He arrived in Hamilton at nightfall, and proceeded at once to his office. There was in his manner none of the hesitation1 shown at his last entrance there, and when by chance he passed the mirror in his quick movements about the room he was pleased himself to note the calmness of his features, and the quiet air of dignified2 reserve once more pervading3 his whole appearance.
“I have fought the battle,” he quietly commented to himself; “and now to face the new order of things!”
He looked about the room, put a few matters in order, and then stepped out into the green space before his door. Glancing right and left and seeing nobody in the road or in the fields beyond the cemetery4, he walked straight to the monument of Polly’s mother and sternly, determinately surveyed it. Then he glanced down at the grave it shaded, and detecting a stray leaf lying on its turf, he picked it up and cast it aside, with a suggestion of that strange smile which had lately so frequently altered his handsome features. After which he roamed through the churchyard, coming back to his door by another path. The chill of early September had touched many of the trees about, and there was something like dreariness5 in the landscape. But he did not appear to notice this, and entered in and sat down at his table with his former look of concentration and purpose.
Evening came and with it several patients; some from need, some from curiosity. To both kinds he listened with equal calmness, prescribing for their real or fancied complaints and seeing them at once to the door. At ten o’clock even these failed to put in an appearance, and being tired, he was about to draw his shade and lock his door when there came a low knock at the latter of so timid and so hesitating a character that his countenance6 changed and he waited for another knock before uttering his well known sharp summons to enter.
It came after a moment’s delay, and from some impulse difficult for himself to explain, he proceeded to the door, and hastily opened it. A tall, heavily veiled figure, clad in widow’s weeds, stood before him, at sight of which he started back, hardly believing his eyes.
“Grace!” he ejaculated; “Grace!” and held out his arms with an involuntary movement of which he seemed next moment ashamed, for with a sudden change of manner he became on the instant ceremonious, and welcoming in his visitor with a low bow, he pushed forward a chair, with mechanical politeness, and stammered7 with intense emotion:
“You are ill! Or your son! Some trouble threatens you or you would not be here.”
“My son is well, and I—I am as well as usual,” answered the advancing lady, taking the chair he offered her, though not without some hesitation. “Clarke is with the horses in front and I have ventured—at this late hour—to visit you, because I knew you would never come to me, even if I sent for you, Oswald.”
The tone, the attitude, the whole aspect of the sweet yet dignified woman before him, seemed to awaken8 an almost uncontrollable emotion in the doctor. He leaned toward her and said in tones which seemed to have a corresponding effect upon her: “You mistake, Grace. One word from you would have brought me at any time; that is, if I could have been of any service to you. I have never ceased to love you—” He staggered back but quickly recovered himself—“and never shall.”
“I do not understand you,” protested Mrs. Unwin, half rising. “I did not come—I did not expect—” her agitation9 prevented her from proceeding10.
“I do not understand myself!” exclaimed he, walking a step away. “I never thought to speak such words to you again. Forgive me, Grace; you have a world of wrong to pardon in me; add another mark of forbearance to your list and make me more than ever your debtor11.” She drooped12 her head and sitting down again seemed to be endeavoring to regain13 her self-possession.
“It was for Clarke,” she murmured, “that I came.”
“I might have known it,” cried the doctor.
“He would not speak for himself, and Polly, the darling child, has become so dazed by the experiences of these last two months that she no longer knows her duty. Besides, she seems afraid to speak to you again; says that you frighten her, and that you no longer love her.”
“I never have loved her,” he muttered, but so low the words were not carried to the other’s ears.
“Have you learned in your absence what has taken place here in Hamilton?” she asked.
Rousing himself, for his thoughts were evidently not on the subject she advanced, he took a seat near her and composed himself to listen, but meeting her soft eyes shining through the heavy crape she wore, he said with a slight appealing gesture:
“Let me see your face, Grace, before I attempt to answer. I have not dared to look upon it for fourteen years, but now, with some of the barriers down which held us inexorably apart, I may surely be given the joy of seeing your features once more, even if they show nothing but distrust and animosity toward me.”
She hesitated, and his face grew pale with the struggle of his feelings, then her slim white hand went up and almost before he could realize it, they sat face to face.
“O Grace,” he murmured; “the same! always the same; the one woman in all the world to me! But I will not distress14 you. Other griefs lie nearer your heart than any I could hope to summon up, and I do not know as I would have it otherwise if I could. Proceed with your questions. They were in reference to Clarke, I believe.”
“No, I only asked if you had kept yourself acquainted with what has been going on in Hamilton since you left. Did you know that Ephraim Earle was living again in the old house, and that Polly is rapidly losing her fortune owing to his insatiable demands for money?”
“No!” He sprang to his feet and his whole attitude showed distress and anger. “I told her to make the fellow give her a proof, an unmistakable proof, that he was indeed the brilliant inventor of whose fame we have all been proud.”
“And he furnished it, Oswald. You mean the medal which he received from France, do you not? Well, he had it among his treasures in the cave, and he showed it to her one day. It was the one thing, he declared, from which he had never parted in all his adventurous15 career.”
“You are dreaming! he never had that! Could not have had that! It was some deception16 he practised upon you!” exclaimed the doctor, aghast and trembling.
But she shook her lovely head, none the less beautiful because her locks were becoming silvered on the forehead, and answered: “It was the very medal we saw in our youth, with the French arms and inscription17 upon it. Dr. Sutherland examined it, and Mr. Crouse says he remembers it well. Besides it had his name engraved18 upon it and the year.”
The doctor, to whom her words seemed to come in a sort of nightmare, sank into his chair and stared upon her with such horror that she would have recoiled19 from him in dismay had he been any other man than Oswald Izard, so long loved and so long and passionately21 borne with, notwithstanding his mysterious words and startling inconsistencies of conduct.
“You do not know why this surprises me,” he exclaimed, and hung his head. “I was so sure,” he added below his breath, “that this was some impostor, and not Ephraim Earle.”
“I know,” she proceeded, after a moment, as soon, indeed, as she thought he could understand her words, “that you did not credit his claims and refused to recognize him as Polly’s father. But I had no idea you felt so deeply on the subject or I might have written to you long ago. You have some reasons for your doubts, Oswald; for I see that your convictions are not changed by this discovery. What is it? I am ready to listen if no one else is, for he is blighting22 Polly’s life and at the same time shattering my son’s hopes.”
“I said—I swore to Polly that I had no reason,” he declared, gloomily dropping his eyes and assuming at once the defensive23.
But she with infinite tact24 and a smile he could not but meet, answered softly: “I know that too; but I am better acquainted with you than she is, and I am confident that you have had some cause for keeping the truth from Polly, which will not apply to me. Is there not something connected with those old days—something, perhaps, known only to you, which would explain your horror of this man’s pretensions26 and help her possibly out of her dilemma27? Are you afraid to confide25 it to me, when perhaps in doing so you would make two innocent ones happy?”
“I cannot talk about it,” he replied with almost fierce emphasis. “Ephraim Earle and I—” He started, caught her by the arm and turned his white face toward the door. “Hush!” he whispered, and stooped his ear to listen. She watched him with terror and amazement28, but he soon settled back, and waving his hand remarked quietly:
“The boughs29 are losing their leaves and the vines sometimes tap against the windows like human fingers. You were saying——”
“You were saying that Ephraim Earle and you——”
But his blank looks showed that he had neither understood nor followed her. “Were you not good friends?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, oh, yes,” he answered hastily; “too good friends for me to be mistaken now.”
“Then it is from his looks alone that you conclude him to be an impostor?”
The doctor did not respond, and she, seeming quite helpless to move, sat for a minute silently contemplating30 his averted31 face.
“I know you did not talk with him long. Nor have I attempted to do so, yet in spite of everybody’s opinion but your own I have come to the same conclusion as yourself, that he is not Polly’s father.”
The doctor’s lips moved, but no words issued from them.
“That is why I press the matter; that is why I am here to pray and entreat32 you to save Polly and to save my son. Prove this man a villain33, and force him to loose his hold upon the Earle estate before Polly’s money is all gone!”
“Is it then a question of money?” asked the doctor. “Two months have passed and you are afraid that he will dispose of twenty thousand dollars!”
“He has already disposed of ten of them and the rest——”
“Disposed of ten thousand dollars!”
“Yes, for old gambling34 debts, pressing matters which Polly could not let stand without shame.”
“The wretch35!” leapt from the doctor’s lips. “Was there no one to advise her, to forbid——”
“You were gone and Clarke was afraid of seeming mercenary. I think the girl’s secret terror of her father and her lack of filial affection drove her to yield so readily to his demands for money.”
An inarticulate word was the doctor’s sole reply.
“And that is not the whole. Clarke’s career is endangered and the prospect36 of his carrying out his plans almost gone. Mr. Earle—I have called him so—does not hesitate to say that he must have five thousand dollars more by next October. If Polly accedes37 to this demand, and I do not think we can influence her to refuse him, Clarke will have to forego all hopes of becoming a member of the Cleveland firm, for he will never take her last five thousand, even if she urges him to it on her knees.”
“It is abominable38, unprecedented39!” fumed40 the doctor, rising and pacing the room. “But I can do nothing, prove nothing. He has been received as Ephraim Earle, and is too strongly intrenched in his position for me to drive him out.”
The absolutism with which this was said made his words final; and she slowly rose.
“And so I too have failed,” she cried; but seeing his face and noting the yearning41 look with which he regarded her, she summoned up her courage afresh and finally said: “They have told me—I have heard—that this man made some strange threats to you in parting. Is that the reason why you do not like to interfere42 or to proclaim more widely your opinion of him?”
The doctor smiled, but there was no answer in the smile and she went vehemently43 on: “Such threats, Oswald, are futile44. No one less sensitive than you would heed45 them for a moment. You are above any one’s aspersion46, even on an old charge like that.”
“Men will believe anything,” he muttered.
“But men will not believe that. Do we not all know how faithfully you attended Mrs. Earle in her last illness, and how much skill you displayed? I remember it well, if the rest of the community do not, and I say you need not fear anything this man can bring up against you. His influence in town does not go so far as that.”
But the doctor with unrelieved sadness answered with decision, “I cannot make this man my enemy; he has too venomous a tongue.” And she watching him knew that Polly’s doom47 was fixed48 and her son’s also, and began slowly to draw down her veil.
But he, noticing this action, though he had seemed to be blind to many others she had made, turned upon her with such an entreating49 look that she faltered50 and let her hand fall in deep emotion.
“Grace,” he pleaded, “Grace, I cannot let you go without one kindly51 word to make the solitude52 which must settle upon this room after your departure, less unendurable. You distrust me.”
“Does this visit here look like distrust?” she gently asked.
“And you hate me! But——”
“Do I look as if I hated you?” she again interposed, this time with the look of an angel in her sad but beautiful eyes.
“Ah, Grace,” he cried, with the passion of a dozen years let loose in one uncontrollable flood, “you cannot love me, not after all these years. When we parted——”
“At whose instigation, Oswald?”
“At mine, at mine, I know it. Do not reproach me with that, for I could not have done differently.—I thought, I dreamed that it was with almost as much pain on your side as mine. But you married, Grace, married very soon.”
“Still at whose instigation?”
“Again at mine. I dared not keep you from any comfort which life might have in store for you, and the years which you have spent in happiness and honor must have obliterated53 some of the traces of that love which bound our lives together fifteen years ago.”
“Oswald, Mr. Unwin was a good husband and Clarke has always been like an own son to me, but——”
“Oh,” interposed the doctor, starting back before the beauty of her face, “don’t tell me that a woman’s heart can, like a man’s, be the secret sepulchre of a living passion for fifteen years. I could not bear to know that! The struggle which I waged fourteen years ago I have not strength to wage now. No! no! woman of my dreams, of my heart’s dearest emotion, loved once, loved now, loved always! tell me anything but that,—tell me even that you hate me.”
Her eyes, which had fallen before his, swam suddenly with tears and she started as if for protection toward the door.
“Oh, I must go,” she cried. “Clarke is waiting; it is not wise; it is not seemly for me to be here.” But the doctor, into whom a fiery54 glow had entered, was beside her before she could reach the threshold. “No, no,” he pleaded, “not till you have uttered one word, one whisper of the old story; one assurance—Ah, now I am entreating for the very thing, the existence of which, I deprecated a few minutes ago! It shows how unbalanced I am. Yes, yes, you can go; but, Grace, if you have ever doubted that I loved you, listen to this one confession55. Ever since the day we parted, necessarily parted, fourteen years ago, I have never let a week go by till these last few ones during which I have been away from Hamilton, that I have not given up two nights a week to thinking of you and watching you.”
“Watching me!”
“Twice a week for fourteen years have I sat for an hour in Mrs. Fanning’s west window that overlooks your gardens. Thence, unnoted by everybody, I have noted56 you, if by happy chance you walked in the garden; and if you did not, noted the house that held you and the man who sheltered your youth.”
“Oswald,”—she felt impelled57 to speak, “if—if you loved me like this, why did you send me that cruel letter two days after our engagement? Why did you bid me forget you and marry some one else, if you had not forgotten me and did not wish me to release you in order that you might satisfy your own wishes in another direction?”
“Grace, if I could explain myself now I could have explained myself then. Fate, which is oftenest cruel to the most loving and passionate20 hearts, has denied me the privilege of marriage, and when I found it out——”
“True, you have never married. Cruel, cruel one! Why did you not let me know that you would always live single for my sake; it would have made it possible for me to have lived single for yours.”
The doctor with the love of a lifetime burning in his eyes, shook his head at this, and answered: “That would have shown me to be a selfish egotist, and I did not want to be other than generous to you. No, Grace, all was done for the best; and this is for the best, this greeting and this second parting. The love which we have acknowledged to-night will be a help and not a hindrance58 to us both. But we will meet again, not very soon, for I cannot trust a strength which has yielded so completely at your first smile.”
“Farewell, then, Oswald,” she murmured. “It has taken the sting from my heart to know that you did not leave me from choice.”
And he, striving to speak, broke down, and it was she who had to show her strength by gently leaving him and finding her own way to the door.
But no sooner had the night blast blowing in from the graveyard59 struck him, than he stumbled in haste to the threshold, and drawing her with a frenzied60 grasp from the path she was blindly taking toward the graves, led her from that path to the high road, where Clarke was waiting in some anxiety for the end of this lengthy61 interview. As the doctor gave her up and saw her taken in charge by her son, he said with a thrilling emphasis not soon to be forgotten by either of the two who listened to them:
“Try every means, and be sure you bid Polly to try every means, to rid yourselves of the bondage62 of this interloper. If all fails, come to me. But do not come till every other hope is dead.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
dignified
|
|
| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
pervading
|
|
| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
cemetery
|
|
| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
dreariness
|
|
| 沉寂，可怕，凄凉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
stammered
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
awaken
|
|
| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
agitation
|
|
| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
proceeding
|
|
| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
debtor
|
|
| n.借方，债务人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
drooped
|
|
| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
regain
|
|
| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
distress
|
|
| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
adventurous
|
|
| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
deception
|
|
| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
inscription
|
|
| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
engraved
|
|
| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
recoiled
|
|
| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
passionate
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
passionately
|
|
| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
blighting
|
|
| 使凋萎( blight的现在分词 )； 使颓丧； 损害； 妨害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
defensive
|
|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
tact
|
|
| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
confide
|
|
| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
pretensions
|
|
| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
dilemma
|
|
| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
amazement
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
boughs
|
|
| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
contemplating
|
|
| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
averted
|
|
| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
entreat
|
|
| v.恳求，恳请 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
villain
|
|
| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
wretch
|
|
| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
prospect
|
|
| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
accedes
|
|
| v.（正式）加入( accede的第三人称单数 )；答应；（通过财产的添附而）增加；开始任职 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
abominable
|
|
| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
unprecedented
|
|
| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
fumed
|
|
| 愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
yearning
|
|
| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
vehemently
|
|
| adv. 热烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
futile
|
|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
heed
|
|
| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
aspersion
|
|
| n.诽谤，中伤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
doom
|
|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
entreating
|
|
| 恳求，乞求( entreat的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
faltered
|
|
| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
obliterated
|
|
| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
confession
|
|
| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
impelled
|
|
| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
hindrance
|
|
| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
graveyard
|
|
| n.坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
frenzied
|
|
| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
lengthy
|
|
| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
bondage
|
|
| n.奴役，束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |