Just as she felt that at the core of things was courage, so she had an irrational3 conviction that, properly seen, the general substance of things was beauty. To Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan’s craving4 to lead a life of pure appreciation5 she found a temperamental response. She could quite easily relax into that pose. But also she perceived something selective, deliberate and narrowing in his attitude. He reminded her of those people, now happily becoming old-fashioned, who will not look at a lovely landscape except through a rolled-up newspaper or some such frame. Or of people who cannot admire flowers without picking them. He seemed to think that the appreciation of beauty was a kind of rescue work; to take the lovely thing and trim it up and carry it off. But she thought it was a matter of recognition and acceptance. So while in practice he was for sealing up himself and his sensations in a museum case as it were with beauty, she was for lying open to the four winds of heaven, sure that beauty would come and remain. And while he posed as a partisan6 of beauty even against the idea of God, her idea of an ever deepening and intensifying7 realisation of the beauty in things was inseparably mingled8 with the conception of discovering God. He and she could perceive the poignant9 delight of a star suddenly flashing through forest leaves with a complete identity of pleasure and a complete divergence10 of thought. And so while art for him was quintessence, for her it was only a guide.
But while she was still struggling with this difficult disentanglement of assents11 and dissents12 that her analysis of Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan required, and before she had made a single entry in the green leather book as a result of these exercises, she became aware of Mr. Sempack descending13 the winding14 path that was the main route of communication between the gates and the house. Beside him a requisitioned under-gardener bore his knapsack and valise and answered such questions and agreed with such opinions as the great Utopologist’s Italian permitted him to make.
It was Mr. Sempack. And he was changed.
Recognition was followed by astonishment15. He was greatly changed. He was different altogether. More erect16 — rampant17. No longer had he the quality of rocky scenery; he had the quality of rocky scenery that had arisen and tossed its mane and marched. “Tossing its mane” mixed oddly with rocky scenery, but that was how it came to her. His hair had all been thrust and combed back from his forehead, violently, so that the effect of his head, considered largely, had become leonine; he lifted his roughly handsome profile and seemed to snuff the air. He had no hat! Hitherto he and his hat had been inseparable out of doors but now he neither wore nor carried one. What could he have done with his hat? Moreover his cravat18 had suffered some exchange, had become large and loose and as it were, it was too far off to be certain, black silk, tied with the extravagance natural to a Latin man of genius, but otherwise remarkable19 and improper20. And he walked erect with a certain conscious rectitude and large confident strides and assisted himself with a bold stout21 walking stick. Mrs. Rylands could not remember that stick; she had an impression he had gone off with an umbrella. At any rate he had gone off with the appearance of having an umbrella. She became eager to scrutinise this renascent22 Sempack closelier. She stood up for the moment to give her voice play and make herself more conspicuous23. “Mr. Sempack,” she cried, “Mr. Sem-pack!”
He heard. He turned eagerly. Just for a moment a shade of disappointment may have betrayed itself in his bearing. He hesitated, waved the stick, glanced down towards the house and then after a word or so with his garden man, submitted to his obvious fate and ascended24 the steps to her.
“You’ve come back to us,” she said, so giving him the very latest news as he approached.
“I’ve had a splendid time among the hills,” he answered in that fine large voice of his. “How endlessly beautiful and unexpected France can be! And what lonely places! How are you?”
He was now standing25 in front of her.
“I’m better and happier, thanks to some good advice I had.”
“If it was of service,” he said. “Yes, you look ever so much better. Indeed you look radiantly well. How are the others?”
“Scattered for the most part.”
He did not seem to mind about that. “Where is Lady Catherine?” he asked.
As he spoke26 he looked at the cypresses27 and magnolias that masked most of the house from him and then up and down the slopes about them for the lovely figure he sought. How easy a thing, Mrs. Rylands reflected, it was to make a man over confident. He’d gone off to make up his mind about Lady Catherine, it was only too evident, and here he was back with his mind made up, made up indeed altogether, and quite oblivious28 to the fact that Lady Catherine had gone on living at her own natural pace, during his interval29 of indecision. He became aware of a pause in answering his enquiry. His eyes came back to the face of his hostess. (Surely he had not been clipping those once too discursive30 eyebrows31! But he had!) She tried to impart her information as though it was of no deep interest to either of them.
“Lady Catherine,” she said, “has gone to England.”
Mr. Sempack was a child when it came to concealing32 his feelings. “Gone to England!” he cried. “I was convinced she would stay here.”
“She was restless,” said Mrs. Rylands.
“But I was restless!” protested Mr. Sempack, opening vast gulfs of implication.
“She went yesterday.”
“But why has she gone? Why should she go to England?”
“When the news of the strike came it lit her up like a rocket and off she went fizz-bang,” said Mrs. Rylands.
“But why?”
“To save the country.”
“But this strike,” said Mr. Sempack, “is nothing at all. Just political nonsense. Why should she go to England?”
She found her respect for Mr. Sempack collapsing33 like a snowman before a bonfire. She ceased to scrutinise his improvements. “I’m not responsible for Lady Catherine,” she said and smoothed the nice back of the green leather book. “She’s gone.”
It seemed to dawn upon Mr. Sempack that he was forgetting his manners. He had stood in front of her without the slightest intention of staying beside her. Now he gave one last reproachful glance down the hill towards the paths, terraces, lawns, windows and turrets34 where Lady Catherine ought to have been waiting for him, and then came slowly and sat down beside his hostess. The first exhilaration of his bearing had already to a large extent evaporated.
“Forgive me,” he said. “I quite expected to find Lady Catherine here. We had a sort of argument together. It had excited me. But, as you say, she has gone. And the American gentleman with the hyphenated name? Who had an effect of being manicured all over. What was he called? Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan?”
“Went this morning. To Torre Pellice above Turin.”
“And Miss Fenimore?”
“Is with us still.”
“I’m so surprised she’s gone. You see I don’t attach any great importance to this General Strike in England. So that I can’t imagine anyone going off — a woman particularly. . . . I may be mistaken. . . . ”
“It has stopped all the English newspapers,” said Mrs. Rylands. “And most of the English trains. It has thrown millions of people out of employment. There is talk of famine through the interruption of food supplies.”
“An acute attack of Sundays in the place of the usual week. But why should it affect Lady Catherine?”
It was not Mrs. Rylands’ business to answer that.
“Are you sure she went on account of the General Strike?”
Mrs. Rylands had serious thoughts of losing her temper. “That was the reason she gave,” she said, in the tone of one who loses interest in a topic. But Mr. Sempack had a habit of pursuing his own line of thought with a certain regardlessness for other people.
“She may have gone to demonstrate her point of view in our argument,” he surmised35. Mrs. Rylands, being in better possession of the facts, thought it a very foolish surmise36 but she offered no comment.
“The matter at issue between us,” said Mr. Sempack, prodding37 up the pathway with the stout stick, “had of course, extraordinarily38 far-reaching implications. Reduced to its simplest terms it was this, Is the current surface of things a rational reality?”
Mrs. Rylands wanted to laugh. She regarded Mr. Sempack’s profile, gravely intent on spoiling her excellent path. She was filled with woman’s instinctive39 pity for man. Every man is a moody40 child, she thought, every man in the world. But the children must not be spoilt. “So that was why you went off for a walking tour?” she remarked, intelligently.
“I thought we both needed to think over our differences,” he said.
“And you still don’t think — what is it? — that the current surface of things is — whatever it is?”
“No,” he said and excavated41 a quite large chunk42 of earth and smashed it to sandy fragments in front of his boots. “But I suppose this flight to England is to show me that the issues between us are not false issues but real, and that while I dream and theorise, she can play a part. . . . I wish she hadn’t gone. There is nothing happening in England at all that is not perfectly43 preposterous44. Utterly45 preposterous. Political life in England becomes more and more like Carnival46.”
He shrugged47 his shoulders. The large tie became a little askew48. “Carnival without a police. Well — that is political life everywhere nowadays. . . . ”
As this was manifestly not the subject under discussion between them a silence of perhaps half a minute supervened. Then Mr. Sempack bestirred himself.
“She has gone,” he said, “just because she likes Carnival. And that is the truth of the matter.”
He glanced sideways at his hostess as if he hoped she would contradict him.
But she did nothing of the sort. She reflected and bore her witness with a considered effect. “Mr. Sempack,” she said, “I know Catherine. And that is the truth of the matter.”
“I thought it was.”
His bones did move about under his skin, because they were doing so now. He dug industriously49 at the path through another long silence. “Forgive my moodiness50 and my rudeness. And my confidences. My almost involuntary confidences. As you know perfectly well already, I am in the ridiculous position of having fallen in love with Lady Catherine; and it isn’t any the less disorganising for being utterly absurd. It has made me, I perceive, absurd. To fall in love, as I have done, is — to reverberate51 melodrama52. It is as unreal as an opium53 dream and one knows it is unreal. Yet one clings with a certain obstinacy54. . . . I expected —— Heaven knows what I expected! But that is no reason, is it? why I should come and set myself down here and interrupt your writing in that extremely pretty book of yours and dig large holes in your path.”
“The paths were made for man and not man for the paths,” said Mrs. Rylands. “I wish all my gardeners worked as you have done for the last few minutes. I am sorry for what has happened. Catherine is one of those people who ought not to be allowed about loose.”
“I may go to England,” he said after he had digested that. “I am preposterously55 dislocated. I do not know what to do.”
“But in England, won’t the melodrama lie in wait for you?”
“Perhaps I wish it would. At present, my mind and my thoughts — are just swirling56 about. I can’t go on writing. I might of course go into Italy.”
“Meanwhile stay here. For a day or so anyhow. There are all sorts of things I would like to hear you talk about. If you could talk about them. And this garden has a place for almost any mood. No one shall worry you. If I dared I would ask you about a score of things that perplex me.”
“You are very kind to suffer me,” he said.
She shook her head and smiled and then stood up.
“I think you have done enough to my path this morning,” she said. “Look at it!”
He made some clumsy and ineffective attempts to repair the mischief57 of his immense hands with his immense feet, and then came hurrying after her down the steps.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
pebble
|
|
| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
mosaic
|
|
| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
irrational
|
|
| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
craving
|
|
| n.渴望,热望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
appreciation
|
|
| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
partisan
|
|
| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
intensifying
|
|
| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
poignant
|
|
| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
divergence
|
|
| n.分歧，岔开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
assents
|
|
| 同意，赞同( assent的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
12
dissents
|
|
| 意见的分歧( dissent的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
descending
|
|
| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
winding
|
|
| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
erect
|
|
| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
rampant
|
|
| adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
cravat
|
|
| n.领巾，领结；v.使穿有领结的服装，使结领结 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
improper
|
|
| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
renascent
|
|
| adj.新生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
ascended
|
|
| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
cypresses
|
|
| n.柏属植物，柏树( cypress的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
oblivious
|
|
| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
interval
|
|
| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
discursive
|
|
| adj.离题的，无层次的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
concealing
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
collapsing
|
|
| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
turrets
|
|
| （六角）转台( turret的名词复数 )； （战舰和坦克等上的）转动炮塔； （摄影机等上的）镜头转台； （旧时攻城用的）塔车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
surmised
|
|
| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
surmise
|
|
| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
prodding
|
|
| v.刺，戳( prod的现在分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
extraordinarily
|
|
| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
instinctive
|
|
| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
moody
|
|
| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
excavated
|
|
| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
chunk
|
|
| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
preposterous
|
|
| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
carnival
|
|
| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
askew
|
|
| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
industriously
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
moodiness
|
|
| n.喜怒无常；喜怒无常，闷闷不乐；情绪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
reverberate
|
|
| v.使回响，使反响 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
melodrama
|
|
| n.音乐剧；情节剧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
opium
|
|
| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
obstinacy
|
|
| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
preposterously
|
|
| adv.反常地；荒谬地；荒谬可笑地；不合理地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
swirling
|
|
| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
mischief
|
|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |