【英文读物】Emma McChesney & Co..docx
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1、【英文读物】Emma McChesney & Co.I BROADWAY TO BUENOS AIRESThe door marked MRS. MCCHESNEY was closed. T. A. Buck, president of the Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company, coming gaily down the hall, stopped before it, dismayed, as one who, with a spicy bit of news at his tongues end, is met with rebuff before
2、the first syllable is voiced. That closed door meant: Busy. Keep out.Shell be reading a letter, T. A. Buck told himself grimly. Then he turned the knob and entered his partners office.Mrs. Emma McChesney was reading a letter. More than that, she was poring over it so that, at the interruption, she g
3、lanced up in a maddeningly half-cocked manner which conveyed the impression that, while her physical eye beheld the intruder, her mental eye was still on the letter.I knew it, said T. A. Buck morosely.Emma McChesney put down the letter and smiled.Sit downnow that youre in. And if you expect me to sa
4、y, Knew what? youre doomed to disappointment.T. A. Buck remained standing, both gloved hands clasping his walking stick on which he leaned.Every time I come into this office, youre reading the latest scrawl from your son. One would think Jocks letters were deathless masterpieces. I believe you read
5、them at half-hour intervals all week, and on Sunday get em all out and play solitaire with them.Emma McChesneys smile widened frankly to a grin.You make me feel like a cash-girl whos been caught flirting with the elevator starter. Have I been neglecting business?Business? No; youve been neglecting m
6、e!Now, T. A., youve just come from the tailors, and I suppose it didnt fit in the back.It isnt that, interrupted Buck, and you know it. Look here! That day Jock went away and we came back to the office, and you saidI know I said it, T. A., but dont remind me of it. That wasnt a fair test. I had just
7、 seen Jock leave me to take his own place in the world. You know that my day began and ended with him. He was my reason for everything. When I saw him off for Chicago that day, and knew he was going there to stay, it seemed a million miles from New York. I was blue and lonely and heart-sick. If the
8、office-boy had thrown a kind word to me Id have broken down and wept on his shoulder.Buck, still standing, looked down between narrowed lids at his business partner.Emma McChesney, he said steadily, do you mean that?Mrs. McChesney, the straightforward, looked up, looked down, fiddled with the letter
9、 in her hand.Wellpractically yesthat isI thought, now that youre going to the mountains for a month, it might give me a chance to thinktoAnd dyou know what Ill do meanwhile, out of revenge on the sex? Ive just ordered three suits of white flannel, and I shall break every feminine heart in the camp,
10、regardless Oh, say, thats what I came in to tell you! Guess whom I saw at the tailors?Well, Mr. Bones, whom did you, and so forth?Fat Ed Meyers. I just glimpsed him in one of the fitting-rooms. And they were draping him in white.Emma McChesney sat up with a jerk.Are you sure?Sure? Theres only one fi
11、gure like that. He had the thing on and was surveying himself in the mirroror as much of himself as could be seen in one ordinary mirror. In that white suit, with his red face above it, he looked like those pictures you see labeled, Sunrise on Snow-covered Mountain.Did he seeHe dodged when he saw me
12、. Actually! At least, he seems to have the decency to be ashamed of the deal he gave us when he left us flat in the thick of his Middle Western trip and went back to the Sans-Silk Skirt Company. I wanted him to know I had seen him. As I passed, I said, Youll mow em down in those clothes, Meyers. Buc
13、k sat down in his leisurely fashion, and laughed his low, pleasant laugh. Cant you see him, Emma, at the seashore?But something in Emma McChesneys eyes, and something in her set, unsmiling face, told him that she was not seeing seashores. She was staring straight at him, straight through him, miles
14、beyond him. There was about her that tense, electric, breathless air of complete detachment, which always enveloped her when her lightning mind was leaping ahead to a goal unguessed by the slower thinking.Whats your tailors name?Name? Trotter. Why?Emma McChesney had the telephone operator before he
15、could finish.Get me Trotter, the tailor, T-r-o-double-t-e-r. Say I want to speak to the tailor who fits Mr. Ed Meyers, of the Sans-Silk Skirt Company.T. A. Buck leaned forward, mouth open, eyes wide. Well, what in the name ofIll let you know in a minute. Maybe Im wrong. Its just one of my hunches. B
16、ut for ten years I sold Featherlooms through the same territory that Ed Meyers was covering for the Sans-Silk Skirt people. It didnt take me ten years to learn that Fat Ed hadnt the decency to be ashamed of any deal he turned, no matter how raw. And let me tell you, T. A.: If he dodged when he saw y
17、ou it wasnt because he was ashamed of having played us low-down. He was contemplating playing lower-down. Of course, I may beShe picked up the receiver in answer to the bell. Then, sweetly, her calm eyes smiling into Bucks puzzled ones:Hello! Is this Mr. Meyers tailor? Im to ask if you are sure that
18、 the grade he selected is the proper weight for the tropics. What? Oh, you say you assured him it was the weight of flannel you always advise for South America. And you said theyd be ready when? Next week? Thank you.She hung up the receiver. The pupils of her eyes were dilated. Her cheeks were very
19、pink as always under excitement. She stood up, her breath coming rather quickly.Hurray for the hunch! It holds. Fat Ed Meyers is going down to South America for the Sans-Silk Company. Its what Ive been planning to do for the last six months. You remember I spoke of it. You pooh-poohed the idea. It m
20、eans hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Sans-Silk people if they get it. But they wont get it.T. A. Buck stood up suddenly.Look here, Emma! If youreI certainly am. Nothing can stop me. The skirt business has beenwell, you know what its been for the last two years. The South American boats sail
21、twice a month. Fat Ed Meyers clothes are promised for next week. That means he isnt sailing until week after next. But the next boat sails in three days. She picked up a piece of paper from her desk and tossed it into Bucks hand. Thats the letter I was reading when you came in. No; dont read it. Let
22、 me tell you instead.Buck threw cane, hat, gloves, and letter on the broad desk, thrust his hands into his pockets, and prepared for argument. But he got only as far as: But I wont allow it! You couldnt get away in three days, at any rate. And at the end of two weeks youll have come to your senses,
23、and besidesT. A., I dont mean to be rude. But here are your hat and stick and gloves. Its going to take me just forty-eight hours to mobilize.But, Emma, even if you do get in ahead of Meyers, its an insane idea. A woman cant go down there alone. It isnt safe. Its bad enough for a man to tackle it. B
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