章节正文
Thus keeping a speculative watch on all persons of
possible managerial aspect, Octavia, with a catching
breath and a start of surprise, suddenly became aware of
Teddy Westlake hurrying along the platform in the
direction of the train -- of Teddy Westlake or his sun-
browned ghost in cheviot, boots and leather-girdled hat
-- Theodore Westlake, Jr., amateur polo (almost)
champion, all-round butterfly and cumberer of the soil;
but a broader, surer, more emphasized and determined
Teddy than the one she had known a year ago when last
she saw him.
He perceived Octavia at almost the same time, deflected
his course, and steered for her in his old, straightforward
way. Something like awe came upon her as the strange-
ness of his metamorphosis was brought into closer range;
the rich, red-brown of his complexion brought out so
vividly his straw-coloured mustache and steel-gray eyes.
He seemed more grown-up, and, somehow, farther away.
But, when he spoke, the old, boyish Teddy came back
again. They had been friends from childhood.
"Why, 'Tave!" he exclaimed, unable to reduce
his perplexity to coherence. " How -- what -- when --
where?"
"Train," said Octavia; "necessity; ten minutes ago;
home. Your complexion's gone, Teddy. Now, how --
what -- when -- where?"
"I'm working down here," said Teddy. He cast side
glances about the station as one does who tries to combine
politeness with duty.
"You didn't notice on the train," he asked, "an old
lady with gray curls and a poodle, who occupied two
seats with her bundles and quarrelled with the conductor,
did you?"
"I think not," answered Octavia, reflecting. "And
you haven't, by any chance, noticed a big, gray-mustached
man in a blue shirt and six-shooters, with little flakes of
merino wool sticking in his hair, have you?"
"Lots of 'em," said Teddy, with symptoms of mental
delirium under the strain. Do you happen to know any
such individual?"
"No; the description is imaginary. Is your interest
in the old lady whom you describe a personal one?"
"Never saw her in my life. She's painted entirely
from fancy. She owns the little piece of property where I
earn my bread and butter - the Rancho de las Sombras.
I drove up to meet her according to arrangement with
her lawyer."
Octavia leaned against the wall of the telegraph office.
Was this possible? And didn't he know?
"Are you the manager of that ranch?" she asked
weakly.
"I am," said Teddy, with pride.
"I am Mrs. Beaupree," said Octavia faintly; "but my
hair never would curl, and I was polite to the conductor."
For a moment that strange, grown-up look came back,
and removed Teddy miles away from her.
"I hope you'll excuse me," he said, rather awkwardly.
"You see, I've been down here in the chaparral a year.
I hadn't heard. Give me your checks, please, and I'll
have your traps loaded into the wagon. Jos?will follow
with them. We travel ahead in the buckboard."
Seated by Teddy in a feather-weight buckboard, behind
a pair of wild, cream-coloured Spanish ponies, Octavia
abandoned all thought for the exhilaration of the present.
They swept out of the little town and down the level road
toward the south. Soon the road dwindled and dis-
appeared, and they struck across a world carpeted with
an endless reach of curly mesquite grass. The wheels
made no sound. The tireless ponies bounded ahead at
an unbrokengallop. The temperate wind, made fragrant
by thousands of acres of blue and yellow wild flowers,
roared gloriously in their ears. The motion was a锟絩ial,
ecstatic, with a thrilling sense of perpetuity in its effect.
Octavia sat silent, possessed by a feeling of elemental,
sensual bliss. Teddy seemed to be wrestling with some
internal problem.
"I'm going to call you madama," he announced as the
result of his labours. "That is what the Mexicans will
call you -- they're nearly all Mexicans on the ranch,
you know. That seems to me about the proper thing."
"Very well, Mr. Westlake," said Octavia, primly.
"Oh, now," said Teddy, in some consternation, "that's
carrying the thing too far, isn't it?"
"Don't worry me with your beastlyetiquette. I'm
just beginning to live. Don't remind me of anything
artificial. If only this air could be bottled! This much
alone is worth coming for. Oh, look I there goes a deer!"
"Jack-rabbit," said Teddy, without turning his head.
"Could I -- might I drive?" suggested Octavia, pant-
ing, with rose-tinted cheeks and the eye of an eager child.
"On one condition. Could I -- might I smoke? "
"Forever!" cried Octavia, taking the lines with solemn
joy. "How shall I know which way to drive?"
"Keep her sou' by sou'east, and all sail set. You see
that black speck on the horizon under that lowermost
Gulf cloud? That's a group of live-oaks and a land-
mark. Steer halfway between that and the little hill to
the left. I'll recite you the whole code of driving rules
for the Texas prairies: keep the reins from under the
horses' feet, and swear at 'em frequent."
"I'm too happy to swear, Ted. Oh, why do people
buy yachts or travel in palace-cars, when a buckboard
and a pair of plugs and a spring morning like this can
satisfy all desire?"
"Now, I'll ask you," protested Teddy, who was futilely
striking match after match on the dashboard, "not to
call those denizens of the air plugs. They can kick out
a hundred miles between daylight and dark." At last
he succeeded in snatching a light for his cigar from the
flame held in the hollow of his hands.
"Room!" said Octavia, intensely. "That's what
produces the effect. I know now what I've wanted --
scope -- range -- room! "
"Smoking-room," said Teddy, unsentimentally. "I
love to smoke in a buckboard. The wind blows the smoke
into you and out again. It saves exertion."
The two fell so naturally into their old-time goodfellow-
ship that it was only by degrees that a sense of the strange-
ness of the new relations between them came to be felt.
"Madama," said Teddy, wonderingly, "however did
you get it into your bead to cut the crowd and come down
here? Is it a fad now among the upper classes to trot
off to sheep ranches instead of to Newport?"
"I was broke, Teddy," said Octavia, sweetly, with her
interest centred upon steering safely between a Spanish
dagger plant and a clump of chaparral; "I haven't a
thing in the world but this ranch -- not even any other
home to go to."
"Come, now," said Teddy, anxiously but ineredu-
lously, "you don't mean it?"
"When my husband," said Octavia, with a shy slurring
of the word, "died three months ago I thought I had a
reasonable amount of the world's goods. His lawyer
exploded that theory in a sixty-minute fully illustrated
lecture. I took to the sheep as a last resort. Do you
happen to know of any fashionable caprice among the
gilded youth of Manhattan that induces them to abandon
polo and club windows to become managers of sheep
ranches?"
"It's easily explained in my case," responded Teddy,
promptly. "I had to go to work. I couldn't have earned
my board in New York, so I chummed a while with old
Sandford, one of the syndicate that owned the ranch before
Colonel Beaupree bought it, and got a place down here.
I wasn't manager at first. I jogged around on ponies and
studied the business in detail, until I got all the points in
my head. I saw where it was losing and what the reme-
dies were, and then Sandford put me in charge. I get a
hundred dollars a month, and I earn it."
"Poor Teddy!" said Octavia, with a smile.
"You needn't. I like it. I save half my wages, and
I'm as hard as a water plug. It beats polo."
"Will it furnish bread and tea and jam for another out-
cast from civilization?"
"The spring shearing," said the manager, "just cleaned
up a deficit in last year's business. Wastefulness and
inattention have been the rule heretofore. The autumn
clip will leave a small profit over all expenses. Next
year there will be jam."
When, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the ponies
rounded a gentle, brush-covered hill, and then swooped,
like a double cream-coloured cyclone, upon the Rancho
de las Sombras, Octavia gave a little cry of delight. A
lordly grove of magnificent live-oaks cast an area of
grateful, cool shade, whence the ranch had drawn its
name, "de las Sombras" -- of the shadows. The house,
of red brick, one story, ran low and long beneath the trees.
Through its middle, dividing its six rooms in half, extended
a broad, archedpassageway, picturesque with flowering
cactus and hanging red earthern jars. A "gallery," low
and broad, encircled the building. Vines climbed about
it, and the adjacent ground was, for a space, covered with
transplanted grass and shrubs. A little lake, long and
narrow, glimmered in the sun at the rear. Further away
stood the shacks of the Mexican workers, the corrals,
wool sheds and shearing pens. To the right lay the low
hills, splattered with dark patches of chaparral; to the
left the unbounded green prairie blending against the blue
heavens.
"It's a home, Teddy," said Octavia, breathlessly;
that's what it is -- it's a home."
"Not so bad for a sheep ranch," admitted Teddy, with
excusable pride. "I've been tinkering on it at odd times."
A Mexican youth sprang from somewhere in the grass,
and took charge of the creams. The mistress and the
manager entered the house.
"Here's Mrs. MacIntyre," said Teddy, as a placid,
neat, elderly lady came out upon the gallery to meet
them. "Mrs. Mac, here's the boss. Very likely she
will be wanting a hunk of ham and a dish of beans after
her drive."
Mrs. MacIntyre, the housekeeper, as much a fixture
on the place as the lake or the live-oaks, received the
imputation of the ranch's resources of refreshment with
mild indignation, and was about to give it utterance when
Octavia spoke.
"Oh, Mrs. MacIntyre, don't apologize for Teddy.
Yes, I call him Teddy. So does every one whom he
hasn't duped into taking him seriously. You see, we
used to cut paper dolls and play jackstraws together ages
ago. No one minds what he says."
possible managerial aspect, Octavia, with a catching
breath and a start of surprise, suddenly became aware of
Teddy Westlake hurrying along the platform in the
direction of the train -- of Teddy Westlake or his sun-
browned ghost in cheviot, boots and leather-girdled hat
-- Theodore Westlake, Jr., amateur polo (almost)
champion, all-round butterfly and cumberer of the soil;
but a broader, surer, more emphasized and determined
Teddy than the one she had known a year ago when last
she saw him.
He perceived Octavia at almost the same time, deflected
his course, and steered for her in his old, straightforward
way. Something like awe came upon her as the strange-
ness of his metamorphosis was brought into closer range;
the rich, red-brown of his complexion brought out so
vividly his straw-coloured mustache and steel-gray eyes.
He seemed more grown-up, and, somehow, farther away.
But, when he spoke, the old, boyish Teddy came back
again. They had been friends from childhood.
"Why, 'Tave!" he exclaimed, unable to reduce
his perplexity to coherence. " How -- what -- when --
where?"
"Train," said Octavia; "necessity; ten minutes ago;
home. Your complexion's gone, Teddy. Now, how --
what -- when -- where?"
"I'm working down here," said Teddy. He cast side
glances about the station as one does who tries to combine
politeness with duty.
"You didn't notice on the train," he asked, "an old
lady with gray curls and a poodle, who occupied two
seats with her bundles and quarrelled with the conductor,
did you?"
"I think not," answered Octavia, reflecting. "And
you haven't, by any chance, noticed a big, gray-mustached
man in a blue shirt and six-shooters, with little flakes of
merino wool sticking in his hair, have you?"
"Lots of 'em," said Teddy, with symptoms of mental
delirium under the strain. Do you happen to know any
such individual?"
"No; the description is imaginary. Is your interest
in the old lady whom you describe a personal one?"
"Never saw her in my life. She's painted entirely
from fancy. She owns the little piece of property where I
earn my bread and butter - the Rancho de las Sombras.
I drove up to meet her according to arrangement with
her lawyer."
Octavia leaned against the wall of the telegraph office.
Was this possible? And didn't he know?
"Are you the manager of that ranch?" she asked
weakly.
"I am," said Teddy, with pride.
"I am Mrs. Beaupree," said Octavia faintly; "but my
hair never would curl, and I was polite to the conductor."
For a moment that strange, grown-up look came back,
and removed Teddy miles away from her.
"I hope you'll excuse me," he said, rather awkwardly.
"You see, I've been down here in the chaparral a year.
I hadn't heard. Give me your checks, please, and I'll
have your traps loaded into the wagon. Jos?will follow
with them. We travel ahead in the buckboard."
Seated by Teddy in a feather-weight buckboard, behind
a pair of wild, cream-coloured Spanish ponies, Octavia
abandoned all thought for the exhilaration of the present.
They swept out of the little town and down the level road
toward the south. Soon the road dwindled and dis-
appeared, and they struck across a world carpeted with
an endless reach of curly mesquite grass. The wheels
made no sound. The tireless ponies bounded ahead at
an unbrokengallop. The temperate wind, made fragrant
by thousands of acres of blue and yellow wild flowers,
roared gloriously in their ears. The motion was a锟絩ial,
ecstatic, with a thrilling sense of perpetuity in its effect.
Octavia sat silent, possessed by a feeling of elemental,
sensual bliss. Teddy seemed to be wrestling with some
internal problem.
"I'm going to call you madama," he announced as the
result of his labours. "That is what the Mexicans will
call you -- they're nearly all Mexicans on the ranch,
you know. That seems to me about the proper thing."
"Very well, Mr. Westlake," said Octavia, primly.
"Oh, now," said Teddy, in some consternation, "that's
carrying the thing too far, isn't it?"
"Don't worry me with your beastlyetiquette. I'm
just beginning to live. Don't remind me of anything
artificial. If only this air could be bottled! This much
alone is worth coming for. Oh, look I there goes a deer!"
"Jack-rabbit," said Teddy, without turning his head.
"Could I -- might I drive?" suggested Octavia, pant-
ing, with rose-tinted cheeks and the eye of an eager child.
"On one condition. Could I -- might I smoke? "
"Forever!" cried Octavia, taking the lines with solemn
joy. "How shall I know which way to drive?"
"Keep her sou' by sou'east, and all sail set. You see
that black speck on the horizon under that lowermost
Gulf cloud? That's a group of live-oaks and a land-
mark. Steer halfway between that and the little hill to
the left. I'll recite you the whole code of driving rules
for the Texas prairies: keep the reins from under the
horses' feet, and swear at 'em frequent."
"I'm too happy to swear, Ted. Oh, why do people
buy yachts or travel in palace-cars, when a buckboard
and a pair of plugs and a spring morning like this can
satisfy all desire?"
"Now, I'll ask you," protested Teddy, who was futilely
striking match after match on the dashboard, "not to
call those denizens of the air plugs. They can kick out
a hundred miles between daylight and dark." At last
he succeeded in snatching a light for his cigar from the
flame held in the hollow of his hands.
"Room!" said Octavia, intensely. "That's what
produces the effect. I know now what I've wanted --
scope -- range -- room! "
"Smoking-room," said Teddy, unsentimentally. "I
love to smoke in a buckboard. The wind blows the smoke
into you and out again. It saves exertion."
The two fell so naturally into their old-time goodfellow-
ship that it was only by degrees that a sense of the strange-
ness of the new relations between them came to be felt.
"Madama," said Teddy, wonderingly, "however did
you get it into your bead to cut the crowd and come down
here? Is it a fad now among the upper classes to trot
off to sheep ranches instead of to Newport?"
"I was broke, Teddy," said Octavia, sweetly, with her
interest centred upon steering safely between a Spanish
dagger plant and a clump of chaparral; "I haven't a
thing in the world but this ranch -- not even any other
home to go to."
"Come, now," said Teddy, anxiously but ineredu-
lously, "you don't mean it?"
"When my husband," said Octavia, with a shy slurring
of the word, "died three months ago I thought I had a
reasonable amount of the world's goods. His lawyer
exploded that theory in a sixty-minute fully illustrated
lecture. I took to the sheep as a last resort. Do you
happen to know of any fashionable caprice among the
gilded youth of Manhattan that induces them to abandon
polo and club windows to become managers of sheep
ranches?"
"It's easily explained in my case," responded Teddy,
promptly. "I had to go to work. I couldn't have earned
my board in New York, so I chummed a while with old
Sandford, one of the syndicate that owned the ranch before
Colonel Beaupree bought it, and got a place down here.
I wasn't manager at first. I jogged around on ponies and
studied the business in detail, until I got all the points in
my head. I saw where it was losing and what the reme-
dies were, and then Sandford put me in charge. I get a
hundred dollars a month, and I earn it."
"Poor Teddy!" said Octavia, with a smile.
"You needn't. I like it. I save half my wages, and
I'm as hard as a water plug. It beats polo."
"Will it furnish bread and tea and jam for another out-
cast from civilization?"
"The spring shearing," said the manager, "just cleaned
up a deficit in last year's business. Wastefulness and
inattention have been the rule heretofore. The autumn
clip will leave a small profit over all expenses. Next
year there will be jam."
When, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the ponies
rounded a gentle, brush-covered hill, and then swooped,
like a double cream-coloured cyclone, upon the Rancho
de las Sombras, Octavia gave a little cry of delight. A
lordly grove of magnificent live-oaks cast an area of
grateful, cool shade, whence the ranch had drawn its
name, "de las Sombras" -- of the shadows. The house,
of red brick, one story, ran low and long beneath the trees.
Through its middle, dividing its six rooms in half, extended
a broad, archedpassageway, picturesque with flowering
cactus and hanging red earthern jars. A "gallery," low
and broad, encircled the building. Vines climbed about
it, and the adjacent ground was, for a space, covered with
transplanted grass and shrubs. A little lake, long and
narrow, glimmered in the sun at the rear. Further away
stood the shacks of the Mexican workers, the corrals,
wool sheds and shearing pens. To the right lay the low
hills, splattered with dark patches of chaparral; to the
left the unbounded green prairie blending against the blue
heavens.
"It's a home, Teddy," said Octavia, breathlessly;
that's what it is -- it's a home."
"Not so bad for a sheep ranch," admitted Teddy, with
excusable pride. "I've been tinkering on it at odd times."
A Mexican youth sprang from somewhere in the grass,
and took charge of the creams. The mistress and the
manager entered the house.
"Here's Mrs. MacIntyre," said Teddy, as a placid,
neat, elderly lady came out upon the gallery to meet
them. "Mrs. Mac, here's the boss. Very likely she
will be wanting a hunk of ham and a dish of beans after
her drive."
Mrs. MacIntyre, the housekeeper, as much a fixture
on the place as the lake or the live-oaks, received the
imputation of the ranch's resources of refreshment with
mild indignation, and was about to give it utterance when
Octavia spoke.
"Oh, Mrs. MacIntyre, don't apologize for Teddy.
Yes, I call him Teddy. So does every one whom he
hasn't duped into taking him seriously. You see, we
used to cut paper dolls and play jackstraws together ages
ago. No one minds what he says."
- aspect [´æspekt]
n.面貌；神色；方向 (初中英语单词) - platform [´plætfɔ:m] n.(平)台；讲台；站台 (初中英语单词)
- amateur [´æmətə, ,æmə´tə:] n.业余爱好者 (初中英语单词)
- butterfly [´bʌtəflai] n.蝴蝶；蝶式 (初中英语单词)
- grown-up [´grəun-ʌp] n.成年人 a.成熟的 (初中英语单词)
- unable [ʌn´eibəl] a.不能的；无能为力的 (初中英语单词)
- working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
- description [di´skripʃən] n.描写 (初中英语单词)
- arrangement [ə´reindʒmənt] n.整理；排列；筹备 (初中英语单词)
- telegraph [´teligrɑ:f] n.&v.(打)电报；电告 (初中英语单词)
- manager [´mænidʒə] n.经理；管理人；干事 (初中英语单词)
- polite [pə´lait] a.有礼貌的；温和的 (初中英语单词)
- gallop [´gæləp] n.&v.奔驰；急速行进 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- remind [ri´maind] vt.提醒；使记(想)起 (初中英语单词)
- horizon [hə´raizən] n.地平线；范围；视野 (初中英语单词)
- recite [ri´sait] v.背诵；叙述 (初中英语单词)
- daylight [´deilait] n.日光；黎明 (初中英语单词)
- safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
- amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中英语单词)
- resort [ri´zɔ:t] vi.求助；乞灵；诉诸 (初中英语单词)
- charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
- magnificent [mæg´nifisənt] a.壮丽的；豪华的 (初中英语单词)
- mexican [´meksikən] n.&a.墨西哥人(语)的 (初中英语单词)
- prairie [´preəri] n.大草原 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- gallery [´gæləri] n.画廊；美术馆；长廊 (初中英语单词)
- seriously [´siəriəsli] ad.严肃；严重，重大 (初中英语单词)
- complexion [kəm´plekʃən] n.肤色；情况；局面 (高中英语单词)
- strain [strein] vt.拉紧 vi.拖 n.张力 (高中英语单词)
- imaginary [i´mædʒinəri] a.想象的；虚构的 (高中英语单词)
- faintly [´feintli] ad.微弱地，软弱无力的 (高中英语单词)
- temperate [´tempərit] a.有节制的；温和的 (高中英语单词)
- motion [´məuʃən] n.手势 vt.打手势 (高中英语单词)
- sweetly [´swi:tli] ad.甜蜜地；美妙地 (高中英语单词)
- anxiously [´æŋkʃəsli] ad.挂念地；渴望地 (高中英语单词)
- fashionable [´fæʃənəbəl] a.流行的，时髦的 (高中英语单词)
- picturesque [,piktʃə´resk] a.似画的；别致的 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- housekeeper [´haus,ki:pə] n.主妇，女管家 (高中英语单词)
- refreshment [ri´freʃmənt] n.精神爽快 (高中英语单词)
- indignation [,indig´neiʃən] n.愤慨；气愤 (高中英语单词)
- mustache [mə´stɑ:ʃ] n.髭，小胡子 (英语四级单词)
- boyish [´bɔiiʃ] a.少年的；幼稚的 (英语四级单词)
- perplexity [pə´pleksiti] n.困惑；为难；纷乱 (英语四级单词)
- unbroken [ʌn´brəukən] a.未破的；不间断的 (英语四级单词)
- intensely [in´tensli] ad.激烈地；热切地 (英语四级单词)
- old-time [´əuld-´taim] a.老资格的；古时的 (英语四级单词)
- manhattan [mæn´hætən] n.曼哈顿 (英语四级单词)
- heretofore [,hiətu´fɔ:] ad.以前，迄今为止 (英语四级单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- adjacent [ə´dʒeisənt] a.接近的；紧接着的 (英语四级单词)
- elderly [´eldəli] a. 较老的，年长的 (英语四级单词)
- utterance [´ʌtərəns] n.发音；言辞；所说的话 (英语四级单词)
- speculative [´spekjulətiv] a.臆测的；投机的 (英语六级单词)
- metamorphosis [,metə´mɔ:fəsis] n.变形；变质；变态 (英语六级单词)
- tireless [´taiələs] a.不疲倦的；无轮胎的 (英语六级单词)
- gloriously [´glɔ:riəsli] ad.光荣地，辉煌地 (英语六级单词)
- consternation [,kɔnstə´neiʃən] n.惊愕；惊恐；惊慌失措 (英语六级单词)
- beastly [´bi:stli] a.残忍的；卑鄙的 (英语六级单词)
- etiquette [´etiket] n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- syndicate [´sindikit] n.理事会 (英语六级单词)
- deficit [´defisit] n.缺乏，赤字，亏空 (英语六级单词)
- cyclone [´saikləun] n.旋风，飓风 (英语六级单词)
- arched [´ɑ:tʃid] a.弓形(结构)的 (英语六级单词)
- passageway [´pæsidʒwei] n.走廊；过道 (英语六级单词)
- wanting [´wɔntiŋ, wɑ:n-] a.短缺的；不足的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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