Active Service, Stephen Crane [classic books for 11 year olds TXT] 📗
- Author: Stephen Crane
Book online «Active Service, Stephen Crane [classic books for 11 year olds TXT] 📗». Author Stephen Crane
The South. The Greeks In the Coffee Room Were, Of
Course, Talking.
At Last Coleman Did Hear The Sound Of Hoofs And
Wheels. The Three Carriages Swept Up In grand Procession.
The First Was Laden With Students ; In the
Second Was The Professor, The Greek Officer, Nora
Black'S Old Lady And Other Persons, All Looking marvellously
Unimportant And Shelved. It Was The Third
Carriage At Which Coleman Stared. At First Be
Thought The Dim Light Deceived his Vision, But In a
Moment He Knew That His First Leaping conception Of
The Arrangement Of The People In this Vehicle Had
Been Perfectly Correct. Nora Black And Mrs. Wainwright
Sat Side By Side On The Back Seat, While Facing
Them Were Coke And Marjory.
They Looked cold But Intimate.
The Oddity Of The Grouping stupefied coleman. It
Was Anarchy, Naked and Unashamed. He Could Not
Imagine How Such Changes Could Have Been Consummated
In The Short Time He Had Been Away From Them,
But He Laid It All To Some Startling necromancy On The
Part Of Nora Black, Some Wondrous Play Which Had
Captured them All Because Of Its Surpassing skill And
Because They Were, In the Main, Rather Gullible People.
He Was Wrong. The Magic Had Been Wrought
By The Unaided foolishness Of Mrs. Wainwfight. As
Soon As Nora Black Had Succeeded in creating an
Effect Of Intimacy And Dependence Between Herself
And Coleman, The Professor Had Flatly Stated to His
Wife That The Presence Of Nora Black In the Party, In
The Inn, In the World, Was A Thiag That Did Not Meet
His Approval In any Way. She Should Be Abolished.
As For Coleman, He Would Not Defend Him. He Preferred
Not To Talk To Him. It Made Him Sad. Coleman At
Least Had Been Very Indiscreet, Very Indiscreet.
It Was A Great Pity. But As For This Blatant Woman,
The Sooner They Rid Themselves Of Her, The Sooner He
Would Feel That All The World Was Not Evil.
Whereupon Mrs. Wainwright Had Changed front
With The Speed of Light And Attacked with Horse, Foot
And Guns. She Failed to See, She Had Declared, Where
This Poor, Lone Girt Was In great Fault. Of Course It
Was Probable That She Had Listened to This Snaky.
Tongued rufus Coleman, But That Was Ever The Mistake
That Women Made. Oh, Certainly ; The Professor
Would Like To Let Rufus Coleman Off Scot-Free. That
Was The Way With Men. They Defended each Other In
All Cases. If Wrong Were Done It Was The Woman Who
Suffered. Now, Since This Poor Girl Was Alone Far Off
Here In greece, Mrs. Wainwright Announced that She
Had Such Full Sense Of Her Duty To Her Sex That Her
Conscience Would Not Allow Her To Scorn And Desert A
Sister, Even If That Sister Was, Approximately, The Victim
Of A Creature Like Rufus Coleman. Perhaps The
Poor Thing loved this Wretched man, Although It Was
Hard To Imagine Any Woman Giving her Heart To Such.
A Monster.
The Professor Had Then Asked with Considerable
Spirit For The Proofs Upon Which Mrs. Wainwright
Named coleman A Monster, And Had Made A Wry Face
Over Her Completely Conventional Reply. He Had Told
Her Categorically His Opinion Of Her Erudition In such
Matters.
But Mrs. Wainwright Was Not To Be Deterred from
An Exciting espousal Of The Cause Of Her Sex. Upon
The Instant That The Professor Strenuously Opposed her
She Becamean Apostle, An Enlightened, Uplifted apostle
To The World On The Wrongs Of Her Sex. She Had
Come Down With This Thing as If It Were A Disease.
Nothing could Stop Her. Her Husband, Her Daughter,
All Influences In other Directions, Had Been Overturned
With A Roar, And The First Thing fully Clear To The Professor'S
Mind Had Been That His Wife Was Riding affably
In The Carriage With Nora Black.
Coleman Aroused when He Heard One Of The Students
Cry Out: " Why, There Is Rufus Coleman'S Dragoman.
He Must Be Here." A Moment Later They Thronged
Upon Him. " Hi, Old Man, Caught You Again! Where
Did You Break To? Glad To Catch You, Old Boy. How
Are You Making it? Where'S Your Horse?"
" Sent The Horses On To, Athens," Said Coleman.
He Had Not Yet Recovered his Composure, And He Was
Glad To Find Available This Commonplace Return To Their
Exuberant Greetings And Questions. " Sent Them On To
Athens With The Groom."
In The Mean Time The Engine Of The Little Train Was
Screaming to Heaven That Its Intention Of Starting was
Most Serious. The Diligencia Careered to The Station
Platform And Unburdened. Coleman Had Had His
Dragoman Place His Luggage In a Little First-Class Carriage
And He Defiantly Entered it And Closed the Door.
He Had A Sudden Return To The Old Sense Of Downfall,
And With It Came The Original Rebellious Desires. However,
He Hoped that Somebody Would Intrude Upon
Him.
It Was Peter Tounley. The Student Flung Open The
Door And Then Yelled to The Distance : " Here'S An
Empty One." He Clattered into The Compartment.
" Hello, Coleman! Didn'T Know You Were In here! "
At His Heels Came Nora Black, Coke And Marjory.
" Oh! " They Said, When They Saw The Occupant Of The
Carriage. " Oh ! " Coleman Was Furious. He Could
Have Distributed some Of His Traps In a Way To Create
More Room, But He Did Not Move.
Chapter 23There Was A Demonstration Of The Unequalled facilities
Of A European Railway Carriage For Rendering
Unpleasant Things Almost Intolerable. These People
Could Find No Way To Alleviate The Poignancy Of Their
Position. Coleman Did Not Know Where To Look.
Every Personal Mannerism Becomes Accentuated in a
European Railway Carriage. If You Glance At A Man,
Your Glance Defines Itself As A Stare. If You Carefully
Look At Nothing, You Create For Yourself A Resemblance
To All Wooden-Headed things. A Newspaper Is, Then, In
The Nature Of A Preservative, And Coleman Longed for
A Newspaper.
It Was This Abominable Railway Carriage Which
Exacted the First Display Of Agitation From Marjory.
She Flushed rosily, And Her Eyes Wavered over The
Cornpartment. Nora Black Laughed in a Way That
Was A Shock To The Nerves. Coke Seemed very Angry,
Indeed, And Peter Tounley Was In pitiful Distress.
Everything was Acutely, Painfully Vivid, Bald, Painted
As Glaringly As A Grocer'S New Wagon. It Fulfilled
Those Traditions Which The Artists Deplore When They
Use Their Pet Phrase On A Picture, "It Hurts." The
Damnable Power Of Accentuation Of The European
Railway Carriage Seemed, To Coleman'S Amazed mind,
To Be Redoubled and Redoubled.
It Was Peter Tounley Who Seemed to Be In the Greatest
Agony. He Looked at The Correspondent Beseechingly
And Said: "It'S A Very Cold Morning, Coleman."
This Was An Actual Appeal In the Name Of Humanity.
Coleman Came Squarely. To The Front And Even
Grinned a Little At Poor Peter Tounley'S Misery.
"Yes, It Is A Cold Morning, Peter. I Should Say It To
One Of The Coldest Mornings In my Recollection."
Peter Tounley Had Not Intended a Typical American
Emphasis On The Polar Conditions Which Obtained
In The Compartment At This Time, But Coleman Had
Given The Word This Meaning. Spontaneously Every
Body Smiled, And At Once The Tension Was Relieved.
But Of Course The Satanic Powers Of The Railway Carriage
Could Not Be Altogether Set At Naught. Of Course
It Fell To The Lot Of Coke To Get The Seat Directly In
Front Of Coleman, And Thus, Face To Face, They Were
Doomed to Stare At Each Other.
Peter Tounley Was Inspired to Begin Conventional
Babble, In which He Took Great Care To Make An Appear.
Ance Of Talking to All In the Carriage. " Funny Thing
I Never Knew These Mornings In greece Were So Cold.
I Thought The Climate Here Was Quite Tropical. It
Must Have Been Inconvenient In the Ancient Times,
When, I Am Told, People Didn'T Wear Near So Many-
Er-Clothes. Really, I Don'T See How They Stood It.
For My Part, I Would Like Nothing so Much As A Buffalo
Robe. I Suppose When Those Great Sculptors Were Doing
Their Masterpieces, They Had To Wear Gloves.
Ever Think Of That? Funny, Isn'T It? Aren'T You
Cold, Marjory ? I Am. Jingo! Imagine The Spartans
In Ulsters, Going out To Meet An Enemy In cape-Overcoats,
And Being desired by Their Mothers To Return
With Their Ulsters Or Wrapped in them."
It Was Rather Hard Work For Peter Tounley. Both
Marjory And Coleman Tried to Display An Interest In
His Labours, And They Laughed not At What He Said, But
Because They Believed it Assisted him. The Little Train,
Meanwhile, Wandered up A Great Green Slope, And The
Day Rapidly Coloured the Land.
At First Nora Black Did Not Display A Militant Mood,
But As Time Passed coleman Saw Clearly That She Was
Considering the Advisability Of A New Attack. She Had
Coleman And Marjory In conjunction And Where They
Were Unable To Escape From Her. The Opportunities
Were Great. To Coleman, She Seemed to Be Gloating
Over The Possibilities Of Making more Mischief. She
Was Looking at Him Speculatively, As If Considering the
Best Place To Hit Him First. Presently She Drawled :
" Rufus, I Wish You Would Fix My Rug About Me A Little
Better." Coleman Saw That This Was A Beginning.
Peter Tounley Sprang To His Feet With Speed and En-
Thusiasm. " Oh, Let Me Do It For You." He Had Her
Well Muffled in the Rug Before She Could Protest, Even
If A Protest Had Been Rational. The Young Man Had
No Idea Of Defending coleman. He Had No Knowledge
Of The Necessity For It. It Had Been Merely The Exercise
Of His Habit Of Amiability, His Chronic Desire To
See Everybody Comfortable. His Passion In this Direction
Was Well Known In washurst, Where The Students
Had Borrowed a Phrase From The Photographers In order
To Describe Him Fully In a Nickname. They Called
Him " Look-Pleasant Tounley." This Did Not In any
Way Antagonise His Perfect Willingness To Fight On
Occasions With A Singular Desperation, Which Usually
Has A Small Stool In every Mind Where Good Nature Has
A Throne.
" Oh, Thank You Very Much, Mr. Tounley," Said
Nora Black, Without Gratitude. " Rufus Is Always So
Lax In these Matters."
"I Don'T Know How You Know It," Said Coleman
Boldly, And He Looked her Fearlessly In the Eye. The
Battle Had Begun.
" Oh," Responded nora, Airily, " I Have Had Opportunity
Enough To Know It, I Should Think, By This
Time."
" No," Said Coleman, " Since I Have Never Paid You
Particular And Direct Attention, You Cannot Possibly
Know What I Am Lax In and What I Am Not Lax In. I
Would Be Obliged to Be Of Service At Any Time, Nora,
But Surely You Do Not Consider That You Have A Right
To My Services Superior To Any Other Right."
Nora Black Simply Went Mad, But Fortunately Part
Of Her Madness Was In the Form Of Speechlessness.
Otherwise There Might Have Been Heard Something
Approaching to Billingsgate.
Marjory And Peter Tounley Turned first Hot And Then
Cold, And Looked as If They Wanted to Fly Away; And
Even Coke, Penned helplessly In with This Unpleasant
Incident, Seemed to Have A Sudden Attack Of Distress.
The Only Frigid Person Was Coleman. He Had Made
His Declaration Of Independence, And He Saw With Glee
That The Victory Was Complete. Nora Black Might
Storm And Rage, But He Had Announced his Position In
An Unconventional Blunt Way Which Nobody In the
Carriage Could Fail To Understand. He Felt Somewhat
Like Smiling with Confidence And Defiance In nora'S
Face, But He Still Had The Fear For Marjory.
Unexpectedly, The Fight Was All Out Of Nora Black.
She Had The Fury Of A Woman Scorned, But Evidently
She Had Perceived that All Was Over And Lost. The
Remainder Of Her Wrath Dispensed itself In glares Which
Coleman Withstood With Great Composure.
A Strained silence Fell Upon The Group Which Lasted
Until They Arrived at The Little Port Of Mesalonghi,
Whence They Were To Take Ship For Patras. Coleman
Found Himself Wondering why He Had Not Gone Flatly
At The Great Question At A Much Earlier Period, Indeed
At The First Moment When The Great Question Began To
Make Life Exciting for Him. He Thought That If He
Had Charged nora'S Guns In the Beginning they Would
Have Turned out To Be The Same Incapable Artillery.
Instead Of That He Had Run Away And Continued to Run
Away Until He Was Actually Cornered and Made To Fight,
And His Easy Victory
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