第 9 节
作者:浮游云中      更新:2021-02-24 23:06      字数:9322
  brilliant company of personages who stood so haughtily or walked so
  indifferently across the ephemeral brightness of the screen。
  By virtue of these marvels of the movies Hampton ugly and sordid Hampton!
  actually began for Janet to take on a romantic tinge。  Were not the strange
  peoples of the earth flocking to Hampton?  She saw them arriving
  at the station; straight from Ellis Island; bewildered; ticketed like dumb
  animals; the women draped in the soft; exotic colours many of them were
  presently to exchange for the cheap and gaudy apparel of Faber Street。  She
  sought to summon up in her mind the glimpses she had had of the wonderful lands
  from which they had come; to imagine their lives in that earlier environment。
  Sometimes she wandered; alone or with Eda; through the various quarters of the
  city。  Each quarter had a flavour of its own; a synthetic flavour belonging
  neither to the old nor to the new; yet partaking of both: a difference in
  atmosphere to which Janet was keenly sensitive。  In the German quarter; to the
  north; one felt a sort of ornamental bleaknessif the expression may be
  permitted: the tenements here were clean and not too crowded; the scroll…work
  on their superimposed porches; like that decorating the Turnverein and the stem
  Lutheran Church; was eloquent of a Teutonic inheritance: The Belgians were to
  the west; beyond the base…ball park and the car barns; their grey houses
  scattered among new streets beside the scarred and frowning face of Torrey's
  hill。  Almost under the hill itself; which threatened to roll down on it; and
  facing a bottomless; muddy street; was the quaint little building giving the
  note of foreign thrift; of socialism and shrewdness; of joie de vivre to the
  settlement; the FrancoBelgian co…operative store; with its salle de reunion
  above and a stage for amateur theatricals。  Standing in the mud outside; Janet
  would gaze through the tiny windows in the stucco wall at the baskets prepared
  for each household laid in neat rows beside the counter; at the old man with
  the watery blue eyes and lacing of red in his withered cheeks who spoke no
  English; whose duty it was to distribute the baskets to the women and children
  as they called。
  Turning eastward again; one came to Dey Street; in the heart of Hampton; where
  Hibernian Hall stood alone and grim; sole testimony of the departed Hibernian
  glories of a district where the present Irish rulers of the city had once lived
  and gossiped and fought in the days when the mill bells had roused the
  boarding…house keepers at half past four of a winter morning。  Beside the hall
  was a corner lot; heaped high with hills of ashes and rubbish like the
  vomitings of some filthy volcano; the unsightliness of which was half concealed
  by huge signs announcing the merits of chewing gums; tobaccos; and cereals。
  But why had the departure of the Irish; the coming of the Syrians made Dey
  Street dark; narrow; mysterious; oriental? changed the very aspect of its
  architecture?  Was it the coffee…houses?  One of these; in front of which Janet
  liked to linger; was set weirdly into an old New England cottage; and had;
  apparently; fathomless depths。  In summer the whole front of it lay open to the
  street; and here all day long; beside the table where the charcoal squares were
  set to dry; could be seen saffron…coloured Armenians absorbed in a Turkish game
  played on a backgammon board; their gentleness and that of the loiterers
  looking on in strange contrast with their hawk…like profiles and burning eyes。
  Behind this group; in the half light of the middle interior; could be discerned
  an American soda…water fountain of a bygone fashion; on its marble counter
  oddly shaped bottles containing rose and violet syrups; there was a bottle…
  shaped stove; and on the walls; in gilt frames; pictures evidently dating from
  the period in American art that flourished when Franklin Pierce was President;
  and there was an array of marble topped tables extending far back into the
  shadows。  Behind the fountain was a sort of cupboardsuggestive of the Arabian
  Nights; which Janet had never readfrom which; occasionally; the fat
  proprietor emerged bearing Turkish coffee or long Turkish pipes。
  When not thus occupied the proprietor carried a baby。  The street swarmed with
  babies; and mothers nursed them on the door…steps。  And in this teeming;
  prolific street one could scarcely move without stepping on a fat; almond eyed
  child; though some; indeed; were wheeled; wheeled in all sorts of queer
  contrivances by one another; by fathers with ragged black moustaches and eagle
  noses who; to the despair of mill superintendents; had decided in the morning
  that three days' wages would since to support their families for the week 。。。。
  In the midst of the throng might be seen occasionally the stout and comfortable
  and not too immaculate figure of a shovel bearded Syrian priest; in a frock
  coat and square…topped 〃Derby〃 hat; sailing along serenely; heedless of the
  children who scattered out of his path。
  Nearby was the quarter of the Canadian French; scarcely now to be called
  foreigners; though still somewhat reminiscent of the cramped little towns in
  the northern wilderness of water and forest。  On one corner stood almost
  invariably a 〃Pharmacie Francaise〃; the signs were in French; and the elders
  spoke the patois。  These; despite the mill pallor; retained in their faces; in
  their eyes; a suggestion of the outdoor look of their ancestors; the coureurs
  des bois; but the children spoke English; and the young men; as they played
  baseball in the street or in the corner lots might be heard shouting out
  derisively the cry of the section hands so familiar in mill cities; 〃Doff; you
  beggars you; doff!〃
  Occasionally the two girls strayed into that wide thoroughfare not far from the
  canal; known by the classic name of Hawthorne; which the Italians had
  appropriated to themselves。  This street; too; in spite of the telegraph poles
  flaunting crude arms in front of its windows; in spite of the trolley running
  down its middle; had acquired a character; a unity all its own; a warmth and
  picturesqueness that in the lingering light of summer evenings assumed an
  indefinable significance。  It was not Italy; but it was somethingsomething
  proclaimed in the ornate; leaning lines of the pillared balconies of the yellow
  tenement on the second block; in the stone…vaulted entrance of the low house
  next door; in fantastically coloured walls; in curtained windows out of which
  leaned swarthy; earringed women。  Blocking the end of the street; in stern
  contrast; was the huge Clarendon Mill with its sinister brick pillars running
  up the six stories between the glass。  Here likewise the sidewalks overflowed
  with children; large…headed; with great; lustrous eyes; mute; appealing; the
  eyes of cattle。  Unlike American children; they never seemed to be playing。
  Among the groups of elders gathered for gossip were piratical Calabrians in
  sombre clothes; descended from Greek ancestors; once the terrors of the
  Adriatic Sea。  The women; lingering in the doorways; hemmed in by more
  children; were for the most part squat and plump; but once in a while Janet's
  glance was caught and held by a strange; sharp beauty worthy of a cameo。
  Opposite the Clarendon Mill on the corner of East Street was a provision store
  with stands of fruit and vegetables encroaching on the pavement。  Janet's eye
  was attracted by a box of olives。
  〃Oh Eda;〃 she cried; 〃do you remember; we saw them being pickedin the movies?
  All those old trees on the side of a hill?〃
  〃Why; that's so;〃 said Eda。  〃You never would have thought anything'd grow on
  those trees。〃
  The young Italian who kept the store gave them a friendly grin。
  〃You lika the olives?〃 he asked; putting some of the shining black fruit into
  their hands。  Eda bit one dubiously with her long; white teeth; and giggled。
  〃Don't they taste funny!〃 she exclaimed。
  〃Goodvery good;〃 he asserted gravely; and it was to Janet he turned; as
  though recognizing a discrimination not to be found in her companion。  She
  nodded affirmatively。  The strange taste of the fruit enhanced her sense of
  adventure; she tried to imagine herself among the gatherers in the grove; she
  glanced at the young man to perceive that he was tall and well formed; with
  remarkably expressive eyes almost the colour of the olives themselves。  It
  surprised her that she liked him; though he was an Italian and a foreigner: a
  certain debonnair dignity in him appealed to hera quality lacking in many of
  her own countrymen。
  And she wanted to talk to him about Italy;only she did not know how to
  begin;when a customer appeared; an Italian woman who conversed with him in
  soft; liquid tones that moved her 。。。。
  Sometimes on these walksespecially if the day were grey and sombreJanet's
  sense of romance and adventure deepened; became more poignant; charged with
  presage。  These feelings; vague and unaccountable; she was utterly unable to
  confide to Eda; yet the very fear they inspired was fascinating; a fear and a
  hope that some day; in all this Babel of peoples; something would happen!  It
  was as though the conflicting soul of the city and her own soul were one。。。。