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Файл:Элис Эдамс. Учебное пособие – книга для чтения на английском языке
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Alice Adams
and desolately sat upon the bed. Poor
papa! she whispered.
Why? Mrs. Adams inquired, mildly. Whats the matter
with him? Sometimes you act as if he werent getting well.
Whats he been talking about?
Mama well, I think Im pretty selfish. Oh, I do!
Did he say you were?
Papa? No, indeed! What I mean is, maybe were both
a little selfish to try to make him go out and hunt around
for something new.
Mrs. Adams looked thoughtful. Oh, thats what he was
up to!
Mama, I think we ought to give it up. I didnt dream
it had really hurt him.
Well, doesnt he hurt us?
Never that I know of, mama.
I dont mean by SA
impatiently. There are more ways than that of hurting
people. When a man sticks to a salary that doesnt provide
for his family, isnt that hurting them?
Oh, it provides for us well enough, mama. W
what we need if I werent so extravagant. Oh, I know I
am!
But at this admission her mother cried out sharply.
Extravagant! You havent one tenth of what the other
girls you go with have. And you CANT have what you
ought to as long as he doesnt get out of that horrible
place. It provides bare food and shelter for us, but whats
that?
I dont think we ought to try any more to change
him.
You dont? Mrs. Adams came and stood befor
Listen, Alice: your fathers asleep; thats his trouble, and
hes got to be waked up. He doesnt know that things
have changed. When you and W
we did have enough at least it seemed to be about as
much as most of the people we knew. But the town isnt
what it was in those days, and times arent what they were
YING things, Mrs. Adams explained,
alter wer
, poor, POOR
e have
e her.
e little childr
en
31
Booth Tarkington
then, and these fearful PRICES arent the old prices.
Everything else but your father has changed, and all the
time hes stood still. He doesnt know it; he thinks because
theyve given him a hundred dollars more every two years
hes quite a prosperous man! And he thinks that because
his children cost him more than he and I cost our parents
he gives them enough!
But W
anything at all any more. And she concluded, in a
stricken voice, Its all me!
Why shouldnt it be? her mother cried. Y
youre just at the time when your life should be fullest
of good things and happiness. Y
Alices lip quivered; she was not unsusceptible to such an
appeal, but she contrived the semblance of a protest. I dont
have such a bad time not a good DEAL of the time, anyhow.
Ive got a good MANY of the things other girls have
You have? Mrs. Adams was piteously satirical. I
suppose youve got a limousine to go to that dance tonight? I suppose youve only got to call a florist and tell
him to send you some orchids? I suppose youve
But Alice interrupted this list. Apparently in a single
instant all emotion left her
as one in the midst of trifles reminded of really serious
matters. She got up from the bed and went to the door of
the closet where she kept her dresses. Oh, see here, she
said, briskly. Ive decided to wear my white organdie if
you could put in a new lining for me. Im afraid itll take
you nearly all afternoon.
She brought forth the dress, displayed it upon the bed,
and Mrs. Adams examined it attentively.
Do you think you could get it done, mama?
I dont see why not, Mrs. Adams answered, passing a
thoughtful hand over the fabric. It oughtnt to take more
than four or five hours.
Its a shame to have you sit at the machine that long,
Alice said, absently, adding, And Im sure we ought to let
papa alone.
alter Alice falter
, and she became businesslike,
ed. Walter doesnt cost him
oure young
et what do you get?
32
Alice Adams
Lets just give it up, mama.
Mrs. Adams continued her thoughtful examination of
the dress. Did you buy the chiffon and ribbon, Alice?
Yes. Im sur
more, mama.
Well, well see.
Lets both agree that well NEVER say another single
word to him about it, said Alice. Itll be a great deal
better if we just let him make up his mind for himself.
e we oughtnt to talk to him about it any
Chapter V
With this, having more immediately practical questions
before them, they dropped the subject, to bend their entire
attention upon the dress; and when the lunch-gong sounded
downstairs Alice was still sketching repairs and alterations.
She continued to sketch them, not heeding the summons.
I suppose wed better go down to lunch, Mrs. Adams
said, absently. Shes at the gong again.
mama. Now about the sleeves And she went on with
her planning. Unfortunately the gong was inexpressive of
the mood of the person who beat upon it. It consisted of
three little metal bowls upon a string; they were unequal
in size, and, upon being tapped with a padded stick, gave
forth vibrations almost musically pleasant. It was Alice
who had substituted this contrivance for the brass dinnerbell in use throughout her childhood; and neither she nor
the others of her family realized that the substitution of
sweeter sounds had made the life of that household more
difficult. In spite of dismaying increases in wages, the
Adamses still strove to keep a cook; and, as they were
unable to pay the higher rates demanded by a good one,
what they usually had was a whimsical coloured woman
of nomadic impulses. In the hands of such a person the
old-fashioned dinner-bell was satisfying; life could instantly
be made intolerable for any one dawdling on his way to
a meal; the bell was capable of every desirable profanity
In a minute,
33
Booth Tarkington
and left nothing bottled up in the breast of the ringer
the chamois-covered stick might whack upon Alices little
Chinese bowls for a considerable length of time and
produce no gr
other effect, except fury in the cook. The ironical impossibility
of expressing indignation otherwise than by sounds of
gentle harmony proved exasperating; the cook was apt to
become surcharged, so that explosive resignations, never
rare, were somewhat more frequent after the introduction
of the gong.
Mrs. Adams took this increased frequency to be only
another manifestation of the inexplicable new difficulties
that beset all housekeeping. Y
you had paid one a few years before; and the cook knew
half as much of cookery, and had no gratitude. The more
you gave these people, it seemed, the worse they behaved
a condition not to be remedied by simply giving them
less, because you couldnt even get the worst unless you
paid her what she demanded. Nevertheless, Mrs. Adams
remained fitfully an optimist in the matter
her mother to speak of a female cook as the girl,
had been instructed by Alice to drop that definition in
favour of one not an improvement in accuracy: the maid.
Almost always, during the first day or so after every cook
came, Mrs. Adams would say, at intervals, with an air of
triumph: I believe of course its a little soon to be sure
but I do really believe this new maid is the treasure
weve been looking for so long! Much in the same way
that Alice dreamed of a mysterious perfect mate for whom
she waited,
somewhere in the universe there was the treasure, the
perfect maid,
kitchen, not four days or four weeks, but for
The present incumbent was not she. Alice, profoundly
interested herself, kept her mother likewise so preoccupied
with the dress that they were but vaguely conscious of the
gongs soft warnings, though these were repeated and
protracted unusually. Finally the sound of a hearty voice,
eat ef
fect of urgency upon a hear
ou paid a cook double what
her mother had a fairy theory that hidden
who would come and cook in the Adamses
er, nor any
. Br
ought up by
ever.
. But
she
34
Alice Adams
independent and enraged, r
the hall below.
I says goo-BYE! it called. Dass all!
Then the front door slammed.
Why, what Mrs. Adams began.
They went down hurriedly to find out. Miss Perry
informed them.
I couldnt make her listen to reason, she said. She
rang the gong four or five times and got to talking to
herself; and then she went up to her room and packed her
bag. I told her she had no business to go out the front
door
, anyhow.
Mrs. Adams took the news philosophically. I thought
she had something like that in her eye when I paid her
this morning, and Im not surprised. W
Adams know anythings the matter till I get a new one.
They lunched upon what the late incumbent had left
chilling on the table, and then Mrs. Adams prepared to
wash the dishes; she would have them done in a jiffy,
she said, cheerfully. But it was Alice who washed the
dishes.
I DONT like to have you do that, Alice, her mother
protested, following her into the kitchen. It roughens the
hands, and when a girl has hands like yours
I know, mama. Alice looked troubled, but shook her
head. It cant be helped this time; youll need every
minute to get that dress done.
Mrs. Adams went away lamenting, while Alice, no
expert, began to splash the plates and cups and saucers in
the warm water
grew dreamy: she was making little gay-coloured pictures
of herself, unfounded prophecies of how she would look
and what would happen to her that evening. She saw
herself, charming and demure, wearing a fluffy idealization
of the dress her mother now determinedly struggled with
upstairs; she saw herself framed in a garlanded archway,
the entrance to a ballroom, and saw the people on the
shining floor turning dramatically to look at her; then from
. After a while, as she worked, her eyes
eached the pair
ell, we wont let Mr.
. It came from
35
Booth Tarkington
all points a rush of young men shouting for dances with
her; and she constructed a superb stranger
masterfully smiling, who swung her out of the clamouring
group as the music began. She saw herself dancing with
him, saw the half-troubled smile she would give him; and
she accurately smiled that smile as she rinsed the knives
and forks.
These hopeful fragments of drama were not to be
realized, she knew; but she played that they were true,
and went on creating them. In all of them she wore or
carried flowers her mothers sorrow for her in this detail
but made it the more important and she saw herself
glamorous with orchids; discarded these for an armful of
long-stemmed, heavy roses; tossed them away for a great
bouquet of white camellias; and so wandered down a
lengthening hothouse gallery of floral beauty, all costly
and beyond her reach except in such a wistful day-dream.
And upon her present whole horizon, though she searched
it earnestly, she could discover no figure of a sender of
flowers.
Out of her fancies the desire for flowers to wear that
night emerged definitely and became poignant; she began
to feel that it might be particularly important to have them.
This might be the night! She was still at the age to dream
that the night of any dance may be the vital point in
destiny. No matter how commonplace or disappointing
other dance nights have been this one may bring the great
meeting. The unknown magnifico may be there.
Alice was almost unaware of her own reveries in which
this being appeared reveries often so transitory that they
developed and passed in a few seconds. And in some of
them the being was not wholly a stranger; there were
moments when he seemed to be composed of recognizable
fragments of young men she knew a smile she had
liked, fr
and sometimes she thought he might be concealed, so to
say, within the person of an actual acquaintance, someone
she had never suspected of being the right seeker for her,
om one; the figur
e of another, the hair of another
, tall, dark,
36
Alice Adams
someone who had never suspected that it was she who
waited for him. Anything might reveal them to each
other: a look, a turn of the head, a singular word
perhaps some flowers upon her breast or in her hand.
She wiped the dishes slowly, concluding the operation
by dropping a saucer upon the floor and dreamily sweeping
the fragments under the stove. She sighed and replaced
the broom near a window, letting her glance wander over
the small yard outside. The grass, repulsively besooted to
the colour of coal-smoke all winter
again and now sparkled with green, in the midst of which
a tiny shot of blue suddenly fixed her absent eyes. They
remained upon it for several moments, becoming less
absent.
It was a violet.
Alice ran upstairs, put on her hat, went outdoors and
began to search out the violets. She found twenty-two, a
bright omen since the number was that of her years
but not enough violets. There were no more; she had
ransacked every foot of the yard.
She looked dubiously at the little bunch in her hand,
glanced at the lawn next door
prospect; then went thoughtfully into the house, left her
twenty-two violets in a bowl of water
out again, her brow marked with a frown of decision. She
went to a trolley-line and took a car to the outskirts of the
city where a new park had been opened.
Here she resumed her search, but it was not an easily
rewarded one, and for an hour after her arrival she found
no violets. She walked conscientiously over the whole
stretch of meadow, her eyes roving discontentedly; there
was never a blue dot in the groomed expanse; but at last,
as she came near the borders of an old grove of trees, left
untouched by the municipal landscapers, the little flowers
appeared, and she began to gather them. She picked them
carefully, loosening the earth round each tiny plant, so as
to bring the roots up with it, that it might live the longer;
and she had brought a napkin, which she drenched at a
, had lately come to life
, which offered no favourable
, and came quickly
37
Booth Tarkington
hydrant, and kept loosely wrapped about the stems of her
collection.
The turf was too damp for her to kneel; she worked
patiently, stooping from the waist; and when she got home
in a drizzle of rain at five oclock her knees were tremulous
with strain, her back ached, and she was tired all over,
but she had three hundred violets. Her mother moaned
when Alice showed them to her
water.
Oh, you POOR child! T
so hard to get things that other girls only need; lift their
little fingers for!
Never mind, said Alice, huskily. Ive got
AM going to have a good time tonight!
Youve just got to! Mrs. Adams agreed, intensely
sympathetic. The Lord knows you deserve to, after picking
all these violets, poor thing, and He wouldnt be mean
enough to keep you from it. I may have to get dinner
before I finish the dress, but I can get it done in a few
minutes afterward, and its going to look right pretty.
Dont you worry about THA
violets
I wonder Alice began, paused, then went on,
fragmentarily: I suppose well, I wonder do you
suppose it would have been better policy to have told
W
alter before
No, said her mother. It would only have given him
longer to grumble.
But he might
Dont worry, Mrs. Adams r
little cross, but he wont be stubborn; just let me talk to
him and dont you say anything at all, no matter what HE
says.
These references to W
manoeuvr
by the mother
silence. Mrs. Adams began by laughing cheerfully. I wonder
how much longer it took me to cook this dinner than it
es which took place at dinner
, Alice having accepted her advice to sit in
o think of your having to: work
alter concer
, fragrant in a basin of
em and I
T! And with all these lovely
eassured her
ned some necessary
, and were conducted
. Hell be a
38
Alice Adams
does Walter to eat it? she said. Dont gobble, child!
Theres no hurry.
In contact with his own family W
of words.
Is for me, he said. Got date.
I know you have, but theres plenty of time.
He smiled in benevolent pity. YOU know, do you? If
you made any coffee dont bother if you didnt. Get
some down-town. He seemed about to rise and depart;
whereupon Alice, biting her lip, sent a panic-stricken
glance at her mother.
But Mrs. Adams seemed not at all disturbed; and
laughed again. Why, what nonsense, W
your coffee in a few minutes, but were going to have
dessert first.
What sort?
Some lovely peaches.
Doe want
moving back his chair
Walter! It doesnt begin till about nine oclock at the
earliest.
He paused, mystified. What doesnt?
The dance.
What dance?
Why, Mildred Palmers dance, of course.
W
alter laughed briefly. Whats that to me?
Why, you havent forgotten its TONIGHT, have you?
Mrs. Adams cried. What a boy!
I told you a week ago I wasnt going to that ole
dance, he retur
Walter! she exclaimed. Of COURSE your
got your clothes all out this afternoon, and brushed them
for you. Theyll look very nice, and
They wont look nice on ME, he interrupted. Got
date down-town, I tell you.
But of course youll
See here! Walter said, decisively. Dont get any wr
ideas in your head. Im just as liable to go up to that ole
ny canned peaches, said the frank Walter,
. G-night.
ned, frowning. You heard me.
alter was no squander
alter! Ill bring
e going. I
er
ong
39
Booth Tarkington
dance at the Palmers as I am to eat a couple of barrels of
broken glass.
But, W
W
Walter me! Im no sciety snake. I wouldnt jazz with that
Palmer crowd if they coaxed me with diamonds.
Walter
Didnt I tell you its no use to Walter me? he
demanded.
My dear child
Oh, Glory!
At this Mrs. Adams abandoned her air of amusement,
looked hurt, and glanced at the demure Miss Perry across
the table. Im afraid Miss Perry wont think you have very
good manners, W
Y
to hear any more about me goin to
But his mother interrupted him with some asperity: It
seems very strange that you always object to going anywhere
among OUR friends, W
YOUR friends! he said, and, rising fr
gave utterance to an ironical laugh strictly monosyllabic.
Your friends! he r
Certainly! Good-NIGHT!
And looking back over his shoulder to offer a final
brief view of his derisive face, he took himself out of the
room.
Alice gasped: Mama
Ill stop him! her mother responded, sharply; and
hurried after the truant, catching him at the front door
with his hat and raincoat on.
Walter
Told you had a date down-town, he said, gruf
would have opened the door
detained him.
Walter, please come back and finish your dinner.
When I take all the trouble to cook it for you, I think you
might at least
alter
alter was beginning to be seriously annoyed. Dont
alter.
oure right she wont, he agr
alter.
epeated, going to the door. Oh, yes!
eed, grimly. Not if I haf
om his chair,
, but she caught his ar
fly, and
m and
40
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