If Mrs. Fazakerly was going to like Durant, as yet her glance merely indicated that she liked the look of him. Durant, as it happened, was almost as plain for a man as Miss Tancred was for a woman; but he was interesting, and he looked it; he was distinguished7, and he looked that, too; he was an artist, and he did not look it at all; he cultivated no eccentricities8 of manner, he indulged in no dreamy fantasies of dress. Other people besides Mrs. Fazakerly had approved of Maurice Durant.
Unfortunately the Colonel's instant monopoly of the lady had the effect of throwing Durant and his hostess on each other's mercy during dinner, a circumstance that seemed greatly to entertain Mrs. Fazakerly. Probably a deep acquaintance with Coton Manor9 made her feel a delightful10 incongruity11 in Durant's appearance there, since, as her gaze so frankly12 intimated, she found him interesting. He was roused from a fit of more than usual abstraction to find her little gray eyes twinkling at him across the soup. Mrs. Fazakerly, for purposes of humorous observation, used a pince-nez, which invariably leaped from the bridge of her nose in her subsequent excitement. It was leaping now.
"Mr. Durant, Miss Tancred is trying to say something to you." [Pg 231]
He turned with a dim, belated courtesy as his hostess repeated for the third time her innocent query13, "I hope you like your room?"
He murmured some assent14, laying stress on his appreciation15 of the flowers and the books.
"You must thank Mrs. Fazakerly for those; it was she who put them there."
"Indeed? That was very pretty of Mrs. Fazakerly."
"Mrs. Fazakerly is always doing pretty things. I can't say that I am."
In Miss Tancred's eyes there was none of the expectancy16 that betrays the fisher of compliments. If she had followed that gentle craft she must have abandoned it long ago; no fish had ever risen to wriggling17 worm, to phantom18 minnow or to May-fly, to Miss Tancred's groveling or flirting19 or flight; no breath of flattery could ever have bubbled in men's eyes—those icy waters where she, poor lady, saw her own face. Durant would have been highly amused if she had angled; as it was, he was disgusted with her. It is the height of bad taste for any woman to run herself down, and the more sincere the depreciation20 the worse the offense21, as implying a certain disregard for your valuable opinion. Apparently22 it had struck Mrs. Fazakerly in this light, for she shook her head reproachfully at Miss Tancred.
"If Mr. Durant had been staying with me, I should have packed him into the bachelor's bedroom with his Bible and his Shakespeare."
Miss Tancred, accused of graciousness, explained herself away. "I put you on the south side because you've just come from the Mediterranean23; I thought you would like the sun."
Why could he not say that it was pretty of Miss Tancred? [Pg 232]
The Colonel had pricked24 up his ears at the illuminating25 word.
"What sort of weather did you have when you were in Italy?"
It was the first time that he had shown the faintest interest in Durant's travels. He seemed to regard him as a rather limited young man who had come to Coton Manor to get his mind let out an inch or two.
Durant replied that as far as he could remember it was fine when he arrived in Rome two years ago, and it was fine when he left Florence the other day.
The Colonel shrugged26 his shoulders. "Ah, I don't call that weather. I like a variable barometer27. I cannot stand monotony." As he spoke he looked at his daughter. In a less perfect gentleman there would have been significance in the look. As it was, it remained unconscious.
"The Colonel," Mrs. Fazakerly explained, "is studying the meteorology of Wickshire."
It seemed that Mrs. Fazakerly was studying the Colonel, that it was her business to expound28 and defend him. She had implied, if it were only by the motion of an eyelid29, that all they had heard hitherto was by way of prologue30; that the Colonel had not yet put forth31 his full powers. Her effervescent remark was, as it were, the breaking of the champagne32 bottle, the signal that launched him.
Meteorology apart, the Colonel, like more than one great philosopher, held that science was but another name for ignorance.
"But with meteorology," he maintained, "you are safe. You've got down to the bed-rock of fact, and it's observation all along the line. I've got fifteen little memorandum33 books packed with observations. Taken by myself. It's the only way to keep clear of fads35 and [Pg 233] theories. Look at the nonsense that's talked in other departments, about microbes, for instance. Fiddlesticks! A microbe's an abstraction, a fad34. But take a man like myself, take a man of even ordinary intelligence, who has faced the facts, don't tell me that he hasn't a better working knowledge of the subject than a fellow who calls himself a bacteriologist, or some other absurd name."
Durant remarked meekly36 that he didn't know, he was sure. But the Colonel remained implacable; his shirt-front dilated37 with his wrath38; it was wonderful how so gentle a voice as the Colonel's contrived39 to convey so much passion. Meanwhile Miss Tancred sat absorbed in her dinner and let the storm pass over her head. Perhaps she was used to it.
"Fiddlesticks! If you don't know, you ought to know; you should make it your business to know. If I've got cholera40 I want to be told what'll cure me. I don't care a hang whether I'm killed by a comma bacillus or——"
"A full-stop bacillus," suggested Mrs. Fazakerly.
"The full-stop bacillus for choice—put you sooner out of your agony."
"For shame, Mr. Durant; you encourage him."
"I, Mrs. Fazakerly?"
"Yes, you. It was you who brought the Nineteenth Century into the house, wasn't it? Depend upon it, he's been reading something that he's disagreed with, or that's disagreed with him."
Durant remembered. There were things about bacteriology in that Nineteenth Century, and about hypnotism; the Colonel had apparently seized on them as on fuel for a perishing fire.
Heedless of the frivolous41 interruption, the little gentleman [Pg 234] was working himself into a second intellectual fury.
"Take hypnotism again—there's another abstraction for you——"
Here Mrs. Fazakerly threw up her hands. "My dear Colonel, de grace! If it's an abstraction, why get into a passion about it? Life isn't long enough. You're worrying your brain into fiddlesticks—fiddlestrings I mean, of course. This child doesn't look after you. You ought to have something tied over your head to keep it down; it's like a Jack-in-the-box, a candle blazing away at both ends, a sword wearing out its what's-his-name; it's wearing out your friends, too. We can't live at intellectual high pressure, if you can."
The Colonel softened42 visibly under the delicious flattery of her appeal; he smiled at her and at Durant; he came down from his heights and made a concession43 to the popular taste. "Well, then, take influenza44——"
"We'd very much rather not take it, if it's all the same to you."
"Take what?"
"Why, the influenza—the bacilli, or whatever they are. Or do the bacilli take you?"
"My dear lady, you don't know what you're talking about. The bacilli theory is—is—is a silly theory."
And Durant actually smiled; for his own brain was softening45 under the debilitating46 influence. He would not be surprised at anything he might do himself; he might even sink into that sickly state in which people see puns in everything and everything in puns; it would be the effect of the place.
"Well, it made you very ill last winter, that's all I know."
The wrinkles stopped dancing over the Colonel's [Pg 235] face; his shirt-front sank; he was touched with an infinite tenderness and pity for himself.
"Yes. But I had a fit of the real thing. It left me without a particle of muscle—legs mere6 thread-papers, and no brain——"
"Cherry-tart, Mr. Durant?"
The voice was Miss Tancred's. It was keen, incisive47; it cut the Colonel's sentence like a knife. But if she had meant to kill it the unfilial attempt was foiled.
"No brain at all, Durant." He held up a forefinger48, demonstrating on the empty air. "That, mind you, is the test, the mark of true influenza—the ut-ter, absolute collapse49 of brain power."
"Imbacillity, in short."
Having emitted this feeble spark, Durant's intellect went out altogether. Trusting to his face not to betray him, he inquired gravely if it was long since the Colonel's last attack of influenza.
But he had trusted rather too much to his face. A painful flush spread over it when he found Miss Tancred looking at him with a lucid50, penetrating51 gaze. She had recognized his guilt52; it was impossible to tell whether she had measured the provocation53.
He, at any rate, had discovered the secret of her silence; it was not stupidity, it was shame. The spectacle of the Colonel's conversational54 debauches had weaned her forever from the desire of speech. For the rest of the meal he, too, sat silent, building a cairn of cherry-stones at the side of his plate; an appropriate memorial of a young man bored to death at a dinner-table.
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1
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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4
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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5
frustrated
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| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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6
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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7
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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8
eccentricities
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| n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 )；反常；怪癖 | |
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manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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16
expectancy
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| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
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17
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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18
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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19
flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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depreciation
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| n.价值低落，贬值，蔑视，贬低 | |
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21
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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22
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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23
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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24
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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26
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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27
barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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28
expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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30
prologue
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| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
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31
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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32
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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33
memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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34
fad
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| n.时尚；一时流行的狂热；一时的爱好 | |
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35
fads
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| n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 ) | |
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36
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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37
dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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39
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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40
cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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41
frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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42
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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43
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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44
influenza
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| n.流行性感冒，流感 | |
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45
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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46
debilitating
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| a.使衰弱的 | |
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47
incisive
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| adj.敏锐的，机敏的，锋利的，切入的 | |
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48
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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49
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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50
lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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51
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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52
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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53
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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54
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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