登陆注册
15453300000019

第19章 VIII.(1)

The people who came to the Middlemount in July were ordinarily the nicest, but that year the August folks were nicer than usual and there were some students among them, and several graduates just going into business, who chose to take their outing there instead of going to the sea-side or the North Woods. This was a chance that might not happen in years again, and it made the house very gay for the young ladies; they ceased to pay court to the clerk, and asked him for letters only at mail-time. Five or six couples were often on the floor together, at the hops, and the young people sat so thick upon the stairs that one could scarcely get up or down.

So many young men made it gay not only for the young ladies, but also for a certain young married lady, when she managed to shirk her rather filial duties to her husband, who was much about the verandas, purblindly feeling his way with a stick, as he walked up and down, or sitting opaque behind the glasses that preserved what was left of his sight, while his wife read to him. She was soon acquainted with a good many more people than he knew, and was in constant request for such occasions as needed a chaperon not averse to mountain climbing, or drives to other hotels for dancing and supper and return by moonlight, or the more boisterous sorts of charades; no sheet and pillow case party was complete without her; for welsh-rarebits her presence was essential. The event of the conflict between these social claims and her duties to her husband was her appeal to Mrs. Atwell on a point which the landlady referred to Clementina.

"She wants somebody to read to her husband, and I don't believe but what you could do it, Clem. You're a good reader, as good as I want to hear, and while you may say that you don't put in a great deal of elocution, I guess you can read full well enough. All he wants is just something to keep him occupied, and all she wants is a chance to occupy herself with otha folks. Well, she is moa their own age. I d'know as the's any hahm in her. And my foot's so much betta, now, that I don't need you the whole while, any moa."

"Did you speak to her about me?" asked the girl.

"Well, I told her I'd tell you. I couldn't say how you'd like."

"Oh, I guess I should like," said Clementina, with her eyes shining.

"But--I should have to ask motha."

"I don't believe but what your motha'd be willin'," said Mrs. Atwell.

"You just go down and see her about it."

The next day Mrs. Milray was able to take leave of her husband, in setting off to matronize a coaching party, with an exuberance of good conscience that she shared with the spectators. She kissed him with lively affection, and charged him not to let the child read herself to death for him. She captioned Clementina that Mr. Milray never knew when he was tired, and she had better go by the clock in her reading, and not trust to any sign from him.

Clementina promised, and when the public had followed Mrs. Milray away, to watch her ascent to the topmost seat of the towering coach, by means of the ladder held in place by two porters, and by help of the down-stretched hands of all the young men on the coach, Clementina opened the book at the mark she found in it, and began to read to Mr. Milray.

The book was a metaphysical essay, which he professed to find a lighter sort of reading than fiction; he said most novelists were too seriously employed in preventing the marriage of the lovers, up to a certain point, to be amusing; but you could always trust a metaphysician for entertainment if he was very much in earnest, and most metaphysicians were. He let Clementina read on a good while in her tender voice, which had still so many notes of childhood in it, before he manifested any consciousness of being read to. He kept the smile on his delicate face which had come there when his wife said at parting, "I don't believe I should leave her with you if you could see how prettty she was," and he held his head almost motionlessly at the same poise he had given it in listening to her final charges. It was a fine head, still well covered with soft hair, which lay upon it in little sculpturesque masses, like chiseled silver, and the acquiline profile had a purity of line in the arch of the high nose and the jut of the thin lips and delicate chin, which had not been lost in the change from youth to age. One could never have taken it for the profile of a New York lawyer who had early found New York politics more profitable than law, and after a long time passed in city affairs, had emerged with a name shadowed by certain doubtful transactions. But this was Milray's history, which in the rapid progress of American events, was so far forgotten that you had first to remind people of what he had helped do before you could enjoy their surprise in realizing that this gentle person, with the cast of intellectual refinement which distinguished his face, was the notorious Milray, who was once in all the papers. When he made his game and retired from politics, his family would have sacrificed itself a good deal to reclaim him socially, though they were of a severer social than spiritual conscience, in the decay of some ancestral ideals. But be had rendered their willingness hopeless by marrying, rather late in life, a young girl from the farther West who had come East with a general purpose to get on.

同类推荐
  • 西铭述解

    西铭述解

    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。
  • 谷风之什

    谷风之什

    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。
  • Prometheus Bound

    Prometheus Bound

    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。
  • 平定交南录

    平定交南录

    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。
  • 地持义记

    地持义记

    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
  • 妃,别跑

    妃,别跑

    在一个明媚滴早晨,咱滴女主穿越了穿到来一个鸟不拉屎,鸡不下蛋滴地方,啥?还有白莲大姐,甜美小妹竟然还有一个狡诈的后妈?!!算了管他呢我是来泡妹男滴。。。。
  • 情落缘结

    情落缘结

    偶然遇见,她看见他,怀里搂着一个浓妆艳抹的女人;偶然遇见,林宛醉酒,直接吐到了他的身上,他第一次没有嫌弃一个女人;偶然遇见,擦身而过,他知道那是他此生唯一的羁绊……
  • 来自支配者的契约

    来自支配者的契约

    另一个神话的世界,阴谋与背叛者的创世这不是背叛,这是契约的一部分!这不是阴谋,这是约定好的结果!
  • 谁把我灌醉

    谁把我灌醉

    讲诉一个抑郁者的悲哀,他看不清自己。永远的走在自己的幻想中,他的人生是不知所以的,曲中黑白由你评定。
  • 阎梦令

    阎梦令

    我本是东海龙帝龙玄的小女儿,因下界历三世冤死劫,被阎殿怜悯三世放回阳间洗清冤屈,就此和冥界结下了不解之缘,直到二姐闯冥界,杀冥兵,夺生死簿,一切才算开个了头....
  • TFBOYS之十年盛夏

    TFBOYS之十年盛夏

    当三小只同时恋上一个人会发生什么呢?当女主失忆时,三小只又会怎么办呢?而她最后又究竟会选择三只中的哪一位呢?一场虐心凄美的爱恋拉开帷幕。。。
  • 请你安好

    请你安好

    似乎所有人的青春里都会出现一个彩虹一样的人,惊艳,夺目,慢慢的又消失殆尽,恍然间如大梦一场。事隔经年,书里人却成了看戏人。
  • 水石闲谈

    水石闲谈

    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。
  • 愿望之塔

    愿望之塔

    “想要实现自己的愿望吗?那就去收集钥匙吧!”————一个不知从哪里传来的声音在诱惑着人们……
  • 快穿之女配萌萌哒

    快穿之女配萌萌哒

    当傻白甜的宅女纪绾绾遇到反派女配系统,噢!她只想说,我又get到了一个新技能————泡美男。管他男主女主在干嘛,都不能阻止我们绾绾在反派道路上的步伐。