But Will’s refusal, for her own sake, to accept her self-surrender, filled her soul with shame for her slighted womanhood. She understood Will’s reasons; she saw how unselfish and kind were his motives9; but still, the sense remained that she had debased herself before him, all to no purpose. She had offered him the most precious gift a woman can offer to any man?—?and he, he had rejected it. Linnet bowed down her head in intense humiliation10. On her own scheme of life, she would have been far less dishonoured11 by Will’s accepting her then and there, in a hot flood of passion, than by his proposal to wait till she could get a purely12 meaningless and invalid13 release from her sacrament with Andreas. Having once made up her mind to desert her husband and follow her own heart, in spite of ultimate consequences, it seemed to her almost foolish that Will should shrink on her account from the verdict of the world, when she herself did not shrink?—?so great was her love?—?from the wrath14 of heaven and eternal punishment.
But, as she sat there and ruminated15, it began gradually to dawn upon her that in some ways Will was right; even if she sinned boldly and openly, as she was prepared to sin, before Our Lady and the Saints, it might be well for her immediate16 comfort and happiness to keep up appearances before English society. Perhaps it was desirable for the next few days, till the talk blew over, to go, as Will said, under some married woman’s protection. But what married woman? Not that calmly terrible Mrs Sartoris, at any rate. She dreaded17 Will’s sister, more even than she dreaded the average middle-aged18 British matron. She knew how Maud would treat her, if she took her in at all; better anything at that moment of volcanic19 passion than the cold and cutting repose20, the icy calmness of the British matron’s unemotional demeanour.
As Linnet was sitting there with her face in her hands, longing21 for Will’s return, and half-doubting in her own heart whether she had done quite right, even from her own heart’s standpoint, in coming straight away to him?—?Florian Wood, in a faultless frock-coat, with a moss-rose in his buttonhole, strolled by himself in a lazy mood down Piccadilly. It was Florian’s way to lounge through life, and he was lounging as usual. He pulled out his watch. Hullo! time for dinner! Now, Florian was always a creature of impulse. He hesitated for a moment, with cane22 poised23 in his dainty hand, which of three courses to pursue that lay open before him. Should he drop into the Savile for his evening meal; should he go home by himself to Grosvenor Gardens; or should he take pot-luck with Will Deverill in Duke Street? Bah! the dinner at the Savile’s a mere24 bad table d’h?te. At home, he would be lonely with a solitary25 chop. The social instinct within him impelled26 him at once to seek for society with his old friend in St James’s.
He opened the door for himself, for he had a latch-key that fitted it. In the hall, Ellen was seated, and the man-servant of the house was standing27 by and flirting28 with her. “Mr Deverill’s not at home, sir,” he said, with a hurried start, as Florian entered.
“Never mind,” the Epicurean philosopher replied, with his bland29, small smile. “Pretty girl on the chair there. He’s coming back to dinner, I suppose, at the usual hour. Very well, that’s right; I’ll go up and wait for him. You can tell Mrs Watts30 to lay covers for two. I purpose to dine here.”
“Beg your pardon, sir,” the man said, placing himself full in front of Florian’s delicate form, so as to half-block the passage; “there’s a lady upstairs.” He hesitated, and simpered. “I rather think,” he continued, very doubtful how to proceed, “Mr Deverill wished nobody to go up till he came back again. Leastways, I had orders.”
“Why, it’s Signora Casalmonte!” Florian broke in, interrupting him; for he recognised the pretty girl on a second glance as the housemaid at Linnet’s. An expansive smile diffused31 itself over his close-shaven face. This was indeed a discovery! Linnet come to Will Deverill’s! And with a portmanteau, too!?—?Will, whose stern morality had read him so many pretty lectures on conduct in the Tyrol. And Linnet?—?that devout32 Catholic, so demure33, so immaculate, the very pink of public singers, the pure flower of the stage! Who on earth would have believed it? But there, it’s these quiet souls who are always the deepest! While Florian himself, for all his talk, how innocent he was, how harmless, how free from every taint34 of guile35, wile36, or deception37! What reconciled him to life, as he grew older every day, was the thought that, after all, ’twas so very amusing.
The man hesitated still more. “I don’t think you must go up, sir,” he said, still barring the way, “Mr Deverill told me if Hare Houseberger called, to say he wasn’t at home to him.”
Florian’s face was a study. It rippled38 over with successive waves of stifled39 laughter. But Ellen, with feminine quickness, saw the error of the man’s clumsy male intelligence. It would never do for Mr Wood, that silver-tongued man-about-town to go away and explain at every club in London how he’d caught the Casalmonte, with her maid and her portmanteau, on a surreptitious visit to Will Deverill’s chambers. Better far he should go up and see the Signora herself. Principals, in such cases, should invent their own lies, untrammelled by their subordinates. The Signora might devise what excuse she thought best to keep Florian’s mouth shut; and Will himself might come back before long to corroborate40 it.
“No, no,” she said hastily, with much evident artlessness. “You can go up, sir, of course. The Signora’s just waiting to see Mr Deverill.”
Florian brushed past the man with a spring, and ran lightly up the stairs, with quite as much agility41 as so small a body can be expected to compass. He burst into the room unannounced. Linnet rose, in very obvious dismay, to greet him. She was taken aback, Florian could see?—?and glad indeed he was to notice it. This little contretemps was clearly the wise man’s opportunity. Providential, providential! He grasped her hand with warmth, printing a delicate little squeeze on the soft bit of muscle between thumb and fingers. “What, Linnet!” he cried, “alone, and in Will Deverill’s rooms! How lucky I am to catch you! This is really delightful42!”
Linnet sank back in her chair. She hardly knew what to say, how to cover her confusion. But excuse herself she must; some portion at least of what had passed she must explain to him. In a faltering43 voice, with many pauses and hesitations44, she told him a faint outline of what had happened that day?—?her quarrel with Andreas, his cruel treatment, how he had struck her and hurt her, how she had fled from him precipitately45. She hinted to him even in her most delicate way some dim suggestion of her husband’s letter to Philippina. Florian stroked himself and smiled; he nodded wisely. “We knew all that before,” he put in at last, with a knowing little air of sagacious innuendo46. “We knew Friend Hausberger’s little ways. Though, how quiet he kept over them! A taciturn Don Juan! a most prudent47 Lothario!” It was the wise man’s cue now to set Linnet still further against her husband.
“So I left him,” Linnet went on simply, with transparent48 na?veté; “I left him, and came away, just packing a few clothes into my portmanteau, hurriedly. I didn’t know where to go, so I came straight to Mr Deverill’s. He was always a good friend of mine, you know, was Mr Deverill.” She paused, and blushed. “I’ve sent him out,” she continued, with a little pardonable deviation49 from the strictest veracity50, “to see if he can find me some house among his friends?—?some English lady’s?—?where I can stop for the present, till I know what I mean to do, now I’ve come away from Andreas. He’s going to his sister’s first, to see if she can take me in; after that, if she can’t, he’s going to look about elsewhere.”
She gazed up at him timidly. She felt, as she spoke5, Will was right after all. How could she brave the whole world’s censure51, openly and frankly expressed, if she shrank so instinctively52 from the prying53 gaze of that one man, Florian? God, who reads all hearts, would know, if she sinned, she sinned for true love; but the world?—?that hateful world?—?Linnet leant back in her seat and shut her eyes with horror.
As for Florian, however, he seized the occasion with avidity. He saw his chance now. He was all respectful sympathy. The man Hausberger was a wretch54 who had never been fit for her; he had entrapped55 her by fraud; she did right to leave him. What horrid56 marks on her arm, and on that soft brown neck of hers! Did the cur do that? What a creature, to lay hands on so divine a woman! Though, of course, it was unwise of her to come round to Will’s; the world?—?and here Florian assumed his most virtuously57 sympathetic expression of face?—?the world is so cruel, so suspicious, so censorious. For themselves, they two moved on a higher plane; they saw through the conventions and restrictions58 of society. Still, it was always well to respect the convenances. Mrs Sartoris! Oh, dear, no! unsympathetic, out of touch with her! And yet, oh, how dangerous to stop here in these rooms one moment longer. With dexterous59 little side hints the wise man worked upon Linnet’s fears insensibly. That fellow in the passage, now?—?the people of the house?—?so unwise, so uncertain; who could tell friend from enemy?
As he spoke, Linnet grew every moment more and more uneasy. “I wish Will would come back!” she cried. “I wish I had somewhere to go! It makes me so afraid, you see?—?this delay, this uncertainty60.”
Florian played a trump61 card boldly. “Why not come off with me at once, then,” he suggested, “to my sister’s?”
“Your sister’s?” Linnet asked. “But I didn’t know you had one!”
Florian waved his hand airily, with a compulsive gesture, as if he could call sisters to command from the vasty deep, in any required quantity?—?as indeed was the case. “Oh dear, yes,” he answered. “She hasn’t been long in town. She?—?er?—?she lives mostly in Brittany.” He paused for a second to give his fancy free play. Ah, happy thought! just so!?—?a clergyman’s wife would be the very thing for the purpose. “Her husband’s chaplain at Dinan,” he went on, with his bland smile, romancing readily. “She doesn’t often come over. She’s not well off, poor dear; but this year she’s taken a house for the season . . . in Pimlico. You might go round there, at least, while you’re waiting for Will. It’s less compromising than this; and we could leave a note behind to tell him where he could find you.”
Linnet debated internally. Florian paused, and looked judicial62. “What sort of person is she?” Linnet asked at last, hesitating. “Kind?—?nice?—?sympathetic?”
“You’ve summed her up in one word!” Florian answered with a flourish. “Sympathetic?—?that’s just it; she’s bubbling over with sympathy. She goes out to all troubled souls. Though I’m her own brother, and therefore naturally prejudiced against her, I never knew anyone so intensely capable of throwing herself forth63 towards other people as my sister Marian. She’s the exact antipodes of that unspeakable Sartoris woman; human, human, human, above all things human; she brims and overflows64 with the milk of human kindness! And she took such a fancy to you, too, when she saw you one night, in Cophetua’s Adventure. She said to me, ‘O Florian, do you think she’d come and stay with us? I’d give anything to know that sweet creature personally.’ I told her, of course, you never stayed with anybody under the rank of a crowned head or a millionaire soap-boiler. She was quite disappointed, and she’d be only too delighted now, I’m sure, if she could be of any service to you.”
He looked at her hard. He had provided a sister, mentally. As a matter of fact, he knew a lady?—?a most obliging lady?—?tolerably reputable, too?—?in a side street in Pimlico, who would be willing (for a slight consideration) to take Linnet in, and adopt any relation she was told to Florian. Once get a married woman (and a singer-body at that) away from her husband, into a house of your own choosing, and?—?given agreeable manners and a persuasive65 tongue?—?you can do before long pretty much what you like with her. So, at least, Florian’s philosophy had always instructed him. He chuckled66 to himself to think pure chance should have enabled him thus to anticipate Will Deverill. And if Will was playing this game, this simple little game, why on earth shouldn’t he play it too, and outwit his rival?
He went on to expatiate67 very enthusiastically to Linnet on the imaginary sister’s sympathetic virtues68. In a few minutes he had made her so absolutely charming?—?for he was a fluent talker?—?that at last Linnet, who, like all Tyrolese, was impulsive69 at heart, jumped up from her seat and exclaimed with a sudden burst, “Very well, then; I’ll go there. It’s safer there than here. We can leave a line for Will to let him have the address. I’ll sit down and write it.”
“No, no,” Florian cried, eagerly, seizing a pen in haste. “I’ll write it myself. Then we’ll take a cab outside, and go round there together.”
For if once Linnet was seen with him in a hansom in the street?—?after leaving her husband?—?her fate was sealed. She might as well do what all the world would immediately say she was bent70 on doing.
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1
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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ruminate
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| v.反刍；沉思 | |
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outspokenness
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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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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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dishonoured
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| a.不光彩的，不名誉的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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ruminated
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| v.沉思( ruminate的过去式和过去分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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16
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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18
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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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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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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watts
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| （电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 ) | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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demure
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| adj.严肃的；端庄的 | |
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taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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guile
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| n.诈术 | |
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wile
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| v.诡计，引诱；n.欺骗，欺诈 | |
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deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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38
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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40
corroborate
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| v.支持，证实，确定 | |
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41
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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42
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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43
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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44
hesitations
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| n.犹豫( hesitation的名词复数 )；踌躇；犹豫（之事或行为）；口吃 | |
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45
precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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46
innuendo
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| n.暗指，讽刺 | |
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47
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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48
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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49
deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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50
veracity
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| n.诚实 | |
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51
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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52
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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53
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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54
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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55
entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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57
virtuously
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| 合乎道德地，善良地 | |
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restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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59
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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60
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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61
trump
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| n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭 | |
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62
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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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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64
overflows
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| v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸 | |
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65
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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66
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
expatiate
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| v.细说，详述 | |
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68
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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69
impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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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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