It was so delightful that they caught each other's hands and a sudden light sprang into Sara's eyes.
"Ermie!" she said. "Let us pretend! Let us pretend it's a party! And oh, won't you invite the prisoner in the next cell?"
"Yes! Yes! Let us knock on the wall now. The jailer (看守) won't hear."
Sara went to the wall. Through it she could hear poor Becky crying more softly. She knocked four times.
"That means, 'Come to me through the secret passage under the wall,' she explained. 'I have something to communicate.'" Five quick knocks answered her.
"She is coming," she said.
Almost immediately the door of the attic opened and Becky appeared.
Her eyes were red and her cap was sliding off, and when she caught sight of Ermengarde she began to rub her face nervously with her apron.
"Don't mind me a bit, Becky!" cried Ermengarde.
"Miss Ermengarde has asked you to come in," said Sara, "because she is going to bring a box of good things up here to us."
Becky's cap almost fell off entirely, she broke in with such excitement.
"To eat, miss?" she said. "Things that's good to eat?"
"Yes," answered Sara, "and we are going to pretend a party."
"And you shall have as much as you want to eat," put in Ermengarde. "I'll go this minute!"
She was in such haste (匆忙) that as she tiptoed out of the attic she dropped her red shawl and did not know it had fallen.
No one saw it for a minute or so. Becky was too much overpowered (压倒) by the good luck which had befallen her.
"Oh, miss! oh, miss!" she gasped; "I know it was you that asked her to let me come. It-it makes me cry to think of it." And she went to Sara's side and stood and looked at her worshipingly.
But in Sara's hungry eyes the old light had begun to glow and transform her world for her.
Here in the attic-with the cold night outside-with the afternoon in the sloppy streets barely passed-with the memory of the awful (可怕的) unfed (未得到食物的) look in the beggar child's eyes not yet faded-this simple, cheerful thing had happened like a thing of magic. {1}
She caught her breath.
"Somehow, something always happens," she cried, "just before things get to the very worst. It is as if the Magic did it. If I could only just remember that always. The worst thing never quite comes." She gave Becky a little cheerful shake.
"No, no! You mustn't cry!" she said. "We must make haste and set the table."
"Set the table, miss?" said Becky, gazing round the room. "What'll we set it with?"
Sara looked round the attic, too.
"There doesn't seem to be much," she answered, half laughing.
That moment she saw something and pounced upon it. It was Ermengarde's red shawl which lay upon the floor.
"Here's the shawl," she cried. "I know she won't mind it. It will make such a nice red tablecloth (桌布)."
They pulled the old table forward, and threw the shawl over it. Red is a wonderfully kind and comfortable color. It began to make the room look furnished directly.
"How nice a red rug would look on the floor!" exclaimed Sara. "We must pretend there is one!"
Her eye swept the bare boards (地板) with a swift glance of admiration. The rug was laid down already.
"How soft and thick it is!" she said, with the little laugh which Becky knew the meaning of; and she raised and set her foot down again delicately, as if she felt something under it.
"Yes, miss," answered Becky, watching her with serious rapture (狂喜). She was always quite serious.
"What next, now?" said Sara, and she stood still and put her hands over her eyes.
"Something will come if I think and wait a little"-in a soft, expectant (期待的) voice. "The Magic will tell me."
One of her favorite fancies was that on "the outside," as she called it, thoughts were waiting for people to call them.
Becky had seen her stand and wait many a time before, and knew that in a few seconds she would uncover (发现) an enlightened (领悟的), laughing face.
In a moment she did.
"There!" she cried. "It has come! I know now! I must look among the things in the old trunk (大衣箱) I had when I was a princess."
She flew to its corner and kneeled down. It had not been put in the attic for her benefit, but because there was no room for it elsewhere.
Nothing had been left in it but rubbish. But she knew she could find something. The Magic always arranged that kind of thing in one way or another.
In a corner lay a package so insignificant-looking that it had been overlooked, and when she herself had found it she had kept it as a relic (纪念物).
It contained a dozen small white handkerchiefs. She seized them joyfully and ran to the table.
She began to arrange them upon the red table-cover, patting and coaxing them into shape with the narrow lace edge curling (卷曲) outward, her Magic working its spells for her as she did it.{2}
"These are the plates," she said. "They are golden plates. These are the richly embroidered (绣花的) napkins (纸巾). Nuns worked them in convents (女修道院) in Spain."
"Did they, miss?" breathed Becky, her very soul uplifted by the information.
"You must pretend it," said Sara. "If you pretend it enough, you will see them."
"Yes, miss," said Becky; and as Sara returned to the trunk she devoted herself to the effort of accomplishing (实现) an end so much to be desired.
Sara turned suddenly to find her standing by the table, looking very queer indeed.
She had shut her eyes, and was twisting her face in strange convulsive (抽搐的) contortions (扭曲), her hands hanging stiffly clenched (握紧) at her sides.{3}
She looked as if she was trying to lift some enormous (庞大的) weight.
"What is the matter, Becky?" Sara cried. "What are you doing?" Becky opened her eyes with a start.
"I was a-'pretendin',' miss," she answered a little sheepishly; "I was tryin' to see it like you do. I almost did," with a hopeful grin. "But it takes a lot o' stren'th."
"Perhaps it does if you are not used to it," said Sara, with friendly sympathy; "but you don't know how easy it is when you've done it often.
I wouldn't try so hard just at first. It will come to you after a while. I'll just tell you what things are. Look at these."
She held an old summer hat in her hand which she had fished out of the bottom of the trunk. There was a wreath of flowers on it. She pulled the wreath (花圈) off.
"These are garlands (花环) for the feast," she said grandly. "They fill all the air with perfume (香味). There's a mug on the wash-stand, Becky. Oh-and bring the soap dish for a centerpiece (桌面摆饰)."
Becky handed them to her reverently.
"What are they now, miss?" she inquired. "You'd think they was made of crockery-but I know they ain't."
"This is a carven flagon," said Sara, arranging tendrils (卷须) of the wreath about the mug (杯子).
"And this"-bending tenderly over the soap dish and heaping it with roses-"is purest alabaster (雪花石膏) encrusted (镶嵌) with gems (宝石)."{4}
She touched the things gently, a happy smile hovering about her lips which made her look as if she were a creature (人) in a dream.
"My, ain't it lovely!" whispered Becky.
"If we just had something for bonbon (小糖果) dishes," Sara murmured. "There!"-darting (飞奔) to the trunk again. "I remember I saw something this minute."
