章节正文
I've been dying by inches."
"How painful!" said Anne, trying to be sympathetic and succeeding
only in feeling idiotic.
"There have been scores of nights when they've thought I could
never live to see the dawn," went on Mrs. Douglas solemnly.
"Nobody knows what I've gone through -- nobody can know but
myself. Well, it can't last very much longer now. My weary
pilgrimage will soon be over, Miss Shirley. It is a great
comfort to me that John will have such a good wife to look after
him when his mother is gone -- a great comfort, Miss Shirley."
"Janet is a lovely woman," said Anne warmly.
"Lovely! A beautiful character," assented Mrs. Douglas. "And a
perfect housekeeper -- something I never was. My health would
not permit it, Miss Shirley. I am indeed thankful that John has
made such a wise choice. I hope and believe that he will be happy.
He is my only son, Miss Shirley, and his happiness lies very near
my heart."
"Of course," said Anne stupidly. For the first time in her life
she was stupid. Yet she could not imagine why. She seemed to
have absolutely nothing to say to this sweet, smiling, angelic
old lady who was patting her hand so kindly.
"Come and see me soon again, dear Janet," said Mrs. Douglas
lovingly, when they left. "You don't come half often enough.
But then I suppose John will be bringing you here to stay all the
time one of these days." Anne, happening to glance at John
Douglas, as his mother spoke, gave a positive start of dismay.
He looked as a tortured man might look when his tormentors gave
the rack the last turn of possible endurance. She felt sure he
must be ill and hurried poor blushing Janet away.
"Isn't old Mrs. Douglas a sweet woman?" asked Janet, as they
went down the road.
"M -- m," answered Anne absently. She was wondering why John
Douglas had looked so.
"She's been a terrible sufferer," said Janet feelingly.
"She takes terrible spells. It keeps John all worried up.
He's scared to leave home for fear his mother will take a
spell and nobody there but the hired girl."
Chapter XXXIII
"He Just Kept Coming and Coming"
Three days later Anne came home from school and found Janet crying.
Tears and Janet seemed so incongruous that Anne was honestly alarmed.
"Oh, what is the matter?" she cried anxiously.
"I'm -- I'm forty today," sobbed Janet.
"Well, you were nearly that yesterday and it didn't hurt,"
comforted Anne, trying not to smile.
"But -- but," went on Janet with a big gulp, "John Douglas won't
ask me to marry him."
"Oh, but he will," said Anne lamely. "You must give him time, Janet
"Time!" said Janet with indescribable scorn. "He has had twenty years.
How much time does he want?"
"Do you mean that John Douglas has been coming to see you for
twenty years?"
"He has. And he has never so much as mentioned marriage to me.
And I don't believe he ever will now. I've never said a word to
a mortal about it, but it seems to me I've just got to talk it
out with some one at last or go crazy. John Douglas begun to go
with me twenty years ago, before mother died. Well, he kept
coming and coming, and after a spell I begun making quilts and
things; but he never said anything about getting married, only
just kept coming and coming. There wasn't anything I could do.
Mother died when we'd been going together for eight years.
I thought he maybe would speak out then, seeing as I was left
alone in the world. He was real kind and feeling, and did
everything he could for me, but he never said marry. And that's
the way it has been going on ever since. People blame ME for it.
They say I won't marry him because his mother is so sickly and I
don't want the bother of waiting on her. Why, I'd LOVE to wait on
John's mother! But I let them think so. I'd rather they'd blame
me than pity me! It's so dreadful humiliating that John won't
ask me. And WHY won't he? Seems to me if I only knew his reason
I wouldn't mind it so much."
"Perhaps his mother doesn't want him to marry anybody," suggested Anne.
"Oh, she does. She's told me time and again that she'd love to see
John settled before her time comes. She's always giving him hints --
you heard her yourself the other day. I thought I'd ha' gone through
the floor."
"It's beyond me," said Anne helplessly. She thought of Ludovic Speed.
But the cases were not parallel. John Douglas was not a man of
Ludovic's type.
"You should show more spirit, Janet," she went on resolutely.
"Why didn't you send him about his business long ago?"
"I couldn't," said poor Janet pathetically. "You see, Anne, I've
always been awful fond of John. He might just as well keep coming
as not, for there was never anybody else I'd want, so it didn't matter."
"But it might have made him speak out like a man," urged Anne.
Janet shook her head.
"No, I guess not. I was afraid to try, anyway, for fear he'd
think I meant it and just go. I suppose I'm a poor-spirited
creature, but that is how I feel. And I can't help it."
"Oh, you COULD help it, Janet. It isn't too late yet. Take a
firm stand. Let that man know you are not going to endure his
shillyshallying any longer. I'LL back you up."
"I dunno," said Janet hopelessly. "I dunno if I could ever get up
enough spunk. Things have drifted so long. But I'll think it over."
Anne felt that she was disappointed in John Douglas. She had
liked him so well, and she had not thought him the sort of man who
would play fast and loose with a woman's feelings for twenty years.
He certainly should be taught a lesson, and Anne felt vindictively
that she would enjoy seeing the process. Therefore she was delighted
when Janet told her, as they were going to prayer-meeting the next night,
that she meant to show some "sperrit."
"I'll let John Douglas see I'm not going to be trodden on any longer."
"You are perfectly right," said Anne emphatically.
When prayer-meeting was over John Douglas came up with his usual request.
Janet looked frightened but resolute.
"No, thank you," she said icily. "I know the road home pretty well alone.
I ought to, seeing I've been traveling it for forty years. So you needn't
trouble yourself, MR. Douglas."
Anne was looking at John Douglas; and, in that brilliant moonlight,
she saw the last twist of the rack again. Without a word he turned
and strode down the road.
"Stop! Stop!" Anne called wildly after him, not caring in the least
for the other dumbfounded onlookers. "Mr. Douglas, stop! Come back."
John Douglas stopped but he did not come back. Anne flew down
the road, caught his arm and fairly dragged him back to Janet.
"You must come back," she said imploringly. "It's all a mistake,
Mr. Douglas -- all my fault. I made Janet do it. She didn't
want to -- but it's all right now, isn't it, Janet?"
Without a word Janet took his arm and walked away. Anne followed
them meekly home and slipped in by the back door.
"Well, you are a nice person to back me up," said Janet sarcastically.
"I couldn't help it, Janet," said Anne repentantly. "I just felt
as if I had stood by and seen murder done. I HAD to run after him."
"Oh, I'm just as glad you did. When I saw John Douglas making
off down that road I just felt as if every little bit of joy and
happiness that was left in my life was going with him. It was an
awful feeling."
"Did he ask you why you did it?" asked Anne.
"No, he never said a word about it," replied Janet dully.
Chapter XXXIV
John Douglas Speaks at Last
Anne was not without a feeble hope that something might come of
it after all. But nothing did. John Douglas came and took Janet
driving, and walked home from prayer-meeting with her, as he had
been doing for twenty years, and as he seemed likely to do for
twenty years more. The summer waned. Anne taught her school and
wrote letters and studied a little. Her walks to and from school
were pleasant. She always went by way of the swamp; it was a
lovely place -- a boggy soil, green with the greenest of mossy
hillocks; a silvery brook meandered through it and spruces stood
erectly, their boughs a-trail with gray-green mosses, their roots
overgrown with all sorts of woodland lovelinesses.
Nevertheless, Anne found life in Valley Road a little monotonous.
To be sure, there was one diverting incident.
She had not seen the lank, tow-headed Samuel of the peppermints
since the evening of his call, save for chance meetings on the road.
But one warm August night he appeared, and solemnly seated himself
on the rustic bench by the porch. He wore his usual working
habiliments, consisting of varipatched trousers, a blue jean shirt,
out at the elbows, and a ragged straw hat. He was chewing a straw
and he kept on chewing it while he looked solemnly at Anne. Anne
laid her book aside with a sigh and took up her doily. Conversation
with Sam was really out of the question.
After a long silence Sam suddenly spoke.
"I'm leaving over there," he said abruptly, waving his straw in
the direction of the neighboring house.
"Oh, are you?" said Anne politely.
"Yep."
"And where are you going now?"
"Wall, I've been thinking some of gitting a place of my own.
There's one that'd suit me over at Millersville. But ef I rents
it I'll want a woman."
"I suppose so," said Anne vaguely.
"Yep."
There was another long silence. Finally Sam removed his straw
again and said,
"Will yeh hev me?"
"Wh -- a -- t!" gasped Anne.
"Will yeh hev me?"
"Do you mean -- MARRY you?" queried poor Anne feebly.
"Yep."
"Why, I'm hardly acquainted with you," cried Anne indignantly.
"But yeh'd git acquainted with me after we was married," said Sam.
Anne gathered up her poor dignity.
"Certainly I won't marry you," she said haughtily.
"Wall, yeh might do worse," expostulated Sam. "I'm a good worker
and I've got some money in the bank."
"Don't speak of this to me again. Whatever put such an idea into
your head?" said Anne, her sense of humor getting the better of
her wrath. It was such an absurd situation.
"Yeh're a likely-looking girl and hev a right-smart way o' stepping,"
said Sam. "I don't want no lazy woman. Think it over. I won't change
my mind yit awhile. Wall, I must be gitting. Gotter milk the cows."
Anne's illusions concerning proposals had suffered so much of
late years that there were few of them left. So she could laugh
wholeheartedly over this one, not feeling any secret sting. She
mimicked poor Sam to Janet that night, and both of them laughed
immoderately over his plunge into sentiment.
One afternoon, when Anne's sojourn in Valley Road was drawing to a
close, Alec Ward came driving down to "Wayside" in hot haste for Janet.
"They want you at the Douglas place quick," he said. "I really
believe old Mrs. Douglas is going to die at last, after pretending
to do it for twenty years."
Janet ran to get her hat. Anne asked if Mrs. Douglas was worse than usual.
"She's not half as bad," said Alec solemnly, "and that's what
makes me think it's serious. Other times she'd be screaming and
throwing herself all over the place. This time she's lying still
and mum. When Mrs. Douglas is mum she is pretty sick, you bet."
"You don't like old Mrs. Douglas?" said Anne curiously.
"I like cats as IS cats. I don't like cats as is women," was Alec's
cryptic reply.
"How painful!" said Anne, trying to be sympathetic and succeeding
only in feeling idiotic.
"There have been scores of nights when they've thought I could
never live to see the dawn," went on Mrs. Douglas solemnly.
"Nobody knows what I've gone through -- nobody can know but
myself. Well, it can't last very much longer now. My weary
pilgrimage will soon be over, Miss Shirley. It is a great
comfort to me that John will have such a good wife to look after
him when his mother is gone -- a great comfort, Miss Shirley."
"Janet is a lovely woman," said Anne warmly.
"Lovely! A beautiful character," assented Mrs. Douglas. "And a
perfect housekeeper -- something I never was. My health would
not permit it, Miss Shirley. I am indeed thankful that John has
made such a wise choice. I hope and believe that he will be happy.
He is my only son, Miss Shirley, and his happiness lies very near
my heart."
"Of course," said Anne stupidly. For the first time in her life
she was stupid. Yet she could not imagine why. She seemed to
have absolutely nothing to say to this sweet, smiling, angelic
old lady who was patting her hand so kindly.
"Come and see me soon again, dear Janet," said Mrs. Douglas
lovingly, when they left. "You don't come half often enough.
But then I suppose John will be bringing you here to stay all the
time one of these days." Anne, happening to glance at John
Douglas, as his mother spoke, gave a positive start of dismay.
He looked as a tortured man might look when his tormentors gave
the rack the last turn of possible endurance. She felt sure he
must be ill and hurried poor blushing Janet away.
"Isn't old Mrs. Douglas a sweet woman?" asked Janet, as they
went down the road.
"M -- m," answered Anne absently. She was wondering why John
Douglas had looked so.
"She's been a terrible sufferer," said Janet feelingly.
"She takes terrible spells. It keeps John all worried up.
He's scared to leave home for fear his mother will take a
spell and nobody there but the hired girl."
Chapter XXXIII
"He Just Kept Coming and Coming"
Three days later Anne came home from school and found Janet crying.
Tears and Janet seemed so incongruous that Anne was honestly alarmed.
"Oh, what is the matter?" she cried anxiously.
"I'm -- I'm forty today," sobbed Janet.
"Well, you were nearly that yesterday and it didn't hurt,"
comforted Anne, trying not to smile.
"But -- but," went on Janet with a big gulp, "John Douglas won't
ask me to marry him."
"Oh, but he will," said Anne lamely. "You must give him time, Janet
"Time!" said Janet with indescribable scorn. "He has had twenty years.
How much time does he want?"
"Do you mean that John Douglas has been coming to see you for
twenty years?"
"He has. And he has never so much as mentioned marriage to me.
And I don't believe he ever will now. I've never said a word to
a mortal about it, but it seems to me I've just got to talk it
out with some one at last or go crazy. John Douglas begun to go
with me twenty years ago, before mother died. Well, he kept
coming and coming, and after a spell I begun making quilts and
things; but he never said anything about getting married, only
just kept coming and coming. There wasn't anything I could do.
Mother died when we'd been going together for eight years.
I thought he maybe would speak out then, seeing as I was left
alone in the world. He was real kind and feeling, and did
everything he could for me, but he never said marry. And that's
the way it has been going on ever since. People blame ME for it.
They say I won't marry him because his mother is so sickly and I
don't want the bother of waiting on her. Why, I'd LOVE to wait on
John's mother! But I let them think so. I'd rather they'd blame
me than pity me! It's so dreadful humiliating that John won't
ask me. And WHY won't he? Seems to me if I only knew his reason
I wouldn't mind it so much."
"Perhaps his mother doesn't want him to marry anybody," suggested Anne.
"Oh, she does. She's told me time and again that she'd love to see
John settled before her time comes. She's always giving him hints --
you heard her yourself the other day. I thought I'd ha' gone through
the floor."
"It's beyond me," said Anne helplessly. She thought of Ludovic Speed.
But the cases were not parallel. John Douglas was not a man of
Ludovic's type.
"You should show more spirit, Janet," she went on resolutely.
"Why didn't you send him about his business long ago?"
"I couldn't," said poor Janet pathetically. "You see, Anne, I've
always been awful fond of John. He might just as well keep coming
as not, for there was never anybody else I'd want, so it didn't matter."
"But it might have made him speak out like a man," urged Anne.
Janet shook her head.
"No, I guess not. I was afraid to try, anyway, for fear he'd
think I meant it and just go. I suppose I'm a poor-spirited
creature, but that is how I feel. And I can't help it."
"Oh, you COULD help it, Janet. It isn't too late yet. Take a
firm stand. Let that man know you are not going to endure his
shillyshallying any longer. I'LL back you up."
"I dunno," said Janet hopelessly. "I dunno if I could ever get up
enough spunk. Things have drifted so long. But I'll think it over."
Anne felt that she was disappointed in John Douglas. She had
liked him so well, and she had not thought him the sort of man who
would play fast and loose with a woman's feelings for twenty years.
He certainly should be taught a lesson, and Anne felt vindictively
that she would enjoy seeing the process. Therefore she was delighted
when Janet told her, as they were going to prayer-meeting the next night,
that she meant to show some "sperrit."
"I'll let John Douglas see I'm not going to be trodden on any longer."
"You are perfectly right," said Anne emphatically.
When prayer-meeting was over John Douglas came up with his usual request.
Janet looked frightened but resolute.
"No, thank you," she said icily. "I know the road home pretty well alone.
I ought to, seeing I've been traveling it for forty years. So you needn't
trouble yourself, MR. Douglas."
Anne was looking at John Douglas; and, in that brilliant moonlight,
she saw the last twist of the rack again. Without a word he turned
and strode down the road.
"Stop! Stop!" Anne called wildly after him, not caring in the least
for the other dumbfounded onlookers. "Mr. Douglas, stop! Come back."
John Douglas stopped but he did not come back. Anne flew down
the road, caught his arm and fairly dragged him back to Janet.
"You must come back," she said imploringly. "It's all a mistake,
Mr. Douglas -- all my fault. I made Janet do it. She didn't
want to -- but it's all right now, isn't it, Janet?"
Without a word Janet took his arm and walked away. Anne followed
them meekly home and slipped in by the back door.
"Well, you are a nice person to back me up," said Janet sarcastically.
"I couldn't help it, Janet," said Anne repentantly. "I just felt
as if I had stood by and seen murder done. I HAD to run after him."
"Oh, I'm just as glad you did. When I saw John Douglas making
off down that road I just felt as if every little bit of joy and
happiness that was left in my life was going with him. It was an
awful feeling."
"Did he ask you why you did it?" asked Anne.
"No, he never said a word about it," replied Janet dully.
Chapter XXXIV
John Douglas Speaks at Last
Anne was not without a feeble hope that something might come of
it after all. But nothing did. John Douglas came and took Janet
driving, and walked home from prayer-meeting with her, as he had
been doing for twenty years, and as he seemed likely to do for
twenty years more. The summer waned. Anne taught her school and
wrote letters and studied a little. Her walks to and from school
were pleasant. She always went by way of the swamp; it was a
lovely place -- a boggy soil, green with the greenest of mossy
hillocks; a silvery brook meandered through it and spruces stood
erectly, their boughs a-trail with gray-green mosses, their roots
overgrown with all sorts of woodland lovelinesses.
Nevertheless, Anne found life in Valley Road a little monotonous.
To be sure, there was one diverting incident.
She had not seen the lank, tow-headed Samuel of the peppermints
since the evening of his call, save for chance meetings on the road.
But one warm August night he appeared, and solemnly seated himself
on the rustic bench by the porch. He wore his usual working
habiliments, consisting of varipatched trousers, a blue jean shirt,
out at the elbows, and a ragged straw hat. He was chewing a straw
and he kept on chewing it while he looked solemnly at Anne. Anne
laid her book aside with a sigh and took up her doily. Conversation
with Sam was really out of the question.
After a long silence Sam suddenly spoke.
"I'm leaving over there," he said abruptly, waving his straw in
the direction of the neighboring house.
"Oh, are you?" said Anne politely.
"Yep."
"And where are you going now?"
"Wall, I've been thinking some of gitting a place of my own.
There's one that'd suit me over at Millersville. But ef I rents
it I'll want a woman."
"I suppose so," said Anne vaguely.
"Yep."
There was another long silence. Finally Sam removed his straw
again and said,
"Will yeh hev me?"
"Wh -- a -- t!" gasped Anne.
"Will yeh hev me?"
"Do you mean -- MARRY you?" queried poor Anne feebly.
"Yep."
"Why, I'm hardly acquainted with you," cried Anne indignantly.
"But yeh'd git acquainted with me after we was married," said Sam.
Anne gathered up her poor dignity.
"Certainly I won't marry you," she said haughtily.
"Wall, yeh might do worse," expostulated Sam. "I'm a good worker
and I've got some money in the bank."
"Don't speak of this to me again. Whatever put such an idea into
your head?" said Anne, her sense of humor getting the better of
her wrath. It was such an absurd situation.
"Yeh're a likely-looking girl and hev a right-smart way o' stepping,"
said Sam. "I don't want no lazy woman. Think it over. I won't change
my mind yit awhile. Wall, I must be gitting. Gotter milk the cows."
Anne's illusions concerning proposals had suffered so much of
late years that there were few of them left. So she could laugh
wholeheartedly over this one, not feeling any secret sting. She
mimicked poor Sam to Janet that night, and both of them laughed
immoderately over his plunge into sentiment.
One afternoon, when Anne's sojourn in Valley Road was drawing to a
close, Alec Ward came driving down to "Wayside" in hot haste for Janet.
"They want you at the Douglas place quick," he said. "I really
believe old Mrs. Douglas is going to die at last, after pretending
to do it for twenty years."
Janet ran to get her hat. Anne asked if Mrs. Douglas was worse than usual.
"She's not half as bad," said Alec solemnly, "and that's what
makes me think it's serious. Other times she'd be screaming and
throwing herself all over the place. This time she's lying still
and mum. When Mrs. Douglas is mum she is pretty sick, you bet."
"You don't like old Mrs. Douglas?" said Anne curiously.
"I like cats as IS cats. I don't like cats as is women," was Alec's
cryptic reply.
- sympathetic [,simpə´θetik]
a.同情的，有同情心的 (初中英语单词) - stupid [´stju:pid] a.愚蠢的；糊涂的 (初中英语单词)
- absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
- honestly [´ɔnistli] ad.诚实地，老实地 (初中英语单词)
- yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
- bother [´bɔðə] v.打扰 n.麻烦(事) (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- parallel [´pærəlel] a.平行的 n.平行线 (初中英语单词)
- endure [in´djuə] vt.忍耐，忍受；坚持 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- brilliant [´briliənt] a.灿烂的；杰出的 (初中英语单词)
- feeble [´fi:bəl] a.虚弱的，无力的 (初中英语单词)
- valley [´væli] n.谷；河谷；流域 (初中英语单词)
- trousers [´trauzəz] n.裤子，长裤 (初中英语单词)
- abruptly [ə´brʌptli] ad.突然地；粗鲁地 (初中英语单词)
- neighboring [´neibəriŋ] a.邻近的；接壤的 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- absurd [əb´sə:d] a.荒谬的，可笑的 (初中英语单词)
- awhile [ə´wail] ad.少顷；片刻 (初中英语单词)
- plunge [plʌndʒ] v.插进 n.投入；冲击 (初中英语单词)
- housekeeper [´haus,ki:pə] n.主妇，女管家 (高中英语单词)
- thankful [´θæŋkfəl] a.感激的；欣慰的 (高中英语单词)
- positive [´pɔzətiv] a.确定的 (高中英语单词)
- endurance [in´djuərəns] n.忍受(耐)；耐力 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- perfectly [´pə:fiktli] ad.理想地；完美地 (高中英语单词)
- strode [strəud] stride的过去式 (高中英语单词)
- studied [´stʌdid] a.故意的；有计划的 (高中英语单词)
- woodland [´wudlənd] n.树林，林地 (高中英语单词)
- solemnly [´sɔləmli] ad.严肃地，庄严地 (高中英语单词)
- rustic [´rʌstik] a.田野的；质朴的 (高中英语单词)
- ragged [´rægid] a.衣服破烂的 (高中英语单词)
- concerning [kən´sə:niŋ] prep.关于 (高中英语单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- happening [´hæpəniŋ] n.事件，偶然发生的事 (英语四级单词)
- sickly [´sikli] a.多病的；病态的 (英语四级单词)
- hopelessly [´həuplisli] ad.无希望地，绝望地 (英语四级单词)
- meekly [´mi:kli] ad.温顺地；卑恭屈节地 (英语四级单词)
- silvery [´silvəri] a.银一般的 (英语四级单词)
- sojourn [´sɔdʒə:n] vi.&n.旅居；逗留 (英语四级单词)
- drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 (英语四级单词)
- absently [´æbsəntli] ad.心不在焉地 (英语六级单词)
- indescribable [,indis´kraibəbəl] a.难以形容的 (英语六级单词)
- helplessly [´helplisli] ad.无能为力地 (英语六级单词)
- august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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