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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis
Chapter 27
Mary Greenhill, revenging the murdered Fowler, was the only one of the conspirators1 who seemed moved more by homicidal hate than by a certain incredulous feeling that it was all a good but slightly absurd game. But to her, hate and the determination to kill were tonic2. She soared up from the shadowed pit of grief, and her eyes lighted, her voice had a trembling gayety. She threw away her weeds and came out in defiant3 colors--oh, they had to economize4, these days, to put every available penny into the missionary5 fund of the New Underground, but Mary had become so fire-drawn that she could wear Sissy's giddiest old frocks.
In mid-afternoon, Buck and Mary, looking very matrimonial, domestically accompanied by David and the rather doubtful Foolish, ambled9 through the center of Burlington, where none of them were known--though a number of dogs, city slickers and probably con-dogs, insisted to the rustic10 and embarrassed Foolish that they had met him somewhere.
It was Buck who muttered "Right!" from time to time, when they were free from being observed, but it was Mary who calmly, a yard or two from M.M.'s or policemen, distributed crumpled11-up copies of:
A Little Sunday-school Life of
Certain Entertaining Pictures of
Col. Dewey Haik, Torturer.
These crumpled pamphlets she took from a specially14 made inside pocket of her mink15 coat; one reaching from shoulder to waist. It had been recommended by John Pollikop, whose helpful lady had aforetime used just such a pocket for illicit16 booze. The crumpling17 had been done carefully. Seen from two yards away, the pamphlets looked like any waste paper, but each was systematically18 so wadded up that the words, printed in bold red type, "Haik himself kicked an old man to death" caught the eye. And, lying in corner trash baskets, in innocent toy wagons19 before hardware stores, among oranges in a fruit store where they had gone to buy David a bar of chocolate, they caught some hundreds of eyes in Burlington that day.
On their way home, with David sitting in front beside Buck and Mary in the back, she cried, "That will stir 'em up! But oh, when Daddy has finished his booklet on Swan--God!"
He whispered to Buck, "I wish Mother wouldn't get so excited."
"She's the finest woman living, Dave."
"I know it, but--She scares me so!"
One scheme Mary devised and carried out by herself. From the magazine counter in Tyson's drugstore, she stole a dozen copies of the Readers' Digest and a dozen larger magazines. When she returned them, they looked untouched, but each of the larger magazines contained a leaflet, "Get Ready to Join Walt Trowbridge," and each Digest had become the cover for a pamphlet: "Lies of the Corpo Press."
To serve as center of their plot, to be able to answer the telephone and receive fugitives21 and put off suspicious snoopers twenty-four hours a day, when Buck and the rest might be gone, Lorinda chucked her small remaining interest in the Beulah Valley Tavern22 and became Buck's housekeeper23, living in the place. There was scandal. But in a day when it was increasingly hard to get enough bread and meat, the town folk had little time to suck scandal like lollipops24, and anyway, who could much suspect this nagging25 uplifter who so obviously preferred tuberculin tests to toying with Corydon in the glade26? And as Doremus was always about, as sometimes he stayed overnight, for the first time these timid lovers had space for passion.
It had never been their loyalty27 to the good Emma--since she was too contented28 to be pitied, too sure of her necessary position in life to be jealous--so much as hatred29 of a shabby hole-and-corner intrigue30 which had made their love cautious and grudging31. Neither of them was so simple as to suppose that, even with quite decent people, love is always as monogamic as bread and butter, yet neither of them liked sneaking32.
Her room at Buck's, large and square and light, with old landscape paper showing an endlessness of little mandarins daintily stepping out of sedan chairs beside pools laced with willows34, with a four-poster, a colonial highboy, and a crazy-colored rag carpet, became in two days, so fast did one live now in time of revolution, the best-loved home Doremus had ever known. As eagerly as a young bridegroom he popped into and out of her room, and he was not overly particular about the state of her toilet. And Buck knew all about it and just laughed.
Released now, Doremus saw her as physically35 more alluring36. With parochial superiority, he had noted37, during vacations on Cape33 Cod38, how often the fluffy39 women of fashion when they stripped to bathing suits were skinny, to him unwomanly, with thin shoulder blades and with backbones40 as apparent as though they were chains fastened down their backs. They seemed passionate41 to him and a little devilish, with their thin restless legs and avid8 lips, but he chuckled42 as he considered that the Lorinda whose prim43 gray suits and blouses seemed so much more virginal than the gay, flaunting44 summer cottons of the Bright Young Things was softer of skin to the touch, much richer in the curve from shoulder to breast.
He rejoiced to know that she was always there in the house, that he could interrupt the high seriousness of a tract45 on bond issues to dash out to the kitchen and brazenly46 let his arm slide round her waist.
She, the theoretically independent feminist47, became flatteringly demanding about every attention. Why hadn't he brought her some candy from town? Would he mind awfully48 calling up Julian for her? Why hadn't he remembered to bring her the book he had promised--well, would have promised if she had only remembered to ask him for it? He trotted49 on her errands, idiotically happy. Long ago Emma had reached the limit of her imagination in regard to demands. He was discovering that in love it is really more blessed to give than to receive, a proverb about which, as an employer and as a steady fellow whom forgotten classmates regularly tried to touch for loans, he had been very suspicious.
He lay beside her, in the wide four-poster, at dawn, March dawn with the elm branches outside the window ugly and writhing50 in the wind, but with the last coals still snapping in the fireplace, and he was utterly51 content. He glanced at Lorinda, who had on her sleeping face a frown that made her look not older but schoolgirlish, a schoolgirl who was frowning comically over some small woe52, and who defiantly53 clutched her old-fashioned lace-bordered pillow. He laughed. They were going to be so adventurous54 together! This little printing of pamphlets was only the beginning of their revolutionary activities. They would penetrate55 into press circles in Washington and get secret information (he was drowsily56 vague about what information they were going to get and how they would ever get it) which would explode the Corpo state. And with the revolution over, they would go to Bermuda, to Martinique--lovers on purple peaks, by a purple sea--everything purple and grand. Or (and he sighed and became heroic as he exquisitely57 stretched and yawned in the wide warm bed) if they were defeated, if they were arrested and condemned58 by the M.M.'s, they would die together, sneering59 at the firing-squad, refusing to have their eyes bandaged, and their fame, like that of Servetus and Matteotti and Professor Ferrer and the Haymarket martyrs60, would roll on forever, acclaimed61 by children waving little flags--
"Gimme a cigarette, darling!"
"You oughtn't to smoke so much!"
"You oughtn't to boss so much! Oh, my darling!" She sat up, kissed his eyes and temples, and sturdily climbed out of bed, seeking her own cigarette.
"Doremus! It's been marvelous to have this companionship with you. But--" She looked a little timid, sitting cross-legged on the rattan-topped stool before the old mahogany dressing63 table--no silver or lace or crystal was there, but only plain wooden hairbrush and scant64 luxury of small drugstore bottles. "But darling, this cause--oh, curse that word 'cause'--can't I ever get free of it?--but anyway, this New Underground business seems to me so important, and I know you feel that way too, but I've noticed that since we've settled down together, two awful sentimentalists, you aren't so excited about writing your nice venomous attacks, and I'm getting more cautious about going out distributing tracts65. I have a foolish idea I have to save my life, for your sake. And I ought to be only thinking about saving my life for the revolution. Don't you feel that way? Don't you? Don't you?"
Doremus swung his legs out of bed, also lighted an unhygienic cigarette, and said grumpily, "Oh, I suppose so! But--tracts! Your attitude is simply a hold-over of your religious training. That you have a duty toward the dull human race--which probably enjoys being bullied66 by Windrip and getting bread and circuses--except for the bread!"
"Of course it's religious, a revolutionary loyalty! Why not? It's one of the few real religious feelings. A rational, unsentimental Stalin is still kind of a priest. No wonder most preachers hate the Reds and preach against 'em! They're jealous of their religious power. But--Oh, we can't unfold the world, this morning, even over breakfast coffee, Doremus! When Mr. Dimick came back here yesterday, he ordered me to Beecher Falls--you know, on the Canadian border--to take charge of the N.U. cell there--ostensibly to open up a tea room for this summer. So, hang it, I've got to leave you, and leave Buck and Sis, and go. Hang it!"
"Linda!"
She would not look at him. She made much, too much, of grinding out her cigarette.
"Linda!"
"Yes?"
"You suggested this to Dimick! He never gave any orders till you suggested it!"
"Well--"
"Linda! Linda! Do you want to get away from me so much? You--my life!"
She came slowly to the bed, slowly sat down beside him. "Yes. Get away from you and get away from myself. The world's in chains, and I can't be free to love till I help tear them off."
"It will never be out of chains!"
"Then I shall never be free to love! Oh, if we could only have run away together for one sweet year, when I was eighteen! Then I would have lived two whole lives. Well, nobody seems to be very lucky at turning the clock back--almost twenty-five years back, too. I'm afraid Now is a fact you can't dodge67. And I've been getting so--just this last two weeks, with April coming in--that I can't think of anything but you. Kiss me. I'm going. Today."
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1
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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economize
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| v.节约，节省 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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riskiest
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| 冒险的，危险的( risky的最高级 ) | |
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avid
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| adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的 | |
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ambled
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| v.（马）缓行( amble的过去式和过去分词 )；从容地走，漫步 | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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mink
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| n.貂，貂皮 | |
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illicit
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| adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的 | |
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crumpling
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| 压皱，弄皱( crumple的现在分词 )； 变皱 | |
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systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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lollipops
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| n.棒糖，棒棒糖( lollipop的名词复数 )；（用交通指挥牌让车辆暂停以便儿童安全通过马路的）交通纠察 | |
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25
nagging
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| adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
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glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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28
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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31
grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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34
willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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cod
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| n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗 | |
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fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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backbones
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| n.骨干( backbone的名词复数 )；脊骨；骨气；脊骨状物 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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42
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
prim
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| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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44
flaunting
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| adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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45
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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brazenly
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| adv.厚颜无耻地；厚脸皮地肆无忌惮地 | |
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feminist
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| adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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52
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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53
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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54
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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skeptical
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| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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64
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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66
bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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