登陆注册
15707200000011

第11章

"Of course not, on Class Day. But I hope we shall get seats. What weather!"The sun had not been oppressive at any time during the day, though the crowded building had been close and warm, and now it lay like a painted light on the grass and paths over which they passed to the entrance of the grounds around the Tree. Holden Chapel, which enclosed the space on the right as they went in, shed back the sun from its brick-red flank, rising unrelieved in its venerable ugliness by any touch of the festive preparations; but to their left and diagonally across from them high stagings supported tiers of seats along the equally unlovely red bulks of Hollis and of Harvard. These seats, and the windows in the stories above them, were densely packed with people, mostly young girls dressed in a thousand enchanting shades and colours, and bonneted and hatted to the last effect of fashion. They were like vast terraces of flowers to the swift glance, and here and there some brilliant parasol, spread to catch the sun on the higher ranks, was like a flaunting poppy, rising to the light and lolling out above the blooms of lower stature. But the parasols were few, for the two halls flung wide curtains of shade over the greater part of the spectators, and across to the foot of the chapel, while a piece of the carpentry whose simplicity seems part of the Class Day tradition shut out the glare and the uninvited public, striving to penetrate the enclosure next the street. In front of this yellow pine wall; with its ranks of benches, stood the Class Day Tree, girded at ten or fifteen feet from the ground with a wide band of flowers.

Mrs. Pasmer and her friends found themselves so late that if some gentlemen who knew Professor Saintsbury had not given up their places they could have got no seats. But this happened, and the three ladies had harmoniously blended their hues with those of the others in that bank of bloom, and the gentlemen had somehow made away with their obstructiveness in different crouching and stooping postures at their feet, when the Junior Class filed into the green enclosure amidst the 'rahs of their friends; and sank in long ranks on the grass beside the chapel. Then the Sophomores appeared, and were received with cheers by the Juniors, with whom they joined, as soon as they were placed, in heaping ignominy upon the freshmen. The Seniors came last, grotesque in the variety of their old clothes, and a fierce uproar of 'rahs and yells met them from the students squatted upon the grass as they loosely grouped themselves in front of the Tree; the men of the younger classes formed in three rings, and began circling in different directions around them.

Mrs. Pasmer bent across Mrs. Saintsbury to her daughter: "Can you make out Mr. Mavering among them, Alice?""No. Hush, mamma!" pleaded the girl.

With the subsidence of the tumult in the other classes, the Seniors had broken from the stoical silence they kept through it, and were now with an equally serious clamour applauding the first of a long list of personages, beginning with the President, and ranging through their favourites in the Faculty down to Billy the Postman. The leader who invited them to this expression of good feeling exacted the full tale of nine cheers for each person he named, and before he reached the last the 'rahs came in gasps from their dry throats.

In the midst of the tumult the marshal flung his hat at the elm; then the rush upon the tree took place, and the scramble for the flowers. The first who swarmed up the trunk were promptly plucked down by the legs and flung upon the ground, as if to form a base there for the operations of the rest; who surged and built themselves up around the elm in an irregular mass. From time to time some one appeared clambering over heads and shoulders to make a desperate lunge and snatch at the flowers, and then fall back into the fluctuant heap again. Yells, cries, and clappings of hands came from the other students, and the spectators in the, seats, involuntarily dying away almost to silence as some stronger or wilfuler aspirant held his own on the heads and shoulders of the others, or was stayed there by his friends among them till he could make sure of a handful of the flowers. A rush was made upon him when be reached the ground; if he could keep his flowers from the hands that snatched at them, he staggered away with the fragments. The wreath began to show wide patches of the bark under it; the surging and struggling crowd below grew less dense; here and there one struggled out of it and walked slowly about, panting pitiably.

"Oh, I wonder they don't kill each other!" cried Mrs. Pasmer. "Isn't it terrible?" She would not have missed it on any account; but she liked to get all she could out of her emotions.

"They never get hurt," said Mrs. Saintsbury. "Oh, look! There's Dan Mavering!"The crowd at the foot of the tree had closed densely, and a wilder roar went up from all the students. A tall, slim young fellow, lifted on the shoulders of the mass below, and staying himself with one hand against the tree, rapidly stripped away the remnants of the wreath, and flung them into the crowd under him. A single tuft remained; the crowd was melting away under him in a scramble for the fallen flowers; he made a crooked leap, caught the tuft, and tumbled with it headlong.

"Oh!" breathed the ladies on the Benches, with a general suspiration lost in the 'rahs and clappings, as Mavering reappeared with the bunch of flowers in his hand. He looked dizzily about, as if not sure, of his course; then his face, flushed and heated, with the hair pulled over the eyes, brightened with recognition, and he advanced upon Mrs. Saintsbury's party with rapid paces, each of which Mrs. Pasmer commentated with inward conjecture.

"Is he bringing the flowers to Alice?. Isn't it altogether too conspicuous? Has he really the right to do it? What will people think?

Will he give them to me for her, or will he hand them directly to her?

同类推荐
  • 花间集新注

    花间集新注

    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。
  • 梦寐

    梦寐

    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。
  • 思文大纪

    思文大纪

    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。
  • 钝吟书要

    钝吟书要

    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。
  • 破山禅师语录

    破山禅师语录

    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。
热门推荐
  • 任凭时间染白你

    任凭时间染白你

    山依旧树依旧,我脚下已不是昨日的河流。世界那么大,年华那么长,或许有些事会令你不解无助彷徨迷惘······但经历了这些之后,也许你会发现,我们都一样,都是生活在这个世上的,都是经历过许多的,都是有过喜怒于哀乐。同样,在这芸芸众生里,是那么渺小,显得那么可有可无,但总有人会令你感觉到:我是重要的。我们都不是孑然一身,我们都不是可有可无。
  • 傲笑修真

    傲笑修真

    万千世界,谁与争锋。不管是在凡人界,还是修真界,只要还活着,一切的困难就让我凌枫用微笑嘲笑它的无能。天大地大,谁主臣服?一个默默无闻的小子,他将怎样踏上修真之路。肝胆相照,他又将如何问鼎修真界,俯视群雄。爱恨离别,又将如何面对情劫,赢得美人归。
  • 大丹直指

    大丹直指

    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。
  • 机战魅影

    机战魅影

    星空的世界不停的流转,人类的脚步早已跨越宇宙。一个位于联盟最偏僻的地方,一块奇异的芯片,让本该死亡的少年重获新生。当少年踏上真正的星际之旅,那环绕的迷雾终于慢慢揭开。什么?我做这么多为了什么?我只是要,活下去!
  • 大叔,不要

    大叔,不要

    胸大无脑的季凉夏终于爬上季氏集团的总裁位置,前路荆棘丛生,还好有小叔严厉保驾护航。“小叔,唐股东逼我嫁给他儿子,我好怕。”“别怕,唐氏明天就破产了。”“小叔,我什么都不会,这个总裁我当不了。”“别怕,小叔教你。”“小叔,今天晚上为什么在床上学习?”“今天晚上学习床上的东西。”季凉夏泪眼汪汪,摊上这么个腹黑小叔,究竟是幸运呢?还是幸运呢?
  • 炉石大领主

    炉石大领主

    炉石爱好者夏南,带着炉石卡片系统重生在异界大陆,成为一名濒临破产的小领主。这是一个使用卡片的世界。各种智慧生物利用卡片增强能力,召唤各种强大的生物。夏南的炉石系统有了用武之地。带着卡片中的英雄人物在异界厮杀。伊瑟拉:“主人,我虽然是梦境的主人,但是最近总是做一些奇怪的梦,您能帮我分析一下吗?大螺丝:“主人,您要相信我,我回家练了1000发爆炎,下次我保证命中您指定目标!打团战记得召唤我!”死亡之翼:“呜呜呜,您什么时候能省出一点魔尘把我做出来?我要去异界!我要打10个!我是一只正义的黑龙!听说异界有黑龙MM,其实我很寂寞。”
  • 面具:谎言背后的王道

    面具:谎言背后的王道

    谎言?善意的谎言?违心的欺骗?呵,谎言就是谎言,欺骗就是欺骗。王道?是王?是道?黑道?白道?呵,心狠者,那才是王道。person指个人,而persona在拉丁文中本意意味着演员的面具。面具下究竟是怎样的一副面孔,是谎言?还是王道?不到最后你我都不得而知。
  • 绝世溺宠:圣手毒医

    绝世溺宠:圣手毒医

    枫云大陆有个传说,宁可自杀也绝不被她杀,她是人人得而避之,见儿闪之的女魔头。一张毒舌嘴能把人气死。片段一:洛铭钰看着从他面前走过的女儿:“你怎么现在才来?”某女疑惑:“咦?老头你怎么来了?”洛铭钰气的吐血,他很老么?片段二:“小姐小姐,外面有人找你。”洛芽匆匆跑来。某女悠闲地躺着贵妃椅上,吃着葡萄,喝着酒,好不惬意的道:“谁啊?来就来呗,大惊小怪干嘛,就算是皇帝老子来了我照样躺着!”洛芽面露难色,吞吞吐吐道:“是…是…”是了个半天。都没有是出个所以然来。某女怒了:“到底是谁啊?”突然一道磁性魅惑的声音响起:“我!”某女一愣,机械的转头,扯出无比难看的笑,然后转头跑路某妖孽挑眉,你以为你跑得掉。
  • 凤权天阑

    凤权天阑

    清歌本为歌姬,,偶遇皇子一跃成为皇子妃,,可惜造化弄人,老天爷并不想让她安稳度日。。。弑君,夺妻,被贬冷宫,。。经历这一切的她决定开始反击。。
  • 快穿之灵魂摆渡者

    快穿之灵魂摆渡者

    她诞生于黑暗边缘的彼岸花,也是时空的操控者,为了维持各个时空的平衡,她必须穿梭于各个时空完成那些怨灵们的心愿,她还有一个特别的名字‘灵魂摆渡者’。她没有心,没有眼泪,没有笑容,不会伤心,更不会开心……她便是阎歆……一个诞生于黑暗边缘的人,不,她更像一个机器……摆渡者阎歆已经上线,你,敢来接招吗?