Half A Sheet of Foolscap(《半张纸》英文版).docVIP

HALF A SHEET OF FOOLSCAP by: August Strindberg (1849-1912) The following story is reprinted from In Midsummer Days and Other Tales. Trans. Ellie Schleussner. New York:?McBride, Nast ?Co., 1913. The last furniture van had left; the tenant, a young man with a crape band round his hat, walked for the last time through the empty rooms to make sure that nothing had been left behind. No, nothing had been forgotten, nothing at all. He went out into the front hall, firmly determined never to think again of all that had happened to him in these rooms. And all at once his eyes fell on half a sheet of foolscap, which somehow had got wedged between the wall and the telephone; the paper was covered with writing, evidently the writing of more persons than one. Some of the entries were written quite legibly with pen and ink, while others were scribbled with a lead-pencil; here and there even a red pencil had been used. It was a record of everything that had happened to him in the short period of two years; all these things, which he had made up his mind to forget, were noted down. It was a slice of a human life on half a sheet of foolscap. He detached the paper; it was a piece of scribbling paper, yellow and shining like the sun. He put it on the mantelpiece in the drawing-room and glanced at it. Heading the list was a womans name: Alice, the most beautiful name in the world, as it had seemed to him then, for it was the name of his fiancée. Next to the name was a number, 15,11. It looked like the number of a hymn, on the hymn-board. Underneath was written Bank. That was where his work lay, his sacred work to which he owed bread, home, and wife--the foundations of life. But a pen had been drawn through the word, for the Bank had failed, and although he had eventually found another berth, it was not until after a short period of anxiety and uneasiness. The next entries were: Flower-shop and livery-stable. They related to his betrothal, when he had plenty of money in his pockets. The