Alice proved to be in love with me. She lived in a two-flat frame house in what was then the far middle-south section of the city, a region about Fifty-first and Halsted streets. Her foster-father was a railroad watchman, and had saved up a few thousand dollars by years of toil6. This little apartment represented his expenditures7 plus her taste, such as it was: a simple little place, with red plush curtains shielding a pair of folding-doors which separated two large rooms front and back. There were lace curtains and white shades at the windows, a piano (a most soothing8 luxury for me to contemplate), and then store furniture: a red velvet9 settee, a red plush rocker, several other new badly designed chairs.
Quaint10 little soul! How cheery and dreamful and pulsating11 with life she was when I met her! Her suitor, as I afterwards came to know, was a phlegmatic12 man of thirty-five, who had found in her all that he desired and was eager to marry her, as he eventually did. He was wont13 to call regularly on Wednesday and Sunday evenings, taking her occasionally to a theater or to dinner downtown. When I arrived on the scene I must have disrupted all this, for after a time, because I manifested some opposition14, leaving her no choice indeed, Wednesdays and Sundays became my evenings, and any others that I chose. Regardless of my numerous and no doubt asinine15 defects, she was in love with me and willing to accept me on my own terms.
Yes, Alice saw something she wanted and thought she could hold. She wanted to unite with me for this little span of existence, to go with me hand in hand into the ultimate nothingness. I think she was a poet in her way, but voiceless. When I called the first night she sat primly16 for a little while on one of her red chairs near the window, while I occupied a rocker. I had hung up my coat and hat with a flourish and had stood about for a while examining everything, with the purpose of estimating it and her. It all seemed cozy17 and pleasing enough and, curiously18, I felt more at ease on this my first visit than I ever did at my Scotch19 maid’s home. There her thrifty20, cautious, religious though genial21 and well-meaning mother, her irritable22 blind uncle and her more attractive young sister disturbed and tended to alienate23 me. Here, for weeks and weeks, I never saw Alice’s foster-parents. When finally I was introduced to them, they grated on me not at all. This first night she played a little on her piano, then on her banjo, and because she seemed especially charming to me I went over and stood behind her chair, deciding to take her face in my hands and kiss her. Perhaps a touch of remorse24 and in consequence a bit of indecision now swayed her, for she got up before I could do it. On the instant my assurance became less and yet my mood hardened, for I thought she was trifling25 with me. After the previous Sunday it seemed to me that she could do no less than permit me to embrace her. I was deciding that the evening was about to be a failure, when she came up behind me and said: “Don’t you think it’s rather nice across there, between those houses?”
Over the way a gap between peaked-roofed houses revealed a long stretch of prairie, now covered with snow, gas lamps flickering26 in orderly rows, an occasional frame house glowing in the distance.
“This is a funny neighborhood,” she ventured. “People are always moving in and out in that row of houses over there.”
“Are they?” I said, not very much interested now that I felt myself defeated. There was a silence and then she laid one hand on my arm.
“You’re not mad at me, Dorse?” she asked, using a name which my sister had given me.
The sound of it on her lips, soft and pleading, moved me.
“Oh, no,” I replied loftily. “Why should I be?”
“I was thinking that maybe I oughtn’t to be doing this. There’s been some one else up to now, you know.”
“Yes.”
“I guess I don’t care for him any more or I wouldn’t be doing what I am.”
“I thought you cared for me. Why did you invite me down here?”
“Oh, Dorse, I do,” she said, placing both her hands on my folded arms and looking up into my face with a kind of tenseness. “I know it isn’t right but I can’t help it. You have such nice hair and eyes, and you’re so tall. Do you care for me at all?”
“Yes,” I said, smiling cynically28 over my victory. “I think you’re beautiful.” I smoothed her cheek with one hand while I held her about the waist with the other.
We went over to the red settee and I took her in my arms and held her and kissed her mouth and eyes and neck. She clung to me and laughed and told me bits about her work and her pompous29 floor-walker and her social companions, and even her fiancé. She danced for me when I asked her, doing a running overstep clog30, sidewise to and fro, her skirts lifted to her shoetops. She was sweetly feminine, in no wise aggressive or bold. I stayed until nearly one in the morning. I had nine or ten miles to go by owl31 cars, arriving home at nearly three; but at this time I was not working and so my time was my own.
The thing that troubled me was what my Scotch girl would think if she found out (which she never would), and how I could extricate32 myself from a situation which, now that I had Alice, was not as interesting as it had been.
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1
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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4
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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6
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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7
expenditures
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| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
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8
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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9
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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10
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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11
pulsating
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| adj.搏动的，脉冲的v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的现在分词 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动 | |
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12
phlegmatic
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| adj.冷静的，冷淡的，冷漠的，无活力的 | |
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13
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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14
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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15
asinine
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| adj.愚蠢的 | |
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16
primly
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| adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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17
cozy
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| adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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19
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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20
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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22
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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23
alienate
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| vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等) | |
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24
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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25
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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26
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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27
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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28
cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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29
pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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30
clog
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| vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐 | |
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31
owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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32
extricate
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| v.拯救，救出；解脱 | |
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