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Awakening & Selected Short Stories-Part18_Kate Chopin(1851-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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If he had expected to find her languishing, reproachful, or indulging



in sentimental tears, he must have been greatly surprised.

He was no doubt prepared for any emergency, ready for any one



of the foregoing attitudes, just as he bent himself easily and

naturally to the situation which confronted him.



"Please come down," he insisted, holding the ladder and

looking up at her.



"No," she answered; "Ellen is afraid to mount the ladder. Joe

is working over at the `pigeon house'--that's the name Ellen gives



it, because it's so small and looks like a pigeon house--and some

one has to do this."



Arobin pulled off his coat, and expressed himself ready and

willing to tempt fate in her place. Ellen brought him one of her



dust-caps, and went into contortions of mirth, which she found

it impossible to control, when she saw him put it on before



the mirror as grotesquely as he could. Edna herself could not

refrain from smiling when she fastened it at his request. So it



was he who in turn mounted the ladder, unhooking pictures and

curtains, and dislodging ornaments as Edna directed. When he had



finished he took off his dust-cap and went out to wash his hands.

Edna was sitting on the tabouret, idly brushing the tips of a



feather duster along the carpet when he came in again.

"Is there anything more you will let me do?" he asked.



"That is all," she answered. "Ellen can manage the rest." She

kept the young woman occupied in the drawing-room, unwilling to be



left alone with Arobin.

"What about the dinner?" he asked; "the grand event, the coup d'etat?"



"It will be day after to-morrow. Why do you call it the `coup d'etat?'

Oh! it will be very fine; all my best of everything--crystal, silver and gold,



Sevres, flowers, music, and champagne to swim in. I'll let Leonce pay

the bills. I wonder what he'll say when he sees the bills.



"And you ask me why I call it a coup d'etat?" Arobin had

put on his coat, and he stood before her and asked if his cravat



was plumb. She told him it was, looking no higher than the tip of

his collar.



"When do you go to the `pigeon house?'--with all due

acknowledgment to Ellen."



"Day after to-morrow, after the dinner. I shall sleep there."

"Ellen, will you very kindly get me a glass of water?" asked



Arobin. "The dust in the curtains, if you will pardon me for

hinting such a thing, has parched my throat to a crisp."



"While Ellen gets the water," said Edna, rising, "I will say

good-by and let you go. I must get rid of this grime, and I have



a million things to do and think of."

"When shall I see you?" asked Arobin, seeking to detain her,



the maid having left the room.

"At the dinner, of course. You are invited."



"Not before?--not to-night or to-morrow morning or tomorrow

noon or night? or the day after morning or noon? Can't you see



yourself, without my telling you, what an eternity it is?"

He had followed her into the hall and to the foot of the



stairway, looking up at her as she mounted with her face half

turned to him.



"Not an instant sooner," she said. But she laughed and looked

at him with eyes that at once gave him courage to wait and made it



torture to wait.

XXX



Though Edna had spoken of the dinner as a very grand affair,

it was in truth a very small affair and very select, in so much as



the guests invited were few and were selected with discrimination.

She had counted upon an even dozen seating themselves at her round



mahogany board, forgetting for the moment that Madame Ratignolle

was to the last degree souffrante and unpresentable, and not



foreseeing that Madame Lebrun would send a thousand regrets at the

last moment. So there were only ten, after all, which made a cozy,



comfortable number.

There were Mr. and Mrs. Merriman, a pretty, vivacious little



woman in the thirties; her husband, a jovial fellow, something of

a shallow-pate, who laughed a good deal at other people's



witticisms, and had thereby made himself extremely popular. Mrs.

Highcamp had accompanied them. Of course, there was Alcee Arobin;



and Mademoiselle Reisz had consented to come. Edna had sent her a

fresh bunch of violets with black lace trimmings for her hair.



Monsieur Ratignolle brought himself and his wife's excuses.

Victor Lebrun, who happened to be in the city, bent upon relaxation,



had accepted with alacrity. There was a Miss Mayblunt, no longer




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