She was already dressed for the drive home with Laura Pavely. It was nearly twelve o'clock, and the car would be round in a few minutes. But she was waiting on, up here, for her son, for after breakfast Oliver had said casually2: "I'll come up to your room for a moment, mother—I mean before you start for Freshley."
She looked round the room consideringly. Nothing in it had been altered for something like fifty years. Above the Italian marble chimney-piece was a good portrait, in oils, of Lord St. Amant's father, and on either side of the fireplace were crayon drawings of St. Amant as a little boy, and of his two sisters as little girls. Everything here epitomised the placid3, happy life of the good and fortunate woman who had been Lord St. Amant's mother.
But the pretty, old-fashioned, peaceful-looking room told also of the strange transience of human life. With the exception of that early Victorian crayon drawing of the stalwart little boy, almost everything in the nature of a relic4 or memento5 spoke6 of some human being long dead.
Mrs. Tropenell felt curiously7 at peace. There was [Pg 354] something almost final about the feeling which possessed8 her. Up to last night she had been anxious, restless, full of a secret, painful doubt as to whether she was doing right in marrying Lord St. Amant.
But now, this morning, her doubts had gone, partly owing to a very trifling9 thing, a quick perception of how well St. Amant and Oliver got on together—now. She had been alone with them at breakfast, and they had talked eagerly together, passing quickly from one subject to another, with no intervals10 of silence. When, at last, Oliver had got up, St. Amant also had risen, and put his arm with an affectionate gesture round the younger man's shoulder, and she had caught a strange look, a look of moved gratitude11, on Oliver's dark face....
She had dreaded13 telling her son of her resolve—but the dread12 had left her, and she made up her mind to tell him this morning—not to wait, as she had half thought of doing, till he was at home again.
St. Amant and Oliver were going to shoot this afternoon over land belonging to little Alice Pavely. Laura had let The Chase shooting to a neighbour, and the neighbour, whose name was Buckhurst, had invited the other two to join his shooting party to-day, and to-morrow also. Oliver was coming home to Freshley in between....
The door opened. "Mother, may I come in?"
She turned quickly, all her heart, as always, welcoming him. With a little, unacknowledged pang14 she told herself that Oliver was growing older, that he was losing the look of buoyancy that he had kept so long. But what a fine, strong, vigorous-looking [Pg 355] man he looked!—as he stood there, smiling rather gravely at her.
"Oliver?" she exclaimed, suddenly making up her mind to rush her fence—it was a simile15 which still often occurred to her—"Oliver, my dear, I want to tell you something. I have promised Lord St. Amant to marry him."
He looked moved and surprised—perhaps more than she had expected him to be. But his answer came instantly: "I am glad, mother. I'm very, very glad! I want to tell you, I've meant to tell you for some time, that I felt I've been very churlish in this matter of Lord St. Amant. He's always been good to me! Very, very good. I owed him a great deal as a boy. Lately, well, mother, you must have noticed it yourself, we've become really friends."
He looked swiftly round the pretty room. Till this morning he had always been here alone with Laura, having eyes only for her. He saw now what a charming room it was—so warm, so cosy16 too, on this chilly17, wintry December day.
He exclaimed: "It will be good to think of you here—wherever I may be——"
She felt a tremor18 go through her. Somehow she had thought that he meant to settle down in England; he had never said anything about it, but she had thought that that was his intention.
"Is Laura willing to spend a part of every year in Mexico, my dearest?"
He nodded, rather absently, as if the question hardly required an answer.
She moved closer to him. "You are very happy, [Pg 356] are you not, Oliver?" she asked in a low voice, and looking up into his face.
And again he answered at once, almost as though he had seen the question in her eyes before she uttered it: "Very, very happy, mother! I don't suppose any man has ever been happier than I have been."
Again she put an intimate, probing question, wondering at her own courage, her own temerity19, in doing so. "Laura wholly satisfies you?" she asked, allowing nothing of the doubt which was still in her heart to creep into her voice.
"Wholly," he said, again in that strong, confident voice. "And, mother—?" he waited a moment, and then, in a voice suddenly tense with emotion, he muttered—"what she is to me, I, all unworthy though I be, am to her. Do you know what—what response means to a man?"
"I think I do," she said in a low voice.
They remained silent. She felt as if she were, for the first time, fused in intense spiritual communion with her son.
He broke the spell. "There's something I want you to know," he said. And then he stopped short, and, looking away, exclaimed, "Laura shall tell you!" The carriage gong echoed through the great house. He opened the door, she passed through it, and so together they walked down to the large, rather bare hall. There they waited a few moments in silence, till there came the sound of light footsteps—Laura running downstairs, a small fur cap on her beautiful head.
She hurried towards them, smiling, and Mrs. Tropenell turned away—a twinge of jealous pain, of which [Pg 357] she was ashamed, in her heart—and stared into the big log fire.
She heard Oliver exclaim, in accents at once imploring20 and imperious: "Laura? Come over here a moment."
At last she, the mother, turned slowly round, to see, through the half-open door of Lord St. Amant's study, the two standing21 together, locked in each other's arms, Laura looking up into Oliver's face with an expression of rapt devotion, of entire absorption, in her blue, heavy-lidded eyes. As their lips met, Mrs. Tropenell looked quickly away. She asked herself if this exalted22 passion could last, and whether, after all, Oliver were not happier now than he could ever hope to be again?
Laura was very silent during the first half of their homeward drive, but at last she amazed Mrs. Tropenell by suddenly saying: "I want you to know—I feel I must tell you—that Oliver and I were married, in London, ten days ago. And I think—oh, Aunt Letty, I do think that he is happy—at last!"
She said the words very simply, and Mrs. Tropenell felt extraordinarily23 moved. This then was what Oliver had wanted her to know, and man-like had felt too—too shy to tell her.
"I am very grateful to you for what you have done," she exclaimed, and held the younger woman's hand tightly clasped in hers for a moment.
That was all. But before they parted Laura gave his mother a message from Oliver. It was quite an unimportant message, simply that on his way home he meant to look in at The Chase.
[Pg 358] "You don't mind, do you?" Laura asked, a little hesitatingly. And Oliver's mother smiled.
"Of course not, my dear—I'm glad he should! Perhaps you'd like to come back with him, and stay on for dinner?"
But Laura, reddening with one of her rather rare, vivid blushes, shook her head. "I think I ought to stay at home the first evening," she said, "and put Alice to bed. She loves my putting her to bed. I don't want Alice ever to feel jealous."
But this time Mrs. Tropenell made no answer. Poor little Alice! It would be strange indeed if the child did not feel a little jealous as time went on—if, that is, Laura went on being, as she seemed to be, almost mystically absorbed in this wonderful, glowing thing which had come into her life.
It was the afternoon of the same day, and Mrs. Tropenell, after dealing24 with the various matters which had accumulated during her week's absence, had gone up to her room to rest before Oliver's return. Lying on her bed, in the fast-gathering twilight25, thinking over all that had happened, and all that was happening, to herself and to those she loved, Mrs. Tropenell dozed26 off for a few moments. Then, in a long flash which seemed to contain ?ons of sensation, she went through an amazing and terrifying experience!
On the dead stillness which reigned27 both within and without the house there suddenly rang out a shot. At the same moment, if not indeed before, her whole being seemed to be bracing28 itself up to endure a great ordeal29. It was as if her spirit, vanquishing30 [Pg 359] a base, secret, physical terror of the unknown, was about to engage on a great adventure.
With a stifled31 cry she sat up, and then she realised, with a gasp32 of relief, that she had been dreaming, only dreaming—but her heart went on beating for a long time with the excitement, the mingled33 terror and exaltation of spirit, she had just gone through.
At last, feeling curiously languid and shaken, she went downstairs, and had tea in the drawing-room.
It was only a little after five; probably Oliver would not come in till just before it was time to dress for dinner.
The stillness of the house oppressed her. She got up, and moved restlessly about the room. The curtains had been drawn34 and the fire made up while she had been upstairs. She went across to one of the windows, and, behind the closed curtains, opened it widely. And as she opened the window, and stood by it, breathing in the cold, moist air, she heard the sound of branches being pushed aside across a little-used path which was even a shorter cut to The Chase than was the beech-wood avenue.
Then Oliver was coming home earlier than Laura had thought he would?
She stepped out quickly into the open air, on to the flagged path.
She could hear quick footsteps now—but they were not Oliver's footsteps. It was probably a maid coming back from the village which lay beyond The Chase. But even so there crept a slight feeling of anxiety over her heart. "Who's there?" she called out.
Close out of the twilit darkness there came the instant hoarse35 answer: "It's Laura, Aunt Letty."
[Pg 360] "Laura? Oh, my dear, you'll catch cold!" for Laura, without hat or cloak, was now there, before her.
"Aunt Letty? I've brought bad news—there's been an accident."
"To Oliver?" But she knew, even as she asked the question, what the answer would be.
"Yes—Oliver. They went on too long in the twilight—he stumbled, and his gun went off. They're bringing him home—now."
Laura was staring before her, her eyes veiled, glassy, like those of a blind woman.
"They wanted to bring him to The Chase. But there was a doctor there, and he said nothing would be of any use. So I told them to bring him home—to you."
Both women waited in the grateful darkness, dry-eyed and still.
At last Mrs. Tropenell said uncertainly: "Come indoors, Laura."
But Laura shook her head. "No, I'd rather stay out here, if you don't mind, Aunt Letty."
Not quite knowing what she was doing or why, Mrs. Tropenell walked forward and opened the door into the hall. There she took down a cloak, and coming out again, she put it round Laura. And they stood there waiting—till there broke on their ears the heavy tramp of men's feet carrying a burden.
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1
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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memento
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| n.纪念品，令人回忆的东西 | |
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6
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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7
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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10
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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12
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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13
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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14
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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18
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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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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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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26
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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30
vanquishing
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| v.征服( vanquish的现在分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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31
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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32
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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33
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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34
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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