【英文读物】Through One Administration.docx
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1、【英文读物】Through One AdministrationCHAPTER I.Eight years before the Administration rendered important by the series of events and incidents which form the present story, there had come to Washington, on a farewell visit to a distant relative with whom he was rather a favorite, a young officer who was o
2、n the point of leaving the civilized world for a far-away Western military station. The name of the young officer was Philip Tredennis. His relative and entertainer was a certain well-known entomologist, whom it will be safe to call Professor Herrick. At the Smithsonian and in all scientific circles
3、, Professor Herricks name was a familiar one. He was considered an enviable as well as an able man. He had established himself in Washington because he found men there whose tastes and pursuits were congenial with his own, and because the softness of the climate suited him; he was rich enough to be
4、free from all anxiety and to enjoy the delightful liberty of pursuing his scientific labors because they were his pleasure, and not because he was dependent upon their results. He had a quiet and charming home, an excellent matter-of-fact wife, and one daughter, who was being educated in a northern
5、city, and who was said to be as bright and attractive as one could wish a young creature to be.Of this daughter Tredennis had known very little, except that she enjoyed an existence and came home at long intervals for the holidays, when it did not happenPg 2 that she was sent to the sea or the mount
6、ains with her mother instead.The professor himself seemed to know but little of her. He was a quiet and intensely studious person, taking small interest in the ordinary world and appearing always slightly surprised when his wife spoke to him; still, his manner toward her was as gentle and painstakin
7、g as if she had been the rarest possible beetle, and the only one of her species to be found in any known collection, though perhaps the interest she awakened in him was not so great as it might have been under such exceptionally favorable circumstances. She was not a brilliant or far-seeing woman,
8、and her opinions of entomology and, indeed, of science in general, were vague, and obscured by objections to small boxes, glass cases, long pins, and chloroform, and specimens of all orders.So, observing this, Tredennis felt it not at all unnatural that he should not hear much of his daughter from t
9、he professor. Why his relative liked him the young man was not at all sure, though at times he had felt the only solution of the mystery to be that he liked him because his tendency was toward silence and books and research of all kinds. He thought he was certain that the professor did like him. He
10、had invited him to visit him in Washington, and had taken him to the Smithsonian, and rambled from room to room with him, bestowing upon him tomes of information in the simplest and most natural manner; filled with the quietest interest himself and entirely prepared to find his feeling shared by his
11、 charge. He had given into his hands the most treasured volumes in his library, and had even seemed pleased to have him seated near him when he sat at work. At all events, it was an established fact that a friendly feeling existed between them, and that if it had been his habit to refer to his daugh
12、ter, he would have spoken of her to Tredennis. But Tredennis heard nothing of her until he had been some days inPg 3 Washington, and then it was Mrs. Herrick who spoke of her.Nathan, she said one evening at dinner, Bertha will be home on Tuesday.The professor laid his spoon down as if he had rather
13、unexpectedly discovered that he had had enough soup.Bertha, he said. Indeed! Next Tuesday. Well, of course, we must be ready for her. Do you want any money, my dear? But, of course, you will want money when she comes, if she has finished school, as I think you said she had.I shall want money to pay
14、her bills, answered Mrs. Herrick. She will bring them with her. Her aunt has had her things made in New York.Yes, said the professor, I dare say they will be more satisfactory. What kind of things, for instance, Catherine?Dresses, replied Mrs. Herrick, and things of that sort. You know she is to com
15、e out this season.To come out, remarked the professor, carefully giving the matter his undivided attention. I hope she will enjoy it. What sort of a ceremony is it? And after a young person has come out does she ever go in, and is there any particular pageant attached to such aa contingency?When she
16、 comes out, answered Mrs. Herrick, taking a purely practical view of the affair, she begins to go to parties, to balls, and receptions, and lunches; which she does not do when she is going to schools. It isnt considered proper, and it wouldnt give her any time for her studies. Bertha hasnt been allo
17、wed to go out at all. Her aunt Maria has been very particular about it, and she will enjoy things all the more because they are quite new to her. I dare say she will be very gay this winter. Washington is a very good place for a girl to come out in.After dinner, when they retired to the library toge
18、ther, it occurred to Tredennis that the professor wasPg 4 bestowing some thought upon his paternal position, and his first observation proved that this was the case.It is a most wonderful thing that a few brief years should make such changes, he said. It seems impossible that so short a time should
19、change a small and exceedingly red infant into a young person returned from school in the most complete condition, and ready to come out. She was not interesting as an infant. I tried to find her so, but failed, though it was insisted that she was an unusually intelligent baby, and I have not seen m
20、uch of her of late years. When she was growing it was thought that the climate of Washington was not good for her. I am really a little curious about her. My views of girls are extremely undefined. I have always been a bookworm. I have not known girls. They have not come within my radius. I remember
21、 one I once knew years ago, but that is all. It was when I was a younger man. I think she was a year or so older than Bertha. She was very interestingas a study. She used to bewilder me.He walked over to the table, and began to turn over some papers.She had gray eyes, he said, in a rather lower voic
22、e,gray eyes.He was so quiet for some time that Tredennis thought he had forgotten what he had been talking about; but, after a pause of at least three minutes, he spoke again.I would not be at all sorry, he said, if Bertha was a little like her. I suppose, he added,referring seriously to Tredennis,I
23、 suppose they are all more or less alike.I thinkfaltered Tredennis, perhaps so.He did not feel himself an authority. The professor stood still a moment, regarding the fire abstractly.She had gray eyes, he said again,gray eyes! and immediately afterward returned to his table, seated himself, and fell
24、 to work.The next week Bertha arrived, and to her distantPg 5 relative her arrival was a revelation. She descended upon the quiet householdwith her trunks, her delight in their contents, her anticipation of her first season, her fresh and rather surprised exultation in her own small powers and charm
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