登陆注册
4619100000082

第82章 The End of Marian's Contest(3)

"Confound such luck," she said emphatically. "I do not understand it. How can a man like Henry Anderson know more about comforts and conveniences in a home than a woman with Marian's experience and comprehension? And she has been gaining experience for the past ten years. That partner of his must be a six-cylinder miracle."Linda went to the kitchen, because she was in pressing need of someone to whom to tell her troubles, and there was no one except Katy. What Katy said was energetic and emphatic, but it comforted Linda, because she agreed with it and what she was seeking at the minute was someone who agreed with her. As she went back upstairs, she met Eileen on her way to the front door.

Eileen paused and deliberately studied Linda's face, and Linda stopped and waited quietly until she chose to speak.

"I presume," said Eileen at last, "that you and Katy would call the process through which you are going right now, 'taking the bit in your teeth,' or some poetic thing like that, but I can't see that you are getting much out of it. I don't hear the old laugh or the clatter of gay feet as I did before all this war of dissatisfaction broke out. This minute if you haven't either cried, or wanted to, I miss my guess.""You win," said Linda. "I have not cried, because I make it a rule never to resort to tears when I can help it; so what you see now is unshed tears in my heart. They in no way relate to what you so aptly term my 'war of dissatisfaction'; they are for Marian. She has lost again, this time the Nicholson and Snow prize in architecture.""Serves her right," said Eileen, laughing contemptuously. "The ridiculous idea of her trying to compete in a man's age-old occupation! As if she ever could learn enough about joists and beams and girders and installing water and gas and electricity to build a house. She should have had the sense to know she couldn't do it.""But," said Linda quietly, "Marian wasn't proposing to be a contractor, she only wants to be an architect. And the man who beat her is Peter Morrison's architect, Henry Anderson, and he won by such a narrow margin that her plans were thrown out of second and third place, because they were so very similar to his.

Doesn't that strike you as curious?"

"That is more than curious," said Eileen slowly. "That is a very strange coincidence. They couldn't have had anything from each other, because they only met at dinner, before all of us, and Marian went away the next morning; it does seem queer." Then she added with a flash of generosity and justice, "It looks pretty good for Marian, at that. If she came so near winning that she lost second and third because she was too near first to make any practical difference, I must be wrong and she must be right.""You are wrong," said Linda tersely, "if you think Marian cannot make wonderful plans for houses. But going back to what my 'war of dissatisfaction' is doing to me, it's a pale affair compared with what it is doing to you, Eileen. You look a debilitated silhouette of the near recent past. Do you feel that badly about giving up a little money and authority?""I never professed to have the slightest authority over you,"said Eileen very primly, as she drew back in the shadows. "You have come and gone exactly as you pleased. All I ever tried to do was to keep up a decent appearance before the neighbors and make financial ends meet.""That never seemed to wear on you as something seems to do now,"said Linda. "I am thankful that this week ends it. I was looking for you because I wanted to tell you to be sure not to make any date that will keep you from meeting me at the office of the president of the Consolidated Bank Thursday afternoon. I am going to arrange with John to be there and it shouldn't take fifteen minutes to run through matters and divide the income in a fair way between us. I am willing for you to go on paying the bills and ordering for the house as you have been.""Certainly you are," sneered Eileen. "You are quite willing for all the work and use the greater part of my time to make you comfortable."Linda suddenly drew back. Her body seemed to recoil, but her head thrust forward as if to bring her eyes in better range to read Eileen's face.

"That is utterly unjust, Eileen," she cried.

Then two at a time she rushed the stairs in a race for her room.

同类推荐
  • 太上灵宝净明飞仙度人经法释例

    太上灵宝净明飞仙度人经法释例

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 小儿痢门

    小儿痢门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 雪峰义存禅师语录

    雪峰义存禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 北东园笔录

    北东园笔录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 东西汉演义

    东西汉演义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 一生要读的美丽唐诗

    一生要读的美丽唐诗

    唐诗是中华名族智慧的结晶,它如浩瀚的海洋,蕴藏着数不尽的珍宝。历代人吟之诵之,借此体味人生苦乐,感悟生活哲理,议论社会时弊……《时光文库:一生要读的美丽唐诗》的选编,参照了多种唐诗选本,提取各家精华,旨在于为广大读者提供一本普及型唐诗读物,从而弘扬民族文化,提高民族素质……
  • 周易浅述

    周易浅述

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 阴阳炼物

    阴阳炼物

    千年前的恩怨,神魔之间的战争,序幕,在凡人位面展开,在黑与白的火焰中诞生的命运之子,是否能阻止世界的毁灭?璀璨的枷锁,能否锁住黑暗?身为神使的顾愁利,在前进的道路中,经历幼稚到成熟的蜕变,能否破开仙劫,化身为神?阴暗面的腐朽,尘世的法则,路,需要自己去走!若不去经历凡尘事态百味,体会尘世千百情肠,就别想领悟这世上的法则——顾愁利
  • 盛宠傲妃

    盛宠傲妃

    她本是21世纪的‘暗杀女王’,一朝穿越,竟成了相府不受宠的废材丑小姐。庶姐欺她,庶母虐她,渣爹弃她,苏九鸢表示,既然你们如今如此待我,那就别在我光芒万丈之际贴脸巴结!从此,人皮面具下的绝色倾城,随身空间里的亩亩良田,不断俘获的各种呆萌小兽,姐教你什么叫凤舞天下!但是……一场交易,怎么就莫名其妙地把自己给送出去了,看着身边这位狂傲不羁、风华绝代的男子,苏九鸢无语扶额……[腹黑独宠.欢迎入坑.]
  • 乔伊斯、萨伊德和流散知识分子

    乔伊斯、萨伊德和流散知识分子

    现代英语文学已随着大英帝国的解体开始走进一个后殖民主义大放异彩的时代,《乔伊斯、萨伊德和流散知识分子》是作者戴从容在该领域长达15年的思考解读,特别关注英联邦国家的非英国本土作家的作品,并对文本精细解读,完美把握了现代英语文学后殖民主义的特征。
  • 香榧

    香榧

    棋,是人与人脑力之间的碰撞,但是你要是遇到了它,那就不一定了,被迷惑被左右,只要你心中坚定,没有逃不出的控制网。小白少女拥有着这件宝物,她是正还是邪?是利用还是凭借自己的力量到达自己的目的?且看《香榧》带你走进她的世界。
  • 啊!我最喜欢的历史故事

    啊!我最喜欢的历史故事

    成长需要不断回味历史,一个人要进步,不学历史简直无法想像。本书就是为了帮助小学生了解历史,进一步拓展知识面、不断完善自我而编写的。书中精心挑选了最受小学生欢迎的、适合小学生自己阅读的精彩历史常识,力求用生动的语言、精巧的构思,帮助小学生多角度、多层面地了解历史。在目录的编排上,本书按时间顺序为小学生展开一幅幅多姿多彩的历史画卷,让小学生能在较短时间内对我国历史有一个清晰的认识,从历史人物、历史事件中体会到民族大义和做人的道理,树立正确的世界观、人生观和价值观,提高自我修养。
  • 娇俏悍妻:夫君别惹我

    娇俏悍妻:夫君别惹我

    重生前,她是众叛亲离,遭夫君随意践踏的丑妻;重生后,她容颜清丽,绝世无双,心却如冬日最冷的寒冰。这一世,她以为自己会孤独老去,谁知那个高贵如月的男子却像跟狗屁膏药一般怎么都甩不掉,三不五时就借着黑夜闯进她的闺房。“你是恶毒妇,我是腹黑男。”他吐气如兰,眸若星辰,“我们是天生一对,嫁给我吧。”“谁要嫁给你。”她在花轿上怒吼。“你说了不算……”刚刚拧断两个脖子的美貌夫君笑得温柔可亲。【男强女也强,女主淡然狠辣,男主腹黑,搞笑文,宠文,一生一世一双人】
  • 弯曲的高速路

    弯曲的高速路

    上访,在我们洪垣那儿,不叫上访,叫告状。入秋第一场霜刚刚铺下,家家屋檐上,还有麦地里,像铺了层纱似的,铁生就出门了,准备去告状。那天早晨,铁生起来,吃了两碗面条,顶着一脑门子汗气,踏着路上的薄霜,走向河堤那边。本来,铁生上访,是准备悄悄去的,可是菜花一喊,反而喊得整个洪垣人都知道了。当然,菜花开始也没喊,扯着铁生的衣袖说:“老子哎,求你了,我喊你爷。”铁生不理菜花,手胳膊一拐,菜花一屁墩儿坐在地上。菜花急了,顺势爬起来,抱住铁生双腿,不让他走。
  • 独家幸孕:私养小妻100天

    独家幸孕:私养小妻100天

    “嫁给我吧!”男人一脸的沉迷。“要我嫁给你,你家里的那个黄脸婆,怎么办呢?”她笑得花枝乱颤。“我会跟她离婚!”他毅然坚决。第二天,他就将离婚协议书砸在了她的头上:“我们离婚!”“老公,你别不要我!”她泪眼模糊的挽留,心里却乐开了花,拿着离婚协议逃之夭夭。他是英俊多金的总裁,偏偏对她这个正牌妻子不屑一顾。殊不知,她同时扮演两个角色,在他身边玩的不亦乐乎。本以为时间一到,她便会全身而退,再也不见。“女人,你休想一走了之!”这个男人她惹不起也躲不掉!!