A GHOST OF A CHANCE
by: O. Henry (1862-1910)
The following story is reprinted from 围墙施工方案Sixes and Sevens. O. Henry. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911.
"Actually, a hod!"拜拜英语怎么写 repeated Mrs. Kinsolving, pathetically.
Mrs. Bellamy Bellmore arched a sympathetic eyebrow. Thus she expresd condolence and a generous amount of apparent surpri.
小学生寒假计划表"Fancy her telling everywhere," recapitulated Mrs. Kinsolving, "that she saw a ghost in the apartment she occupied here—our choicest guest-room—a ghost, carrying a hod on its shoulder—the ghost of an old man in overalls, smoking a pipe and carrying a hod! The very absurdity of the thing shows her malicious intent. There never was a Kinsolving that carried a hod. Every one knows that Mr. Kinsolving's father accumulated his money by large building contracts, but he never worked a day with his own hands. He had this hou built fr
om his own plans; but—oh, a hod! Why need she have been so cruel and malicious?"
"It is really too bad," murmured Mrs. Bellmore, with an approving glance of her fine eyes about the vast chamber done in lilac and old gold. "And it was in this room she saw it! Oh, no, I'm not afraid of ghosts. Don't have the least fear on my account. I'm glad you put me in here. I think family ghosts so interesting! But, really, the story does sound a little inconsistent. I should have expected something better from Mrs. Fischer-Suympkins. Don't they carry bricks in hods? Why should a ghost bring bricks into a villa built of marble and stone? I'm so sorry, but it makes me think that age is beginning to tell upon Mrs. Fischer-Suympkins."
"This hou," continued Mrs. Kinsolving, "was built upon the site of an old one ud by the family during the Revolution. There wouldn't be anything strange in its having a ghost. And there was a Captain Kinsolving who fought in General Greene's army, though we've never been able to cure any papers to vouch for it. If there is to be a family ghost, why couldn't it have been his, instead of a bricklayer's?"
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"The ghost of a Revolutionary ancestor wouldn't be a bad idea," agreed Mrs. Bellmore; "but you know how arbitrary and inconsiderate ghosts can be. Maybe, like love, they are 'engendered in the eye.' One advantage of tho who e ghosts is that their stories can't be disproved. By a spiteful eye, a Revolutionary knapsack might easily be construed to be a hod. Dear Mrs. Kinsolving, think no more of it. I am sure it was a knapsack."
"But she told everybody!" mourned Mrs. Kinsolving, inconsolable. "She insisted upon the details. There is the pipe. And how are you going to get out of the overalls?"
"Shan't get into them," said Mrs. Bellmore, with a prettily suppresd yawn; "too stiff and wrinkly. Is that you, Felice? Prepare my bath, plea. Do you dine at ven at Clifftop, Mrs. Kinsolving? So kind of you to run in for a chat before dinner! I love tho little touches of informality with a guest. They give such a home flavour to a visit. So sorry; I must be dressing. I am so indolent I always postpone it until the last moment."
香椿苗>清明拼音Mrs. Fischer-Suympkins had been the first large plum that the Kinsolvings had drawn from the social pie. For a long time, the pie itlf had been out of reach on a top shelf. But
the pur and the pursuit had at last lowered it. Mrs. Fischer-Suympkins was the heliograph of the smart society parading corps. The glitter of her wit and actions pasd along the line, transmitting whatever was latest and most daring in the game of peep-show. Formerly, her fame and leadership had been cure enough not to need the support of such artifices as handing around live frogs for favours at a cotillon. But, now, the things were necessary to the holding of her throne. Beside, middle age had come to preside, incongruous, at her capers. The nsational papers had cut her space from a page to two columns. Her wit developed a sting; her manners became more rough and inconsiderate, as if she felt the royal necessity of establishing her autocracy by scorning the conventionalities that bound lesr potentates.
伍佰红包To some pressure at the command of the Kinsolvings, she had yielded so far as to honour their hou by her prence, for an evening and night. She had her revenge upon her hostess by relating, with grim enjoyment and sarcastic humour, her story of the vision carrying the hod. To that lady, in raptures at having penetrated thus far toward the coveted inner circle, the result came as a crushing disappointment. Everybody either sym
pathized or laughed, and there was little to choo between the two modes of expression.
But, later on, Mrs. Kinsolving's hopes and spirits were revived by the capture of a cond and greater prize.
Mrs. Bellamy Bellmore had accepted an invitation to visit at Clifftop, and would remain for three days. Mrs. Bellmore was one of the younger matrons, who beauty, descent, and wealth gave her a rerved at in the holy of holies that required no strenuous bolstering. She was generous enough thus to give Mrs. Kinsolving the accolade that was so poignantly desired; and, at the same time, she thought how much it would plea Terence. Perhaps it would end by solving him.
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