登陆注册
15445700000008

第8章 CHAPTER 2(4)

Never until then had McTeague become so well acquainted with a girl of Trina's age. The younger women of Polk Street-- the shop girls, the young women of the soda fountains, the waitresses in the cheap restaurants--preferred another dentist, a young fellow just graduated from the college, a poser, a rider of bicycles, a man about town, who wore astonishing waistcoats and bet money on greyhound coursing. Trina was McTeague's first experience. With her the feminine element suddenly entered his little world. It was not only her that he saw and felt, it was the woman, the whole sex, an entire new humanity, strange and alluring, that he seemed to have discovered. How had he ignored it so long? It was dazzling, delicious, charming beyond all words. His narrow point of view was at once enlarged and confused, and all at once he saw that there was something else in life besides concertinas and steam beer. Everything had to be made over again. His whole rude idea of life had to be changed. The male virile desire in him tardily awakened, aroused itself, strong and brutal. It was resistless, untrained, a thing not to be held in leash an instant.

Little by little, by gradual, almost imperceptible degrees, the thought of Trina Sieppe occupied his mind from day to day, from hour to hour. He found himself thinking of her constantly; at every instant he saw her round, pale face; her narrow, milk-blue eyes; her little out-thrust chin; her heavy, huge tiara of black hair. At night he lay awake for hours under the thick blankets of the bed-lounge, staring upward into the darkness, tormented with the idea of her, exasperated at the delicate, subtle mesh in which he found himself entangled. During the forenoons, while he went about his work, he thought of her. As he made his plaster- of-paris moulds at the washstand in the corner behind the screen he turned over in his mind all that had happened, all that had been said at the previous sitting. Her little tooth that he had extracted he kept wrapped in a bit of newspaper in his vest pocket. Often he took it out and held it in the palm of his immense, horny hand, seized with some strange elephantine sentiment, wagging his head at it, heaving tremendous sighs. What a folly!

At two o'clock on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays Trina arrived and took her place in the operating chair. While at his work McTeague was every minute obliged to bend closely over her; his hands touched her face, her cheeks, her adorable little chin; her lips pressed against his fingers.

She breathed warmly on his forehead and on his eyelids, while the odor of her hair, a charming feminine perfume, sweet, heavy, enervating, came to his nostrils, so penetrating, so delicious, that his flesh pricked and tingled with it; a veritable sensation of faintness passed over this huge, callous fellow, with his enormous bones and corded muscles. He drew a short breath through his nose; his jaws suddenly gripped together vise-like.

But this was only at times--a strange, vexing spasm, that subsided almost immediately. For the most part, McTeague enjoyed the pleasure of these sittings with Trina with a certain strong calmness, blindly happy that she was there.

This poor crude dentist of Polk Street, stupid, ignorant, vulgar, with his sham education and plebeian tastes, whose only relaxations were to eat, to drink steam beer, and to play upon his concertina, was living through his first romance, his first idyl. It was delightful. The long hours he passed alone with Trina in the "Dental Parlors," silent, only for the scraping of the instruments and the pouring of bud-burrs in the engine, in the foul atmosphere, overheated by the little stove and heavy with the smell of ether, creosote, and stale bedding, had all the charm of secret appointments and stolen meetings under the moon.

By degrees the operation progressed. One day, just after McTeague had put in the temporary gutta-percha fillings and nothing more could be done at that sitting, Trina asked him to examine the rest of her teeth. They were perfect, with one exception--a spot of white caries on the lateral surface of an incisor. McTeague filled it with gold, enlarging the cavity with hard-bits and hoe-excavators, and burring in afterward with half-cone burrs. The cavity was deep, and Trina began to wince and moan. To hurt Trina was a positive anguish for McTeague, yet an anguish which he was obliged to endure at every hour of the sitting. It was harrowing--he sweated under it--to be forced to torture her, of all women in the world; could anything be worse than that?

"Hurt?" he inquired, anxiously.

She answered by frowning, with a sharp intake of breath, putting her fingers over her closed lips and nodding her head. McTeague sprayed the tooth with glycerite of tannin, but without effect. Rather than hurt her he found himself forced to the use of anaesthesia, which he hated.

He had a notion that the nitrous oxide gas was dangerous, so on this occasion, as on all others, used ether.

He put the sponge a half dozen times to Trina's face, more nervous than he had ever been before, watching the symptoms closely. Her breathing became short and irregular; there was a slight twitching of the muscles. When her thumbs turned inward toward the palms, he took the sponge away.

She passed off very quickly, and, with a long sigh, sank back into the chair.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 张惠言论词

    张惠言论词

    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。
  • 绝色医仙在异世:毒医倾城

    绝色医仙在异世:毒医倾城

    澜渊池家有女初成生而带毒命格难改减兰楼有意招揽一时之间声名鹊起的毒医魔蛊只知道她是一个女人应该是个很漂亮的女人风北笙说过眼睛漂亮的女人样子也应该漂亮她长年白纱遮面无人知晓她的容貌她是池浮染“你若赢了我我便任你差遣”他是芝兰玉树的无双公子永远一剑封喉白衣不染的风北笙“你若治得好减兰楼楼主的顽疾,我便任你差遣””好啊,到时候输了可不要哭鼻子,你这么好看哭起来就不好看了。“减兰楼楼主温舒泫听人说他好似有龙阳之好至于真假说书人说的千面晓生也是这般说的江湖中人都是这般说的
  • 鬼墓缘

    鬼墓缘

    有鬼的地方就有墓有墓的地方就有鬼家传偏门术的白家,好不容易出了个有天眼的人,父亲不让学,自己偷着学。兄弟有难跑去救,陌生人有难跑去救,作为一个外行,老和墓纠缠不清,自己有难谁来救?小白带你去冒险,不一样的鬼墓,不一样的鬼墓缘(读者群号:481626168)
  • 陌本妖娆:醉笑离歌

    陌本妖娆:醉笑离歌

    “歌儿,九世轮回,你还没爱够么?”某帝悲笑道陌离歌大鼻子瞪小眼“我又没爱你,你管我!”该男子华丽丽的吐血晕倒....某帝宠溺的抚摸着陌离歌的脑袋“离歌,今生本君非你不可”陌离歌狂笑“那你就准备好咯,看我不虐死你!”“主人,二宝饿了”某兽软软的挂在陌离歌的脑袋上陌离歌二话不说抓起一兽丢进了空间戒指只见一座如山般高的丹药顶上正趴着一小兽正在狂啃...看九转后的她如何应付异世的杀虐一个不一样的世界,看女主如何妖娆魅世。
  • 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!)
  • 一错成婚:老婆,不好抱

    一错成婚:老婆,不好抱

    订婚前夕,她失恋了,五年的感情,被好友轻易给撬走了;三年后,她成了‘三高’剩女,厄运降临,随即,一条短信跟一个电话,将她推进了地狱的深渊。二十八岁的她,却不得不在一群嘲笑声中参加豪门‘相亲’盛宴,为的只是那‘一万块’的入选费!而她未来可能的丈夫,一个臭名昭著的花花公子,却是这个城市万千女人追捧,最有权有势的男人......
  • 千年之恋恶魔与天使

    千年之恋恶魔与天使

    “安晨曦,无论多少年,我追随你千百万年。”“对不起,命运捉弄人,你是神,我只是卑贱的一阵风。”
  • 绝色御姐:妖孽男神腹黑攻

    绝色御姐:妖孽男神腹黑攻

    前世,他为救她而被骗,自断元脉;她为挽回他的生命,堕入万劫不复。他拼命保住她的最后一缕魂魄,送她转世入现世。12年后,他穿越界门来找她,可她已不记得他,他进行各种诱惑、调戏,上演了一场大灰狼诱拐小白兔的游戏,终于,她又爱上了他。18岁时,她恢复了记忆,和他一起穿回那玄幻世界,完成他们的使命。且看两人如何翻天覆云,扭转乾坤!
  • 中华近世通鉴(全集)

    中华近世通鉴(全集)

    本卷通鉴内容包括政治、军事、经济、外交、思想、文化诸方面;这些内容,按时序予以记载,述而不评,并根据需要,以一事为由头,详书一段史事。
  • 云风轻

    云风轻

    云风轻———前世黑道闻风丧胆的暗帝,遭姐妹和男人的重重背叛,被杀害.再次醒来,哞里已不是以前天真的云府3小姐云风轻的眼神,“人不犯我我不犯人人若犯我必将加倍偿还。”且看,云府三小姐独闯异世大陆的漫长路途。只为了生存,见一个杀一个,见两个杀一双。