“Salot!” she exclaimed, after having read the letter, all through again, putting it down. She turned with coquettish contemptuousness to her frying-pan. “Salot” was, with her, a favourite epithet8. Clara’s door opened, and Bertha crumpled9 the letter into her pocket. Clara entered sleepy-eyed and affecting ill-humour. Her fat body was a softly distributed burden, which she carried with the aplomb10 and indifference11 of habit. She had a gracefully12 bumpy13 forehead, a nice whistling mouth, soft, good and discreet14 orbs15. Her days were passed in the library of the Place Saint Sulpice.
“Ach, lasse! lass mich doch! Get on with your cooking!” she exclaimed as Bertha began her customary sociable16 and playful greeting. Bertha always was conscious of her noise, of shallowness and worldliness, with this shrewd, indifferent, slow, and monosyllabic bookworm. She wanted to caper17 round it, inviting18 it to cumbrous play, like a small lively dog around a heavy one. She was much more femme as she said, but aware that Clara did not regard this as an attainment19. Being femme had taken up so much of her energy and life that she could not expect to be so complete in other ways as Clara. With this other woman, who was much less “woman” than she, she always felt impelled20 to ultra-feminine behaviour. She was childish to the top of her bent21. This was insulting to the other: it showed too clearly Bertha’s[156] way of regarding her as not so much femme as herself. Clara felt this and would occasionally show impatience22 at Bertha’s skittishness23: a gruff man-like impatience entering grimly but imperturbably24 into the man-part, but claiming at the same time its prerogatives25.
Clara had had no known love affairs. She regarded Bertha, sometimes, with much curiosity. This “woman’s temperament26,” so complacently27 displayed, soothed28 and tickled29 her.
“Clara, Soler has told me to send a picture to the Salon30 d’Automne.”
“Oh!” Clara was not impressed by “success.” She was preparing her own breakfast and jostled Bertha, usurping31 more than half the table. Bertha, delighted, retorted with trills of shrill32 indignation and by recapturing the positions lost by her plates. Her breakfast ready she carried it into her room, pretending to be offended with Clara.
Breakfast over she wrote to Tarr. The letter was written quite easily and directly. She was so sure in the convention of her passion that there was no scratching out or hesitation34. “I feel so far away from you.” There was nothing more to be said; as it had been said often before, it came easily and promptly35 with the pen. All the feeling that could find expression was fluent, large and assured, like the handwriting, and went at once into these conventional forms.
“Let Englishmen thank their stars—the good stars of the Northmen and early seamen—that they have such stammering36 tongues and such a fierce horror of grandiloquence37. They are still primitive38 and true in their passions, because they are afraid of them, like children. The shocks go on underneath39; they trust their unconsciousness. The odious40 facility of the South, whether it be their, at bottom, very shrewdly regulated anger (l’art de s’engueuler) or their picture post card perfection of amorous41 expressiveness42; such things these Island mutterers and mutes have escaped. But worst of all is the cult43 of the ‘Temperament,’[157] all the accent on that poor last syllable44, whose home is that dubious45 middle Empire, so incorrigibly46 banal47. The lacerating and tireless pricking48 and pushing of this hapless ‘temperament’ is a more harrowing spectacle than the use of dogs in Belgium or women in England.”
This passage, from an article in the English Review, Tarr had shown to Bertha with great pleasure. Bertha had a good share of impoverished49 and overworked temperament, but in a very genial50 fashion. It had not, with her, grown crooked51 and vicious with this constant ill-treatment. It was strenuous52 but friendly. It served in any case a mistress surprisingly disinterested53 and gentle.
On the receipt of Tarr’s letter she had felt, to begin with, very indignant and depressed54 at his having had the strength to go away without coming to see her. So her letter began on that complaint. He had at last, this was certain, gone away, with the first likelihood of permanence since they had known each other. Despite her long preparation for this, and her being even deliberately55 the cause of it, she was mortified56 and at the same time unhappy at the sight of her success.
The Kreisler business had been more for herself than anything, for her own private edification. She would free Sorbert by an act, in a sort of impalpable way. It was not destined57 as yet for publicity58. The fact of the women surprising Kreisler and her on the boulevard had put everything at once out of perspective, damaged her illusion of sacrifice. Compelled at once to be practical again, find excuses, repudiate59 immediately what she had done before she had been able to enjoy or digest it, was like a man being snatched away from table, the last mouthful hardly swallowed. She was the person surprised before some work doing is completed—it still in a rudimentary unshowable state. For once Tarr was not only in the right, but, to her irritation, he had proofs, splendid ocular proofs, a cloud of witnesses.
To end nobly, on her own initiative, had been her[158] idea; to make a last sacrifice to Sorbert in leaving him irrevocably, as she had sacrificed her feelings all along in allowing their engagement to drag suspiciously on, in making her position slightly uncomfortable with her friends (and these social things meant so much to her in addition). And now, instead, everything had been turned into questionable60 meanness and ridicule61; when she had intended to behave with the maximum of swagger, she suddenly found herself relegated62 to a skulking63 and unfortunate plane.
Considerations about Fate beset64 her. Everything was hopelessly unreliable. The best thing to do was to do nothing. She was not her usual energetic too spiritually bustling65 self. She wrote her letter quite easily and as usual, but she did not (very unusually) believe in its efficacy. She even wrote it a trifle more easily than usual for that reason.
It was only a momentary66 rebellion against the ease with which this protest was done. Perhaps had it not been for the fascination67 of habit, then some more adequate words would have been written. His letter had come. Empty and futile68 she had done her task, answered as she must do; “As we all must do!” she would have thought, with an exclamation3 mark after it. She sealed up her letter and addressed it.
In the drawer where she was putting Sorbert’s latest letter away were some old ones. A letter of the year before she took out and read. With its two sentences it was more cruel and had more meaning than the one she had just received: “Put off that little Darmstadt woman. Let’s be alone.”
It was a note she had received on the eve of an expedition to a village near Paris. She had promised to take a girl down with them, to show her the place, its hotel and other possibilities—she had stayed there once or twice herself. The Darmstadt girl had not been taken. Sorbert and she had spent the night at an inn on the outskirts69 of the forest. They had come back in the train next day without speaking, having[159] quarrelled somehow or other in the inn. Chagrin70 and regret for him struck her a series of sharp blows. She started crying again suddenly, quickly, and vehemently71 as though surprised by some thought.
The whole morning her work worried her, dusting and arranging. She experienced a revolt against her ceaseless orderliness, a very grave thing in such an exemplary prisoner. At four o’clock in the afternoon, as often happened, she was still dawdling72 about in her dressing-gown and had not yet had lunch.
The femme de ménage came at about eight in the morning, doing Clara’s rooms first. Bertha was in the habit of discussing politics with Madame Vannier. Sorbert too was discussed.
“Mademoiselle est triste?” this good woman said, noticing her dejection. “C’est encore Monsieur Sorbert qui vous a fait du chagrin?”
“Oui madame, c’est un Salot!” Bertha replied, half crying.
“Oh, il ne faut pas dire33 ?a, mademoiselle. Comment, il est un Salot?” Madame Vannier worked silently with soft quiet thud of felt slippers73. She appeared to regard work as not without dignity. Bertha was playing at life. She admired and liked her as an emblem74 of Fortune; she respected herself as an emblem of Misfortune. Madame Vannier was given the letter to post at two.
点击收听单词发音
1 rinsing | |
n.清水,残渣v.漂洗( rinse的现在分词 );冲洗;用清水漂洗掉(肥皂泡等);(用清水)冲掉 | |
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2 truculent | |
adj.野蛮的,粗野的 | |
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3 exclamation | |
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词 | |
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4 exclamations | |
n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 );感叹;感叹语;感叹词 | |
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5 eyebrow | |
n.眉毛,眉 | |
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6 irritation | |
n.激怒,恼怒,生气 | |
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7 flatten | |
v.把...弄平,使倒伏;使(漆等)失去光泽 | |
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8 epithet | |
n.(用于褒贬人物等的)表述形容词,修饰语 | |
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9 crumpled | |
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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10 aplomb | |
n.沉着,镇静 | |
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11 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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12 gracefully | |
ad.大大方方地;优美地 | |
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13 bumpy | |
adj.颠簸不平的,崎岖的 | |
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14 discreet | |
adj.(言行)谨慎的;慎重的;有判断力的 | |
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15 orbs | |
abbr.off-reservation boarding school 在校寄宿学校n.球,天体,圆形物( orb的名词复数 ) | |
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16 sociable | |
adj.好交际的,友好的,合群的 | |
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17 caper | |
v.雀跃,欢蹦;n.雀跃,跳跃;续随子,刺山柑花蕾;嬉戏 | |
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18 inviting | |
adj.诱人的,引人注目的 | |
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19 attainment | |
n.达到,到达;[常pl.]成就,造诣 | |
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20 impelled | |
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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21 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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22 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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23 skittishness | |
n.活泼好动;难以驾驭 | |
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24 imperturbably | |
adv.泰然地,镇静地,平静地 | |
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25 prerogatives | |
n.权利( prerogative的名词复数 );特权;大主教法庭;总督委任组成的法庭 | |
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26 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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27 complacently | |
adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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28 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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29 tickled | |
(使)发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)愉快,逗乐 | |
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30 salon | |
n.[法]沙龙;客厅;营业性的高级服务室 | |
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31 usurping | |
篡夺,霸占( usurp的现在分词 ); 盗用; 篡夺,篡权 | |
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32 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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33 dire | |
adj.可怕的,悲惨的,阴惨的,极端的 | |
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34 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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35 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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36 stammering | |
v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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37 grandiloquence | |
n.夸张之言,豪言壮语,豪语 | |
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38 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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39 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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40 odious | |
adj.可憎的,讨厌的 | |
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41 amorous | |
adj.多情的;有关爱情的 | |
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42 expressiveness | |
n.富有表现力 | |
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43 cult | |
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜 | |
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44 syllable | |
n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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45 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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46 incorrigibly | |
adv.无法矫正地;屡教不改地;无可救药地;不能矫正地 | |
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47 banal | |
adj.陈腐的,平庸的 | |
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48 pricking | |
刺,刺痕,刺痛感 | |
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49 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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50 genial | |
adj.亲切的,和蔼的,愉快的,脾气好的 | |
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51 crooked | |
adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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52 strenuous | |
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
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53 disinterested | |
adj.不关心的,不感兴趣的 | |
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54 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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55 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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56 mortified | |
v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 );伤害(人的感情);克制;抑制(肉体、情感等) | |
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57 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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58 publicity | |
n.众所周知,闻名;宣传,广告 | |
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59 repudiate | |
v.拒绝,拒付,拒绝履行 | |
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60 questionable | |
adj.可疑的,有问题的 | |
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61 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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62 relegated | |
v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 );使降职;转移;把…归类 | |
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63 skulking | |
v.潜伏,偷偷摸摸地走动,鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
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64 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
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65 bustling | |
adj.喧闹的 | |
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66 momentary | |
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
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67 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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68 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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69 outskirts | |
n.郊外,郊区 | |
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70 chagrin | |
n.懊恼;气愤;委屈 | |
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71 vehemently | |
adv. 热烈地 | |
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72 dawdling | |
adj.闲逛的,懒散的v.混(时间)( dawdle的现在分词 ) | |
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73 slippers | |
n. 拖鞋 | |
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74 emblem | |
n.象征,标志;徽章 | |
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