You expected calamity1 to pursue Wilkinson—it always had pursued him—; but that Wilkinson should have gone out of his way to pursue calamity (as if he could never have enough of it) really seemed a most unnecessary thing.
For there had been no pursuit on the part of the lady. Wilkinson's wife had the quality of her defects, and revealed herself chiefly in a formidable reluctance2. It was understood that Wilkinson had prevailed only after an austere3 struggle. Her appearance sufficiently4 refuted any theory of unholy fascination5 or disastrous6 charm.
Wilkinson's wife was not at all nice to look at. She had an insignificant7 figure, a small, square face, colorless hair scraped with difficulty to the top of her head, eyes with no lashes8 to protect you from their stare, a mouth that pulled at an invisible curb9, a sallow skin stretched so tight over her cheek-bones that the red veins10 stood stagnant11 there; and with it all, poor lady, a dull, strained expression hostile to further intimacy12.
Even in her youth she never could have looked young, and she was years older than Wilkinson. Not that the difference showed, for his marriage had made Wilkinson look years older than he was; at least, so [Pg 82] it was said by people who had known him before that unfortunate event.
It was not even as if she had been intelligent. Wilkinson had a gentle passion for the things of intellect; his wife seemed to exist on purpose to frustrate13 it. In no department of his life was her influence so penetrating14 and malign15. At forty he no longer counted; he had lost all his brilliance16, and had replaced it by a shy, unworldly charm. There was something in Wilkinson that dreamed or slept, with one eye open, fixed17 upon his wife. Of course, he had his blessed hours of deliverance from the woman. Sometimes he would fly in her face and ask people to dine at his house in Hampstead, to discuss Roman remains18, or the Troubadours, or Nietzsche. He never could understand why his wife couldn't "enter," as he expressed it, into these subjects. He smiled at you in the dimmest, saddest way when he referred to it. "It's extraordinary," he would say, "the little interest she takes in Nietzsche."
Mrs. Norman found him once wandering in the High Street, with his passion full on him. He was a little absent, a little flushed; his eyes shone behind his spectacles; and there were pleasant creases19 in his queer, clean-shaven face.
She inquired the cause of his delight.
"I've got a man coming to dine this evening, to have a little talk with me. He knows all about the Troubadours."
And Wilkinson would try and make you believe that they had threshed out the Troubadours between them. But when Mrs. Norman, who was a little curious about Wilkinson, asked the Troubadour man what they had talked about, he smiled and said it was something—some extraordinary adventure—that had happened to Wilkinson's wife. [Pg 83]
People always smiled when they spoke20 of her. Then, one by one, they left off dining with Wilkinson. The man who read Nietzsche was quite rude about it. He said he wasn't going there to be gagged by that woman. He would have been glad enough to ask Wilkinson to dine with him if he would go without his wife.
If it had not been for Mrs. Norman the Wilkinsons would have vanished from the social scene. Mrs. Norman had taken Wilkinson up, and it was evident that she did not mean to let him go. That, she would have told you with engaging emphasis, was not her way. She had seen how things were going, socially, with Wilkinson, and she was bent21 on his deliverance.
If anybody could have carried it through, it would have been Mrs. Norman. She was clever; she was charming; she had a house in Fitzjohn's Avenue, where she entertained intimately. At forty she had preserved the best part of her youth and prettiness, and an income insufficient22 for Mr. Norman, but enough for her. As she said in her rather dubious23 pathos24, she had nobody but herself to please now.
You gathered that if Mr. Norman had been living he would not have been pleased with her cultivation25 of the Wilkinsons. She was always asking them to dinner. They turned up punctually at her delightful26 Friday evenings (her little evenings) from nine to eleven. They dropped in to tea on Sunday afternoons. Mrs. Norman had a wonderful way of drawing Wilkinson out; while Evey, her unmarried sister, made prodigious27 efforts to draw Wilkinson's wife in. "If you could only make her," said Mrs. Norman, "take an interest in something."
But Evey couldn't make her take an interest in anything. Evey had no sympathy with her sister's missionary28 adventure. She saw what Mrs. Norman [Pg 84] wouldn't see—that, if they forced Mrs. Wilkinson on people who were trying to keep away from her, people would simply keep away from them. Their Fridays were not so well attended, so delightful, as they had been. A heavy cloud of dulness seemed to come into the room, with Mrs. Wilkinson, at nine o'clock. It hung about her chair, and spread slowly, till everybody was wrapped in it.
Then Evey protested. She wanted to know why Cornelia allowed their evenings to be blighted29 thus. "Why ask Mrs. Wilkinson?"
"I wouldn't," said Cornelia, "if there was any other way of getting him."
"Well," said Evey, "he's nice enough, but it's rather a large price to have to pay."
"And is he," cried Cornelia passionately30, "to be cut off from everything because of that one terrible mistake?"
Evey said nothing. If Cornelia were going to take him that way, there was nothing to be said!
So Mrs. Norman went on drawing Wilkinson out more and more, till one Sunday afternoon, sitting beside her on the sofa, he emerged positively31 splendid. There were moments when he forgot about his wife.
They had been talking together about his blessed Troubadours. (It was wonderful the interest Mrs. Norman took in them!) Suddenly his gentleness and sadness fell from him, a flame sprang up behind his spectacles, and the something that slept or dreamed in Wilkinson awoke. He was away with Mrs. Norman in a lovely land, in Provence of the thirteenth century. A strange chant broke from him; it startled Evey, where she sat at the other end of the room. He was reciting his own translation of a love-song of Provence. [Pg 85]
At the first words of the refrain his wife, who had never ceased staring at him, got up and came across the room. She touched his shoulder just as he was going to say "Ma mie."
"Come, Peter," she said, "it's time to be going home."
Wilkinson rose on his long legs. "Ma mie," he said, looking down at her; and the flaming dream was still in his eyes behind his spectacles.
He took the little cloak she held out to him, a pitiful and rather vulgar thing. He raised it with the air of a courtier handling a royal robe; then he put it on her, smoothing it tenderly about her shoulders.
Mrs. Norman followed them to the porch. As he turned to her on the step, she saw that his eyes were sad, and that his face, as she put it, had gone to sleep again.
When she came back to her sister, her own eyes shone and her face was rosy32.
"Oh, Evey," she said, "isn't it beautiful?"
"Isn't what beautiful?"
"Mr. Wilkinson's behavior to his wife."
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1
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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6
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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7
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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8
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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11
stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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12
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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13
frustrate
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| v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦 | |
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14
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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malign
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| adj.有害的；恶性的；恶意的；v.诽谤，诬蔑 | |
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brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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creases
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
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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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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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25
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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28
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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29
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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30
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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31
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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