19-3-4 【英语美文】《赴爱之约》相见的考验：别只爱我的容貌 Appointment With Love

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Appointment with Love

By Sulamith Ish-Kishor

1.      Sixminutes to six, said the clock over the information booth in New York's Grand CentralStation. The tall young Army officer lifted his sunburned face and narrowed his eyes to note the exacttime. His heart was pounding with a beat that choked him. In six minutes he would see the woman who had filledsuch a special place in his life for the past 18 months, the woman he had neverseen yet whose words had sustained him unfailingly.

2.      Hewas going to hear her voice now. Four minutes to six. A girl passed closer tohim, and Lt. Blandford started. Shewas wearing a flower, but it was not the little red rose they had agreed upon.Besides, this girl was only about 18, and Hollis Meynell had told him she was30. "What of it?" he hadanswered, "I'm 32." He was 29.

3.      Hismind went back to that book - the book the Lord Himself must have put into hishands out of the hundreds of Army library books sent to the Florida trainingcamp. Throughout the book were notes in a woman's writing. He had always hatedthat writing-in-habit, but these remarks were different. He had never believedthat a woman could see into a man's heart so tenderly, so understandingly. Her name was on the bookplate: Hollis Meynell. He had gothold of a New York City telephone book and found her address. He had written,she had answered. Next day he had been shippedout, but they had gone on writing.

4.      Forthirteen months she had faithfully replied. When his letters did not arrive, she wrote anyway, and now he believedhe loved her, and she loved him. But she had refused all his pleas to send him her photograph. Shehad explained: "If your feeling for me had no reality, what I look likewon't matter. Suppose I am beautiful. I'd always be haunted that you had beentaking a chance on just that, and that kind of love would disgust me. Supposethat I'm plain, (and you must admitthat this is more likely), then I'd always fear that you were only going onwriting because you were lonely and had no one else. No, don't ask for mypicture. When you come to New York, you shall see me and then you shall makeyour own decision."

5.      Oneminute to six - Lieutenant Blandford's heart leaped higher than his plane had ever done. A young woman wascoming toward him. Her figure was long and slim; her blond hair lay back incurls from her delicate ears. Hereyes were blue as flowers, her lips and chin had a gentle firmness. In her pale green suit, she was like springtime comealive. He started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she waswearing no rose, and as he moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. "Going my way, soldier?" she murmured. Uncontrollably,he made one step closer to her. Then he saw Hollis Meynell.

6.      Shewas standing almost directly behind the girl, a woman well past 40, her greyinghair tucked under a worn hat. Shewas more than plump. Her thick-ankled feet were thrust into low-heeledshoes. But she wore a red rose on her crumpled coat. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away.

7.      Blandfordfelt as though he were being split in two, so keen was his desire to follow the girl, yet so deep was his longingfor the woman whose spirit had truly companioned and upheld his own; and thereshe stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible; he could see that now.Her grey eyes had a warm, kindly twinkle.

8.      LieutenantBlandford did not hesitate. His fingers gripped the small worn, blue leather copy of ‘Of Human Bondage’, which wasto identify him to her. This would not be love, but it would be somethingprecious, something perhaps even rarer than love - a friendship for which hehad been and must ever be grateful.

9.      He squared his broad shoulders, saluted and held the book out towardthe woman, although even while he spoke he felt shocked by the bitterness ofhis disappointment. "I'm Lieutenant John Blandford, and you - you are MissMeynell. I'm so glad you could meet me. May...may I take you to dinner?"

10.  Thewoman's face broadened in a tolerant smile. "I don't know what this is allabout, son," she answered. "That young lady in the green suit - theone who just went by - begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she saidthat if you asked me to go out with you, I should tell you that she's waitingfor you in that big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind ofa test. I've got two boys with Uncle Sam myself, so I didn't mind to oblige you."