The Looking Glass
by Anton Chekhov
NEW YEAR'S EVE. Nellie, the daughter of a landowner and general, a young and pretty girl, dreaming day and night of being married, was sitting in her room, gazing with exhausted, half-clod eyes into the looking-glass. She was pale, ten, and as motionless as the looking-glass.
The non-existent but apparent vista of a long, narrow corridor with endless rows of candles, the reflection of her face, her hands, of the frame -- all this was already clouded in mist and merged into a boundless grey a. The a was undulating, gleaming and now and then flaring crimson. . . .
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Looking at Nellie's motionless eyes and parted lips, one could hardly say whether she was asleep or awake, but nevertheless she was eing. At first she saw only the smile and soft, charming expression of someone's eyes, then against the shifting grey background there gr
adually appeared the outlines of a head, a face, eyebrows, beard. It was he, the destined one, the object of long dreams and hopes. The destined one was for Nellie everything, the significance of life, personal happiness, career, fate. Outside him, as on the grey background of the looking-glass, all was dark, empty, meaningless. And so it was not strange that, eing before her a handsome, gently smiling face, she was conscious of bliss, of an unutterably sweet dream that could not be expresd in speech or on paper. Then she heard his voice, saw herlf living under the same roof with him, her life merged into his. Months and years flew by against the grey background. And Nellie saw her future distinctly in all its details.
Picture followed picture against the grey background. Now Nellie saw herlf one winter night knocking at the door of Stepan Lukitch, the district doctor. The old dog hoarly and lazily barked behind the gate. The doctor's windows were in darkness. All was silence.
"For God's sake, for God's sake!" whispered Nellie.
But at last the garden gate creaked and Nellie saw the doctor's cook.
"Is the doctor at home?"bit it
"His honour's asleep," whispered the cook into her sleeve, as though afraid of waking her master.
"He's only just got home from his fever patients, and gave orders he was not to be waked."
But Nellie scarcely heard the cook. Thrusting her aside, she rushed headlong into the doctor's hou. Running through some dark and stuffy rooms, uptting two or three chairs, she at last reached the doctor's bedroom. Stepan Lukitch was lying on his bed, dresd, but without his coat, and with pouting lips was breathing into his open hand. A little night-light glimmered faintly beside him. Without uttering a word Nellie sat down and began to cry. She wept bitterly, shaking all over.
"My husband is ill!" she sobbed out. Stepan Lukitch was silent. He slowly sat up, propped his head on his hand, and looked at his visitor with fixed, sleepy eyes. "My husband is ill!"
Nellie continued, restraining her sobs. "For mercy's sake come quickly. Make haste. . . . Make haste!"
"Eh?" growled the doctor, blowing into his hand.
"Come! Come this very minute! Or . . . it's terrible to think! For mercy's sake!"
And pale, exhausted Nellie, gasping and swallowing her tears, began describing to the doctor her husband's illness, her unutterable terror. Her sufferings would have touched the heart of a stone, but the doctor looked at her, blew into his open hand, and -- not a movement.没离开过英文版
"I'll come to-morrow!" he muttered.法国游学
"That's impossible!" cried Nellie. "I know my husband has typhus! At once . . . this very minute you are needed!"背单词
"I . . . er . . . have only just come in," muttered the doctor. "For the last three days I've bee
n away, eing typhus patients, and I'm exhausted and ill mylf. . . . I simply can't! Absolutely! I've caught it mylf! There!"
And the doctor thrust before her eyes a clinical thermometer.
北大青鸟学校"My temperature is nearly forty. . . . I absolutely can't. I can scarcely sit up. Excu me. I'll lie down. . . ."
The doctor lay down.
"But I implore you, doctor," Nellie moaned in despair. "I beech you! Help me, for mercy's sake! Make a great effort and come! I will repay you, doctor!"
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"Oh, dear! . . . Why, I have told you already. Ah!"
Nellie leapt up and walked nervously up and down the bedroom. She longed to explain to the doctor, to bring him to reason. . . . She thought if only he knew how dear her husband was to her and how unhappy she was, he would forget his exhaustion and his illness. But how could she be eloquent enough?
"Go to the Zemstvo doctor," she heard Stepan Lukitch's voice.
"That's impossible! He lives more than twenty miles from here, and time is precious. And the hors can't stand it. It is thirty miles from us to you, and as much from here to the Zemstvo doctor. No, it's impossible! Come along, Stepan Lukitch. I ask of you an heroic deed. Come, perform that heroic deed! Have pity on us!"
人力资源管理助理"It's beyond everything. . . . I'm in a fever. . . my head's in a whirl . . . and she won't understand! Leave me alone!"
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"But you are in duty bound to come! You cannot refu to come! It's egoism! A man is bound to sacrifice his life for his neighbour, and you. . . you refu to come! I will summon you before the Court."膨胀系数
Nellie felt that she was uttering a fal and underved insult, but for her husband's sake she was capable of forgetting logic, tact, sympathy for others. . . . In reply to her threats, the doctor greedily gulped a glass of cold water. Nellie fell to entreating and imploring like
the very lowest beggar. . . . At last the doctor gave way. He slowly got up, puffing and panting, looking for his coat.
