She went out to the kitchen and brewed3 herself a cup of coffee, then started for a brisk walk round the island. The night’s refreshing4 sleep, the strong drink, the awakening5 tropic morning, the peace of mind that follows a momentous6 and final decision, made her feel as if dancing on ether, almost as happy as if Tay were beside her. The sea was as blue as liquid sapphire7, save near the shore, where it was as green as the beryl stone. The cloud that descends8 the slopes of Nevis at nightfall had rolled itself upward and floated lightly above the cone9. In the distance were the outlines of other islands; and everywhere the royal palms with their long bladelike leaves rattling10 in the rising trade-wind that gives lightness to Nevis air on the hottest day, the bright green cane11 fields, the heavy dark groves12 of banana trees, the lime and shaddock orchards13. Even the ruins of the deserted14 old estates, splendid masses of masonry15 in their day, a day of coaches, and knee-breeches, and gay brocades, had a new and more pictorial16 lease of life, for brilliant foliage17 burst from every crevice18.
The negroes began to sing in the cane fields, women in bright cotton frocks, with brighter handkerchiefs about their heads, came from their huts along the shore and cooked in the open, boats danced on the water. She walked halfway19 round the island and was hungry once more. A little black boy, tempted20 by a bit of silver, “skinned” up the slim shaft21 of a tree and threw down a young cocoanut. She refreshed herself with its “wine” and then started along the stretch of road that passed Bath House, half hoping to meet Tay. In a moment she heard the sound of galloping22 hoofs23, eight at least, and averse24 from meeting any one else, hid behind a clump25 of low palms.
The horses stopped abruptly26, then struck the road more lightly as if their riders had dismounted. She parted the palm leaves and looked out. A man and a maid appeared round a bend of the road, each leading a horse. The girl took the man’s arm with a little gesture of confidence and looked up into his face, speaking rapidly. The man looked down at her, smiling, admiring, indulgent. The girl’s face was flaming with nothing short of adoration27. They were Fanny Edis and Daniel Tay.
Julia, feeling as if she had received a blow in the pit of the stomach, sank limply to the ground and stared out over the dazzling sea. Monserrat quivered in its haze28, and she wondered if it were in the throes of an earthquake. It usually was. She remembered that Mont Pelée, after untold29 years of “death,” had suddenly blown the lake from her summit and suffocated30 thirty-five thousand people in four minutes. Would that Nevis would awake, pour out her boiling lava31, and extinguish her wretched mortals. Julia beat her brow with one of those instinctive32 gestures too natural for the modern stage; for perfect naturalism borders upon farce33.
Tay—Fanny. She took it in finally. He had fallen in love with Fanny, the young, beautiful, glowing girl—What was it old Pirie had called her—“volcanic product”? No doubt she was far more beautiful and fascinating than any girl Tay had ever met,—and quite different from American girls. Julia recalled many of them; they had always seemed to her rather light; clever and charming, but scantily34 sexed. No wonder Tay had succumbed35 to this gorgeous tropic flower. Fanny might be selfish, soulless, brutal36, but what man ever looked behind a beauty like that? She was the siren born, and men have gone down before sirens since the daughters of Eve came to rule the earth and laugh to scorn the god in man.
Julia felt quite sixty. No doubt Tay had realized that she was all of thirty-four the moment he had seen her beside Fanny. Men were always fools about the mere37 youth in woman. Hadn’t she noticed that years ago, before she had spent a week in London? No wonder Nature made women brutal and wholly selfish during its brief possession. Tay had loved her, oh, no doubt of that, but with his mind, with that greater half of his being which he had shown her that day in the Bavarian wood; but men are primal38 always and spiritual incidentally, when they are men at all; and her hold had been a flimsy silken string that had snapped the moment he met this radiant mate, unspoiled, untouched, awaiting him on a tropical island. He had loved her, but he was madly in love with Fanny, and that, after all, was the great passion mortals lived to experience, if only because the poets had taught them to expect it. And she—she must despise where she had almost worshipped. How did women survive the death of illusions? Material death was something to pray for.
But Julia’s brain, stunned39 for the first time in its active life, soon recovered its energies. She suddenly realized that she did not feel sixty, no, not by any means. She felt very young and very angry. A moment more and she sprang to her feet with a cry of fury. She fancied she heard her flame-colored locks crackle. Her slim fine hands worked. They looked like steel instruments of torture one may see among old relics40 of the Inquisition. What right had this raw silly girl to take her man from her? Tay was hers and she should have him. She should hold him to his word, marry him, make him forget this passing infatuation. He would not be long discovering that she had far more to give him than any callow girl. If not! Once more her fingers opened and shut. Well for Fanny that she was once more on her horse with a strong arm beside her. Julia’s fingers were ready for the slender stem upholding that triumphant41 arrogant42 head. Fanny! Why, Fanny was a fool. She would make Tay the most miserable43 of men, understand not the least of his ambitions, leave him, no doubt, for another the moment her passion had cooled. He had insinuated44 that she was a born wanton, although he appeared to have forgotten this virtuous45 impression.
Her next impulse was to run after Fanny, denounce her as a thief, a pirate, force her to see the dishonor of her conduct. But this impulse soon passed, for never would she, Julia France, make a fool of herself, no, not if they laughed in her face. But what, in heaven’s name, should she do?
She peered out. The road was clear. She darted46 across it, and up into a cane field. The negroes were far away by the mill. She threw herself down in the dense47 green silence and wept a torrent48. After all, what could she do? She could only recognize that she had lost Tay, the one man in the world for her; she, who had made herself so much more than mere woman, and to a girl who was her inferior in everything but beauty.
She wept stormily for her lost lover, for love, for herself. Then, once more, she despised him. Why should she regret a man who had proved himself weak and contemptible49? Why indeed? Ask womankind. She did. The more convinced she grew that she had lost him, the more she wanted him. She abhorred50 him, she loathed51 him, she had never despised any mortal so utterly52, and she loved him several thousand times more than ever.
She sat up and dried her eyes viciously. Why was she making a fright of herself? She had always laughed at women that cried and spoiled their eyes. He was not yet married to Fanny. Why should she not pretend to release him, then subtly re?nter the lists and win him again? How could any girl survive in a close contest with a woman still young and beautiful, and with experience and knowledge of men? But she stirred uneasily. She had seen the automatic triumphs of girls more than once. Nature was always on their side.
She fell back on the ground with a sensation of despair. “Oh, what shall I do?” she thought in terror. “Have I come to this? How shall I live?”
But she sat up again in a few moments and deliberately53 composed herself, ordering her powerful will to rise and perform its office. She must return to the house before her mother sent servants in search of her, and her eyes must not be red. Nor her hair look as if she had tried to tear it out by the roots. She took down the braids, smoothed them with her hands, pinned them up, and pushed the short locks under her hat.
Her mother. She had risen to her feet, but stood staring out over the waving cane. Why had she given Fanny this sudden liberty, and not three hours after announcing her decision, with all the force of her obstinate54 old will, that Fanny should never marry, never be permitted even to meet, a young man? And why had she insisted that Julia remain at her side throughout her entire visit? Never was there a less sentimental55 woman. And the conversation at the dinner-table last night? It sprang vividly56 from her memory. She saw Fanny’s face, flushed, arrogant, anxious, her aunt’s faint satiric57 smile, heard her covert58 words of warning.
What a blind fool she had been.
“So,” she thought grimly. “We are all the victims of a plot, and one quite worthy59 of my mother. I have been managed as easily as if I had but a teaspoonful60 of brains in my head. And so has he. Idiots! Idiots!” And she hated everybody on earth.
She walked rapidly home, slipped into the house unobserved, bathed her eyes, until the outer signs of the most tempestuous61 hour of her life were obliterated62, powdered the black rings under her eyes, and made a satisfactory appearance at the lunch table. Neither Mrs. Winstone nor Fanny was present. Mrs. Edis talked of naught63 but Suffrage64.
“Great heaven!” thought Julia. “That I should live to hate the word!”
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1
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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3
brewed
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| 调制( brew的过去式和过去分词 )； 酝酿； 沏（茶）； 煮（咖啡） | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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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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6
momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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8
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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9
cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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10
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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11
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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12
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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13
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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15
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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pictorial
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| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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18
crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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20
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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21
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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22
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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23
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24
averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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25
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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28
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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30
suffocated
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| （使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气 | |
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31
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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32
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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35
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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36
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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37
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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38
primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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39
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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40
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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41
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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42
arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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43
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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44
insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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45
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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46
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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47
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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48
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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49
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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50
abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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51
loathed
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
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52
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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53
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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54
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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55
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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56
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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57
satiric
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| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
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58
covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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59
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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60
teaspoonful
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| n.一茶匙的量；一茶匙容量 | |
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61
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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62
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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63
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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64
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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