This ridiculous pre-occupation of Eileen's gave Lady O'Gara something she did not complain of. She had more of her son than otherwise she would have had. Terry had never looked for better companionship than his mother's, but he grumbled2 about Eileen nevertheless.
"She used to be always ready to come anywhere," he said. "I know I can't always have you, because Father needs you so much. We have always torn you in pieces between the two of us. I asked Eileen to come out shooting on the bog3 with me and she wouldn't. She just opened her door and I saw a horrid4 thing, an indecent thing that pretended to look like a woman's body, taking up the middle of her room."
"It's for fitting dresses on, you ridiculous boy!" Lady O'Gara said laughing.
"It gave me a shock. A horrid, stuffed thing. I shall not be able to look at Eileen again without seeing that. Why does she want to make her dresses? Can't your maid do it? Industry in Eileen is quite a new thing. Not that she's half as good a companion on the bog as you are, darling. I've always had to carry her over the pools. She said she couldn't jump."
Lady O'Gara's face at this frankness was a study.
"She's so helpless. Not like a country girl, at all. You remember that day with the bull. She left Stella to be gored5 by the bull and expected to be admired for it."
There was certainly a change in Terry's attitude towards Eileen. Lady O'Gara sighed, because of what she knew was in her husband's mind rather than for any disappointment in herself. Eileen was not her ideal wife for Terry.
"Eileen will go with you all right," she said. They were standing6 in front of the house on the gravel-sweep. "I've just told her she was injuring her complexion7 by staying indoors. She has gone to put on her hat. I did not like to tell her that Margaret McKeon lamented8 to me that Eileen was cutting out that beautiful Foxford tweed so badly. We'll go and rout9 out Stella. She has not been over here for five days."
Terry's face lit up.
"I don't know why Stella's out with me," he said. "She is always hiding behind your skirts or Mrs. Comerford's when I am about and want to talk to her."
His mother looked at him, with the yearning10 tenderness of the woman who would give all the world to her beloved man if she only might.
"You like Stella?"
"Yes: she's a little darling. Don't you?"
"I am very fond of Stella. Perhaps … she thinks … You like Eileen very much?"
After all, if her boy wanted Stella, why should even his father's preferences prevail? She had surprised a glance in Stella's eyes when they rested on Terry for a brief moment before they quickly veiled themselves. The child had something Southern in her. So, for the matter of that, had Terry. She was fond of Eileen, but, simple as she was, she had not had Eileen with her pretty constantly for many years without being aware of a certain shallowness in the girl. The blood under the fair skin ran thinly, coldly.
His face lit up with such a light that she was alarmed at what she had done. What would Shawn say if he knew? But, after all, Shawn had married where he loved. Why should not the boy have the same felicity? Stella had been pushing her small soft way into Mary O'Gara's heart. She knew now that Eileen could never have been the little daughter she wanted.
"You think she would mind that?" His eyes leaped at her.
She felt like one who had burnt her boats. She would not look before or behind. Shawn was wrong, she said vehemently11 to herself. Eileen was not the girl for Terry.
"I will tell you a secret, Terry," she said. "The first evening you came back, in the drawing-room before dinner, there was something that might have passed for a love-scene between you and Eileen. Your father opened the door and withdrew. Then he discovered that Stella had come downstairs before him and was playing with the dogs in the hall by the dying fire. He supposed that she had surprised that scene before he did."
Oh, poor Shawn! What a use she was making of his confidence! But men never knew about their sons as mothers did. She would give anything, except her own soul, to procure12 Terry the joy he desired. And it was a good joy. She loved Stella. Of course, she would be very good to Eileen, but she did not want Eileen for a daughter-in-law. Shawn did not look very deeply. He had hardly considered Eileen except as something pretty and gentle, who was pleasant in the house and sang him Moore's Melodies of evenings in a small sweet voice. He missed her when she returned to her own people.
"I was an idiot for a second," the boy said, shamefacedly. "I don't suppose you understand, Mother, but men are like that. Eileen can be very alluring13 when she likes and…"
"Don't tell me any more. I can imagine," Lady O'Gara said and laughed, a laugh which had a certain shyness in it.
"Then we fell out over the cat and dog," he said. "Eileen was rather rude. Perhaps I was a little rough with Cleopatra, but she had scratched Shot's nose. You know what Shot is! It was an entirely14 unprovoked attack. I believe I did say that Cleopatra should be sent to the Cats' Home."
Eileen appeared at this point, coming with an unwilling15 air. It was true that her staying within-doors so much had not improved her looks. She had not a very good circulation at any time. That, or her mood, had given her rose and white a dull, leaden look. Her discontented little face was lifted towards the dappled sky. It was really a beautiful day of Autumn. There was a little wind, and the last yellow leaves on the branches tinkled16 like so many small golden cymbals17. A pale gold sun was going low amid oceans of amber18 touched with rose, and above dappled clouds were floating as though the day was February.
"It is so cold," said Eileen, and shivered. "I don't see how Margaret can get on without fitting me. She had made up such a nice fire in my room. I cannot see why any one wants to go out in such weather."
"Oh, come along, you little grumbler19!" Lady O'Gara said with her infectious gaiety. "Come for a good trot20. I know what will happen to you: you'll get chilblains if you sit by the fire in cold weather. Your hands will be dreadful to look at, and your feet will be a torture."
Eileen looked down at her feet and then at her hands, childishly. She had very pretty feet and hands.
"They are all right so far," she said.
"You and Terry had better race each other to the bridge," Lady O'Gara said. "I want to see the colour in your face, child."
"Come along," said Terry, and caught at Eileen's hand. Half-unwillingly she ran with him, but when Lady O'Gara caught up with them, Eileen was laughing and panting.
"This wretched son of yours," she said, "has run me off my feet."
"And you look the better for it," Lady O'Gara answered, her brown eyes merry and her cheeks dimpling like a girl's. "We are going for Stella, to bring her back to tea. She has not been near us for some days."
"Oh!" Eileen had gone back to the chilly21 voice. "She doesn't want to come. She finds us rather dull, I think."
Lady O'Gara laughed.
"I don't believe any one could find us dull," she said merrily, "least of all Stella."
"Oh well, I suppose I'm not telling the truth," Eileen said huffily. "All I know is she asked me the last time I saw her if Terry ever brought any of his brother-officers home with him."
Terry's candid22 face clouded over ever so slightly; while his mother remarked that, of course, three was an awkward number for games. They wanted another man. She believed she had been talking about it.
"You might ask Major Evelyn," she said to Terry. "It is still possible to have golf when there is fine weather."
"I wonder if he would come?" Terry said ingenuously23. "Think of a second-lieutenant like me asking a swell24 like Evelyn! Why, his decorations make a perfect breastplate when he chooses to put them on. Not that it is a matter of choice. He only does it when he can't help it. He did so splendidly in South Africa."
"I dare say he'd condescend25 to come," Lady O'Gara said. "Few sportsmen can resist the Castle Talbot duck-shooting."
"Do ask him," said Eileen, becoming animated26. "Two's company, three's none. Everything is lop-sided without a second man."
"I'll ask him, of course," Terry said. "But I don't suppose he'll come. It is like a kid in the Lower School asking a prefect to tea. He may come—for the grub. On the other hand he may give the kid a kicking for his impudence27."
After all, they had not to go as far as Inch. They met Stella exercising her dogs about half a mile from her own gates. She would like to come to tea if she might first take the dogs home and leave word as to where she had gone.
To Lady O'Gara's mind she looked small and unhappy as soon as the flush had faded which came when she saw them. She clung to Lady O'Gara, and could not be detached from her. The dogs, surrounding her, made a barrier between her and Terry, who, at first, kept as close to her as he could, leaving Eileen to walk the other side of Lady O'Gara.
But Stella did not seem to have much to say to him. She was too engrossed28 with the dogs and with his mother to spare him a word. The eager light which had come to his eyes when he had first caught sight of her faded. His candid face was overcast29. She had been keeping him at arms-length ever since he had come back.
His mother watched him with a comprehension which was half tender amusement, half compassion30. He was becoming a little sullen31 over Stella's persistent32 disregard of him. She watched the set boyish mouth, the pucker33 of his forehead—her baby. Terry had always had that pucker for perplexity or disappointment. Why, he had had it when the first down was on his baby head, as soft as a duckling's.
The road grew narrow. He began to lag behind, to veer34 towards Eileen.
"Is it worth while for us all to go on to Inch?" he asked in his discontented young voice. "Supposing Eileen and I go on by the river, while you and Stella take back the dogs! They wouldn't follow me or I'd offer to go home with them. It must be nearly a mile to the house from the gate."
"I've a better way than that," Lady O'Gara said on a sudden impulse. She had taken Stella's cold little hand in hers, and it made a mute appeal. She was sure Stella was unhappy, poor little motherless child. The two poor children, fretting35 and worrying each other about nothing at all! Her comprehending, merry, pitiful gaze went from one to the other young face.
"Suppose Eileen and I walk back. You'll overtake us before we get home. You two are such quick walkers."
Eileen's lips opened as though to protest. Her face had brightened at
Terry's suggestion. She closed them again in a tight snap.
"I never can see the good of walking about wet roads," she said crossly. "It must be nice to live in a town, where there are dry pavements, and people, and shops."
A robin36 rained out his little song from a bough37 above her head, and behind the trees the sky broke up into magnificence—the sun looking from under a great dun cloud suffused38 with his rays, while all below him was a cool greenish bluish wash of sky, tender and delicate.
"You would not find that in a city, Eileen," Lady O'Gara said, pushing away gently Stella's cold little hand that seemed to cling to hers.
"Make her trot, Terry," she said. "Her hands are cold as little frogs, like the child's hands in Herrick's 'Grace for a Child.'
"Cold as paddocks though they be,
Still I lift them up to thee
For a benison39 to fall
On our meat and on us all."
She saw the sudden rush of joy to her son's face and she was a little lonely. She felt that she was no longer first with Terry.
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1
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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2
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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3
bog
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| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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gored
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| v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
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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7
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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8
lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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12
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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13
alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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14
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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15
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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16
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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17
cymbals
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| pl.铙钹 | |
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18
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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19
grumbler
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| 爱抱怨的人，发牢骚的人 | |
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20
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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21
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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22
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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23
ingenuously
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| adv.率直地，正直地 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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27
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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28
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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overcast
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| adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天 | |
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30
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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31
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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32
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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33
pucker
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| v.撅起，使起皱；n.（衣服上的）皱纹，褶子 | |
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34
veer
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| vt.转向，顺时针转，改变；n.转向 | |
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35
fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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36
robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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37
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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38
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
benison
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| n.祝福 | |
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