章节正文
straight into his trap?
"It isn't?" I exclaimed.
"No. Latimer's note to Mrs. Kingdon said the diamonds were found
in the bell-boy's jacket the thief had left behind him."
"Well! It only shows what a bad habit lying is. Nora must have
fibbed to me, for the pure pleasure of fibbing. I'll never dare
to trust her again. Do you believe then that she didn't have
anything to do with the hotel robbery? I do hope so. It's one
less sin on her wicked head. It's hard, having such a girl in the
family!" Oh, wasn't I grieved!
He looked me straight in the eye. I looked at him. I was
unutterably sad about that tough sister of mine, and I vow I
looked holy then, though I never did before and may never again.
"Well, I only saw her in the twilight," he said slowly,
watching my face all the time. "You two sisters are certainly
miraculously alike."
The train was slowing down, and I got up with my basket. I stood
right before him, my full face turned toward him.
"Are we?" I asked simply. "Don't you think it's more the
expression than anything else, and the voice? Nora's really much
fairer than I am. Good-by."
He watched me as I went out. I felt his eyes on the back of my
jacket, and I was tempted to turn at the door and make a face at
him. But I knew something better and safer than that. I waited
till the train was just pulling out, and then, standing below his
window, I motioned to him to raise it.
He did.
"I thought you were going to get out here," I called. "Are you
sure you don't belong in Sing Sing, Mr. Moriway?"
I can see his face yet, Mag, and every time I think of it, it
makes me nearly die of laughing. He had actually been fooled
another time. It was worth the trip up there, to make a guy of
him once more.
And whether it was or not, Mag, it was all I got, after all.
For--would you believe Tom Dorgan would turn out such a sorehead?
He's kicked up such a row ever since he got there, that it's the
dark cell for him, and solitaryconfinement. Think of it--for
Tom!
I begged, I bluffed, I cried, I coaxed, but many's the Nance
Olden that has played her game against the rules of Sing Sing,
and lost. They wouldn't even let me leave the things for him, or
give him a message from me. And back to the station I had to
carry the basket, and all the schemes I had to make old Tom
Dorgan grin.
All the way back I had him in my mind. He's a tiger--Tom--when
he's roused. I could see him, shut up there by himself, with not
a soul to talk to, with not a human eye to look into, with not a
thing on earth to do--Tom, who's action itself! He never was much
of a thinker, and I never saw him read even a newspaper. What
would he do to kill the time? Can't you see him there, at bay,
back on his haunches, cursing and cursed, alone in the
everlasting black silence?
I saw nothing else. Wherever I turned my eyes, that terrible
picture was before me. And always it was just on the verge of
becoming something else--something worse. He could throttle the
world with his bare hands, if it had but one neck, in the mood he
must be in now.
It was when I couldn't bear it a moment longer that I set my mind
to find something else to think of.
I found it, Mag. Do you know what it was? It was just three
words--of Obermuller's: "Earn it now."
After all, Miss Monahan, this graft of honesty they all preach so
much about hasn't anything mysterious in it. All it is, is
putting your wits to work according to the rules of the game and
not against them. I was driven to it--the thought of big Tom
crouching for a spring in the dark cell up yonder sent me
whirling out into the thinking place, like the picture of the
soul in the big book at Latimer's I read out of. And first thing
you know, 'pon honor, Mag, it was as much fun planning how to
"earn it now" as any lifting I ever schemed. It's getting the
best of people that always charmed me--and here was a way to fool
'em according to law.
So busy I was making it all up, that the train pulled into the
station before I knew it. I gave a last thought to that poor old
hyena of a Tom, and then put him out of my mind. I had other fish
to fry. Straight down to Mother Douty I went with my basket.
"A fool girl, mother, on her way up to Sing Sing, lost her
basket, and Nance Olden found it; it ought to be worth a good
deal."
She grinned. You couldn't make old Douty believe that the Lord
himself wouldn't steal if He got a chance. And she knows the
chances that come butting up against Nancy Olden.
Why did I lie to her? Not for practice, I assure you. She'd have
beaten me down to the last cent if she thought it was mine, but
she always thinks there'll be a find for her in something that's
stolen. So I let her think I'd stolen it in the railway station,
and we came to terms.
With what she gave me I bought a wig. Mag, I want you some day,
when you can get off, to come and see that wig. I shouldn't
wonder but you'd recognize it. It's red, of very coarse hair, but
a wonderful color, and so long it--yes, it might be your own, Mag
Monahan, it's so much like it. I went to the theater and got my
Charity rig, took it home, and sat for hours there just looking
at 'em both. When evening came I was ready to "earn it now."
You see, Obermuller had given me the whole day to be away, and
neither Gray nor the other three Charities expected me back.
I had to do it on the sly, you sassy Mag! Yes, it was partly
because I love to cheat, but more because I was bound to have my
chance once whether anybody else enjoyed it or not.
I came to the theater in my Charity rig and the wig. It looked as
if I'd slept in it, and it came down to the draggled hem of the
skirt. All the way there I walked like you, Mag. Once, when a
newsboy grinned at me and shouted "Carrots!" I grinned
back--your own, old Cruelty grin, Mag. I vow I felt so much like
you--as you used to be--that when I lurched out on the stage at
last, stumbling over my shoe laces and trying to push the hair
out of my eyes, you'd have sworn it was little Mag Monahan I
making her debut in the Cruelty room.
Oh, Mag, Mag, you darling Mag! Did you ever hear a whole house, a
great big theater full of a peevish vaudevilleaudience, just
rise at you, give one roar of laughter they hadn't expected at
all to give, and then settle down to giggle at every move you
made?
Girl alive, I just had 'em! They couldn't take their eyes off me.
If I squirmed, they howled. If I stood on one foot, scratching
the torn leg of my stocking with the other--you know, Mag!--they
yelled. If I grinned, they just roared.
Oh, Mag, can't you see? Don't you understand? I was It. The
center of the stage I carried round with me--it was just Nancy
Olden. And for ten minutes Nancy had nothing to do but to play
with 'em. 'Pon my life, Mag, it's just like stealing; the old
graft exactly; it's so fascinating, so busy, and risky, except
that they play the game with you and pay you and love you to fool
'em.
When the curtain fell it was different. Grays followed by the
Charities, all clean and spick-and-span and--not in it; not even
on the edge of it--stormed up to Obermuller standing at the
wings.
"I'll quit the show here and now," she squawked. "It's a
shame, a beastly shame. How dare you play me such a trick, Fred
Obermuller? I never was treated so in my life--to have that dirty
little wretch come tumbling on like that, without even so much as
your telling me you'd made up all this new business for her! It's
indecent, anyway. Why, I lost my cue. There was a gap for a full
minute. The whole act was such a ghastlyfailure that I--"
"That you'd better go out now and make your prettiest bow, Gray.
Phew! Listen to the house roar. That's what I call applause. Go
on now."
She went.
Me? I didn't say a word. I looked at Obermuller and--and I just
did like this. Yes, winked, Mag Monahan. I was so crazily happy I
had to, didn't I?
But do you know what he did? Do you know what he did?
Well, I suppose I am screaming and the Troyons will put me out,
but--he just--winked--back!
And then Gray came trailing back into the wings, and the
shrieking and thumping and whistling out in front just went
on--and on--and on--and on. Um! I just listened and loved
it--every thump of it. And I stood there like a demure little
kitten; or more like Mag Monahan after she'd had a good licking,
and was good and quiet. And I never so much as budged till
Obermuller said:
"Well, Nance, you have earned it. The gall of you! But it only
proves that Fred Obermuller never yet bought a gold brick. Only,
let me in on your racket next time. There, go on--take it. It's
yours."
Oh, to have Fred Obermuller say things like that to you!
He gave me a bit of a push. 'Twas just a love-pat. I stumbled out
on to the stage.
VII.
And that's why, Marguerite de Monahan, I want you to buy in with
the madam here. Let 'em keep on calling it Troyon's as much as
they want, but you're to be a partner on the money I'll give you.
If this fairy story lasts, it'll be your own, Mag--a sort of
commission you get on my take-off of you. But if anything happens
to the world--if it should go crazy, or get sane, and not love
Nancy Olden any more, why, here'll be a place for me, too.
Does it look that way? Divil a bit, you croaker! It looks--it
looks--listen and I'll tell you how it looks.
It looks as though Gray and the great Gray rose diamond and the
three Charities had all become a bit of background for Nance
Olden to play upon.
It looks as though the audience likes the sound of my voice as
much almost as I do myself; anyway, as much as it does the sight
of me.
It looks as though the press, if you please, had discovered a new
stage star, for down comes a little reporter to interview me--me,
Nancy Olden! Think of that, Mag! I receive him all in my Charity
rig, and in Obermuller's office, and he asks me silly questions
and I tell him a lot of nonsense, but some truths, too, about the
Cruelty. Fancy, he didn't know what the Cruelty was! S. P. C. C.,
he calls it. And all the time we talked a long-haired German
artist he had brought with him was sketching Nance Olden in
different poses. Isn't that the limit?
What d'ye think Tom Dorgan'd say to see half a page of Nancy
Olden in the X-Ray? Wouldn't his eyes pop? Poor old Tom! . . . No
danger--they won't let him have the papers. . . . My old Tommy!
What is it, Mag? Oh, what was I saying? Yes--yes, how it looks.
Well, it looks as though the Trust--yes, the big and mighty T.
T.--short for Theatrical Trust, you innocent--had heard of that
same Nance Olden you read about in the papers. For one night last
week, when I'd just come of and the house was yelling and
shouting behind me, Obermuller meets me in the wings and trots me
of to his private office.
"What for?" I asked him on the way.
"You'll find out in a minute. Come on."
I pulled up my stocking and followed. You know I wear it in that
act without a garter, and it's always coming down the way yours
used to, Mag. Even when it doesn't come down I pull it up, I'm so
in the habit of doing it.
A little bit of a man, bald-headed, with a dyspeptic little black
"It isn't?" I exclaimed.
"No. Latimer's note to Mrs. Kingdon said the diamonds were found
in the bell-boy's jacket the thief had left behind him."
"Well! It only shows what a bad habit lying is. Nora must have
fibbed to me, for the pure pleasure of fibbing. I'll never dare
to trust her again. Do you believe then that she didn't have
anything to do with the hotel robbery? I do hope so. It's one
less sin on her wicked head. It's hard, having such a girl in the
family!" Oh, wasn't I grieved!
He looked me straight in the eye. I looked at him. I was
unutterably sad about that tough sister of mine, and I vow I
looked holy then, though I never did before and may never again.
"Well, I only saw her in the twilight," he said slowly,
watching my face all the time. "You two sisters are certainly
miraculously alike."
The train was slowing down, and I got up with my basket. I stood
right before him, my full face turned toward him.
"Are we?" I asked simply. "Don't you think it's more the
expression than anything else, and the voice? Nora's really much
fairer than I am. Good-by."
He watched me as I went out. I felt his eyes on the back of my
jacket, and I was tempted to turn at the door and make a face at
him. But I knew something better and safer than that. I waited
till the train was just pulling out, and then, standing below his
window, I motioned to him to raise it.
He did.
"I thought you were going to get out here," I called. "Are you
sure you don't belong in Sing Sing, Mr. Moriway?"
I can see his face yet, Mag, and every time I think of it, it
makes me nearly die of laughing. He had actually been fooled
another time. It was worth the trip up there, to make a guy of
him once more.
And whether it was or not, Mag, it was all I got, after all.
For--would you believe Tom Dorgan would turn out such a sorehead?
He's kicked up such a row ever since he got there, that it's the
dark cell for him, and solitaryconfinement. Think of it--for
Tom!
I begged, I bluffed, I cried, I coaxed, but many's the Nance
Olden that has played her game against the rules of Sing Sing,
and lost. They wouldn't even let me leave the things for him, or
give him a message from me. And back to the station I had to
carry the basket, and all the schemes I had to make old Tom
Dorgan grin.
All the way back I had him in my mind. He's a tiger--Tom--when
he's roused. I could see him, shut up there by himself, with not
a soul to talk to, with not a human eye to look into, with not a
thing on earth to do--Tom, who's action itself! He never was much
of a thinker, and I never saw him read even a newspaper. What
would he do to kill the time? Can't you see him there, at bay,
back on his haunches, cursing and cursed, alone in the
everlasting black silence?
I saw nothing else. Wherever I turned my eyes, that terrible
picture was before me. And always it was just on the verge of
becoming something else--something worse. He could throttle the
world with his bare hands, if it had but one neck, in the mood he
must be in now.
It was when I couldn't bear it a moment longer that I set my mind
to find something else to think of.
I found it, Mag. Do you know what it was? It was just three
words--of Obermuller's: "Earn it now."
After all, Miss Monahan, this graft of honesty they all preach so
much about hasn't anything mysterious in it. All it is, is
putting your wits to work according to the rules of the game and
not against them. I was driven to it--the thought of big Tom
crouching for a spring in the dark cell up yonder sent me
whirling out into the thinking place, like the picture of the
soul in the big book at Latimer's I read out of. And first thing
you know, 'pon honor, Mag, it was as much fun planning how to
"earn it now" as any lifting I ever schemed. It's getting the
best of people that always charmed me--and here was a way to fool
'em according to law.
So busy I was making it all up, that the train pulled into the
station before I knew it. I gave a last thought to that poor old
hyena of a Tom, and then put him out of my mind. I had other fish
to fry. Straight down to Mother Douty I went with my basket.
"A fool girl, mother, on her way up to Sing Sing, lost her
basket, and Nance Olden found it; it ought to be worth a good
deal."
She grinned. You couldn't make old Douty believe that the Lord
himself wouldn't steal if He got a chance. And she knows the
chances that come butting up against Nancy Olden.
Why did I lie to her? Not for practice, I assure you. She'd have
beaten me down to the last cent if she thought it was mine, but
she always thinks there'll be a find for her in something that's
stolen. So I let her think I'd stolen it in the railway station,
and we came to terms.
With what she gave me I bought a wig. Mag, I want you some day,
when you can get off, to come and see that wig. I shouldn't
wonder but you'd recognize it. It's red, of very coarse hair, but
a wonderful color, and so long it--yes, it might be your own, Mag
Monahan, it's so much like it. I went to the theater and got my
Charity rig, took it home, and sat for hours there just looking
at 'em both. When evening came I was ready to "earn it now."
You see, Obermuller had given me the whole day to be away, and
neither Gray nor the other three Charities expected me back.
I had to do it on the sly, you sassy Mag! Yes, it was partly
because I love to cheat, but more because I was bound to have my
chance once whether anybody else enjoyed it or not.
I came to the theater in my Charity rig and the wig. It looked as
if I'd slept in it, and it came down to the draggled hem of the
skirt. All the way there I walked like you, Mag. Once, when a
newsboy grinned at me and shouted "Carrots!" I grinned
back--your own, old Cruelty grin, Mag. I vow I felt so much like
you--as you used to be--that when I lurched out on the stage at
last, stumbling over my shoe laces and trying to push the hair
out of my eyes, you'd have sworn it was little Mag Monahan I
making her debut in the Cruelty room.
Oh, Mag, Mag, you darling Mag! Did you ever hear a whole house, a
great big theater full of a peevish vaudevilleaudience, just
rise at you, give one roar of laughter they hadn't expected at
all to give, and then settle down to giggle at every move you
made?
Girl alive, I just had 'em! They couldn't take their eyes off me.
If I squirmed, they howled. If I stood on one foot, scratching
the torn leg of my stocking with the other--you know, Mag!--they
yelled. If I grinned, they just roared.
Oh, Mag, can't you see? Don't you understand? I was It. The
center of the stage I carried round with me--it was just Nancy
Olden. And for ten minutes Nancy had nothing to do but to play
with 'em. 'Pon my life, Mag, it's just like stealing; the old
graft exactly; it's so fascinating, so busy, and risky, except
that they play the game with you and pay you and love you to fool
'em.
When the curtain fell it was different. Grays followed by the
Charities, all clean and spick-and-span and--not in it; not even
on the edge of it--stormed up to Obermuller standing at the
wings.
"I'll quit the show here and now," she squawked. "It's a
shame, a beastly shame. How dare you play me such a trick, Fred
Obermuller? I never was treated so in my life--to have that dirty
little wretch come tumbling on like that, without even so much as
your telling me you'd made up all this new business for her! It's
indecent, anyway. Why, I lost my cue. There was a gap for a full
minute. The whole act was such a ghastlyfailure that I--"
"That you'd better go out now and make your prettiest bow, Gray.
Phew! Listen to the house roar. That's what I call applause. Go
on now."
She went.
Me? I didn't say a word. I looked at Obermuller and--and I just
did like this. Yes, winked, Mag Monahan. I was so crazily happy I
had to, didn't I?
But do you know what he did? Do you know what he did?
Well, I suppose I am screaming and the Troyons will put me out,
but--he just--winked--back!
And then Gray came trailing back into the wings, and the
shrieking and thumping and whistling out in front just went
on--and on--and on--and on. Um! I just listened and loved
it--every thump of it. And I stood there like a demure little
kitten; or more like Mag Monahan after she'd had a good licking,
and was good and quiet. And I never so much as budged till
Obermuller said:
"Well, Nance, you have earned it. The gall of you! But it only
proves that Fred Obermuller never yet bought a gold brick. Only,
let me in on your racket next time. There, go on--take it. It's
yours."
Oh, to have Fred Obermuller say things like that to you!
He gave me a bit of a push. 'Twas just a love-pat. I stumbled out
on to the stage.
VII.
And that's why, Marguerite de Monahan, I want you to buy in with
the madam here. Let 'em keep on calling it Troyon's as much as
they want, but you're to be a partner on the money I'll give you.
If this fairy story lasts, it'll be your own, Mag--a sort of
commission you get on my take-off of you. But if anything happens
to the world--if it should go crazy, or get sane, and not love
Nancy Olden any more, why, here'll be a place for me, too.
Does it look that way? Divil a bit, you croaker! It looks--it
looks--listen and I'll tell you how it looks.
It looks as though Gray and the great Gray rose diamond and the
three Charities had all become a bit of background for Nance
Olden to play upon.
It looks as though the audience likes the sound of my voice as
much almost as I do myself; anyway, as much as it does the sight
of me.
It looks as though the press, if you please, had discovered a new
stage star, for down comes a little reporter to interview me--me,
Nancy Olden! Think of that, Mag! I receive him all in my Charity
rig, and in Obermuller's office, and he asks me silly questions
and I tell him a lot of nonsense, but some truths, too, about the
Cruelty. Fancy, he didn't know what the Cruelty was! S. P. C. C.,
he calls it. And all the time we talked a long-haired German
artist he had brought with him was sketching Nance Olden in
different poses. Isn't that the limit?
What d'ye think Tom Dorgan'd say to see half a page of Nancy
Olden in the X-Ray? Wouldn't his eyes pop? Poor old Tom! . . . No
danger--they won't let him have the papers. . . . My old Tommy!
What is it, Mag? Oh, what was I saying? Yes--yes, how it looks.
Well, it looks as though the Trust--yes, the big and mighty T.
T.--short for Theatrical Trust, you innocent--had heard of that
same Nance Olden you read about in the papers. For one night last
week, when I'd just come of and the house was yelling and
shouting behind me, Obermuller meets me in the wings and trots me
of to his private office.
"What for?" I asked him on the way.
"You'll find out in a minute. Come on."
I pulled up my stocking and followed. You know I wear it in that
act without a garter, and it's always coming down the way yours
used to, Mag. Even when it doesn't come down I pull it up, I'm so
in the habit of doing it.
A little bit of a man, bald-headed, with a dyspeptic little black
- jacket [´dʒækit]
n.茄克衫；外套 (初中英语单词) - wicked [´wikid] a.邪恶的；不道德的 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中英语单词)
- wherever [weər´evə] conj.无论在哪里 (初中英语单词)
- preach [pri:tʃ] v.宣扬；鼓吹 n.训诫 (初中英语单词)
- mysterious [mi´stiəriəs] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (初中英语单词)
- driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- stolen [´stəulən] steal 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- coarse [kɔ:s] a.粗(糙)的；粗鲁的 (初中英语单词)
- darling [´dɑ:liŋ] n.爱人 a.亲爱的 (初中英语单词)
- audience [´ɔ:diəns] n.听众；观众；接见 (初中英语单词)
- laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
- stocking [´stɔkiŋ] n.长统袜 (初中英语单词)
- fascinating [´fæsineitiŋ] a.迷人，使神魂颠倒的 (初中英语单词)
- failure [´feiljə] n.失败；衰竭；破产 (初中英语单词)
- partner [´pɑ:tnə] n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词)
- background [´bækgraund] n.背景；经历；幕后 (初中英语单词)
- interview [´intəvju:] n.&vt.接见；会见；交谈 (初中英语单词)
- solitary [´sɔlitəri] a.独居的；孤独的 (高中英语单词)
- honesty [´ɔnisti] n.诚实，老实 (高中英语单词)
- charity [´tʃæriti] n.施舍；慈悲；博爱 (高中英语单词)
- cruelty [´kru:əlti] n.残忍；残酷行为 (高中英语单词)
- ghastly [´gɑ:stli] a.苍白的；可怕的 (高中英语单词)
- applause [ə´plɔ:z] n.鼓掌；欢呼；称赞 (高中英语单词)
- racket [´rækit] n.(网球等的)拍；球拍 (高中英语单词)
- reporter [ri´pɔ:tə] n.报告人；记者；广播员 (高中英语单词)
- nonsense [´nɔnsəns] n.胡说 int.胡说!废话 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- robbery [´rɔbəri] n.抢劫(案)；盗取 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- wretch [retʃ] n.不幸的人；卑鄙的人 (英语四级单词)
- theatrical [θi´ætrikəl] a.戏院的；戏剧(性)的 (英语四级单词)
- confinement [kən´fainmənt] n.限制；监禁；分娩 (英语六级单词)
- vaudeville [´vɔ:dəvil] n.滑稽通俗喜剧；杂耍 (英语六级单词)
- giggle [´gigəl] v.&n.傻笑 (英语六级单词)
- beastly [´bi:stli] a.残忍的；卑鄙的 (英语六级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- garter [´gɑ:tə] n.吊袜带 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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