table, and John Maxwell, pushing her chair aside, stood waiting for her to lead the way to the library. "I'm going to write her a note to-morrow and tell her we forgot. I didn't want to go, but I hate bad manners. She just asked me because—"
"She knew I wouldn't come without you? She's got more sense than I thought. But don't be silly—there are few times in life when an untruth is justified16, but many times when you don't have to tell all you know. What's to-night, anyhow?"
"Friday."
"Are you sure she didn't say Saturday night? Sure she said Friday? Now I think of it, seems to me there was something about Saturday. And was it seven or eight o'clock? If we will just say, 'Friday or Saturday?' 'Friday or Saturday?' 'Seven or eight?' 'Seven or eight?' over and over some forty or so times, we won't know what she said, and we can ask her to be certain. I'm going to ask her now. Where's your telephone?"
He rang up before she could protest.
"Hello! that Mrs. Deford?" she heard him say, and as he waved his right hand at her, the left holding the receiver, she dropped into a chair some little distance off and waited for what was to come.
"How are you, Mrs. Deford? This is John Maxwell. Miss Cary and I are having an argument as to your invitation to supper. Is it eight o'clock to-morrow night? She says seven o'clock is the—what? What's that? /To-night?/ Good gracious! You say /to-night/ was the night and you waited an hour? In the name—Well, we must by crazy! We've been talking for the last thirty minutes about our engagement with you, and I wasn't sure of the hour. What's that? I don't wonder you're mad. It is inexcusable, but it was my fault. I'm entirely17 to blame, and Miss Cary will be distressed18 to death to hear of our bad behavior. You know how particular she is about things of this kind and never breaks an engagement. You are going to forgive us, aren't you? Put it all on me. It was my fault entirely. When am I going home? Possibly to-morrow, though I'm not sure. Looking for a telegram. What? Oh, sure I am. Will certainly see you before I go. It's awfully19 good of you to forgive us. Good-night. Oh yes, of course. Good-night."
He hung up the receiver and wiped his hands. "What's the matter with that? A microscope couldn't find a microbe of untruth in it. By this time to-morrow night she'll be all right."
Together they walked out on the porch, and in the damp night air Mary shivered slightly, and John turned back into the hall for half a moment.
"It is too cool out here for you with that thin dress on," he said,
"Here, take this chair and lean back in it good. Are you tired?
Too tired for me to stay? I'll go if you want me to."
His penetrating20 eyes searched her face with sudden anxiety. It was the thing he was always watching, this look that told of spent energy. There was no fleeting21 shadow or hint of weariness he was not quick to understand, and to keep his strong arms at his side meant control of which she was as unconscious as a child.
"Of course I'm not tired." She lay back in the chair and put her feet on the stool he had placed for her, drawing the cape over her shoulders, but leaving her throat open. "And smoke, please. You'll be so miserable22 if you don't. What did she say? Was she mad?"
John took a seat on the top step of the porch, lighted his cigar, leaned back against the post, and laughed in the face opposite his.
"Mad? Hot as a hornet. But she'll cool off. We've been walloped all right, though. Could tell by her voice. What a blessed provision of nature our ears can't catch the things people say about us. I hope our ears will never be Marconi-ized. No two human beings would be on speaking terms if they were, except you and me."
She leaned forward as if something had just occurred to her. "John, have you heard from Mr. Van Orm as to when he can begin the surveying of the streets?"
"Yes, I have, but subjects don't /have/ to be changed with a popgun." He blew out a puff23 of smoke and watched its soft spirals curl upward. "I had a letter from him this week. He will send down two men the first of July."
"Isn't he coming himself?"
"Is he?" John smoked in silence, looking ahead rather than at the girl beside him, and out of his face went all laughter and over it a frown swept quickly.
"I don't know. I wish he was. The Traffords say he is one of the very best civil engineers in the country, and Yorkburg doesn't at all understand how fortunate it is to have his men resurvey the town and get things in shape for the curbing24 and paving, and planting of trees. I am so glad he was willing to let them do it. I think it was very nice in him."
No answer. John's eyes were straight ahead. Looking up, she saw his face and suddenly understood. For half a moment she watched him, chin down, eyes up; then she leaned back and her fingers interlaced.
"Everybody says he is such a fine man."
No answer.
"He is certainly doing splendid work. His name is at the very head of his profession, and he'll be rich some day."
"Rich now."
"Do you think"—elbows on knees and chin in the palms of her hands, she leaned toward him—"do you think Mr. Van Orm would be a nice man for a girl to marry?"
"I do not."
"I don't, either. I am so glad you think as I do." She gave a great sigh, and he looked up quickly.
"You mean—"
"I mean I would just as soon marry a cash-register. If he hadn't told you himself I wouldn't speak of it, but I'd be crazy in a week if I had to live in the house with a man like that. A straight line is crooked25 to him and a plummet26 much more apt to go wrong. I never could understand how such a correct person could have imagined he wanted to—"
"Marry you? He still expects to. He's the most conceited27 ass1 in the country. He can't take it in that you won't change your mind. Thinks it's because you are young that you aren't willing to marry yet. Told me so last month."
He looked toward her, then threw his cigar away. "I have thought a great deal about the kind of man you ought to have for a husband, Mary, but I've never seen one good enough and never but one I'd be willing for you to marry."
"Who is that?"
"John Maxwell."
"That was very easy. Serves me right for not thinking about what I was asking." She got up. "I am tired. Please go home. And bring me to-morrow those plans of Hay & Hammond for the high-school, will you? I like theirs best, though of course a committee is to decide." She held out her hand. "Good-night."
He took it. "What terrible manners you have, Mary." Again he looked searchingly in her face, and again put the cape around her, picking it up from the floor, where it had fallen from her shoulders. "Are you very tired? You've done too much to-day. What time must I come to-morrow?"
"I don't know. Telephone about ten and see if I am ready for you."
She pressed the button, and, as Hedwig appeared, turned to her.
"Keep the light in the porch until Mr. Maxwell gets to the gate.
Good-night, John," and with a nod she turned and left him.
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收听单词发音
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1
ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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6
gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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7
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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turquoises
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| n.绿松石( turquoise的名词复数 )；青绿色 | |
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10
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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11
liars
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| 说谎者( liar的名词复数 ) | |
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assortments
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| 分类，各类物品或同类各种物品的聚集，混合物( assortment的名词复数 ) | |
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13
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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14
lucre
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| n.金钱，财富 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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16
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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20
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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23
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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curbing
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| n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 ) | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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plummet
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| vi.(价格、水平等)骤然下跌；n.铅坠；重压物 | |
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conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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