But how could there be anything like this in the house in St.{124} John’s Wood? The Harwoods were people not given to excitement of any kind. They were too orderly in mind, too calm and well-balanced, for any emotion. Their daily round of life was comfort itself, unbroken by any pangs8 of anxiety. No, Mrs. Harwood was a little anxious lest Dolff should stay out too late, and showed it in a natural, motherly way. Her brow got a little pucker9 in it when he did not return at the time he was expected; and Gussy had a way of going upstairs to the staircase window, from which she could see, over the garden wall, the road outside, to look out for him. This was visible enough to those who had eyes to see. But a mystery in the house, a secret inhabitant, a prisoner—— It was incredible; it was a thing that could not be.
Janet lay awake for a great part of the night tossing and trembling in her bed. She had locked her door, and she kept her light burning, frightened, she knew not for what, for the old man with the pale face, who might appear at any moment, and congeal10 the blood in her veins11. Janet, of course, argued with herself in every way, that if there was any old man in the wing he was evidently shut up there and guarded and very unlikely to be seen outside; that there was no reason to suppose that he would know where her room was and come to her; that perhaps it was no old man at all, or a mere12 visitor to Vicars, or a hallucination, or—she knew not what. But all these reflections were not enough to calm the beating of her heart. She heard Dolff come in from his ball and was comforted by the sound of voices, which gave a feeling of security: but these sounds died away again after a few minutes, and the silence and the darkness settled down. It seemed to Janet that the night had endured for ages before she got to sleep. Perhaps, however, it was not so very late, after all, for she was quite unused to watching.
It was, however, late when she sprang up in the morning, finding that she had overslept herself and too busy in her hurry to think of anything for the first half-hour. Then all that she had seen suddenly flashed over her mind again, and she uttered an involuntary cry. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, and saw again in her mind’s eye the apparition13 of the previous night. Janet started up again and gave a wild look round her, wondering whether she should not pack up at once and go away. If she had been one of the happy girls who have a mother to go to!—but all the possibilities rushed through her mind in a moment. The explanations she would have to give, the mild suspicion at the vicarage, the milder remonstrances14, “But, my dear!—when you were so happy; a{125} face at the window! There might be a dozen ways of explaining it; and what had she to do with it, when all was said?
“Janet, what’s the matter? Janet, let me in. Why, you have your door locked! Janet, Janet, are you ill? You’re late for breakfast and everybody’s down. Ja—anet!”
“There is nothing the matter,” said Janet, faltering16; “I have overslept myself. I shall be down directly. Go away, Julia, please.”
“I sha’n’t go away. I’ll wait here for you. I suppose Dolff woke you up coming home in the middle of the night. Make haste, make haste, Janet, or Gussy will say something nasty about people who are so easily put out.”
“Julia, please go away. I am coming; I—have got a headache.”
It was not often that Janet had recourse to a headache, which is always the most ready of excuses. But Julia, though she had been subdued17 by her governess, was not yet a model of subordination. Janet could hear her seat herself noisily on the other side of the door to wait. She could hear her foot drumming impatiently upon the floor, and then Ju, by way of amusing herself, began to give forth discordantly18 one of Dolff’s not very lovely songs. It was quite true that Julia was never likely to do much in music. Her voice was something like that of a crow. She chanted Dolff’s song with a very perverted19 reminiscence of the air, but a perfect memory for the words, which were not admirable. Janet was called back by this performance to the recollection of her duties. It was not possible now to pack up and hurry off. And then she became conscious of a great many threads that held her, as well as this sentinel with her song keeping watch over her door.
They went down together, though Julia did not fail to impress upon the governess a due sense of the fact that she herself had been ready nearly an hour ago.
“You should always get up the moment you’re called, or you are done for,” said Julia; “one says just five minutes more, and when one wakes one finds it’s an hour. I’ve learned all that about the kings, which is rubbish. What do I want with all those old kings? I shall just forget them the moment I’ve said them. I learned it not because I approved of it, but merely to please you.”
“Thank you, my dear, that was a very kind motive,” said Janet, recalling herself to her duties, “but if there is one thing that you ought to know it is the history of your own country. Everybody will tell you that.{126}”
“Well!” said Julia, “if it’s all about one putting out another, till you don’t know which is which, or who’s king and who’s not, I don’t call that the history of anybody’s country. So long as it’s just to say off the Henrys and the Edwards I don’t mind; but to learn whose sons they all were, and what right they had, and why they fought each other about it, I do it to please you, Janet, but I don’t care tuppence.”
Janet also did not care tuppence either, nor a fraction of tuppence; but she knew, and feebly tried to do her duty.
“You can’t understand how they succeed, or which is right and which is wrong, unless you know about their families,” she said. “It is all very complicated in the Wars of the Roses, but it is plain sailing for a long time after that.”
“It ought always to be plain sailing,” said Julia. “The Prince of Wales comes after the Queen, and Prince George of York after him—any one can understand that. If it went quite straight—father and son, or mother and son when there’s a queen—I shouldn’t mind; but they just inverted20 things to make history difficult, with no other reason. If they had only let Richard the Second alone, he would have had a son after a while—Richard the Third, perhaps—and we could have skipped all that nasty bit. But those old people had no consideration. Of course, it stands to nature that the son should always come after the father.”
“This is most edifying,” said Gussy, for by this time they had arrived at the breakfast-table. “You are late, young ladies, but if you come in discussing historical questions it is clear you must have been making a good use of your time. Good-morning, Janet; I hear you were disturbed—by Dolff or something last night.”
“No!” said Janet, faltering a little, “I heard Mr. Harwood come in, but I was not disturbed. It is pleasant to hear voices and people stirring when one can’t sleep.”
“You left us in a great hurry last night,” said Gussy. “I am afraid something put you out. You must not think you are neglected if, when a visitor happens to come—— I am sure there was no such intention. We always like, in this family, to see everybody comfortable, but sometimes, you know, there are circumstances——”
“Indeed, indeed, I was not put out by anything,” said Janet. She had really forgotten all about Meredith and the small commotions21 of the drawing-room. “I had—a headache,” she added, by an afterthought.
“I don’t wonder, after thumping22 out all those accompaniments for Dolff. We must not let you be victimized so{127} much. And you ran out to have a turn in the garden. It is very tempting23 on a moonlight night, but there is nothing that gives cold so easily. You must really take care. You look,” said Gussy, raising her eyes full upon Janet, “rather pale, and shivering as if you had caught cold.”
What was this in Gussy’s eyes? something more than their usual placidity—an inquiry24, an examination, almost a menace—they seemed to ask where the other had been, what she had been doing, what she had seen. Janet felt herself shiver under the look.
“I am sure you have caught cold; you ought to stay in and take care of yourself to-day. I am sure my mother would wish you to nurse yourself up. Ju, you must see there is a good fire in the school-room, and if Janet would keep to one room, without exposing herself to any draughts25 to-day, she will probably be quite well to-morrow. That’s what I always do when I feel a cold coming on.”
“But I don’t think I have any cold——”
“Oh, yes, I can see it in your eyes; they are beginning to run. You must take care of yourself, my dear. And you really must promise to give up this habit of running out into the garden on a cold night.”
“Indeed,” said Janet, “I never did it before. The door was open, and the moon was shining so brightly——”
“Oh, the door was open! I wonder, now, who could be so silly as to leave the door open in December? I must ask about that.”
“It was me, I suppose,” said Julia. “I was standing26 there when Charley Meredith came. And I wasn’t at all glad to see him. So I turned round in disgust, and forgot all about the door.”
“You are very impertinent to say so!”
“Oh, I’ve just as good a right to my own opinion as you have, Gussy; as much as you like him, so much I don’t; and I should never open the door at all to him if I had my will. He’s not nice at all, or true. He has always mocked at me and made eyes, and I can’t bear him,” said Julia, through her teeth.
“Ju! I thought you had learned a little sense. I thought Miss Summerhayes had taught you how to behave, though your own family never could.”
“Oh, I am quite sick and tired of my own family,” cried Julia. “Mamma does whatever you please, Gussy. And you’re so silly, I could shake you sometimes. And Dolff—Dolff{128}——”
“What of Dolff? It must be delightful27 for a stranger to hear what we think of each other.”
“What do you mean by calling her Miss Summerhayes and a stranger, when you know it was settled she was to be like one of ourselves—and by far the best of us?” cried Julia, with flushed cheeks and blazing eyes.
“Miss Summerhayes,” said Gussy, turning again upon Janet, with a wave of her hand towards the indignant Julia, “I think your pupil is not doing you much credit to-day.”
Janet had more command of herself in the family squabble than she had in the previous question.
“Julia has forgotten herself,” she said. “She will be very sorry for it by-and-bye. I hope you will forgive her. She cannot quite get over her quick temper all at once.”
“I hope she won’t wear out our patience altogether before she does so,” Gussy said, with significant calm.
“Janet! she means she’ll persuade my mother to send me to school. Mamma would never do it of her own will. But if Gussy goes on nagging28 and nagging—— But I’ll not go. I’ll run away. I am too old to be packed off like a child. I’ll——”
“I have always said so,” said Gussy, “and it’s very good of you, Janet, to back me up. I have a temper, perhaps, too, and I say what I don’t mean when I’m angry. But please don’t think that I have ever changed about you. I liked you from the first, and I shall always like you. That little vixen makes one say things—but I know that we owe a great deal to you.”
“Oh, no,” cried Janet, with a compunction in her heart.
She was not sure that she could return the kind words and declare that she would never change. She felt as if involuntarily she was a traitor30 to Gussy—in a complot against her—or at least in the confidence of the plotter. And she was glad to retire into the shelter of her supposed cold and withdraw for the day to the school-room, carrying the excited Julia with her, to whom Miss Summerhayes set forth her offences against good taste and decorum with an incisiveness31 and distinctness which soon reduced that young lady to the depths of self-contempt.
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1
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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2
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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3
incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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4
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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5
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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6
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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7
tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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8
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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9
pucker
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| v.撅起，使起皱；n.（衣服上的）皱纹，褶子 | |
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10
congeal
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| v.凝结，凝固 | |
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11
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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12
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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13
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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14
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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15
tattoo
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| n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于 | |
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16
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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17
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18
discordantly
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| adv.不一致地，不和谐地 | |
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19
perverted
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| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
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20
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
commotions
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| n.混乱，喧闹，骚动( commotion的名词复数 ) | |
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22
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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23
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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24
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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25
draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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26
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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27
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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28
nagging
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| adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
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29
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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30
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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31
incisiveness
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| n.敏锐，深刻 | |
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