Miss Fanny Glen's especial detestation was an assumption of authority on the part of the other sex. If there was a being on earth to whom she would not submit, it was to a masterful man; such a man as, if appearances were a criterion, Rhett Sempland at that moment assumed to be.
The contrast between the two was amusing, or would have been had not the atmosphere been so surcharged with passionate1 feeling, for Rhett Sempland was six feet high if he was an inch, while Fanny Glen by a Procrustean2 extension of herself could just manage to cover the five-foot mark; yet such was the spirit permeating3 the smaller figure that there seemed to be no great disparity, from the standpoint of combatants, between them after all.
Rhett Sempland was deeply in love with Miss Fanny Glen. His full consciousness of that fact shaded his attempted mastery by ever so little.
He was sure of the state of his affections and by that knowledge the weaker, for Fanny Glen was not at all sure that she was in love with Rhett Sempland. That is to say, she had not yet realized it; perhaps better, she had not yet admitted the existence of a reciprocal passion in her own breast to that she had long since learned had sprung up in his. By just that lack of admission she was stronger than he for the moment.
When she discovered the undoubted fact that she did love Rhett Sempland her views on the mastery of man would probably alter—at least for a time! Love, in its freshness, would make her a willing slave; for how long, events only could determine. For some women a lifetime, for others but an hour, can elapse before the chains turn from adornments to shackles4.
The anger that Miss Fanny Glen felt at this particular moment gave her a temporary reassurance5 as to some questions which had agitated6 her—how much she cared, after all, for Lieutenant7 Rhett Sempland, and did she like him better than Major Harry8 Lacy? Both questions were instantly decided9 in the negative—for the time being. She hated Rhett Sempland; per contra, at that moment, she loved Harry Lacy. For Harry Lacy was he about whom the difference began. Rhett Sempland, confident of his own affection and hopeful as to hers, had attempted, with masculine futility10 and obtuseness11, to prohibit the further attentions of Harry Lacy.
Just as good blood, au fond, ran in Harry Lacy's veins12 as in Rhett Sempland's, but Lacy, following in the footsteps of his ancestors, had mixed his with the water that is not water because it is fire.
He "crooked13 the pregnant hinges" of the elbow without cessation, many a time and oft, and all the vices—as they usually do—followed en train. One of the oldest names in the Carolinas had been dragged in the dust by this latest and most degenerate14 scion15 thereof. Nay16, in that dust Lacy had wallowed—shameless, persistent17, beast-like.
To Lacy, therefore, the Civil War came as a godsend, as it had to many another man in like circumstances, for it afforded another and more congenial outlet18 for the wild passion beating out from his heart. The war sang to him of arms and men—ay, as war has sung since Troia's day, of women, too.
He did not give over the habits of a lifetime, which, though short, had been hard, but he leavened19 them, temporarily obliterated20 them even, by splendid feats22 of arms. Fortune was kind to him. Opportunity smiled upon him. Was it running the blockade off Charleston, or passing through the enemy's lines with despatches in Virginia, or heading a desperate attack on Little Round Top in Pennsylvania, he always won the plaudits of men, often the love of women. And in it all he seemed to bear a charmed life.
When the people saw him intoxicated23 on the streets of Charleston that winter of '63 they remembered that he was a hero. When some of his more flagrant transgressions24 came to light, they recalled some splendid feat21 of arms, and condoned25 what before they had censured26.
He happened to be in Charleston because he had been shot to pieces at Gettysburg and had been sent down there to die. But die he would not, at least not then. Ordinarily he would not have cared much about living, for he realized that, when the war was over, he would speedily sink back to that level to which he habitually27 descended28 when there was nothing to engage his energies; but his acquaintance with Miss Fanny Glen had altered him.
Lacy met her in the hospital and there he loved her. Rhett Sempland met her in a hospital, also. Poor Sempland had been captured in an obscure skirmish late in 1861. Through some hitch29 in the matter he had been held prisoner in the North until the close of 1863, when he had been exchanged and, wretchedly ill, he had come back to Charleston, like Lacy, to die.
He had found no opportunity for distinction of any sort. There was no glory about his situation, but prison life and fretting30 had made him show what he had suffered. At the hospital, then, like Lacy, he too had fallen in love with Miss Fanny Glen.
By rights the hero—not of this story, perhaps, but the real hero—was much the handsomer of the two. It is always so in romances; and romances—good ones, that is—are the reflex of life. Such a combination of manly31 beauty with unshakable courage and reckless audacity32 was not often seen as Lacy exhibited. Sempland was homely33. Lacy had French and Irish blood in him, and he showed it. Sempland was a mixture of sturdy Dutch and English stock.
Yet if women found Lacy charming they instinctively34 depended upon Sempland. There was something thoroughly35 attractive in Sempland, and Fanny Glen unconsciously fell under the spell of his strong personality. The lasting36 impression which the gayety and passionate abandon of Lacy could not make, Sempland had effected, and the girl was already powerfully under his influence—stubbornly resistant37 nevertheless.
She was fond of both men. She loved Lacy for the dangers he had passed, and Sempland because she could not help it; which marks the relative quality of her affections. Which one she loved the better until the moment at which the story opens she could not have told.
Nobody knew anything about Fanny Glen. At least there were only two facts concerning her in possession of the general public. These, however, were sufficient. One was that she was good. The men in the hospital called her an angel. The other was that she was beautiful. The women of the city could not exactly see why the men thought so, which was confirmation38 strong as proofs of Holy Writ39!
She had come to Charleston at the outbreak of the war accompanied by an elderly woman of unexceptional manner and appearance who called herself Miss Lucy Glen, and described herself as Miss Fanny Glen's aunt. They had taken a house in the fashionable quarter of the city—they were not poor at any rate—and had installed themselves therein with their slaves.
They made no attempt to enter into the social life of the town and only became prominent when Charleston began to feel acutely the hardships of the war which it had done more to promote than any other place in the land.
Then Fanny Glen showed her quality. A vast hospital was established, and the young women of the city volunteered their services.
The corps40 of nurses was in a state of constant fluxion. Individuals came and went. Some of them married patients, some of them died with them, but Fanny Glen neither married nor died—she abided!
Not merely because she stayed while others did not, but perhaps on account of her innate41 capacity, as well as her tactful tenderness, she became the chief of the women attached to the hospital. Many a sick soldier lived to love her. Many another, more sorely stricken, died blessing42 her.
In Charleston she was regarded as next in importance to the general who commanded the troops and who, with his ships, his forts, his guns, and his men, had been for two years fighting off the tremendous assaults that were hurled43 upon the city from the union ironclads and ships far out to sea. It was a point of honor to take, or to hold, Charleston, and the Confederates held it till 1865!
Fanny Glen was a privileged character, therefore, and could go anywhere and do anything, within the lines.
Under other circumstances there would have been a thorough inquiry44 by the careful inhabitants of the proud, strict Southern city into her family relationships; but the war was a great leveller, people were taken at their real value when trouble demonstrated it, and few questions were asked. Those that were asked about Fanny Glen were not answered. It made little difference, then.
Toward the close of 1863, however, there was an eclipse in the general hospital, for Fanny Glen fell ill.
She was not completely recovered, early in 1864, when she had the famous interview with Rhett Sempland, but there was not the slightest evidence of invalidism46 about her as she confronted him that afternoon in February.
Wounded pride, outraged47 dignity, burning indignation, supplied strength and spirit enough for a regiment48 of convalescents.
The difference between the two culminated49 in a disturbance50 which might aptly be called cyclonic51, for Sempland on nearly the first occasion that he had been permitted to leave the hospital had repaired to Fanny Glen's house and there had repeated, standing52 erect53 and looking down upon her bended head, what he had said so often with his eyes and once at least with his lips, from his bed in the ward45: that he loved her and wanted her for his wife.
Pleasant thing it was for her to hear, too, she could not but admit.
Yet if Fanny Glen had not rejected him, neither had she accepted him.
She had pleaded for time, she had hesitated, and would have been lost, had Sempland been as wise as he was brave. Perhaps he wasn't quite master of himself on account of his experience in war, and his lack of it in women, for he instantly conceived that her hesitation54 was due to some other cause than maidenly55 incertitude56, and that Harry Lacy, of whom he had grown mightily57 jealous, was at the bottom of it.
He hated and envied Lacy. More, he despised him for his weaknesses and their consequences. The two had been great friends once, but a year or two before the outbreak of the war they had drifted apart.
Sempland did not envy Lacy any talents that he might possess, for he was quite confident that the only thing he himself lacked had been opportunity—Fate had not been kind to him, but the war was not yet over. Consequently when he jumped to the conclusion that Fanny Glen preferred Lacy, he fell into further error, and made the frightful58 mistake of depreciating59 his rival.
Assuming with masculine inconsistency that the half acceptance she had given him entitled him to decide her future, he actually referred to Lacy's well-known habits and bade her have nothing to do with him.
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1
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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2
procrustean
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| adj.强求一致的 | |
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permeating
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| 弥漫( permeate的现在分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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4
shackles
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| 手铐( shackle的名词复数 )； 脚镣； 束缚； 羁绊 | |
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reassurance
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| n.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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7
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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8
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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9
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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10
futility
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| n.无用 | |
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obtuseness
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| 感觉迟钝 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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15
scion
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| n.嫩芽，子孙 | |
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16
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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19
leavened
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| adj.加酵母的v.使（面团）发酵( leaven的过去式和过去分词 )；在…中掺入改变的因素 | |
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20
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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21
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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22
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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23
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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24
transgressions
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| n.违反，违法，罪过( transgression的名词复数 ) | |
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25
condoned
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| v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26
censured
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的过去式 ) | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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28
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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29
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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30
fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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31
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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32
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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33
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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34
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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35
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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36
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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37
resistant
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| adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的 | |
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38
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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40
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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41
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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42
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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43
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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44
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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45
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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46
invalidism
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| 病弱，病身； 伤残 | |
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47
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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48
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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49
culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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51
cyclonic
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| adj.气旋的，飓风的 | |
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52
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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53
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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54
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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55
maidenly
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| adj. 像处女的, 谨慎的, 稳静的 | |
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56
incertitude
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| n.疑惑，不确定 | |
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57
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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58
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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59
depreciating
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| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的现在分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
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