"Did I frighten you?" he asked, coming nearer.
"No, not very much. Only I thought nobody would be here. I—I—wanted some place to breathe in; it seems so tight and close in the house." As she spoke4, a violent blast of wind drove the shutters5 against the side of the house and rubbed together the branches of the elm until they creaked dismally6. She pressed her face against the glass and stared out into the dark.
"Don't you love it?" she questioned, almost eagerly.
Willard shook his head dubiously7. "Don't know. Looks pretty cool. If it gets much higher, I shouldn't care to walk far."
She took her old place by the table again, but soon left it, and wandered restlessly about the[42] room. As she passed him he was conscious of a distinct physical impression—a kind of electric presence. She seemed to gather and hold about her all the faint light of the cold room, and the sweep of her skirt against his foot seemed to draw him toward her. Suddenly she stopped her irregular march.
"Hear it sing!" she whispered.
The now distinct voice of the wind grew to a long, minor8 wail9, that rose and fell with rhythmic10 regularity11. As she paused with uplifted finger near him, Willard felt with amazement12 a compelling force, a personality more intense, for the time, than his own. Then, as the blast, with a shriek13 that echoed for a moment with startling distinctness from every side, dashed the elm branches against the house itself, she turned abruptly14 and left the room. "Stay here!" she said shortly, and, resisting the impulse to follow her, he obeyed. In a few moments she returned with a heavy shawl wrapped over her head and shoulders.
"Hold the window open for me," she said, "I'm going out." He attempted remonstrance15, but she[43] waved him impatiently away. "I can't get out of the door—mother's locked it and taken the key, but you can hold up the window while I get out. Oh, come yourself, if you like! But nothing can happen to me."
Mechanically he held open the window as she slipped out, and, dragging his overcoat after him, scrambled16 through himself. She was waiting for him at the corner of the house, and as he stumbled in the unfamiliar17 shadows, held out her hand.
"Here, take hold of my hand," she commanded. Her cool, slim grasp was strangely pleasant, as she hurried along with a smooth, gliding18 motion, wholly unlike her indifferent gait of the day before.
Once out of the shelter of the house, the storm struck them with full force, and Willard realised that he was well-nigh strangled in the clutches of a genuine Maine gale19.
"What folly20!" he gasped21, crowding his hat over his eyes and struggling to gain his wonted consciousness of superiority. "Come back instantly, Miss Storrs! Your mother——"
[44]
"Come! come!" she interrupted, pulling him along.
He stared at her in amazement. Her eyes were wide open and almost black with excitement. Her face gleamed like ivory in the cold light. Her lips were parted and curved in a happy smile. Her slender body swayed easily with the wind that nearly bent22 Willard double. She seemed unreal—a phantom23 of the storm, a veritable wind-spirit. Her loosened hair flew across his face, and its touch completed the strange thrill that her hand-clasp brought. He followed unresistingly.
"Aren't—you—afraid—of—the—woods?" he gasped, the gusts24 tearing the words from his lips, as he saw that she was making for the thick growth of trees that bordered the cliff. Her high, light laughter almost frightened him, so weird26 and unhuman it came to him on the wind.
"Why should I be afraid? The woods are so beautiful in a storm! They bow and nod and throw their branches about—oh, they're best of all, then!"
A sweeping27 blast nearly threw him down, and[45] he instinctively28 dropped her hand, since there was no possible feeling of protection for her, her footing was so sure, her balance so perfect. As he righted himself and staggered to the shelter of the tree under which she was standing, he stopped, lost in wonder and admiration29. She had impatiently thrown off the shawl and stood in a gleam of moonlight under the tree. Her long, straight hair flew out in two fluttering wisps at either side; her straight, fine brows, her dark, long lashes30, her slender, curved mouth were painted against her pale face in clear relief. Her eyes were widely open, the pupils dark and gleaming. It seemed to his excited glance that rays of light streamed from them to him. "Heavens! she's a beauty! If only I could catch that pose!" he said under his breath.
"Come!" she called to him again, "we're wasting time! I want to get to the cliff!" He pressed on to her, but she slipped around the tree and eluded31 him, keeping a little in advance as he panted on, fighting with all the force of a fairly powerful man against the gale that seemed to[46] offer her no resistance. It occurred to him, as he watched with a greedy artist's eye the almost unnatural32 ease and lightness of her walk, that she caught intuitively the turns of the wind, guiding along currents and channels unknown to him, for she seemed with it always, never against it. Once she threw out both her arms in an abandon of delight, and actually leaned on the gust25 that tossed him against a tree, baffled and wearied with his efforts to keep pace with her, and confusedly wondering if he would wake soon from this improbable dream.
Speech was impossible. The whistling of the wind alone was deafening33, and his voice was blown in twenty directions when he attempted to call her. Small twigs34 lashed35 his face, slippery boughs glided36 from his grasp, and the trees fled by in a thick-grown crowd to his dazed eyes. To his right, a birch suddenly fell with a snapping crash. He leaped to one side, only to feel about his face a blinding storm of pattering acorns37 from the great oak that with a rending38 sigh and swish tottered39 through the air at his left.
[47]
"Good God!" he cried in terror, as he saw her standing apparently40 in its track. A veer41 in the gale altered the direction of the great trunk, that sank to the ground across her path. As it fell, with an indescribable, swaying bound she leaped from the ground, and before it quite touched the earth she rested lightly upon it. She seemed absolutely unreal—a dryad of the windy wood. All fear for her left him. As she stood poised43 on the still trembling trunk, a quick gust blew out her skirt to a bubble on one side, and drove it close to her slender body on the other, while her loose hair streamed like a banner along the wind. She curved her figure towards him and made a cup of one hand, laying it beside her opened lips. What she said he did not hear. He was rapt in delighted wonder at the consummate44 grace of her attitude, the perfect poise42 of her body. She was a figure in a Greek frieze—a bas-relief—a breathing statue.
Unable to make him hear, she turned slightly and pointed45 ahead. He realised the effect of the Wingless Victory in its unbroken beauty. She was[48] not a woman, but an incarnate46 art, a miracle of changing line and curve, a ceaseless inspiration.
Suddenly he heard the pound and boom of the surf. In an ecstasy47 of impatience48 she hurried back, seized his hand, and fairly dragged him on. The crash of the waves and the wind together took from him all power of connected thought. He clung to her hand like a child, and when she threw herself down on her face to breathe, he grasped her dress and panted in her ear: "We—can't—get—much—farther—unless—you—can—walk—the—Atlantic!" She smiled happily back at him, and the thickness of her hair, blown by the wind from the ocean about his face, brought him a strange, unspeakable content.
"Shall we ever go back?" he whispered, half to himself. "Or will you float down the cliff and wake me by your going?"
Her wide, dark eyes answered him silently. "It is like a dream, though," her high, sweet voice added. And then he realised that she had hardly spoken since they left the house. The house? As[49] in a dream he tried vaguely49 to connect this Undine of the wood with the girl whose body she had stolen for this night's pranks50. As in a dream he rose and followed her back, through the howling, sweeping wind. Her cold, slim hand held his; her light, shrill51 voice sang little snatches of songs—hymns, he remembered afterward52. As the moonlight fell on her, he wondered dreamily why he had thought her too thin. And all the while he fought, half-unconsciously, the resistless gale, that spared him only when he yielded utterly53.
The house gleamed white and square before them. Silently he raised the window for her. He had no thought of lifting her in. That she should slip lightly through was of course. The house was still lighted, and he heard the creaking of her mother's rocking-chair in the bedroom over his head. He looked at his watch. "Does her mother rock all night?" he thought dully, for it was nearly twelve. She read his question from the perplexed54 glance he threw at her.
"She's sitting up to watch the door so that I sha'n't get out," she whispered quietly, without[50] a smile. "Good-bye." And he stood alone in the room.
Until late the next morning he wandered in strange, wearied, yet fascinating dreams with her. Vague sounds, as of high-pitched reproaches and quiet sobbing55, mingled56 with his morning dreams, and when, with aching head and thoroughly57 bewildered brain, he went to his late breakfast, Mrs. Storrs served him; only as he left for the train, possessed58 by a longing59 for the great, busy city of his daily work, did he see her daughter, walking listlessly about the house. Her freckled60 face was paler than ever, her half-closed eyes reddened, and her slight, awkward bow in recognition of his puzzled salute61 might have been directed to some one behind him. Only his aching head and wearied feet assured him that the strangest night of his life had been no dream.
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1
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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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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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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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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9
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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12
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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15
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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16
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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17
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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19
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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20
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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21
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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22
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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23
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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24
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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25
gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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26
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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27
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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29
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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30
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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31
eluded
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的过去式和过去分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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32
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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33
deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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34
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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35
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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36
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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37
acorns
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| n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
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38
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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39
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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40
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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41
veer
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| vt.转向，顺时针转，改变；n.转向 | |
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42
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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43
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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44
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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45
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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46
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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47
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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48
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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49
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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50
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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51
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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52
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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53
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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54
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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55
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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56
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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57
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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58
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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59
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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60
freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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