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1、【英文读物】A Girl of VirginiaChapter 1Good morning! The voice was cheery, insistent. It brought the young girl on the porch above to the white wooden rail about its edge.Good morning! she called back lightly.Beautiful day! persisted the young man saying inanely the first words he could think of for the s
2、ole purpose of keeping her there in sight.Lovely! cried the girl enthusiastically, leaning a little further over the rail. A vine, which had climbed the round pillar and twined its tendrils about the porchs edge, set waving by the slight motion, sent a shower of scarlet leaves about the young man be
3、low; one fluttered upon his breast, he caught it and held it over his heart as if it were a message from her to him; and then he fastened it in his button-hole.Pg 2The young woman laughed carelessly as he did so; she was too used to students to exaggerate the meaning of their words or deeds, and the
4、re was no answering flash in her gray eyes as she looked down on him.Dont you think it too fine to stay indoors?Im not in, answered the girl turning her head to look up at the blue arch of the sky overhead.Oh, wellthe young fellow bit his lip, and flushed hotly,you know itsCome, take a walk across t
5、he quadrangle, he added boldly. Theres no one around.Frances leaned further for a survey of campus and corridor. All right! she cried, and he could hear her footsteps as she ran down the polished stair in the big old house. When she opened the great hall door she was charmingly demure. Glad to see y
6、ou Mr. Lawson! she exclaimed mischievously to the young man, who stood hat in hand by the wide step.Delighted, Im sure! he flashed back, holding the hand she extended as long as hePg 3 dared,so long that the young woman had drawn herself up quite straight and was looking gravely along the corridor w
7、hen he released it.You havent mailed your letter! she said looking at the missive he still held.Oh! and I cameTheres the box, dont forget it!Which way are you going?Up to the Rotunda, of course.See how it commands everything else, said Frances, pausing at the sunken, well-worn steps in the terraced
8、corridor to look about her. The morning shadows of the maples on the quadrangle stretched to the brick pavement at their feet, scarlet and yellow leaves, blown across the green grass, rustled about them; the picturesque buildings on the other side the campus loomed in deep shadowings, for the sun wa
9、s yet behind them. A late student slammed his door and went hurrying down the corridor, his footsteps echoing along the way.It is beautiful! said Frances softly, as she went up the few steps.Pg 4Beautiful, yes, and you dont appreciate it half as muchAppreciate it!Dont you hear the men raving over it
10、 everywhere? Those from a good long distance especiallyOregon, for instance, thats my state you know; but you VirginiansAre not given to boasting! said the girl proudly.There you are! You area queer lot, he was about to say, but remembered himself in time. You are he blundered; one scarce knows how
11、to take you.Dont take us! said the girl quietly.Now, Miss Holloway, deprecated the young man, you see, the things other people think you would be proudest of, you dont care for at all, and the things other people dont care forPerhaps there are some people who dont talk about the things they care for
12、 most. Perhaps, she went on, her flushing cheek and darkening eye belying her light tone, thats a secret you havent found out, andPg 5 it may be the reason you dont know how to take us, she repeated.Im not going to quarrel about it a morning like this, declared the young man as they went up the wide
13、 steps to the Rotunda and along the marble floor of the east wing which roofed over the rooms devoted to the learning of law.No, nothing is worth it, answered the girl as she leaned against the balustrade at the edge and looked off towards the mountains, and they both were silent.It was a scene the
14、young man had not yet gotten used to, nor the girl either, though she was born in its sight. Beyond the stretch of the outer grounds of the University, beyond the far-reaching roofs and spires of Charlottesville and the narrow valley of the Rapidan, rose, high and bold, the last spur of the Ragged M
15、ountains. The blue haze veiled it even at this early hour; the frost clothing much of it showed all colors save those of sombre hue; and, set on its crown, just where it began to dip downwards, shone the whiteness of Monticello.Pg 6He was a great man! said the young man presently.The girl nodded. No
16、 one ever sat thus, the buildings of the University stretching at their feet, Monticello gleaming on its mountain crest and asked the name of the man they lauded.By and by she asked a question. For what is Jefferson noted?For being the founder of the democraticI thought so! indignantly.Indeed! Oh! f
17、or founding the University of Virginia.You know your lesson quite well, with a little tinge of sarcasm; if you stay here long enough youll find he did a great many other things. Ah! he knew the beautiful. Look! were there ever any buildings more in harmony, more exquisite in design, more fitted for
18、livingPshaw! she broke off petulantly at the young mans laugh, youve made me boast! Youve seen Monticello? she asked a little haughtily, as she straightened from her leaning position.Pg 7Of course.The girls eyes darkened as she stood looking down the campus from her point of vantage, and though she
19、was too proud to speak again of its beautyfor it was her homethe young mans glances followed hers and he noted it all; the inner quadrangle framed in its buildings of quaint architecture, the velvet green of the campus, set with maples, and dipping thrice and then deeply toward the gleaming building
20、s at the end; the long stretch of corridors and white pillars, the professors houses rising two-storied above the students homes: and about these, outside, the wide grounds, the embowering trees, yellow and russet and red; rows of cottages showing their tops here and there; and far off, rimming it a
21、ll, the misty, hazy mountain tops.Im going into the library, announced Frances, all the banter gone from her voice.Have you been to breakfast? in astonishment.Havent you? Oh! you are lazy! YouPg 8 must go at once. Mrs. Lancey wont save it for you.Yes she will! He followed her into the fairy white in
22、terior of the Rotunda, with its great pillars bearing above their Corinthian pilasters the carved circle on which were written the names of the giants of the book world.He had some faint desire to see before which of the cases she would pause. He was proud of his knowledge of his fellow beings, but
23、this young woman puzzled him. It was a pleasure to his beauty-loving eyes to gaze on hertall, slender, but well set up, frank-eyed, clear-skinned with an air of utter independence; the things he had heard her say and seen her do kept her from any place in his category.The long serge gown rustling so
24、ftly on the marble pavement, she went straight to the books she wanted. It was late, and she wished to avoid the stream of students that would soon be setting roomwards and hallwards.She took down the volumes instantlyPg 9Fiskes Old Virginia and her Neighbors, and Byrds History of the Dividing Line.
25、 If Lawson was astonished she gave him no chance to express it.You must hurry to breakfast, she insisted as they went out.The young man looked down at the sunlit quadrangle. Wont you go for a drive about ten? he asked abruptly.Im going.He caught his breath, but before he could answerSusan wants some
26、 chickens. I promised her Id get them. You are not going out? severely.Its such a temptation!Young men who come all the way from Oregon come to study.He strove for answer, but the young womans nod was positive. It sent him to the mess hall, while she hurried along the corridor, hurried to avoid the
27、crowd that would soon be abroad. So she had been trained, and such was second nature. She was not afraid of any student or of all ofPg 10 them. She had had delightful friends among them. But she was not a students belle; her dear fathers abhorrence of such had kept her unscathed.She lived among them
28、, but the traditions of her household kept her apart. She was motherless, but her mothers influence had set her feet in the path of freedom and her father saw to it that they kept their way. In all the gay students life that surged about her she was somehow untouched. She was keenly alive to its pha
29、ses, to all the life as a whole, but not to any unit forming it. She saw the belles of the season come and go at Christmas, at Easter, or the Finals, without the least desire to outshine them, or shine with them; yet it would have been easy enough had she wished it. Had she social aspirations she wo
30、uld find many matrons in the professors homes to chaperon her; had she been sentimental she could have made many a bosom friend in the young girls of the town; had she been trained otherwise, her record from her first long skirt might have been one of recklessPg 11 flirtationsfor there is no limit t
31、o a students daringbut as it was, she lived among them quite simply.She ordered her fathers house; she read, few knew how deeply; she rode, she drove, and went her own way happily.One lesson she had at heart. She took the young men about her without an atom of seriousness. It was this which nettled
32、Frank Lawson.His attentions had been taken quite seriously usually, too seriously once, he might have remembered. It aroused his insistence; it sent him loitering by the gate to the grounds when Frances came driving down the ribbony road winding outwards.I think you might take me, he declared, as sh
33、e drove slowly by.Jump in! Frances pulled the horse around and left the wheels towards him hospitably opened.Lawson thought of the beauty he had driven the afternoon before, of the roses on her breast for which she had thanked him so graciously, of the shining skins ofPg 12 his horses and the glitte
34、ring wheels of his carriage, and he set his teeth; but he climbed up into the trap and sat down by Frances side.She did not offer him the reins, and he hated being driven by a woman.You know most of the roads about here?The young man assented.Out towards Monticello and down beyond the University and
35、 Park Street; but you dont know this.Frances had turned towards town, and was driving smartly past Chancellors and Andersons, bookstore and drug store and loitering grounds of the students, though the porches were empty now, along the long street, across the high bridge spanning the narrow valley th
36、rough which the Southern railroad swept into the town, on down a steep hill; and then she pulled sharply to the left, down a rough road past negro cabins, another sharp hill, across a clear mountain stream, and they were in the country.Pg 13Youve never been this way before, repeated Frances as she b
37、egan to point out the features of the country. She spoke of house and cabin and mill; but Lawsons eyes were turned towards the misty mountains. The keen air blew in his face, the frosty touch sent his pulses tingling: the smell of green grass and falling leaves and fresh earth was abroad, and over t
38、here, to right to left, swam the mountain-tops in purple mists. Each hill they topped showed vistas of hill and valley and far-reaching crest.The horse went at a good pace; his driver was the most companionable of drivers; Lawson was absurdly happy.Whats that little blue flower? he asked, pointing t
39、o a starry bloom, daisy-shaped, blossoming on a weed-like stem.Thats another of the beauties for which we thank Jefferson, that and the Scotch broom in the woods; you saw it?But where does this come from?Dont ask me! Scotland, also, perhaps; here we are! She pulled up sharply beforePg 14 a cabin by
40、the road, and, before he could take the reins she threw down, sprang out.Lawson sat feeling like a chagrined schoolboy. It was one of the small accomplishments of which he was proud, to lift a woman from carriage or saddle. He had strong muscles well trained, and he had a fashion of putting his hand
41、s at the womans waist and giving her a lift, quick, light, and sure, and setting her on her feet with a look of pleased astonishment in her eyes; now he sat holding the reins like any good boy and watching the flutter of a blue skirt around the clusters of zinnias and marigolds by the cabin corner.
42、And then he heard voices and laughter and the squawks of terrified chickens.Frances was coming back,a colored woman, with a bunch of chickens in either hand, walking by her side. He listened to the woman with intense amusement.Why dont you say thanky? she was demanding.Frances only laughed.I done to
43、le yuh how pretty yuh is; now why dont yuh say thanky?Pg 15She ought to, that she ought, called Lawson from the trap.Hi, honey! cried the delighted darkey, is dat him? La, chile, now he suttenly is a nice beau!Aunt Roxie, said Frances haughtily, put the chickens in the back of the trap. Youre sure y
44、ouve got them tied all right?Cose I is!Lawson, delighted with Frances discomfiture, was fussing about, helping the colored woman.Jes lissen at her, jes as mighty as you please, she muttered to him, and then quite loudly, some folks suttenly is hard to please; yuh praises dem, dey got nutten to say;
45、yuh praises de beau an dey looks mad!Never mind! cried Frances, never mind! Im not going to bring you any tobacco next time I come!La! Miss Frances, what mattah long yuh nowyuh knowhyar, chile, lemme pull yuh some dese hyar flowers; de fros done totch dem anyhow!But Frances was not listening; she wa
46、s offPg 16 fast as her horse would trot, the chickens squawking indignantly, and Roxie by her zinnias and marigolds gazing in open-mouthed astonishment. Lawson was shaking with laughter. He was even with her he felt, and perhaps a little ahead. He was sure he was ahead when, just outside the Univers
47、ity gate, one of the chickens, freed after much straining, fluttered under the edge of Frances skirt and shrieked a loud and triumphant squawk. Frances sprang to her feet; but for Lawson she would have been out and under the wheel. There was no laughter about that young man for one swift instant, when he threw his arm out, pulled her back into the seat and snatched the falling reins. The danger past, he caught the offending fowl, fluttering now in the dash-board, handed it gravely to Frances and then, without a word of excuse, leaned back and laughed unti