“What you mean is then that it’s simply impossible?”
“Oh no,” said Mamie with a qualified10 emphasis. “It’s POSSIBLE.”
“But disgustingly difficult?”
“As difficult as you like.”
“Then what can I do that I haven’t done?”
“You can only wait a little longer.”
“But that’s just what I HAVE done. I’ve done nothing else. I’m always waiting a little longer!”
Miss Cutter retained, in spite of this pathos11, her grasp of the subject. “THE thing, as I’ve told you, is for you first to be seen.”
“But if people won’t look at me?”
“They will.”
“They WILL?” Mrs. Medwin was eager.
“They shall,” her hostess went on. “It’s their only having heard — without having seen.”’
“But if they stare straight the other way?” Mrs. Medwin continued to object. “You can’t simply go up to them and twist their heads about.”
“It’s just what I can,” said Mamie Cutter.
But her charming visitor, heedless for the moment of this attenuation12, had found the way to put it. “It’s the old story. You can’t go into the water till you swim, and you can’t swim till you go into the water. I can’t be spoken to till I’m seen, but I can’t be seen till I’m spoken to.”
She met this lucidity14, Miss Cutter, with but an instant’s lapse15. “You say I can’t twist their heads about. But I HAVE twisted them.”
It had been quietly produced, but it gave her companion a jerk. “They say ‘Yes’?”
She summed it up. “All but one. SHE says ‘No.’”
Mrs. Medwin thought; then jumped. “Lady Wantridge?”
Miss Cutter, as more delicate, only bowed admission. “I shall see her either this afternoon or late to-morrow. But she has written.”
Her visitor wondered again. “May I see her letter?”
“No.” She spoke13 with decision. “But I shall square her.”
“Then how?”
“Well” — and Miss Cutter, as if looking upward for inspiration, fixed her eyes a while on the ceiling — “well, it will come to me.”
Mrs. Medwin watched her — it was impressive. “And will they come to you — the others?” This question drew out the fact that they would — so far at least as they consisted of Lady Edward, Lady Bellhouse and Mrs. Pouncer16, who had engaged to muster17, at the signal of tea, on the 14th — prepared, as it were, for the worst. There was of course always the chance that Lady Wantridge might take the field, in such force as to paralyse them, though that danger, at the same time, seemed inconsistent with her being squared. It didn’t perhaps all quite ideally hang together; but what it sufficiently18 came to was that if she was the one who could do most FOR a person in Mrs. Medwin’s position she was also the one who could do most against. It would therefore be distinctly what our friend familiarly spoke of as “collar-work.” The effect of these mixed considerations was at any rate that Mamie eventually acquiesced19 in the idea, handsomely thrown out by her client, that she should have an “advance” to go on with. Miss Cutter confessed that it seemed at times as if one scarce COULD go on; but the advance was, in spite of this delicacy20, still more delicately made — made in the form of a banknote, several sovereigns, some loose silver, and two coppers21, the whole contents of her purse, neatly22 disposed by Mrs. Medwin on one of the tiny tables. It seemed to clear the air for deeper intimacies23, the fruit of which was that Mamie, lonely after all in her crowd and always more helpful than helped, eventually brought out that the way Scott had been going on was what seemed momentarily to overshadow her own power to do so.
“I’ve had a descent from him.” But she had to explain. “My half-brother — Scott Homer. A wretch24.”
“What kind of a wretch?”
“Every kind. I lose sight of him at times — he disappears abroad. But he always turns up again, worse than ever.”
“Violent?”
“No.”
“Maudlin?”
“No.”
“Only unpleasant?”
“No. Rather pleasant. Awfully25 clever — awfully travelled and easy.”
“Then what’s the matter with him?”
Mamie mused26, hesitated — seemed to see a wide past. “I don’t know.”
“Something in the background?” Then as her friend was silent, “Something queer about cards?” Mrs. Medwin threw off.
“I don’t know — and I don’t want to!”
“Ah well, I’m sure I don’t,” Mrs. Medwin returned with spirit. The note of sharpness was perhaps also a little in the observation she made as she gathered herself to go. “Do you mind my saying something?”
Mamie took her eyes quickly from the money on the little stand. “You may say what you like.”
“I only mean that anything awkward you may have to keep out of the way does seem to make more wonderful, doesn’t it, that you should have got just where you are? I allude27, you know, to your position.”
“I see.” Miss Cutter somewhat coldly smiled. “To my power.”
“So awfully remarkable28 in an American.”
“Ah you like us so.”
Mrs. Medwin candidly29 considered. “But we don’t, dearest.”
Her companion’s smile brightened. “Then why do you come to me?”
“Oh I like YOU!” Mrs. Medwin made out.
“Then that’s it. There are no ‘Americans.’ It’s always ‘you.’”
“Me?” Mrs. Medwin looked lovely, but a little muddled30.
“ME!” Mamie Cutter laughed. “But if you like me, you dear thing, you can judge if I like YOU.” She gave her a kiss to dismiss her. “I’ll see you again when I’ve seen her.”
“Lady Wantridge? I hope so, indeed. I’ll turn up late to-morrow, if you don’t catch me first. Has it come to you yet?” the visitor, now at the door, went on.
“No; but it will. There’s time.”
“Oh a little less every day!”
Miss Cutter had approached the table and glanced again at the gold and silver and the note, not indeed absolutely overlooking the two coppers. “The balance,” she put it, “the day after?”
“That very night if you like.”
“Then count on me.”
“Oh if I didn’t —!” But the door closed on the dark idea. Yearningly31 then, and only when it had done so, Miss Cutter took up the money.
She went out with it ten minutes later, and, the calls on her time being many, remained out so long that at half-past six she hadn’t come back. At that hour, on the other hand, Scott Homer knocked at her door, where her maid, who opened it with a weak pretence32 of holding it firm, ventured to announce to him, as a lesson well learnt, that he hadn’t been expected till seven. No lesson, none the less, could prevail against his native art. He pleaded fatigue33, her, the maid’s, dreadful depressing London, and the need to curl up somewhere. If she’d just leave him quiet half an hour that old sofa upstairs would do for it; of which he took quickly such effectual possession that when five minutes later she peeped, nervous for her broken vow34, into the drawing-room, the faithless young woman found him extended at his length and peacefully asleep.
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1
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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7
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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8
omens
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| n.前兆，预兆( omen的名词复数 ) | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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12
attenuation
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| n.变薄；弄细；稀薄化；减少 | |
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13
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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14
lucidity
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| n.明朗，清晰，透明 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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16
pouncer
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| 保镖，门卫； 跳跃物； 庞然大物 | |
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muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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18
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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coppers
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| 铜( copper的名词复数 )； 铜币 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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intimacies
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| 亲密( intimacy的名词复数 )； 密切； 亲昵的言行； 性行为 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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30
muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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yearningly
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| 怀念地，思慕地，同情地； 渴 | |
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32
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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