She hungered for her grand-children, longed to feel their limbs, and see their bodies, to hold them in her lap, to bathe them, win their smiles, and hear their prattle3.
Pride, which she mistook for principle, stood between her and happiness.
Ruth knew all that was passing in the elder woman's heart, and felt for the other a profound and disturbing sympathy. She had the best of it; and she knew that Anne Caspar, for all her pharisaic air of superiority, knew it too. Ruth had learnt from Mrs. Trupp something of the elder woman's story. Anne Caspar too, it seemed, had loved out of her sphere; but she, unlike Ruth, had achieved her man. Had she been happy? That depended on whether she had brought happiness to her husband—Ruth never doubted that. And Ruth knew that she had not; and knew that Anne Caspar knew that she had not.
Moreover, all that Ernie told her about his mother interested her curiously5: the elder woman's pride, her loneliness, her passion for her old man.
"Alf's mother over again," Ern told Ruth, "with all her qualities only one—but it's the one that matters. He's a worker same as she is. He means to get on, same as she done. There's just this difference atween em: Alf can't love; Mother can—though it's only one." ...
A week after his first visit Alf appeared again on Ruth's door-step.
Ruth opened to him with so bright a smile that he was for once taken completely by surprise. He had expected resistance and come armed to meet it.
"Come in, won't you?" she said.
Then he understood. She had thought better of her foolishness.
"That's it, is it?" he said, licking his lips. "That's a good gurl."
"Yes," said Ruth. "Very pleased to see you, I'm sure." She was smarter than usual too, he noticed—to grace the occasion no doubt. And the plain brown dress, the hue6 of autumn leaves, with the tiny white frill at the collar, revealed the noble lines of her still youthful figure.
The conqueror7, breathing hard, entered the kitchen, to be greeted by a cultivated voice from the corner.
"Well, Alfred," it said.
Alf, whose eyes had been on the floor, glanced up with a start.
His father was sitting beside the cradle, beaming mildly on him through gold spectacles.
"Hullo, dad," said Alf, surlily. This large ineffectual father of his had from childhood awed8 him. There was a mystery about even his mildness, his inefficiency9, which Alf had never understood and therefore feared. "I didn't expect to find you here."
It seemed to Alf that the bottle-imp1 was twinkling in the old man's eyes. Alf remembered well the advent10 of that imp to the blue haunts he had never quitted since. That was during the years of Ern's absence in India. Now it struck him suddenly that his father, so seeming-innocent, so remote from the world, was in the joke against him.
A glance at Ruth, malicious11 and amused, confirmed his suspicion.
"I'm glad you come and visit your sister sometimes, Alfred," said the old man gently.
"Yes," purred Ruth, "he comes reg'lar, Alf do now—once a week. And all in the way of friendship as the savin is. See, he's our landlord now."
"That's nice," continued the old man with the dewy innocence12 of a babe. "Then he can let you off your rent if you get behind."
"So he could," commented Ruth, "if only he was to think of it. Do you hear your dad, Alf?"
She paid the week's rent into his hand, coin by coin, before his father's eyes. Then he turned and slouched out.
"Good-night, Alf," Ruth said, almost affectionately. "It 'as been nice seein you and all."
Determined13 to enjoy her triumph to the full, she followed him to the door. In the street he turned to meet her mocking glance, in which the cruelty gleamed like a half-sheathed sword. His own eyes were impudent14 and familiar as they engaged hers.
"Say, Ruth, what's he after?" he asked, cautiously, in lowered voice.
"Who?"
"That feller I caught you with the other night—when Ern wasn't there. Black-ugly. What's he after?"
"Same as you, hap4."
He sniggered feebly.
"What's that?"
"Me."
She stood before him; a peak armoured through the ages in eternal ice and challenging splendidly in the sun.
He hoiked and spat15 and turned away.
"Brassy is it?" he said. "One thing, my lass, you been in trouble once, mind. I saved you then. But I mightn't be able to a second time."
Behind Ruth's shoulder a dim face, bearded and spectacled, peered at him with the mild remorselessness of the moon.
"Alfred," said a voice, dreadful in its gentle austerity.
When the old man said good-bye to Ruth ten minutes later he kissed her for the first time.
She smiled up at him gallantly16.
"It's all right, dad," she said, consolingly. "I'm not afraid o him whatever else."
It was the first time she had called him dad, and even now she did it unconsciously.
Edward Caspar ambled17 home.
He did not attempt to conceal18 from his wife where he went on Tuesday mornings. Indeed, as he soared on mysterious wings, he seemed to have lost all fear of the woman who had tyrannised over him for his own good so long. Time, the unfailing arbitrator, had adjusted the balance between the two. And sometimes it seemed to Mrs. Trupp, observing quietly as she had done for thirty years, that in the continuous unconscious struggle that persists inevitably19 between every pair from the first mating till death, the victory in this case would be to the man intangible as air.
That morning, as Edward entered the house, his wife was standing20 in the kitchen before the range.
Anne Caspar was white-haired now. Her limbs had lost much of their comeliness21, her motions their grace. She was sharp-boned and gaunt of body as she had always been of mind—not unlike a rusty22 sword.
As the front-door opened, and the well-trained man sedulously23 wiped his boots upon the mat, she looked up over her spectacles, dropping her chin, grim and sardonic24.
"I know where you been, dad," she taunted25.
He stayed at the study-door, like a great pawing bear.
Then he answered suddenly and with a smile.
"I've been in heaven."
She slammed the door of the range; smiling, cruel, the school-girl who teases.
"I know where your tobacco money goes, old dad," she continued.
His mind was far too big and vague and mooning often to be able to encounter successfully the darts26 his wife occasionally shot into his large carcase.
"He's a beautiful boy," was all he now made answer, as he disappeared.
Whether the wound he dealt was deliberately27 given in self-defence, or unconsciously because he had the power over her, his words stung Anne Caspar to the quick.
She turned white, and sat down in the lonely kitchen her wrung old hands twisted in her lap, hugging her wound.
Then she recovered enough to take reprisals28.
"Alf's their landlord, now," she cried after him, the snakes in her eyes darting29 dreadful laughter.
Edward Caspar turned in the door.
"Anne," he said, "I wish you to pay Ruth's rent in future out of the money my father left you."
The voice was mild but there was a note of authority, firm if faint, running through it.
Anne rose grimly to her feet, thin as a stiletto, and almost as formidable.
"That woman!"
He nodded at her down the passage.
"My daughter."
Anne turned full face.
"D'you know she's had a love-child?" she shrilled30, discordant31 as a squeaking32 wheel.
The old gentleman, fumbling33 at the door of his study, dropped his bearded chin, and beamed at the angry woman, moonwise over his spectacles.
"Why shouldn't she?" he asked.
There was something crisp, almost curt34, in the interrogation.
"But she's not respectable!"
Again he dropped his chin and seemed to gape35 blankly.
"Why should she be?" he asked.
She heard the key turn, and knew that she was locked out for the night.
Later she crept in list-slippers to the door and knocked with the slow and solemn knuckles36 of fate, a calculated pause between each knock.
"Alf's going up, Ern's going down," she said, nodding with grim relish37. "Good-night, old dad."
Next evening Joe called at the cottage, to fetch Ernie for the class. He arrived as he sometimes had done of late, a little before Ernie was due home from the yard. At this hour the little ones had already been put to bed; and Ruth would be alone with Alice, between whom and the engineer there had sprung up a singular intimacy38 ever since the evening on which he had carried her home like a dead thing in his arms from Saffrons Croft.
Ruth had not seen him since his clash with Alfred in the door; and he had obviously avoided her.
Now she thrilled faintly. Was he in love with her?—she was not sure.
He entered without speaking and took his seat as always before the fire, broad-spread and slightly huddled39 in his overcoat, chin on chest, staring into the fire.
Ruth, busy baking, her arms up to the elbow in dough40, made her decision swiftly. She would meet him, face him, fight him.
"Well, Joe," she said, not looking at him.
It was the first time she had called him that.
He peeped up at her, only his eyes moving, small, black-brown, and burning like a bear's.
"That's better," he muttered.
She flashed up at him. Innocence and cunning, the schoolboy and the brute41, Pan and Silenus fought, leered, and frolicked in his face.
Ruth dropped her gaze and kneaded very deliberately.
Yes ... it was so ... Now she would help him; and she could hold him. She would transmute42 his passion into friendship. She would bridle43 her bull, ride him, tame him. It was dangerous, and she loved danger. It was sport; and she loved sport. It was an adventure after the heart of a daring woman. He was a fine man, too, and fierce, warrior44 and orator45; worth conquering and subduing46 to her will. His quality of a fighting male called to her. She felt the challenge and answered it with singing blood.
That laughing hidalgo who in Elizabethan days had landed from his galleon47 in the darks at the Haven48 to bring terror and romance to some Sussex maid; that Spaniard who lurked49 obscurely in her blood, gave her her swarthy colouring, her indolent magnificence and surprising quality, was stirring uneasily within her once again.
She lifted her eyes from the froth of yeast50 and looked across at him, accepting battle—if he meant battle. And he did: there was no doubt of that. He sat there, hunched51, silent, breathing heavily. Then little Alice slipped down from the kitchen table on which she had been sitting at her mother's side, danced across to her friend, and climbed up on his knee. Ruth took her arms out of the bowl, white to the elbow with flour, came across to the pair, firm-faced, and deliberately removed the child.
Joe rose and went out. In the outer door he stumbled on a man half-hidden on the threshold.
"That you, Joe?" said Ernie quietly. "There he is! Alf—on the spy. See his head bob—there! At the bottom of Borough52 Lane—It's her he's after."
Joe peeped over his friend's shoulder, his bullet head thrust out like a dog who scents53 an enemy.
"That sort; is he?" he muttered. "I'll after him!"
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1
imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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hap
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| n.运气；v.偶然发生 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inefficiency
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| n.无效率，无能；无效率事例 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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ambled
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| v.（马）缓行( amble的过去式和过去分词 )；从容地走，漫步 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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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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comeliness
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| n. 清秀, 美丽, 合宜 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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sedulously
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| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
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sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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taunted
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| 嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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reprisals
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| n.报复（行为）( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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shrilled
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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squeaking
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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38
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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transmute
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| vt.使变化，使改变 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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46
subduing
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| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
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galleon
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| n.大帆船 | |
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48
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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49
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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50
yeast
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| n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫 | |
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51
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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52
borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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53
scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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