One morning at the breakfast table Cutter looked at his wife appraisingly1. They had been married eleven years. She was still pretty, but it was a beauty maturing into a sort of serenity2, no vivacity3. She had, in fact, a noble look. Stupid women do frequently get it. He had long since made up his mind that Helen was, to say the least of it, mentally prismatic. She had no elasticity4 of charm. Still he resolved to risk her.
“Helen, Shippen gets in from New York this afternoon. I want to bring him out here for dinner. Do you think you can manage it?” he asked.
“The dinner? Why, yes, of course, George,” she replied, having no doubt about being able to manage a dinner. This Mr. Shippen could not possibly be more exacting5 than George was himself.
[129]“He is coming down to look at that pyrites mine I want to sell. We are going to get into this war, and the Government is bound to need pyrites. Shippen is tremendously rich, something of a sport, I imagine. He was rather nice to me when I was in New York last month, introduced me to a lot of men I need to know,” he explained. “So you must help me out by doing your best,” he added significantly.
“I will, dear,” she assured him, still unperturbed.
This serene6 confidence disturbed him. He doubted if she could put across the simplest meal in a correct manner. During the lifetime of his mother, his father had entertained such out-of-town guests; but these excellent parents had been dead for years. He was obliged to fall back on Helen.
“You must do your best and look your best. You are lovely, you know.”
“Am I?” she asked, not coquettishly, but as if this was an opportunity to assure herself about something which was causing her anxiety.
“Yes, of course, you are,” he returned in a matter-of-fact tone. This was no time to get personal with his wife. He wanted her to do something and do it well.
[130]“Wear that gown I bought you from Madame Lily’s,” he suggested.
“Oh! must I?” she exclaimed as if she asked, Would it be as bad as that?
“The very thing, and wear the necklace.”
She said she would, but what she thought was that if she must dress like this she could not stay in the kitchen and help Maria with the dinner, and Maria was not to be trusted. She was “heavy handed” when it came to salt, for example. Her chief concern was for the dinner, not herself. She always missed her cue.
Nevertheless, Shippen had the shock of his swift life when he was presented to Mrs. Cutter that evening.
The weather was very cold. A bright fire burned in the grate. A chandelier of four lights overhead left scarcely a shadow in this cheap little parlor7. Everything in it glared. The white walls stared you out of countenance8. The golden-oak piano turned a broadside of yellow brilliance9 across the flowered rug. The whatnot showed off. The spindle-back sofa fairly twinkled varnish10. Inanimate things can sometimes produce the impression of tittering excitement. The furniture in this pop-eyed room seemed to be expecting company. Only the two mahogany armchairs on[131] either side of the fireplace preserved their gravity and indifference11, as if they had been born and bred to be sat in by the best people.
Shippen saw all this at a glance; at least he felt it without knowing what ailed12 him. Later he was to quail13 in a sort of artistic14 anguish15 beneath the cold, calm, crayon gaze of that excellent carpenter, the late Sam Adams, whose portrait still hung above the mantel. And he was to feel the colder, grimmer crayon eyes of the late Mrs. Mary Adams piercing him between the shoulder blades from the opposite wall. But that which riveted16 his attention this first moment when he entered the room with Cutter was Mrs. Cutter.
She stood on the rug before the fire, a slim figure, but not tall. She was wearing a cloth gown of the palest rose lavender, the bodice cut low, fitting close to her white shoulders, lace on it somewhere like a mist, a wildly disheveled bow of twisted black velvet17 that seemed to strike at him, it was so vivid by contrast with all this gem18 paleness of color. A necklace of opals, very small and bound together by the thinnest thread of gold, with a pendant lay upon her breast. Her pale blond hair was dressed simply, bound about her head like piety19, not a crown. No color in her skin, only the soft pink lips, sweetened somehow[132] by that pointed20 flute21 in the upper lip, long sweeping22 brows, darker than her hair, spread like slender wings above the wide open blue eyes, seeing all things gravely, neither asking nor giving confidences.
“This is Mr. Shippen, Helen. My wife, Shippen,” George finished cheerfully.
He had made a hasty survey of Helen. She would do, he decided23, if only she would go, move off, say the right thing.
Helen offered her hand. She was glad to meet Mr. Shippen.
She said something about the weather; he did not notice what she said nor what he answered; something about the same weather of course. But whatever he said had not released him from her gaze. She kept him covered. Cutter had joined in with his feelings and opinion on the weather. What was said made no difference. Shippen had to keep his eyes down or running along the floor, not on Mrs. Cutter. Men do that when they are startled or ill at ease with a woman, if they are uncertain about where to place her in the category of her sex. Shippen was very uncertain on this point. He had seen many a woman better[133] gowned, more beautiful, but never had he seen one with this winged look.
“Are we late?” Cutter asked, addressing his wife.
“Well, anyhow we are hungry,” he laughed. “Took Shippen out for a little winter golf. Links rotten after all this rain. No game. All we got was an appetite.”
Shippen glanced at Cutter. For the first time he recognized Cutter. Smart fellow, pipping his village shell. But, good heaven, this room! Might have got further than this in his scenery.
He went on catching27 impressions. He felt very keen. It occurred to him suddenly that Cutter’s wife was responsible for the room. This fellow who could fly like a kite in the markets couldn’t fly here or move or change anything. Odd situation. If this was her taste in house furnishing, who chose her frock for her? She was dressed like a fashionable woman, and she looked like a madonna; not virginal, but awfully28 still like the image of something immortally29 removed. She gave him a queer feeling. Still it was distinctly a sensation; he handed it to her for that.
All this time Cutter was talking like a man[134] covering some kind of breach30, laughing at the end of every sentence. He heard himself making replies, also laughing. Nothing from Mrs. Cutter. He looked across at her seated in the other mahogany chair, and dropped his eyes. Her gaze was still fixed31 on him, no shadow of a smile on her face. He understood why instantly. This was not mirth, this was laughter he and Cutter were executing as people do when they make conversation. He was amazed at this woman’s independence. She had nothing to say and said it in silence. She heard nothing amusing, therefore she was not smiling. She was not even embarrassed.
It all depends upon your experience and angle of vision what you see in another person. This is why your husband may discover that some other woman understands him better than you do. She knows him better than you do because she knows more about men than you do. And if there is anything that weakens the moral knees of a man quicker even than strong drink, it is to feel the soothing32 flattery of being better understood by another woman.
Precisely33 in this way Shippen understood Helen, and knew perfectly34 that Cutter was not the man who could do it. She was invincible35, he[135] saw that; stupid, he saw that. And he was enough of a connoisseur36 in this matter to realize that intelligence would sully this lovely thing. Merriment would be a facial transgression37. She was that rare and most mysterious of all creatures, a simply good woman without the self-consciousness they usually feel in their virtues38.
He kept on with these reflections during dinner, which was served presently. He had no idea what kind of dinner it was. He was assembling plans for a speculation39. He had been successful in many lines besides those involving money.
“You come to New York occasionally, don’t you, Mrs. Cutter?” he asked, endeavoring to engage her in conversation.
“Not that often. I have been there only once,” she told him with a faint smile. She had referred to her wedding journey without naming it. At that time she and George had spent a week in New York.
“You liked it, of course?” Shippen went on.
“It is like a book with too many pages, too many illustrations, too many quotations40, isn’t it?” she evaded41.
Shippen threw back his handsome black head and laughed.
Cutter shot a bright glance at his wife and[136] joined in this applause. He had no idea she could think anything as good as that to say. And she could not have done so if he had asked the question.
“What I mean is that one must live there a long time before he could know whether he liked it or not,” she explained.
“Well, I think you would,” he answered, meaning some flattery which she did not get.
Having said so much, she had nothing else to say. The two men went on with this discussion of New York life. Cutter was determined42 to let Shippen know that he was no stranger to it—old stuff, such as brokers43 and buyers get, under the impression that they are bounding up the social ladder of the great metropolis44. Shippen heard him give quite frankly45 his café experiences, not omitting soubrettes. No harm in what he was telling, of course, but as a rule men didn’t do it at home.
Once or twice he glanced at Mrs. Cutter, ready to come to heel, change the subject if he saw the faintest shade of annoyance46 on her face. There was no shade there at all, only a calm, clear look. And this look was fixed on him as if he were a page she read out of the book of this city. Apparently47 she was indifferent to what Cutter was[137] saying. He decided that she was not jealous of her husband.
He wondered if Cutter had the least conception of the kind of woman his wife was. He thought not. Some day she would stand immovable in the way of his ambitions, he decided. In that case what would Cutter do? This was—well, it might prove very interesting. He went on speculating personally along this line.
The reason why so many men try to climb Mount Everest is because they cannot do it. Let even one reach the summit, and that exalted48 peak has fallen into the hands of the tame geographers49 and scientists. It becomes a business then, not an adventure, to chart those terrific altitudes. For the same reason the most attractive woman to men is the unattainable woman. Shippen found Mrs. Cutter attractive. He did not analyze50 the reason why. It was not her beauty. He had had success with far more beautiful women. He doubted his success here. Heavens! To find a woman who could not be won! What an adventure. That steady, unrevealing gaze in her blue eyes—what did it conceal51? What did she know? He doubted if she knew anything. That was it; she was something real, not built up out of little knowledges, little virtues, spiced with little vices,[138] and finished like her furniture with the varnish of feminine charms. What a noble change from the skittish52 kittens and the secret viragoes53 and the mercenary starlings he had known.
It is astonishing what terrible things a man can be thinking, while he looks at you frankly and laughs honestly and takes your food like a brother. Certainly Cutter would have been astonished if he had known what was passing through the mind of his guest as they talked and laughed together at this table. But it is a question if Helen would have been moved. She did not know this man, but she felt him like a darkness, in no way personal to her, but there, with George frisking around like an ambitious spark in this blackness. She was thinking of George chiefly, interpreting him according to Shippen. It was a fearful experience, and no one suspected her pain, because a woman can dig her own grave and step down into it behind the look and the smile and the duty she gives you, and it may be years before you discover that she is gone.
All this is put in for the emotional reader who knows it is the truth, and has probably felt the sod above herself, even while she is sadly dressing25 beautifully for an evening’s pleasure with a husband who has slain54 her or a lover whose perfidy[139] has brought on these private obsequies. But all such truth is unhealthy, like the failure of courage in invalids55. And in this particular I warn you that the fate of Helen differs from your own. She died a few times, as the most valorous women do; but she had a sublime56 instinct for surviving these incidental passings.
Shortly after dinner Cutter took Shippen back to his hotel. They had some affairs to discuss further before he should leave on the early morning train. Cutter explained to Helen, because this was unusual. It was his invariable habit to spend his evenings at home. He was a good husband, according to the strictest law of the scribes and Pharisees, so to speak. What I mean is that he was literally57 faithful to his wife, though you may have suspected to the contrary. This is not the author’s fault, but due to the evil culturing of your own mind. A man may be faithful to his wife, and at the same time frisk through the night life of a place like New York. He may be doing nothing worse than taking a whiff and an eyeful of the naughty world, getting something to talk about to the other fellows when he comes home. It is silly, but not wicked, as you are inclined to believe. I do not know why it is that so many respectable women are disposed to suspect the[140] worst where men are concerned; but it is a fact which even their pastors58 will not deny.
When Cutter came in that night Helen had retired59. He turned on the light. “Asleep, my dear?” he asked.
“No,” she replied in that tone a woman has when her voice sounds like the nice, small voice of your conscience.
He came and sat down on the side of the bed, regarded her cheerfully, like the messenger of good tidings. She lay very flat, hands folded across her breast, face in repose60, no expression, eyes wide open, a state of self-consciousness bordering onto unconsciousness which women sometimes sink into as a sort of last ditch.
Cutter was so elated about something he did not observe that his wife was dying momentarily. He wanted to talk. He had something to tell her. “You were splendid to-night, Helen,” he began.
She revived sufficiently61 to ask him if the dinner was “all right.”
“Dinner!” he exclaimed. “I scarcely noticed what we had to eat. You took the shine off the dinner. You were stunning62. Means a lot to a man for his wife to—make good; sets him up. Shippen was impressed, I can tell you that.”
[141]Shippen! She did not speak the name, but her glance, slowly turned on him, meant it.
“How did you like him?” he wanted to know.
“I did not like him,” she answered distinctly.
He stared at her. Her respiration63 was the same; her eyes coldly impersonal64. He sprang to his feet, kicked off his shoes, flung off his clothes, snapped off the light and retired to the bitter frost of that bed. He lay flat, clinched65 his hands across his breast and worked his toes as if these toes were the claws of a particularly savage66 beast. His chest rose and fell like bellows67. His red brown eyes snapped in the dark.
Helen was the antidote68 for success, he reflected furiously. She was the medicine he had to take, a depressant that kept him down when he might have been up. Just let him get the wind in his sails, and she reefed him every time. He had been patient, leaving her to have her own way when it was not his way. Hadn’t he lived in his own house with those blamed Adams pictures glaring at him for nine years? Yet he had endured them for Helen’s sake. And the druggets, and the very cast-off teacups of Helen’s family.
Right now he was lying in old Mrs. Adams’ bed and had done so for nine years, when he much preferred his own bed. He had tried to bring[142] Helen out, and she would not be moved. He had tried to dress her according to her station in life, and she would not be dressed. He had humored her in everything. But now when he had an opportunity, a big chance which he could not take without her, she planted her feet as usual. She obstructed69 him at every turn. She didn’t like Shippen. That showed which way the wind would blow when he told her. And he had to tell her. He could not move hand or foot without her. But, by heaven! if she didn’t come across this time—
“George,” came a voice from the adjacent pillow.
“Umph!” he answered, startled out of finishing that threat he was about to think.
“You asked me, or I should not have told you what I think of Mr. Shippen. But since you want to know—”
“I don’t want to know. I am trying to get a little sleep. I’m tired,” he interrupted.
“But since you ask,” she went on, “I think he is horrible. He reminds me of the powers and principalities of darkness. He made my flesh creep—”
“For the love of peace, Helen, stop. You know absolutely nothing about him.”
[143]“Yes, I do.”
“What?”
“I know that he is wicked.”
“How do you know?”
“I feel it.”
He snorted and turned over. He slept that night with his back to this slanderer70, who did not sleep at all.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
appraisingly
|
|
| adv.以品评或评价的眼光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
serenity
|
|
| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
vivacity
|
|
| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
elasticity
|
|
| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
exacting
|
|
| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
serene
|
|
| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
parlor
|
|
| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
brilliance
|
|
| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
varnish
|
|
| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
ailed
|
|
| v.生病( ail的过去式和过去分词 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
quail
|
|
| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
artistic
|
|
| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
anguish
|
|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
riveted
|
|
| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
velvet
|
|
| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
gem
|
|
| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
piety
|
|
| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
flute
|
|
| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
dressing
|
|
| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
immortally
|
|
| 不朽地，永世地，无限地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
breach
|
|
| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
soothing
|
|
| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
invincible
|
|
| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
connoisseur
|
|
| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
transgression
|
|
| n.违背；犯规；罪过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
virtues
|
|
| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
quotations
|
|
| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
evaded
|
|
| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
brokers
|
|
| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
metropolis
|
|
| n.首府；大城市 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
geographers
|
|
| 地理学家( geographer的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
analyze
|
|
| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
skittish
|
|
| adj.易激动的，轻佻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
viragoes
|
|
| n.泼妇( virago的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
54
slain
|
|
| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
invalids
|
|
| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
sublime
|
|
| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
pastors
|
|
| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
retired
|
|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
repose
|
|
| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
stunning
|
|
| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
respiration
|
|
| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
impersonal
|
|
| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
clinched
|
|
| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
bellows
|
|
| n.风箱；发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的名词复数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的第三人称单数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
antidote
|
|
| n.解毒药，解毒剂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
obstructed
|
|
| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
slanderer
|
|
| 造谣中伤者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |