章节正文
dancing, and as she turned to make way for the others,
she kept one of Elnora's hands in hers. Polly would have
dropped dead in that instant if Edith Carr could have
killed with a look, for not until then did she realize that
Polly would even many a slight, and that it had been a
great mistake to bring her.
Edith bowed low, muttered something and touched
Elnora's fingers. Tom took his cue from Polly.
"I always follow a good example," he said, and before
any one could divine his intention he kissed Elnora as he
gripped her hand and cried: "Mighty glad to meet you!
Like to meet you a dozen times a day, you know!"
Elnora laughed and her heart pumped smoothly. They had
accomplished their purpose. They had let her know they
were there through compulsion, but on her side. In that
instant only pity was in Elnora's breast for the flashing
dark beauty, standing with smiling face while her heart
must have been filled with exceeding bitterness.
Elnora stepped back from the entrance.
"Come into the shade," she urged. "You must have
found it warm on these country roads. Won't you lay
aside your dust-coats and have a cool drink? Philip, would
you ask mother to come, and bring that pitcher from the
spring house?"
They entered the arbour exclaiming at the dim, green coolness.
There was plenty of room and wide seats around the sides,
a table in the centre, on which lay a piece of embroidery,
magazines, books, the moth apparatus, and the cyanide jar
containing several specimens. Polly rejoiced in the
cooling shade, slipped off her duster, removed her hat,
rumpled her pretty hair and seated herself to indulge in
the delightfuloccupation of paying off old scores.
Tom Levering followed her example. Edith took a seat
but refused to remove her hat and coat, while Henderson
stood in the entrance.
"There goes something with wings! Should you have
that?" cried Levering.
He seized a net from the table and raced across the garden
after a butterfly. He caught it and came back mightily
pleased with himself. As the creature struggled in the net,
Elnora noted a repulsed look on Edith Carr's face.
Levering helped the situation beautifully.
"Now what have I got?" he demanded. "Is it just a
common one that every one knows and you don't keep, or
is it the rarest bird off the perch?"
"You must have had practice, you took that so perfectly,"
said Elnora. "I am sorry, but it is quite common and not
of a kind I keep. Suppose all of you see how beautiful
it is and then it may go nectar hunting again."
She held the butterfly where all of them could see,
showed its upper and under wing colours, answered Polly's
questions as to what it ate, how long it lived, and how
it died. Then she put it into Polly's hand saying: "Stand
there in the light and loosen your hold slowly and easily."
Elnora caught a brush from the table and began softly
stroking the creature's sides and wings. Delighted with
the sensation the butterfly opened and closed its wings,
clinging to Polly's soft little fingers, while every one cried
out in surprise. Elnora laid aside the brush, and the
butterfly sailed away.
"Why, you are a wizard! You charm them!" marvelled Levering.
"I learned that from the Bird Woman," said Elnora.
"She takes soft brushes and coaxes butterflies and moths
into the positions she wants for the illustrations of a book
she is writing. I have helped her often. Most of the rare
ones I find go to her."
"Then you don't keep all you take?" questioned Levering.
"Oh, dear, no!" cried Elnora. "Not a tenth! For myself,
a pair of each kind to use in illustrating the lectures I
give in the city schools in the winter, and one pair for each
collection I make. One might as well keep the big night
moths of June, for they only live four or five days anyway.
For the Bird Woman, I only save rare ones she has not yet secured.
Sometimes I think it is cruel to take such creatures from
freedom, even for an hour, but it is the only way to teach
the masses of people how to distinguish the pests they
should destroy, from the harmless ones of great beauty.
Here comes mother with something cool to drink."
Mrs. Comstock came deliberately, talking to Philip as
she approached. Elnora gave her one searching look, but
could discover only an extremebrightness of eye to denote
any unusual feeling. She wore one of her lavender dresses,
while her snowy hair was high piled. She had taken care
of her complexion, and her face had grown fuller during
the winter. She might have been any one's mother with
pride, and she was perfectly at ease.
Polly instantly went to her and held up her face to be kissed.
Mrs. Comstock's eyes twinkled and she made the greeting hearty.
The drink was compounded of the juices of oranges and
berries from the garden. It was cool enough to frost
glasses and pitcher and delicious to dusty tired travellers.
Soon the pitcher was empty, and Elnora picked it up and
went to refill it. While she was gone Henderson asked
Philip about some trouble he was having with his car.
They went to the woods and began a minute examination
to find a defect which did not exist. Polly and Levering
were having an animated conversation with Mrs. Comstock.
Henderson saw Edith arise, follow the garden path
next the woods and stand waiting under the willow which
Elnora would pass on her return. It was for that meeting
he had made the trip. He got down on the ground, tore
up the car, worked, asked for help, and kept Philip busy
screwing bolts and applying the oil can. All the time
Henderson kept an eye on Edith and Elnora under the willow.
But he took pains to lay the work he asked Philip to do
where that scene would be out of his sight. When Elnora
came around the corner with the pitcher, she found herself
facing Edith Carr.
"I want a minute with you," said Miss Carr.
"Very well," replied Elnora, walking on.
"Set the pitcher on the bench there," commanded Edith
Carr, as if speaking to a servant.
"I prefer not to offer my visitors a warm drink," said Elnora.
"I'll come back if you really wish to speak with me."
"I came solely for that," said Edith Carr.
"It would be a pity to travel so far in this dust and heat
for nothing. I'll only be gone a second."
Elnora placed the pitcher before her mother. "Please serve
this," she said. "Miss Carr wishes to speak with me."
"Don't you pay the least attention to anything she
says," cried Polly. "Tom and I didn't come here because
we wanted to. We only came to checkmate her. I hoped
I'd get the opportunity to say a word to you, and now she
has given it to me. I just want to tell you that she threw
Phil over in perfectlyhorrid way. She hasn't any right
to lay the ghost of a claim to him, has she, Tom?"
"Nary a claim," said Tom Levering earnestly. "Why, even
you, Polly, couldn't serve me as she did Phil, and
ever get me back again. If I were you, Miss Comstock,
I'd send my mother to talk with her and I'd stay here."
Tom had gauged Mrs. Comstock rightly. Polly put her
arms around Elnora. "Let me go with you, dear," she begged.
"I promised I would speak with her alone," said Elnora,
"and she must be considered. But thank you, very much."
"How I shall love you!" exulted Polly, giving Elnora
a parting hug.
The girl slowly and gravely walked back to the willow.
She could not imagine what was coming, but she was promising
herself that she would be very patient and control her temper.
"Will you be seated?" she asked politely.
Edith Carr glanced at the bench, while a shudder shook her.
"No. I prefer to stand," she said. "Did Mr. Ammon
give you the ring you are wearing, and do you consider
yourself engaged to him?"
"By what right do you ask such personal questions as
those?" inquired Elnora.
"By the right of a betrothed wife. I have been promised
to Philip Ammon ever since I wore short skirts. All our
lives we have expected to marry. An agreement of years
cannot be broken in one insane moment. Always he has
loved me devotedly. Give me ten minutes with him and he
will be mine for all time."
"I seriously doubt that," said Elnora. "But I am
willing that you should make the test. I will call him."
"Stop!" commanded Edith Carr. "I told you that it was
you I came to see."
"I remember," said Elnora.
"Mr. Ammon is my betrothed," continued Edith Carr.
"I expect to take him back to Chicago with me."
"You expect considerable," murmured Elnora. "I will
raise no objection to your taking him, if you can--but, I
tell you frankly, I don't think it possible."
"You are so sure of yourself as that," scoffed Edith Carr.
"One hour in my presence will bring back the old spell,
full force. We belong to each other. I will not give him up."
"Then it is untrue that you twice rejected his ring,
repeatedly insulted him, and publicly renounced him?"
"That was through you!" cried Edith Carr. "Phil and
I never had been so near and so happy as we were on
that night. It was your clinging to him for things that
caused him to desert me among his guests, while he tried
to make me await your pleasure. I realize the spell of
this place, for a summer season. I understand what you
and your mother have done to inveigle him. I know that
your hold on him is quite real. I can see just how you
have worked to ensnare him!"
"Men would call that lying," said Elnora calmly.
"The second time I met Philip Ammon he told me of
his engagement to you, and I respected it. I did by you
as I would want you to do by me. He was here parts
of each day, almost daily last summer. The Almighty
is my witness that never once, by word or look, did I ever
make the slightest attempt to interest him in my person
or personality. He wrote you frequently in my presence.
He forgot the violets for which he asked to send you.
I gathered them and carried them to him. I sent him back
to you in unswerving devotion, and the Almighty is also
my witness that I could have changed his heart last summer,
if I had tried. I wisely left that work for you. All my
life I shall be glad that I lived and worked on the square.
That he ever would come back to me free, by your act,
I never dreamed. When he left me I did not hope or expect
to see him again," Elnora's voice fell soft and low,"
and, behold! You sent him--and free!"
"You exult in that!" cried Edith Carr. "Let me tell
you he is not free! We have belonged for years.
We always shall. If you cling to him, and hold him to rash
things he has said and done, because he thought me still
angry and unforgiving with him, you will ruin all our lives.
If he married you, before a month you would read heart-hunger
for me in his eyes. He could not love me as he has done,
she kept one of Elnora's hands in hers. Polly would have
dropped dead in that instant if Edith Carr could have
killed with a look, for not until then did she realize that
Polly would even many a slight, and that it had been a
great mistake to bring her.
Edith bowed low, muttered something and touched
Elnora's fingers. Tom took his cue from Polly.
"I always follow a good example," he said, and before
any one could divine his intention he kissed Elnora as he
gripped her hand and cried: "Mighty glad to meet you!
Like to meet you a dozen times a day, you know!"
Elnora laughed and her heart pumped smoothly. They had
accomplished their purpose. They had let her know they
were there through compulsion, but on her side. In that
instant only pity was in Elnora's breast for the flashing
dark beauty, standing with smiling face while her heart
must have been filled with exceeding bitterness.
Elnora stepped back from the entrance.
"Come into the shade," she urged. "You must have
found it warm on these country roads. Won't you lay
aside your dust-coats and have a cool drink? Philip, would
you ask mother to come, and bring that pitcher from the
spring house?"
They entered the arbour exclaiming at the dim, green coolness.
There was plenty of room and wide seats around the sides,
a table in the centre, on which lay a piece of embroidery,
magazines, books, the moth apparatus, and the cyanide jar
containing several specimens. Polly rejoiced in the
cooling shade, slipped off her duster, removed her hat,
rumpled her pretty hair and seated herself to indulge in
the delightfuloccupation of paying off old scores.
Tom Levering followed her example. Edith took a seat
but refused to remove her hat and coat, while Henderson
stood in the entrance.
"There goes something with wings! Should you have
that?" cried Levering.
He seized a net from the table and raced across the garden
after a butterfly. He caught it and came back mightily
pleased with himself. As the creature struggled in the net,
Elnora noted a repulsed look on Edith Carr's face.
Levering helped the situation beautifully.
"Now what have I got?" he demanded. "Is it just a
common one that every one knows and you don't keep, or
is it the rarest bird off the perch?"
"You must have had practice, you took that so perfectly,"
said Elnora. "I am sorry, but it is quite common and not
of a kind I keep. Suppose all of you see how beautiful
it is and then it may go nectar hunting again."
She held the butterfly where all of them could see,
showed its upper and under wing colours, answered Polly's
questions as to what it ate, how long it lived, and how
it died. Then she put it into Polly's hand saying: "Stand
there in the light and loosen your hold slowly and easily."
Elnora caught a brush from the table and began softly
stroking the creature's sides and wings. Delighted with
the sensation the butterfly opened and closed its wings,
clinging to Polly's soft little fingers, while every one cried
out in surprise. Elnora laid aside the brush, and the
butterfly sailed away.
"Why, you are a wizard! You charm them!" marvelled Levering.
"I learned that from the Bird Woman," said Elnora.
"She takes soft brushes and coaxes butterflies and moths
into the positions she wants for the illustrations of a book
she is writing. I have helped her often. Most of the rare
ones I find go to her."
"Then you don't keep all you take?" questioned Levering.
"Oh, dear, no!" cried Elnora. "Not a tenth! For myself,
a pair of each kind to use in illustrating the lectures I
give in the city schools in the winter, and one pair for each
collection I make. One might as well keep the big night
moths of June, for they only live four or five days anyway.
For the Bird Woman, I only save rare ones she has not yet secured.
Sometimes I think it is cruel to take such creatures from
freedom, even for an hour, but it is the only way to teach
the masses of people how to distinguish the pests they
should destroy, from the harmless ones of great beauty.
Here comes mother with something cool to drink."
Mrs. Comstock came deliberately, talking to Philip as
she approached. Elnora gave her one searching look, but
could discover only an extremebrightness of eye to denote
any unusual feeling. She wore one of her lavender dresses,
while her snowy hair was high piled. She had taken care
of her complexion, and her face had grown fuller during
the winter. She might have been any one's mother with
pride, and she was perfectly at ease.
Polly instantly went to her and held up her face to be kissed.
Mrs. Comstock's eyes twinkled and she made the greeting hearty.
The drink was compounded of the juices of oranges and
berries from the garden. It was cool enough to frost
glasses and pitcher and delicious to dusty tired travellers.
Soon the pitcher was empty, and Elnora picked it up and
went to refill it. While she was gone Henderson asked
Philip about some trouble he was having with his car.
They went to the woods and began a minute examination
to find a defect which did not exist. Polly and Levering
were having an animated conversation with Mrs. Comstock.
Henderson saw Edith arise, follow the garden path
next the woods and stand waiting under the willow which
Elnora would pass on her return. It was for that meeting
he had made the trip. He got down on the ground, tore
up the car, worked, asked for help, and kept Philip busy
screwing bolts and applying the oil can. All the time
Henderson kept an eye on Edith and Elnora under the willow.
But he took pains to lay the work he asked Philip to do
where that scene would be out of his sight. When Elnora
came around the corner with the pitcher, she found herself
facing Edith Carr.
"I want a minute with you," said Miss Carr.
"Very well," replied Elnora, walking on.
"Set the pitcher on the bench there," commanded Edith
Carr, as if speaking to a servant.
"I prefer not to offer my visitors a warm drink," said Elnora.
"I'll come back if you really wish to speak with me."
"I came solely for that," said Edith Carr.
"It would be a pity to travel so far in this dust and heat
for nothing. I'll only be gone a second."
Elnora placed the pitcher before her mother. "Please serve
this," she said. "Miss Carr wishes to speak with me."
"Don't you pay the least attention to anything she
says," cried Polly. "Tom and I didn't come here because
we wanted to. We only came to checkmate her. I hoped
I'd get the opportunity to say a word to you, and now she
has given it to me. I just want to tell you that she threw
Phil over in perfectlyhorrid way. She hasn't any right
to lay the ghost of a claim to him, has she, Tom?"
"Nary a claim," said Tom Levering earnestly. "Why, even
you, Polly, couldn't serve me as she did Phil, and
ever get me back again. If I were you, Miss Comstock,
I'd send my mother to talk with her and I'd stay here."
Tom had gauged Mrs. Comstock rightly. Polly put her
arms around Elnora. "Let me go with you, dear," she begged.
"I promised I would speak with her alone," said Elnora,
"and she must be considered. But thank you, very much."
"How I shall love you!" exulted Polly, giving Elnora
a parting hug.
The girl slowly and gravely walked back to the willow.
She could not imagine what was coming, but she was promising
herself that she would be very patient and control her temper.
"Will you be seated?" she asked politely.
Edith Carr glanced at the bench, while a shudder shook her.
"No. I prefer to stand," she said. "Did Mr. Ammon
give you the ring you are wearing, and do you consider
yourself engaged to him?"
"By what right do you ask such personal questions as
those?" inquired Elnora.
"By the right of a betrothed wife. I have been promised
to Philip Ammon ever since I wore short skirts. All our
lives we have expected to marry. An agreement of years
cannot be broken in one insane moment. Always he has
loved me devotedly. Give me ten minutes with him and he
will be mine for all time."
"I seriously doubt that," said Elnora. "But I am
willing that you should make the test. I will call him."
"Stop!" commanded Edith Carr. "I told you that it was
you I came to see."
"I remember," said Elnora.
"Mr. Ammon is my betrothed," continued Edith Carr.
"I expect to take him back to Chicago with me."
"You expect considerable," murmured Elnora. "I will
raise no objection to your taking him, if you can--but, I
tell you frankly, I don't think it possible."
"You are so sure of yourself as that," scoffed Edith Carr.
"One hour in my presence will bring back the old spell,
full force. We belong to each other. I will not give him up."
"Then it is untrue that you twice rejected his ring,
repeatedly insulted him, and publicly renounced him?"
"That was through you!" cried Edith Carr. "Phil and
I never had been so near and so happy as we were on
that night. It was your clinging to him for things that
caused him to desert me among his guests, while he tried
to make me await your pleasure. I realize the spell of
this place, for a summer season. I understand what you
and your mother have done to inveigle him. I know that
your hold on him is quite real. I can see just how you
have worked to ensnare him!"
"Men would call that lying," said Elnora calmly.
"The second time I met Philip Ammon he told me of
his engagement to you, and I respected it. I did by you
as I would want you to do by me. He was here parts
of each day, almost daily last summer. The Almighty
is my witness that never once, by word or look, did I ever
make the slightest attempt to interest him in my person
or personality. He wrote you frequently in my presence.
He forgot the violets for which he asked to send you.
I gathered them and carried them to him. I sent him back
to you in unswerving devotion, and the Almighty is also
my witness that I could have changed his heart last summer,
if I had tried. I wisely left that work for you. All my
life I shall be glad that I lived and worked on the square.
That he ever would come back to me free, by your act,
I never dreamed. When he left me I did not hope or expect
to see him again," Elnora's voice fell soft and low,"
and, behold! You sent him--and free!"
"You exult in that!" cried Edith Carr. "Let me tell
you he is not free! We have belonged for years.
We always shall. If you cling to him, and hold him to rash
things he has said and done, because he thought me still
angry and unforgiving with him, you will ruin all our lives.
If he married you, before a month you would read heart-hunger
for me in his eyes. He could not love me as he has done,
- instant [´instənt]
a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词) - divine [di´vain] a.神圣的 v.预言 (初中英语单词)
- intention [in´tenʃən] n.意图；打算；意义 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- pitcher [´pitʃə] n.大水罐；投掷者 (初中英语单词)
- delightful [di´laitful] a.讨人喜欢的 (初中英语单词)
- occupation [,ɔkju´peiʃən] a.职业的；军事占领的 (初中英语单词)
- butterfly [´bʌtəflai] n.蝴蝶；蝶式 (初中英语单词)
- sensation [sen´seiʃən] n.感觉；轰动；轰动一时 (初中英语单词)
- writing [´raitiŋ] n.书写；写作；书法 (初中英语单词)
- distinguish [di´stiŋgwiʃ] v.区分；识别；立功 (初中英语单词)
- extreme [ik´stri:m] a.尽头的 n.极端 (初中英语单词)
- unusual [ʌn´ju:ʒuəl] a.不平常的；异常的 (初中英语单词)
- instantly [´instəntli] ad.立即，立刻 (初中英语单词)
- delicious [di´liʃəs] a.美味的，可口的 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- willow [´wiləu] n.柳树 (初中英语单词)
- gravely [´greivli] ad.庄重地，严肃地 (初中英语单词)
- agreement [ə´gri:mənt] n.同意；一致；协议 (初中英语单词)
- seriously [´siəriəsli] ad.严肃；严重，重大 (初中英语单词)
- objection [əb´dʒekʃən] n.反对；异议；缺点 (初中英语单词)
- frankly [´fræŋkli] ad.直率地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- engagement [in´geidʒmənt] n.婚约；雇用；受聘 (初中英语单词)
- witness [´witnis] n.见证人 vt.目击 (初中英语单词)
- personality [,pə:sə´næliti] n.人；个性；人品；人物 (初中英语单词)
- devotion [di´vəuʃən] n.献身；忠诚；热爱 (初中英语单词)
- smoothly [´smu:ðli] ad.光滑地；顺利地 (高中英语单词)
- apparatus [,æpə´reitəs] n.仪器；装置 (高中英语单词)
- indulge [in´dʌldʒ] v.(使)沉迷；沉溺；放任 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- loosen [´lu:sən] v.放松；松弛 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- harmless [´hɑ:mləs] a.无害的，无恶意的 (高中英语单词)
- deliberately [di´libərətli] ad.故意地；慎重地 (高中英语单词)
- brightness [´braitnis] n.光明；快乐 (高中英语单词)
- lavender [´lævində] n.熏衣草；淡紫色 (高中英语单词)
- complexion [kəm´plekʃən] n.肤色；情况；局面 (高中英语单词)
- perfectly [´pə:fiktli] ad.理想地；完美地 (高中英语单词)
- defect [di´fekt, ´di:fekt] n.缺点，不足 (高中英语单词)
- solely [´səulli] ad.唯一；单独；完全 (高中英语单词)
- horrid [´hɔrid] a.令人讨厌的；极糟的 (高中英语单词)
- earnestly [´ə:nistli] ad.认真地；急切地 (高中英语单词)
- shudder [´ʃʌdə] n.&vi.震颤；发抖 (高中英语单词)
- insane [in´sein] a.患神经病的；疯狂的 (高中英语单词)
- wisely [´waizli] ad.明智地，聪明地 (高中英语单词)
- exceeding [ik´si:diŋ] a.超越的，非常的 (英语四级单词)
- delighted [di´laitid] a.高兴的；喜欢的 (英语四级单词)
- rightly [´raitli] ad.正义地；正确地 (英语四级单词)
- parting [´pɑ:tiŋ] a.&n.分离(的) (英语四级单词)
- chicago [ʃi´kɑ:gəu] n.芝加哥 (英语四级单词)
- almighty [ɔ:l´maiti] a.万能的；全能的 (英语四级单词)
- compulsion [kəm´pʌlʃ(ə)n] n.强制；强迫 (英语六级单词)
- hunting [´hʌntiŋ] n.打猎 (英语六级单词)
- animated [´ænimeitid] a.栩栩如生的；活跃的 (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- untrue [ʌn´tru:] a.不真(忠)实的 (英语六级单词)
- publicly [´pʌblikli] ad.公然；公众所有地 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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