Had she been enveloped2, in a way, by that idle Teutonically smiling manner of his? But at the bottom of her (for her) dramatic consent was the instantaneous image of Fr?ulein Lipmann and Company’s disapprobation. The carrying out and so substantiating3 her story, that notion turned the scale. Kreisler’s easy manner (he was unmistakably “a gentleman!”) contrasted with her friend’s indignant palaver4 gave him the advantage. He cannot, cannot have behaved so outrageously5 as they pretended!
These activities as well distracted her from brooding over Sorbert’s going.
Of Kreisler she thought very little. Her women friends held the centre of the stage.
In her thoughts they stared at her supersession6: Tarr to Kreisler. From bad to worse, for her friends. There was a strange continuity in her troubled friendship with these women. Always (only more so) at the same point, stretching the cord.
So this was the key to her programme; a person has made some slip in grammar, say. He makes it again deliberately7, so that his first involuntary speech may appear deliberate.
She began her customary pottering about in her rooms. Fr?ulein Elsa Kinderbach, one of the Dresden sisters already spoken of, interrupted her. At the knock she thought of Tarr and Kreisler simultaneously8, and welded in one.
“Isn’t it hot? It’s simply broiling9 outside. I left the studio quite early.” Fr?ulein Kinderbach sat down, giving her hat a toss and squinting10 up at it.
The most evident thing about these sisters was dirt, an?mia, and a sort of soiled, insignificant11 handsomeness. They explained themselves, roughly, by describing in a cold-blooded lazy way their life at home.
[171]
A stepmother, prodigiously12 smart, well-to-do, neglecting them; sent first to one place then another (now Paris) to be out of the way. Yet the stepmother supplies them superfluously13 from her superfluity.—They talked about themselves with a consciously dramatic matter-of-factness, as twin parcels, usually on the way from one place to another, expensively posted here and there, without real destination. They enjoyed nothing at all; painted well (according to Juan Soler); had a sort of wild uncontrollable attachment14 for the Lipmann.
“Oh! Bertha, I didn’t know your dear ‘Sorbert’ was going to England.” “Dein Sorbet” was the bantering15 formula for Tarr. Bertha was perpetually talking about him, to them, to the charwoman, to the greengrocer opposite, to everybody she met. Tarr did not quite bask16 in this notoriety.
“Didn’t you? Oh, yes; he’s gone.”
“You’ve not quarrelled—with your Sorbert?”
“What’s that to do with you, my dear?” Bertha gave a brief, indecent laugh she sometimes had. “By the way, I’ve just seen Herr Kreisler. We’ve arranged to go out somewhere to-morrow.”
“Go out—Kreisler! Liebes Kind!—What on earth possessed17 you—!—Herr—Kreisler!”
“What’s the matter with Herr Kreisler? You were all friendly enough with him a week ago.”
Elsa looked at her with the cold-blooded scrutiny18 of the precocious19 urchin20.
“But he’s a vicious brute21. Besides, there are other reasons for avoiding Herr Kreisler. You know the reason of his behaviour the other night? It was it appears, because Anastasya Vasek snubbed him. He was nearly the same when the Fogs wouldn’t take an interest in him. He can’t leave women alone. He follows them about and annoys them, and then becomes—well, as you saw him the other night—when he’s shaken off. He is impossible. He is not a person who can be accepted by anybody.”
“Where did you hear all that? I don’t think that Fr?ulein Vasek’s story is true. I am certain?”
[172]
“Well, he once was like that with me. He began hanging round, and—You know the story of his engagement?”
“What engagement?”
“He was engaged to a girl and she married his father instead of marrying him.”
Bertha struggled a moment, a little baffled.
“Well, what is there in that? I’ve known several cases?”
“Yes. That by itself?”
Elsa Kinderbach was quite undisturbed. Her information had been coldly given. She had argued sweepingly22, as though talking to a child, and following some reasonable resolve formed during her earlier silent scrutiny.—In a few moments Bertha returned to the charge.
“Did Fr?ulein Vasek give that particular explanation of Herr Kreisler’s behaviour?”
“No. We put two and two together. She did say something—yes, she did as a matter of fact say that she thought she had been the cause of Kreisler’s behaviour.”
“How funny! I can’t stand that girl; she’s so unnatural23, she’s such a poseuse. Don’t you think, Elsa?—What a funny thing to say? You can depend on it that that, anyhow, is not the explanation.”
“Sorbert has a rival perhaps?”
This remark was met in staring silence. It was a mixing of elements, an unnecessary bringing in of something as unapropos, as unmanageable; that deserved only no words at all. She did not wish to concede the light tone required.
Elsa had admitted that Fr?ulein Vasek was responsible for the statement, “I was the cause of Kreisler’s behaviour,” etc. That was one of those things (there being no evidence to confirm or even suggest it) which at once puts a woman on a peculiar24 pinnacle25 of bad taste, incomprehensibleness, and horridness26. Bertha’s personal estimation of Kreisler received a complex fillip. This ridiculous version—coming after[173] her version—was a rival version, believed in by her friends.
Bertha took some minutes to digest Elsa’s news. She flushed. The more she thought of this rival version of Fr?ulein Vasek’s, the more reprehensible27 it appeared. It was a startlingly novel and uncompromising version, giving proof of a perfect immodesty. It charged hers full tilt28.
This version of hers had been the great asset of existence for three days. Some one had coolly set up shop next door, to sell an article in which she, and she alone, had specialized29. Here was an unexpected, gratuitous30, new inventor of versions coming along. And what a version to begin with!
Bertha’s version had been a vital matter, Fr?ulein Vasek’s evidently was a matter of vanity. The contempt of the workman, sweating for a living, for the amateur, possessed her.
But there was a graver aspect to the version of this poaching Venus. In discrediting31 Bertha’s suggested account of how things happened, it attacked indirectly32 her action, proceeding, ostensibly, from these notions.
Her meeting Kreisler at present depended for its reasonableness and existence even on the “hunger” theory; or, if that should fail, something equally touching33 and primitive34. Were she forced, as Elsa readily did, to accept the snub-by-Anastasya theory, with its tale of ridiculous reprisals35, further dealings with Kreisler would show in a bare and ugly light. Her past conduct also would have its primitive slur36 renewed.
Her defiance37 to Elsa had been delivered with great satisfaction. “I am meeting Herr Kreisler to-morrow!” The shine had soon been taken off that.
All Bertha’s past management of the boulevard scene had presupposed that she was working in an element destined38 to obscurity: malleable39, therefore, to any extent. Anastasya had risen up calm, contradictory40, a formidable and perplexing enemy, with her cursed version. The weak point in it was the rank immodesty of the form it took.
Her obstinacy41 awoke. This new turn coming from the other camp solidified42 two or three degrees more, in a twinkling, her partisanship43 of Kreisler. She had a direct interest now in their meeting. She was curious to hear what he had to say as to his alleged44 attempt in Fr?ulein Vasek’s direction.
“Well, I’m going to Renée’s now, to fetch her for dinner. Are you coming?” Elsa said, getting up.
“No. I’m going to dine here to-night,” and Bertha accompanied her to the door.
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1
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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2
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
substantiating
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| v.用事实支持（某主张、说法等），证明，证实( substantiate的现在分词 ) | |
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4
palaver
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| adj.壮丽堂皇的；n.废话，空话 | |
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5
outrageously
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| 凶残地； 肆无忌惮地； 令人不能容忍地； 不寻常地 | |
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6
supersession
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| 取代，废弃； 代谢 | |
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7
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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8
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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9
broiling
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| adj.酷热的，炽热的，似烧的v.（用火）烤（焙、炙等）( broil的现在分词 )；使卷入争吵；使混乱；被烤（或炙） | |
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10
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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11
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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12
prodigiously
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| adv.异常地，惊人地，巨大地 | |
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13
superfluously
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| 过分地； 过剩地 | |
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14
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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15
bantering
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| adj.嘲弄的v.开玩笑，说笑，逗乐( banter的现在分词 )；（善意地）取笑，逗弄 | |
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16
bask
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| vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于 | |
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17
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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18
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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19
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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20
urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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21
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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sweepingly
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| adv.扫荡地 | |
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23
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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24
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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25
pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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26
horridness
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27
reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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28
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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29
specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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30
gratuitous
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| adj.无偿的，免费的；无缘无故的，不必要的 | |
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31
discrediting
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| 使不相信( discredit的现在分词 )； 使怀疑； 败坏…的名声； 拒绝相信 | |
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32
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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33
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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34
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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35
reprisals
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| n.报复（行为）( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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36
slur
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| v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音 | |
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37
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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38
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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39
malleable
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| adj.(金属)可锻的;有延展性的；(性格)可训练的 | |
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40
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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41
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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42
solidified
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| （使）成为固体，（使）变硬，（使）变得坚固( solidify的过去式和过去分词 )； 使团结一致； 充实，巩固； 具体化 | |
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43
Partisanship
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| n. 党派性, 党派偏见 | |
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44
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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