章节正文
"I work," declared Mr. Parkenstacker, "in a res-
taurant."
The girl shrank slightly.
"Not as a waiter?" she said, a little imploringly.
"Labor is noble, but personal attendance, you
know -- valets and -- "
"I am not a waiter. I am cashier in" -- on the
street they faced that bounded the opposite side of
the park was the brilliant electric sign "RESTAU-
RANT" -- "I am cashier in that restaurant you am
there."
The girl consulted a tiny watch set in a bracelet of
rich design upon her left wrist, and rose, hurriedly.
She thrust her book into a glittering reticule sus-
pended from her waist, for which, however, the book
was too large.
"Why are you not at work?" she asked.
"I am on the night turn," said the young man;
it is yet an hour before my period begins. May I
not hope to see you again?"
"I do not know. Perhaps - but the whim may
not seize me again. I must go quickly now. There
is a dinner, and a box at the play -- and, oh! the
same old round. Perhaps you noticed an automobile
at the upper corner of the park as you came. One
with a white body
"And red running gear?" asked the young man,
knitting his brows reflectively.
"Yes. I always come in that. Pierre waits for
me there. He supposes me to be shopping in the de-
partment store across the square. Conceive of the
bondage of the life wherein we must deceive even our
chauffeurs. Good-night."
"But it is dark now," said Mr. Parkenstacker,
"and the park is full of rude men. May I not
walk -- "
"If you have the slightest regard for my wishes,"
said the girl, firmly, "you will remain at this bench
for ten minutes after I have left. I do not mean to
accuse you, but you are probably aware that autos
generally bear the monogram of their owner. Again,
good-night"
Swift and stately she moved away through the
dusk. The young man watched her graceful form
as she reached the pavement at the park's edge, and
turned up along it toward the corner where stood the
automobile. Then he treacherously and unhesitat-
ingly began to dodge and skim among the park trees
and shrubbery in a course parallel to her route, keep-
ing her well in sight
When she reached the corner she turned her head
to glance at the motor car, and then passed it, con
tinuing on across the street. Sheltered behind a con-
venient standing cab, the young man followed her
movements closely with his eyes. Passing down the
sidewalk of the street opposite the park, she entered
the restaurant with the blazing sign. The place was
one of those frankly glaring establishments, all white,
paint and glass, where one may dine cheaply and
conspicuously. The girl penetrated the restaurant to
some retreat at its rear, whence she quickly emerged
without her bat and veil.
The cashier's desk was well to the front. A red-
head girl an the stool climbed down, glancing
pointedly at the clock as she did so. The girl in
gray mounted in her place.
The young man thrust his hands into his pockets
and walked slowly back along the sidewalk. At the
corner his foot struck a small, paper-covered volume
lying there, sending it sliding to the edge of the
turf. By its picturesque cover he recognized it as
the book the girl had been reading. He picked it up
carelessly, and saw that its title was "New Arabian
Nights," the author being of the name of Stevenson.
He dropped it again upon the grass, and lounged,
irresolute, for a minute. Then he stepped into the
automobile, reclined upon the cushions, and said two
words to the chauffeur:
"Club, Henri."
A COMEDY IN RUBBER
One may hope, in spite of the metaphorists, to
avoid the breath of the deadly upas tree; one may, by
great good fortune, succeed in blacking the eye of the
basilisk; one might even dodge the attentions of Cer-
berus and Argus, but no man, alive or dead, can es-
cape the gaze of the Rubberer.
New York is the Caoutchouc City. There are
many, of course, who go their ways, making money,
without turning to the right or the left, but there is a
tribe abroadwonderfullycomposed, like the Martians,
solely of eyes and means of locomotion.
These devotees of curiosity swarm, like flies, in a
moment in a struggling, breathless circle about the
scene of an unusualoccurrence. If a workman opens
a manhole, if a street car runs over a man from
North Tarrytown, if a little boy drops an egg on
his way home from the grocery, if a casual house or
two drops into the subway, if a lady loses a nickel
through a hole in the lisle thread, if the police drag
a telephone and a racing chart forth from an Ibsen
Society reading-room, if Senator Depew or Mr.
Chuck Connors walks out to take the air - if any of
these incidents or accidents takes place, you will see
the mad, irresistible rush of the "rubber" tribe to
the spot.
The importance of the event does not count. They
gaze with equal interest and absorption at a cho-
rus girl or at a man painting a liver pill sign. They
will form as deep a cordon around a man with a club-
foot as they will around a balked automobile. They
have the furor rubberendi. They are optical glut-
tons, feasting and fattening on the misfortunes of
their fellow beings. They gloat and pore and glare
and squint and stare with their fishy eyes like goggle-
eyed perch at the book baited with calamity.
It would seem that Cupid would find these ocular
vampires too cold game for his calorific shafts, but
have we not yet to discover an immune even among
the Protozoa? Yes, beautiful Romance descended
upon two of this tribe, and love came into their
hearts as they crowded about the prostrate form
of a man who had been run over by a brewery wagon.
William Pry was the first on the spot. He was an
expert at such gatherings. With an expression of in-
tense happiness on his features, be stood over the vic-
tim of the accident, listening to his groans as if to
the sweetest music. When the crowd of spectators
had swelled to a closely packed circle William saw a
violent commotion in the crowd opposite him. Men
were hurled aside like ninepins by the impact of some
moving body that clove them like the rush of a tor-
nado. With elbows, umbrella, hat-pin, tongue, and
fingernails doing their duty, Violet Seymour forced
her way through the mob of onlookers to the first row.
Strong men who even had been able to secure a seat
on the 5.30 Harlem express staggered back like chil-
dren as she bucked centre. Two large lady spectators
who bad seen the Duke of Roxburgh married and
had often blocked traffic on Twenty-third Street
fell back into the second row with ripped shirtwaists
when Violet had finished with them. William Pry
loved her at first sight.
The ambulance removed the unconscious agent of
Cupid. William and Violet remained after the crowd
had dispersed. They were true Rubberers. People
who leave the scene of an accident with the ambulance
have not genuine caoutchouc in the cosmogony of
their necks. The delicate, fine flavor of the affair is
to be bad only in the after-taste - in gloating over
the spot, in gazing fixedly at the houses opposite, in
hovering there in a dream more exquisite than the
opium-eater's ecstasy. William Pry and Violet Sey-
mour were connoisseurs in casualties. They knew bow
to extract full enjoyment from every incident.
Presently they looked at each other. Violet had a
brown birthmark on her neck as large as a silver
half-dollar. William fixed his eyes upon it. William
Pry had inordinately bowed legs. Violet allowed her
gaze to linger unswervingly upon them. Face to face
they stood thus for moments, each staring at the
other. Etiquette would not allow them to speak; but
in the Caoutchouc City it is permitted to gaze with-
out stint at the trees in the parks and at the physi-
cal blemishes of a fellow creature.
At length with a sigh they parted. But Cupid had
been the driver of the brewery wagon, and the wheel
that broke a leg united two fond hearts.
The next meeting of the hero and heroine was in
front of a board fence near Broadway. The day had
been a disappointing one. There had been no fights
on the street, children had kept from under the wheels
of the street cars, cripples and fat men in negligee
shirts were scarce; nobody seemed to be inclined to
slip on banana peels or fall down with heart disease.
Even the sport from Kokomo, Ind., who claims to
be a cousin of ex-Mayor Low and scatters nickels
from a cab window, had not put in his appearance.
There was nothing to stare at, and William Pry had
premonitions of ennui.
But he saw a large crowd scrambling and pushing
excitedly in front of a billboard. Sprinting for it,
he knocked down an old woman and a child carrying
a bottle of milk, and fought his way like a demon into
the mass of spectators. Already in the inner line
stood Violet Seymour with one sleeve and two gold fill-
ings gone, a corset steel puncture and a sprained
wrist, but happy. She was looking at what there
was to see. A man was painting upon the fence:
"Eat Bricklets - They Fill Your Face."
Violet blushed when she saw William Pry. William
jabbed a lady in a black silk raglan in the ribs, kicked
a boy in the shin, bit an old gentleman on the left ear
and managed to crowd nearer to Violet. They stood
for an hour looking at the man paint the letters.
Then William's love could be repressed no longer.
He touched her on the arm.
"Come with me," he said. "I know where there
is a bootblack without an Adam's apple."
She looked up at him shyly, yet with unmistakable
love transfiguring her countenance.
"And you have saved it for me?" she asked,
taurant."
The girl shrank slightly.
"Not as a waiter?" she said, a little imploringly.
"Labor is noble, but personal attendance, you
know -- valets and -- "
"I am not a waiter. I am cashier in" -- on the
street they faced that bounded the opposite side of
the park was the brilliant electric sign "RESTAU-
RANT" -- "I am cashier in that restaurant you am
there."
The girl consulted a tiny watch set in a bracelet of
rich design upon her left wrist, and rose, hurriedly.
She thrust her book into a glittering reticule sus-
pended from her waist, for which, however, the book
was too large.
"Why are you not at work?" she asked.
"I am on the night turn," said the young man;
it is yet an hour before my period begins. May I
not hope to see you again?"
"I do not know. Perhaps - but the whim may
not seize me again. I must go quickly now. There
is a dinner, and a box at the play -- and, oh! the
same old round. Perhaps you noticed an automobile
at the upper corner of the park as you came. One
with a white body
"And red running gear?" asked the young man,
knitting his brows reflectively.
"Yes. I always come in that. Pierre waits for
me there. He supposes me to be shopping in the de-
partment store across the square. Conceive of the
bondage of the life wherein we must deceive even our
chauffeurs. Good-night."
"But it is dark now," said Mr. Parkenstacker,
"and the park is full of rude men. May I not
walk -- "
"If you have the slightest regard for my wishes,"
said the girl, firmly, "you will remain at this bench
for ten minutes after I have left. I do not mean to
accuse you, but you are probably aware that autos
generally bear the monogram of their owner. Again,
good-night"
Swift and stately she moved away through the
dusk. The young man watched her graceful form
as she reached the pavement at the park's edge, and
turned up along it toward the corner where stood the
automobile. Then he treacherously and unhesitat-
ingly began to dodge and skim among the park trees
and shrubbery in a course parallel to her route, keep-
ing her well in sight
When she reached the corner she turned her head
to glance at the motor car, and then passed it, con
tinuing on across the street. Sheltered behind a con-
venient standing cab, the young man followed her
movements closely with his eyes. Passing down the
sidewalk of the street opposite the park, she entered
the restaurant with the blazing sign. The place was
one of those frankly glaring establishments, all white,
paint and glass, where one may dine cheaply and
conspicuously. The girl penetrated the restaurant to
some retreat at its rear, whence she quickly emerged
without her bat and veil.
The cashier's desk was well to the front. A red-
head girl an the stool climbed down, glancing
pointedly at the clock as she did so. The girl in
gray mounted in her place.
The young man thrust his hands into his pockets
and walked slowly back along the sidewalk. At the
corner his foot struck a small, paper-covered volume
lying there, sending it sliding to the edge of the
turf. By its picturesque cover he recognized it as
the book the girl had been reading. He picked it up
carelessly, and saw that its title was "New Arabian
Nights," the author being of the name of Stevenson.
He dropped it again upon the grass, and lounged,
irresolute, for a minute. Then he stepped into the
automobile, reclined upon the cushions, and said two
words to the chauffeur:
"Club, Henri."
A COMEDY IN RUBBER
One may hope, in spite of the metaphorists, to
avoid the breath of the deadly upas tree; one may, by
great good fortune, succeed in blacking the eye of the
basilisk; one might even dodge the attentions of Cer-
berus and Argus, but no man, alive or dead, can es-
cape the gaze of the Rubberer.
New York is the Caoutchouc City. There are
many, of course, who go their ways, making money,
without turning to the right or the left, but there is a
tribe abroadwonderfullycomposed, like the Martians,
solely of eyes and means of locomotion.
These devotees of curiosity swarm, like flies, in a
moment in a struggling, breathless circle about the
scene of an unusualoccurrence. If a workman opens
a manhole, if a street car runs over a man from
North Tarrytown, if a little boy drops an egg on
his way home from the grocery, if a casual house or
two drops into the subway, if a lady loses a nickel
through a hole in the lisle thread, if the police drag
a telephone and a racing chart forth from an Ibsen
Society reading-room, if Senator Depew or Mr.
Chuck Connors walks out to take the air - if any of
these incidents or accidents takes place, you will see
the mad, irresistible rush of the "rubber" tribe to
the spot.
The importance of the event does not count. They
gaze with equal interest and absorption at a cho-
rus girl or at a man painting a liver pill sign. They
will form as deep a cordon around a man with a club-
foot as they will around a balked automobile. They
have the furor rubberendi. They are optical glut-
tons, feasting and fattening on the misfortunes of
their fellow beings. They gloat and pore and glare
and squint and stare with their fishy eyes like goggle-
eyed perch at the book baited with calamity.
It would seem that Cupid would find these ocular
vampires too cold game for his calorific shafts, but
have we not yet to discover an immune even among
the Protozoa? Yes, beautiful Romance descended
upon two of this tribe, and love came into their
hearts as they crowded about the prostrate form
of a man who had been run over by a brewery wagon.
William Pry was the first on the spot. He was an
expert at such gatherings. With an expression of in-
tense happiness on his features, be stood over the vic-
tim of the accident, listening to his groans as if to
the sweetest music. When the crowd of spectators
had swelled to a closely packed circle William saw a
violent commotion in the crowd opposite him. Men
were hurled aside like ninepins by the impact of some
moving body that clove them like the rush of a tor-
nado. With elbows, umbrella, hat-pin, tongue, and
fingernails doing their duty, Violet Seymour forced
her way through the mob of onlookers to the first row.
Strong men who even had been able to secure a seat
on the 5.30 Harlem express staggered back like chil-
dren as she bucked centre. Two large lady spectators
who bad seen the Duke of Roxburgh married and
had often blocked traffic on Twenty-third Street
fell back into the second row with ripped shirtwaists
when Violet had finished with them. William Pry
loved her at first sight.
The ambulance removed the unconscious agent of
Cupid. William and Violet remained after the crowd
had dispersed. They were true Rubberers. People
who leave the scene of an accident with the ambulance
have not genuine caoutchouc in the cosmogony of
their necks. The delicate, fine flavor of the affair is
to be bad only in the after-taste - in gloating over
the spot, in gazing fixedly at the houses opposite, in
hovering there in a dream more exquisite than the
opium-eater's ecstasy. William Pry and Violet Sey-
mour were connoisseurs in casualties. They knew bow
to extract full enjoyment from every incident.
Presently they looked at each other. Violet had a
brown birthmark on her neck as large as a silver
half-dollar. William fixed his eyes upon it. William
Pry had inordinately bowed legs. Violet allowed her
gaze to linger unswervingly upon them. Face to face
they stood thus for moments, each staring at the
other. Etiquette would not allow them to speak; but
in the Caoutchouc City it is permitted to gaze with-
out stint at the trees in the parks and at the physi-
cal blemishes of a fellow creature.
At length with a sigh they parted. But Cupid had
been the driver of the brewery wagon, and the wheel
that broke a leg united two fond hearts.
The next meeting of the hero and heroine was in
front of a board fence near Broadway. The day had
been a disappointing one. There had been no fights
on the street, children had kept from under the wheels
of the street cars, cripples and fat men in negligee
shirts were scarce; nobody seemed to be inclined to
slip on banana peels or fall down with heart disease.
Even the sport from Kokomo, Ind., who claims to
be a cousin of ex-Mayor Low and scatters nickels
from a cab window, had not put in his appearance.
There was nothing to stare at, and William Pry had
premonitions of ennui.
But he saw a large crowd scrambling and pushing
excitedly in front of a billboard. Sprinting for it,
he knocked down an old woman and a child carrying
a bottle of milk, and fought his way like a demon into
the mass of spectators. Already in the inner line
stood Violet Seymour with one sleeve and two gold fill-
ings gone, a corset steel puncture and a sprained
wrist, but happy. She was looking at what there
was to see. A man was painting upon the fence:
"Eat Bricklets - They Fill Your Face."
Violet blushed when she saw William Pry. William
jabbed a lady in a black silk raglan in the ribs, kicked
a boy in the shin, bit an old gentleman on the left ear
and managed to crowd nearer to Violet. They stood
for an hour looking at the man paint the letters.
Then William's love could be repressed no longer.
He touched her on the arm.
"Come with me," he said. "I know where there
is a bootblack without an Adam's apple."
She looked up at him shyly, yet with unmistakable
love transfiguring her countenance.
"And you have saved it for me?" she asked,
- brilliant [´briliənt]
a.灿烂的；杰出的 (初中英语单词) - restaurant [´restərɔnt] n.饭店，菜馆 (初中英语单词)
- thrust [θrʌst] v.&n.猛推；冲；刺；挤进 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- conceive [kən´si:v] v.设想；表达；怀孕 (初中英语单词)
- deceive [di´si:v] vt.欺骗，欺诈 (初中英语单词)
- firmly [´fə:mli] ad.坚固地，稳定地 (初中英语单词)
- graceful [´greisfəl] a.优美的，流畅的 (初中英语单词)
- parallel [´pærəlel] a.平行的 n.平行线 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- frankly [´fræŋkli] ad.直率地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- retreat [ri´tri:t] v.&n.退却；撤退；放弃 (初中英语单词)
- reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
- abroad [ə´brɔ:d] ad.海外；到处；广泛 (初中英语单词)
- curiosity [,kjuəri´ɔsiti] n.好奇；奇事；珍品 (初中英语单词)
- circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
- unusual [ʌn´ju:ʒuəl] a.不平常的；异常的 (初中英语单词)
- painting [´peintiŋ] n.绘画；(油)画；着色 (初中英语单词)
- romance [rəu´mæns] n.中世纪骑士小说 (初中英语单词)
- violet [´vaiələt] n.&a.紫罗兰(的)；紫色 (初中英语单词)
- traffic [´træfik] n.交通，运输 (初中英语单词)
- delicate [´delikət] a.精美的；微妙的 (初中英语单词)
- flavor [´fleivə] n.滋味 vt.给....调味 (初中英语单词)
- linger [´liŋgə] v.逗留；留恋；拖延 (初中英语单词)
- scarce [skeəs, skers] a.缺乏的；稀有的 (初中英语单词)
- banana [bə´nɑ:nə] n.香蕉 (初中英语单词)
- sleeve [sli:v] n.袖子；袖套 (初中英语单词)
- bracelet [´breislit] n.手镯 (高中英语单词)
- wherein [weər´in] ad.那里面 (高中英语单词)
- stately [´steitli] a.庄严的，雄伟的 (高中英语单词)
- pavement [´peivmənt] n.路面；铺筑材料 (高中英语单词)
- sidewalk [´saidwɔ:k] n.人行道 (高中英语单词)
- picturesque [,piktʃə´resk] a.似画的；别致的 (高中英语单词)
- comedy [´kɔmidi] n.喜剧；喜剧场面 (高中英语单词)
- breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
- occurrence [ə´kʌrəns] n.发生；(偶发)事件 (高中英语单词)
- workman [´wə:kmən] n.工人；工作人员 (高中英语单词)
- grocery [´grəusəri] n.食品杂货店 (高中英语单词)
- casual [´kæʒuəl] a.偶然的；临时的 (高中英语单词)
- crowded [´kraudid] a.充(拥)满了的 (高中英语单词)
- umbrella [ʌm´brelə] n.伞 (高中英语单词)
- unconscious [ʌn´kɔnʃəs] a.无意识的；不觉察的 (高中英语单词)
- genuine [´dʒenjuin] a.真正的；真诚的 (高中英语单词)
- exquisite [ik´skwizit] a.精巧的；敏锐的 (高中英语单词)
- ecstasy [´ekstəsi] n.狂喜；出神，入迷 (高中英语单词)
- extract [ik´strækt, ´ekstrækt] vt.取出；摘录 n.精华 (高中英语单词)
- enjoyment [in´dʒɔimənt] n.享受；愉快；乐趣 (高中英语单词)
- broadway [´brɔ:dwei] n.&a.百老汇大街(的) (高中英语单词)
- waiter [´weitə] n.侍者，服务员 (英语四级单词)
- cashier [kæ´ʃiə] n.出纳员 (英语四级单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- wonderfully [´wʌndəfuli] ad.令人惊讶地；奇妙地 (英语四级单词)
- composed [kəm´pəuzd] a.镇静自若的 (英语四级单词)
- subway [´sʌbwei] n.地铁；地道 (英语四级单词)
- irresistible [,iri´zistəbəl] a.不可抵抗的 (英语四级单词)
- absorption [əb´sɔ:pʃən] n.吸收；吸收作用 (英语四级单词)
- prostrate [´prɔstreit, prɔ´streit] a.俯伏的 vt.弄倒 (英语四级单词)
- commotion [kə´məuʃən] n.混乱；骚动 (英语四级单词)
- ambulance [´æmbjuləns] n.救护车(船，飞机) (英语四级单词)
- heroine [´herəuin] n.女英雄；女主人公 (英语四级单词)
- shrank [ʃræŋk] shrink的过去式 (英语六级单词)
- impact [´impækt] n.影响，作用；冲击 (英语六级单词)
- etiquette [´etiket] n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 (英语六级单词)
- corset [´kɔ:sit] n.妇女紧身胸衣 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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