第 30 节
作者:花旗      更新:2021-02-18 23:52      字数:9322
  seemed to be confined to a Bostonian of gloomily correct type; whom he
  had seen doing it with his Baedeker; and not letting an object of
  interest escape; and his account of her fellow…townsman reconciled Mrs。
  March more and more to not having gone。
  As it was warmer out…doors than in…doors at Frankfort; and as the breadth
  of sunshine increased with the approach of noon they gave the rest of the
  morning to driving about and ignorantly enjoying the outside of many
  Gothic churches; whose names even they did not trouble themselves to
  learn。  They liked the river Main whenever they came to it; because it
  was so lately from Wurzburg; and because it was so beautiful with its
  bridges; old and new; and its boats of many patterns。  They liked the
  market…place in front of the Romer not only because it was full of
  fascinating bargains in curious crockery and wooden…ware; but because
  there was scarcely any shade at all in it。  They read from their Baedeker
  that until the end of the last century no Jew was suffered to enter the
  marketplace; and they rejoiced to find from all appearances that the Jews
  had been making up for their unjust exclusion ever since。  They were
  almost as numerous there as the Anglo…Saxons were everywhere else in
  Frankfort。  These; both of the English and American branches of the race;
  prevailed in the hotel diningroom; where the Marches had a mid…day dinner
  so good that it almost made amends for the steam…heating and electric…
  lighting。
  As soon as possible after dinner they took the train for Mayence; and ran
  Rhinewards through a pretty country into what seemed a milder climate。
  It grew so much milder; apparently; that a lady in their compartment to
  whom March offered his forward…looking seat; ordered the window down when
  the guard came; without asking their leave。  Then the climate proved much
  colder; and Mrs。 March cowered under her shawls the rest of the way; and
  would not be entreated to look at the pleasant level landscape near; or
  the hills far off。  He proposed to put up the window as peremptorily as
  it had been put down; but she stayed him with a hoarse whisper; 〃She may
  be another Baroness!〃  At first he did not know what she meant; then he
  remembered the lady whose claims to rank her presence had so poorly
  enforced on the way to Wurzburg; and he perceived that his wife was
  practising a wise forbearance with their fellow…passengers; and giving
  her a chance to turn out any sort of highhote she chose。  She failed to
  profit by the opportunity; she remained simply a selfish; disagreeable
  woman; of no more perceptible distinction than their other fellow…
  passenger; a little commercial traveller from Vienna (they resolved from
  his appearance and the lettering on his valise that he was no other); who
  slept with a sort of passionate intensity all the way to Mayence。
  LXX。
  The Main widened and swam fuller as they approached the Rhine; and
  flooded the low…lying fields in…places with a pleasant effect under a wet
  sunset。  When they reached the station in Mayence they drove interminably
  to the hotel they had chosen on the river…shore; through a city handsomer
  and cleaner than any American city they could think of; and great part of
  the way by a street of dwellings nobler; Mrs。 March owned; than even
  Commonwealth Avenue in Boston。  It was planted; like that; with double
  rows of trees; but lacked its green lawns; and at times the sign of
  Weinhandlung at a corner; betrayed that there was no such restriction
  against shops as keeps the Boston street so sacred。  Otherwise they had
  to confess once more that any inferior city of Germany is of a more
  proper and dignified presence than the most parse…proud metropolis in
  America。  To be sure; they said; the German towns had generally a
  thousand years' start; but all the same the fact galled them。
  It was very bleak; though very beautiful when they stopped before their
  hotel on the Rhine; where all their impalpable memories of their visit to
  Mayence thirty years earlier precipitated themselves into something
  tangible。  There were the reaches of the storied and fabled stream with
  its boats and bridges and wooded shores and islands; there were the
  spires and towers and roofs of the town on either bank crowding to the
  river's brink; and there within…doors was the stately portier in gold
  braid; and the smiling; bowing; hand…rubbing landlord; alluring them to
  his most expensive rooms; which so late in the season he would fain have
  had them take。  But in a little elevator; that mounted slowly; very
  slowly; in the curve of the stairs; they went higher to something lower;
  and the landlord retired baked; and left them to the ministrations of the
  serving…men who arrived with their large and small baggage。  All these
  retired in turn when they asked to have a fire lighted in the stove;
  without which Mrs。 March would never have taken the fine stately rooms;
  and sent back a pretty young girl to do it。  She came indignant; not
  because she had come lugging a heavy hod of coal and a great arm…load of
  wood; but because her sense of fitness was outraged by the strange
  demand。
  〃What!〃 she cried。  〃A fire in September!〃
  〃Yes;〃 March returned; inspired to miraculous aptness in his German by
  the exigency; 〃yes; if September is cold。〃
  The girl looked at him; and then; either because she thought him mad; or
  liked him merry; burst into a loud laugh; and kindled the fire without a
  word more。
  He lighted all the reluctant gas…jets in the vast gilt chandelier; and in
  less than half an hour the temperature of the place rose to at least
  sixty…five Fahrenheit; with every promise of going higher。  Mrs。 March
  made herself comfortable in a deep chair before the stove; and said she
  would have her supper there; and she bade him send her just such a supper
  of chicken and honey and tea as they had all had in Mayence when they
  supped in her aunt's parlor there all those years ago。  He wished to
  compute the years; but she drove him out with an imploring cry; and he
  went down to a very gusty dining…room on the ground…floor; where he found
  himself alone with a young English couple and their little boy。  They
  were friendly; intelligent people; and would have been conversable;
  apparently; but for the terrible cold of the husband; which he said he
  had contracted at the manoeuvres in Hombourg。  March said he was going to
  Holland; and the Englishman was doubtful of the warmth which March
  expected to find there。  He seemed to be suffering from a suspense of
  faith as to the warmth anywhere; from time to time the door of the
  dining…room self…opened in a silent; ghostly fashion into the court
  without; and let in a chilling draught about the legs of all; till the
  little English boy got down from his place and shut it。
  He alone continued cheerful; for March's spirits certainly did not rise
  when some mumbling Americans came in and muttered over their meat at
  another table。  He hated to own it; but he had to own that wherever he
  had met the two branches of the Anglo…Saxon race together in Europe; the
  elder had shown; by a superior chirpiness; to the disadvantage of the
  younger。  The cast clothes of the old…fashioned British offishness seemed
  to have fallen to the American travellers who were trying to be correct
  and exemplary; and he would almost rather have had back the old…style
  bragging Americans whom he no longer saw。  He asked of an agreeable
  fellow…countryman whom he found later in the reading…room; what had
  become of these; and this compatriot said he had travelled with one only
  the day before; who had posed before their whole compartment in his scorn
  of the German landscape; the German weather; the German government; the
  German railway management; and then turned out an American of German
  birth!  March found his wife in great bodily comfort when he went back to
  her; but in trouble of mind about a clock which she had discovered
  standing on the lacquered iron top of the stove。  It was a French clock;
  of architectural pretensions; in the taste of the first Empire; and it
  looked as if it had not been going since Napoleon occupied Mayence early
  in the century。  But Mrs。 March now had it sorely on her conscience
  where; in its danger from the heat of the stove; it rested with the
  weight of the Pantheon; whose classic form it recalled。  She wondered
  that no one had noticed it before the fire was kindled; and she required
  her husband to remove it at once from the top of the stove to the mantel
  under the mirror; which was the natural habitat of such a clock。 He said
  nothing could be simpler; but when he lifted it; it began to fall all
  apart; like a clock in the house  of the Hoodoo。  Its marble base
  dropped…off; its pillars tottered; its pediment swayed to one side。
  While Mrs。 March lamented her hard fate; and implored him to hurry it
  together before any one came; he contrived to reconstruct it in its new
  place。  Then they both breathed freer; and returned to sit down before
  the stove。  But at the same moment they both saw; ineffaceably outlined
  on the lacquered top; the basal form of the clock。  The chambermaid would
  see it in the morning; she would notice the removal of the clock; and
  would make