章节正文
I said, 'I should have remained unaware of her existence.'"
"'She is at the bottom of it all the same,' said Ethel. 'Everything you
have bought has been because she bought it.'"
"'That is not quite the right way to put it,' I replied. 'I was willing
to buy these securities because Mr. Beverly thought so highly of them
that he felt justified in--'"
"'There is no use,' interrupted Ethel, 'in our going round this circle as
if we were a pair of squirrels. I do not ask you to hate that woman for
my sake, but I cannot change my own feeling. Do you remember, Richard,
about the City of Philippi Sewer Bonds? You did not want to buy them at
first. You told me yourself that you thought new towns in Texas were apt
to buzz suddenly and then die because all the people hurried away to some
newer town and left the houses and stores standing empty. But Mr.
Beverly's mother got some, and all your hesitation fled. And now I see
that the Gulf, Galveston, and Little Rock is going to build a branch that
may make Philippi a perfectly evaporated town. If you sold these bonds
to-day, how much would you lose?'"
"I did not enjoy telling Ethel how much, but I had to. 'Only fifteen
thousand dollars,' I said."
"'Only!' said Ethel. 'Well, I hope his mother will lose a great deal
more than that.'"
"It is seldom that Ethel taps her foot, but she had begun to tap it now;
and this inclined me to avoid any attempt at a soothing reply, in the
hope that silence might prove still more soothing, and that thus we might
get away from old Mrs. Beverly."
"'She cannot possibly be less than sixty-five,' Ethel presently
announced. 'And she is far more likely to be seventy.'"
"I thought it best to agree to any age that Ethel chose to give the old
lady."
"'Do you suppose,' Ethel continued, 'that she does it by telephone?'"
"'My dearest,' I responded, 'he must do it all for her, of course, you
know.'"
"'I doubt that very much, Richard. And she strikes me as being the sort
of character for whom a mere telephone would not be enough excitement.
The nerves of those people require more and more stimulants to give them
any sensation at all. I believe that she sits in his private office and
watches the ticker.'"
"'Why not give her a ticker in her bedroom while you are about it,
Ethel?' I suggested."
"But Ethel could not smile. 'I think that is perfectly probable,' she
answered. And then, 'Oh, Richard, isn't it mean!' At this I took her
hand, and she--but again I abstain from dwelling upon those circumstances
of the engaged which are familiar to you all."
"The change of May into June, and the change of June into July, did not
mellow Ethel's bitter feelings. I remember the day after Petunias
defaulted on their interest that she exclaimed, 'I hope I shall never
meet her!' We always called Mr. Beverly's mother 'she' now. 'For if I
were to meet her,' continued Ethel, 'I feel I should say something that I
should regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that house
on Park Avenue!'"
"I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not
bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few of
my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was
into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk of
my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer
faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a good
deal more than faint. On the 20th of August I took the afternoon train to
spend my two weeks' holiday at Lenox; and during much of the journey I
gazed at the Wall Street edition of the afternoon paper that I had
purchased as I came through the Grand Central Station. Ethel and I read
it in the evening."
"'I wonder what she's buying now?' said Ethel, vindictively."
"'Well, I can't help feeling sorry for her,' I answered, with as much of
a smile as I could produce."
"'That is so unnecessary, Richard! She can easily afford to gratify her
gambling instinct.'"
"'There you go, Ethel, inventing millions for her just as you invented
grandchildren.'"
"'Not at all. Unless she constantly had money lying idle, she could not
take these continual plunges. She is an old woman with few expenses, and
she lives well within her income. You would hear of her entertaining if
it was otherwise. So instead of conservatively investing her surplus, she
makes ducks and drakes of it in her son's office. Is he at Hyde Park
now?' Hyde Park was where the old Beverly country seat had always been."
"'No,' I answered. 'He went to Europe early last month.'"
"'Very likely he took her with him. She is probably at Monte Carlo.'"
"'Scarcely in August, I fancy. And I'll tell you what, Ethel. I have been
counting it up. She has lost twenty-four thousand dollars in the Standard
Egg alone. It takes a good deal of surplus to stand that.'"
"'Serve her right,' said Ethel 'And I would say so to her face.'"
"September brought freshness to the stock market but not to me. Mr.
Beverly, like the well-to-do man that he was, remained away in Europe
until October should require his presence as a guiding hand in the
office. Thus was I left without his buoyantconsolation in the face of my
investments."
"Petunias were being adjusted on a four per cent basis; Dutchess and
Columbia Traction was holding its own; I could not complain of
Amalgamated Electric, though it was now lower than when I had bought it,
while had I sold it on that Wednesday in May when Ethel begged me, before
the increased dividend turned out a mistake, I should have made money.
But Philippi Sewers were threatened; Pasteurised Feeders had been numb
since June; Pollyopolis Heat, Light, Power, Paving, Pressing, and Packing
was going to pass its quarterly dividend; and Standard Egg had gone down
from 63 to 7 1/8. My million dollars on paper now was worth in reality
less than a quarter of that sum, and although we could still make both
ends meet fairly well in some place where you wouldn't want to live, like
Philadelphia, in New York we should drop into a pinched and dwarfed
obscurity."
"I must say now, and I shall never forget, that Ethel during these gloomy
weeks behaved much better than I did. The grayer the outlook became, the
more words of hope and sense she seemed to find She reminded me that,
after all my Uncle Godfrey's legacy had been a thing unlooked for,
something out of my scheme of life that I had my youth, my salary and my
writing; and that she would wait till she was as old at Mr. Beverly's
mother."
"It was the thought of that lady which brought from Ethel the only note
of complaint she uttered in my presence during that whole dreary month."
"We were spending Sunday with a house party at Hyde Park; and driving to
church, we passed an avenue gate with a lodge. 'Rockhurst, sir,' said the
coachman. 'Whose place?' I inquired. 'The old Beverly place, sir.' Ethel
heard him tell me this; and as we went on, we saw a carriage and pair
coming down the avenue toward the gate with that look which horses always
seem to have when they are taking the family to church on Sunday morning."
"'If I see her,' said Ethel to me as we entered the door, 'I shall be
unable to say my prayers.'"
"But only young people came into the Beverly pew, and Ethel said her
prayers and also sang the hymn and chants very sweetly."
"After the service, we strolled together in the old and lovely grave yard
before starting homeward. We had told them that we should prefer to walk
back. The day was beautiful, and one could see a little blue piece of the
river, sparkling."
"'Here is where they are all buried,' said Ethel, and we paused before
brown old headstones with Beverly upon them. 'Died 1750; died 1767,'
continued Ethel, reading the names and inscriptions. 'I think one doesn't
mind the idea of lying in such a place as this.'"
"Some of the young people in the pew now came along the path. 'The
grandchildren,' said Ethel. 'She is probably too old to come to church.
Or she is in Europe.'"
"The young people had brought a basket with flowers from their place, and
now laid them over several of the grassy mounds. 'Give me some of yours,'
said one to the other, presently; 'I've not enough for grandmother's.'"
"Ethel took me rather sharply by the arm. 'Did you hear that?' she asked."
"'It can't be she, you know,' said I. 'He would have come back from
Europe.'"
"But we found it out at lunch. It was she, and she had been dead for
fifteen years."
"Ethel and I talked it over in the train going up to town on Monday
morning. We had by that time grown calmer. 'If it is not false
pretences,' said she, 'and you cannot sue him for damages, and if it is
not stealing or something, and you cannot put him in prison, what are you
going to do to him, Richard?'"
"As this was a question which I had frequently asked myself during the
night, having found no satisfactory answer to it, I said: 'What would you
do in my place, Ethel?' But Ethel knew."
"'I should find out when he sails, and meet his steamer with a cowhide.'"
"'Then he would sue me for damages.'"
"'That would be nothing, if you got a few good cuts in on him.'"
"'Ethel,' I said, 'please follow me carefully. I should like dearly to
cowhide him. and for the sake of argument we will consider it done Then
comes the lawsuit. Then I get up and say that I beat him because he made
me buy Standard Egg at 63 by telling me that his mother had some, when
really the old lady had been dead for fifteen years. When I think of it
in this way, I do not feel--'"
"I know,' interrupted Ethel, 'you are afraid of ridicule. All men are.'"
"Had Ethel insisted, I believe that I should have cowhided Mr. Beverly
for her sake. But before his return our destinies were brightened. Copper
had been found near Ethel's waste lands in Michigan, and the family
business man was able to sell the property for seven hundred thousand
dollars. He did this so promptly that I ventured to ask him if delay
might not have brought a greater price. 'Well', he said, 'I don't know.
You must seize these things. Blake and Beverly might have got tired
waiting."
"'Blake and Beverly!' I exclaimed 'So they made the purchase. It Mr.
Beverly back?'"
"'Just back. To tell the truth I don't believe they're finding so much
copper as they hoped.'"
"This turned out to be true. And I am not sure that the business man had
not known it all the while. 'We looked over the property pretty
thoroughly at the time of the Tamarack excitement,' he said. And in a few
days more, in fact, it was generally known that this land had returned to
its old state of not quite paying the taxes."
"Then I paid my visit to Mr. Beverly, but with no cowhide. 'Mr. Beverly,'
said I, 'I want to announce to you my engagement to Miss Ethel Lansing,
whose Michigan copper land you have lately acquired. I hope that you
bought some for your mother.'"
"Those," concluded Mr. Richard Field, "are the circumstances attending my
engagement which I felt might interest you. And now, Ethel, tell your
story, if they'll listen."
"Richard," said Ethel, "that is the story I was going to tell."
End
"'She is at the bottom of it all the same,' said Ethel. 'Everything you
have bought has been because she bought it.'"
"'That is not quite the right way to put it,' I replied. 'I was willing
to buy these securities because Mr. Beverly thought so highly of them
that he felt justified in--'"
"'There is no use,' interrupted Ethel, 'in our going round this circle as
if we were a pair of squirrels. I do not ask you to hate that woman for
my sake, but I cannot change my own feeling. Do you remember, Richard,
about the City of Philippi Sewer Bonds? You did not want to buy them at
first. You told me yourself that you thought new towns in Texas were apt
to buzz suddenly and then die because all the people hurried away to some
newer town and left the houses and stores standing empty. But Mr.
Beverly's mother got some, and all your hesitation fled. And now I see
that the Gulf, Galveston, and Little Rock is going to build a branch that
may make Philippi a perfectly evaporated town. If you sold these bonds
to-day, how much would you lose?'"
"I did not enjoy telling Ethel how much, but I had to. 'Only fifteen
thousand dollars,' I said."
"'Only!' said Ethel. 'Well, I hope his mother will lose a great deal
more than that.'"
"It is seldom that Ethel taps her foot, but she had begun to tap it now;
and this inclined me to avoid any attempt at a soothing reply, in the
hope that silence might prove still more soothing, and that thus we might
get away from old Mrs. Beverly."
"'She cannot possibly be less than sixty-five,' Ethel presently
announced. 'And she is far more likely to be seventy.'"
"I thought it best to agree to any age that Ethel chose to give the old
lady."
"'Do you suppose,' Ethel continued, 'that she does it by telephone?'"
"'My dearest,' I responded, 'he must do it all for her, of course, you
know.'"
"'I doubt that very much, Richard. And she strikes me as being the sort
of character for whom a mere telephone would not be enough excitement.
The nerves of those people require more and more stimulants to give them
any sensation at all. I believe that she sits in his private office and
watches the ticker.'"
"'Why not give her a ticker in her bedroom while you are about it,
Ethel?' I suggested."
"But Ethel could not smile. 'I think that is perfectly probable,' she
answered. And then, 'Oh, Richard, isn't it mean!' At this I took her
hand, and she--but again I abstain from dwelling upon those circumstances
of the engaged which are familiar to you all."
"The change of May into June, and the change of June into July, did not
mellow Ethel's bitter feelings. I remember the day after Petunias
defaulted on their interest that she exclaimed, 'I hope I shall never
meet her!' We always called Mr. Beverly's mother 'she' now. 'For if I
were to meet her,' continued Ethel, 'I feel I should say something that I
should regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that house
on Park Avenue!'"
"I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not
bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few of
my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was
into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk of
my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer
faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a good
deal more than faint. On the 20th of August I took the afternoon train to
spend my two weeks' holiday at Lenox; and during much of the journey I
gazed at the Wall Street edition of the afternoon paper that I had
purchased as I came through the Grand Central Station. Ethel and I read
it in the evening."
"'I wonder what she's buying now?' said Ethel, vindictively."
"'Well, I can't help feeling sorry for her,' I answered, with as much of
a smile as I could produce."
"'That is so unnecessary, Richard! She can easily afford to gratify her
gambling instinct.'"
"'There you go, Ethel, inventing millions for her just as you invented
grandchildren.'"
"'Not at all. Unless she constantly had money lying idle, she could not
take these continual plunges. She is an old woman with few expenses, and
she lives well within her income. You would hear of her entertaining if
it was otherwise. So instead of conservatively investing her surplus, she
makes ducks and drakes of it in her son's office. Is he at Hyde Park
now?' Hyde Park was where the old Beverly country seat had always been."
"'No,' I answered. 'He went to Europe early last month.'"
"'Very likely he took her with him. She is probably at Monte Carlo.'"
"'Scarcely in August, I fancy. And I'll tell you what, Ethel. I have been
counting it up. She has lost twenty-four thousand dollars in the Standard
Egg alone. It takes a good deal of surplus to stand that.'"
"'Serve her right,' said Ethel 'And I would say so to her face.'"
"September brought freshness to the stock market but not to me. Mr.
Beverly, like the well-to-do man that he was, remained away in Europe
until October should require his presence as a guiding hand in the
office. Thus was I left without his buoyantconsolation in the face of my
investments."
"Petunias were being adjusted on a four per cent basis; Dutchess and
Columbia Traction was holding its own; I could not complain of
Amalgamated Electric, though it was now lower than when I had bought it,
while had I sold it on that Wednesday in May when Ethel begged me, before
the increased dividend turned out a mistake, I should have made money.
But Philippi Sewers were threatened; Pasteurised Feeders had been numb
since June; Pollyopolis Heat, Light, Power, Paving, Pressing, and Packing
was going to pass its quarterly dividend; and Standard Egg had gone down
from 63 to 7 1/8. My million dollars on paper now was worth in reality
less than a quarter of that sum, and although we could still make both
ends meet fairly well in some place where you wouldn't want to live, like
Philadelphia, in New York we should drop into a pinched and dwarfed
obscurity."
"I must say now, and I shall never forget, that Ethel during these gloomy
weeks behaved much better than I did. The grayer the outlook became, the
more words of hope and sense she seemed to find She reminded me that,
after all my Uncle Godfrey's legacy had been a thing unlooked for,
something out of my scheme of life that I had my youth, my salary and my
writing; and that she would wait till she was as old at Mr. Beverly's
mother."
"It was the thought of that lady which brought from Ethel the only note
of complaint she uttered in my presence during that whole dreary month."
"We were spending Sunday with a house party at Hyde Park; and driving to
church, we passed an avenue gate with a lodge. 'Rockhurst, sir,' said the
coachman. 'Whose place?' I inquired. 'The old Beverly place, sir.' Ethel
heard him tell me this; and as we went on, we saw a carriage and pair
coming down the avenue toward the gate with that look which horses always
seem to have when they are taking the family to church on Sunday morning."
"'If I see her,' said Ethel to me as we entered the door, 'I shall be
unable to say my prayers.'"
"But only young people came into the Beverly pew, and Ethel said her
prayers and also sang the hymn and chants very sweetly."
"After the service, we strolled together in the old and lovely grave yard
before starting homeward. We had told them that we should prefer to walk
back. The day was beautiful, and one could see a little blue piece of the
river, sparkling."
"'Here is where they are all buried,' said Ethel, and we paused before
brown old headstones with Beverly upon them. 'Died 1750; died 1767,'
continued Ethel, reading the names and inscriptions. 'I think one doesn't
mind the idea of lying in such a place as this.'"
"Some of the young people in the pew now came along the path. 'The
grandchildren,' said Ethel. 'She is probably too old to come to church.
Or she is in Europe.'"
"The young people had brought a basket with flowers from their place, and
now laid them over several of the grassy mounds. 'Give me some of yours,'
said one to the other, presently; 'I've not enough for grandmother's.'"
"Ethel took me rather sharply by the arm. 'Did you hear that?' she asked."
"'It can't be she, you know,' said I. 'He would have come back from
Europe.'"
"But we found it out at lunch. It was she, and she had been dead for
fifteen years."
"Ethel and I talked it over in the train going up to town on Monday
morning. We had by that time grown calmer. 'If it is not false
pretences,' said she, 'and you cannot sue him for damages, and if it is
not stealing or something, and you cannot put him in prison, what are you
going to do to him, Richard?'"
"As this was a question which I had frequently asked myself during the
night, having found no satisfactory answer to it, I said: 'What would you
do in my place, Ethel?' But Ethel knew."
"'I should find out when he sails, and meet his steamer with a cowhide.'"
"'Then he would sue me for damages.'"
"'That would be nothing, if you got a few good cuts in on him.'"
"'Ethel,' I said, 'please follow me carefully. I should like dearly to
cowhide him. and for the sake of argument we will consider it done Then
comes the lawsuit. Then I get up and say that I beat him because he made
me buy Standard Egg at 63 by telling me that his mother had some, when
really the old lady had been dead for fifteen years. When I think of it
in this way, I do not feel--'"
"I know,' interrupted Ethel, 'you are afraid of ridicule. All men are.'"
"Had Ethel insisted, I believe that I should have cowhided Mr. Beverly
for her sake. But before his return our destinies were brightened. Copper
had been found near Ethel's waste lands in Michigan, and the family
business man was able to sell the property for seven hundred thousand
dollars. He did this so promptly that I ventured to ask him if delay
might not have brought a greater price. 'Well', he said, 'I don't know.
You must seize these things. Blake and Beverly might have got tired
waiting."
"'Blake and Beverly!' I exclaimed 'So they made the purchase. It Mr.
Beverly back?'"
"'Just back. To tell the truth I don't believe they're finding so much
copper as they hoped.'"
"This turned out to be true. And I am not sure that the business man had
not known it all the while. 'We looked over the property pretty
thoroughly at the time of the Tamarack excitement,' he said. And in a few
days more, in fact, it was generally known that this land had returned to
its old state of not quite paying the taxes."
"Then I paid my visit to Mr. Beverly, but with no cowhide. 'Mr. Beverly,'
said I, 'I want to announce to you my engagement to Miss Ethel Lansing,
whose Michigan copper land you have lately acquired. I hope that you
bought some for your mother.'"
"Those," concluded Mr. Richard Field, "are the circumstances attending my
engagement which I felt might interest you. And now, Ethel, tell your
story, if they'll listen."
"Richard," said Ethel, "that is the story I was going to tell."
End
- circle [´sə:kəl]
n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词) - standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
- sensation [sen´seiʃən] n.感觉；轰动；轰动一时 (初中英语单词)
- dwelling [´dweliŋ] n.住所；寓所 (初中英语单词)
- cheerful [´tʃiəful] a.快乐的；高兴的 (初中英语单词)
- evidently [´evidəntli] ad.明显地 (初中英语单词)
- holiday [´hɔlidi] n.假日，假期，节日 (初中英语单词)
- constantly [´kɔnstəntli] ad.经常地；不断地 (初中英语单词)
- income [´inkʌm] n.收入，所得 (初中英语单词)
- otherwise [´ʌðəwaiz] ad.另外 conj.否则 (初中英语单词)
- complain [kəm´plein] vi.抱怨，叫屈；控诉 (初中英语单词)
- wednesday [´wenzdi] n.星期三 (初中英语单词)
- scheme [ski:m] n.计划；阴谋，诡计 (初中英语单词)
- complaint [kəm´pleint] n.抱怨；叫屈 (初中英语单词)
- carriage [´kæridʒ] n.马车；客车；货运 (初中英语单词)
- reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- sharply [´ʃɑ:pli] ad.锋利地；剧烈地 (初中英语单词)
- satisfactory [,sætis´fæktəri] a.令人满意的 (初中英语单词)
- steamer [´sti:mə] n.汽船；轮船；蒸笼 (初中英语单词)
- argument [´ɑ:gjumənt] n.辩论；争论；论证 (初中英语单词)
- promptly [´prɔmptli] ad.敏捷地；即时地 (初中英语单词)
- engagement [in´geidʒmənt] n.婚约；雇用；受聘 (初中英语单词)
- copper [´kɔpə] n.铜 a.铜制的 (初中英语单词)
- lately [´leitli] ad.近来，不久前 (初中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- hesitation [,hezi´teiʃən] n.犹豫，踌躇 (高中英语单词)
- perfectly [´pə:fiktli] ad.理想地；完美地 (高中英语单词)
- edition [i´diʃən] n.版本；很相似的 (高中英语单词)
- gratify [´grætifai] vt.使高兴；满足 (高中英语单词)
- continual [kən´tinjuəl] a.不断的，频繁的 (高中英语单词)
- surplus [´sə:pləs] n.&a.剩余(的) (高中英语单词)
- paving [´peiviŋ] n.铺砌；铺面 (高中英语单词)
- dreary [´driəri] a.阴郁的；枯燥无味的 (高中英语单词)
- homeward [´həumwəd] ad.&a.回家(的) (高中英语单词)
- finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
- unaware [,ʌnə´weə] a.不知道的；不觉察的 (英语四级单词)
- freshness [´freʃnis] n.新鲜 (英语四级单词)
- well-to-do [,weltə´du:] a.小康的，富裕的 (英语四级单词)
- buoyant [´bɔiənt] a.能漂浮的；快活的 (英语四级单词)
- consolation [,kɔnsə´leiʃən] n.安慰，慰问 (英语四级单词)
- dividend [´dividənd, -dend] n.被除数；股息 (英语四级单词)
- outlook [´autluk] n.眺望；景色；展望 (英语四级单词)
- grassy [´grɑ:si] a.多草的；青草味的 (英语四级单词)
- dearly [´diəli] ad.深深地(爱等)；昂贵 (英语四级单词)
- ridicule [´ridikju:l] vi.&n.嘲笑；奚落 (英语四级单词)
- abstain [əb´stein] vi.节制；戒除 (英语六级单词)
- depressed [di´prest] a.消沉的；萧条的 (英语六级单词)
- august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- legacy [´legəsi] n.遗产；传代物 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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