But now the great hour of the soul had struck. No sooner had he dropped the first tender words that might have their double meaning, feeling his way cautiously toward her, than she had placed a gulf5 of dignity between them, and attempted to cut every tie that bound her life to his.
It had been so sudden it took his breath away. Could he win her? The word “fail” had never been in his vocabulary. It had never run in the speech of his people.
Yes, he would win if it was the only thing he did in this world. And forthwith he set about it. Life took on new meaning and new glory. What mattered war or 121 wounds, pain or poverty, jails and revolutions—it was the dawn of life!
He sent her a flower every day and pinned one just like it on his coat. And every night found him seated by her side. She greeted him cordially, but the gulf yawned between them. His courtesy and self-control struck her with surprise and admiration7. In the face of her coldness he carried about him an air of smiling deference8 and gallantry.
She finally told him of her determination to go to New York to pursue her studies until Phil had finished the term of his enlistment9 in his regiment10, which had been ordered on permanent duty in the West.
He laughed with his eyes at this announcement, blinking the lashes12 rapidly without moving his lips. It was a peculiar13 habit of his when deeply moved by a sudden thought. It had flashed over him like lightning that she was trying to get away from him. She would not do that unless she cared.
“When are you going?” he asked quietly.
“Day after to-morrow.”
“Then you will give me one afternoon for a sail on the river to say good-bye and thank you for what you have done for me and mine?”
She hesitated, laughed, and refused.
“To-morrow at four o’clock I’ll call for you,” he said firmly. “If there’s no wind, we can drift with the tide.”
“I will not have time to go.”
“Promptly at four,” he repeated as he left. 122
Ben spent hours that night weighing the question of how far he should dare to speak his love. It had been such an easy thing before. Now it seemed a question of life and death. Twice the magic words had been on his lips, and each time something in her manner chilled him into silence.
Was she cold and incapable14 of love? No; this manner of the North was on the surface. He knew that deep down within her nature lay banked and smouldering fires of passion for the one man whose breath could stir it into flame. He felt this all the keener now that the spell of her companionship and the sweet intimacy15 of her daily ministry16 to him had been broken. The memory of little movements of her petite figure, the glance of her warm amber17 eyes, and the touch of her hand—all had their tongues of revelation to his eager spirit.
He found her ready at four o’clock.
“You see I decided18 to go after all,” she said.
“Yes, I knew you would,” he answered.
She was dressed in a simple suit of navy-blue cloth cut V-shaped at the throat, showing the graceful19 lines of her exquisite20 neck as it melted into the plump shoulders. She had scorned hoop21 skirts.
He admired her for this, and yet it made him uneasy. A woman who could defy an edict of fashion was a new thing under the sun, and it scared him.
They were seated in the little sailboat now, drifting out with the tide. It was a perfect day in October, one of those matchless days of Indian summer in the Virginia climate when an infinite peace and vast brooding silence 123 fill the earth and sky until one feels that words are a sacrilege.
Neither of them spoke22 for minutes, and his heart grew bold in the stillness. No girl could be still who was unmoved.
She was seated just in front of him on the left, with her hand idly rippling23 the surface of the silvery waters, gazing at the wooded cliff on the river banks clothed now in their gorgeous robes of yellow, purple, scarlet24, and gold.
The soft strains of distant music came from a band in the fort, and her hand in the rippling water seemed its accompaniment.
Ben was conscious only of her presence. Every sight and sound of nature seemed to be blended in her presence. Never in all his life had he seen anything so delicately beautiful as the ripe rose colour of her cheeks, and all the tints25 of autumn’s glory seemed to melt into the gold of her hair.
And those eyes he felt that God had never set in such a face before—rich amber, warm and glowing, big and candid26, courageous27 and truthful28.
“Are you dead again?” she asked demurely29.
“Well, as the Irishman said in answer to his mate’s question when he fell off the house, ‘not dead—but spacheless.’”
He was quick to see the opening her question with its memories had made, and took advantage of it.
“Look here, Miss Elsie, you’re too honest, independent, and candid to play hide-and-seek with me. I want 124 to ask you a plain question. You’ve been trying to pick a quarrel of late. What have I done?”
“Nothing. It has simply come to me that our lives are far apart. The gulf between us is real and very deep. Your father was but yesterday a slaveholder——”
Ben grinned:
“Yes, your slave-trading grandfather sold them to us the day before.”
Elsie blushed and bristled30 for a fight.
“You won’t mind if I give you a few lessons in history, will you?” Ben asked softly.
“Not in the least. I didn’t know that Southerners studied history,” she answered, with a toss of her head.
“We made a specialty31 of the history of slavery, at least. I had a dear old teacher at home who fairly blazed with light on this subject. He is one of the best-read men in America. He happens to be in jail just now. But I haven’t forgotten—I know it by heart.”
“I am waiting for light,” she interrupted cynically32.
“The South is no more to blame for negro slavery than the North. Our slaves were stolen from Africa by Yankee skippers. When a slaver arrived at Boston, your pious33 Puritan clergyman offered public prayer of thanks that ‘A gracious and overruling Providence34 had been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo35 of benighted36 heathen to enjoy the blessings37 of a gospel dispensation——’”
She looked at him with angry incredulity and cried:
“Go on.”
“Twenty-three times the Legislature of Virginia passed 125 acts against the importation of slaves, which the king vetoed on petition of the Massachusetts slave traders. Jefferson made these acts of the king one of the grievances38 of the Declaration of Independence, but a Massachusetts member succeeded in striking it out. The Southern men in the convention which framed the Constitution put into it a clause abolishing the slave trade, but the Massachusetts men succeeded in adding a clause extending the trade twenty years——”
He smiled and paused.
“Go on,” she said, with impatience39.
“In Colonial days a negro woman was publicly burned to death in Boston. The first Abolition40 paper was published in Tennessee by Embree. Benjamin Lundy, his successor, could not find a single Abolitionist in Boston. In 1828 over half the people of Tennessee favoured Abolition. At this time there were one hundred and forty Abolition Societies in America—one hundred and three in the South, and not one in Massachusetts. It was not until 1836 that Massachusetts led in Abolition—not until all her own slaves had been sold to us at a profit and the slave trade had been destroyed——”
She looked at Ben with anger for a moment and met his tantalizing41 look of good humour.
“Can you stand any more?”
“Certainly, I enjoy it.”
“I’m just breaking down the barriers—so to speak,” he said, with the laughter still lurking42 in his eyes, as he looked steadily43 ahead.
“By all means go on,” she said soberly. “I thought 126 at first you were trying to tease me. I see that you are in earnest.”
“Never more so. This is about the only little path of history I’m at home in—I love to show off in it. I heard a cheerful idiot say the other day that your father meant to carry the civilization of Massachusetts to the Rio Grande until we had a Democracy in America. I smiled. While Massachusetts was enforcing laws about the dress of the rich and the poor, founding a church with a whipping-post, jail, and gibbet, and limiting the right to vote to a church membership fixed45 by pew rents, Carolina was the home of freedom where first the equal rights of men were proclaimed. New England people worth less than one thousand dollars were prohibited by law from wearing the garb46 of a gentleman, gold or silver lace, buttons on the knees, or to walk in great boots, or their women to wear silk or scarfs, while the Quakers, Maryland Catholics, Baptists, and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were everywhere in the South the heralds47 of man’s equality before the law.”
“But barring our ancestors, I have some things against the men of this generation.”
“Have I, too, sinned and come short?” he asked with mock gravity.
“Our ideals of life are far apart,” she firmly declared.
“What ails6 my ideal?”
“Your egotism, for one thing. The air with which you calmly select what pleases your fancy. Northern men are bad enough—the insolence48 of a Southerner is beyond words!”
LILLIAN GISH AS ELSIE, AND THE SENTINEL.
127
“You don’t say so!” cried Ben, bursting into a hearty49 laugh. “Isn’t your aunt, Mrs. Farnham, the president of a club?”
“Yes, and she is a very brilliant woman.”
“Enlighten me further.”
“I deny your heaven-born male kingship. The lord of creation is after all a very inferior animal—nearer the brute50 creation, weaker in infancy51, shorter lived, more imperfectly developed, given to fighting, and addicted52 to idiocy53. I never saw a female idiot in my life—did you?”
“Come to think of it, I never did,” acknowledged Ben with comic gravity. “What else?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“It’s nothing. I agree with everything you say, but it is irrelevant54. I’m studying law, you know.”
“I have a personality of my own. You and your kind assume the right to absorb all lesser55 lights.”
“Certainly, I’m a man.”
“I don’t care to be absorbed by a mere56 man.”
“Don’t wish to be protected, sheltered, and cared for?”
“I dream of a life that shall be larger than the four walls of a home. I have never gone into hysterics over the idea of becoming a cook and housekeeper57 without wages, and snuffing my life out while another grows, expands, and claims the lordship of the world. I can sing. My voice is to me what eloquence58 is to man. My ideal is an intellectual companion who will inspire and lead me to develop all that I feel within to its highest reach.”
She paused a moment and looked defiantly59 into Ben’s brown eyes, about which a smile was constantly playing. 128 He looked away, and again the river echoed with his contagious60 laughter. She had to join in spite of herself. He laughed with boyish gayety. It danced in his eyes, and gave spring to every movement of his slender wiry body. She felt its contagion61 enfold her.
His laughter melted into a song. In a voice vibrant62 with joy he sang, “If you get there before I do, tell ’em I’m comin’ too!”
As Elsie listened, her anger grew as she recalled the amazing folly63 that had induced her to tell the secret feelings of her inmost soul to this man almost a stranger. Whence came this miracle of influence about him, this gift of intimacy? She felt a shock as if she had been immodest. She was in an agony of doubt as to what he was thinking of her, and dreaded64 to meet his gaze.
And yet, when he turned toward her, his whole being a smiling compound of dark Southern blood and bone and fire, at the sound of his voice all doubt and questioning melted.
“Do you know,” he said earnestly, “that you are the funniest, most charming girl I ever met?”
“Thanks. I’ve heard your experience has been large for one of your age.”
Ben’s eyes danced.
“Perhaps, yes. You appeal to things in me that I didn’t know were there—to all the senses of body and soul at once. Your strength of mind, with its conceits65, and your quick little temper seem so odd and out of place, clothed in the gentleness of your beauty.” 129
“I was never more serious in my life. There are other things more personal about you that I do not like.”
“What?”
“Your cavalier habits.”
“Cavalier fiddlesticks. There are no Cavaliers in my country. We are all Covenanter and Huguenot folks. The idea that Southern boys are lazy loafing dreamers is a myth. I was raised on the catechism.”
“You love to fish and hunt and frolic—you flirt3 with every girl you meet, and you drink sometimes. I often feel that you are cruel and that I do not know you.”
Ben’s face grew serious, and the red scar in the edge of his hair suddenly became livid with the rush of blood.
“Perhaps I don’t mean that you shall know all yet,” he said slowly. “My ideal of a man is one that leads, charms, dominates, and yet eludes66. I confess that I’m close kin11 to an angel and a devil, and that I await a woman’s hand to lead me into the ways of peace and life.”
The spiritual earnestness of the girl was quick to catch the subtle appeal of his last words. His broad, high forehead, straight, masterly nose, with its mobile nostrils67, seemed to her very manly68 at just that moment and very appealing. A soft answer was on her lips.
He saw it, and leaned toward her in impulsive69 tenderness. A timid look on her face caused him to sink back in silence.
They had now drifted near the city. The sun was slowly sinking in a smother70 of fiery71 splendour that mirrored its changing hues72 in the still water. The hush73 of the harvest fullness of autumn life was over all nature. 130 They passed a camp of soldiers and then a big hospital on the banks above. A gun flashed from the hill, and the flag dropped from its staff.
The girl’s eyes lingered on the flower in his coat a moment and then on the red scar in the edge of his dark hair, and somehow the difference between them seemed to melt into the falling twilight74. Only his nearness was real. Again a strange joy held her.
He threw her a look of tenderness, and she began to tremble. A sea gull75 poised76 a moment above them and broke into a laugh.
Bending nearer, he gently took her hand, and said:
“I love you!”
A sob44 caught her breath and she buried her face on her arm.
“I am for you, and you are for me. Why beat your wings against the thing that is and must be? What else matters? With all my sins and faults my land is yours—a land of sunshine, eternal harvests, and everlasting77 song, old-fashioned and provincial78 perhaps, but kind and hospitable79. Around its humblest cottage song birds live and mate and nest and never leave. The winged ones of your own cold fields have heard their call, and the sky to-night will echo with their chatter80 as they hurry southward. Elsie, my own, I too have called—come; I love you!”
She lifted her face to him full of tender spiritual charm, her eyes burning their passionate81 answer.
He bent82 and kissed her.
“Say it! Say it!” he whispered.
“I love you!” she sighed.
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收听单词发音
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1
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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flirted
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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flirt
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| v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者 | |
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ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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enlistment
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| n.应征入伍，获得，取得 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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12
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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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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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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hoop
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| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
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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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rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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demurely
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| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
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30
bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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specialty
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| n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长 | |
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cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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tantalizing
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| adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 ) | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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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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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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50
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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52
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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54
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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55
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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56
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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57
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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58
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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59
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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vibrant
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| adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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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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conceits
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| 高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻 | |
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eludes
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的第三人称单数 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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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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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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70
smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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71
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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72
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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73
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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74
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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75
gull
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| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
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76
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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77
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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78
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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79
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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80
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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81
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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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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