Yes, the little princess was none too engaging, she reflected, and her poor sacrificed child if not actually trapped....
The silken swish of a fan, breaking the silence, induced the Queen to look up.
In waiting at present was the Countess 196 Olivia d’Omptyda, a person of both excellent principles and birth, if lacking, somewhat, in social boldness. Whenever she entered the royal presence she would begin visibly to tremble, which considerably2 flattered the Queen. Her Father, Count “Freddie” d’Omptyda, an infantile and charming old man, appointed in a moment of unusual vagary3 Pisuergan Ambassador to the Court of St James’, had lately married a child wife scarcely turned thirteen, whose frivolity4, and numerous pranks5 on the high dames6 of London, were already the scandal of the Corps7 Diplomatique.
“Sssh! Noise is the last vulgarity,” the Queen commented, raising a cushion embroidered8 with raging lions and white uncanny unicorns9 higher behind her head.
Unstrung from the numerous fêtes, she had retired10 to a distant boudoir to relax, and, having partly disrobed, was feeling remotely Venus of Miloey with her arms half-hidden in a plain white cape11.
The Countess d’Omptyda furled her fan.
“It seems that neither King Geo, nor Queen Glory, ever lie down of a day!” her Dreaminess declared.
“Since his last appointment, neither does Papa.”
“The affair of your step-mother and Lady Diana Duff Semour,” the Queen remarked, “appears to be assuming the proportions of an Incident!”
The Countess dismally13 smiled. The subject of her step-mother, mistaken frequently for her grand-daughter, was a painful one: “I hear she’s like a colt broke loose!” she murmured, dropping her eyes fearfully to her costume.
“It’s a little a pity she can’t be more sensible,” the Queen returned, fingering listlessly some papers at her side. Among them was the Arch?ological Society’s initial report relating to the recent finds among the Ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. From Chedorlahomor came the good news that an amphora had been found, from which it seemed that men, in those days, rode sideways, and 198 women straddle-legs, with their heads to the horses’ tails, while a dainty cup, ravished from a rock-tomb in the Vale of Akko, ornamented15 with naked boys and goblets16 of flowers, encouraged a yet more extensive research.
“You may advance, Countess, with the Arch?ologists’ report,” the Queen commanded. “Omitting (skipping, I say) the death of the son of Lord Intriguer17.”11
“‘It was in the Vale of Akko, about two miles from Saada,” the Countess tremblingly began, “that we laid bare a superb tear-bottle, a unique specimen18 in grisaille, severely19 adorned20 with a matron’s head. From the inscription21, there can be no doubt whatever that we have here an authentic22 portrait of Lot’s disobedient, though unfortunate wife. Ample and statuesque (as the salten image she was afterwards to become), the shawl-draped, masklike features are by no means beautiful. It is a face that you may often see to-day, in 199 down-town ‘Dancings,’ or in the bars of the dockyards, or wharfs23, of our own modern cities, Tilbury, ’Frisco, Vera Cruz—a sodden24, gin-soaked face, that helps to vindicate25, if not, perhaps, excuse, the conduct of Lot.... With this highly interesting example of the Potters’ Art, was found a novel object, of an unknown nature, likely to arouse, in scientific circles, considerable controversy26....”
And just as the lectrice was growing hesitant, and embarrassed, the Countess of Tolga, who had the entrée, unobtrusively entered the room.
She was looking particularly well in one of the new standing27-out skirts ruched with rosebuds28, and was showing more of her stockings than she usually did.
“You bring the sun with you!” the Queen graciously exclaimed.
“Indeed,” the Countess answered, “I ought to apologise for the interruption, but the poor little thing is leaving now.”
“What? has the Abbess come?”
“She has sent Sister Irene of the Incarnation, instead....”
“I had forgotten it was to-day.” 200
With an innate29 aversion for all farewells, yet the Queen was accustomed to perform a score of irksome acts daily that she cordially disliked, and when, shortly afterwards, Mademoiselle de Nazianzi accompanied by a Sister from the Flaming-Hood were announced, they found her quite prepared.
Touched, and reassured30 at the ex-maid’s appearance, the Queen judged, at last, it was safe to unbend. Already very remote and unworldly in her novice31’s dress, she had ceased, indeed, to be a being there was need any more to either circumvent32, humour, or suppress; and now that the threatened danger was gone, her Majesty33 glanced, half-lachrymosely, about among her personal belongings34 for some slight token of “esteem” or souvenir. Skimming from cabinet to cabinet, in a sort of hectic35 dance, she began to fear, as she passed her bibelots in review, that beyond a Chinese Buddha36 that she believed to be ill-omened, and which for a nun37 seemed hardly suitable, she could spare nothing about her after all, and in some dilemma38, she raised her eyes, as though for a crucifix, towards the wall. 201 Above the long-chair a sombre study of a strangled negress in a ditch by Gauguin conjured39 up to-day with poignant40 force a vivid vision of the Tropics.
“The poor Duchess!” she involuntarily sighed, going off into a train of speculation41 of her own.
Too tongue-tied, or, perhaps, too discreet42, to inform the Queen that anything she might select would immediately be confiscated43 by the Abbess, Sister Irene, while professing44 her rosary, appraised45 her surroundings with furtive46 eyes, crossing herself frequently with a speed, and facility due to practice whenever her glance chanced to alight on some nude47 shape in stone. Keen, meagre, and perhaps slightly malicious48, hers was a curiously49 pinched face—like a cold violet.
“The Abbess is still in retreat; but sends her duty,” she ventured as the Queen approached a gueridon near which she was standing.
“Indeed? How I envy her,” the Queen wistfully said, selecting, as suited to the requirements of the occasion, a little volume of a mystic trend, the Cries of Love of 202 Father Surin,12 bound in grey velvet50, which she pressed upon the reluctant novice, with a brief, but cordial, kiss of farewell.
“So like the Cimabue in the long corridor ...” the Countess of Tolga murmured chillily; It was her present policy that her adored ally, Olga Blumenghast, should benefit by Mademoiselle de Nazianzi’s retirement52 from Court, by becoming nearer to the Queen, when they would work all the wires between them.
“I’d have willingly followed her,” the Queen weariedly declared, “at any rate, until after the wedding.”
“It seems that I and Lord Derbyfield are to share the same closed carriage in the wake of the bridal coach,” the Countess of Tolga said, considering with a supercilious53 air her rose suède slipper54 on the dark carpet.
“He’s like some great Bull. What do you suppose he talks about?”
“They tell me Don Juan was nothing nothing to him.... He cannot see, he cannot be, oh every hour. It seems he can’t help it, and that he simply has to!”
“Fortunately Lady Lavinia Lee-Strange will be in the landau as well!”
The Queen laid her cheek to her hands.
“I all but died, dear Violet,” she crooned, “listening to an account of her Ancestor, who fell, fighting Scotland, at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh.”
“They are not to be appraised by any ordinary standards. Crossing the state saloon while coming here what should I see, ma’am, but Lady Canon of Noon on her hands and knees (all fours!) peeping below the loose-covers of the chairs in order to examine the Gobelins-tapestries beneath....”
“Oh——”
“‘Absolutely authentic’ I said! as I passed on, leaving her looking like a pick-pocket caught in the act.”
“I suppose she was told to make a quiet survey....”
“Like their beagles and deer-hounds, 204 that their Landseer so loved to paint, I fear the British character is, at bottom, nothing if not rapacious57!”
“It’s said, I believe, to behold58 the Englishman at his best, one should watch him play at tip-and-run.”
“You mean of course at cricket?”
The Queen looked doubtful: She had retained of a cricket-match at Lord’s a memory of hatless giants waving wooden sticks.
“I only wish it could have been a long engagement,” she abstrusely59 murmured, fastening her attention on the fountains whitely spurting60 in the gardens below.
Valets in cotton-jackets and light blue aprons61 bearing baskets of crockery and argenterie, were making ready beneath the tall Tuba trees, a supper buffet62 for the evening’s Ball.
“Flap your wings, little bird
O flap your wings——”
A lad’s fresh voice, sweet as a robin’s, came piping up.
“These wretched workpeople——! There’s not a peaceful corner,” the Queen complained, as her husband’s shape 205 appeared at the door. He was followed by his first secretary—a simple commoner, yet, with the air, and manner, peculiar63 to the husband of a Countess.
“Yes, Willie? I’ve a hundred head-aches. What is it?”
“Both King Geo and Queen Glory, are wondering where you are.”
“Oh, really, Willie?”
“And dear Elsie’s asking after you too.”
“Very likely,” the Queen returned with quiet complaisance64, “but unfortunately, I have neither her energy, or,” she murmured with a slightly sardonic65 laugh, “her appetite!”
The Countess of Tolga tittered.
“She called for fried-eggs and butcher’s-meat, this morning, about the quarter before eight,” she averred66.
“An excellent augury67 for our dynasty,” the King declared, reposing68 the eyes of an adoring grandparent upon an alabaster69 head of a Boy attributed to Donatello.
“She’s terribly foreign, Willie...! Imagine ham and eggs ...” the Queen dropped her face to her hand. 206
“So long as the Royal-House——” The King broke off, turning gallantly70 to raise the Countess d’Omptyda, who had sunk with a gesture of exquisite71 allegiance to the floor.
“What is she doing, Willie?”
“Begging for Strawberry-leaves!” the Countess of Tolga brilliantly commented.
“Apropos of Honours ... it appears King Geo has signified his intention of raising his present representative in Pisuerga to the peerage.”
“After her recent Cause, Lady Something should be not a little consoled.”
“She was at the début of the new diva, little Miss Hellvellyn (the foreign invasion has indeed begun!), at the Opera-House last night, so radiant....”
“When she cranes forward out of her own box to smile at someone into the next, I can’t explain ... but one feels she ought to hatch,” the Queen murmured, repairing capriciously from one couch to another.
“We neglect our guests, my dear,” the 207 King expostulatingly exclaimed, bending over his consort74 anxiously from behind.
“Tell me, Willie,” she cooed, caressing75 the medals upon his breast, and drawing him gently down: “tell me? Didst thou enjoy thy cigar, dear, with King Geo?”
“Thy little chat, though, dearest, was well enough?”
“I would not call him crafty77, but I should say he was a man of considerable subtlety78 ...” the King evasively replied.
“Before the proposed Loan, love, can be brought about, he may wish to question thee as to thy political opinions.”
The Queen gave a little light laugh.
“No one knows what my political opinions are; I don’t myself!”
“And I’m quite confident of it: But, indeed, my dear, we neglect our functions.”
“I only wish it could have been a long engagement, Willie....”
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1
disingenuous
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| adj.不诚恳的，虚伪的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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vagary
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| n.妄想，不可测之事，异想天开 | |
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frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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unicorns
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| n.（传说中身体似马的）独角兽( unicorn的名词复数 )；一角鲸；独角兽标记 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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goblets
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| n.高脚酒杯( goblet的名词复数 ) | |
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intriguer
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| 密谋者 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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wharfs
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| 码头，停泊处 | |
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sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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vindicate
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| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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rosebuds
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| 蔷薇花蕾，妙龄少女，初入社交界的少女( rosebud的名词复数 ) | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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novice
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| adj.新手的，生手的 | |
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circumvent
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| vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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hectic
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| adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的 | |
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Buddha
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| n.佛；佛像；佛陀 | |
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nun
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| n.修女，尼姑 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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appraised
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| v.估价( appraise的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
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furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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52
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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54
slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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insular
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| adj.岛屿的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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rapacious
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| adj.贪婪的，强夺的 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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abstrusely
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| adv.难解地，深奥地 | |
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60
spurting
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| （液体，火焰等）喷出，（使）涌出( spurt的现在分词 )； （短暂地）加速前进，冲刺； 溅射 | |
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aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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buffet
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| n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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complaisance
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| n.彬彬有礼，殷勤，柔顺 | |
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sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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66
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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augury
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| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
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reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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alabaster
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| adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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suaver
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| adj.平滑的( suave的比较级 )；有礼貌的；老于世故的 | |
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crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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prodigy
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| n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆 | |
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