The Herr Regierungsrat was not at first sight prepossessing. He was approaching fifty, and had gone stout1 and rather loose, as so many men of his class and race do. Then he wore one of those dreadful full-bottom coats, a kind of poor relation to our full-skirted frock-coat: it would best be described as a family coat. It flapped about him as he walked, and he looked at first glance lower middle class.
But he wasn’t. Of course, being in office in the collapsed2 Austria, he was a republican. But by nature he was a monarchist, nay3, an imperialist, as every true Austrian is. And he was a true Austrian. And as such he was much finer and subtler than he looked. As one got used to him, his rather fat face, with its fine nose and slightly bitter, pursed mouth, came to have a resemblance to the busts4 of some of the late Roman emperors. And as one was with him, one came gradually to realize that out of all his baggy5 bourgeois6 appearance came something of a grand geste. He could not help it. There was something sweeping7 and careless about his soul: big, rather assertive8, and ill-bred-seeming; but, in fact, not ill-bred at all, only a little bitter and a good deal indifferent to his surroundings. He looked at first sight so common and parvenu9. And then one had to realize that he was a member of a big, old empire, fallen into a sort of epicureanism, and a little bitter. There was no littleness, no meanness, and no real coarseness. But he was a great talker, and relentless11 towards his audience.
Hannele was attracted to him by his talk. He began as soon as dinner appeared: and he went on, carrying the decanter and the wine-glass with him out on to the balcony of the villa12, over the lake, on and on until midnight. The summer night was still and warm: the lake lay deep and full, and the old town twinkled away across. There was the faintest tang of snow in the air, from the great glacier-peaks that were hidden in the night opposite. Sometimes a boat with a lantern twanged a guitar. The clematis flowers were quite black, like leaves, dangling13 from the terrace.
It was so beautiful, there in the very heart of the Tyrol. The hotels glittered with lights: electric light was still cheap. There seemed a fullness and a loveliness in the night. And yet for some reason it was all terrible and devastating14: the life-spirit seemed to be squirming, bleeding all the time.
And on and on talked the Herr Regierungsrat, with all the witty15 volubility of the more versatile16 Austrian. He was really very witty, very human, and with a touch of salty cynicism that reminded one of a real old Roman of the Empire. That subtle stoicism, that unsentimental epicureanism, that kind of reckless hopelessness, of course, fascinated the women. And particularly Hannele. He talked on and on — about his work before the war, when he held an important post and was one of the governing class — then about the war — then about the hopelessness of the present: and in it all there seemed a bigness, a carelessness based on indifference17 and hopelessness that laughed at its very self. The real old Austria had always fascinated Hannele. As represented in the witty, bitter-indifferent Herr Regierungsrat it carried her away.
And he, of course, turned instinctively18 to her, talking in his rapid, ceaseless fashion, with a laugh and a pause to drink and a new start taken. She liked the sound of his Austrian speech: its racy carelessness, its salty indifference to standards of correctness. Oh yes, here was the grand geste still lingering.
He turned his large breast towards her, and made a quick gesture with his fat, well-shapen hand, blurted19 out another subtle, rough-seeming romance, pursed his mouth, and emptied his glass once more. Then he looked at his half-forgotten cigar and started again.
There was something almost boyish and impulsive20 about him: the way he turned to her, and the odd way he seemed to open his big breast to her. And again he seemed almost eternal, sitting there in his chair with knees planted apart. It was as if he would never rise again, but would remain sitting for ever, and talking. He seemed as if he had no legs, save to sit with. As if to stand on his feet and walk would not be natural to him.
Yet he rose at last, and kissed her hand with the grand gesture that France or Germany have never acquired: carelessness, profound indifference to other people’s standards, and then such a sudden stillness, as he bent21 and kissed her hand. Of course she felt a queen in exile.
And perhaps it is more dangerous to feel yourself a queen in exile than a queen in situ. She fell in love with him, with this large, stout, loose widower22 of fifty, with two children. He had no money except some Austrian money that was worth nothing outside Austria. He could not even go to Germany. There he was, fixed23 in this hollow in the middle of the Tyrol.
But he had an ambition still, old Roman of the decadence24 that he was. He had year by year and without making any fuss collected the material for a very minute and thorough history of his own district: the Chiemgau and the Pinzgau. Hannele found that his fund of information on this subject was inexhaustible, and his intelligence was so delicate, so human, and his scope seemed so wide, that she felt a touch of reverence25 for him. He wanted to write this history. And she wanted to help him.
For, of course, as things were he would never write it. He was Regierungsrat: that is, he was the petty local governor of his town and immediate26 district. The Amthaus was a great old building, and there young ladies in high heels flirted27 among masses of papers with bare-kneed young gentlemen in Tyrolese costume, and occasionally they parted to take a pleasant, interesting attitude and write a word or two, after which they fluttered together for a little more interesting diversion. It was extraordinary how many finely built, handsome young people of an age fitted for nothing but love-affairs ran the governmental business of this department. And the Herr Regierungsrat sailed in and out of the big, old room, his wide coat flying like wings and making the papers flutter, his rather wine-reddened, old-Roman face smiling with its bitter look. And of course it was a witticism28 he uttered first, even if Hungary was invading the frontier or cholera29 was in Vienna.
When he was on his legs, he walked nimbly, briskly, and his coat-bottoms always flew. So he waved through the town, greeting somebody at every few strides and grinning, and yet with a certain haughty30 reserve. Oh yes, there was a certain salty hauteur31 about him which made the people trust him. And he spoke32 the vernacular33 so racily.
Hannele felt she would like to marry him. She would like to be near him. She would like him to write his history. She would like him to make her feel a queen in exile. No one had ever QUITE kissed her hand as he kissed it: with that sudden stillness and strange, chivalric34 abandon of himself. How he would abandon himself to her! — terribly — wonderfully — perhaps a little horribly. His wife, whom he had married late, had died after seven years of marriage. Hannele could understand that too. One or the other must die.
She became engaged. But something made her hesitate before marriage. Being in Austria was like being on a wrecked35 ship that MUST sink after a certain short length of time. And marrying the Herr Regierungsrat was like marrying the doomed36 captain of the doomed ship. The sense of fatality37 was part of the attraction.
And yet she hesitated. The summer weeks passed. The strangers flooded in and crowded the town, and ate up the food like locusts38. People no longer counted the paper money, they weighed it by the kilogram. Peasants stored it in a corner of the meal-bin, and mice came and chewed holes in it. Nobody knew where the next lot of food was going to come from: yet it always came. And the lake teemed39 with bathers. When the captain arrived he looked with amazement40 on the crowds of strapping41, powerful fellows who bathed all day long, magnificent blond flesh of men and women. No wonder the old Romans stood in astonishment42 before the huge blond limbs of the savage43 Germana.
Well, the life was like a madness. The hotels charged fifteen hundred kronen a day: the women, old and young, paraded in the peasant costume, in flowery cotton dresses with gaudy44, expensive silk aprons45: the men wore the Tyrolese costume, bare knees and little short jackets. And for the men, the correct thing was to have the leathern hose and the blue linen46 jacket as old as possible. If you had a hole in your leathern seat, so much the better.
Everything so physical. Such magnificent naked limbs and naked bodies, and in the streets, in the hotels, everywhere, bare, white arms of women and bare, brown, powerful knees and thighs47 of men. The sense of flesh everywhere, and the endless ache of flesh. Even in the peasants who rowed across the lake, standing48 and rowing with a slow, heavy, gondolier motion at the one curved oar10, there was the same endless ache of physical yearning49.
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2
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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baggy
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| adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的 | |
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bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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assertive
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| adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的 | |
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parvenu
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| n.暴发户，新贵 | |
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oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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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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decadence
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| n.衰落，颓废 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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flirted
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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witticism
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| n.谐语，妙语 | |
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cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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hauteur
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| n.傲慢 | |
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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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vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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chivalric
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| 有武士气概的，有武士风范的 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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fatality
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| n.不幸，灾祸，天命 | |
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locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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teemed
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| v.充满( teem的过去式和过去分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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strapping
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| adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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45
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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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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48
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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49
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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