After the meal he wanted to lie down in the grasses and watch the clouds sail by, but she would have none of it. She haled him away to the brookside. There she showed him how to wash dishes by filling them half full of water in which fine gravel1 has been mixed, and then whirling the whole rapidly until the tin is rubbed quite clean. Never was prosaic2 task more delightful3. They knelt side by side on the bank, under the dense4 leaves, and dabbled5 in the water happily. The ferns were fresh and cool. Once a redbird shot confidently down from above on half-closed wing, caught sight of these intruders, brought up with a swish of feathers, and eyed them gravely for some time from a neighbouring treelet. Apparently6 he was satisfied with his inspection7, for after a few minutes he paid no further attention to them, but went about his business quietly. When the dishes had been washed, Mary stood over Bennington while he packed them in the bundle and strapped8 them on the saddle.
"Now," said she at last, "we have nothing more to think of until we go home."
She was like a child, playing with exhaustless spirits at the most trivial games. Not for a moment would she listen to anything of a serious nature. Bennington, with the heavier pertinacity9 of men when they have struck a congenial vein10, tried to repeat to some extent the experience of the last afternoon at the rock. Mary laughed his sentiment to ridicule11 and his poetics to scorn. Everything he said she twisted into something funny or ridiculous. He wanted to sit down and enjoy the calm peace of the little ravine in which they had pitched their temporary camp, but she made a quiet life miserable12 to him. At last in sheer desperation he arose to pursue, whereupon she vanished lightly into the underbrush. A moment later he heard her clear laugh mocking him from some elder thickets13 a hundred yards away. Bennington pursued with ardour. It was as though a slow-turning ocean liner were to try to run down a lively little yacht.
Bennington had always considered girls as weak creatures, incapable14 of swift motion, and needing assistance whenever the country departed from the artificial level of macadam. He had also thought himself fairly active. He revised these ideas. This girl could travel through the thin brush of the creek15 bottom two feet to his one, because she ran more lightly and surely, and her endurance was not a matter for discussion. The question of second wind did not concern her any more than it does a child, whose ordinary mode of progression is heartbreaking. Bennington found that he was engaged in the most delightful play of his life. He shouted aloud with the fun of it. He had the feeling that he was grasping at a sunbeam, or a mist-shape that always eluded16 him.
He would lose her utterly17, and would stand quite motionless, listening, for a long time. Suddenly, without warning, an exaggerated leaf crown would fall about his neck, and he would be overwhelmed with ridicule at the outrageous18 figure he presented. Then for a time she seemed everywhere at once. The mottled sunlight under the trees danced and quivered after her, smiling and darkening as she dimpled or was grave. The little whirlwinds of the gulches19 seized the leaves and danced with her too, the birches and aspens tossed their hands, and rising ever higher and wilder and more elf-like came the mocking cadences21 of her laughter.
After a time she disappeared again. Bennington stood still, waiting for some new prank22, but he waited in vain. He instituted a search, but the search was fruitless. He called, but received no reply. At last he made his way again to the dell in which they had lunched, and there he found her, flat on her back, looking at the little summer clouds through wide-open eyes.
Her mood appeared to have changed. Indeed that seemed to be characteristic of her; that her lightness was not so much the lightness of thistle down, which is ever airy, the sport of every wind, but rather that of the rose vine, mobile and swaying in every breeze, yet at the same time rooted well in the wholesome23 garden earth. She cared now to be silent. In a little while Bennington saw that she had fallen asleep. For the first time he looked upon her face in absolute repose24.
Feature by feature, line by line, he went over it, and into his heart crept that peculiar25 yearning26 which seems, on analysis, half pity for what has past and half fear for what may come. It is bestowed27 on little children, and on those whose natures, in spite of their years, are essentially28 childlike. For this girl's face was so pathetically young. Its sensitive lips pouted30 with a child's pout29, its pointed31 chin was delicate with the delicacy32 that is lost when the teeth have had often to be clenched33 in resolve; its cheek was curved so softly, its long eyelashes shaded that cheek so purely34. Yet somewhere, like an intangible spirit which dwelt in it, unseen except through its littlest effects, Bennington seemed to trace that subtle sadness, or still more subtle mystery, which at times showed so strongly in her eyes. He caught himself puzzling over it, trying to seize it. It was most like a sorrow, and yet like a sorrow which had been outlived. Or, if a mystery, it was as a mystery which was such only to others, no longer to herself. The whole line of thought was too fine-drawn for Bennington's untrained perceptions. Yet again, all at once, he realized that this very fact was one of the girl's charms to him; that her mere35 presence stirred in him perceptions, intuitions, thoughts--yes, even powers--which he had never known before. He felt that she developed him. He found that instead of being weak he was merely latent; that now the latent perceptions were unfolding. Since he had known her he had felt himself more of a man, more ready to grapple with facts and conditions on his own behalf, more inclined to take his own view of the world and to act on it. She had given him independence, for she had made him believe in himself, and belief in one's self is the first principle of independence. Bennington de Laney looked back on his old New York self as on a being infinitely36 remote.
She awoke and opened her eyes slowly, and looked at him without blinking. The sun had gone nearly to the ridge37 top, and a Wilson's thrush was celebrating with his hollow notes the artificial twilight38 of its shadow.
She smiled at him a little vaguely39, the mists of sleep clouding her eyes. It is the unguarded moment, the instant of awakening40. At such an instant the mask falls from before the features of the soul. I do not know what Bennington saw.
"Mary, Mary!" he cried uncontrolledly, "I love you! I love you, girl."
He had never before seen any one so vexed41. She sat up at once.
"Oh, _why_ did you have to say that!" she cried angrily. "Why did you have to spoil things! Why couldn't you have let it go along as it was without bringing _that_ into it!"
She arose and began to walk angrily up and down, kicking aside the sticks and stones as she encountered them.
"I was just beginning to like you, and now you do this. _Oh_, I am so angry!" She stamped her little foot. "I thought I had found a man for once who could be a good friend to me, whom I could meet unguardedly, and behold42! the third day he tells me this!"
"I am sorry," stammered43 Bennington, his new tenderness fleeing, frightened, into the inner recesses44 of his being. "I beg your pardon, I didn't know--_Don't_! I won't say it again. Please!"
The declaration had been manly45. This was ridiculously boyish. The girl frowned at him in two minds as to what to do.
"Really, truly," he assured her.
She laughed a little, scornfully. "Very well, I'll give you one more chance. I like you too well to drop you entirely46." (What an air of autocracy47 she took, to be sure!) "You mustn't speak of that again. And you must forget it entirely." She lowered at him, a delicious picture of wrath48.
They saddled the horses and took their way homeward in silence. The tenderness put out its flower head from the inner sanctuary49. Apparently the coast was clear. It ventured a little further. The evening was very shadowy and sweet and musical with birds. The tenderness boldly invaded Bennington's eyes, and spoke50, oh, so timidly, from his lips.
"I will do just as you say," it hesitated, "and I'll be very, very good indeed. But am I to have no hope at all?"
"Why can't you keep off that standpoint entirely?"
"Just that one question; then I will."
"Well," grudgingly51, "I suppose nothing on earth could keep the average mortal from hoping; but I can't answer that there is any ground for it."
"When can I speak of it again?"
"I don't know--after the Pioneer's Picnic."
"That is when you cease to be a mystery, isn't it?"
She sighed. "That is when I become a greater mystery--even to myself, I fear," she added in a murmur52 too low for him to catch.
They rode on in silence for a little space more. The night shadows were flowing down between the trees like vapour. The girl of her own accord returned to the subject.
"You are greatly to be envied," she said a little sadly, "for you are really young. I am old, oh, very, very old! You have trust and confidence. I have not. I can sympathize; I can understand. But that is all. There is something within me that binds53 all my emotions so fast that I can not give way to them. I want to. I wish I could. But it is getting harder and harder for me to think of absolutely trusting, in the sense of giving out the self that is my own. Ah, but you are to be envied! You have saved up and accumulated the beautiful in your nature. I have wasted mine, and now I sit by the roadside and cry for it. My only hope and prayer is that a higher and better something will be given me in place of the wasted, and yet I have no right to expect it. Silly, isn't it?" she concluded bitterly.
Bennington made no reply.
They drew near the gulch20, and could hear the mellow54 sound of bells as the town herd55 defiled56 slowly down it toward town.
"We part here," the young man broke the long silence. "When do I see you again?"
"I do not know."
"To-morrow?"
"No."
"Day after?"
The girl shook herself from a reverie. "If you want me to believe you, come every afternoon to the Rock, and wait. Some day I will meet you there."
She was gone.
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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dabbled
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| v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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pertinacity
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| n.执拗，顽固 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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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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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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gulches
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| n.峡谷( gulch的名词复数 ) | |
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gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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cadences
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| n.（声音的）抑扬顿挫( cadence的名词复数 )；节奏；韵律；调子 | |
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prank
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| n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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pout
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| v.撅嘴；绷脸；n.撅嘴；生气，不高兴 | |
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pouted
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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autocracy
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| n.独裁政治，独裁政府 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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50
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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grudgingly
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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54
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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defiled
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| v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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