After breakfast was over Magdalen proved to be missing, when the ladies assembled as usual in the morning-room. Her habits were so little regular that Mrs. Vanstone felt neither surprise nor uneasiness at her absence. Miss Garth and Norah looked at one another significantly, and waited in silence. Two hours passed—and there were no signs of Magdalen. Norah rose, as the clock struck twelve, and quietly left the room to look for her.
She was not upstairs dusting her jewelry6 and disarranging her dresses. She was not in the conservatory7, not in the flower-garden; not in the kitchen teasing the cook; not in the yard playing with the dogs. Had she, by any chance, gone out with her father? Mr. Vanstone had announced his intention, at the breakfast-table, of paying a morning visit to his old ally, Mr. Clare, and of rousing the philosopher’s sarcastic8 indignation by an account of the dramatic performance. None of the other ladies at Combe-Raven ever ventured themselves inside the cottage. But Magdalen was reckless enough for anything—and Magdalen might have gone there. As the idea occurred to her, Norah entered the shrubbery.
At the second turning, where the path among the trees wound away out of sight of the house, she came suddenly face to face with Magdalen and Frank: they were sauntering toward her, arm in arm, their heads close together, their conversation apparently9 proceeding10 in whispers. They looked suspiciously handsome and happy. At the sight of Norah both started, and both stopped. Frank confusedly raised his hat, and turned back in the direction of his father’s cottage. Magdalen advanced to meet her sister, carelessly swinging her closed parasol from side to side, carelessly humming an air from the overture11 which had preceded the rising of the curtain on the previous night.
“Luncheon-time already!” she said, looking at her watch. “Surely not?”
“Have you and Mr. Francis Clare been alone in the shrubbery since ten o’clock?” asked Norah.
“Mr. Francis Clare! How ridiculously formal you are. Why don’t you call him Frank?”
“I asked you a question, Magdalen.”
“Dear me, how black you look this morning! I’m in disgrace, I suppose. Haven’t you forgiven me yet for my acting12 last night? I couldn’t help it, love; I should have made nothing of Julia, if I hadn’t taken you for my model. It’s quite a question of Art. In your place, I should have felt flattered by the selection.”
“In your place, Magdalen, I should have thought twice before I mimicked13 my sister to an audience of strangers.”
“That’s exactly why I did it—an audience of strangers. How were they to know? Come! come! don’t be angry. You are eight years older than I am—you ought to set me an example of good-humor.”
“I will set you an example of plain-speaking. I am more sorry than I can say, Magdalen, to meet you as I met you here just now!”
“What next, I wonder? You meet me in the shrubbery at home, talking over the private theatricals14 with my old playfellow, whom I knew when I was no taller than this parasol. And that is a glaring impropriety, is it? ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense.’ You wanted an answer a minute ago—there it is for you, my dear, in the choicest Norman-French.”
“I am in earnest about this, Magdalen—”
“Not a doubt of it. Nobody can accuse you of ever making jokes.”
“I am seriously sorry—”
“Oh, dear!”
“It is quite useless to interrupt me. I have it on my conscience to tell you—and I will tell you—that I am sorry to see how this intimacy15 is growing. I am sorry to see a secret understanding established already between you and Mr. Francis Clare.”
“Poor Frank! How you do hate him, to be sure. What on earth has he done to offend you?”
Norah’s self-control began to show signs of failing her. Her dark cheeks glowed, her delicate lips trembled, before she spoke again. Magdalen paid more attention to her parasol than to her sister. She tossed it high in the air and caught it. “Once!” she said—and tossed it up again. “Twice!”—and she tossed it higher. “Thrice—” Before she could catch it for the third time, Norah seized her passionately17 by the arm, and the parasol dropped to the ground between them.
“You are treating me heartlessly,” she said. “For shame, Magdalen—for shame!”
The irrepressible outburst of a reserved nature, forced into open self-assertion in its own despite, is of all moral forces the hardest to resist. Magdalen was startled into silence. For a moment, the two sisters—so strangely dissimilar in person and character—faced one another, without a word passing between them. For a moment the deep brown eyes of the elder and the light gray eyes of the younger looked into each other with steady, unyielding scrutiny18 on either side. Norah’s face was the first to change; Norah’s head was the first to turn away. She dropped her sister’s arm in silence. Magdalen stooped and picked up her parasol.
“I try to keep my temper,” she said, “and you call me heartless for doing it. You always were hard on me, and you always will be.”
Norah clasped her trembling hands fast in each other. “Hard on you!” she said, in low, mournful tones—and sighed bitterly.
Magdalen drew back a little, and mechanically dusted the parasol with the end of her garden cloak.
“Yes!” she resumed, doggedly19. “Hard on me and hard on Frank.”
“Frank!” repeated Norah, advancing on her sister and turning pale as suddenly as she had turned red. “Do you talk of yourself and Frank as if your interests were One already? Magdalen! if I hurt you, do I hurt him? Is he so near and so dear to you as that?”
Magdalen drew further and further back. A twig20 from a tree near caught her cloak; she turned petulantly21, broke it off, and threw it on the ground. “What right have you to question me?” she broke out on a sudden. “Whether I like Frank, or whether I don’t, what interest is it of yours?” As she said the words, she abruptly22 stepped forward to pass her sister and return to the house.
Norah, turning paler and paler, barred the way to her. “If I hold you by main force,” she said, “you shall stop and hear me. I have watched this Francis Clare; I know him better than you do. He is unworthy of a moment’s serious feeling on your part; he is unworthy of our dear, good, kind-hearted father’s interest in him. A man with any principle, any honor, any gratitude23, would not have come back as he has come back, disgraced—yes! disgraced by his spiritless neglect of his own duty. I watched his face while the friend who has been better than a father to him was comforting and forgiving him with a kindness he had not deserved: I watched his face, and I saw no shame and no distress24 in it—I saw nothing but a look of thankless, heartless relief. He is selfish, he is ungrateful, he is ungenerous—he is only twenty, and he has the worst failings of a mean old age already. And this is the man I find you meeting in secret—the man who has taken such a place in your favor that you are deaf to the truth about him, even from my lips! Magdalen! this will end ill. For God’s sake, think of what I have said to you, and control yourself before it is too late!” She stopped, vehement25 and breathless, and caught her sister anxiously by the hand.
Magdalen looked at her in unconcealed astonishment26.
“You are so violent,” she said, “and so unlike yourself, that I hardly know you. The more patient I am, the more hard words I get for my pains. You have taken a perverse27 hatred28 to Frank; and you are unreasonably29 angry with me because I won’t hate him, too. Don’t, Norah! you hurt my hand.”
Norah pushed the hand from her contemptuously. “I shall never hurt your heart,” she said; and suddenly turned her back on Magdalen as she spoke the words.
There was a momentary30 pause. Norah kept her position. Magdalen looked at her perplexedly—hesitated—then walked away by herself toward the house.
At the turn in the shrubbery path she stopped and looked back uneasily. “Oh, dear, dear!” she thought to herself, “why didn’t Frank go when I told him?” She hesitated, and went back a few steps. “There’s Norah standing16 on her dignity, as obstinate31 as ever.” She stopped again. “What had I better do? I hate quarreling: I think I’ll make up.” She ventured close to her sister and touched her on the shoulder. Norah never moved. “It’s not often she flies into a passion,” thought Magdalen, touching32 her again; “but when she does, what a time it lasts her!—Come!” she said, “give me a kiss, Norah, and make it up. Won’t you let me get at any part of you, my dear, but the back of your neck? Well, it’s a very nice neck—it’s better worth kissing than mine—and there the kiss is, in spite of you!”
She caught fast hold of Norah from behind, and suited the action to the word, with a total disregard of all that had just passed, which her sister was far from emulating33. Hardly a minute since the warm outpouring of Norah’s heart had burst through all obstacles. Had the icy reserve frozen her up again already! It was hard to say. She never spoke; she never changed her position—she only searched hurriedly for her handkerchief. As she drew it out, there was a sound of approaching footsteps in the inner recesses34 of the shrubbery. A Scotch35 terrier scampered36 into view; and a cheerful voice sang the first lines of the glee in “As You Like It.” “It’s papa!” cried Magdalen. “Come, Norah—come and meet him.”
Instead of following her sister, Norah pulled down the veil of her garden hat, turned in the opposite direction, and hurried back to the house. She ran up to her own room and locked herself in. She was crying bitterly.
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1
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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2
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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3
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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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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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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7
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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overture
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| n.前奏曲、序曲，提议，提案，初步交涉 | |
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12
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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13
mimicked
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| v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的过去式和过去分词 )；酷似 | |
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14
theatricals
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| n.（业余性的）戏剧演出，舞台表演艺术；职业演员；戏剧的( theatrical的名词复数 )；剧场的；炫耀的；戏剧性的 | |
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15
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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16
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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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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20
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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21
petulantly
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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26
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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27
perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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28
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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29
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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30
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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31
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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32
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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33
emulating
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| v.与…竞争( emulate的现在分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿 | |
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34
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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35
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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36
scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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