Bertha’s intuitions and simplifications had not been without basis. This “hostile version” had contained a certain amount of hostile intention.
But Anastasya had another reason for this immodest explicitness3. She personally liked Kreisler. The spectacle of Bertha excusing herself, and in the process[284] putting Kreisler in a more absurd and unsatisfactory light, annoyed her extremely.
How could Tarr consort4 with Bertha, she questioned? Her aristocratic woman’s sense did not appreciate the taste for a slut, a miss or a suburban5 queen. The apache, the coster girl, fisher-lass, all that had character, oh, yes. Her romanticism, in fact, was of the same order as Butcher’s only better.
Two days after the duel6 she met Tarr in the street. They agreed to meet at Lejeune’s for dinner.
The table at which she had first come across Kreisler was where they sat.
“You knew Soltyk, didn’t you?” he asked her.
“Yes. It was a terrible affair. Poor Soltyk!”
She looked at Tarr doubtfully. A certain queer astonishment7 in her face struck Tarr. It was the only sign of movement beneath. She spoke8 with a businesslike calm about his death. There was no sign of feeling or search for feeling.
She refused to regard herself as the “woman in the affair.” She knew people referred to her as that. Soltyk possessed9 a rather ridiculous importance, being dead; a cadaveric10 severity in the meaning of the image, Soltyk, for her. The fact was bigger than the person. He was like a boy in his father’s clothes.
Kreisler, on the other hand, she abominated11. To have killed, he to have killed!—and to have killed some one she knew! It was a hostile act to bring death so near her. She knew it was hostile. She hoped he might never come back to Paris. She did not want to meet Kreisler.
But these feelings were not allowed to transpire12. She recognized them as personal. She was so fastidious that she refrained from using them in discussing the affair when they would have given a suspect readiness and “sincerity” to her expression. She rather went to the other extreme.
“They say Soltyk was not killed in a duel,” Tarr continued. “Kreisler is to be charged with murder, or at least manslaughter.”
[285]
“Yes, I have heard that Kreisler shot him before he was ready or something?”
“I heard that he was shot when he was unarmed. There was no duel at all.”
“Oh, that is not the version I have heard.”
She did not seem revengeful about her friend.
“I was Kreisler’s second for half an hour,” Tarr said in a minute.
“How do you mean, for half an hour?” She was undemonstrative but polite.
“I happened to be there, and was asked to help him until somebody else could be found. I did not suspect him, I may say, of meaning to go to such lengths.”
“What was the reason of it all—do you know?”
“According to Kreisler, they had done some smacking13 earlier in the day?”
“Yes. Herr Kreisler met Soltyk and myself. I think that Soltyk then was a little in the wrong.”
“I dare say.”
Tarr’s sympathies were all with Kreisler. He had never been attracted by Poles, and as such rather than a Russian he thought of Soltyk. Deep square races he preferred. And Kreisler was a clumsy and degenerate14 atavism bringing a peculiarity15 into too elastic16 life.
Some of Tarr’s absurd friendliness17 for Bertha flowed over on to her fellow-countryman.
Had Anastasya more of a hand in the duel than he would naturally believe? Her indifference18 to Soltyk’s death, and her favouring Kreisler, almost pointed19 to something unusual. Kreisler’s ways were still mysterious!
That was all they said about the duel. As they were finishing the meal, after turning her head towards the entrance door, Anastasya remarked, with mock concern:
“There is your fiancée. She seems rather upset.”
Tarr looked towards the door. Bertha’s white face was close up against one of the narrow panes21, above the lace curtain. There were four and a half[286] feet of window on either side of the door. There were so many objects and lights in the front well of the shop that her face would not be much noticed in the corner it had chosen.
Her eyes were round, vacant, and dark, the features very white and heavy, the mouth steadily22 open in painful lines. As he looked the face drew gradually away, and then disappeared into the melodramatic night. It was a large trapped fly on the pane20. It withdrew with a glutinous23, sweet slowness. The heavy white jowl seemed pulling itself out of some fluid trap where it had been caught like a weighty body.
Tarr knew how the pasty flesh would nestle against the furs, the shoulders swing, the legs move just as much as was necessary for progress, with no movement of the hips24. Everything about her in the chilly25 night would give an impression of warmth and system. The sleek26 cloth fitting the square shoulders tightly, the underclothes carefully tight as well, the breath from her nostrils27 the slight steam from a contented28 machine.
He caught Anastasya’s eye and smiled.
“Your fiancée is pretty,” she said, pretending that was the answer to the smile.
“She’s not my fiancée. But she’s a pretty girl.”
“Oh, I understood you were engaged?”
“No.”
“It’s no good,” he thought. But he must spare Bertha in future such discomforting sights.
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1
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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2
repudiation
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| n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃 | |
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3
explicitness
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4
consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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5
suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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6
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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7
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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8
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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9
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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10
cadaveric
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| 尸体的 | |
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11
abominated
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| v.憎恶，厌恶，不喜欢( abominate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
transpire
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| v.(使)蒸发，(使)排出 ；泄露，公开 | |
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13
smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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14
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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15
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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16
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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17
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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18
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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19
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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20
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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21
panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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22
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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23
glutinous
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| adj.粘的，胶状的 | |
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24
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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25
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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26
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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27
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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28
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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