【英文读物】Emma McChesney & Co..docx

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1、【英文读物】Emma McChesney & Co.I BROADWAY TO BUENOS AIRESThe door marked MRS. MCCHESNEY was closed. T. A. Buck, president of the Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company, coming gaily down the hall, stopped before it, dismayed, as one who, with a spicy bit of news at his tongues end, is met with rebuff before

2、the first syllable is voiced. That closed door meant: Busy. Keep out.Shell be reading a letter, T. A. Buck told himself grimly. Then he turned the knob and entered his partners office.Mrs. Emma McChesney was reading a letter. More than that, she was poring over it so that, at the interruption, she g

3、lanced up in a maddeningly half-cocked manner which conveyed the impression that, while her physical eye beheld the intruder, her mental eye was still on the letter.I knew it, said T. A. Buck morosely.Emma McChesney put down the letter and smiled.Sit downnow that youre in. And if you expect me to sa

4、y, Knew what? youre doomed to disappointment.T. A. Buck remained standing, both gloved hands clasping his walking stick on which he leaned.Every time I come into this office, youre reading the latest scrawl from your son. One would think Jocks letters were deathless masterpieces. I believe you read

5、them at half-hour intervals all week, and on Sunday get em all out and play solitaire with them.Emma McChesneys smile widened frankly to a grin.You make me feel like a cash-girl whos been caught flirting with the elevator starter. Have I been neglecting business?Business? No; youve been neglecting m

6、e!Now, T. A., youve just come from the tailors, and I suppose it didnt fit in the back.It isnt that, interrupted Buck, and you know it. Look here! That day Jock went away and we came back to the office, and you saidI know I said it, T. A., but dont remind me of it. That wasnt a fair test. I had just

7、 seen Jock leave me to take his own place in the world. You know that my day began and ended with him. He was my reason for everything. When I saw him off for Chicago that day, and knew he was going there to stay, it seemed a million miles from New York. I was blue and lonely and heart-sick. If the

8、office-boy had thrown a kind word to me Id have broken down and wept on his shoulder.Buck, still standing, looked down between narrowed lids at his business partner.Emma McChesney, he said steadily, do you mean that?Mrs. McChesney, the straightforward, looked up, looked down, fiddled with the letter

9、 in her hand.Wellpractically yesthat isI thought, now that youre going to the mountains for a month, it might give me a chance to thinktoAnd dyou know what Ill do meanwhile, out of revenge on the sex? Ive just ordered three suits of white flannel, and I shall break every feminine heart in the camp,

10、regardless Oh, say, thats what I came in to tell you! Guess whom I saw at the tailors?Well, Mr. Bones, whom did you, and so forth?Fat Ed Meyers. I just glimpsed him in one of the fitting-rooms. And they were draping him in white.Emma McChesney sat up with a jerk.Are you sure?Sure? Theres only one fi

11、gure like that. He had the thing on and was surveying himself in the mirroror as much of himself as could be seen in one ordinary mirror. In that white suit, with his red face above it, he looked like those pictures you see labeled, Sunrise on Snow-covered Mountain.Did he seeHe dodged when he saw me

12、. Actually! At least, he seems to have the decency to be ashamed of the deal he gave us when he left us flat in the thick of his Middle Western trip and went back to the Sans-Silk Skirt Company. I wanted him to know I had seen him. As I passed, I said, Youll mow em down in those clothes, Meyers. Buc

13、k sat down in his leisurely fashion, and laughed his low, pleasant laugh. Cant you see him, Emma, at the seashore?But something in Emma McChesneys eyes, and something in her set, unsmiling face, told him that she was not seeing seashores. She was staring straight at him, straight through him, miles

14、beyond him. There was about her that tense, electric, breathless air of complete detachment, which always enveloped her when her lightning mind was leaping ahead to a goal unguessed by the slower thinking.Whats your tailors name?Name? Trotter. Why?Emma McChesney had the telephone operator before he

15、could finish.Get me Trotter, the tailor, T-r-o-double-t-e-r. Say I want to speak to the tailor who fits Mr. Ed Meyers, of the Sans-Silk Skirt Company.T. A. Buck leaned forward, mouth open, eyes wide. Well, what in the name ofIll let you know in a minute. Maybe Im wrong. Its just one of my hunches. B

16、ut for ten years I sold Featherlooms through the same territory that Ed Meyers was covering for the Sans-Silk Skirt people. It didnt take me ten years to learn that Fat Ed hadnt the decency to be ashamed of any deal he turned, no matter how raw. And let me tell you, T. A.: If he dodged when he saw y

17、ou it wasnt because he was ashamed of having played us low-down. He was contemplating playing lower-down. Of course, I may beShe picked up the receiver in answer to the bell. Then, sweetly, her calm eyes smiling into Bucks puzzled ones:Hello! Is this Mr. Meyers tailor? Im to ask if you are sure that

18、 the grade he selected is the proper weight for the tropics. What? Oh, you say you assured him it was the weight of flannel you always advise for South America. And you said theyd be ready when? Next week? Thank you.She hung up the receiver. The pupils of her eyes were dilated. Her cheeks were very

19、pink as always under excitement. She stood up, her breath coming rather quickly.Hurray for the hunch! It holds. Fat Ed Meyers is going down to South America for the Sans-Silk Company. Its what Ive been planning to do for the last six months. You remember I spoke of it. You pooh-poohed the idea. It m

20、eans hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Sans-Silk people if they get it. But they wont get it.T. A. Buck stood up suddenly.Look here, Emma! If youreI certainly am. Nothing can stop me. The skirt business has beenwell, you know what its been for the last two years. The South American boats sail

21、twice a month. Fat Ed Meyers clothes are promised for next week. That means he isnt sailing until week after next. But the next boat sails in three days. She picked up a piece of paper from her desk and tossed it into Bucks hand. Thats the letter I was reading when you came in. No; dont read it. Let

22、 me tell you instead.Buck threw cane, hat, gloves, and letter on the broad desk, thrust his hands into his pockets, and prepared for argument. But he got only as far as: But I wont allow it! You couldnt get away in three days, at any rate. And at the end of two weeks youll have come to your senses,

23、and besidesT. A., I dont mean to be rude. But here are your hat and stick and gloves. Its going to take me just forty-eight hours to mobilize.But, Emma, even if you do get in ahead of Meyers, its an insane idea. A woman cant go down there alone. It isnt safe. Its bad enough for a man to tackle it. B

24、esides, were holding our own.Thats just it. When a doctor issues a bulletin to the effect that the patient is holding his own, you may have noticed that the relatives always begin to gather.Its a bubble, this South American idea. Oshkosh and Southport and Altoona money has always been good enough fo

25、r us. If we can keep that trade, we ought to be thankful.Emma McChesney pushed her hair back from her forehead with one gesture and patted it into place with another. Those two gestures, to one who knew her, meant loss of composure for one instant, followed by the quick regaining of it the next.Lets

26、 not argue about it now. Suppose we wait until to-morrowwhen its too late. I am thankful for the trade weve got. But I dont want to be narrow about it. My thanking capacity is such that I can stretch it out to cover some things we havent got yet. Ive been reading up on South America.Reading! put in

27、Buck hotly. What actual first-hand information can you get about a country from books?Well, then, I havent only been reading. Ive been talking to everyone I could lay my hands on who has been down there and who knows. Those South American women love dressespecially the Argentines. And do you know wh

28、at theyve been wearing? Petticoats made in England! You know what that means. An English woman chooses a petticoat like she does a husbandfor life. It isnt only a garment. Its a shelter. Its built like a tent. If once I can introduce the T. A. Buck Featherloom petticoat and knickerbocker into sunny

29、South America, theyll use those English and German petticoats for linoleum floor-coverings. Heaven knows theyll fit the floor better than the human form!But Buck was unsmiling. The muscles of his jaw were tense.I wont let you go. Understand that! I wont allow it!Tut, tut, T. A.! What is this? Cave-m

30、an stuff?Emma, I tell you its dangerous. It isnt worth the risk, no matter what it brings us.Emma McChesney struck an attitude, hand on heart. Heaven will protect the working girrul, she sang.Buck grabbed his hat.Im going to wire Jock.All right! Thatll save me fifty cents. Do you know what hell wire

31、 back? Go to it. Get the tango on its native tairnor words to that effect.Emma, use a little logic and common sense!There was a note in Bucks voice that brought a quick response from Mrs. McChesney. She dropped her little air of gayety. The pain in his voice, and the hurt in his eyes, and the pleadi

32、ng in his whole attitude banished the smile from her face. It had not been much of a smile, anyway. T. A. knew her genuine smiles well enough to recognize a counterfeit at sight. And Emma McChesney knew that he knew. She came over and laid a hand lightly on his arm.T. A., I dont know anything about

33、logic. It is a hot-house plant. But common sense is a field flower, and Ive gathered whole bunches of it in my years of business experience. Im not going down to South America for a lark. Im going because the time is ripe to go. Im going because the future of our business needs it. Im going because

34、its a job to be handled by the most experienced salesman on our staff. And Im just that. I say it because its true. Your father, T. A., used to see things straighter and farther than any business man I ever knew. Since his death made me a partner in this firm, I find myself, when Im troubled or puzz

35、led, trying to see a situation as hed see it if he were alive. Its like having an expert stand back of you in a game of cards, showing you the next move. Thats the way Im playing this hand. And I think were going to take most of the tricks away from Fat Ed Meyers.T. A. Bucks eyes traveled from Emma

36、McChesneys earnest, glowing face to the hand that rested on his arm. He reached over and gently covered that hand with his own.I suppose you must be right, little woman. You always are. Dad was the founder of this business. It was the pride of his life. That word founder has two meanings. I never wa

37、nt to be responsible for its second meaning in connection with this concern.You never will be, T. A.Not with you at the helm. He smiled rather sadly. Im a good, ordinary, common seaman. But youve got imagination, and foresight, and nerve, and daring, and thats the stuff that admirals are made of.Ble

38、ss you, T. A.! I knew youd see the thing as I do after the first shock was over. It has always been nip and tuck between the Sans-Silk Company and us. You gave me the hint that showed me their plans. Now help me follow it up.Buck picked up his hat, squared his shoulders and fumbled with his gloves l

39、ike a bashful schoolboy.Youyou couldnt kill two birds with one stone on this trip, could you, Mrs. Mack?Mrs. McChesney, back at her desk again, threw him an inquiring glance over her shoulder.You might make it a combination honeymoon and Featherloom expedition.T. A. Buck! exclaimed Emma McChesney. T

40、hen, as Buck dodged for the door: Just for that, Im going to break this to you. You know that I intended to handle the Middle Western territory for one trip, or until we could get a man to take Fat Ed Meyers place.Well? said Buck apprehensively.I leave in three days. Goodness knows how long Ill be g

41、one! A business deal down there is a ceremony. Andyou wont need any white-flannel clothes in Rock Island, Illinois.Buck, aghast, faced her from the doorway.You mean, IJust that, smiled Emma McChesney pleasantly. And pressed the button that summoned the stenographer.In the next forty-eight hours, Mrs

42、. McChesney performed a series of mental and physical calisthenics that would have landed an ordinary woman in a sanatorium. She cleaned up with the thoroughness and dispatch of a housewife who, before going to the seashore, forgets not instructions to the iceman, the milkman, the janitor, and the m

43、aid. She surveyed her territory, behind and before, as a general studies troops and countryside before going into battle; she foresaw factory emergencies, dictated office policies, made sure of staff organization like the business woman she was. Out in the stock-room, under her supervision, there wa

44、s scientifically packed into sample-trunks and cases a line of Featherloom skirts and knickers calculated to dazzle Brazil and entrance Argentina. And into her own personal trunk there went a wardrobe, each article of which was a garment with a purpose. Emma McChesney knew the value of a smartly tai

45、lored suit in a business argument.T. A. Buck canceled his order at the tailors, made up his own line for the Middle West, and prepared to storm that prosperous and important territory for the first time in his business career.The South American boat sailed Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning found

46、the two partners deep in one of those condensed, last-minute discussions. Mrs. McChesney opened a desk drawer, took out a leather-covered pocket notebook, and handed it to Buck. A tiny smile quivered about her lips. Buck took it, mystified.Your last diary?Something much more important. I call it The

47、 Salesmans Whos Who. Read it as you ought your Bible.But what? Buck turned the pages wonderingly. He glanced at a paragraph, frowned, read it aloud, slowly.Des Moines, Iowa, Klein & Company. Miss Ella Sweeney, skirt buyer. Old girl. Skittish. Wants to be entertained. Take her to dinner and the theater.He looked up, dazed. Good Lord, what is this? A joke?Wait until you see Ella; you wont think its a joke. Shell buy only your smoothest numbers, ask sixty days dating, and expect you to entertain her as you would your rich aunt.Buck returned to the l