“先生，现在，我们的生意越来越好了，平静地面对未来。之后，我也不确定为什么脑子里会有这样的想法，应该说，我是完全不知道为什么，我开始怀念少女时代的梦想了。只要一看见大街上载满鲜花的小卡车，我就会泪流满面。当我坐在账台背后的圈手椅上，紫罗兰的芬芳让我的心怦怦乱跳。接着，我慢慢站起来，走到门前，望着屋脊间蔚蓝的天空。当我们在街心观看天空时，天空宛如一条河流，蜿蜒地流经巴黎。空中的燕子就像河里游来游去的鱼。当然，我也知道这个年龄的人有这样的遐想是一件多么可笑的事情！但是，先生，对一个已经劳碌了一生的人而言，该怎么做才能抑制住这样的渴望呢？有时还会感觉有其他的事情可以做，然而，我也会想起一些令人后悔的事情，想一想，我本可以和其他女人一样，来到这个树林里，并与爱人亲吻。我过去经常幻想和爱人躺在着绿树丛林中恋爱，这是一件多么浪漫、多么美妙的事情啊！而且，不论是白天还是晚上，我一直遐想。我还梦想着水面上的月光，甚至想跳下去淹死自己。
“最初，我还不敢对博文先生吐露这些想法。我知道他会取笑我，并且会劝我静下心来去推销线团和缝衣针。另外，说实话，尽管博文光先生很少说，不过，当我看到镜子中自己时，也非常清楚，自己不再是那个令众人着迷的少女了。
“最终，我下定决心，提出到我们第一次相识的树林郊游。他也毫不犹豫地同意了。今天早上，我们大约9点来到这里。
“当我穿越一望无垠的麦田时，我感觉自己再次回到了年轻的时候，因为女人的心是从来不会变老的。实际上，我向你发誓，先生，当我站在那里时，我感觉身边的丈夫突然变回当年那个英俊倜傥的小伙子，这真让我着迷。我开始疯狂地亲吻他。他却感到极为震惊，仿佛我要杀了他似的。他不停地说道：‘你疯了！你怎么大清早就发疯了！发生什么事呢？'这些话我一句也没听进去，而只听自己心中的话。然后，我将他拖进树林里，亲热起来。事情就是这样，亲爱的村长先生，每一句话都是实话。”
村长也是个通情达理的人，他站起来，友善地说道：“你们安心回巴黎吧，太太！可是，下次你们拜访这个树林时，可要谨慎些，找个更隐蔽的地方”
月台的等待
Detour To Romance
佚名 / Anonymous
Located in the checkroom in Union Station as I am, I see everybody that comes up the stairs.
Harry came in a little over three years ago and waited at the head of the stairs for the passengers from the 9∶05 train.
I remember seeing Harry that first evening. He wasn't much more than a thin, anxious kid then. He was all dressed up and I knew he was meeting his girl and that they would be married twenty minutes after she arrived.
Well, the passengers came up and I had to get busy. I didn't look toward the stairs again until nearly time for the 9∶18 and I was very surprised to see that the young fellow was still there.
She didn't come on the 9∶18 either, nor on the 9∶40, and when the passengers from the 10∶02 had all arrived and left, Harry was looking pretty desperate. Pretty soon he came close to my window so I called out and asked him what she looked like.
"She's small and dark," he said, "and nineteen years old and very neat in the way she walks. She has a face," he said, thinking a minute,"that has lots of spirit. I mean she can get mad but she never stays mad for long, and her eyebrows come to a little point in the middle. She's got a brown fur, but maybe she isn't wearing it."
I couldn't remember seeing anybody like that.
He showed me the telegram he'd received: ARRIVE THURSDAY. MEET ME STATION. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. MAY. It was from Omaha, Nebraska.
"Well," I finally said, "why don't you phone to your home? She's probably called there if she got in ahead of you."
He gave me a sick look. "I've only been in town two days. We were going to meet and then drive down South where I've got a job. She hasn't any address for me." He touched the telegram.
When I came on duty the next day he was still there and came over as soon as he saw me.
"Did she work anywhere?" I asked.
He nodded. "She was a typist. I telegraphed her former boss. All they know is that she left her job to get married."
Harry met every train for the next three or four days. Of course, the railroad lines made a routine checkup and the police looked into the case. But nobody was any real help. I could see that they all figured that May had simply played a trick on him. But I never believed that, somehow.
One day, after about two weeks, Harry and I were talking and I told him about my theory. "If you'll just wait long enough," I said, "you'll see her coming up those stairs some day." He turned and looked at the stairs as though he had never seen them before.
The next day when I came to work Harry was behind the counter ofTony's magazine stand. He looked at me rather sheepishly and said, "Well, I had to get a job somewhere, didn't I ?"
So he began to work as a clerk for Tony. We never spoke of May anymore and neither of us ever mentioned my theory. But I noticed that Harry always saw every person who came up the stairs.
Toward the end of the year Tony was killed in some argument over gambling, and Tony's widow left Harry in complete charge of the magazine stand. And when she got married again some time later, Harry bought the stand from her. He borrowed money and installed a soda fountain and pretty soon he had a very nice little business.
Then came yesterday. I heard a cry and a lot of things falling. The cry was from Harry and the things falling were a lot of dolls and other things which he had upset while he was jumping over the counter. He ran across and grabbed a girl not ten feet from my window. She was small and dark and her eyebrows came to a little point in the middle.
For a while they just hung there to each other laughing and crying and saying things without meaning. She'd say a few words like, "It was the bus station I meant—" and he'd kiss her speechless and tell her the many things he had done to find her. What apparently had happened three years before was that May had come by bus, not by train, and in her telegram she meant "bus station" ,not "railroad station". She had waited at the bus station for days and had spent all her money trying to find Harry. Finally she got a job typing.
"What?" said Harry. "Have you been working in town? All the time?"
She nodded.
"Well, heavens. Didn't you ever come down here to the station?" He pointed across to his magazine stand. "I've been there all the time. I own it. I've watched everybody that came up the stairs."
She began to look a little pale. Pretty soon she looked over at the stairs and said in a weak voice, "I never came up the stairs before. You see, I went out of town yesterday on a short business trip. Oh, Harry!" Then she threw her arms around his neck and really began to cry.
After a minute she backed away and pointed very stiffly toward the north end of the station. "Harry, for three years, for three solid years, I've been right over there working right in this very station, typing, in the office of the stationmaster."
我在联合车站的行李寄存处工作，由于工作地点的关系，可以看见走上楼梯的每一个人。
3年前哈里曾来过这儿，站在楼梯口接乘坐９点05分到站的旅客。
