The poor child's life had been in a sense so uneventful that the bare prospect2 of this visit filled her soul beforehand with tremulous anticipation3. To be sure, Dolly Barton had always lived in the midmost centre of the Movement in London; she had known authors, artists, socialists4, the cream of our race; she had been brought up in close intercourse5 with the men and women who are engaged in revolutionizing and remodelling6 humanity. But this very fact that she had always lived in the Thick of Things made a change to the Thin of Things only by so much the more delicious and enchanting7. Not that Dolores had not seen a great deal, too, of the country. Poor as they were, her mother had taken her to cheap little seaside nooks for a week or two of each summer; she had made pilgrimages almost every Sunday in spring or autumn to Leith Hill or Mapledurham; she had even strained her scanty8 resources to the utmost to afford Dolly an occasional outing in the Ardennes or in Normandy. But what gave supreme9 importance to this coming visit was the special fact that Dolly was now for the first time in her life to find herself "in society."
Among the friends she had picked up at her Marylebone day-school were two west-country girls, private boarders of the head-mistress's, who came from the neighborhood of Combe Neville in Dorset. Their name was Compson, and their father was rector of their native village, Upcombe. Dolly liked them very much, and was proud of their acquaintance, because they were reckoned about the most distinguished10 pupils in the school, their mother being the niece of a local viscount. Among girls in middle-class London sets, even so remote a connection with the title-bearing classes is counted for a distinction. So when Winnie Compson asked Dolly to go and stop with her at her father's rectory during three whole weeks of the summer holidays, Dolly felt that now at last by pure force of native worth she was rising to her natural position in society. It flattered her that Winnie should select her for such an honor.
The preparations for that visit cost Dolly some weeks of thought and effort. The occasion demanded it. She was afraid she had no frocks good enough for such a grand house as the Compsons. "Grand" was indeed a favorite epithet11 of Dolly's; she applied12 it impartially13 to everything which had to do, as she conceived, with the life of the propertied and privileged classes. It was a word at once of cherished and revered14 meaning—the shibboleth15 of her religion. It implied to her mind something remote and unapproachable, yet to be earnestly striven after with all the forces at her disposal. Even Herminia herself stretched a point in favor of an occasion which she could plainly see Dolly regarded as so important; she managed to indulge her darling in a couple of dainty new afternoon dresses, which touched for her soul the very utmost verge16 of allowable luxury. The materials were oriental; the cut was the dressmaker's—not home-built, as usual. Dolly looked so brave in them, with her rich chestnut17 hair and her creamy complexion,—a touch, Herminia thought, of her Italian birthplace,—that the mother's full heart leapt up to look at her. It almost made Herminia wish she was rich—and anti-social, like the rich people—in order that she might be able to do ample justice to the exquisite18 grace of Dolly's unfolding figure. Tall, lissome19, supple20, clear of limb and light of footstep, she was indeed a girl any mother might have been proud of.
On the day she left London, Herminia thought to herself she had never seen her child look so absolutely lovely. The unwonted union of blue eyes with that olive-gray skin gave a tinge21 of wayward shyness to her girlish beauty. The golden locks had ripened23 to nut-brown, but still caught stray gleams of nestling sunlight. 'Twas with a foreboding regret that Herminia kissed Dolly on both peach-bloom cheeks at parting. She almost fancied her child must be slipping from her motherly grasp when she went off so blithely24 to visit these unknown friends, away down in Dorsetshire. Yet Dolly had so few amusements of the sort young girls require that Herminia was overjoyed this opportunity should have come to her. She reproached herself not a little in her sensitive heart for even feeling sad at Dolly's joyous26 departure. Yet to Dolly it was a delight to escape from the atmosphere of Herminia's lodgings27. Those calm heights chilled her.
The Compsons' house was quite as "grand" in the reality as Dolly had imagined it. There was a man-servant in a white tie to wait at table, and the family dressed every evening for dinner. Yet, much to her surprise, Dolly found from the first the grandeur28 did not in the least incommode her. On the contrary, she enjoyed it. She felt forthwith she was to the manner born. This was clearly the life she was intended by nature to live, and might actually have been living—she, the granddaughter of so grand a man as the late Dean of Dunwich—had it not been for poor Mamma's ridiculous fancies. Mamma was so faddy! Before Dolly had spent three whole days at the rectory, she talked just as the Compsons did; she picked up by pure instinct the territorial29 slang of the county families. One would have thought, to hear her discourse30, she had dressed for dinner every night of her life, and passed her days in the society of the beneficed clergy31.
But even that did not exhaust the charm of Upcombe for Dolly. For the first time in her life, she saw something of men,—real men, with horses and dogs and guns,—men who went out partridge shooting in the season and rode to hounds across country, not the pale abstractions of cultured humanity who attended the Fabian Society meetings or wrote things called articles in the London papers. Her mother's friends wore soft felt hats and limp woollen collars; these real men were richly clad in tweed suits and fine linen32. Dolly was charmed with them all, but especially with one handsome and manly33 young fellow named Walter Brydges, the stepson and ward22 of a neighboring parson. "How you talked with him at tennis to-day!" Winnie Compson said to her friend, as they sat on the edge of Dolly's bed one evening. "He seemed quite taken with you."
A pink spot of pleasure glowed on Dolly's round cheek to think that a real young man, in good society, whom she met at so grand a house as the Compsons', should seem to be quite taken with her.
"Who is he, Winnie?" she asked, trying to look less self-conscious. "He's extremely good-looking."
"Oh, he's Mr. Hawkshaw's stepson, over at Combe Mary," Winnie answered with a nod. "Mr. Hawkshaw's the vicar there till Mamma's nephew is ready to take the living—what they call a warming-pan. But Walter Brydges is Mrs. Hawkshaw's son by her first husband. Old Mr. Brydges was the squire34 of Combe Mary, and Walter's his only child. He's very well off. You might do worse, dear. He's considered quite a catch down in this part of the country."
"How old is he?" Dolly asked, innocently enough, standing35 up by the bedside in her dainty white nightgown. But Winnie caught at her meaning with the preternatural sharpness of the girl brought up in immediate36 contact with the landed interest. "Oh, he's of age," she answered quickly, with a knowing nod. "He's come into the property; he has nobody on earth but himself to consult about his domestic arrangements."
Dolly was young; Dolly was pretty; Dolly's smile won the world; Dolly was still at the sweetest and most susceptible37 of ages. Walter Brydges was well off; Walter Brydges was handsome; Walter Brydges had all the glamour38 of a landed estate, and an Oxford39 education. He was a young Greek god in a Norfolk shooting-jacket. Moreover, he was a really good and pleasant young fellow. What wonder, therefore, if before a week was out, Dolly was very really and seriously in love with him? And what wonder if Walter Brydges in turn, caught by that maiden40 glance, was in love with Dolly? He had every excuse, for she was lithe25, and beautiful, and a joyous companion; besides being, as the lady's maid justly remarked, a perfect lady.
One day, after Dolly had been a fortnight at Upcombe, the Compsons gave a picnic in the wild Combe undercliff. 'Tis a broken wall of chalk, tumbled picturesquely41 about in huge shattered masses, and deliciously overgrown with ferns and blackthorn and golden clusters of close-creeping rock-rose. Mazy paths thread tangled42 labyrinths43 of fallen rock, or wind round tall clumps44 of holly-bush and bramble. They lighted their fire under the lee of one such buttress45 of broken cliff, whose summit was festooned with long sprays of clematis, or "old man's beard," as the common west-country name expressively46 phrases it. Thistledown hovered47 on the basking48 air. There they sat and drank their tea, couched on beds of fern or propped49 firm against the rock; and when tea was over, they wandered off, two and two, ostensibly for nothing, but really for the true business of the picnic—to afford the young men and maidens50 of the group some chance of enjoying, unspied, one another's society.
Dolly and Walter Brydges strolled off by themselves toward the rocky shore. There Walter showed her where a brook51 bubbled clear from the fountain-head; by its brink52, blue veronicas grew, and tall yellow loosestrife, and tasselled purple heads of great English eupatory. Bending down to the stream he picked a little bunch of forget-me-nots, and handed them to her. Dolly pretended unconsciously to pull the dainty blossoms to pieces, as she sat on the clay bank hard by and talked with him. "Is that how you treat my poor flowers?" Walter asked, looking askance at her.
Dolly glanced down, and drew back suddenly. "Oh, poor little things!" she cried, with a quick droop53 of her long lashes54. "I wasn't thinking what I did." And she darted55 a shy glance at him. "If I'd remembered they were forget-me-nots, I don't think I could have done it."
She looked so sweet and pure in her budding innocence56, like a half-blown water-lily, that the young man, already more than two-thirds in love, was instantly captivated. "Because they were forget-me-nots, or because they were MINE, Miss Barton?" he asked softly, all timorousness57.
"Perhaps a little of both," the girl answered, gazing down, and blushing at each word a still deeper crimson58.
The blush showed sweet on that translucent59 skin. Walter turned to her with a sudden impulse. "And what are you going to do with them NOW?" he enquired60, holding his breath for joy and half-suppressed eagerness.
Dolly hesitated a moment with genuine modesty61. Then her liking62 for the well-knit young man overcame her. With a frightened smile her hand stole to her bodice; she fixed63 them in her bosom64. "Will that do?" she asked timidly.
"Yes, that WILL do," the young man answered, bending forward and seizing her soft fingers in his own. "That will do very well. And, Miss Barton—Dolores—I take it as a sign you don't wholly dislike me."
"I like you very much," Dolly answered in a low voice, pulling a rock-rose from a cleft65 and tearing it nervously66 to pieces.
"Do you LOVE me, Dolly?" the young man insisted.
Dolly turned her glance to him tenderly, then withdrew it in haste. "I think I MIGHT, in time," she answered very slowly.
"Then you will be mine, mine, mine?" Walter cried in an ecstasy67.
Dolly bent68 her pretty head in reluctant assent69, with a torrent70 of inner joy. The sun flashed in her chestnut hair. The triumph of that moment was to her inexpressible.
But as for Walter Brydges, he seized the blushing face boldly in his two brown hands, and imprinted71 upon it at once three respectful kisses. Then he drew back, half-terrified at his own temerity72.
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1
petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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remodelling
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| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的现在分词 ) | |
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enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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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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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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revered
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| v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
shibboleth
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| n.陈规陋习；口令；暗语 | |
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16
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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lissome
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| adj.柔软的；敏捷的 | |
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supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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21
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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22
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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23
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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territorial
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| adj.领土的，领地的 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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32
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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34
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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35
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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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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38
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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40
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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picturesquely
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42
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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43
labyrinths
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| 迷宫( labyrinth的名词复数 )； （文字，建筑）错综复杂的 | |
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44
clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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45
buttress
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| n.支撑物；v.支持 | |
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expressively
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| ad.表示(某事物)地；表达地 | |
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47
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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48
basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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49
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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51
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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52
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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53
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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54
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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55
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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56
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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57
timorousness
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| n.羞怯，胆怯 | |
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58
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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60
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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61
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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62
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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63
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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64
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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65
cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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66
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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68
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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69
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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70
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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71
imprinted
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| v.盖印（imprint的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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