True, she had recovered very rapidly, in spite of the peculiar5 treatment she was given. The Lovells, as every one knew, couldn’t afford to send her to Italy; the previous experiment in Georgia had been unsuccessful; and so she was packed off to a farm-house on the Hudson — a little place on the James Ralston’s property — where she lived for five or six years with an Irish servant-woman and a foundling baby. The story of the foundling was another queer episode in Charlotte’s history. From the time of her first illness, when she was only twenty-two or three, she had developed an almost morbid6 tenderness for children, especially for the children of the poor. It was said — Dr. Lanskell was understood to have said — that the baffled instinct of motherhood was peculiarly intense in cases where lung-disease prevented marriage. And so, when it was decided7 that Chatty must break her engagement to Joe Ralston and go to live in the country, the doctor had told her family that the only hope of saving her lay in not separating her entirely8 from her pauper9 children, but in letting her choose one of them, the youngest and most pitiable, and devote herself to its care. So the James Ralstons had lent her their little farm-house, and Mrs. Jim, with her extraordinary gift of taking things in at a glance, had at once arranged everything, and even pledged herself to look after the baby if Charlotte died.
Charlotte did not die. She lived to grow robust10 and middle aged11, energetic and even tyrannical. And as the transformation12 in her character took place she became more and more like the typical old maid: precise, methodical, absorbed in trifles, and attaching an exaggerated importance to the smallest social and domestic observances. Such was her reputation as a vigilant13 house-wife that, when poor Jim Ralston was killed by a fall from his horse, and left Delia, still young, with a boy and girl to bring up, it seemed perfectly14 natural that the heart-broken widow should take her cousin to live with her and share her task. But Delia Ralston never did things quite like other people. When she took Charlotte she took Charlotte’s foundling too: a dark-haired child with pale brown eyes, and the odd incisive15 manner of children who have lived too much with their elders. The little girl was called Tina Lovell: it was vaguely16 supposed that Charlotte had adopted her. She grew up on terms of affectionate equality with her young Ralston cousins, and almost as much so — it might be said — with the two women who mothered her. But, impelled17 by an instinct of imitation which no one took the trouble to correct, she always called Delia Ralston “Mamma,” and Charlotte Lovell “Aunt Chatty.” She was a brilliant and engaging creature, and people marvelled18 at poor Chatty’s luck in having chosen so interesting a specimen19 among her foundlings (for she was by this time supposed to have had a whole asylum-full to choose from).
The agreeable elderly bachelor, Sillerton Jackson, returning from a prolonged sojourn20 in Paris (where he was understood to have been made much of by the highest personages) was immensely struck by Tina’s charms when he saw her at her coming-out ball, and asked Delia’s permission to come some evening and dine alone with her and her young people. He complimented the widow on the rosy21 beauty of her own young Delia; but the mother’s keen eye perceived that all the while he was watching Tina, and after dinner he confided22 to the older ladies that there was something “very French” in the girl’s way of doing her hair, and that in the capital of all the Elegances23 she would have been pronounced extremely stylish24.
“Oh — ” Delia deprecated, beamingly, while Charlotte Lovell sat bent25 over her work with pinched lips; but Tina, who had been laughing with her cousins at the other end of the room was around upon her elders in a flash.
“I heard what Mr. Sillerton said! Yes, I did, Mamma: he says I do my hair stylishly26. Didn’t I always tell you so? I KNOW it’s more becoming to let it curl as it wants to than to plaster it down with bandoline like Aunty’s — ”
“Tina, Tina — you always think people are admiring you!” Miss Lovell protested.
“Why shouldn’t I, when they do?” the girl laughingly challenged; and, turning her mocking eyes on Sillerton Jackson: “Do tell Aunt Charlotte not to be so dreadfully old-maidish!”
Delia saw the blood rise to Charlotte Lovell’s face. It no longer painted two brick-rose circles on her thin cheek-bones, but diffused27 a harsh flush over her whole countenance28, from the collar fastened with an old-fashioned garnet brooch to the pepper-and-salt hair (with no trace of red left in it) flattened29 down over her hollow temples.
That evening, when they went up to bed, Delia called Tina into her room.
“You ought not to speak to your Aunt Charlotte as you did this evening, dear. It’s disrespectful — you must see that it hurts her.”
The girl overflowed30 with compunction. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Because I said she was an old maid? But she IS, isn’t she, Mamma? In her inmost soul, I mean. I don’t believe she’s ever been young — ever thought of fun or admiration31 or falling in love — do you? That’s why she never understands me, and you always do, you darling dear Mamma.” With one of her light movements, Tina was in the widow’s arms.
“Child, child,” Delia softly scolded, kissing the dark curls planted in five points on the girl’s forehead.
There was a soft foot-fall in the passage, and Charlotte Lovell stood in the door. Delia, without moving, sent her a glance of welcome over Tina’s shoulder.
“Come in, Charlotte. I’m scolding Tina for behaving like a spoilt baby before Sillerton Jackson. What will he think of her?”
“Just what she deserves, probably,” Charlotte returned with a cold smile. Tina went toward her, and her thin lips touched the girl’s proffered32 forehead just where Delia’s warm kiss had rested. “Good-night, child,” she said in her dry tone of dismissal.
The door closed on the two women, and Delia signed to Charlotte to take the armchair opposite to her own.
“Not so near the fire,” Miss Lovell answered. She chose a straight-backed seat, and sat down with folded hands. Delia’s eyes rested absently on the thin ringless fingers: she wondered why Charlotte never wore her mother’s jewels.
“I overheard what you were saying to Tina, Delia. You were scolding her because she called me an old maid.”
It was Delia’s turn to colour. “I scolded her for being disrespectful, dear; if you heard what I said you can’t think that I was too severe.”
“Not too severe: no. I’ve never thought you too severe with Tina; on the contrary.”
“You think I spoil her?”
“Sometimes.”
Delia felt an unreasoning resentment33. “What was it I said that you object to?”
Charlotte returned her glance steadily34. “I would rather she thought me an old maid than — ”
“Oh — ” Delia murmured. With one of her quick leaps of intuition she had entered into the other’s soul, and once more measured its shuddering35 loneliness.
“What else,” Charlotte inexorably pursued, “CAN she possibly be allowed to think me — ever?”
“I see . . . I see . . . ” the widow faltered36.
“A ridiculous narrow-minded old maid — nothing else,” Charlotte Lovell insisted, getting to her feet, “or I shall never feel safe with her.”
“Goodnight, my dear,” Delia said compassionately37. There were moments when she almost hated Charlotte for being Tina’s mother, and others, such as this, when her heart was wrung38 by the tragic39 spectacle of that unavowed bond.
Charlotte seemed to have divined her thought.
“Oh, but don’t pity me! She’s mine,” she murmured, going.
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1
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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prim
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| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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7
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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8
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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pauper
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| n.贫民，被救济者，穷人 | |
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10
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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13
vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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14
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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15
incisive
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| adj.敏锐的，机敏的，锋利的，切入的 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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17
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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22
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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23
elegances
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| n.高雅( elegance的名词复数 )；（举止、服饰、风格等的）优雅；精致物品；（思考等的）简洁 | |
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24
stylish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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stylishly
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| adv.时髦地，新式地 | |
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27
diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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28
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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30
overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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32
proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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34
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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35
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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36
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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37
compassionately
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| adv.表示怜悯地，有同情心地 | |
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38
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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39
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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