登陆注册
5231500000052

第52章 XXVI.(2)

"Why, I suppose so," he answered, with an uneasy laugh. "His people were German emigrants who settled in Southern Indiana. That makes him as much American as any of us, doesn't it?"

Burnamy spoke with his mind on his French-Canadian grandfather, who had come down through Detroit, when their name was Bonami; but Mrs. March answered from her eight generations of New England ancestry. "Oh, for the West, yes, perhaps," and they neither of them said anything more about Stoller.

In their room, where she found March waiting for her amidst their arriving baggage, she was so full of her pent-up opinions of Burnamy's patron that she, would scarcely speak of the view from their windows of the wooded hills up and down the Tepl. "Yes, yes; very nice, and I know I shall enjoy it ever so much. But I don't know what you will think of that poor young Burnamy!"

"Why, what's happened to him?"

"Happened? Stoller's happened."

"Oh, have you seen him, already? Well?"

"Well, if you had been going to pick out that type of man, you'd have rejected him, because you'd have said he was too pat. He's like an actor made up for a Western millionaire. Do you remember that American in 'L'Etranger' which Bernhardt did in Boston when she first came? He, looks exactly like that, and he has the worst manners. He stood talking to me with his hat on, and a toothpick in his mouth; and he made me feel as if he had bought me, along with Burnamy, and had paid too much. If you don't give him a setting down, Basil, I shall never speak to you; that's all. I'm sure Burnamy is in some trouble with him; he's got some sort of hold upon him; what it could be in such a short time, I can't imagine; but if ever a man seemed to be, in a man's power, he does, in his!

"Now," said March, "your pronouns have got so far beyond me that I think we'd better let it all go till after supper; perhaps I shall see Stoller myself by that time."

She had been deeply stirred by her encounter with Stoller, but she entered with impartial intensity into the fact that the elevator at Pupp's had the characteristic of always coming up and never going down with passengers. It was locked into its closet with a solid door, and there was no bell to summon it, or any place to take it except on the ground-floor; but the stairs by which she could descend were abundant and stately; and on one landing there was the lithograph of one of the largest and ugliest hotels in New York; how ugly it was, she said she should never have known if she had not seen it there.

The dining-room was divided into the grand saloon, where they supped amid rococo sculptures and frescoes, and the glazed veranda opening by vast windows on a spread of tables without, which were already filling up for the evening concert. Around them at the different tables there were groups of faces and figures fascinating in their strangeness, with that distinction which abashes our American level in the presence of European inequality.

"How simple and unimpressive we are, Basil," she said, "beside all these people! I used to feel it in Europe when I was young, and now I'm certain that we must seem like two faded-in old village photographs. We don't even look intellectual! I hope we look good."

"I know I do," said March. The waiter went for their supper, and they joined in guessing the different nationalities in the room. A French party was easy enough; a Spanish mother and daughter were not difficult, though whether they were not South-American remained uncertain; two elderly maiden ladies were unmistakably of central Massachusetts, and were obviously of a book-club culture that had left no leaf unturned; some Triestines gave themselves away by their Venetian accent; but a large group at a farther table were unassignable in the strange language which they clattered loudly together, with bursts of laughter. They were a family party of old and young, they were having a good time, with a freedom which she called baronial; the ladies wore white satin, or black lace, but the men were in sack-coats; she chose to attribute them, for no reason but their outlandishness, to Transylvania. March pretended to prefer a table full of Germans, who were unmistakably bourgeois, and yet of intellectual effect. He chose as his favorite a middle-aged man of learned aspect, and they both decided to think of him as the Herr Professor, but they did not imagine how perfectly the title fitted him till he drew a long comb from his waistcoat pocket and combed his hair and beard with it above the table.

The wine wrought with the Transylvanians, and they all jargoned together at once, and laughed at the jokes passing among them. One old gentleman had a peculiar fascination from the infantile innocence of his gums when he threw his head back to laugh, and showed an upper jaw toothless except for two incisors, standing guard over the chasm between. Suddenly he choked, coughed to relieve himself, hawked, held his napkin up before him, and--"Noblesse oblige," said March, with the tone of irony which he reserved for his wife's preoccupations with aristocracies of all sorts. "I think I prefer my Hair Professor, bourgeois, as he is."

The ladies attributively of central Massachusetts had risen from their table, and were making for the door without having paid for their supper.

The head waiter ran after them; with a real delicacy for their mistake he explained that though in most places the meals were charged in the bill, it was the custom in Carlsbad to pay for them at the table; one could see that he was making their error a pleasant adventure to them which they could laugh over together, and write home about without a pang.

"And I," said Mrs. March, shamelessly abandoning the party of the aristocracy, "prefer the manners of the lower classes."

"Oh, yes," he admitted. "The only manners we have at home are black ones. But you mustn't lose courage. Perhaps the nobility are not always so baronial."

"I don't know whether we have manners at home," she said, "and I don't believe I care. At least we have decencies."

"Don't be a jingo," said her husband.

同类推荐
  • 赋得春风扇微和

    赋得春风扇微和

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 僧羯磨

    僧羯磨

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说三摩竭经

    佛说三摩竭经

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说救面然饿鬼陀罗尼神咒经

    佛说救面然饿鬼陀罗尼神咒经

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 象崖珽禅师语录

    象崖珽禅师语录

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 神偷系统,邪妃来袭

    神偷系统,邪妃来袭

    她,在赶往考场的路上,因为口舌之争跟司机打架致死,一朝穿越,来到这里。他,是南海国最受宠的皇子,俊美无暇,腹黑冷漠。她想要摆脱命运的束缚,需要完成系统给她的一系列任务。他被人刺杀,身患剧毒,随时都会死去。然而,命运的曲折将他们二人连到了一起,且看神偷女如何化解危机,靠智慧成长为一代贤后!
  • 庶妃绝世惊华

    庶妃绝世惊华

    这年头天才多如狗,妖孽满地走,又天才又妖孽的绝世变态,非白夜莫属!炼丹师稀缺?她一不小心混了个神级。神兽罕见?她身后跟着好几只,个个都是极品美兽。骂她废物?瞎了他们的X眼!便宜徒弟是个骚包,有钱有权人人膜拜。基友团里都是奇葩,呆萌蠢贱全都聚齐。意外生了个小娃娃,仗着一身变态武力帮着老娘横行无忌!搭个讪都能遇到萌娃他爹,宛若谪仙,却腹黑欠扁!大小恶魔围在身边,她连日常生活都成了问题。谁来拯救姐?
  • 樱花情人

    樱花情人

    《樱花情人》描述了一段刻骨铭心的异国情缘,感情真挚,故事感人。作品语言细腻,心理描写非常到位。
  • 远方的秘密

    远方的秘密

    为了让中国在宇宙探索方面走到世界的前沿,南秉怀等天文学家继承老一辈科学家的‘两弹一星’的精神,不惧挑战,攻坚克难,终于造出世界上最大的射电望远镜,被誉为‘天眼’,令茫茫的宇宙空间亮起了一只观测最远的‘中国眼’。为此,南秉怀、程学东等科学家付出了巨大的牺牲,但却让中国在天文领域走到了世界的前列。谨以此书敬献给那些为强国梦做出无私付出的默默无闻的科技工作者。
  • 火影之签到就无敌

    火影之签到就无敌

    枫穿越了,却没想到去了火影世界。一路行来才发现,那一座座巅峰,却被自己踩在了脚下。而自己成了别人口中的巅峰,可他其实只是一个迷失的路人而已。
  • 小学韵语

    小学韵语

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金莲正宗记

    金莲正宗记

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 帝凰策:凤倾天下

    帝凰策:凤倾天下

    初见,我是君,他是臣。他进言,我反驳。再见,他成王,我却成为了他的阶下囚,他把我物品进贡给番王又把我夺回,还把我囚禁在暗无天日的地方,只为报复我对她的利用之心。可是,裴琇,你知道么?我对你的爱才铺就了你成为王的道路。
  • 尘之仙

    尘之仙

    千年大战修真沉寂,修炼盛世妖孽群起。祸害少年唐宇祸害修真界,掀起一阵血雨腥风。
  • 快穿之复仇计划进行中

    快穿之复仇计划进行中

    刚过十八岁生日的妖离被主神弄得要强制执行任务。当不喜别人强迫的妖离一经逃脱,他又将如何向主神复仇?