第 21 节
作者:花旗      更新:2021-02-18 23:51      字数:9322
  refuse to let him order their baggage; little and large; loaded upon it。
  By the time this was done; Mrs。 March and Miss Triscoe had so far
  detached themselves from each other that they could separate after one
  more formal expression of regret and forgiveness。  With a lament into
  which she poured a world of inarticulate emotions; Mrs。 March wrenched
  herself from the place; and suffered herself; to be pushed toward her
  train。  But with the last long look which she cast over her shoulder;
  before she vanished into the waiting…room; she saw Miss Triscoe and
  Burnamy transacting the elaborate politenesses of amiable strangers with
  regard to the very small bag which the girl had in her hand。  He
  succeeded in relieving her of it; and then he led the way out of the
  station on the left of the general; while Miss Triscoe brought up the
  rear。
  LXIII。
  From the window of the train as it drew out Mrs。 March tried for a
  glimpse of the omnibus in which her proteges were now rolling away
  together。  As they were quite out of sight in the omnibus; which was
  itself out of sight; she failed; but as she fell back against her seat
  she treated the recent incident with a complexity and simultaneity of
  which no report can give an idea。  At the end one fatal conviction
  remained: that in everything she had said she had failed to explain to
  Miss Triscoe how Burnamy happened to be in Weimar and how he happened to
  be there with them in the station。  She required March to say how she had
  overlooked the very things which she ought to have mentioned first; and
  which she had on the point of her tongue the whole time。  She went over
  the entire ground again to see if she could discover the reason why she
  had made such an unaccountable break; and it appeared that she was led to
  it by his rushing after her with Burnamy before she had had a chance to
  say a word about him; of course she could not say anything in his
  presence。  This gave her some comfort; and there was consolation in the
  fact that she had left them together without the least intention or
  connivance; and now; no matter what happened; she could not accuse
  herself; and he could not accuse her of match…making。
  He said that his own sense of guilt was so great that he should not dream
  of accusing her of anything except of regret that now she could never
  claim the credit of bringing the lovers together under circumstances so
  favorable。  As soon as they were engaged they could join in renouncing
  her with a good conscience; and they would probably make this the basis
  of their efforts to propitiate the general。
  She said she did not care; and with the mere removal of the lovers in
  space; her interest in them began to abate。  They began to be of a minor
  importance in the anxieties of the change of trains at Halle; and in the
  excitement of settling into the express from Frankfort there were moments
  when they were altogether forgotten。  The car was of almost American
  length; and it ran with almost American smoothness; when the conductor
  came and collected an extra fare for their seats; the Marches felt that
  if the charge had been two dollars instead of two marks they would have
  had every advantage of American travel。
  On the way to Berlin the country was now fertile and flat; and now
  sterile and flat; near the capital the level sandy waste spread almost to
  its gates。  The train ran quickly through the narrow fringe of suburbs;
  and then they were in one of those vast Continental stations which put
  our outdated depots to shame。  The good 'traeger' who took possession of
  them and their hand…bags; put their boxes on a baggage…bearing drosky;
  and then got them another drosky for their personal transportation。  This
  was a drosky of the first…class; but they would not have thought it so;
  either from the vehicle itself; or from the appearance of the driver and
  his horses。  The public carriages of Germany are the shabbiest in the
  world; at Berlin the horses look like old hair trunks and the drivers
  like their moth…eaten contents。
  The Marches got no splendor for the two prices they paid; and their
  approach to their hotel on Unter den Linden was as unimpressive as the
  ignoble avenue itself。  It was a moist; cold evening; and the mean;
  tiresome street; slopped and splashed under its two rows of small trees;
  to which the thinning leaves clung like wet rags; between long lines of
  shops and hotels which had neither the grace of Paris nor the grandiosity
  of New York。  March quoted in bitter derision:
  〃Bees; bees; was it your hydromel;
  Under the Lindens?〃
  and his wife said that if Commonwealth Avenue in Boston could be imagined
  with its trees and without their beauty; flanked by the architecture of
  Sixth Avenue; with dashes of the west side of Union Square; that would be
  the famous Unter den Linden; where she had so resolutely decided that
  they would stay while in Berlin。
  They had agreed upon the hotel; and neither could blame the other because
  it proved second…rate in everything but its charges。  They ate a poorish
  table d'hote dinner in such low spirits that March had no heart to get a
  rise from his wife by calling her notice to the mouse which fed upon the
  crumbs about their feet while they dined。  Their English…speaking waiter
  said that it was a very warm evening; and they never knew whether this
  was because he was a humorist; or because he was lonely and wished to
  talk; or because it really was a warm evening; for Berlin。  When they had
  finished; they went out and drove about the greater part of the evening
  looking for another hotel; whose first requisite should be that it was
  not on Unter den Linden。  What mainly determined Mrs。 March in favor of
  the large; handsome; impersonal place they fixed upon was the fact that
  it was equipped for steam…heating; what determined March was the fact
  that it had a passenger…office where when he wished to leave; he could
  buy his railroad tickets and have his baggage checked without the
  maddening anxiety; of doing it at the station。  But it was precisely in
  these points that the hotel which admirably fulfilled its other functions
  fell short。  The weather made a succession of efforts throughout their
  stay to clear up cold; it merely grew colder without clearing up; but
  this seemed to offer no suggestion of steam for heating their bleak
  apartment and the chilly corridors to the management。  With the help of a
  large lamp which they kept burning night and day they got the temperature
  of their rooms up to sixty; there was neither stove nor fireplace; the
  cold electric bulbs diffused a frosty glare; and in the vast; stately
  dining…room with its vaulted roof; there was nothing to warm them but
  their plates; and the handles of their knives and forks; which; by a
  mysterious inspiration; were always hot。  When they were ready to go;
  March experienced from the apathy of the baggage clerk and the reluctance
  of the porters a more piercing distress than any he had known at the
  railroad stations; and one luckless valise which he ordered sent after
  him by express reached his bankers in Paris a fortnight overdue; with an
  accumulation of charges upon it outvaluing the books which it contained。
  But these were minor defects in an establishment which had many merits;
  and was mainly of the temperament and intention of the large English
  railroad hotels。  They looked from their windows down into a gardened
  square; peopled with a full share of the superabounding statues of Berlin
  and frequented by babies and nurse maids who seemed not to mind the cold
  any more than the stone kings and generals。  The aspect of this square;
  like the excellent cooking of the hotel and the architecture of the
  imperial capital; suggested the superior civilization of Paris。  Even the
  rows of gray houses and private palaces of Berlin are in the French
  taste; which is the only taste there is in Berlin。  The suggestion of
  Paris is constant; but it is of Paris in exile; and without the chic
  which the city wears in its native air。  The crowd lacks this as much as
  the architecture and the sculpture; there is no distinction among the men
  except for now and then a military figure; and among the women no style
  such as relieves the commonplace rash of the New York streets。  The
  Berliners are plain and ill dressed; both men and women; and even the
  little children are plain。  Every one is ill dressed; but no one is
  ragged; and among the undersized homely folk of the lower classes there
  is no such poverty…stricken shabbiness as shocks and insults the sight in
  New York。  That which distinctly recalls our metropolis is the lofty
  passage of the elevated trains intersecting the prospectives of many
  streets; but in Berlin the elevated road is carried on massive brick
  archways and not lifted upon gay; crazy iron ladders like ours。
  When you look away from this; and regard Berlin on its aesthetic; side
  you are again in that banished Paris; whose captive art…soul is made to
  serve; so far as it may be enslaved to such an effect; in the celebration
  of the German triumph over France。  Berlin has never the presence of a
  great capital; however; in spite of its perpetual monumental insistence。
  There is no