SECTION 31.

 Mary forced herself to go on. “This is how I've worked it out, Joe! I said to meself, 'Ye love this man; and it's his love ye want—nothin' else! If he's got a place in the world, ye'd only hold him back—and ye'd not want to do that. Ye don't want his name, or his friends, or any of those things—ye want him!' Have ye ever heard of such a thing as that?”

Her cheeks were flaming, but she continued to meet his gaze. “Yes, I've heard of it,” he answered, in a low voice.

“What would ye say to it? Is it honest? The Reverend Spragg would say 'twas the devil, no doubt; Father O'Gorman, down in Pedro, would call it mortal¹ sin; and maybe they know—but I don't! I only know I can't stand it any more!”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she cried out suddenly, “Oh, take me away from here! Take me away and give me a chance, Joe! I'll ask nothing, I'll never stand in your way; I'll work for ye, I'll cook and wash and do everything for ye, I'll wear my fingers to the bone! Or I'll go out and work at some job, and earn my share. And I'll make ye this promise—if ever ye get tired and want to leave me, ye'll not hear a word of complaint!”

She made no conscious appeal to his senses; she sat gazing at him honestly through her tears, and that made it all the harder to answer her.

What could he say? He felt the old dangerous impulse—to take the girl in his arms and comfort her. When finally he spoke² it was with an effort to keep his voice calm. “I'd say yes, Mary, if I thought it would work.”

“It would work! It would, Joe! Ye can quit when ye want to. I mean it!”

“There's no woman lives who can be happy on such terms, Mary. She wants her man, and she wants him to herself, and she wants him always; she's only deluding³ herself if she believes anything else. You're over-wrought now, what you've seen in the last few days has made you wild—”

“No!” she exclaimed. “'Tis not only that! I been thinkin' about it for weeks.”

“I know. You've been thinking, but you wouldn't have spoken if it hadn't been for this horror.” He paused for a moment, to renew his own self-possession. “It won't do, Mary,” he declared. “I've seen it tried more than once, and I'm not so old either. My own brother tried it once, and ruined himself.”

“Ah, ye're afraid to trust me, Joe!”

“No, it's not that; what I mean is—he ruined his own heart, he made himself selfish. He took everything, and gave nothing. He's much older than I, so I've had a chance to see its effect on him. He's cold, he has no faith, even in his own nature; when you talk to him about making the world better he tells you you're a fool.”

“It's another way of bein' afraid of me,” she insisted. “Afraid you'd ought to marry me!”

“But, Mary—there's the other girl. I really love her, and I'm promised to her. What can I do?”

“'Tis that I've never believed you loved her,” she said, in a whisper. Her eyes fell and she began picking nervously⁴ again at the faded blue dress, which was smutted and grease-stained, perhaps from her recent effort with Mrs. Zamboni's brood⁵. Several times Hal thought she was going to speak, but she shut her lips tightly⁶ again; he watched her, his heart aching.

When finally she spoke, it was still in a whisper, and there was a note of humility⁷ he had never heard from her before. “Ye'll not be wantin' to speak to me, Joe, after what I've said.”

“Oh, Mary!” he exclaimed, and caught her hand, “don't say I've made you more unhappy! I want to help you! Won't you let me be your friend—your real, true friend? Let me help you to get out of this trap; you'll have a chance to look about, you'll find a way to be happy—the whole world will seem different to you then, and you'll laugh at the idea that you ever wanted me!”

1 mortal   

adj.终有一死的，致命的，不共戴天的；n.人

参考例句：

• He received a mortal wound soon after the battle began.战争开始后不久，他就受到了致命的重伤。
• They are our mortal enemies.他们是我们不共戴天的仇敌。

2 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 deluding   

v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They used Teresa's desolation as another proof that believers are deluding themselves. 他们用德肋撒嬷嬷的孤寂再一次论证信徒们是在蒙蔽自己。 来自互联网
• There is, for instance, a self-deluding interpretation of the contemporary world situation. 比如说有一些对当代世界时局自我欺骗式的阐释。 来自互联网

4 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

5 brood   

n.同窝幼鸟一个家庭的孩子；v.孵蛋，闷想

参考例句：

• The hen brought off a brood of young.母鸡孵出了一窝小鸡。
• It is time for hens to brood.该是母鸡孵蛋的时候了。

6 tightly   

adv.紧紧地，坚固地，牢固地

参考例句：

• My child holds onto my hand tightly while we cross the street.横穿马路时，孩子紧拉着我的手不放。
• The crowd pressed together so tightly that we could hardly breathe.人群挤在一起，我们几乎喘不过气来。

7 humility   

n.谦逊，谦恭

参考例句：

• Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
• His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。