But his mechanism2 seemed of the type that has to expand and revolve3 before sounding. “Why; the very first thing?”
She only desired, as her laugh showed, to accommodate. “Ah, have it the last if you like!”
“You see your English teas —!” he pleaded as he looked about him, so immediately and frankly4 interested in the place and its contents that his friend could only have taken this for the very glance with which he must have swept Lady Lappington’s inferior scene.
“They’re too much for you?”
“Well, they’re too many. I think I’ve had two or three on the road — at any rate my man did. I like to do business before —” But his sequence dropped as his eye caught some object across the wealth of space.
She divertedly picked it up. “Before tea, Mr. Bender?”
“Before everything, Lady Sandgate.” He was immensely genial5, but a queer, quaint6, rough-edged distinctness somehow kept it safe — for himself.
“Then you’ve come to do business?” Her appeal and her emphasis melted as into a caress7 — which, however, spent itself on his large high person as he consented, with less of demonstration8 but more of attention, to look down upon her. She could therefore but reinforce it by an intenser note. “To tell me you will treat?”
Mr. Bender had six feet of stature9 and an air as of having received benefits at the hands of fortune. Substantial, powerful, easy, he shone as with a glorious cleanness, a supplied and equipped and appointed sanity10 and security; aids to action that might have figured a pair of very ample wings — wide pinions11 for the present conveniently folded, but that he would certainly on occasion agitate12 for great efforts and spread for great flights. These things would have made him quite an admirable, even a worshipful, image of full-blown life and character, had not the affirmation and the emphasis halted in one important particular. Fortune, felicity, nature, the perverse13 or interfering14 old fairy at his cradle-side — whatever the ministering power might have been — had simply overlooked and neglected his vast wholly-shaven face, which thus showed not so much for perfunctorily scamped as for not treated, as for neither formed nor fondled nor finished, at all. Nothing seemed to have been done for it but what the razor and the sponge, the tooth-brush and the looking-glass could officiously do; it had in short resisted any possibly finer attrition at the hands of fifty years of offered experience. It had developed on the lines, if lines they could be called, of the mere15 scoured16 and polished and initialled “mug” rather than to any effect of a composed physiognomy; though we must at the same time add that its wearer carried this featureless disk as with the warranted confidence that might have attended a warning headlight or a glaring motor-lamp. The object, however one named it, showed you at least where he was, and most often that he was straight upon you. It was fearlessly and resistingly across the path of his advance that Lady Sandgate had thrown herself, and indeed with such success that he soon connected her demonstration with a particular motive17. “For your grandmother, Lady Sandgate?” he then returned.
“For my grandmother’s mother, Mr. Bender — the most beautiful woman of her time and the greatest of all Lawrences, no matter whose; as you quite acknowledged, you know, in our talk in Bruton Street.”
Mr. Bender bethought himself further — yet drawing it out; as if the familiar fact of his being “made up to” had never had such special softness and warmth of pressure. “Do you want very, very much ——?”
She had already caught him up. “‘Very, very much’ for her? Well, Mr. Bender,” she smilingly replied, “I think I should like her full value.”
“I mean”— he kindly18 discriminated19 —“do you want so badly to work her off?”
“It would be an intense convenience to me — so much so that your telegram made me at once fondly hope you’d be arriving to conclude.”
Such measure of response as he had good-naturedly given her was the mere frayed20 edge of a mastering detachment, the copious21, impatient range elsewhere of his true attention. Somehow, however, he still seemed kind even while, turning his back upon her, he moved off to look at one of the several, the famous Dedborough pictures — stray specimens22, by every presumption23, lost a little in the whole bright bigness. “‘Conclude’?” he echoed as he approached a significantly small canvas. “You ladies want to get there before the road’s so much as laid or the country’s safe! Do you know what this here is?” he at once went on.
“Oh, you can’t have that!” she cried as with full authority —“and you must really understand that you can’t have everything. You mustn’t expect to ravage24 Dedborough.”
He had his nose meanwhile close to the picture. “I guess it’s a bogus Cuyp — but I know Lord Theign has things. He won’t do business?”
“He’s not in the least, and can never be, in my tight place,” Lady Sandgate replied; “but he’s as proud as he’s kind, dear man, and as solid as he’s proud; so that if you came down under a different impression —!” Well, she could only exhale25 the folly26 of his error with an unction that represented, whatever he might think of it, all her competence27 to answer for their host.
He scarce thought of it enough, on any side, however, to be diverted from prior dispositions28. “I came on an understanding that I should find my friend Lord John, and that Lord Theign would, on his introduction, kindly let me look round. But being before lunch in Bruton Street I knocked at your door ——”
“For another look,” she quickly interposed, “at my Lawrence?”
“For another look at you, Lady Sandgate — your great-grandmother wasn’t required. Informed you were here, and struck with the coincidence of my being myself presently due,” he went on, “I despatched you my wire, on coming away, just to keep up your spirits.”
“You don’t keep them up, you depress them to anguish,” she almost passionately29 protested, “when you don’t tell me you’ll treat!”
He paused in his preoccupation, his perambulation, conscious evidently of no reluctance30 that was worth a scene with so charming and so hungry a woman. “Well, if it’s a question of your otherwise suffering torments31, may I have another interview with the old lady?”
“Dear Mr. Bender, she’s in the flower of her youth; she only yearns32 for interviews, and you may have,” Lady Sandgate earnestly declared, “as many as you like.”
“Oh, you must be there to protect me!”
“Then as soon as I return ——!”
“Well,”— it clearly cost him little to say —“I’ll come right round.”
She joyously33 registered the vow34. “Only meanwhile then, please, never a word!”
“Never a word, certainly. But where all this time,” Mr. Bender asked, “is Lord John?”
Lady Sandgate, as he spoke35, found her eyes meeting those of a young woman who, presenting herself from without, stood framed in the doorway36 to the terrace; a slight fair grave young woman, of middle, stature and simply dressed, whose brow showed clear even under the heavy shade of a large hat surmounted37 with big black bows and feathers. Her eyes had vaguely38 questioned those of her elder, who at once replied to the gentleman forming the subject of their inquiry39: “Lady Grace must know.” At this the young woman came forward, and Lady Sandgate introduced the visitor. “My dear Grace, this is Mr. Breckenridge Bender.”
The younger daughter of the house might have arrived in preoccupation, but she had urbanity to spare. “Of whom Lord John has told me,” she returned, “and whom I’m glad to see. Lord John,” she explained to his waiting friend, “is detained a moment in the park, open today to a big Temperance school-feast, where our party is mostly gathered; so that if you care to go out —!” She gave him in fine his choice.
But this was clearly a thing that, in the conditions, Mr. Bender wasn’t the man to take precipitately40; though his big useful smile disguised his prudence41. “Are there any pictures in the park?”
Lady Grace’s facial response represented less humour perhaps, but more play. “We find our park itself rather a picture.”
Mr. Bender’s own levity42 at any rate persisted. “With a big Temperance school-feast?”
“Mr. Bender’s a great judge of pictures,” Lady Sandgate said as to forestall43 any impression of excessive freedom.
“Will there be more tea?” he pursued, almost presuming on this.
It showed Lady Grace for comparatively candid44 and literal. “Oh, there’ll be plenty of tea.”
This appeared to determine Mr. Bender. “Well, Lady Grace, I’m after pictures, but I take them ‘neat.’ May I go right round here?”
“Perhaps, love,” Lady Sandgate at once said, “you’ll let me show him.”
“A moment, dear”— Lady Grace gently demurred45. “Do go round,” she conformably added to Mr. Bender; “take your ease and your time. Everything’s open and visible, and, with our whole company dispersed46, you’ll have the place to yourself.”
He rose, in his genial mass, to the opportunity. “I’ll be in clover — sure!” But present to him was the richest corner of the pasture, which he could fluently enough name. “And I’ll find ‘The Beautiful Duchess of Waterbridge’?”
She indicated, off to the right, where a stately perspective opened, the quarter of the saloon to which we have seen Mr. Banks retire. “At the very end of those rooms.”
He had wide eyes for the vista47. “About thirty in a row, hey?” And he was already off. “I’ll work right through!”
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1
explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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2
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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revolve
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| vi.(使)旋转；循环出现 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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6
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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7
caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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8
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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9
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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pinions
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| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12
agitate
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| vi.(for,against)煽动，鼓动；vt.搅动 | |
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perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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17
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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19
discriminated
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| 分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待 | |
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20
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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ravage
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| vt.使...荒废，破坏...；n.破坏，掠夺，荒废 | |
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exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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28
dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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32
yearns
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的第三人称单数 ) | |
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joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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34
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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35
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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37
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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38
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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39
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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40
precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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41
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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42
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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43
forestall
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| vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止 | |
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44
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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45
demurred
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| v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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47
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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