Miss Fenimore and Lady Grieswold were both present. In spite of some very suggestive talk from Lady Catherine their movements were uncertain. Lady Catherine had perhaps exaggerated the gravity of Mrs. Rylands’ health and her need for peace, and Miss Fenimore had felt not that she ought to go but that she ought to stay “in case someone was wanted.” Lady Grieswold held on firmly without any explanation, but Lady Catherine had reason for hoping that when it was manifest a bridge famine was inevitable7 her grip would relax. Though of course there was the possibility of a break away into patience. However that was to be seen.
The Tamars were due at Geneva in three days’ time and so Lady Catherine did nothing to dislodge them. They were very harmless; they had spent the day together in a long walk up the hills, had taken their lunch and she had done a water-colour sketch8 of the little chapel9 in the upper valley; they had returned just in time for dinner and heard of Mrs. Rylands’ collapse10 only in the drawing-room. They were quietly happy and tired and their sympathy was pleasantly free from any note of distress11.
The table talk was for a time disconnected and desultory12, with long pauses, and then it broke into a loose debate between Stoicism and Epicureanism, in which Mr. Sempack and Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan said nearly everything. Mr. Sempack started with a panegyric14 of the Stoic13; it seemed to be there in his mind and it was almost as if he thought aloud. He addressed what he had to say away from Lady Catherine, markedly. His discourse15 seemed by its very nature to turn its back on her. Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan talked rather at Lady Catherine and Miss Fenimore, appealing to them for support by the direction of his head and smiles and gestures. The Tamars were mildly interested and ever and again at some of the flatter passages they smiled mysteriously at one another, as though, if they cared, they could put quite a different complexion16 on things. Philip was unaffectedly lost in thought. He did not pretend even to listen.
Lady Grieswold said little but became visibly uneasy as the discussion soared and refused to descend18. She was wondering if the Tamars would like to play bridge and still more how she might give this very difficult conversation a turn that would enable her to suggest this. Perhaps they did not know how to play yet and might like to be shown — of course for quite nominal19 stakes. It was wonderful the things these intellectual people did not know. She never contrived20 to get her suggestion out for all her alertness and she went up to a bridgeless drawing-room and sat apart and felt she was a widow more acutely than she had done for many years, and retired21 quite early to bed showing, Lady Catherine noted22 with satisfaction, no disposition23 whatever for the consolations24 of the patience spread.
Mr. Sempack began in a pause, almost or altogether out of nothing. If anything could be regarded as releasing the topic its connexion was so remote that it vanished from the mind as soon as it had served its purpose. “It is remarkable,” he began, “how silently and steadily25 Stoicism returns to the world.”
“Stoicism!” said Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan and raised his fine eyebrows26.
“Consolation without rewards or punishments, a pure worship of right and austerity. It came too soon into the world; it had to give place to Mithraism and Isis worship and the Christianities for two thousand years. Now— it returns to a world more prepared for it.”
“But does it return?” said Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan with a disarming28 smile.
Mr. Sempack pursued his own train of thought. “The simple consolations needed by life in an under-civilised world, the craving29 for exemplary punishments, rewards and compensations; those Christianity could give. And a substitutional love to make up for human unkindnesses — and failures of loyalty30. . . . Not to be despised. By no means to be despised. . . . But in the cold light of to-day these consolations fade. In the cold clear light of our increasing knowledge. We cannot keep them even if we would. We strain to believe and we cannot do it. We are left terribly to the human affections in all their incompleteness — and behind them what remains31 for us? Endurance. The strength of our own souls.”
His voice sank so beautifully that for a moment or so Lady Catherine knew what it was to be wholly in love. What a great rock he was! What tranquil32 power there was in him! He divested33 himself of all beliefs and was not in the least afraid. He was withdrawing to his fastness from her. So far as he was able. He would not be able to do it, but it was magnificent how evidently he thought he could. Almost unconsciously she began to radiate herself at him and continued to do so for the rest of the evening whenever opportunity offered.
“But need it be Stoicism?” said Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan.
“What else?”
“For my part I do not feel Christianity is dead,” young Lord Tamar interpolated before Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan could reply. “Not in the least dead. It changes form but it lives.”
Lady Tamar nodded in confirmation34. “It changes form,” she admitted.
Lady Grieswold made confirmatory noises, rather like the noises a very old judge might make in confirming a decision, and she took some more stuffed aubergine as if that act was in some way sacramental.
Mr. Sempack did not attend at once to these three confessions35. He stared before him at the marble wall over Miss Fenimore’s head. He had an air of explaining something carefully to himself. “Christianity has prevailed,” he assured himself, “but indeed Christianity passes. Passes! — it has gone! It has littered the beaches of life with churches, cathedrals, shrines36 and crucifixes, prejudices and intolerances, like the sea-urchins and starfish and empty shells and lumps of stinging jelly upon the sands here after a tide. A tidal wave out of Egypt. And it has left a multitude of little wriggling37 theologians and confessors and apologists hopping38 and burrowing39 in the warm nutritious40 sand. But in the hearts of living men, what remains of it now? Doubtful scraps41 of Arianism. Phrases. Sentiments. Habits.”
He turned his large eye on Lady Tamar and took up her neglected remark. “If Christianity changes form, it becomes something else.”
Lord Tamar gave a little cough and spoke42 apologetically. ”Love,” said Lord Tamar, “remains. The spirit. Christianity is love. It is distinctively43 the religion of love. All the rest — is excrescence. There was no such religion before.”
Lady Tamar wanted to say “God is Love,” but her courage failed and so she blushed instead. Evidently both the Tamars felt their own remarks acutely.
“Christianity can only be a form of love,” said Mr. Sempack. “I doubt if it is that. And I doubt still more if anyone can argue that love is the highest thing in life. Is it? . . . Is it? . . . ” Lady Catherine watched him. Far over her head to things beyond, Mr. Sempack said, “No.” He developed his disavowals. “There are nobler things for the soul — the conquest of the limited self, for example, at heights and in visions and apprehensions44 altogether above passion. There are, I am convinced, great mountains above the little village of the affections, high and lonely places. There lies the Stoic domain46. There we can camp and harbour. Stoicism, which was too great for the world when first it dawned upon men’s thoughts, comes back into life. Changed very little in essentials, but enlarged, because our vision of time and space has enlarged. It has returned so inevitably47 that it has returned imperceptibly. We have all become Stoics48 nowadays without knowing it. We have not been persuaded and convinced and converted; we just find ourselves there. We fall back by a sort of general necessity upon the dignity of renunciation and upon our subordination to a greater life. Perhaps we do not want to do it but we have to do it. What else can we do unless we play tricks with our intelligence and degrade ourselves to ‘acts of faith’? What gymnastics this century has seen since its beginning! We abandon the Christian27 exaggeration of the ego49 and its preposterous50 claims for an everlasting51 distinctiveness52 — perforce. We give up craving for individual recognition because we must. Loneliness. Perhaps. In a sense we are all increasingly alone. But then, since nowadays we are all increasingly something more and something less than ourselves, that loneliness is no longer overwhelming.”
This was in effect soliloquy. It may have been soundly reasoned but it had been difficult to follow. The desolate53 figure of little Mrs. Rylands was so vivid in his mind that he was still able to remain unresponsive to the glow he had evoked54 in Lady Catherine. He was talking neither to his hearers nor himself, but in imagination to that little lady upstairs against the disturbance of the lovely lady at the end of the table. He was making Cynthia his talisman55 against Catherine. By behaving like a wise man for Mrs. Rylands he might yet be able to arrest the deep warm currents about him and within him that were threatening to make a fool of him for Lady Catherine. The problem of that fine soul, so clear in its apprehensions and so fatally gentle in its will, flung so suddenly into a realisation of its immense unaided confrontation56 of the universe, was good enough to grip him. After he had written and sent her that letter he wanted to take it all back and begin all over again. Or to begin a second one and a longer. But the gong had arrested the latter impulse at the source and saved some of the material for this present allocution.
The rest of the dinner party were variously affected17 by his declarations. “But is one ever really alone?” asked Lord Tamar, carrying on the talk, and began to reflect upon what he was saying as he said it. What, asked a chilling voice within, what would stand by him in an ultimate isolation57? If for example — but that was too horrible to think even. He glanced across the table at his wife and saw that she was longing58 to look at him in reply and could not do so. What stoicism, he asked himself, could help if that were stripped from him? But then, his warmer self hastened to interpolate, it could not be stripped from him because love makes things immortal59! Yet what did that mean?
There came a silence. Miss Fenimore felt she had rarely enjoyed so deep and subtle a conversation. She did not understand a bit of it, but it swept her mind onward60 intoxicatingly. Her glasses flashed round the table for the next speaker.
This was Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan. He fingered the stem of his glass. “Now that,” he said, speaking slowly and thoughtfully, “is a point of view.”
Everyone else was relieved to find there was someone competent to take up Mr. Sempack. What Mr. Sempack had been talking about was a point of view. That was really very helpful. Attention, embodied61 particularly in Miss Fenimore, focused itself consciously on Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan.
“That,” Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan improved, “is a method of apprehension45. I admit the decay of Christian certitude. It has gone. And I admit the dignity and greatness of the Stoic vision. Yes. But it is, after all, only one of several possible visions.” He paused and extended a fine index finger at Mr. Sempack. “Equally well you may look through the glass of another philosophy and see the world as a glad spectacle, as a winepress of sensation and happiness and sympathetic feeling and beautiful experiences. . . . ”
He was launched.
He lifted a glance to Lady Catherine. ”Loneliness is a fact,” he said; “yes. But loveliness also is a fact. Which fact do you care to make the most important, which shall be the focus of attention? You are free to choose, it seems to me, to go out of yourself if you will, rather than retreat to the innermost. Why take the loneliness of the soul rather than the loveliness of circumambient things?”
“Loneliness and Loveliness!” It was a long way from such silly talk to sound and sensible bridge, thought poor Lady Grieswold. People who had the sense to play bridge didn’t bother about such things. Awful stuff! And flouting62 Christianity too! Florence or Mentone? It would have to come to that. The nice people had gone.
“Against your Neo-Stoic,” said Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan, still using his finger a little, “I set the Neo-Epicurean. I set such an attitude to the universe that a man may lament63 that he knows no God to thank for the infinitude of delicious things and marvellous possibilities wrapped up in the fabric64 of life.”
And so forth65. . . .
Thus was issue joined downstairs and a long rather rambling66 and cloudy discussion between Stoicism and Epicureanism began. Miss Fenimore followed it from first to last with an enraptured67 incomprehension, while Philip brooded on his secret preoccupations and Mrs. Rylands lay upstairs on her great bed, preparing the things she had to say when at last Philip should come to her.
It was an entirely68 inconclusive discussion. Except that Lady Catherine, converted it would seem on the spot, presently announced herself a Stoic, to Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan’s visible surprise and distress.
Now why should she do that?
“But my dear Lady!” said Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan.
“Life should be stern,” said Lady Catherine triumphantly69. . . .
After a time Philip, regardless of his formal duties as a host, got up and very quietly slipped away.
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1
attenuated
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| v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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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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insurgent
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| adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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stoic
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| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
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panegyric
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| n.颂词，颂扬 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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consolations
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| n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物） | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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28
disarming
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| adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒 | |
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craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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33
divested
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| v.剥夺( divest的过去式和过去分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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36
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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37
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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burrowing
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的现在分词 )；翻寻 | |
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nutritious
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| adj.有营养的，营养价值高的 | |
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scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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42
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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distinctively
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| adv.特殊地，区别地 | |
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44
apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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45
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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46
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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47
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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48
stoics
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| 禁欲主义者，恬淡寡欲的人，不以苦乐为意的人( stoic的名词复数 ) | |
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49
ego
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| n.自我，自己，自尊 | |
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50
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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51
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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52
distinctiveness
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| 特殊[独特]性 | |
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53
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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54
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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55
talisman
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| n.避邪物，护身符 | |
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56
confrontation
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| n.对抗，对峙，冲突 | |
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57
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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58
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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60
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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61
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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62
flouting
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| v.藐视，轻视( flout的现在分词 ) | |
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63
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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65
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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66
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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67
enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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69
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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