Gilbert having occasion to go in the evening to the fishing cove2, Anne drove with him to the Point, intending to stay awhile with Captain Jim. But the great light, cutting its swathes through the fog of the autumn evening, was in care of Alec Boyd and Captain Jim was away.
"What will you do?" asked Gilbert. "Come with me?"
"I don't want to go to the cove—but I'll go over the channel with you, and roam about on the sand shore till you come back. The rock shore is too slippery and grim tonight."
Alone on the sands of the bar Anne gave herself up to the eerie3 charm of the night. It was warm for September, and the late afternoon had been very foggy; but a full moon had in part lessened4 the fog and transformed the harbor and the gulf5 and the surrounding shores into a strange, fantastic, unreal world of pale silver mist, through which everything loomed6 phantom-like. Captain Josiah Crawford's black schooner7 sailing down the channel, laden8 with potatoes for Bluenose ports, was a spectral9 ship bound for a far uncharted land, ever receding10, never to be reached. The calls of unseen gulls11 overhead were the cries of the souls of doomed12 seamen13. The little curls of foam14 that blew across the sand were elfin things stealing up from the sea-caves. The big, round-shouldered sand-dunes were the sleeping giants of some old northern tale. The lights that glimmered15 palely across the harbor were the delusive16 beacons17 on some coast of fairyland. Anne pleased herself with a hundred fancies as she wandered through the mist. It was delightful—romantic—mysterious to be roaming here alone on this enchanted18 shore.
But was she alone? Something loomed in the mist before her—took shape and form—suddenly moved towards her across the wave-rippled sand.
"If it comes to that, whatever are YOU doing here?" said Leslie, trying to laugh. The effort was a failure. She looked very pale and tired; but the love locks under her scarlet20 cap were curling about her face and eyes like little sparkling rings of gold.
"I'm waiting for Gilbert—he's over at the Cove. I intended to stay at the light, but Captain Jim is away."
"Well, I came here because I wanted to walk—and walk—and WALK," said Leslie restlessly. "I couldn't on the rock shore—the tide was too high and the rocks prisoned me. I had to come here—or I should have gone mad, I think. I rowed myself over the channel in Captain Jim's flat. I've been here for an hour. Come—come—let us walk. I can't stand still. Oh, Anne!"
"Leslie, dearest, what is the trouble?" asked Anne, though she knew too well already.
"I can't tell you—don't ask me. I wouldn't mind your knowing—I wish you did know—but I can't tell you—I can't tell anyone. I've been such a fool, Anne—and oh, it hurts so terribly to be a fool. There's nothing so painful in the world."
She laughed bitterly. Anne slipped her arm around her.
"Leslie, is it that you have learned to care for Mr. Ford?"
Leslie turned herself about passionately21.
"How did you know?" she cried. "Anne, how did you know? Oh, is it written in my face for everyone to see? Is it as plain as that?"
"No, no. I—I can't tell you how I knew. It just came into my mind, somehow. Leslie, don't look at me like that!"
"Do you despise me?" demanded Leslie in a fierce, low tone. "Do you think I'm wicked—unwomanly? Or do you think I'm just plain fool?"
"I don't think you any of those things. Come, dear, let's just talk it over sensibly, as we might talk over any other of the great crises of life. You've been brooding over it and let yourself drift into a morbid22 view of it. You know you have a little tendency to do that about everything that goes wrong, and you promised me that you would fight against it."
"But—oh, it's so—so shameful23," murmured Leslie. "To love him—unsought—and when I'm not free to love anybody."
"There's nothing shameful about it. But I'm very sorry that you have learned to care for Owen, because, as things are, it will only make you more unhappy."
"I didn't LEARN to care," said Leslie, walking on and speaking passionately. "If it had been like that I could have prevented it. I never dreamed of such a thing until that day, a week ago, when he told me he had finished his book and must soon go away. Then—then I knew. I felt as if someone had struck me a terrible blow. I didn't say anything—I couldn't speak—but I don't know what I looked like. I'm so afraid my face betrayed me. Oh, I would die of shame if I thought he knew—or suspected."
Anne was miserably24 silent, hampered25 by her deductions26 from her conversation with Owen. Leslie went on feverishly27, as if she found relief in speech.
"I was so happy all this summer, Anne—happier than I ever was in my life. I thought it was because everything had been made clear between you and me, and that it was our friendship which made life seem so beautiful and full once more. And it WAS, in part—but not all—oh, not nearly all. I know now why everything was so different. And now it's all over—and he has gone. How can I live, Anne? When I turned back into the house this morning after he had gone the solitude28 struck me like a blow in the face."
"It won't seem so hard by and by, dear," said Anne, who always felt the pain of her friends so keenly that she could not speak easy, fluent words of comforting. Besides, she remembered how well-meant speeches had hurt her in her own sorrow and was afraid.
"Oh, it seems to me it will grow harder all the time," said Leslie miserably. "I've nothing to look forward to. Morning will come after morning—and he will not come back—he will never come back. Oh, when I think that I will never see him again I feel as if a great brutal29 hand had twisted itself among my heartstrings, and was wrenching30 them. Once, long ago, I dreamed of love—and I thought it must be beautiful—and NOW—its like THIS. When he went away yesterday morning he was so cold and indifferent. He said 'Good-bye, Mrs. Moore' in the coldest tone in the world—as if we had not even been friends—as if I meant absolutely nothing to him. I know I don't—I didn't want him to care—but he MIGHT have been a little kinder."
"Oh, I wish Gilbert would come," thought Anne. She was racked between her sympathy for Leslie and the necessity of avoiding anything that would betray Owen's confidence. She knew why his good-bye had been so cold—why it could not have the cordiality that their good-comradeship demanded—but she could not tell Leslie.
"I couldn't help it, Anne—I couldn't help it," said poor Leslie.
"I know that."
"Do you blame me so very much?"
"I don't blame you at all."
"And you won't—you won't tell Gilbert?"
"Leslie! Do you think I would do such a thing?"
"Oh, I don't know—you and Gilbert are such CHUMS. I don't see how you could help telling him everything."
"Everything about my own concerns—yes. But not my friends' secrets."
"I couldn't have HIM know. But I'm glad YOU know. I would feel guilty if there were anything I was ashamed to tell you. I hope Miss Cornelia won't find out. Sometimes I feel as if those terrible, kind brown eyes of hers read my very soul. Oh, I wish this mist would never lift—I wish I could just stay in it forever, hidden away from every living being. I don't see how I can go on with life. This summer has been so full. I never was lonely for a moment. Before Owen came there used to be horrible moments—when I had been with you and Gilbert—and then had to leave you. You two would walk away together and I would walk away ALONE. After Owen came he was always there to walk home with me—we would laugh and talk as you and Gilbert were doing—there were no more lonely, envious31 moments for me. And NOW! Oh, yes, I've been a fool. Let's have done talking about my folly32. I'll never bore you with it again."
"Here is Gilbert, and you are coming back with us," said Anne, who had no intention of leaving Leslie to wander alone on the sand-bar on such a night and in such a mood. "There's plenty of room in our boat for three, and we'll tie the flat on behind."
"Oh, I suppose I must reconcile myself to being the odd one again," said poor Leslie with another bitter laugh. "Forgive me, Anne—that was hateful. I ought to be thankful—and I AM—that I have two good friends who are glad to count me in as a third. Don't mind my hateful speeches. I just seem to be one great pain all over and everything hurts me."
"Leslie seemed very quiet tonight, didn't she?" said Gilbert, when he and Anne reached home. "What in the world was she doing over there on the bar alone?"
"Oh, she was tired—and you know she likes to go to the shore after one of Dick's bad days."
"What a pity she hadn't met and married a fellow like Ford long ago," ruminated33 Gilbert. "They'd have made an ideal couple, wouldn't they?"
"For pity's sake, Gilbert, don't develop into a match-maker. It's an abominable34 profession for a man," cried Anne rather sharply, afraid that Gilbert might blunder on the truth if he kept on in this strain.
"Bless us, Anne-girl, I'm not matchmaking," protested Gilbert, rather surprised at her tone. "I was only thinking of one of the might-have-beens."
"Well, don't. It's a waste of time," said Anne. Then she added suddenly:
"Oh, Gilbert, I wish everybody could be as happy as we are."
点击收听单词发音
1 Ford | |
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过 | |
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2 cove | |
n.小海湾,小峡谷 | |
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3 eerie | |
adj.怪诞的;奇异的;可怕的;胆怯的 | |
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4 lessened | |
减少的,减弱的 | |
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5 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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6 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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7 schooner | |
n.纵帆船 | |
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8 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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9 spectral | |
adj.幽灵的,鬼魂的 | |
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10 receding | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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11 gulls | |
n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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13 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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14 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
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15 glimmered | |
v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 delusive | |
adj.欺骗的,妄想的 | |
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17 beacons | |
灯塔( beacon的名词复数 ); 烽火; 指路明灯; 无线电台或发射台 | |
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18 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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19 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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20 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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21 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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22 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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23 shameful | |
adj.可耻的,不道德的 | |
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24 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
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25 hampered | |
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 deductions | |
扣除( deduction的名词复数 ); 结论; 扣除的量; 推演 | |
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27 feverishly | |
adv. 兴奋地 | |
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28 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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29 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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30 wrenching | |
n.修截苗根,苗木铲根(铲根时苗木不起土或部分起土)v.(猛力地)扭( wrench的现在分词 );扭伤;使感到痛苦;使悲痛 | |
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31 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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32 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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33 ruminated | |
v.沉思( ruminate的过去式和过去分词 );反复考虑;反刍;倒嚼 | |
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34 abominable | |
adj.可厌的,令人憎恶的 | |
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