CHAPTER XXI

 Beginning with the year 1921 many men, who had too swiftly acquired fortunes in the handling of government contracts, began to pass under the rod of investigations¹ concerning such wartime profits. George Cutter was one of these. Somebody, with a talent for figuring up the cost and sales price of lumber² left over from a half-finished training camp for soldiers, discovered that the said George William Cutter had failed to turn in one million eight hundred and some odd thousands of dollars due the government. This statement appeared in a New York paper. Nothing followed. And nothing was heard of Mr. Cutter for another year.

Then one afternoon in May, of 1922, a corpulent, extremely bald-headed man, with a seamy face and pouched³ eyes, stood up in the day coach of a train which was pulling into Shannon. He reached for his hat in the rack overhead, put it on jauntily⁴, pulled down his vest, which had wrinkled up so often when he sat down and had been pressed so rarely that it remained faintly fluted⁵ diagonally across his broad expanse. He[264] squared his shoulders, you may say with a former air, and stepped briskly down the aisle⁶ and waited meekly⁷ on the platform between the coaches while several people descended⁸ at the station. Then he came down, and moved off hurriedly.

No one recognized him. Misfortune does something to you. It changes your manner, and takes the swagger out of your step, especially if you are the author of your misfortune.

This man walked heavily out Wiggs Street, looking about him furtively⁹ until he came to the Cutter residence. Then he lifted his eyes and beheld¹⁰ it in utter amazement—a fine, wide-winged, colonial mansion¹¹ where a cottage had stood when he left Shannon five years before.

“I have missed her. She is gone,” he mumbled¹².

At this moment he caught sight of a small girl, who had already got sight of him and was regarding him curiously¹³ from the shade of a lilac bush.

There was a time when he would have strode finely up to the door, rung the bell and inquired for Mrs. Cutter; but now he was not equal to that display. He had lost his presence. He would get the information he needed from this child after the manner of the class to which he now belonged, the surreptitious class.

[265]“How do you do, my dear,” he said from the pavement to the small lady under the lilac bush.

She stuck a finger in her mouth and continued to regard him.

“Who lives here?”

“My muvver,” she answered, not pridefully, but with assurance.

“And what is your name?”

“Helen.”

He sat down on the terraced wall and stared so long at the ground that she feared he had forgotten her, and she was not of the age or sex to endure the idea of being forgotten.

“My muvver’s name is Helen, too,” she informed him. “And my brover’s name is Sammy. What’s yours?”

“Mine’s George. Ever heard it?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“What is your father’s name?”

“We don’t keep him wiv us,” she explained.

“Oh, you don’t? Where is he?”

She did not know where this parent was, but she could show him Sammy. And off she ran, dark curls flying.

The man watched her. Then he fell again to staring at the ground. Fervent¹⁴ ejaculations occurred[266] to him, but he uttered not a word. The histrionic had died in him.

He saw a car coming rapidly along the street. When it passed, he would get up and move on. This house, these children made him a stranger and an outcast here as he was everywhere. Why had he returned? Why had he not accepted the sentence of shame and defeat, slid on down where men rest from honor and hope, that last refuge of complete degradation¹⁵?

But the car turned into the driveway, covering him with dust as it whirled past, and through the dust he beheld the face of his wife. He came to his feet and followed with a hurried, shuffling¹⁶ step. He was still some distance away when the driver halted before the house, then drove on out of sight.

At this moment Helen, who had been about to mount the steps, caught sight of him.

He came on, wondering if she recognized him. It was incredible that she should know him. When you have been defeated, degraded, caught the shadows of prison bars that never lift from before your vision, you do not expect recognition; you only fear it. He feared now, with a sort of truculent¹⁷ impotence, what might be going to happen. Still he came on with that courage of[267] mean despair which men still show when they have fallen to the last degree of shameless shame.

Their eyes met—hers calm and steady as the horizon of a perfect day, his wavering between doubt and determination.

“Helen!”

Her lips moved as if speechless words died there.

Thus they stood, he at bay, she with the light falling upon her, grave and sweet, not condemning¹⁸ him, seeing in him the answer that love and fate make to such women.

“Helen,” he cried again, “are you my wife?”

She lifted her hand in that old gesture to her breast, the same pale look of ineffable¹⁹ goodness which he remembered. Then, still looking back, she turned, mounted the steps and entered the door of her house and stood before him as if she waited. She showed against the shadows like the figure of a shrine²⁰ upon a dark hillside above a dusty road over which pilgrims come and go. They are never moved, these shrines²¹, from age to age. They are altars that do not fall. So are some women. They are the sanctuaries²² of mankind. It is the fashion to despise them, but they hold the world together.

Cutter came slowly up the step, with a flash[268] of life and hope in his face—an ignoble²³ and worthless man made safe in the shelter of a woman’s heart, whose wish was that none should perish who looked to her for comfort. It was not love, but honor that opened the door of her house to him.

THE END

1 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

2 lumber   

n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动

参考例句：

• The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
• They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。

3 pouched   

adj.袋形的，有袋的

参考例句：

• He pouched the pack of cigarettes. 他把这包香烟装入口袋中。 来自辞典例句
• His face pouched and seamed. 他的面孔肉松皮皱。 来自辞典例句

4 jauntily   

adv.心满意足地；洋洋得意地；高兴地；活泼地

参考例句：

• His straw hat stuck jauntily on the side of his head. 他那顶草帽时髦地斜扣在头上。 来自辞典例句
• He returned frowning, his face obstinate but whistling jauntily. 他回来时皱眉蹙额，板着脸，嘴上却快活地吹着口哨。 来自辞典例句

5 fluted   

a.有凹槽的

参考例句：

• The Taylor house is that white one with the tall fluted column on Polyock Street. 泰勒家的住宅在波洛克街上，就是那幢有高大的雕花柱子的白色屋子。
• Single chimera light pink two-tone fluted star. Plain, pointed. Large. 单瓣深浅不一的亮粉红色星形缟花，花瓣端有凹痕。平坦尖型叶。大型。

6 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

7 meekly   

adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地

参考例句：

• He stood aside meekly when the new policy was proposed. 当有人提出新政策时，他唯唯诺诺地站 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He meekly accepted the rebuke. 他顺从地接受了批评。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

9 furtively   

adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地

参考例句：

• At this some of the others furtively exchanged significant glances. 听他这样说，有几个人心照不宣地彼此对望了一眼。
• Remembering my presence, he furtively dropped it under his chair. 后来想起我在，他便偷偷地把书丢在椅子下。

10 beheld   

v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟

参考例句：

• His eyes had never beheld such opulence. 他从未见过这样的财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soul beheld its features in the mirror of the passing moment. 灵魂在逝去的瞬间的镜子中看到了自己的模样。 来自英汉文学 - 红字

11 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

12 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

13 curiously   

adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地

参考例句：

• He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
• He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。

14 fervent   

adj.热的，热烈的，热情的

参考例句：

• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。
• Austria was among the most fervent supporters of adolf hitler.奥地利是阿道夫希特勒最狂热的支持者之一。

15 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

16 shuffling   

adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• Don't go shuffling along as if you were dead. 别像个死人似地拖着脚走。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some one was shuffling by on the sidewalk. 外面的人行道上有人拖着脚走过。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

17 truculent   

adj.野蛮的，粗野的

参考例句：

• He was seen as truculent,temperamental,too unwilling to tolerate others.他们认为他为人蛮横无理，性情暴躁，不大能容人。
• He was in no truculent state of mind now.这会儿他心肠一点也不狠毒了。

18 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

19 ineffable   

adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的

参考例句：

• The beauty of a sunset is ineffable.日落的美是难以形容的。
• She sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction,as if her cup of happiness were now full.她发出了一声说不出多么满意的叹息，仿佛她的幸福之杯已经斟满了。

20 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

21 shrines   

圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All three structures dated to the third century and were tentatively identified as shrines. 这3座建筑都建于3 世纪，并且初步鉴定为神庙。
• Their palaces and their shrines are tombs. 它们的宫殿和神殿成了墓穴。

22 sanctuaries   

n.避难所( sanctuary的名词复数 )；庇护；圣所；庇护所

参考例句：

• The designation of special marine reserves and marine sanctuaries shall be subject to the State Council for approval. 海洋特别保护区、海上自然保护区的确定，须经国务院批准。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After 1965 he acquiesced when they established sanctuaries on that soil. 1965年以后，他默认了他们在那块土地上建立庇护所。 来自辞典例句

23 ignoble   

adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的

参考例句：

• There's something cowardly and ignoble about such an attitude.这种态度有点怯懦可鄙。
• Some very great men have come from ignoble families.有些伟人出身低微。