第四十四章　金童玉女

“岳母大人，请将我妻子借我半小时行吗？行李到了，我急着找要用的东西，把艾美从巴黎带来的衣服珠宝翻得底朝天了。”第二天，劳里进来说。他发现劳伦斯太太坐在妈妈的膝上，好像又成了宝宝。

“当然行，去吧，乖乖。我忘了，除了这个家你还有个家。”马奇太太捏了捏那戴着结婚戒指的白皙的手，仿佛为她母性的贪爱道歉。

“我要是能解决，就不会过来了。可是，没有我的小妇人没法过，就像一个——”

“没有风的风向标。”劳里沉吟找比喻的时候，乔提示道。自打特迪回来，乔恢复了冲撞无礼的老样子。

“没错。大部分时间艾美让我向正西开，只是偶尔朝南，结婚以来我还没有朝过东，北面是一无所知。但是我觉得，这样对我大有益处，所以，我乐于听命。”

“目前为止天气不错，不知道能持续多久。可我不怕风暴，我正在尝试怎样在恶劣的气候下驾驶我的船。回家吧，亲爱的，我给你找脱靴器，想必你在我的东西里翻找的就是它。妈妈，真是拿男人们没办法。”艾美带着主妇似的神气说，丈夫乐了。

“你们安定下来后，打算做些什么呢？”乔问，她在给艾美扣着斗篷扣，就像以前为她扣围裙那样。

“我们自有计划。还不打算大事张扬，刚刚成家嘛。但不打算虚度时光。我将专心经商，爷爷一定高兴。要向他证明我没被惯坏。需要这样使自己稳定下来。我厌倦了无所事事，得像男子汉那样工作。”

“艾美呢？她打算做什么？”马奇太太问。劳里说话时的坚定与活力，使她非常高兴。

“我们向四邻尽过礼仪，展示过我们最好的帽子后，将在家里广筵宾客，让上流的社交界为之注目，给我们带来良好的社会声望，到时让你们大吃一惊。就这样，是不是，雷卡米耶夫人[1]? ”劳里诡秘地看着艾美问道。

“到时就知道的。走吧，你这莽汉。别当着家人的面骂我，让他们受不了。”艾美回答。她打定主意，家里先得有个好妻子，然后她才能做社交王后，建立一个沙龙。

“这两个孩子凑在一起看上去多幸福啊！”马奇先生说。小两口走后，他发现很难再专心于他的亚里士多德了。

“是的，我看能天长地久的。”马奇太太补充道。她神色安逸，就像领航员将船安全地引入了港湾。

“我知道一定会天长地久的，幸福的艾美！”乔叹了口气。然后，随着巴尔教授急躁地推门进屋，她欢快地笑了。

晚上，劳里对脱靴器放下心了。见艾美转来转去，在摆放着她的新艺术珍品，突然，劳里对妻子说：“劳伦斯太太。”

“老爷！”

“那个人打算娶我们的乔！”

“我希望这样，你呢，亲爱的？”

“嗯，宝贝，我看他是张王牌，包含那个富有表现力的词语的全部意义。但是我真的希望他稍稍年轻些，大大富有些。”

“哎唷，劳里，别太挑剔，太世俗了。只要他们相爱，不管多老多穷，都没一点儿关系。女人们绝不能为钱嫁人——”话一出口，艾美突然噎住了，她看着丈夫，而他故作严肃地搭腔了。

“当然不能，尽管有时确实能听到迷人的姑娘说打算这样做。要是我没记错，你曾经认为嫁个富人是你的责任。也许，这能说明你为什么嫁给我这样的窝囊废。”

“哦，我最亲爱的男孩。别，别那样说！当我说‘愿意’时，忘了你是有钱人。即使你一文不名，我也嫁你的。我有时希望你穷，好表示出我多么爱你。”艾美说。在公众场合她很庄重，私下却充满柔情。她令人信服地证实了她的话的真实。

“你没有当真以为我唯利是图，像我曾试着做的那样，是不是？要是你不相信我乐意与你同舟共济，哪怕你得靠在湖上划舟谋生，那我会伤心欲绝的。”

“我是个白痴野人吗？你拒绝了一个更富裕的人而嫁给我，现在我有权给你东西，可我想给你的你一半都不让给，我怎么能那么想呢？姑娘们每天都那样想，可怜的人们，她们被谆谆教导，认为那是唯一的归宿。你受到的课程较好，尽管我一度曾为你不寒而栗。我没有失望，女儿没辜负妈妈的教诲。昨天我跟妈这样说了，她显得又高兴又感激，仿佛给了她百万元的支票，让她用来行善。劳伦斯太太，你没有在听我的道德评论？”劳里住了口。艾美眼睛虽然盯着他的脸，表情却心不在焉。

“不，听着呢，同时我在欣赏你下巴上的凹陷。我不想使你虚荣，可是我得坦白，较之丈夫的钱财，我更为他的英俊自豪。别笑，你的鼻子对我是莫大的安慰。”艾美带着艺术的满足感，轻柔地抚摸着那个轮廓优美的面庞。

劳里一生受到过许多赞美，但没有比这更合心意的。虽然他笑话妻子这种特别的趣味，但还是喜形于色。艾美慢慢说道：“可以问个问题吗，亲爱的？”

“当然可以。”

“假如乔真的嫁给了巴尔先生，你会在乎吗？”

“噢，那是烦恼所在，是不？我想到了，那凹陷上有点东西不合你的意。我可不是占着茅坑不拉屎，而是世界上最幸福的男人。我向你保证，乔的婚礼上，我会带着和步态一样轻快的心情跳舞。宝贝，你相信吗？”

艾美抬头看着他，放心了。她最后的一点忌妒与担心烟消云散了。她感谢了他，神情充满爱意与自信。

“但愿我们能为那个一等一的教授做点什么。能不能编造出个富亲戚，他知趣地死在了德国，留给他一大笔遗产？”劳里问。这时他们手挽手，开始顺着长客厅来回踱步。他们喜欢这样，来纪念城堡花园。

“乔会查明真相，把一切搞砸的。教授现在这样，乔很为他自豪的。昨天她还说，她认为贫穷是件美事。”

“上帝保佑她的善心！要是她有个学者丈夫，还有十来个男女小教授要养活，就不会这样想了。现在别插手，见机行事吧。到时我们帮帮他们，就由不得他们了。我的教育一部分得归功于乔。她相信人们应该诚实地偿还债务，所以将用那种方法说服她。”

“能够帮助别人多愉快，是不是？有能力施恩于人是我的一个梦想。多亏你，梦想实现了。”

“我们大做善事，好不好？有一种穷人，我特别愿意帮。十足的乞丐得到了照顾，可是，有身份的穷人日子难过，因为他们不求人，人们也不敢贸然施舍。然而，帮助他们的办法比比皆是，只要人们知道用计，善于行善，就不致冒犯他们。我得说，我宁愿为落泊的绅士效劳，也不愿去帮巧言哄骗的叫花子。我想这样不对。但我就是这样想，虽然更难做。”

“因为只有绅士才能做到这一点。”家庭仰慕协会的另一名成员补充道。

“谢谢，恐怕配不上那溢美之词。我正想说呢，国外闲荡时，我看到许多才子，为了梦想做出各种牺牲，忍受着艰难困苦。其中一些非常杰出，他们像英雄一样工作，饥寒交迫，无亲无友，却充满勇气、耐心、意志。我为此惭愧，很想给予适当扶助。这些人帮助起来令人快活。若是天才，得以为他们效劳，不让天才由于缺乏燃料揭不开锅而被埋没或者耽搁，是个莫大的荣幸。假如他们不是天才，也能够安慰这些可怜的人，使他们发现自己无才时能免于绝望，这总归是件乐事。”

“的确是这样。还有一种人无法求助，在默默受苦。我知道的，在这之前，我也属于那种人。是你把我变成了公主，就像老故事里国王对乞丐女那样。劳里，有抱负的姑娘日子艰难哪。常常看着青春、健康以及宝贵的机会溜过去，只是缺少适时的小小帮助。人们一直对我非常好。每当看到姑娘像我们以前那样奋力挣扎，我就想伸手相帮，就像我得到帮助一样。”

“你就去做吧，你这样的像个天使！”劳里叫道。他脸上洋溢着乐善好施的热情，决心专门为有艺术倾向的女人们设立一个机构，并带头捐赠。“富人们无权坐在那里独自享乐，或者积财去让别人浪费。死后留下遗产，不如活着时明智地花钱，享受造福同胞的乐趣更聪明。我们将过得幸福，而慷慨解囊会额外增加我们的快乐。你愿意做个小多加[2]，一路行善，分光大篮子里的安慰，再装满善行吗？”

“我真心地愿意。愿你做勇敢的圣马丁[3]，骁勇闯天下，驻步让乞丐合穿你的外套。”

“成交，我们赚了！”

于是，这对新人握手达成协议，然后又幸福地继续踱起步来。他们希望能给别的家庭带来光明，所以感到温馨的小家越发亲切了。他们相信，要是为别人踏平了崎岖之路，则自己走在繁花似锦的小路上，双脚会走得更直。相爱的心使他们能温柔地记得不如他们幸运的人们，正是这份爱使他们俩的心贴得更紧了。

* * *

[1]法国社交领袖（1777—1849）。

[2]圣经人物，广做善事的女基督徒。

[3]西方教会的倡导者。

CHAPTER 44 MY LORD AND LADY

“PLEASE, MADAM MOTHER, could you lend me my wife for half an hour? The luggage has come, and I've been making hay of Amy's Paris finery, trying to find some things I want, ” said Laurie, coming in the next day to find Mrs. Laurence sitting in her mother's lap, as if being made “the baby” again.

“Certainly. Go, dear, I forgot that you have any home but this.” And Mrs. March pressed the white hand that wore the wedding ring, as if asking pardon for her maternal covetousness.

“I shouldn't have come over if I could have helped it; but I can't get on without my little woman any more than a—”

“Weathercock can without the wind, ” suggested Jo, as he paused for a simile. Jo had grown quite her own saucy self again since Teddy came home.

“Exactly, for Amy keeps me pointing due west most of the time, with only an occasional whiffle round to the south, and I haven't had an easterly spell since I was married. Don't know anything about the north, but am altogether salubrious and balmy, hey, my lady? ”

“Lovely weather so far; I don't know how long it will last, but I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. Come home, dear, and I'll find your bootjack; I suppose that's what you are rummaging after among my things. Men are so helpless, Mother, ” said Amy, with a matronly air, which delighted her husband.

“What are you going to do with yourselves after you get settled? ”asked Jo, buttoning Amy's cloak as she used to button her pinafores.

“We have our plans. We don't mean to say much about them yet, because we are such very new brooms, but we don't intend to be idle. I'm going into business with a devotion that shall delight Grandfather, and prove to him that I'm not spoiled. I need something of the sort to keep me steady. I'm tired of dawdling, and mean to work like a man.”

“And Amy, what is she going to do? ” asked Mrs. March, well pleased at Laurie's decision and the energy with which he spoke.

“After doing the civil all round, and airing our best bonnet, we shall astonish you by the elegant hospitalities of our mansion, the brilliant society we shall draw about us, and the beneficial influence we shall exert over the world at large. That's about it, isn't it, Madame Récamier? ” asked Laurie, with a quizzical look at Amy.

“Time will show. Come away, impertinence, and don't shock my family by calling me names before their faces, ” answered Amy, resolving that there should be a home with a good wife in it before she set up a salon as a queen of society.

“How happy those children seem together! ” observed Mr. March, finding it difficult to become absorbed in his Aristotle after the young couple had gone.

“Yes, and I think it will last, ” added Mrs. March, with the restful expression of a pilot who has brought a ship safely into port.

“I know it will. Happy Amy! ” And Jo sighed, then smiled brightly as Professor Bhaer opened the gate with an impatient push.

Later in the evening, when his mind had been set at rest about the bootjack, Laurie said suddenly to his wife, “Mrs. Laurence.”

“My Lord! ”

“That man intends to marry our Jo! ”

“I hope so, don't you, dear? ”

“Well, my love, I consider him a trump, in the fullest sense of that expressive word, but I do wish he was a little younger and a good deal richer.”

“Now, Laurie, don't be too fastidious and worldly-minded. If they love one another it doesn't matter a particle how old they are nor how poor. Women never should marry for money—”Amy caught herself up short as the words escaped her, and looked at her husband, who replied, with malicious gravity—

“Certainly not, though you do hear charming girls say that they intend to do it sometimes. If my memory serves me, you once thought it your duty to make a rich match. That accounts, perhaps, for your marrying a good-for-nothing like me.”

“Oh, my dearest boy, don't, don't say that! I forgot you were rich when I said ‘Yes.' I'd have married you if you hadn't a penny, and I sometimes wish you were poor that I might show how much I love you.” And Amy, who was very dignified in public and very fond in private, gave convincing proofs of the truth of her words.

“You don't really think I am such a mercenary creature as I tried to be once, do you? It would break my heart if you didn't believe that I'd gladly pull in the same boat with you, even if you had to get your living by rowing on the lake.”

“Am I an idiot and a brute? How could I think so, when you refused a richer man for me, and won't let me give you half I want to now, when I have the right? Girls do it every day, poor things, and are taught to think it is their only salvation, but you had better lessons, and though I trembled for you at one time, I was not disappointed, for the daughter was true to the mother's teaching. I told Mamma so yesterday, and she looked as glad and grateful as if I'd given her a check for a million, to be spent in charity. You are not listening to my moral remarks, Mrs. Laurence.” And Laurie paused, for Amy's eyes had an absent look, though fixed upon his face.

“Yes, I am, and admiring the mole in your chin at the same time. I don't wish to make you vain, but I must confess that I'm prouder of my handsome husband than of all his money. Don't laugh, but your nose is such a comfort to me.”And Amy softly caressed the well-cut feature with artistic satisfaction.

Laurie had received many compliments in his life, but never one that suited him better, as he plainly showed though he did laugh at his wife's peculiar taste, while she said slowly, “May I ask you a question, dear? ”

“Of course, you may.”

“Shall you care if Jo does marry Mr. Bhaer? ”

“Oh, that's the trouble, is it? I thought there was something in the dimple that didn't quite suit you. Not being a dog in the manger, but the happiest fellow alive, I assure you I can dance at Jo's wedding with a heart as light as my heels. Do you doubt it, my darling? ”

Amy looked up at him, and was satisfied. Her little jealous fear vanished forever, and she thanked him, with a face full of love and confidence.

“I wish we could do something for that capital old Professor. Couldn't we invent a rich relation, who shall obligingly die out there in Germany, and leave him a tidy little fortune? ” said Laurie, when they began to pace up and down the long drawing room, arm in arm, as they were fond of doing, in memory of the château garden.

“Jo would find us out, and spoil it all. She is very proud of him, just as he is, and said yesterday that she thought poverty was a beautiful thing.”

“Bless her dear heart! She won't think so when she has a literary husband, and a dozen little professors and professorins to support. We won't interfere now, but watch our chance, and do them a good turn in spite of themselves. I owe Jo for a part of my education, and she believes in people's paying their honest debts, so I'll get round her in that way.”

“How delightful it is to be able to help others, isn't it? That was always one of my dreams, to have the power of giving freely, and, thanks to you, the dream has come true.”

“Ah, we'll do quantities of good, won't we? There's one sort of poverty that I particularly like to help. Out-and-out beggars get taken care of, but poor gentle folks fare badly, because they won't ask, and people don't dare to offer charity; yet there are a thousand ways of helping them, if one only knows how to do it so delicately that it does not offend. I must say, I like to serve a decayed gentleman better than a blarnerying beggar; I suppose it's wrong, but I do, though it is harder.”

“Because it takes a gentleman to do it, ” added the other member of the domestic admiration society.

“Thank you, I'm afraid I don't deserve that pretty compliment. But I was going to say that while I was dawdling about abroad, I saw a good many talented young fellows making all sorts of sacrifices, and enduring real hardships, that they might realize their dreams. Splendid fellows, some of them, working like heros, poor and friendless, but so full of courage, patience, and ambition that I was ashamed of myself, and longed to give them a right good lift. Those are people whom it's a satisfaction to help, for if they've got genius, it's an honor to be allowed to serve them, and not let it be lost or delayed for want of fuel to keep the pot boiling; if they haven't, it's a pleasure to comfort the poor souls, and keep them from despair when they find it out.”

“Yes, indeed, and there's another class who can't ask, and who suffer in silence. I know something of it, for I belonged to it before you made a princess of me, as the king does the beggarmaid in the old story. Ambitious girls have a hard time, Laurie, and often have to see youth, health, and precious opportunities go by, just for want of a little help at the right minute. People have been very kind to me; and whenever I see girls struggling along, as we used to do, I want to put out my hand and help them, as I was helped.”

“And so you shall, like an angel as you are! ” cried Laurie, resolving, with a glow of philanthropic zeal, to found and endow an institution for the express benefit of young women with artistic tendencies. “Rich people have no right to sit down and enjoy themselves, or let their money accumulate for others to waste. It's not half so sensible to leave legacies when one dies as it is to use the money wisely while alive, and enjoy making one's fellow creatures happy with it. We'll have a good time ourselves, and add an extra relish to our own pleasure by giving other people a generous taste. Will you be a little Dorcas, going about emptying a big basket of comforts, and filling it up with good deeds? ”

“With all my heart, if you will be a brave St. Martin, stopping as you ride gallantly through the world to share your cloak with the beggar.”

“It's a bargain, and we shall get the best of it! ”

So the young pair shook hands upon it, and then paced happily on again, feeling that their pleasant home was more homelike because they hoped to brighten other homes, believing that their own feet would walk more uprightly along the flowery path before them, if they smoothed rough ways for other feet, and feeling that their hearts were more closely knit together by a love which could tenderly remember those less blest than they.