By rapid walking in the heat Shelton had got rid of his despondency. He felt like one who is to see his mistress after long estrangement2. He, bathed, and, straightening his tie-ends, stood smiling at the glass. His fear, unhappiness, and doubts seemed like an evil dream; how much worse off would he not have been, had it all been true?
It was dinner-party night, and when he reached the drawing-room the guests were there already, chattering3 of the coming storm. Antonia was not yet down, and Shelton stood by the piano waiting for her entry. Red faces, spotless shirt-fronts, white arms; and freshly-twisted hair were all around him. Some one handed him a clove4 carnation5, and, as he held it to his nose, Antonia came in, breathless, as though she had rushed down-stairs, Her cheeks were pale no longer; her hand kept stealing to her throat. The flames of the coming storm seemed to have caught fire within her, to be scorching6 her in her white frock; she passed him close, and her fragrance7 whipped his senses.
She had never seemed to him so lovely.
Never again will Shelton breathe the perfume of melons and pineapples without a strange emotion. From where he sat at dinner he could not see Antonia, but amidst the chattering of voices, the clink of glass and silver, the sights and sounds and scents8 of feasting, he thought how he would go to her and say that nothing mattered but her love. He drank the frosted, pale-gold liquid of champagne9 as if it had been water.
The windows stood wide open in the heat; the garden lay in thick, soft shadow, where the pitchy shapes of trees could be discerned. There was not a breath of air to fan the candle-flames above the flowers; but two large moths10, fearful of the heavy dark, flew in and wheeled between the lights over the diners' heads. One fell scorched11 into a dish of fruit, and was removed; the other, eluding12 all the swish of napkins and the efforts of the footmen, continued to make soft, fluttering rushes till Shelton rose and caught it in his hand. He took it to the window and threw it out into the darkness, and he noticed that the air was thick and tepid13 to his face. At a sign from Mr. Dennant the muslin curtains were then drawn14 across the windows, and in gratitude15, perhaps, for this protection, this filmy barrier between them and the muffled16 threats of Nature, everyone broke out in talk. It was such a night as comes in summer after perfect weather, frightening in its heat, and silence, which was broken by the distant thunder travelling low along the ground like the muttering of all dark places on the earth—such a night as seems, by very breathlessness, to smother17 life, and with its fateful threats to justify18 man's cowardice19.
The ladies rose at last. The circle of the rosewood dining-table, which had no cloth, strewn with flowers and silver gilt20, had a likeness21 to some autumn pool whose brown depths of oily water gleam under the sunset with red and yellow leaves; above it the smoke of cigarettes was clinging, like a mist to water when the sun goes down. Shelton became involved in argument with his neighbour on the English character.
“In England we've mislaid the recipe of life,” he said. “Pleasure's a lost art. We don't get drunk, we're ashamed of love, and as to beauty, we've lost the eye for' it. In exchange we have got money, but what 's the good of money when we don't know how to spend it?” Excited by his neighbour's smile, he added: “As to thought, we think so much of what our neighbours think that we never think at all.... Have you ever watched a foreigner when he's listening to an Englishman? We 're in the habit of despising foreigners; the scorn we have for them is nothing to the scorn they have for us. And they are right! Look at our taste! What is the good of owning riches if we don't know how to use them?”
“That's rather new to me,” his neighbour said. “There may be something in it.... Did you see that case in the papers the other day of old Hornblower, who left the 1820 port that fetched a guinea a bottle? When the purchaser—poor feller!—came to drink it he found eleven bottles out of twelve completely ullaged—ha! ha! Well, there's nothing wrong with this”; and he drained his glass.
“No,” answered Shelton.
When they rose to join the ladies, he slipped out on the lawn.
At once he was enveloped22 in a bath of heat. A heavy odour, sensual, sinister23, was in the air, as from a sudden flowering of amorous24 shrubs25. He stood and drank it in with greedy nostrils26. Putting his hand down, he felt the grass; it was dry, and charged with electricity. Then he saw, pale and candescent in the blackness, three or four great lilies, the authors of that perfume. The blossoms seemed to be rising at him through the darkness; as though putting up their faces to be kissed. He straightened himself abruptly27 and went in.
The guests were leaving when Shelton, who was watching; saw Antonia slip through the drawing-room window. He could follow the white glimmer28 of her frock across the lawn, but lost it in the shadow of the trees; casting a hasty look to see that he was not observed, he too slipped out. The blackness and the heat were stifling29 he took great breaths of it as if it were the purest mountain air, and, treading softly on the grass, stole on towards the holm oak. His lips were dry, his heart beat painfully. The mutter of the distant thunder had quite ceased; waves of hot air came wheeling in his face, and in their midst a sudden rush of cold. He thought, “The storm is coming now!” and stole on towards the tree. She was lying in the hammock, her figure a white blur30 in, the heart of the tree's shadow, rocking gently to a little creaking of the branch. Shelton held his breath; she had not heard him. He crept up close behind the trunk till he stood in touch of her. “I mustn't startle her,” he thought. “Antonia!”
There was a faint stir in the hammock, but no answer. He stood over her, but even then he could not see her face; he only, had a sense of something breathing and alive within a yard of him—of something warm and soft. He whispered again, “Antonia!” but again there came no answer, and a sort of fear and frenzy31 seized on him. He could no longer hear her breathe; the creaking of the branch had ceased. What was passing in that silent, living creature there so close? And then he heard again the sound of breathing, quick and scared, like the fluttering of a bird; in a moment he was staring in the dark at an empty hammock.
He stayed beside the empty hammock till he could bear uncertainty32 no longer. But as he crossed the lawn the sky was rent from end to end by jagged lightning, rain spattered him from head to foot, and with a deafening33 crack the thunder broke.
He sought the smoking-room, but, recoiling34 at the door, went to his own room, and threw himself down on the bed. The thunder groaned35 and sputtered36 in long volleys; the lightning showed him the shapes of things within the room, with a weird37 distinctness that rent from them all likeness to the purpose they were made for, bereaved38 them of utility, of their matter-of-factness, presented them as skeletons, abstractions, with indecency in their appearance, like the naked nerves and sinews of a leg preserved in, spirit. The sound of the rain against the house stunned39 his power of thinking, he rose to shut his windows; then, returning to his bed, threw himself down again. He stayed there till the storm was over, in a kind of stupor40; but when the boom of the retreating thunder grew every minute less distinct, he rose. Then for the first time he saw something white close by the door.
It was a note:
I have made a mistake. Please forgive me, and go away.—ANTONIA.
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1
firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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2
estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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3
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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4
clove
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| n.丁香味 | |
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carnation
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| n.康乃馨（一种花） | |
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scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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8
scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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10
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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11
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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12
eluding
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的现在分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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13
tepid
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| adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的 | |
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14
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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15
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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16
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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18
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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20
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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21
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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26
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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27
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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28
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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30
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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31
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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32
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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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
recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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35
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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36
sputtered
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| v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的过去式和过去分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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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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38
bereaved
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| adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物） | |
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39
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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40
stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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