Work: A Story of Experience - Chapter 9

MR. POWER., ,NEXT day Christie braved the lion in his den ¹, otherwise the flinty Flint, in her second-class boarding-house, and found that alarm and remorse ² had produced a softening ³ effect upon her. She was unfeignedly glad to see her lost lodger ⁴ safe, and finding that the new friends were likely to put her in the way of paying her debts, this much harassed ⁵ matron permitted her to pack up her possessions, leaving one trunk as a sort of hostage. Then, with promises to redeem ⁶ it as soon as possible, Christie said good-bye to the little room where she had hoped and suffered, lived and labored ⁸ so long, and went joyfully ⁹ back to the humble ¹⁰ home she had found with the good laundress., ,All the following week Christie "chored round," as Mrs. Wilkins called the miscellaneous light work she let her do. Much washing, combing, and clean pinaforing of children fell to her share, and she enjoyed it amazingly; then, when the elder ones were packed off to school she lent a hand to any of the numberless tasks housewives find to do from morning till night. In the afternoon, when other work was done, and little Vic asleep or happy with her playthings, Christie clapped laces, sprinkled muslins, and picked out edgings at the great table where Mrs. Wilkins stood ironing, fluting ¹¹, and crimping till the kitchen bristled ¹² all over with immaculate frills and flounces., , ,Being women, of course they talked as industriously ¹⁵ as they worked; fingers flew and tongues clacked with equal profit and pleasure, and, by Saturday, Christie had made up her mind that Mrs. Wilkins was the most sensible woman she ever knew. Her grammar was an outrage ¹⁶ upon the memory of Lindley Murray, but the goodness of her heart would have done honor to any saint in the calendar. She was very plain, and her manners were by no means elegant, but good temper made that homely ¹⁷ face most lovable, and natural refinement ¹⁸ of soul made mere ¹⁹ external polish of small account. Her shrewd ideas and odd sayings amused Christie very much, while her good sense and bright way of looking at things did the younger woman a world of good., ,Mr. Wilkins devoted ²⁰ himself to the making of shoes and the consumption of food, with the silent regularity ²¹ of a placid ²² animal. His one dissipation was tobacco, and in a fragrant ²³ cloud of smoke he lived and moved and had his being so entirely ²⁴ that he might have been described as a pipe with a man somewhere behind it. Christie once laughingly spoke ²⁵ of this habit and declared she would try it herself if she thought it would make her as quiet and undemonstrative as Mr. Wilkins, who, to tell the truth, made no more impression on her than a fly., ,The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。,She had no remorse about what she had said.她对所说的话不后悔 。