“I did not know it was so pretty,” she said. “I believe we shall enjoy ourselves, Georgie.”
Georgie was enraptured4. Everything pleased her. The sea, the beach, the sky, the quaint5, white cottages, the bare-legged children, the old Welsh women in their steeple hats and woollen petticoats. The up-hill streets of the village were delightful6; the little bandbox of a railway station was incomparable. She had been rather pale and tired during the journey, but as soon as she set her feet upon the platform at Pen’yllan, her pallor and fatigue7 disappeared. The 97 fresh breeze from the sea tinged8 her cheeks, and made her eyes sparkle, and she was in the best of good spirits.
“I never saw such a dear little place in my life,” she said, delightedly. “Enjoy ourselves, Lisbeth? Why, as you know, I feel just as I used to when we were all children, and went to the sea-side with mamma and the nurses, and dug caves in the sand with wooden spades, and built forts, and looked for shells. I am going to make friends with those little urchins9 on the beach to-morrow, and ask them to play with me.”
Behold10 the Tregarthyn household, arrayed in all its modest splendor11, when the carriage drove up to the garden gate. Behold the neatest of young handmaidens, brisk and blue-eyed, and the smallest of pages standing12 ready to assist with the boxes, and admire the young ladies with an exceeding admiration13. Behold, also, the three Misses Tregarthyn, in the trimmest of “company” dresses, and in such a state of affectionate tremor14 and excitement, that they kissed their dear Lisbeth on the tip of the nose by one consent, instead of bestowing15 their delighted caresses16 upon her lips.
“So very happy to see you, my love,” said Miss Clarissa, squeezing Georgie’s hand, as she 98 led the way into the parlor17. “Our dear Lisbeth’s friend, I hope you are not tired, and that you left your mamma and papa quite well. Our dear Lisbeth is so tenderly attached to your mamma and papa, that if such a thing were possible, we should be quite jealous.”
“They are quite as much attached to her, I can assure you,” answered Georgie, in her pretty, earnest way. “Indeed, we all are, Miss Clarissa. Everybody is fond of Lisbeth.” And thereby18 rendered her position as a favorite secure at once.
Indeed, she found her way to the heart of the spinster household in an incredibly short space of time. Miss Millicent, and Miss Hetty, and Miss Clarissa were charmed with her. Her pretty face and figure, her girlish gayety, her readiness to admire and enjoy everything, were attractions enough to enchant19 any spinster trio, even if she had not possessed20 that still greater charm of being Lisbeth’s dearest friend.
The two girls shared Lisbeth’s old room together; a cool nest of a place, with white draperies, and quaint ornaments21, and all the child Lisbeth’s treasures, of land and sea, still kept in their original places.
“It looks exactly as it did when I went away with Mrs. Despard,” said Lisbeth, glancing 99 round, with a sigh, which meant she scarce knew what. “I gathered that sea-weed when I was fourteen, and I was always engaged in difficulties with the cooks, because I would bring in more shells than I wanted, and leave piles of them in the kitchen. Aunt Clarissa sent one woman away because we had a row, and she said I was ‘a imperent young minx, allus litterin’ the place with my rubbidge.’ How the dear old souls did spoil me. If I had brought a whale into the drawing-room, they would have regretted, but never resented it. I had my own way often enough when I ought to have had my ears boxed.”
“You must have been very happy in their loving you so,” said Georgie, who had drawn22 a low wicker chair to the open window, and was enjoying the moonlight and the sea.
“You would have been,” returned Lisbeth, drawing up chair number two. “And you would have behaved yourself better than I did. I was an ill-conditioned young person, even in those days.”
They were both silent for a while after this. There was a lovely view from the window, and all was so still that neither cared to stir for a few moments. Then the thoughtfulness on Georgie’s face attracted Lisbeth’s attention. 100
“I should like to know,” she said, “what you are thinking about?”
The girl drew a positively23 ecstatic little sigh.
“I was thinking how sweet and quiet everything looked,” she said, innocently; “and how much happier I am.”
“Happier?” exclaimed Lisbeth. “When were you unhappy, Georgie?”
The surprise in her tone brought Georgie to a recognition of what her words had unconsciously implied. She found herself blushing, and wondering at her own simplicity24. She had not meant to say so much. She could not comprehend why she should have said anything of that kind at all.
“It is strange enough to hear that you can be made happier than you always seem to be,” said Lisbeth. “You speak as if—” And then, her quick eye taking in the girl’s trepidation25, she stopped short. “You never had a trouble, Georgie?” she added, in a voice very few of her friends would have known; it was so soft.
“No,” said Georgie. “Oh, no, Lisbeth! Not a trouble, exactly; not a trouble at all, indeed; only—” And suddenly she turned her bright, appealing eyes to Lisbeth’s face. “I don’t know why I said it,” she said. “It was nothing real, Lisbeth, or else I am sure 101 you would have known. But it—Well, I might have had a trouble, and I was saved from it, and I am glad, and—thankful.” And, to Miss Crespigny’s surprise, she bent26 forward, and kissed her softly on the cheek.
Lisbeth asked her no questions. She was not fond of asking questions, and she was a young person of delicacy27 and tact28, when she was in an affectionate mood. She was too partial to Georgie to wish to force her into telling her little secrets. But a certain thought flashed through her mind, as she sat with her eyes resting on the sea.
“She is the sort of girl,” she said, sharply, to herself, “who would be likely to have no trouble but a love trouble. Who has been making love to her, or rather, who, among all her admirers, would be likely to touch her heart?”
But this mental problem was by no means easy to solve. There were so many men who admired Georgie Esmond, and such a large proportion of them were men whom any girl might have loved.
It was one of Lisbeth’s chief wonders, that Georgie, who was so soft of heart, and ready with affection, should have held her own so long against so agreeable a multitude of adorers. 102 Certainly, if she had lived through any little romance, she had kept her secret well. She did not look like a love-lorn young lady when she came down, the next morning, fresh and rosy29, and prepared to explore Pen’yllan in all its fastnesses. It was exhilarating to see her; and the Misses Tregarthyn were delighted beyond bounds. She made a pilgrimage through half the up-and-down-hill little streets in the village, and, before dinner, had managed to drag Lisbeth a mile along the shore, against a stiff breeze, which blew their long, loose hair about, and tinted30 their cheeks brilliantly. Lisbeth followed her with an amused wonder at her enthusiasm, mingled31 with discontent at her own indifference32. It was she who ought to have been in raptures33, and she was not in raptures at all. Had she no natural feeling whatever? Any other woman would have felt a sentimental34 tenderness for the place which had been her earliest home.
They had found a comfortable nook behind a cluster of sheltering rocks, and were sitting on the sand, when Lisbeth arrived at this stage of thought. The place was an old haunt of hers, and Hector Anstruthers had often followed her there in their boy and girl days; and the sight of the familiar stretch of sea and 103 sand irritated her somehow. She picked up a shell, and sent it skimming away toward the water, with an impatient gesture.
“Georgie,” she said, “I should like to know what you see in Pen’yllan to please you so.”
“Everything,” said Georgie. “And then, somehow, I seem to know it. I think its chief attraction is, that you lived here so long.”
Lisbeth picked up another shell, and sent it skimming after the other.
“What a girl you are!” she said. “It is always your love and your heart that are touched. You are all heart. You love people, and you love everything that belongs to them: their homes, their belongings35, their relations. It is not so with me; it never was. You are like what Hector Anstruthers was, when I first knew him. Bah!” with a shrug36 of her shoulders. “How fond the foolish fellow was of Aunt Hetty, and Aunt Millicent, and Aunt Clarissa.”
Her tongue had slipped, just as Georgie’s had done the night before. For the moment she forgot herself entirely37, and only remembered that old sentimental affection of her boyish lover; that affection for her spinster relatives, which, in the past, had impressed her as being half troublesome and half absurd.
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1
emulating
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| v.与…竞争( emulate的现在分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿 | |
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2
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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7
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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8
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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urchins
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| n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆 | |
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10
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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12
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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13
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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bestowing
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| 砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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16
caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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17
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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18
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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19
enchant
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| vt.使陶醉，使入迷；使着魔，用妖术迷惑 | |
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20
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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21
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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22
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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23
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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24
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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26
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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27
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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30
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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31
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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32
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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33
raptures
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| 极度欢喜( rapture的名词复数 ) | |
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34
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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35
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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36
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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37
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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