CHAPTER XXV “COME”

 The windmill was creaking in the same protesting, painful manner as Claudia climbed the hill where she and Colin had stood more than a year ago and looked at the view. But the waving fields of corn were all cut now, only a yellowish stubble remained. The hedges were beginning to show the approach of autumn, the yellowing leaf, the reddening berry. But it looked very much the same, just as peaceful and full of promise, though harvest-time was over. The sun was warm, but not so hot as it had been that Sunday afternoon.

 

Claudia felt her pulses stir as she gazed around her, for there is a richness and beauty in autumn that the earlier months lack. She seemed to feel Nature tugging¹ at her sleeve, whispering in her ear, calling to her to rejoice that the fruit of the earth was ripe, the time of waiting was over.

 

It was more than a year since she had gone to live with poor Fay at Rockingham, but Fay was asleep now. As she stood there she thought of her with tears in her eyes, and her face turned to where in the distance a cluster of white gravestones lay bathed in the rays of the sun. By an ironic² coincidence she lay in the same churchyard as[371] Gilbert, though the grass had not yet grown over the little music-hall artiste. Death had loosened the feeble hands that had clung so desperately³—ah! how desperately in the last few weeks!—round her neck, and that duty was done.

 

She stood leaning against a gate, thinking a little soberly but not unhappily of many things. Then she drew forth⁴ a couple of letters from her pocket. The first that she re-read was from Pat, giving her a buoyant description of the harvesting on her farm, extolling⁵ the work and the climate, and cataloguing with evident pride the bushels of fruit that the trees had yielded.

 

“Do come out, Claudia, now poor Fay has gone. There’s nothing to keep you in England; at least, if there is, bring the impediment with you. You must be tired out after all the troubles of the last year. I am really very worried about you, and if you don’t come I shall have to leave the farm and fetch you. Colin writes me you are looking very pulled down. You are a brick to have stuck at Rockingham, but that’s finished now. I’m writing to Colin by the same post. When I left I gave you to him with my blessing⁶! Like my cheek, wasn’t it?

 

“But, seriously, the trip would interest you, and I won’t feed you exclusively on fruit! I think Colin would like to see my farm. Fancy his blossoming into an M.P. I’m so afraid he’ll lose his sense of humour in the House....”

 

Claudia laughed a little as she put back the letter in the pocket of her white golf-coat.

 

The windmill creaked, and the wind rustling⁷ the dry leaves in the hedges blew her white serge skirt against her ankles, and seemed to sing “Go! go! go!”

 

The other was from Colin. She turned to the passage she wanted. It was on the last page.

 

[372]

 

“Dearest, I don’t want to suggest any unseemly haste. It is always for you to make the decision, and I shall understand and acquiesce⁸ in anything you wish. Only, sweetheart, I am a good many years older than you, and time has cheated so many lovers. Shall we let him cheat us of any more years? Oh! if you only knew how I long for the time when we shall always be together, when just a whispered ‘Claudia’ will bring you to my side! You are with me in thought every hour of the day, but I want your dear presence. Dearest of friends, best of chums, when will you let me make you my wife?”

 

The wind fluttered the pages of the letter, so that she could not read any more. The sun was warm on her bare hand. All the earth seemed to say “Don’t delay any longer, don’t let the gods think you are ungrateful. Are you afraid of happiness?”

 

She raised the letter passionately⁹ to her lips.

 

“My Colin! My man!”

 

Then hastily thrusting it into her pocket, she half-walked, half-ran down the hill to the village. Her cheeks, a little thin from her self-imposed task, were a bright pink with excitement, and her whole body was aglow¹⁰ and superbly alive with the exercise as she pushed open a small, clanging door at the foot of the hill. There were oddments of sweets, toys and newspapers in the window, and a small boy who had just purchased some sweets that looked exactly like bootlaces stared at her in dull surprise as she passed him with a radiant smile. She had not just spent a whole halfpenny in two separate farthings’-worth at the sweet-counter, so why should she look so happy?

 

At the end of the shop was a small post-office department. The atmosphere was stuffy¹¹, and reeked¹² of sealing-wax and tobacco. But the telegram would go all the same.

 

The romance of all the ages, of all the world, was in that piece of formal, ruled paper. The room might have been perfumed with attar of roses, and the boy with the liquorice bootlaces might have been Cupid himself! The telegram was not going on the prosaic¹³ wires, but on the wings of Love!

 

Yet, when it was written, it only contained two words, beside the address:

 

“Come. Claudia.”

 

THE END.

1 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

2 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

3 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

5 extolling   

v.赞美( extoll的现在分词 )；赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He never stops extolling the virtues of the free market. 他不停地颂扬自由市场的种种好处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They kept extolling my managerial skills. 他们不停地赞美我的管理技能。 来自辞典例句

6 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

7 rustling   

n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的

参考例句：

• the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze 树木在微风中发出的沙沙声
• the soft rustling of leaves 树叶柔和的沙沙声

8 acquiesce   

vi.默许，顺从，同意

参考例句：

• Her parents will never acquiesce in such an unsuitable marriage.她的父母决不会答应这门不相宜的婚事。
• He is so independent that he will never acquiesce.他很有主见，所以绝不会顺从。

9 passionately   

ad.热烈地，激烈地

参考例句：

• She could hate as passionately as she could love. 她能恨得咬牙切齿，也能爱得一往情深。
• He was passionately addicted to pop music. 他酷爱流行音乐。

10 aglow   

adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地

参考例句：

• The garden is aglow with many flowers.园中百花盛开。
• The sky was aglow with the setting sun.天空因夕阳映照而发红光。

11 stuffy   

adj.不透气的，闷热的

参考例句：

• It's really hot and stuffy in here.这里实在太热太闷了。
• It was so stuffy in the tent that we could sense the air was heavy with moisture.帐篷里很闷热，我们感到空气都是潮的。

12 reeked   

v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象）

参考例句：

• His breath reeked of tobacco. 他满嘴烟臭味。
• His breath reeked of tobacco. 他满嘴烟臭味。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 prosaic   

adj.单调的，无趣的

参考例句：

• The truth is more prosaic.真相更加乏味。
• It was a prosaic description of the scene.这是对场景没有想象力的一个描述。