登陆注册
15453300000092

第92章 XXXVIII.(2)

Clementina's father must have given such a report of Hinkle and his family, that they felt easy at home in leaving her to the lot she had chosen. When Claxon parted from her, he talked of coming out with her mother to see her that fall; but it was more than a year before they got round to it. They did not come till after the birth of her little girl, and her father then humorously allowed that perhaps they would not have got round to it at all if something of the kind had not happened. The Hinkles and her father and mother liked one another, so much that in the first glow of his enthusiasm Claxon talked of settling down in Ohio, and the older Hinkle drove him about to look at some places that were for sale. But it ended in his saying one day that he missed the hills, and he did not believe that he would know enough to come in when it rained if he did not see old Middlemount with his nightcap on first. His wife and he started home with the impatience of their years, rather earlier than they had meant to go, and they were silent for a little while after they left the flag-station where Hinkle and Clementina had put them aboard their train.

"Well?" said Claxon, at last.

"Well?" echoed his wife, and then she did not speak for a little while longer. At last she asked, "D'he look that way when you fust see him in New Yo'k?"

Claxon gave his honesty time to get the better of his optimism. Even then he answered evasively, "He doos look pootty slim."

"The way I cypher it out," said his wife, "he no business to let her marry him, if he wa'n't goin' to get well. It was throwin' of herself away, as you may say."

"I don't know about that," said Claxon, as if the point had occurred to him, too, and had been already argued in his mind. "I guess they must 'a' had it out, there in New York before they got married--or she had.

I don't believe but what he expected to get well, right away. It's the kind of a thing that lingas along, and lingas along. As fah fo'th as Clem went, I guess there wa'n't any let about it. I guess she'd made up her mind from the staht, and she was goin' to have him if she had to hold him on his feet to do it. Look he'a! W hat would you done?"

"Oh, I presume we're all fools!" said Mrs. Claxon, impatient of a sex not always so frank with itself. "But that don't excuse him."

"I don't say it doos," her husband admitted. "But I presume he was expectin' to get well right away, then. And I don't believe," he added, energetically, "but what he will, yet. As I undastand, there ain't anything ogganic about him. It's just this he'e nuvvous prostration, resultin' from shock, his docta tells me; and he'll wo'k out of that all right."

They said no more, and Mrs. Claxon did not recur to any phase of the situation till she undid the lunch which the Hinkles had put up for them, and laid out on the napkin in her lap the portions of cold ham and cold chicken, the buttered biscuit, and the little pot of apple-butter, with the large bottle of cold coffee. Then she sighed, "They live well."

"Yes," said her husband, glad of any concession, "and they ah' good folks. And Clem's as happy as a bud with 'em, you can see that."

"Oh, she was always happy enough, if that's all you want. I presume she was happy with that hectorin' old thing that fooled her out of her money."

"I ha'n't ever regretted that money, Rebecca.," said Claxon, stiffly, almost sternly, "and I guess you a'n't, eitha."

"I don't say I have," retorted Mrs. Claxon. "But I don't like to be made a fool of. I presume," she added, remotely, but not so irrelevantly, "Clem could ha' got 'most anybody, ova the'a."

"Well," said Claxon, taking refuge in the joke, "I shouldn't want her to marry a crowned head, myself."

It was Clementina who drove the clay-bank colt away from the station after the train had passed out of sight. Her husband sat beside her, and let her take the reins from his nerveless grasp; and when they got into the shelter of the piece of woods that the road passed through he put up his hands to his face, and broke into sobs. She allowed him to weep on, though she kept saying, "Geo'ge, Geo'ge," softly, and stroking his knee with the hand next him. When his sobbing stopped, she said, "I guess they've had a pleasant visit; but I'm glad we'a together again." He took up her hand and kissed the back of it, and then clutched it hard, but did not speak. "It's strange," she went on, "how I used to be home-sick for father and motha"--she had sometimes lost her Yankee accent in her association with his people, and spoke with their Western burr, but she found it in moments of deeper feeling--" when I was there in Europe, and now I'm glad to have them go. I don't want anybody to be between us; and I want to go back to just the way we we'e befo'e they came. It's been a strain on you, and now you must throw it all off and rest, and get up your strength. One thing, I could see that fatha noticed the gain you had made since he saw you in New Yo'k. He spoke about it to me the fust thing, and he feels just the way I do about it. He don't want you to hurry and get well, but take it slowly, and not excite yourself. He believes in your gleaner, and he knows all about machinery. He says the patent makes it puffectly safe, and you can take your own time about pushing it; it's su'a to go. And motha liked you. She's not one to talk a great deal--she always leaves that to father and me--but she's got deep feelings, and she just worshipped the baby! I neva saw her take a child in her ahms before; but she seemed to want to hold the baby all the time." She stopped, and then added, tenderly, "Now, I know what you ah' thinking about, Geo'ge, and I don't want you to think about it any more.

If you do, I shall give up."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 温暖人心的灯光

    温暖人心的灯光

    《温暖的故事:温暖人心的灯光》为著名故事作家李洪文先生的温暖故事集。其作品题材丰富,写作手法矫折百变。里面有令人心里发暖的温情,里面有令人如沐阳光的亲情,里面有春天般的励志……《温暖的故事:温暖人心的灯光》作者将那些精彩故事娓娓道来,使读者一定会在故事中,忘记烦恼和忧愁,并和故事中的人物同呼吸,共命运,让我们一起插上故事的羽翼,遨游在故事的长河中吧!……
  • 星光灿烂:前妻耍大牌

    星光灿烂:前妻耍大牌

    不过是翘了一次课好死不死的就跌进了别人设好的圈套,眼见男友被捉奸在床,害她长针眼。什么?不难过不心疼?社会这么大,狗血这么猛,她只是适应能力强一点而已。心疼?大概有吧。父亲的骤然离世,闺蜜的背叛才是真真戳得心窝子疼。被迫联姻只为保住父亲的产业。婚后夫妇和睦。原以为一切疼痛都戛然而止,却不知虐心的日子才刚刚开了个头。当阴谋被拆穿,骆展展决绝离去。五年后,她化身韩流偶像华丽归来,夺产业。谋前程,治小人。只是为什么不小心将那男人的心也夺了过来?“你是谁?不认识。请离开我家。”“妈咪,你忘啦,他是我爹地。”一大一小俩男贼笑着。“对,我是你的亲亲老公。”
  • 兽人黎明

    兽人黎明

    种族摩擦出的爱恨情仇欲望膨胀出的贪得无厌所爱所恨,所念所思当国破家亡,当孤独一人当现实幻灭,当记忆模糊支撑着人生的不是过去是新的开始,如再临人世
  • 扬名传

    扬名传

    我要登上权利的巅峰,要让天下间再没有人敢任意践踏我、指责我、欺辱我;再没有人欺骗我、伤害我、忤逆我;再没有人或者事阻挡我所想要做的一切!——许名扬
  • 空门无祭

    空门无祭

    江湖夜雨十年灯,残灯断芯复天明。一生几许伤心事,不向空门何处销!
  • 我和老头儿有个约定

    我和老头儿有个约定

    绕山镇离城里有五十多里山路,巍巍太行将整个小镇半包围起来,于是这个小镇就显得及其的孤寂。但这里的人们从来都不感觉这里是孤独的,反而他们觉得在经济时代的大潮流下这里显得格外安静。年轻人都外出去到南方发达的地方打工赚钱,剩下的老人则在这里颐养天年,神仙似的安享他们的后半生。随着岁月的流逝,镇上人们的生活水平也提高了,几年下来,镇上各种社会基础设施也开始陆续建设起来,而人们最希望的就是能把镇里通往市区的这条坑洼弯曲的山路整修一下,这样就能减少自行车、摩托车和三轮车在山间行走的难度,如果路修好了,在这条山路上也就能走进轿车,甚至是公交车了。
  • 首席竹马我不依

    首席竹马我不依

    很久很久以后,全世界都知道,他没有底线,只有一个弱点。无数人为打探这个消息而消失,无数人想找寻这个消息而湮灭,无数人想搜查这个消息而栖息。可当事人却只知其二,不知其一。很久很久以后,她才明白他,才明白,自己不是爱的太浅,而是爱的不够深。当千帆过尽,我~还爱你。耳边依稀响过:曦曦,还记得吗?小时候我说:我爱你一定胜过未来他爱你。不,你不能这样,这不是爱~许落曦跪在雪地里仰天哭嚎大喊。血花开在雪地里,妖娆旖旎的模样比拟梅花,更胜梅花,映入眼帘的凄凉与艳丽。看着这一幕,许落曦闭上了眼睛,泪痕布满小巧的脸:擎哥哥,我该怎么办?
  • 星域霸王

    星域霸王

    执手摘星辰,脚踏广寒月,左苍茫、右沧海,一梦万古,谁与争锋?茫茫求仙路,悠悠古仙殇,鲜血铸赤炎,狂战九重天!
  • 穿越异界行

    穿越异界行

    苍天开道,洪荒现世,通天之路轮回千年之久再现世间!十二人被命运锁链锁牵重回世间......‘若你再回人世,你会选择重新开始吗?’在同一时间不同的地点遇到十二人,那叫相识;在不同的世间遇到十二人,那叫命运!一生不为红颜动,要动红颜倾一生
  • 天虚戒

    天虚戒

    神秘古老的传承,看似普通的戒指,命运的齿轮在慢慢转动,命运,随之改写。本想一心求仙问道,奈何因果绕身,索性与天地争锋,最后更是登向未知之路……