Nor had it been particularly reassuring4 to see Marjorie Dean, Doris Monroe, Muriel Harding and Miss Remson firmly entrenched5 against them. While they counted as the majority at the Hall the Bertram girls and the post graduates were powers on the campus. At first Julia’s and Mildred’s strenuous6 objections to Leslie had made an impression upon their housemates. Dulcie Vale’s despicable communication had bolstered7 their disapproval only at the time of hearing. Later, in thinking it over and talking together about it, the more serious element of the girls had cherished doubts as to its entire veracity8. It was Julia’s stanchest supporters 202who had started the objection when the four girls and Miss Remson had walked in upon their meeting. In the end even they had come shame-faced to a more charitable view of matters.
Doris had been touched to learn from Miss Remson that on the day of the meeting Clara Carter had come to her and asked to be permitted to strike her name from the petition. Meeting Clara face to face on the campus the day following the meeting Doris had shaken hands with the red-haired girl and invited her to dinner at Baretti’s. Clara had accepted with surprised joy and had agreeably surprised Doris by her avoidance of personal gossip. Of Julia she said nothing. Nor did Doris mention Julia’s name.
At Hamilton Arms Marjorie was beginning to look forward to the fruits of her planting. February was a triumphal month to her because toward the latter part of it she completed the biography of Brooke Hamilton. On the third Sunday in February she had completed her work except for a last paragraph which she had purposely left to be written on a special occasion. That Sunday having been chosen as the special occasion the original Travelers came to Hamilton Arms to spend the afternoon and evening. At five o’clock, the hour when Brooke Hamilton had welcomed tea in his workshop, a reverent9 little company gathered in the study. There, Marjorie, surrounded by her friends composed the final paragraph and triumphantly10 wrote 203“The End” at the bottom of the last page of manuscript. Then in turn the girls recited the Brooke Hamilton maxims11 and Miss Susanna read a prayer, a translation from the German, of which Brooke Hamilton had been fond. As a last tribute to him they had lifted up their fresh young voices in the Hymn12 to Hamilton, filling the departed founder’s workshop with melody while he appeared to smile contentedly13 down from the wall at the sweet-voiced singers.
The manuscript for the biography was to be placed in the hands of a New York publisher. Marjorie’s color deepened every time she happened to recall the fact that when the biography should have been published she would then be Marjorie Dean Macy.
“It is a relief to know the biography is done,” she said to Miss Susanna on the morning after she had completed it in the presence of her intimates. “There are so many other things to think of. Next week the dormitory will be ready for the furniture. Then will come the dedication14 of it. After that will be the library dedication. Then we must have a house warming. It will take two weeks to place the furniture, and one week to celebrate. There are three whole weeks of March gone and from that on you know how it will be. Captain will be here, and I’ll have to resign myself to innumerable fittings. Oh, dear!” Marjorie’s sunny smile accompanied the half rueful exclamation15.
204“You are a much harrassed person.” Miss Susanna’s sympathy was too dry to be genuine. She smiled her crinkly smile at Marjorie and said: “Are you going to be very busy this morning. Marvelous Manager?”
“Very. I have an engagement with Miss Susanna Hamilton to do whatever she would like to have me do.” Marjorie rose from where she had been sitting at the study table writing to her Captain and crossed to the small, bright-eyed figure in the doorway16. She offered Miss Susanna both hands with the pretty impulsiveness17 that was one of her charms.
“Come then.” Miss Susanna took Marjorie by the arm and began walking her gently down the long hall and toward her own spacious18, airy bed room. It was a beautiful room with a big sunny bow window and handsome old-fashioned furnishings. There was a canopied19 four poster bed, high-backed mahogany chairs, with a highboy and immense dresser to match. A gate-legged table, high desk and several other notable antiques made up a collection which a dealer20 in antiques would have regarded with envious21 eyes.
From girlhood it had been Miss Susanna’s room, and she had never allowed any change to be made in it from the way in which she had found it when she came to Hamilton Arms to live with her distinguished22 kinsman23.
As she stepped over the threshold of her girlhood sanctum, clinging to Marjorie’s arm, she steered24 the 205young girl across the room and brought her to a forced, playful halt before a very large black teakwood chest. It was purely25 Chinese in character, the lid being decorated with an intricate gold pattern, the spiral complicated curves of which emanated26 from the wide-open jaws27 of a gold dragon.
Marjorie had always greatly admired the chest. Once she had asked Miss Susanna if it had not been brought from China by Brooke Hamilton. The old lady had replied “Yes, my dear,” with a peculiar28 brevity which Marjorie had early learned to recognize as a sign that Miss Hamilton preferred to close the subject before it had hardly been broached29.
“I brought you here with me this morning, dear child, to show you something that belongs to the long ago. It’s something I’ve often debated letting you see. I have decided30 as many times against it as for it. But after I knew that you were going to put a cranky old person named Hamilton in the seventh heaven of delight by getting married at the Arms, I knew I should show you this chest, and what’s in it, and tell you the history of it. This is only for you, Marjorie. But you may tell your Captain, and Hal, for you must never have secrets from either your mother, or your husband.”
“Then Mystified Manager said to Goldendede, the keeper of the castle, ‘I will obey you in all things, Goldendede, for I know you to be a wise woman.’” Marjorie laughingly improvised31. “That’s the way 206I feel. The enchantment32 of the castle hangs over me, and I am on the way to marvelous revelations.”
“Marvelous? I don’t know.” The old lady’s head tilted33 to its bird-like angle. “I believe the only marvelous part is that I did not get married. Now perhaps you can guess what’s in that chest.” She eyed Marjorie shrewdly.
“Miss Susanna!” Light had suddenly dawned upon Marjorie. “You mean—” She stopped, then cried: “Was that chest your hope—”
“It was,” came the crisp response. “In it is my wedding dress.” She threw back the lid as she spoke34, then removed a white linen35 cover arranged over the contents of the chest as a protection.
Marjorie gasped36 in girl admiration37 as she caught sight of fold upon fold of heavy pearl-seeded white satin. “Oh!” she exhaled38 rapturously. “How beautiful!”
Miss Susanna lifted the billows of satin from the box. “I’ll lay out the dress on my bed.” She gathered the creamy folds in her arms and trotted39 over to her bed. Looking in the box, Marjorie saw a teakwood tray that extended across the box. In it were a pair of long white gloves, a pair of the most exquisitely40 embroidered42 white silk stockings she had ever seen and an underslip of thin white Chinese silk embroidered in a pattern of orange blossoms. The stockings also bore the same pattern embroidered in a straight strip up and down the fronts.
207“Bring over the accessories which I didn’t need, child,” Miss Susanna directed, matter-of-fact in the midst of reminders43 of her own romance.
Marjorie gathered up the lovely things and carried them over to the bed. As Miss Susanna had already walked toward the chest Marjorie laid the dainty articles of the bridal outfit44 reverently45 upon the snowy expanse of linen spread.
While she was engaged in the pleasant yet half sad task, Miss Susanna returned to her side. Her eyes directed toward the wedding gown, which was a dream of loveliness, she suddenly felt something falling down over her head and face in misty46, transparent47 folds. She cried out and looked through the delicate transparency to see Miss Susanna smiling at her with untold48 tenderness.
“It was to have been my wedding veil, Marjorie. I wish it to be yours. Come over to the mirror and let me drape it on you. You are not much taller than I. Thank fortune this veil is yards and yards in length and width. The present-day veils are so very voluminous.”
“This veil is a poem, Goldendede,” Marjorie declared fervently49; “a poem in pearls, mist and orange blossoms. Surely, there was never its equal on land or sea!”
She had obediently moved to the great oval mirror of the dresser, standing slim and lovely in her white lawn morning gown. Over her head and flowing down to her feet and far beyond them was 208the exquisite41 veil of finest Brussels net, outlined with pearls and caught up here and there with sprays of creamy satin orange blossoms which closely resembled the natural blossoms. The dainty bridal cap formed by the gathering50 together of the veil was banded with pearls and orange blossoms. Squarely in front and slightly below the pearl band was a star of matched pearls.
“Can this be I?” Marjorie cried jokingly, yet half embarrassed. The mirror told her the story of her own beauty so clearly she felt an unbidden desire to cry over the fact that she was beautiful in the marvelous veil. “Where did it come from, Goldendede?” she asked wonderingly. “It’s not that I am beautiful. It’s the veil. It could transform the plainest person from positive homeliness51 to beauty.”
“It would go a long way toward it,” Miss Susanna smiled indulgently at the enchanting52 vision before the mirror. “Still, I must say that I never looked as you do in it, child. And I was a fairly pretty girl, too. Uncle Brooke and I made a voyage to Europe on purpose to order my trousseau. He bought the most expensive piece of net for sale in Brussels. We took it to Paris and had the veil made there with the rest of the trousseau. That is the history of it.”
The old lady stood back to view the effect of the veil upon Marjorie, an absent, meditative53 look in her bright eyes.
209“The days that followed the breaking of my engagement with Gray were hard; hard indeed,” she continued. “His name was Grayson Landor. He was very good-looking. But he did not love me; nor I him. He knew it when he proposed marriage to me. I did not know until after I had steeled myself against seeing him. He was unworthy, child; utterly54 unworthy. He was in love with a poor young girl, really in love with her, yet he was content to forsake55 her and marry me for my money, and because I was a Hamilton. I am glad I found him out in time. I realize more and more that I was chosen to carry on Uncle Brooke’s plans, and alone. I regret the years I lost through Alec Carden’s interference.”
The mistress of the Arms sat down on the edge of a chair and folded her hands together. “Yes; I lost so much time,” she said musingly56, almost as though she had forgotten Marjorie’s presence.
“Why did I name you Goldendede?” Marjorie demanded with severity. “What about the dormitory site, and the Brooke Hamilton Library and the biography, and your general generousness to Hamilton? Even when you felt resentment57 against Hamilton you tried to carry out his wishes so far as the business part of the college was concerned. Many persons placed in the same circumstances would have refused to continue the endowment which Mr. Brooke made Hamilton, but subject to your 210approval after his death. You were truly chosen to carry out his plans. I always feel that somewhere in eternity58 Mr. Brooke knows and is glad.”
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1
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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3
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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7
bolstered
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| v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助 | |
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8
veracity
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| n.诚实 | |
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reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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11
maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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12
hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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14
dedication
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| n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞 | |
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15
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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16
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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17
impulsiveness
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| n.冲动 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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canopied
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| adj. 遮有天篷的 | |
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20
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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envious
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| adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的 | |
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22
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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23
kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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25
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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26
emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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27
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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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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29
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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30
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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31
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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32
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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33
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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34
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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35
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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36
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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37
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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38
exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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39
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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40
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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41
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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42
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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43
reminders
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| n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信 | |
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44
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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45
reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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46
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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47
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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48
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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49
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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50
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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51
homeliness
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| n.简朴，朴实；相貌平平 | |
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52
enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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53
meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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54
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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55
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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56
musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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57
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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58
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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