登陆注册
15322500000011

第11章

Pete took note of Maggie.

"Say, Mag, I'm stuck on yer shape. It's outa sight," he said, parenthetically, with an affable grin.

As he became aware that she was listening closely, he grew still more eloquent in his descriptions of various happenings in his career. It appeared that he was invincible in fights.

"Why," he said, referring to a man with whom he had had a misunderstanding, "dat mug scrapped like a damn dago. Dat's right. He was dead easy. See? He tau't he was a scrapper. But he foun' out diff'ent! Hully gee."He walked to and fro in the small room, which seemed then to grow even smaller and unfit to hold his dignity, the attribute of a supreme warrior. That swing of the shoulders that had frozen the timid when he was but a lad had increased with his growth and education at the ratio of ten to one. It, combined with the sneer upon his mouth, told mankind that there was nothing in space which could appall him. Maggie marvelled at him and surrounded him with greatness. She vaguely tried to calculate the altitude of the pinnacle from which he must have looked down upon her.

"I met a chump deh odder day way up in deh city," he said. "I was goin' teh see a frien' of mine. When I was a-crossin' deh street deh chump runned plump inteh me, an' den he turns aroun' an' says, 'Yer insolen' ruffin,' he says, like dat. 'Oh, gee,' I says, 'oh, gee, go teh hell and git off deh eart',' I says, like dat. See? 'Go teh hell an' git off deh eart',' like dat. Den deh blokie he got wild. He says I was a contempt'ble scoun'el, er somet'ing like dat, an' he says I was doom' teh everlastin' pe'dition an' all like dat. 'Gee,' I says, 'gee! Deh hell I am,' I says. 'Deh hell I am,' like dat. An' den I slugged 'im. See?"With Jimmie in his company, Pete departed in a sort of a blaze of glory from the Johnson home. Maggie, leaning from the window, watched himas he walked down the street.

Here was a formidable man who disdained the strength of a world full of fists. Here was one who had contempt for brass- clothed power; one whose knuckles could defiantly ring against the granite of law. He was a knight.

The two men went from under the glimmering street-lamp and passed into shadows.

Turning, Maggie contemplated the dark, dust-stained walls, and the scant and crude furniture of her home. A clock, in a splintered and battered oblong box of varnished wood, she suddenly regarded as an abomination. She noted that it ticked raspingly. The almost vanished flowers in the carpet-pattern, she conceived to be newly hideous. Some faint attempts she had made with blue ribbon, to freshen the appearance of a dingy curtain, she now saw to be piteous.

She wondered what Pete dined on. She reflected upon the collar and cuff factory. It began to appear to her mind as a dreary place of endless grinding. Pete's elegant occupation brought him, no doubt, into contact with people who had money and manners. it was probable that he had a large acquaintance of pretty girls. He must have great sums of money to spend.

To her the earth was composed of hardships and insults. She felt instant admiration for a man who openly defied it. She thought that if the grim angel of death should clutch his heart, Pete would shrug his shoulders and say: "Oh, ev'ryt'ing goes."She anticipated that he would come again shortly. She spent some of her week's pay in the purchase of flowered cretonne for a lambrequin. She made it with infinite care and hung it to the slightly-careening mantel, over the stove, in the kitchen. She studied it with painful anxiety from different points in the room. She wanted it to look well on Sunday night when, perhaps, Jimmie's friend would come. On Sunday night, however, Pete did not appear.

Afterward the girl looked at it with a sense of humiliation. She was now convinced that Pete was superior to admiration for lambrequins.

A few evenings later Pete entered with fascinating innovations in his apparel. As she had seen him twice and he had different suits on each time, Maggie had a dim impression that his wardrobe was prodigiously extensive.

"Say, Mag," he said, "put on yer bes' duds Friday night an' I'll take yehs teh deh show.See?"He spent a few moments in flourishing his clothes and then vanished, without having glanced at the lambrequin.

Over the eternal collars and cuffs in the factory Maggie spent the most of three days in making imaginary sketches of Pete and his daily environment. She imagined some half dozen women in love with him and thought he must lean dangerously toward an indefinite one, whom she pictured with great charms of person, but with an altogether contemptible disposition.

She thought he must live in a blare of pleasure. He had friends, and people who were afraid of him.

She saw the golden glitter of the place where Pete was to take her. An entertainment of many hues and many melodies where she was afraid she might appear small and mouse-colored.

Her mother drank whiskey all Friday morning. With lurid face and tossing hair she cursed and destroyed furniture all Friday afternoon. When Maggie came home at half-past six her mother lay asleep amidst the wreck of chairs and a table. Fragments of various household utensils were scattered about the floor. She had vented some phase of drunken fury upon the lambrequin. It lay in a bedraggled heap in the corner.

"Hah," she snorted, sitting up suddenly, "where deh hell yeh been? Why deh hell don' yeh come home earlier? Been loafin' 'round deh streets. Yer gettin' teh be a reg'lar devil."When Pete arrived Maggie, in a worn black dress, was waiting for him in the midst of a floor strewn with wreckage. The curtain at the window had been pulled by a heavy hand and hung by one tack, dangling to and fro in the draft through the cracks at the sash. The knots of blue ribbons appeared like violated flowers.The fire in the stove had gone out.Thedisplaced lids and open doors showed heaps of sullen grey ashes. The remnants of a meal, ghastly, like dead flesh, lay in a corner. Maggie's red mother, stretched on the floor, blasphemed and gave her daughter a bad name.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 剑雨情仇

    剑雨情仇

    他,以孤儿的身份纵横雾月大陆,历尽艰险,看尽情仇;她,倾城脱俗,为真爱恪守一生;它,天地所生的宠儿,涅槃重生;当他们邂逅在一个修仙大陆,又会演绎出怎样的剑雨情仇……
  • 忙碌

    忙碌

    生活在随走随歇,人的生命也在慢慢运行,就让时间来一起见证我们一起过去的年华吧!
  • 当蝶予花开时

    当蝶予花开时

    利市有这样一个传说:相传如果一对恋人在情人节那天到利市的蝶予花树下祈愿,那么这对恋人就会得到蝶予花花仙们的眷顾,与另一半长长久久......
  • 天域圣魔

    天域圣魔

    天不容我,地不纳我,我自孤独流浪于天域之间,斩万亿强者于苍穹之下!我为圣魔,人皆以我为圣则我自为圣中之王!若人皆以我为魔,我自为魔中之神!以天地为舞台,我为主角,我自上演一次杀戮盛宴,让所有的人都匍匐于我的脚底!吾为……圣魔!
  • 重生帝子

    重生帝子

    帝子重生,誓要伐天,前世未了心愿,今生必不负卿。
  • 豪门宠爱:妖娆娇妻太狂野

    豪门宠爱:妖娆娇妻太狂野

    前进一步,万丈深渊;后退一步,形同陌路。十多年的恩情,一辈子来还,够么?一个人,一颗心,一辈子,换你的不离,够么?“夕雨,你要是踏出了这道门,我们今后就形同路人!”翎羽站在她的身后,高挑健硕的身上裹着笔直高贵的黑色西装,眸子像是黑色的宝石一样闪烁着。她握紧双手,离开……
  • 浅雪之森

    浅雪之森

    如果BAAL不曾出现,一切都会是另一个模样,没有九圣使,没有战争,没有友情,没有爱情,人们有着坚定的信仰,世界和平,那也许叫做世人的天堂。但世上没有如果,总要拥有各种感情,总有人会离去,当天堂鸟开遍世界的时候,天堂才真正到来。
  • RM之韩娱天王

    RM之韩娱天王

    RunningMan迎来了来自中国的新人!小幂幂是他的同学,郑秀晶是他的绯闻女友,林允儿承认一直喜欢着他,安希妍HANI一直微信给他留言……他的歌风靡全球,他和bigbang的合作舞蹈流行世界,他的影视作品一票难求。他,就是这个地球上,最强的娱乐天王!这一切,都从Runningman开始!金钟国,你准备好了吗?
  • 贪欢报

    贪欢报

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 甜妻嫁到:大少宠上瘾

    甜妻嫁到:大少宠上瘾

    第一眼见到艾悠,这个爱哭的女人就让莫天晟很头疼,内心有股冲动,想要把那女人狠狠地禁锢在怀里,让那该死的哭声永远的消失。第一眼见到莫天晟,这个有着冷漠高贵气质的男人,让艾悠害怕接近,又不得不接近,心里还产生了一丝她没有察觉到悸动。这个小兔子一样的女人,他原本以为是很软糯易推倒的,没想到越接触,越能了解到她内心的坚强和不屈,也让他越来越着迷,再也放不开手。她恪守着心,只盼着完成协议上的事情后离开,只是在知道他的情后,她还能那么坦然的离开吗?他们就像是野兽和幼兽,在不断地靠近,不断地给予彼此温暖,又不断地从对方身上汲取自己想要的爱,直到两人再也分不开彼此。