登陆注册
15441200000047

第47章 CHAPTER II(2)

"Uh, huh," Billy said, when she had told him that evening of the day's event. "So SHE'S Mrs. Higgins? He's a watchman. He's got only one arm. Old Higgins an' her--a funny bunch, the two of them. The people's scared of her--some of 'em. The Dagoes an' some of the old Irish dames thinks she's a witch. Won't have a thing to do with her. Bert was tellin' me about it. Why, Saxon, d'ye know, some of 'em believe if she was to get mad at 'em, or didn't like their mugs, or anything, that all she's got to do is look at 'em an' they'll curl up their toes an' croak. One of the fellows that works at the stable--you've seen 'm--Henderson--he lives around the corner on Fifth--he says she's bughouse."

"Oh, I don't know," Saxon defended her new acquaintance. "She may be crazy, but she says the same thing you're always saying. She says my form is not American but French."

"Then I take my hat off to her," Billy responded. "No wheels in her head if she says that. Take it from me, she's a wise gazabo."

"And she speaks good English, Billy, like a school teacher, like what I guess my mother used to speak. She's educated."

"She ain't no fool, or she wouldn't a-sized you up the way she did."

"She told me to congratulate you on your good taste in marrying me," Saxon laughed.

"She did, eh? Then give her my love. Me for her, because she knows a good thing when she sees it, an' she ought to be congratulating you on your good taste in me."

It was on another day that Mercedes Higgins nodded, half to Saxon, and half to the dainty women's things Saxon was hanging on the line.

"I've been worrying over your washing, little new-wife," was her greeting.

"Oh, but I've worked in the laundry for years," Saxon said quickly.

Mercedes sneered scornfully.

"Steam laundry. That's business, and it's stupid. Only common things should go to a steam laundry. That is their punishment for being common. But the pretties! the dainties! the flimsies!--la la, my dear, their washing is an art. It requires wisdom, genius, and discretion fine as the clothes are fine. I will give you a recipe for homemade soap. It will not harden the texture. It will give whiteness, and softness, and life. You can wear them long, and fine white clothes are to be loved a long time. Oh, fine washing is a refinement, an art. It is to be done as an artist paints a picture, or writes a poem, with love, holily, a true sacrament of beauty.

"I shall teach you better ways, my dear, better ways than you Yankees know. I shall teach you new pretties." She nodded her head to Saxon's underlinen on the line. "I see you make little laces. I know all laces--the Belgian, the Maltese, the Mechlin--oh, the many, many loves of laces! I shall teach you some of the simpler ones so that you can make them for yourself, for your brave man you are to make love you always and always."

On her first visit to Mercedes Higgins, Saxon received the recipe for home-made soap and her head was filled with a minutiae of instruction in the art of fine washing. Further, she was fascinated and excited by all the newness and strangeness of the withered old woman who blew upon her the breath of wider lands and seas beyond the horizon.

"You are Spanish?" Saxon ventnred.

"No, and yes, and neither, and more. My father was Irish, my mother Peruvian-Spanish. 'Tis after her I took, in color and looks. In other ways after my father, the blue-eyed Celt with the fairy song on his tongue and the restless feet that stole the rest of him away to far-wandering. And the feet of him that he lent me have led me away on as wide far roads as ever his led him."

Saxon remembered her school geography, and with her mind's eye she saw a certain outline map of a continent with jiggly wavering parallel lines that denoted coast.

"Oh," she cried, "then you are South American."

Mercedes shrugged her shoulders.

"I had to be born somewhere. It was a great ranch, my mother's.

You could put all Oakland in one of its smallest pastures."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 江山画美人

    江山画美人

    朝为苦公子,暮登权臣座,这其间的岁月成就了他的冰冷嗜血,残忍之下,是蒙受沧桑的孤独脆弱和只为她一人的温柔入骨。倾城佳人,身负血海深仇后,褪去了天真无邪,当爱情、友情、亲情交织,她的选择是什么?那高高在上的无双君王,夜夜对月凝望,白玉阶上,撒了多少美酒,不过为情所困。那病弱的公主,纵然是仙人之姿,最终也是嫣红染了淡青宫装,能策马疾驰在宫外的梦,碎了一地。那些皇宫风云,江湖奇传,与那人有何干系?红尘可笑,痴情无聊,不知多少人甘之如殆。
  • 灵——殇

    灵——殇

    道而唯一,一分阴阳,阳极则阴,阴极则阳;合则为一,分则化三,三生万物,万物有灵,是其意,通者得帝,临天下,莫敢从;古往之,万年无一,且看少年如何夺天之气运,地之造化,超脱……
  • 幸福妻子的八项修炼

    幸福妻子的八项修炼

    《幸福妻子的八项修炼》作者以朴实、亲切、真实的语言向天下的女人们讲述做幸福妻子的秘诀,告诉广大读者:要想成为一名幸福的妻子,婚前一定要头脑清醒,以独特的慧眼找到那个让自己幸福一生的男人;要修炼自己的性商,让自己成为人人羡慕的“性福”女神;要修炼自己的厨商,爱老公一定要爱到“胃”;要修炼自己的情商,在丈夫那里扮演好多种角色;要修炼自己的财商,做个幸福的“钱匣子”;要修炼自己的管商,提升管家的功力,做一个精干的管家婆;要修炼自己的母商,做一个称职的幸福的妈妈;要修炼自己的友商,构筑自己的人际关系网,做一个善织人脉的“蜘蛛精”。
  • 灵异七度少女

    灵异七度少女

    上天安排了他们相遇,碰撞出了火花,制造了在一起的可能……却又夺走她的生命。留下他,怎么办??
  • 翻墙撩爱,神秘总裁住隔壁

    翻墙撩爱,神秘总裁住隔壁

    本说好先婚后爱,从牵小手做起……不料某人竟不按套路出牌,夜夜翻墙登堂入室。“楚澜,你竟然翻墙撩妹!”某男子一本正经,“撩自家媳妇不犯法吧……”乔初夏一直以为自己嫁了个‘混吃等死’的富二代,最后却发现她竟然用九块九绑定了世界级的土豪大神。“大神,撩妹多辛苦,还是我来撩你吧。”
  • 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!)
  • 首席总裁:绝代婚宠

    首席总裁:绝代婚宠

    像是在忍冬的田圃里写故事,没有麦浪,没有五月明媚的日光,枯了欢喜树,洒了囚心酒,却还是在未归路上,此生破落——珍重你路途遥远,我看到的尽是黑夜,唯有你眼里我清秀的面庞,是发着光一如我们初识,你在我眼里看到的你的模样。你眉眼的稍弯,就在我心上开了花,你嘴角轻扬,我竟溺毙在你浅浅酒窝里,千百人中难得你太密集太迷离,与你远和近都无关紧要的,我难以平复的心情,而你的心雾里,我始终在路过,如此的,我走在雾里后来我发现,我对你竟然无所期待,宽厚的手掌,锋利的轮廓,低沉的声音,我轻一皱眉就能勾勒,你无需暗示无需向我走来,你只是活在我无限的想象里成为寄托
  • 妈妈不生气 孩子很争气

    妈妈不生气 孩子很争气

    在多年的教子实践中,作者深切地感受到,很多家长教育方式和方法不正确,以分数为导向,只把孩子当做学习机器,过多干预孩子的积极性和兴趣,结果却适得其反。通过借鉴书中高考状元们的学习方法,优秀父母的教子方式,这样培养出来的孩子最争气。
  • 吃货萌妃:太子殿下我还要

    吃货萌妃:太子殿下我还要

    新婚之夜,太子妃一拳将他打晕,醒来之后遇见吃货萌妃?“太子殿下我还要……”“不行了,我没力气了……”“不行!没力气还得给我继续做!”“我可以休了你吗?”“可以啊,那你在给我最后一顿?”某鱼受不了了,吃货萌妃说:“殿下,听说过鱼儿离不开水吗?你就是那鱼,我就是那水,你永远也别想离开我。”
  • 纹耀传奇

    纹耀传奇

    纹耀大陆在这片广阔的大陆上有魔法、有斗气。也有一个不为人认可的职业,灵纹师。和魔法的魔法,战士的斗技一样,灵纹师也有自己的技能称为:耀术!一个普通的人族少年韩毅。魔力等级0!斗气等级0!在这个魔法斗气纵横的世界,一个连斗气魔法都没有修炼资质的少年如何逆境中崛起?