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Awakening & Selected Short Stories-Part5_Kate Chopin(1851-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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present followed it with the overture to "The Poet and the

Peasant."



"Allez vous-en! Sapristi!" shrieked the parrot outside the

door. He was the only being present who possessed sufficient



candor to admit that he was not listening to these gracious

performances for the first time that summer. Old Monsieur Farival,



grandfather of the twins, grew indignant over the interruption,

and insisted upon having the bird removed and consigned



to regions of darkness. Victor Lebrun objected;

and his decrees were as immutable as those of Fate.



The parrotfortunately offered no further interruption

to the entertainment, the whole venom of his nature



apparently having been cherished up and hurled against

the twins in that one impetuous outburst.



Later a young brother and sister gave recitations, which every

one present had heard many times at winter evening entertainments



in the city.

A little girl performed a skirt dance in the center of the



floor. The mother played her accompaniments and at the same time

watched her daughter with greedyadmiration and nervous



apprehension. She need have had no apprehension. The child was

mistress of the situation. She had been properly dressed for the



occasion in black tulle and black silk tights. Her little neck and

arms were bare, and her hair, artificially crimped, stood out like



fluffy black plumes over her head. Her poses were full of grace,

and her little black-shod toes twinkled as they shot out and upward



with a rapidity and suddenness which were bewildering.

But there was no reason why every one should not dance.



Madame Ratignolle could not, so it was she who gaily consented to

play for the others. She played very well, keeping excellent waltz



time and infusing an expression into the strains which was indeed

inspiring. She was keeping up her music on account of the



children, she said; because she and her husband both considered it

a means of brightening the home and making it attractive.



Almost every one danced but the twins, who could not be

induced to separate during the brief period when one or the other



should be whirling around the room in the arms of a man. They

might have danced together, but they did not think of it.



The children were sent to bed. Some went submissively;

others with shrieks and protests as they were dragged away.



They had been permitted to sit up till after the ice-cream,

which naturally marked the limit of human indulgence.



The ice-cream was passed around with cake--gold and silver

cake arranged on platters in alternate slices; it had been made and



frozen during the afternoon back of the kitchen by two black women,

under the supervision of Victor. It was pronounced a great



success--excellent if it had only contained a little less vanilla

or a little more sugar, if it had been frozen a degree harder, and



if the salt might have been kept out of portions of it. Victor was

proud of his achievement, and went about recommending it and urging



every one to partake of it to excess.

After Mrs. Pontellier had danced twice with her husband, once



with Robert, and once with Monsieur Ratignolle, who was thin and

tall and swayed like a reed in the wind when he danced, she went



out on the gallery and seated herself on the low window-sill, where

she commanded a view of all that went on in the hall and could look



out toward the Gulf. There was a soft effulgence in the east. The

moon was coming up, and its mysticshimmer was casting a million



lights across the distant, restless water.

"Would you like to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play?" asked



Robert, coming out on the porch where she was. Of course Edna

would like to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play; but she feared it would



be useless to entreat her.

"I'll ask her," he said. "I'll tell her that you want to hear



her. She likes you. She will come." He turned and hurried away to

one of the far cottages, where Mademoiselle Reisz was shuffling



away. She was dragging a chair in and out of her room, and at

intervals objecting to the crying of a baby, which a nurse in the



adjoining cottage was endeavoring to put to sleep. She was a

disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with



almost every one, owing to a temper which was self-assertive and a

disposition to trample upon the rights of others. Robert prevailed






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