IT appeared that Mrs. Cowan, the plump neighbour who was cooking Clive’s dinner, had heard his telephonic arrangements for a wedding, and was, according to Clive, much flustered1. A few minutes later she disappeared from the kitchen, with a brief warning to Clive to keep his eye on the oven, and presently returned, breathless and sparkling-eyed, wearing her Sunday shawl, and bearing one of her own cakes.
“We’ll give them the best wedding we can, Mr. Bangs!” she said.
Clive came in to report this speech, and thus reminded that Mrs. Cowan was a human being, and a woman, with a prescriptive right to share in this occasion, he took the bridal pair to the kitchen and introduced them. Mrs. Cowan’s warm friendliness2 pleased as well as embarrassed them. Rose-Ann exclaimed over the cake, and putting on an apron3, commenced to help with the last stages of dinner.
Clive and Felix wandered back to the Franklin stove. “Oh, yes,” said Clive. “I must build a fire in your room. Come along,” and he set Felix to chopping kindling4 in the woodshed while he carried up a load of cannel coal. Felix followed him to the great room at the top of the stairs, occupying almost the whole of the upstairs space, with a fireplace at one end. “I built that fireplace myself when I had the house remodeled,” said Clive. “It’s quite an art, building a fireplace so that it will draw properly. I’m very proud of it.”
Felix knelt and stuffed the kindling into the grate. “No,” said Clive, “let me do it—you don’t know how.”
While they waited for the kindling to get well ablaze5 122before putting on the coal, Clive took Felix to a French window that opened on a balcony. “Here you have a view of the lake,” he said, and then going to one end of the balcony, “these steps lead down to my shower-bath, which unfortunately only functions in summer. You must come out here then—you’ll like it. It’s really wonderful country. I love it even in the winter. I’ll tell you: Why don’t you and Rose-Ann stay out here this week? I’ve got to be in town next week anyway, and I’ll clear out tonight when the fuss is all over and leave you to yourselves. Everything is shipshape, and Rose-Ann will have no difficulty in finding where things are—and I’ll arrange with Mrs. Cowan to get your dinners. You haven’t a place in town yet, have you?”
Felix thanked him, with the sense that the dedication7 of this house to another honeymoon8 than the one for which it was originally intended gave Clive a kind of painful and ironic9 pleasure. But there seemed to be no good reason for refusing the offer.
“Do you suppose my job will still be open for me when I come back married?” he asked.
“Not merely that, but you’ll probably get a raise,” said Clive. “That’s the custom. They figure that a young man who has married and settled down will be a more faithful slave. Usually they’re right. Only in this case, taking Rose-Ann into consideration, I would say that ‘settling down’ wasn’t the correct term.”
“Why, what do you mean?”
“I mean that Rose-Ann is much more likely to keep you in mischief10 than to keep you out of it. You know that.”
“You’ve got a funny idea of Rose-Ann,” said Felix.
“Oh, not at all. You know yourself she’s not the ordinary girl by any means. And she won’t make an ordinary wife—for which you can be thankful.”
He put the coal on the fire, set up the fire-screen in front of the fireplace, and they went downstairs.
“You needn’t eye me like the basilisk,” said Clive, taking a cigarette, “I’m not saying anything against your beloved.”
“All the same, I think you’ve got some kind of curious 123and erroneous notion about her. She’s not interested in these damned theories of ours. She’s a real person,” Felix protested.
“She’s real, all right,” said Clive. “But she’s not a simple person. She’s very complex. I think she’s just as complicated—as mixed up—as you or I.”
“Heaven forbid!” said Felix.
Rose-Ann came in just then, and Felix looked at her guiltily, ashamed of discussing her with his friend.
“Things are getting along very well,” she said. “I just ran in for a moment to see my lover.” She came up to him, with a shy frankness, to be kissed. “That ought to show Clive what sort of a person she is!” he thought.
She turned from his embrace to Clive. “It’s curious,” she said, “the pleasure people take in other people’s weddings! There’s Mrs. Cowan—she doesn’t know me and Felix. She hasn’t any reason to believe we are going to be happy. It’s just because it’s a wedding! I was thinking about it, and I realized that if this were a secret love-affair, she would be shut out of it. But a wedding lets her in. In a way, it’s really more her wedding than it is ours!”
“Well,” said Felix, “I don’t mind! I haven’t that damnable instinct of privacy that some people seem to regard as essential to love-affairs. I’d as soon the whole world knew we’re in love.”
“All right, Felix—but you haven’t had to discuss the nuptial11 couch with her, and I have! She’s upstairs now getting the room fixed12 up, and putting my clothes in the bureau; I left her to avoid an argument about which nightgown I should wear—as a matter of fact, she doesn’t think any of them are equal to the occasion, they’re all too plain! Perhaps you’d as soon everybody knew all about those details, which is what a wedding seems to amount to—but I don’t like it!” And she made a face and left the room.
“Well?” said Clive, rather triumphantly13.
“Well?” said Felix, stolidly14. He really had not liked that last speech of Rose-Ann’s. If she didn’t want her nightgowns discussed in public, then why—?
124“You’re really rather conventional, at the bottom of your soul, aren’t you?” Clive remarked thoughtfully.
“Of course I am. And so is everybody else. So are you, if you only knew it.”
“Then,” said Clive, coolly, “why do you marry Rose-Ann? She isn’t. It you want a conventional wife and conventional married happiness, why don’t you marry some simple little country girl, and have a houseful of babies? Why—”
There was a knock at the door.
“That’s my other witness,” said Clive, and hurried into the hall.
2
While Clive and the newcomer talked for a moment in the hall, Felix stood frowning at the fire.... Clive, he felt, was becoming rather exasperating15. Really, the unquestioning enthusiasm of Mrs. Cowan was preferable to such an inappropriately critical attitude as Clive’s. There was something deliberately16 malicious17 in it. That last remark about the “simple little country girl” was an attempt to shake his faith in this marriage. It was a damned mean trick!... And then he laughed at himself. For how could Clive possibly have guessed the effect of that remark? How could he know what a crazy fool he was talking to? “A simple country girl.” How could Clive know that there lurked18 in the back of Felix’s mind an absurd and impossible wish—a wish, long-forgotten, except in the most senseless of idle day-dreams, which these words of Clive’s made him remember, with an inexplicable19 pang20! A wish for precisely21 what he ought never to have—. Marriage with the girl of that foolish day-dream would be, for such a person as himself, the most fantastic of tragedies: and it was doubtless its very impossibility that had made him conceive it as a romantic ideal. And that houseful of babies—for they too were a part of that foolish day-dream of his—why, that was madness. In actuality, he would have fled from the prospect22 of such a marriage. He really wanted—what he had so miraculously23 found in Rose-Ann: 125a companionship in the adventure and beauty of life.... And in an hour or two his choice would be confirmed—irrevocably. Marriage was just that—a definite decision among tangled24 and contradictory25 wishes....
He turned to face the girl whom Clive had led into the room. For an instant he was startled as by an apparition26. Perhaps it was the effect of Clive’s words—this young woman seemed the very creature of his day-dreaming wish. Young, hardly more than nineteen, of slight but robust27 figure, with soft brown hair, dark quiet eyes and a serene28 mouth, she brought with her the fragrance29 of that fantasy which had only a moment ago disquieted30 him. She had a bundle in her arms, and for an instant the illusion was breathlessly complete—she was Rose-Ann’s phantom31 rival come to him in visible sweet flesh, bearing his baby at her bosom32.
“The bridegroom!” Clive was saying. “The witness!—Miss Phyllis Nelson, Mr. Felix Fay.”
She smiled imperturbably33 and held out her hand, her eyes meeting his.
“And what have you in that bundle, Phyllis? Something without which no wedding would be complete, I suppose,” said Clive.
“Only some smilax,” she said. “And I know how many knives and forks you have, Clive, so I brought along some of my mother’s silver. But where is—”
Rose-Ann ran in just then, and the two girls, while Clive pronounced their names, shook hands, and then suddenly kissed each other, and with arms linked went out into the kitchen.
Clive followed with the bundle, asking Phyllis if by any chance it contained a veil for the bride. He and Felix were shooed back into the other room, and Rose-Ann and Phyllis reset34 the table. The three women could be heard talking together, with a kind of excited seriousness, as they worked. Felix’s last glimpse was of Phyllis arranging wreaths of smilax on the white tablecloth35, and Rose-Ann, with an adorable gesture, lifting her arms to twine36 some of 126it about the low-hanging chandelier, while Mrs. Cowan, her hands on her hips6, stood looking from one to the other with approval before dashing back to the kitchen.
“Womenfolk have an instinct for such things,” said Clive, sitting down beside the fire. “Even Rose-Ann appears domestic.”
Felix looked at Clive fretfully. “I don’t see anything terribly domestic about hanging up a wreath of flowers.”
“You are hard to suit,” Clive commented. “When I say she isn’t domestic, you look daggers37 at me, and when I say she is, you still object. What shall I say? I strive to please.”
“So it seems,” said Felix.
Clive smiled. “Since you’re so conventional, you ought not to complain. Nothing is more regular and old-fashioned than the effort to embarrass a bridegroom. You may interpret my remarks as a modern version of that ancient mode of licensed38 tribal39 merriment—an intellectualized kind of ‘shivaree.’ I am trying to make up for the absence of the traditional tin pans out by the front gate. After all, Felix, you are taking Rose-Ann away from all the rest of us, and you must expect to be made to suffer a little for your selfishness.”
“Dinner!” Phyllis called in to them.
They went into the dining-room.
3
In the middle of the table was a glass bowl brimmed with sweet peas, and around it a wreath of smilax; a festoon of smilax hung from the chandelier. At the head of the table stood impressively a platter bearing a steaming roast duck.
“Oh, not without a piece of the wedding-cake!” cried Rose-Ann, and cut it for her.
Immensely gratified, and having wished the bride happiness, and at the last moment bestowed41 upon her a motherly kiss, 127Mrs. Cowan went, bearing the piece of cake carefully wrapped in a napkin.
Clive stared after her. “Very interesting,” he said, “she takes home a piece of her own cake—”
“No longer her own,” Rose-Ann finished, “and no longer merely cake—but a piece of Wedding Cake! Will she put it under her pillow, I wonder, and dream of getting another husband? She’s a widow, and her husband used to get drunk ‘something awful.’ Yes, she was telling me all about it—I think by way of warning, so I wouldn’t be too badly disillusioned42 by the facts of marriage. ‘You can’t expect ’em to be angels,’ she said. So you see Felix, I’m prepared for anything!”
This speech jarred upon Felix. It was too much in the vein43 that Clive had been indulging all evening. He wondered if he were going to become critical of Rose-Ann, now that he had a sense of possession with regard to her. He said to himself that Rose-Ann was over-wrought and he himself over-sensitive.
“Rose-Ann, here at my right hand,” Clive was saying, “Felix, here at my left. I believe that is correct. The Witness will take the remaining seat, opposite me. First of all, we must have a toast.” He rose. “Up with you all! No, Rose-Ann, you sit still—you can’t drink your own health.... Here’s to the bride!”
They lifted their glasses.
“No—wait till I finish my speech.... In defiance44 of all the laws of nature and of modern realistic fiction, we wish her happiness!... No, that isn’t all I have to say.... We make this wish—at least I do—with an unwonted confidence in its fulfilment. For this is no ordinary marriage, dedicated45 to the prosaic46 comforts of a mutual47 bondage—it is an attempt to realize the sharp new joys of freedom. A marriage, let us say, in name only—for upon Rose-Ann I set my faith, believing that not even a wedding can turn her into a wife!” Rose-Ann looked up at him and smiled. “To Rose-Ann,” he concluded, “and her adventure!”
128They drank. Felix looked at the others. He had a sense of something having been outraged48 by this speech—something which, if only a tradition, was somehow real to all of them except Clive. But Rose-Ann merely looked amused, and Phyllis’s expression told him nothing. He reflected, “She’s used to him by this time.”
A sense of embarrassment49 remained with him, in spite of the light talk that followed as Clive heaped their plates in turn with roast duck and dressing50.
“Why are you so quiet, Felix?” Clive asked at last. “You might at least tell us how it feels to be a bridegroom—whether you feel as depressed51 as you look.”
“I confess I shall be glad when it’s over,” said Felix.
They laughed, and went on talking. Rose-Ann was apparently52 enjoying herself. She and Clive were exchanging pleasantries on the subject of “modern marriage.” For some reason the phrase annoyed Felix. Did they know what nonsense they were talking? Or did they really think that his and Rose-Ann’s marriage was to be, as it were, a sociological performance for the benefit of on-lookers?
Presently Rose-Ann was humourously disclaiming53 “all the credit” for the modernity of the arrangement. Felix, she insisted, was equally entitled to it; he was just as modern as she was!
“Why,” Felix suddenly asked in exasperation54, “should we all want to be so damned modern?”
“Hark to the defiant55 bridegroom!” said Clive. “He wishes us to understand that his wife is going to love, honour, and obey him, in the good old—fashioned way. He won’t stand for any of this new-fangled nonsense. The Cave-man emerges!”
Felix flushed. He had only succeeded in making a fool of himself, it seemed.
Rose-Ann spoke56 up. “I hope it will be modern,” she said. “I’m sure it won’t be like any of the marriages I’ve seen back in my home town.... Why are you so afraid of freedom and modernity, Felix?”
129Perhaps it was that word afraid, which Rose-Ann used so lightly, that stung him. “Because,” he said, “I am apparently the only one here who knows what those words mean.”
He had not intended to say it—certainly he had not intended to say it in that tone of voice. It came out, raspingly, like a voice out of a music-box, a voice from a strange record that has been put in unawares. His voice was, even to his own ears, remote and metallic57.
Rose-Ann looked at him, startled. “What words, Felix?” she asked gently.
“The words you have all been bandying about,” he replied. “Modernity. Freedom.” His voice was still hard.
“Well, what do they mean?”
She leaned toward him.
The others were silent, listening—Clive with an amused smile, Phyllis with troubled eyes.
“Not what you think, I’m afraid, Rose-Ann,” Felix’s voice answered, the voice with a quiet grimness in it.
Rose-Ann’s voice took up the challenge softly. “And what do you think they mean, Felix?”
He looked away from her, and spoke as if from a distance, slowly. “Freedom.... It’s not a nice word, not a pretty word ... to me. There is something terrible in it ... something to be afraid of....” He looked back at her. “Don’t offer me freedom, Rose-Ann.”
Her voice was still soft, but infinitely58 cool and firm. “Why? Because you might take it? I knew that when I made the offer, Felix. I think I know what you mean. But I take back nothing.” She lifted her chin proudly. “I am not afraid of freedom.”
“Bravo!” cried Clive. “Rose-Ann, I am falling in love with you myself! Why don’t you marry me instead of Felix! He doesn’t appreciate you.”
Curiously59 enough, nobody except Felix seemed to mind Clive’s clowning. Both girls laughed, and the atmosphere was suddenly cleared.
“Yes,” said Felix, now bewildered and contrite61. “I must have got into my argumentative mood. I’m sorry. When I get to arguing I think of no one and nothing, except the point at issue—which is usually not of the slightest importance. It’s a bad habit you must break me of when we are married.”
“You are forgiven,” said Phyllis.
“Don’t forget there’s fruit salad coming,” said Rose-Ann, rising and bringing a bowl from the sideboard.
“Yes,” said Clive, “and the car will be here for you two people in ten minutes or so. Will you have your coffee now, Felix?—Rose-Ann?”
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1
flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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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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dedication
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| n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞 | |
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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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nuptial
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| adj.婚姻的，婚礼的 | |
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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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13
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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15
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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16
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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18
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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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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apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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27
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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28
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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29
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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30
disquieted
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| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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32
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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33
imperturbably
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| adv.泰然地，镇静地，平静地 | |
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reset
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| v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物 | |
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tablecloth
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| n.桌布，台布 | |
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twine
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| v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕 | |
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daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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licensed
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| adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词) | |
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tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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40
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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41
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
disillusioned
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| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
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43
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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44
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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45
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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46
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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47
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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48
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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49
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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50
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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51
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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52
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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53
disclaiming
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| v.否认( disclaim的现在分词 ) | |
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54
exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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55
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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56
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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57
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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58
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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59
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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60
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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61
contrite
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| adj.悔悟了的，后悔的，痛悔的 | |
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