One evening, when the sky's limpid8 bowl was filled with a red glory, and the robins9 were thrilling the golden twilight10 with jubilant hymns11 to the stars of evening, there was a sudden commotion12 in the little house of dreams. Telephone messages were sent up to the Glen, Doctor Dave and a white-capped nurse came hastily down, Marilla paced the garden walks between the quahog shells, murmuring prayers between her set lips, and Susan sat in the kitchen with cotton wool in her ears and her apron13 over her head.
Leslie, looking out from the house up the brook14, saw that every window of the little house was alight, and did not sleep that night.
"Oh, will it NEVER end?" said Marilla; then she saw how grave the nurse and Doctor Dave looked, and she dared ask no more questions. Suppose Anne—but Marilla could not suppose it.
"Do not tell me," said Susan fiercely, answering the anguish16 in Marilla's eyes, "that God could be so cruel as to take that darling lamb from us when we all love her so much."
But at dawn, when the rising sun rent apart the mists hanging over the sandbar, and made rainbows of them, joy came to the little house. Anne was safe, and a wee, white lady, with her mother's big eyes, was lying beside her. Gilbert, his face gray and haggard from his night's agony, came down to tell Marilla and Susan.
Susan got up and took the cotton wool out of her ears.
"Now for breakfast," she said briskly. "I am of the opinion that we will all be glad of a bite and sup. You tell young Mrs. Doctor not to worry about a single thing—Susan is at the helm. You tell her just to think of her baby."
Gilbert smiled rather sadly as he went away. Anne, her pale face blanched19 with its baptism of pain, her eyes aglow20 with the holy passion of motherhood, did not need to be told to think of her baby. She thought of nothing else. For a few hours she tasted of happiness so rare and exquisite21 that she wondered if the angels in heaven did not envy her.
"Little Joyce," she murmured, when Marilla came in to see the baby. "We planned to call her that if she were a girlie. There were so many we would have liked to name her for; we couldn't choose between them, so we decided22 on Joyce—we can call her Joy for short—Joy—it suits so well. Oh, Marilla, I thought I was happy before. Now I know that I just dreamed a pleasant dream of happiness. THIS is the reality."
"You mustn't talk, Anne—wait till you're stronger," said Marilla warningly.
"You know how hard it is for me NOT to talk," smiled Anne.
At first she was too weak and too happy to notice that Gilbert and the nurse looked grave and Marilla sorrowful. Then, as subtly, and coldly, and remorselessly as a sea-fog stealing landward, fear crept into her heart. Why was not Gilbert gladder? Why would he not talk about the baby? Why would they not let her have it with her after that first heavenly—happy hour? Was—was there anything wrong?
"Gilbert," whispered Anne imploringly23, "the baby—is all right—isn't she? Tell me—tell me."
Gilbert was a long while in turning round; then he bent24 over Anne and looked in her eyes. Marilla, listening fearfully outside the door, heard a pitiful, heartbroken moan, and fled to the kitchen where Susan was weeping.
"Oh, the poor lamb—the poor lamb! How can she bear it, Miss Cuthbert? I am afraid it will kill her. She has been that built up and happy, longing25 for that baby, and planning for it. Cannot anything be done nohow, Miss Cuthbert?"
"I'm afraid not, Susan. Gilbert says there is no hope. He knew from the first the little thing couldn't live."
"And it is such a sweet baby," sobbed26 Susan. "I never saw one so white—they are mostly red or yallow. And it opened its big eyes as if it was months old. The little, little thing! Oh, the poor, young Mrs. Doctor!"
At sunset the little soul that had come with the dawning went away, leaving heartbreak behind it. Miss Cornelia took the wee, white lady from the kindly27 but stranger hands of the nurse, and dressed the tiny waxen form in the beautiful dress Leslie had made for it. Leslie had asked her to do that. Then she took it back and laid it beside the poor, broken, tear-blinded little mother.
"The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, dearie," she said through her own tears. "Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Then she went away, leaving Anne and Gilbert alone together with their dead.
The next day, the small white Joy was laid in a velvet28 casket which Leslie had lined with apple-blossoms, and taken to the graveyard29 of the church across the harbor. Miss Cornelia and Marilla put all the little love-made garments away, together with the ruffled30 basket which had been befrilled and belaced for dimpled limbs and downy head. Little Joy was never to sleep there; she had found a colder, narrower bed.
"This has been an awful disappointment to me," sighed Miss Cornelia. "I've looked forward to this baby—and I did want it to be a girl, too."
"I can only be thankful that Anne's life was spared," said Marilla, with a shiver, recalling those hours of darkness when the girl she loved was passing through the valley of the shadow.
"Poor, poor lamb! Her heart is broken," said Susan.
"I ENVY Anne," said Leslie suddenly and fiercely, "and I'd envy her even if she had died! She was a mother for one beautiful day. I'd gladly give my life for THAT!"
"I wouldn't talk like that, Leslie, dearie," said Miss Cornelia deprecatingly. She was afraid that the dignified31 Miss Cuthbert would think Leslie quite terrible.
Anne's convalescence32 was long, and made bitter for her by many things. The bloom and sunshine of the Four Winds world grated harshly on her; and yet, when the rain fell heavily, she pictured it beating so mercilessly down on that little grave across the harbor; and when the wind blew around the eaves she heard sad voices in it she had never heard before.
Kindly callers hurt her, too, with the well-meant platitudes33 with which they strove to cover the nakedness of bereavement34. A letter from Phil Blake was an added sting. Phil had heard of the baby's birth, but not of its death, and she wrote Anne a congratulatory letter of sweet mirth which hurt her horribly.
"I would have laughed over it so happily if I had my baby," she sobbed to Marilla. "But when I haven't it just seems like wanton cruelty—though I know Phil wouldn't hurt me for the world. Oh, Marilla, I don't see how I can EVER be happy again—EVERYTHING will hurt me all the rest of my life."
"Time will help you," said Marilla, who was racked with sympathy but could never learn to express it in other than age-worn formulas.
"It doesn't seem FAIR," said Anne rebelliously35. "Babies are born and live where they are not wanted—where they will be neglected—where they will have no chance. I would have loved my baby so—and cared for it so tenderly—and tried to give her every chance for good. And yet I wasn't allowed to keep her."
"It was God's will, Anne," said Marilla, helpless before the riddle36 of the universe—the WHY of undeserved pain. "And little Joy is better off."
"I can't believe THAT," cried Anne bitterly. Then, seeing that Marilla looked shocked, she added passionately37, "Why should she be born at all—why should any one be born at all—if she's better off dead? I DON'T believe it is better for a child to die at birth than to live its life out—and love and be loved—and enjoy and suffer—and do its work—and develop a character that would give it a personality in eternity. And how do you know it was God's will? Perhaps it was just a thwarting38 of His purpose by the Power of Evil. We can't be expected to be resigned to THAT."
"Oh, Anne, don't talk so," said Marilla, genuinely alarmed lest Anne were drifting into deep and dangerous waters. "We can't understand—but we must have faith—we MUST believe that all is for the best. I know you find it hard to think so, just now. But try to be brave—for Gilbert's sake. He's so worried about you. You aren't getting strong as fast as you should."
"Oh, I know I've been very selfish," sighed Anne. "I love Gilbert more than ever—and I want to live for his sake. But it seems as if part of me was buried over there in that little harbor graveyard—and it hurts so much that I'm afraid of life."
"It won't hurt so much always, Anne."
"The thought that it may stop hurting sometimes hurts me worse than all else, Marilla."
"Yes, I know, I've felt that too, about other things. But we all love you, Anne. Captain Jim has been up every day to ask for you—and Mrs. Moore haunts the place—and Miss Bryant spends most of her time, I think, cooking up nice things for you. Susan doesn't like it very well. She thinks she can cook as well as Miss Bryant."
"Dear Susan! Oh, everybody has been so dear and good and lovely to me, Marilla. I'm not ungrateful—and perhaps—when this horrible ache grows a little less—I'll find that I can go on living."
点击收听单词发音
1 smothered | |
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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2 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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3 reposed | |
v.将(手臂等)靠在某人(某物)上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4 baker | |
n.面包师 | |
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5 sojourn | |
v./n.旅居,寄居;逗留 | |
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6 fervor | |
n.热诚;热心;炽热 | |
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7 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
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8 limpid | |
adj.清澈的,透明的 | |
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9 robins | |
n.知更鸟,鸫( robin的名词复数 );(签名者不分先后,以避免受责的)圆形签名抗议书(或请愿书) | |
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10 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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11 hymns | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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12 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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13 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
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14 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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15 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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16 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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17 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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18 shuddered | |
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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19 blanched | |
v.使变白( blanch的过去式 );使(植物)不见阳光而变白;酸洗(金属)使有光泽;用沸水烫(杏仁等)以便去皮 | |
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20 aglow | |
adj.发亮的;发红的;adv.发亮地 | |
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21 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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22 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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23 imploringly | |
adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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24 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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25 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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26 sobbed | |
哭泣,啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 ); 哭诉,呜咽地说 | |
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27 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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28 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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29 graveyard | |
n.坟场 | |
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30 ruffled | |
adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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31 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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32 convalescence | |
n.病后康复期 | |
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33 platitudes | |
n.平常的话,老生常谈,陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 );滥套子 | |
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34 bereavement | |
n.亲人丧亡,丧失亲人,丧亲之痛 | |
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35 rebelliously | |
adv.造反地,难以控制地 | |
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36 riddle | |
n.谜,谜语,粗筛;vt.解谜,给…出谜,筛,检查,鉴定,非难,充满于;vi.出谜 | |
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37 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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38 thwarting | |
阻挠( thwart的现在分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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