登陆注册
15327300000007

第7章

Mr.Ruck distinguished me, as the French say.He honoured me with his esteem, and, as the days elapsed, with a large portion of his confidence.Sometimes he bored me a little, for the tone of his conversation was not cheerful, tending as it did almost exclusively to a melancholy dirge over the financial prostration of our common country."No, sir, business in the United States is not what it once was," he found occasion to remark several times a day."There's not the same spring--there's not the same hopeful feeling.You can see it in all departments." He used to sit by the hour in the little garden of the pension, with a roll of American newspapers in his lap and his high hat pushed back, swinging one of his long legs and reading the New York Herald.He paid a daily visit to the American banker's, on the other side of the Rhone, and remained there a long time, turning over the old papers on the green velvet table in the middle of the Salon des Etrangers, and fraternising with chance compatriots.But in spite of these diversions his time hung heavily upon his hands.I used sometimes to propose to him to take a walk;but he had a mortal horror of pedestrianism, and regarded my own taste for it as' a morbid form of activity."You'll kill yourself, if you don't look out," he said, "walking all over the country.Idon't want to walk round that way; I ain't a postman!" Briefly speaking, Mr.Ruck had few resources.His wife and daughter, on the other hand, it was to be supposed, were possessed of a good many that could not be apparent to an unobtrusive young man.They also sat a great deal in the garden or in the salon, side by side, with folded hands, contemplating material objects, and were remarkably independent of most of the usual feminine aids to idleness--light literature, tapestry, the use of the piano.They were, however, much fonder of locomotion than their companion, and I often met them in the Rue du Rhone and on the quays, loitering in front of the jewellers' windows.They might have had a cavalier in the person of old M.Pigeonneau, who possessed a high appreciation of their charms, but who, owing to the absence of a common idiom, was deprived of the pleasures of intimacy.He knew no English, and Mrs.Ruck and her daughter had, as it seemed, an incurable mistrust of the beautiful tongue which, as the old man endeavoured to impress upon them, was pre-eminently the language of conversation.

"They have a tournure de princesse--a distinction supreme," he said to me."One is surprised to find them in a little pension, at seven francs a day.""Oh, they don't come for economy," I answered."They must be rich.""They don't come for my beaux yeux--for mine," said M.Pigeonneau, sadly."Perhaps it's for yours, young man.Je vous recommande la mere."I reflected a moment."They came on account of Mr.Ruck--because at hotels he's so restless."M.Pigeonneau gave me a knowing nod."Of course he is, with such a wife as that--a femme superbe.Madame Ruck is preserved in perfection--a miraculous fraicheur.I like those large, fair, quiet women; they are often, dans l'intimite, the most agreeable.I'll warrant you that at heart Madame Ruck is a finished coquette.""I rather doubt it," I said.

"You suppose her cold? Ne vous y fiez pas!""It is a matter in which I have nothing at stake.""You young Americans are droll," said M.Pigeonneau; "you never have anything at stake! But the little one, for example; I'll warrant you she's not cold.She is admirably made.""She is very pretty."

"'She is very pretty!' Vous dites cela d'un ton! When you pay compliments to Mademoiselle Ruck, I hope that's not the way you do it.""I don't pay compliments to Mademoiselle Ruck.""Ah, decidedly," said M.Pigeonneau, "you young Americans are droll!"I should have suspected that these two ladies would not especially commend themselves to Madame Beaurepas; that as a maitresse de salon, which she in some degree aspired to be, she would have found them wanting in a certain flexibility of deportment.But I should have gone quite wrong; Madame Beaurepas had no fault at all to find with her new pensionnaires."I have no observation whatever to make about them," she said to me one evening."I see nothing in those ladies which is at all deplace.They don't complain of anything; they don't meddle; they take what's given them; they leave me tranquil.The Americans are often like that.Often, but not always," Madame Beaurepas pursued."We are to have a specimen to-morrow of a very different sort.""An American?" I inquired.

"Two Americaines--a mother and a daughter.There are Americans and Americans: when you are difficiles, you are more so than any one, and when you have pretensions--ah, per exemple, it's serious.Iforesee that with this little lady everything will be serious, beginning with her cafe au lait.She has been staying at the Pension Chamousset--my concurrent, you know, farther up the street; but she is coming away because the coffee is bad.She holds to her coffee, it appears.I don't know what liquid Madame Chamousset may have invented, but we will do the best we can for her.Only, I know she will make me des histoires about something else.She will demand a new lamp for the salon; vous alles voir cela.She wishes to pay but eleven francs a day for herself and her daughter, tout compris; and for their eleven francs they expect to be lodged like princesses.

But she is very 'ladylike'--isn't that what you call it in English?

Oh, pour cela, she is ladylike!"

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 天网升级系统

    天网升级系统

    你是战神,又能怎么样,老子有系统,照样ko了你,你是皇帝,那又能咋的,老子系统随手一招,就上千万将士,有事没事莫在哥面前装B,哥告诉你啊,装B会造报应的,懂不。
  • 极品闲驸马

    极品闲驸马

    当段绍再一次醒来,他再也不是那个流连于声色犬马的贵公子,他不想靠身份和脸蛋上位,但是这也不妨碍他对各方小主温柔相待,他要做的可不只是极品驸马而已!
  • 左眼阴,右眼阳

    左眼阴,右眼阳

    阴阳人生,从出生的那一刻便已注定,阴间为鬼,阳世为人,左眼看阴间,右眼看阳间,一脚踏进阴阳们,人生世事定五行!
  • 浮屠修罗

    浮屠修罗

    魔涧鬼狱,神都沧澜!一个是埋骨永生之前的鲜血与亡魂造就的神都临界;一个是横亘在轮回与永生之间的死亡深渊。游离鬼狱、沧澜之外的重黎大陆,永生是填不平的欲望沟壑,力量是生存的唯一法则。埋藏着永生之秘与超神力量的神都沧澜,便是这重黎大陆永无休止的腥风血雨之源。
  • EXO爱那么疼

    EXO爱那么疼

    她曾经义无反顾的爱着他,为他哭,为他痛、为他做了她所了能做的一切,她的单纯她的爱,换来的是一次次的伤害和背叛……四年后,她脱胎换骨重新出现在他的眼前,她发现四年来很多事情都变了,但唯一没有变的就是自己还爱他,可是她却没有勇气在去爱他……四年前的种种是误会还是事实,她又该何去何从…
  • 穿越之火辣王妃降冰王

    穿越之火辣王妃降冰王

    她因为相亲对象对杀手没好感,气氛离开了咖啡店,却被迎面开来的车撞上天,穿越了,可是穿越的地点竟然是空中。一直在向下掉落,好不容易到地了,却把某王的屋顶给砸出了个窟窿,她拍拍摔疼的屁股说她不是有意的,便跑了,某王看着被她砸出的窟窿,誓死也要把她追到手,可是传说中有怪癖的冷面王爷能把她追到吗?
  • 造梦猴王

    造梦猴王

    牛魔王控制了整个东海,转轮王控制了整个冥界,二郎神控制了整个天庭!通过九九八十一难,再度回归!打虾兵蟹将,破天兵天将,孙悟空、唐僧、猪八戒、沙僧!师徒四人,勇闯征程。由火爆网游《造梦西游》改编,不可错过的绝佳作品!
  • 慕衍

    慕衍

    死生契阔,与子成说;执子之手,与子偕老。
  • 源天神道

    源天神道

    大千世界,浩瀚无尽!分为亿万灵界,三千道州,十方天域!地球少年杨晨,身负周天星斗大阵,来到洪荒灵界,开启了一段热血彪悍的旅程……
  • 煌煌天道

    煌煌天道

    一个刺客时代的终结,却是一个刺杀格局的开端,从侠之大者坠入臭名昭著,这是为何?一把上古神兵的降临,加上一卷逆天功法的出世,却改不了一个少年的未来,这又是为何?……这一切的一切,只因冥冥中早有定数,煌煌中,唯有看破天道,方能在这强者为尊的世界,用拳头讨回自己的公道!芸芸众生,白云苍狗。煌煌天道,何其可笑!