It happened in one of those picturesque1 Danish bars that cater2 to tourists and where English is spoken. I was with my father on a business-and-pleasure trip, and in our leisure3 hours we were having a wonderful time.
“I wish Mother were here,” said I.
“If your mother had come with us,” said Father, “It would have been wonderful to show her around.”
He had visited Denmark when he was a young man. I asked him, “How long is it since you were here?”
“Oh, about thirty years. I remember being in this very inn, by the way.” He looked around, remembering. “Those were gracious4 days...” He stopped suddenly, and I saw that his face was pale. I followed his eyes and looked across the room to a woman who was setting a tray of drink before some customers. She might have been pretty once, but now she was stout5 and her hair was untidy. “Do you know her?” I asked.
“I did once,” he said.
The woman came to our table. “Drinks?” she inquired.
“We’ll have beer,” I said. She nodded and went away.
“How she has changed! Thank heaven she didn’t recognize me,” muttered6 Father, mopping7 his face with a handkerchief.
“I knew her before I met your mother,” he went on. “I was a student, on a tour. She was a lovely young thing, very graceful. I fell madly in love with her, and she with me.”
“Does Mother know about her?” I blurted out8.
“Of course,” Father said gently. He looked at me a little anxiously. I felt embarrassed for him.
I said, “Dad, you don’t have to...”
“Your mother would tell you if she were here. I don’t want you wondering about this. I was a foreigner to her family. I was dependent on my father. If she had married me, she wouldn’t have had any prospects. So her father objected to our romance. When I wrote to my father that I wanted to get married he cut off my allowance9. And I had to go home. But I met the girl once more, and told her I would return to America, borrow enough money to get married on, and come back for her in a few months.”
“We knew,” he continued, “that her father might intercept a letter, so we agreed that I would simply mail her a slip or paper with a date on it, the time she was to meet me at a certain place; then we’d get married. Well, I went home, got the loan and sent her the date. She received the note. And wrote me: ‘I’ll be there.’ But she wasn’t. Then I found that she had been married about two weeks before, to a local innkeeper. She hadn’t waited.”
Then my father said, “Thank God she didn’t. I went home, met your mother, and we’ve been completely happy. We often joke about that youthful love romance. I suggest that one day you write a story about it.”
The woman appeared with our beer.
“You are from America?” she asked me.
“Yes.” I said.
She beamed10. “A wonderful country, America.”
“Yes, a lot of your countrymen have gone there. Did you ever think of it?”
“Not me. Not now,” she said. “I thought so one time, a long time ago. But I stayed here. It’s much better here.”
We drank our beer and left. Outside I said, “Father, just how did you write that date on which she was to meet you?”
He stopped, took out an envelope and wrote on it. “Like this,” he said. “12/11/13, which was, of course, December 11, 1913.”
“No!” I exclaimed11. “It isn’t in Denmark or any European country. Over here they write the day first, then the month. So that date wouldn’t be December 11 but the 12th of November!”
Father passed his hand over his face. “So she was there!” he exclaimed, “and it was because I didn’t show up that she got married.” He was silent a while. “Well,” he said, “I hope she’s happy. She seems to be.”
As we resumed12 walking I blurted out, “It’s a lucky thing it happened that way. You wouldn’t have met Mother.”
He put his arm around my shoulders, looked at me with a heartwarming smile, and said, “I was doubly lucky, young fellow, for otherwise I wouldn’t have met you, either!”
故事发生在景色秀美的丹麦一家小酒馆里。这个小酒馆是为游客开办的，里面的人说英语。父亲带着我出门旅行，既办事也游乐。休闲的时光里，我们俩玩得都很痛快。
“我真希望妈妈也来这里。”我说。
“如果你母亲和我们一道来，”父亲说，“到这里来观光，那真是太好了。”
父亲年轻时来过丹麦。我问他：“那时离现在有多长时间了？”
“噢，大约30年了。顺便说一下，我记得当时也在这个小酒馆里。”他朝四周扫了一眼，回忆道，“那些日子，真是无忧无虑啊……”突然，他停下来不说了，我看到父亲的脸色变得苍白起来。顺着他的视线，穿过房间，我发现有个女人站在顾客面前，手里托着个饮料盘。以前她肯定是一个大美人，然而，现在，她显得有些矮胖，头发也有些零乱。“你认得她？”我问父亲。
“从前认识。”他说。
那女人来到我们这张桌子前，“来点饮料？”她问。
“给我们啤酒。”我说。她点点头，就走开了。
“她变得太厉害了！谢谢上帝，她没认出我来。”父亲喃喃说道，用手帕揩去脸上的汗珠。
“在我遇到你母亲之前，我就认识她，”他接着说道，“那时我是个学生，到这里旅游。她是一个非常可爱的姑娘，气质很好。我疯狂地爱上了她，她也爱我。”
“妈妈听说过她吗？”我脱口而出。
“当然。”父亲轻轻地说。他看看我，有些不安起来。我感到有些尴尬。
我说：“爸爸，您不该……”
“如果你母亲在此，她也会讲给你听的。我希望你不必为此感到困惑。对她的家庭而言，我是个外国人。我靠父亲养活。假如她嫁给了我，她就断送了自己的前途。因此，她的父亲反对我们恋爱。我写信给父亲，说我想和这姑娘结婚，父亲就中断了我的经济来源。于是我不得不回国。但是，我又和那姑娘见了一面，对她说，我要回美国借钱娶她，过几个月就能回来。”
“我们知道，”他继续说，“她父亲可能会截取信件，所以我们约定，我只在给她的信上写下日期，到时她就在某地与我见面，然后两人就结婚。就这样，我回到了家，贷到了款，就给她写信。她收到了我的便条。在回信中，她写道：‘我会来的。’但是她没去，后来我发现两星期之前，她已经和当地的一个酒店老板结婚了。她没有等我。”
父亲又说：“谢谢上帝，她没等我。我回家后，就遇到了你的母亲，我们生活得幸福极了。这段年轻时的浪漫故事，经常被我们拿来做笑话。我建议你往后以此为素材写一篇小说。”
那妇女端着啤酒过来了。
“你们从美国来？”她问我。
“是的。”我答道。
她听后笑了：“美国这地方很不错。”
“对，贵国有许多人去了那里。你想去美国吗？”
“我不，现在不，”她说，“过去有段时间想去，那是很早以前的事了。但我没去，这里更好。”
我们喝完啤酒，离开了小酒馆。在外面，我说：“爸爸，你要她和你见面，你是怎么写的？”
父亲停下来，拿出一个信封，在上面写起来。“就这样，”他说，“12/11/13，1913年12月11日。”
“不！”我惊叫起来，“在丹麦或任何一个欧洲国家，这种写法是不对的。他们先写几号，再写月份。所以，那日期不是12月11日，而是11月12日！”
父亲用手捂住脸，“这么说，她是去约会了！”他叫起来，“由于我没去，她才和别人结了婚。”他沉默片刻，“也好，”他说，“我祝愿她生活幸福。她好像是幸福的。”
我们又开始走路了，我冲着父亲喊道：“幸亏如此，不然的话，你就碰不到妈妈啦。”
他用手搂着我的肩膀，看着我，会心地笑了，说：“小伙子，我是加倍地幸福，否则，我也碰不到你啊！”
1. picturesque adj. 如画的，自然美的
2. cater v. 投合，迎合
3. leisure n. 空闲，悠闲
4. gracious adj. 优美的，雅致的
5. stout adj. 肥胖的
6. mutter v. 小声而含糊不清地说
7. mop v. 抹去
8. blurt v. 脱口说出，冲口说出
9. allowance n. 津贴，补贴，零用钱
10. beam v. 面露喜色，满脸堆笑
11. exclaim v. （惊奇得）大叫起来
12. resume v. （中断后）重新开始，继续