[Pg 352] It was not until she had proceeded for a couple of hundred yards that she discovered that she was going in the wrong direction. The ninth hole was situated6 at the extreme end of the links, and as she had turned on her heel and swung off more with the idea of abandoning her present locality than of reaching another, she realised that, if she continued on her present course, every step would take her farther from the hotel. The discovery added to her wrath7. She was making herself ridiculous now. Pip had probably noticed her mistake, and was in all likelihood still standing8 on the green laughing at her. Return and walk past him she would not. Only one thing remained to be done: she would turn in among the neighbouring sand-hills, make a détour, and walk home along the shore.
A friendly gap between two hillocks presented itself on her left, and she swung round and made for it. As she passed through the entrance she could not help looking back. Pip was sitting on the tee-box beside the now distant green. His chin was buried in his hands, and he was gazing out to sea, with his pipe projecting from his mouth at a reflective angle.
Elsie knew that attitude.
"He's thinking the situation over," she said to herself. "Let him: it will do him good. Oh, dear! where have I got to now?"
[Pg 353] She walked into a tiny amphitheatre. All round her rose walls of fine, shifting, running sand. They sloped up gradually, to where they had fallen away from the surrounding summit, leaving a crumbling9 precipice10 six or seven feet high, crowned with a projecting rim11 of treacherous12 turf,—a natural bunker if ever there was one, and almost as difficult of exit for a girl as for a golf-ball.
But Elsie made the attempt. She was determined13 not to go back through the gap into Pip's range of vision if she could help it. She struggled up the slope of yielding sand, which sank beneath her feet and trickled14 into her shoes: she reached the top, laid hold of the overhanging turf, and tried to pull herself up. But, just as she placed a triumphant15 knee on the summit, the crumbling fabric16 subsided17 beneath her weight, and she was projected in a highly indecorous fashion to the foot of the slope.
On this occasion Elsie had some cause to feel grateful that Pip (or indeed any other gentleman) was not present. But the idea did not occur to her. In fact, things had come to a crisis. She was tired out after her hard game, disappointed at the result,—as a matter of fact, she was not very clear as to whether she had won or lost,—and thoroughly18 demoralised and unstrung by the strain of recent events. She had planned out the [Pg 354] present comedy with some care, assigning to herself the superior and congenial r?le of magnanimous conqueror19, and to Pip that of humbled20 and grateful victim. Somehow everything had gone wrong. She was angry with herself and furious with Pip, and now she had fallen down several yards of slippery sand and twisted her foot. She was not sure if the comedy had turned out a tragedy or a farce21; all she realised was that it had been a dismal22 failure. In short, Elsie had expelled Nature with a pitchfork, and now Nature was coming home to roost.
But, in spite of the pitchfork, Nature bore no malice23. On the contrary, quite aghast at the havoc24 that her brief absence had created, she at once took her luckless daughter in hand. Consequently Elsie, poor, distracted, overwrought Elsie, threw herself down on the scanty25 grass, and found immediate1 relief in woman's priceless and ever-to-be-envied panacea26 for all ills—a good cry.
How long she lay sobbing27 she did not know. When she at length raised her head from the turf and began to dab28 her eyes with a damp and entirely29 inadequate30 pocket-handkerchief, she became aware, with a curious lack of surprise, that Pip was sitting a few yards from her. His pipe was no longer in his mouth, and he was regarding her intently with serious eyes.
[Pg 355] "You left your clubs behind you," he said. "I brought them along."
"Thank you," said Elsie.
There was a pause. Finally Elsie completed operations with the handkerchief, and looked Pip squarely in the face. Her tears seemed in some mysterious way to have washed all feelings of anger, restraint, and false sentiment out of her head. For all that, she was not absolutely comfortable. Pip must, of course, be punished for having put that ball into the hole; but the performance of this duty demanded firmness and judicial31 dignity, and she felt guiltily conscious that her recent tears would detract somewhat from its effectiveness.
Pip, however, was the first to break the silence.
"I was wondering," he remarked, "why you raced off like that just now. Of course, there was one explanation,—that you wanted to lose the match, and were sick at having won it,—but I wasn't such a bounder as to think that. I smoked a pipe or two up there,"—Elsie started; she had not realised that her cry had lasted so long,—"and I thought it all over to see if I could come to a satisfactory solution of the mystery, and—"
Elsie unclosed her left hand, and displayed a golf-ball, which she tossed towards him.
[Pg 356] "There's the solution, Pip," she said.
Pip picked up the ball and examined it. Then he took another from his pocket and compared the two.
"Ah!" he remarked. "Then you spotted32 me. I thought you had, but I couldn't see how. It never occurred to me that you had found your ball. I thought perhaps you had seen something wrong with the one I put—took out of the hole, but I see they are both identical. There's not a mark on either. It was a pity you found yours. If you hadn't, all would have ended happily, wouldn't it?"
"For me or for you?"
"For both of us."
"Then you wouldn't have minded losing?" This with a scornful little laugh.
"No, not in this case."
There was another silence. That Pip should not mind losing a match of which she was the prize struck Elsie as uncomplimentary, not to say rude.
But Pip was never rude to her. Obviously there was something more to come. She waited patiently. Pip gave no sign.
Presently feminine curiosity overcame pride, and she asked,—
"What do you mean by 'in this case'?"
"I mean this," said Pip. "I don't like losing [Pg 357] matches at any time,—nobody does,—but in this case, your case, I was glad."
"Oh! Why?"
"At first it was because I couldn't bear to see you beaten after the plucky33 fight you made. I've often felt the same thing at cricket, when some chap is sticking in to keep the last wicket up, and I am put on to knock it down. Admiration34 for a gallant35 foe36, and all that, you know. But now I am glad for quite another reason—jolly glad!" He gave the girl a look that was quite new to her.
"Why are you glad, Pip?" she asked, not unkindly.
"Well, I had a good long think just now, up on that green, and a lot of things were made plain to me that had never struck me before. First of all, I realised that you had been quite right."
"Right? About what?"
"About this golf-match being contrary to Nature. Love affairs aren't built that way. I had no right to try and force such terms on you. I see that now. I tried to drive you into a corner. It was a low-down trick, though I thought it a fair enough offer at the time. I was quite sincere."
"I know you were," said Elsie quickly.
Pip raised his eyes to hers for a moment.
[Pg 358] "Thank you," he said; "it was decent of you to say that. Now, where I made my error was in this. I didn't think it mattered much whether I got you willing or unwilling37, so long as I got you. It was you I wanted, you—Elsie—alive or dead, so to speak,—nothing else mattered. And then suddenly I saw what a fool I had been. I had forgotten that there were two sides to the question. When a man wins a race or a competition of any kind, he sticks the prize up on his mantelpiece and takes no further notice of it beyond looking at it occasionally and feeling glad he's got it. Once there, it ceases to have such an interest for him: he hasn't got to live with it or cart it about with him. I am afraid I was looking at you rather in that light. I was so taken up with the idea of winning you that I forgot about—about—"
"About having to 'cart me about with you'?" said Elsie.
"Yes, that's it. I forgot I couldn't put you on the mantelpiece and leave you there: I had to consider your point of view as well as my own. It was then I realised, all in a moment, that unless you came to me absolutely of your own free will, without terms or conditions, you couldn't come at all,—and what's more, I wouldn't want you to; and that's saying a good deal, as you know."
[Pg 359] He paused suddenly, and darted38 a rather ashamed look at Elsie.
"I suppose all this seems fearfully obvious to you," he said. "Most men would have found it out for themselves from the beginning."
"Some men never find it out at all, Pip."
"Well, that's comforting. Anyhow, having reasoned it all out up there, I put my pipe in my pocket and came along here to tell you."
"To tell me what?"
"How sorry I was."
"What for?"
"For having behaved like a—"
"You don't look very sorry."
Pip's eyes gleamed.
"No, and I'm not either," he shouted. "I'm not, I'm not! I have seen something since then that has driven all my sorriness out of my head. I came along here, fearfully glum39, just to say I was sorry to have forced such a caddish scheme on you, and to ask if I might carry your clubs back to the house, and suddenly I came round the corner, and there I saw you—crying."
"And that's made you glad?" said Elsie coldly.
"Glad? I should think it did!" He stood up, and continued, "Don't you see, dear, it showed me that you cared? A girl doesn't lie sobbing on the sand if she's absolutely indifferent. Oh, [Pg 360] I know now, right enough: half an hour ago I didn't. I came upon you then hunting for your ball and dabbing40 your eyes with your handkerchief; but that of course was different; I knew it wasn't the real thing. You were just tired then, and sick at losing the game; but this time"—his face glowed—"this time I knew it was the real thing, and that you cared, you really cared. Yes, you cared; you had cared all the time, and I had never known it!"
He stood over her, absolutely radiant: no one had ever seen Pip like this before. Then he dropped down on to the grass beside the girl, and put his arm inside hers.
"You do care, don't you, Elsie?" he said.
Elsie turned and looked him full in the face, without a trace of affectation or fear.
"Yes, Pip, I do," she answered.
It was long after six when they emerged from their retreat. The clouds were drifting up once more from the southwest, and everything promised a wet night. There was little wind, but already rain-drops were beginning to fall, unsteadily and fitfully. Presently this period of indecision ceased, and the rain came down in earnest. The two paused, and Pip surveyed Elsie's thin blouse disapprovingly41.
[Pg 361] "Isn't there some place where we can shelter?" said Elsie.
"There's a sort of tin place over there, but you would be soaked through before you got halfway42 to it. Besides, this rain means business; it'll go on all night now."
"Come along then," said Elsie; "we must hurry. I can change when we get home."
"Wait a minute," said Pip.
He began to divest43 himself of his tweed jacket.
"Put this on," he said.
"Nonsense, Pip; you'll get soaked."
Pip sighed, gently and patiently.
"Put it on," he repeated, holding it open for her.
Elsie glanced at him, and obeyed.
"You're an obstinate44 old pig, sometimes, Pip," she remarked.
And so they tramped home. They said little: there seemed to be nothing left in the world worth saying. Pip carried both sets of clubs under his left arm. Occasionally he sighed, long and gently, as one who has done his day's work and is at peace with all the world. Elsie marched beside him, with her arms buried to the elbows in the deep pockets of Pip's old jacket. (They were spacious45 pockets: one of them was sheltering two hands.) At intervals46 Elsie would look up [Pg 362] at Pip, upon whose head and shoulders the rain was descending47 pitilessly. Once she said,—
"Pip, you're getting awfully48 wet."
Pip looked down upon her for a moment. Then he looked up again, and shook his glistening49 head defiantly50 at the weeping heavens.
"Who cares?" he roared.
THE END
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1
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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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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crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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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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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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panacea
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| n.万灵药；治百病的灵药 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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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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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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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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glum
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| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
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dabbing
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| 石面凿毛，灰泥抛毛 | |
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disapprovingly
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| adv.不以为然地，不赞成地，非难地 | |
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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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divest
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| v.脱去，剥除 | |
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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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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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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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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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49
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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