"Шервуд Андерсен. Белый бедняк (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

on a little porch before the house, she came to join him, and sat looking
at him with a peculiarly detached and interested air. She tried to make
talk, but Hugh answered all her advances so briefly and with such a half
frightened manner that she gave up the attempt. One Saturday evening when
her sweetheart had come she took him for a ride in the family carriage, and
Hugh concealed himself in the hay loft of the barn to wait for their
return.

Hugh had never seen or heard a man express in any way his affection for a
woman. It seemed to him a terrifically heroic thing to do and he hoped by
concealing himself in the barn to see it done. It was a bright moonlight
night and he waited until nearly eleven o'clock before the lovers returned.
In the hayloft there was an opening high up under the roof. Because of his
great height he could reach and pull himself up, and when he had done so,
found a footing on one of the beams that formed the framework of the barn.
The lovers stood unhitching the horse in the barnyard below. When the city
man had led the horse into the stable he hurried quickly out again and went
with the farmer's daughter along a path toward the house. The two people
laughed and pulled at each other like children. They grew silent and when
they had come near the house, stopped by a tree to embrace. Hugh saw the
man take the woman into his arms and hold her tightly against his body.
He was so excited that he nearly fell off the beam. His imagination was
inflamed and he tried to picture himself in the position of the young
city man. His fingers gripped the boards to which he clung and his body
trembled. The two figures standing in the dim light by the tree became
one. For a long time they clung tightly to each other and then drew apart.
They went into the house and Hugh climbed down from his place on the beam
and lay in the hay. His body shook as with a chill and he was half ill of
jealousy, anger, and an overpowering sense of defeat. It did not seem to
him at the moment that it was worth while for him to go further east or to
try to find a place where he would be able to mingle freely with men and
women, or where such a wonderful thing as had happened to the man in the
barnyard below might happen to him.

Hugh spent the night in the hayloft and at daylight crept out and went into
a nearby town. He returned to the farmhouse late on Monday when he was sure
the city man had gone away. In spite of the protest of the farmer he packed
his clothes at once and declared his intention of leaving. He did not wait
for the evening meal but hurried out of the house. When he got into the
road and had started to walk away, he looked back and saw the daughter of
the house standing at an open door and looking at him. Shame for what he
had done on the night before swept over him. For a moment he stared at
the woman who, with an intense, interested air stared back at him, and
then putting down his head he hurried away. The woman watched him out of
sight and later, when her father stormed about the house, blaming Hugh
for leaving so suddenly and declaring the tall Missourian was no doubt a
drunkard who wanted to go off on a drunk, she had nothing to say. In her
own heart she knew what was the matter with her father's farm hand and was
sorry he had gone before she had more completely exercised her power over
him.