She was greeted affably, as though to say “Caught! both of us!” He was under the impression, however, that she had lain in wait for him. He was so accustomed to think of her in that character! If she had been in full flight he would have imagined that she was only decoying him. She was a woman who could not help adhering.
“How do you do? I’ve just been buying my lunch.”
“So late?”
“I thought you’d left Paris!” She had no information of this sort, but was inclined to rebuke3 him for not leaving Paris.
“I? Who told you that, I should like to know. I shall never leave Paris; at least?”
There was heavy enigmatic meaning in this, said lightly. It did not escape her, sensible to such nuances.
“How are our fair friends?” he asked.
“Our? Oh, Fr?ulein Lipmann and—Oh, I haven’t seen them since the other night.”
“Indeed! Not since the other night??”
She made her silence swarm4 with significant meanings, like a glassy shoal with innumerable fish: her eyes even, stared and darted5 about, glassily.
It was very difficult, now she had stopped, to get away. The part she had more or less played with her friends, of his champion, had imposed itself on her. She could not leave her protégé without something further said. She was flattered, too, at his showing no signs now of desire to escape.
His more plainly brutal6 instincts woke readily in these vague days. Various appetites had been asserting themselves. So the fact that she was a pretty girl did its work on a rather recalcitrant7 subject. He felt so modest now, ideals things of the past. Surely for a quiet ordinary existence pleasant little distinctions were suitable?
Without any anxiety about it, he began to talk to Bertha with the idea of a subsequent meeting. He had wished to avoid her because she had embodied[168] for him the evening of the dance, and appeared to him in its disquieting8 colours. What he sought unconsciously now was a certain quietude, enlivened by healthy appetites. He had disconnected her with his great Night.
“I was cracked the other night. I’m not often in that state,” he said. Bertha’s innuendoes9 had to be recognized.
“I’m glad of that,” she answered.
As to Bertha, to have been kissed and those things, under however eccentric circumstances, gave a man certain rights on your interest.
“I’m afraid I was rather rude to Fr?ulein Lipmann before leaving. Did she tell you about it?”
“I think you were rude to everybody!”
“Ah, well?”
“I must be going. My lunch?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry! Have I kept you from your lunch? I wonder if you would procure10 me the extreme pleasure of seeing you again?”
Bertha looked at him in doubtful astonishment11, taking in this sensational12 request.
See Kreisler again! The result as regards the Lipmann circle! But this pleaded for Kreisler. It would be carrying out her story. It would be insisting on it, and destroying that subtle advantage, now possessed13 by her friends, in presenting them with somewhat the same uncompromising spectacle again. In deliberately14 exposing herself to criticism she would be effacing15, in some sense, the extreme involuntariness of the boulevard incident. He asked her simply if he might see her again. The least pretentious16 request. Would the refusal to do this simple thing be a concession17 to Lipmann and the rest? Did she want to at all? But it was in a jump of deliberate defiance18 or “carelessness” that she concluded:
“Yes, of course, if you wish it.”
“You never go to cafés? Perhaps some day?”
“Good! Very well!” she answered very quickly, in her trenchant19 tone, imparting all sorts of particular unnecessary meanings to this simple acceptance. She[169] had answered as men accept a bet or the Bretons clinch20 a bargain in the fist.
Kreisler was still leisurely21. He appeared to regard her vehemence22 with amusement.
“I should like then to go with you to the Café de l’Observatoire to-morrow evening. I hope I shall be able to efface23 the rather unusual impression I must have made on you the other night!” (The tone of this remark did not ignore or condemn24, however, the kisses.) “When can I meet you?”
“Will you come and fetch me at my house?”
But shivers went down her back as she said it.
She was now thoroughly25 committed to this new step. She was delighted, or rather excited, at each new further phase of it. Its horrors were scores off her friends. These details of meeting!—these had not been reckoned on. Of course they would have to meet. Kreisler seemed like a physician conducting a little unpleasant operation in a genial26, ironical27, unhurrying way.
“Well, it’s understood. We shall see each other to-morrow,” he said. And with a smile of half raillery at her rather upset expression, he left her. So much fuss about a little thing, such obstinacy28 in doing it! What was the terrible thing? Meeting him! His smiling was only natural. She showed without disguise in her face the hazardous29 quality, as she considered it, of this consent. She would wish him to feel the largeness of the motive30 that prompted her, and for him to participate too in the certain horror of meeting himself!
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1
necessitate
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| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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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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6
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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7
recalcitrant
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| adj.倔强的 | |
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disquieting
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| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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innuendoes
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| n.影射的话( innuendo的名词复数 )；讽刺的话；含沙射影；暗讽 | |
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10
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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11
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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13
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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14
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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15
effacing
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| 谦逊的 | |
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pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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17
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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18
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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19
trenchant
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| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
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20
clinch
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| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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24
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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25
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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28
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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29
hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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30
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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