登陆注册
15319800000009

第9章 THE GREAT INTERROGATION(3)

What kind of neighbors have you? Or have you any?"While she queried she watched the girl grinding coffee in the corner of a flower sack upon the hearthstone.With a steadiness and skill which predicated nerves as primitive as the method, she crushed the imprisoned berries with a heavy fragment of quartz.

David Payne noted his visitor's gaze, and the shadow of a smile drifted over his lips.

"I did have some," he replied."Missourian chaps, and a couple of Cornishmen, but they went down to Eldorado to work at wages for a grubstake."Mrs.Sayther cast a look of speculative regard upon the girl.

"But of course there are plenty of Indians about?""Every mother's son of them down to Dawson long ago.Not a native in the whole country, barring Winapie here, and she's a Koyokuk lass,--comes from a thousand miles or so down the river."Mrs.Sayther felt suddenly faint; and though the smile of interest in no wise waned, the face of the man seemed to draw away to a telescopic distance, and the tiered logs of the cabin to whirl drunkenly about.But she was bidden draw up to the table, and during the meal discovered time and space in which to find herself.She talked little, and that principally about the land and weather, while the man wandered off into a long description of the difference between the shallow summer diggings of the Lower Country and the deep winter diggings of the Upper Country.

"You do not ask why I came north?" she asked."Surely you know."They had moved back from the table, and David Payne had returned to his axe-handle."Did you get my letter?""A last one? No, I don't think so.Most probably it's trailing around the Birch Creek Country or lying in some trader's shack on the Lower River.The way they run the mails in here is shameful.

No order, no system, no--"

"Don't be wooden, Dave! Help me!" She spoke sharply now, with an assumption of authority which rested upon the past."Why don't you ask me about myself? About those we knew in the old times?

Have you no longer any interest in the world? Do you know that my husband is dead?""Indeed, I am sorry.How long--""David!" She was ready to cry with vexation, but the reproach she threw into her voice eased her.

"Did you get any of my letters? You must have got some of them, though you never answered.""Well, I didn't get the last one, announcing, evidently, the death of your husband, and most likely others went astray; but I did get some.I--er--read them aloud to Winapie as a warning--that is, you know, to impress upon her the wickedness of her white sisters.

And I--er--think she profited by it.Don't you?"She disregarded the sting, and went on."In the last letter, which you did not receive, I told, as you have guessed, of Colonel Sayther's death.That was a year ago.I also said that if you did not come out to me, I would go in to you.And as I had often promised, I came.""I know of no promise.""In the earlier letters?"

"Yes, you promised, but as I neither asked nor answered, it was unratified.So I do not know of any such promise.But I do know of another, which you, too, may remember.It was very long ago."He dropped the axe-handle to the floor and raised his head."It was so very long ago, yet I remember it distinctly, the day, the time, every detail.We were in a rose garden, you and I,--your mother's rose garden.All things were budding, blossoming, and the sap of spring was in our blood.And I drew you over--it was the first--and kissed you full on the lips.Don't you remember?""Don't go over it, Dave, don't! I know every shameful line of it.

How often have I wept! If you only knew how I have suffered--""You promised me then--ay, and a thousand times in the sweet days that followed.Each look of your eyes, each touch of your hand, each syllable that fell from your lips, was a promise.And then--how shall I say?--there came a man.He was old--old enough to have begotten you--and not nice to look upon, but as the world goes, clean.He had done no wrong, followed the letter of the law, was respectable.Further, and to the point, he possessed some several paltry mines,--a score; it does not matter: and he owned a few miles of lands, and engineered deals, and clipped coupons.He--""But there were other things," she interrupted, "I told you.

Pressure--money matters--want--my people--trouble.You understood the whole sordid situation.I could not help it.It was not my will.I was sacrificed, or I sacrificed, have it as you wish.

But, my God! Dave, I gave you up! You never did ME justice.

Think what I have gone through!"

"It was not your will? Pressure? Under high heaven there was no thing to will you to this man's bed or that.""But I cared for you all the time," she pleaded.

"I was unused to your way of measuring love.I am still unused.

I do not understand."

"But now! now!"

"We were speaking of this man you saw fit to marry.What manner of man was he? Wherein did he charm your soul? What potent virtues were his? True, he had a golden grip,--an almighty golden grip.He knew the odds.He was versed in cent per cent.He had a narrow wit and excellent judgment of the viler parts, whereby he transferred this man's money to his pockets, and that man's money, and the next man's.And the law smiled.In that it did not condemn, our Christian ethics approved.By social measure he was not a bad man.But by your measure, Karen, by mine, by ours of the rose garden, what was he?""Remember, he is dead.""The fact is not altered thereby.What was he? A great, gross, material creature, deaf to song, blind to beauty, dead to the spirit.He was fat with laziness, and flabby-cheeked, and the round of his belly witnessed his gluttony--""But he is dead.It is we who are now--now! now! Don't you hear?

同类推荐
  • 八阵合变图说

    八阵合变图说

    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。
  • 诸经圣胎神用诀

    诸经圣胎神用诀

    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。
  • 灵枢识

    灵枢识

    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。
  • 彻悟禅师语录

    彻悟禅师语录

    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。
  • ARTICLES ON CHINA

    ARTICLES ON CHINA

    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。
热门推荐
  • 我爹是唐僧

    我爹是唐僧

    “我爹唐三藏,我是唐小藏!”“斗战神佛是我哥,玉帝是我义父!我叫菩提师傅,佛祖唤我徒孙!”“怕了吗?”“被贬下凡又如何?修仙之路真轻松,上有满天神佛为我护法,下有妖魔鬼怪供我驱使,改生死,换阴阳,三界第一大魔王就是我!”“哎呀,不就十万功德嘛,小意思!”作者语——“我爹是唐僧”仅仅只是本书的一个卖点,没有任何恶搞的意思。不喜勿喷,请安静离开,这样对大家都好!书友群:362234346
  • 冤冤相“煲”

    冤冤相“煲”

    明眼人都看得出来,我在追你。“不好意思,莫先生,”乔雪桐睁着她那双明亮动人的大眼睛,羞怯一笑,“我是色盲。”《诗经》曰栽桐引凤,而她这棵雪中的梧桐,却引来了一个变态!
  • 仙游缘

    仙游缘

    RPG狂热玩家苏绒绒,被召唤穿越至修仙大陆夏洲,BOSS不明、阴谋暗涌、回家方法未知。——莫慌!手握游戏升级系统,带上可爱的小伙伴,踏遍正道魔道,挑战黑幕尊者,不要怂就是干!我们的口号是科学修仙,快乐冒险,目标回家!×【忠告1】主角不傻白甜、不复仇、不高冷。【忠告2】此文实质是现实派处女座大学生立志成为夏洲反穿越阵法第一人的地理人文勘探史。【忠告3】作者带娃焦头烂额中,更新随缘……(泪)×
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 大漠鹏程

    大漠鹏程

    传说金鹏墨剑是最凶的神器,被石砥中得到,石砥中厌倦江湖的腥风血雨,欲遁而不得,只身向大漠遁去……
  • 阴冥浮生

    阴冥浮生

    一段本应忘记的经历,让我卷入了一场不该存在的斗争,死亡的迷惑深深烙印在我的脑海。与我互相隐瞒身份的盟友又在追寻什么,是误会还是阴谋,阴冥无常,浮生若梦。
  • 差距:市场导向的战略营销管理

    差距:市场导向的战略营销管理

    本书共六篇,内容包括:战略的视野、战略营销定位、战略营销情报的差距与弥合、战略营销资源的差距与弥合、战略营销能力差距与弥合、战略营销执行差距与弥合。
  • 永恒古帝

    永恒古帝

    天外亦有天,是谁主沉浮。万年前的洛水禁地,无尽的雷光与血光充斥着,天地俱裂,日月星辰爆碎,洛河倒流,传闻那里有仙降临......万年后,携滔天秘密与诸多古术的古洛尘,回到没落的古族,续写曾经的辉煌。我誓要让那仙陨落、无尽星河为我斗转......
  • 末洄天

    末洄天

    每一涅盘中真正能称为神的只有一位,在盘古之前为鸿蒙,他的涅盘称为混沌,而鸿蒙则是混沌中的至高神,而权利则可,于前一个涅盘法则的基础上做出属于自己的修改《并非不能全部推翻,就如每个王朝的交替,若舍弃之前所以,其结果可想而知。》同时掌握法则,等新天地初成法则定型,便是至高神也没法改变,不可规避,本身也被约束在天地中。
  • 易烊千玺卖萌犯规

    易烊千玺卖萌犯规

    我想这应该是一篇校园文and甜文,也可能会有一点小虐。。。