As the first guests were ascending6, Julia had turned to the duke and said sweetly:?—
“I have asked Ishbel and Bridgit, and they have promised to come.”
“You have what?” asked the duke, his dull eyes glowing.
“They were my first friends in England, and as I am your hostess, it occurred to me that I had the right to issue a few invitations on my own account. I merely mention it, that you may not be betrayed by surprise when you see them.”
“You have taken a purely7 feminine advantage—waiting until this moment to tell me—when I can do nothing!” It was long since the duke had felt himself on fire with passion.
“Of course we all take our advantages where we can, and are as deceitful as possible,” said Julia, smiling into his snapping eyes. “Those are primal8 weapons, and you gave them to us. Here come some terribly important people.”
The duke had been forced to swallow his wrath9, and, in a few moments, forgot it in the sudden stream of arrivals. After a time fatigue10 overcame him and he slipped away, leaving Julia alone with Lady Arabella (yellow and bony in white embossed velvet11 and rubies12). France was making himself agreeable to the dowagers. The interview with his wife had inspired him with a longing13 to go out and entice14 some wretch15 of the streets to a hiding-place, where he could beat her to a jelly, but the gall16 in his blood did not affect his shrewd cunning brain, which steadily17 pursued its object. To-night was his first opportunity to be gallant18 to women, politics and sport having claimed him since his illness; and after a few well-turned compliments, he talked of nothing but the beauty and virtues19 of his wife. Perhaps the duke was the only human being who really liked him, for, without magnetism20 or charm of any sort, he left both men and women cold where he did not repel21; but to-night he acquitted22 himself so creditably that several mothers thought upon their loss with regret.
Julia’s mind was beginning to play her strange tricks. Carlyle’s “French Revolution” had been among the books at Bosquith, and its style had so fascinated her that she had read it twice. It so happened that a number of extremely handsome women with white hair honored the Kingsborough ball to-night. Some were young. All were gorgeously bedecked. The intense hard glitter of diamonds dissolved into mist, took on fantastic shapes: graceful23 powdered heads, glittering with jewels, on the top of pikes, warm pampered24 bodies blocking the stairs.
It was not so much that Julia’s mind was awakening25 to the problem of the poor, the menace of the unemployed26 and the underpaid; in truth, she generally shuddered27 and turned away when Bridgit and Ishbel discussed the subject; but these spectacular women on the grand staircase of Kingsborough House seemed so ripe! They looked so useless, so languidly magnificent, so overbred, so close to the apotheosis28 of their destiny, that—again her fancy veered—Julia half expected to see a row of footlights behind them; then a sudden shifting of scenery, and the tumbrel and guillotine. The time came when Julia knew many of them well enough to deal out a greater measure of justice than the outsider that hurls29 the word “parasite” at every woman fortunate enough to possess what the poor all want—wealth. She learned that many of them worked harder for their political husbands than an army of secretaries, that others rose, during the season, at an hour when they fain would have slept off the fatigue of the day before, in order to get through a mass of correspondence relating to the particular problem, political, social, or economic, they were striving to solve. Many of these women were mothers to their tenantry, watching over the growth and education of every girl and boy born on their estates. Others went daily to settlements, some to districts so abandoned as to be practically hopeless, and requiring a mettle30 far higher than the mere soldier needs when racing31 his fellows to battle. Some worked with churches, others with societies, others alone; nearly all were interested in one charity or another, many trying to feel their way through the obvious method of relief to some cause they could grapple with, since the power to legislate32 was forbidden them. Scarcely one of those women, dressed from Paris, weighted down with jewels old and new, but faced the serious side of life at some hour during the twenty-four; but although Julia came to know this, the impression of the terrible immaturity33 of civilization, caused by the blind vanity and selfishness of human nature at the outset, and persisted in through the centuries in spite of lessons written in blood, and of the gross unfairness of life, never left her. If she was in the toils34 of youth at present, and far more interested in herself than in the world and its problems, the mere fact that these blue marsh35 lights could dance across her mind occasionally, would have satisfied her more advanced friends that when the awakening came it would be sudden and final.
But not to-night. Her visions fled. She looked down into a pair of dark satiric36 eyes, and her own flashed back a more than courteous37 welcome. Ishbel had come some time since, and after piloting the delighted Mr. Jones up and down for half an hour (wearing his diamonds and looking the radiant wife), had deposited him between two of the haughty38 dowagers he loved, and fluttered off with her court. But Bridgit was late. She had demurred39 at coming at all, being “sick of the game”; but had yielded to Julia’s importunities, partly to “please the child,” partly because her mischievous40 soul suspected that the invitation did not emanate41 from headquarters, and delighted in giving the duke “a turn.” She might be well on the road to Socialism, and have come to the end of her capacity for mere pleasure, but she had not lost her sense of humor; and inborn42 arrogance43 of class never dies, no matter how amenable44 the brain to reason, and to a sincere democracy which manifests itself so effectively in manner. Bridgit’s paternal45 grandfather was a duke with three more quarterings to his credit than Kingsborough’s, ancestral performances known to every student of history, and two strains of royal blood with and without the bend sinister46; therefore, did Mrs. Herbert feel that she was doing the old pudding an honor in coming to his musty barrack whether invited or not. And, automatically no doubt, she had attired47 herself in the fashion of her class, of the women in whose company she was to spend a night once more. She wore a gown of gold colored brocade opening over a round skirt of rose point. Rising out of the coils of her wiry black hair was an all-round crown of diamonds, and on her neck, falling to the soft lace of her corsage, was a chain of diamonds and pear-shaped pearls. With her fine upstanding figure, her towering height, and flashing black eyes, she might make the most compelling figure imaginable at the head of a rebel army singing the Marseillaise, but to-night there was no more stately dame49 in Kingsborough House.
Julia, somewhat in the fashion of royalty, passed on the people separating them, and grasped Bridgit’s hand, revivified by the sight of a dear and familiar face.
“Oh, I’m so glad,” she cried, indifferent to stares and the displeasure of Lady Arabella. “And they must nearly all have come. Do wait for me?—”
She stopped short. She had had eyes only for Bridgit. Mechanically they had travelled on to Bridgit’s escort. The man standing48 with his hand outstretched was Nigel Herbert.
“He got home this afternoon,” said Mrs. Herbert, casually50. “I knew you would like to see him, so I brought him on. How do, Lady Arabella? Always loved you in rubies.”
“Huh!” said Lady Arabella. She would have cut this dangerous apostate51 if she had been equal to the effort; but to freeze that bright powerful gaze, by no means without malice52, was beyond her capacity, so she merely sniffed53 and advised her to seek the duke, who would be as delighted as herself to welcome Mrs. Herbert to Kingsborough House. She was of the many that blundered over sarcasm54, and her soul shivered under the sweetness of Bridgit’s acceptance.
Meanwhile Julia was exclaiming to Nigel:?—
“Oh, but I am glad to see you! And do go to the blue room and wait for me. It’s downstairs behind the library.”
Nigel’s face had flushed, then turned pale; the first moment of the renewal55 of their acquaintance had been an awkward one for him. It was with some difficulty that he had been persuaded to come at all. For many reasons he had wished never to meet her again, and had returned to England only because it was necessary to see his book through the press; a melancholy56 experience with the last having lost him his faith in proof-readers forever.
But when he saw the welcome in those big shining eyes, the happy smile on those young parted lips, he forgot even the subtle changes he had noted57 in her face, while still unobserved, and he flushed again, his heart beat rapidly. “Does she care?” he thought wildly. “Not now! Not now!—But?—”
Julia was staring with almost childish delight at the frank handsome face of her first friend in England. She forgot the romantic hour at Bosquith, forgot that she had sat up all night to contrive58 an extinguisher for the embarrassing passion of this misguided young man, remembered only that here was a real friend; moreover, one possessing that magnet of sex lacking in Bridgit and Ishbel (such being the cross currents in her still imperfect soul), so congenial that she could have flung her arms about him at the head of the grand staircase of Kingsborough House. She had never met any one she liked half as well.
He caught his breath sharply, whether in relief or disillusion59, he did not pretend to guess at this moment.
“I’ll wait for you,” he said, and made way for the next arrivals.
Some ten minutes later Julia turned to Lady Arabella.
“They are beginning to straggle,” she said. “If you don’t mind I won’t stay any longer.”
“I do mind,” severely60. “And your place is here, child as you are.”
“I can’t see why. . . . More guests. . . . Who cares about a child? And you are vastly more important.”
“You have acquitted yourself very creditably. . . . Besides, people are curious to see you, and nobody cares for an old thing like me.”
“Half of them are still glowing with the honor of having shaken hands with you—you go out so seldom. . . . Besides, my slippers pinch. I want to put on an old pair.”
“I always wear slippers a size too large and made by a surgical61 shoemaker, on occasions like this. You must do the same. I should have told you.”
“I’ll order a pair to-morrow, but that doesn’t do me any good now.”
“Very well. Run along.”
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1
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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pampered
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| adj.饮食过量的，饮食奢侈的v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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27
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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apotheosis
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| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
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hurls
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的第三人称单数 )；大声叫骂 | |
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mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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legislate
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| vt.制定法律；n.法规，律例；立法 | |
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immaturity
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| n.不成熟；未充分成长；未成熟；粗糙 | |
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toils
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| 网 | |
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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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satiric
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| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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demurred
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| v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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emanate
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| v.发自，来自，出自 | |
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inborn
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| adj.天生的，生来的，先天的 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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amenable
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| adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的 | |
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paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
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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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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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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51
apostate
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| n.背叛者，变节者 | |
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52
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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53
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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54
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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59
disillusion
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| vt.使不再抱幻想，使理想破灭 | |
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60
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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