酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

The Scarlet Car-Part11_Rebecca Harding Davis(1831-1910)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
her own age, the easy-going joking youths to whom the



betterment of New York was of no concern, she had been proud

in her choice. She was glad Peabody was ambitious. She was



ambitious for him. She was glad to have him consult her on

those questions of local government, to listen to his fierce,



contemptuous abuse of Tammany. And yet early in their

engagement she had missed something, something she had never



known, but which she felt sure should exist. Whether she had

seen it in the lives of others, or read of it in romances, or



whether it was there because it was nature to desire to be

loved, she did not know. But long before Winthrop returned



from his trip round the world, in her meetings with the man

she was to marry, she had begun to find that there was



something lacking. And Winthrop had shown her that this

something lacking was the one thing needful. When Winthrop



had gone abroad he was only one of her brother's several

charming friends. One of the amusing merry youths who came



and went in the house as freely as Sam himself. Now, after

two years' absence, he refused to be placed in that category.



He rebelled on the first night of his return. As she came

down to the dinner of welcome her brother was giving Winthrop,



he stared at her as though she were a ghost, and said, so

solemnly that every one in the room, even Peabody, smiled:



"Now I know why I came home." That he refused to recognize

her engagement to Peabody, that on every occasion he told her,



or by some act showed her, he loved her; that he swore she

should never marry any one but himself, and that he would



never marry any one but her, did not at first, except to

annoy, in any way impress her.



But he showed her what in her intercourse with Peabody was

lacking. At first she wished Peabody could find time to be as



fond of her, as foolishly fond of her, as was Winthrop. But

she realized that this was unreasonable. Winthrop was just a



hot-headed impressionable boy, Peabody was a man doing a man's

work. And then she found that week after week she became more



difficult to please. Other things in which she wished Peabody

might be more like Winthrop, obtruded themselves. Little



things which she was ashamed to notice, but which rankled; and

big things, such as consideration for others, and a sense of



humor, and not talking of himself. Since this campaign began,

at times she had felt that if Peabody said "I" once again, she



must scream. She assured herself she was as yet unworthy of

him, that her intelligence was weak, that as she grew older



and so better able to understand serious affairs, such as the

importance of having an honest man at Albany as



Lieutenant-Governor, they would become more in sympathy. And

now, at a stroke, the whole fabric of self-deception fell from



her. It was not that she saw Peabody so differently, but that

she saw herself and her own heart, and where it lay. And she



knew that "Billy" Winthrop, gentle, joking, selfish only in

his love for her, held it in his two strong hands.



For the moment, when as she sat in the car deserted by Peabody

this truth flashed upon her, she forgot the man lying injured



in the street, the unscrubbed mob crowding about her. She was

conscious only that a great weight had been lifted. That her



blood was flowing again, leaping, beating, dancing through her

body. It seemed as though she could not too quickly tell



Winthrop. For both of them she had lost out of their lives

many days. She had risked losing him for always. Her only



thought was to make up to him and to herself the wasted time.

But throughout the day the one-time welcome, but now



intruding, friends and the innumerable conventions of

hospitality required her to smile and show an interest, when



her heart and mind were crying out the one great fact.

It was after dinner, and the members of the house party were



scattered between the billiard-room and the piano. Sam Forbes

returned from the telephone.



"Tammany," he announced, " concedes the election of Jerome by

forty thousand votes, and that he carries his ticket with him.



Ernest Peabody is elected his Lieutenant-Governor by a

thousand votes. Ernest," he added, "seems to have had a close



call." There was a tremendouschorus of congratulations in

the cause of Reform. They drank the health of Peabody.



Peabody himself, on the telephone, informed Sam Forbes that a

conference of the leaders would prevent his being present with






文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号