Prue
Alice Munro (1931-)
Prue ud to live with Gordon. This was after Gordon left his wife and before he went back to her—a year and four months in all. Some time later, he and his wife were divorced. After that came a period of indecision, of living together off and on; then the wife went away to New Zealand, most likely for good.
Prue did not go back to Vancouver Island, where Gordon had met her when she was working as a dining-room hostess in a resort hotel. She got a job in Toronto, working in a plant shop. She had many friends in Toronto by that time, most of them Gordon’s friends and his wife’s friends. They liked Prue and were ready to feel sorry for her, but she laughed them out of it. She is very likable. She has what eastern Canadians call an English accent, though she was born in Canada—in Duncan, on Vancouver Island. This accent helps her to say the most cynical things in a winning and light-hearted way. She prents her life in anecdotes, and thought it is the point of most of her anecdotes that hopes are dashed, dre
ams ridiculed, things never turn out as expected, everything is altered in a bizarre way and there is no explanation ever, people always feel cheered up after listening to her; they say of her that it is a relief to meet somebody who doesn’t take herlf too riously, who is so 河南风景uninten, and civilized, and never makes any real demands or complaints.
The only thing she complains about readily is her name. Prue is a schoolgirl, she says, and Prudence is an old virgin; the parents who gave her that name must have been too shortsighted even to take account of puberty. What if she grown a great bosom, she says, or developed a sultry look? Or was the name itlf a guarantee that she wouldn’t? In her late forties now, slight and fair, attending to customers with a dutiful vivacity, giving pleasure to dinner guests, she might not be far from what tho parents had in mind: bright and thoughtful, a cheerful spectator. It is hard to grant her maturity, maternity, real troubles.
Her grownup children, the products of an early Vancouver Island marriage she calls a cosmic disaster, come to e her, and instead of wanting money, like other people’s child
ren, they bring prents, try to do her accounts, arrange to have her hou insulated. She is delighted with their prents, listens to their advice, and, like a flighty daughter, neglects to answer their letters.
Her children hope she is not staying on in Toronto becau of Gordon. Everybody hopes that. She would laugh at the idea. She gives parties and goes to parties; she goes out sometimes with other men. Her attitude toward x is very comforting to tho of her friends who get into terrible states of passion and jealousy, and feel cut loo from their moorings. She ems to regard x as a 皇家贵族学院wholesome, slightly silly indulgence, like dancing and nice dinners—something that shouldn’t interfere with people’s being kind and cheerful to each other.
Now that his wife is gone for good, Gordon comes to e Prue occasionally, and sometimes asks her out for dinner. They may not go to a restaurant; they may go to his hou. Gordon is a good cook. When Prue or his wife lived with him he couldn’t cook at all, but as soon as he put his mind to it he became—he says truthfully—better than either of them.
无限回廊
Recently he and Prue were having dinner at his hou. He had made chicken 最美教师演讲稿Kiev, and crème brulee for desrt. Like most new, rious cooks, he talked about food.
busy的反义词>开吧
Gordon is rich, by Prue’s—and most people’s—standards. He is a neurologist. His hou is new, built on a hillside north of the city, where there ud to be picturesque, unprofitable farms. Now there are one-of-a-kind, architect-designed, very expensive hous on half-acre lots. Prue, describing Gordon’s hou, will say, “Do you know there are four bathrooms? So that if four people want to have baths at the same time there’s no problem. It ems a bit much, but it’s very nice, really, and you’d never have to go through the hall.”
Gordon’s hou has a raid dining area—a sort of platform, surrounded by a conversation pit, a music pit, and a bank of heavy greenery under sloping glass. You can’t e the entrance area from the dining area, but there are no intervening walls, so that from one area you can hear something of what is going on in the other.
During dinner the doorbell rang. Gordon excud himlf and went down the steps. Prue
踩着面包走的女孩heard a female voice. The person it belonged to was still outside, so she could not hear the words. She heard Gordon’s voice, pitched low, cautioning. The door didn’t clo—it emed the person had not been invited in—but the voices went on, muted and angry. Suddenly there was a cry from Gordon, and he appeared halfway up the steps, waving his arms.
“The crème brulee,” he said. “Could you?” He ran back down as Prue got up and went into the kitchen to save the desrt. When she returned he was climbing that stairs more slowly, looking both agitated and tired.
“A friend,” he said gloomily. “Was it all right?”
Prue realized he was speaking of the crème brulee, and she said yes, it was perfect, she had got it just in time. He thanked her but did not cheer up. It emed it was not the desrt he was troubled over but whatever had happened at the door. To take his mind off it, Prue started asking him professional questions about the plants.演员的英语
