“Perhaps you remember me. We were here together ”
“Four years ago perfectly7,” Rose broke in, speaking for him with an amenity8 that might have been intended as a quick corrective of any impres sion conveyed by her grab of the child. “ Mr. Vidal and I were just talking of you. He has come back, for the first time since then, to pay us a little visit.”
“Then he has things to say to you that I’ve rudely interrupted. Please excuse me I’m off again,” Jean went on to Dennis. “ I only came for the little girl.” She turned back to Rose. “ I’m afraid it’s time I should take her home.”.
Rose sat there like a queen-regent with a baby sovereign on her knee. “ Must I give her up to you? ”
“I’m responsible for her, you know, to Gorham,” Jean returned.
Rose gravely kissed her little ward1, who, now that she was apparently9 to be offered the entertain ment of a debate in which she was so closely concerned, was clearly prepared to contribute to it the calmness of impartial10 beauty at a joust11. She was just old enough to be interested, but she was just young enough to be judicial12; the lap of her present friend had the compass of a small child-world, and she perched there in her loveliness as if she had been Helen on the walls of Troy. “ It’s not to Gorman I’m responsible,” Rose presently answered.
Jean took it good-humouredly. “ Are you to Mr. Bream? ”
“I’ll tell you presently to whom.” And Rose looked intelligently at Dennis Vidal.
Smiled at in alternation by two clever young women, he had yet not sufficiently13 to achieve a jocose14 manner shaken off his sense of the strange climax15 of his conversation with the elder of them. He turned away awkwardly, as he had done four years before, for the hat it was one of the privileges of such a colloquy16 to make him put down in an odd place. “ I’ll go over to Bounds,” he said to Rose. And then to Jean, to take leave of her: “I’m stay ing at the other house.”
“Really? Mr. Bream didn’t tell me. But I must never drive you away. You’ve more to say to Miss Armiger than I have. I’ve only come to get Effie,” Jean repeated.
Dennis at this, brushing off his recovered hat, gave way to his thin laugh. “ That apparently may take you some time! ”
Rose generously helped him off. “ I’ve more to say to Miss Martle than I’ve now to say to you. I think that what I’ve already said to you is quite enough.
“Thanks, thanks quite enough. I’ll just go over.”
“You won’t go first to Mrs. Beever? ”
“Not yet I’ll come in this evening. Thanks, thanks!” Dennis repeated with a sudden dramatic gaiety that was presumably intended to preserve appearances to acknowledge Rose’s aid and, in a spirit of reciprocity, cover any exposure she might herself have incurred17. Raising his hat, he passed down the slope and disappeared, leaving our young ladies face to face.
Their situation might still have been embarrassing had Rose not taken immediate18 measures to give it a lift. “ You must let me have the pleasure of making you the first person to hear of a matter that closely corfcerns me.” She hung fire, watching her companion; then she brought out: “ I’m engaged to be married to Mr. Vidal.”
“Engaged?” Jean almost bounded forward, holding up her relief like a torch.
Rose greeted with laughter this natural note. “He arrived half an hour ago, for a supreme19 appeal and it has not, you see, taken long. I’ve just had the honour of accepting him.”
Jean’s movement had brought her so close to the bench that, though slightly disconcerted by its action on her friend, she could only, in consistency20, seat herself. “ That’s very charming I congratu late you.”
“It’s charming of you to be so glad,” Rose returned. “ However, you’ve the news in all its freshness.”
“I appreciate that too,” said Jean. “ But fancy my dropping on a conversation of such impor tance! ”
“Fortunately you didn’t cut it short. We had settled the question. He had got his answer.”
“If I had known it I would have congratulated Mr. Vidal,” Jean pursued.
“You would have frightened him out of his wits he’s so dreadfully shy,” Rose laughed.
“Yes I could see he was dreadfully shy. But the great thing,” Jean candidly21 observed, “ is that he was not too dreadfully shy to come back to you.”
Rose continued to be moved to mirth. “ Oh, I don’t mean with me I He’s as bold with me as I am for instance with you.” Jean had riot touched the child, but Rose smoothed our her ribbons as if to redress22 some previous freedom. “ You’ll think that says everything. I can easily imagine how you judge my frankness,” she added. “ But of course I’m grossly immodest I always was.”
Jean wistfully watched her light hands play here and there over Effie’s adornments. “ I think you’re a person of great courage if you’ll let me also be frank. There’s nothing in the world I admire so much for I don’t consider that I’ve, myself, a great deal. I daresay, however, that I should let you know just as soon if I were engaged.”
“Which, unfortunately, is exactly what you’re not!” Rose, having finished her titivation of the child, sank comfortably back on the bench. “Do you object to my speaking to you of that?” she asked.
Jean hesitated; she had only after letting them escape become conscious of the reach of her words, the inadvertence of which showed how few waves of emotion her scene with Paul Beever had left to subside23. She coloured as she replied: “ I don’t know how much you know.”
“I know everything,” said Rose. “ Mr. Beever has already told me.”
Jean’s flush, at this, deepened. “ Mr. Beever already doesn’t care! ”
“That’s fortunate for you, my dear! Will you let me tell you,” Rose continued, “how much I do?” Jean again hesitated, looking, however, through her embarrassment24, very straight and sweet. “ I don’t quite see that it’s a thing you should tell me or that I’m really obliged to hear. It’s very good of you to take an interest ”
“But however good it may be, it’s none of my business: is that what you mean?” Rose broke in. “ Such an answer is doubtless natural enough. My having hoped you would accept Paul Beever, and above all my having rather publicly expressed that hope, is an apparent stretch of discretion25 that you’re perfectly free to take up. But you must allow me to say that the stretch is more apparent than real. There’s discretion and discretion and it’s all a matter of motive26. Perhaps you can guess mine for having found a reassurance27 in the idea of your definitely bestowing28 your hand. It’s a very small and a very pretty hand, but its possible action is out of proportion to its size and even to its beauty. It was not a question of meddling29 in your affairs your affairs were only one side of the matter. My interest was wholly in the effect of your marriage on the affairs of others. Let me say, moreover,” Rose went smoothly30 and inexorably on, while Jean, listening intently, drew shorter breaths and looked away, as if in growing pain, from the wonderful white, mobile mask that supplied half the meaning of this speech “ let me say, morever, that it strikes me you hardly treat me with fairness in forbidding me an allusion31 that has after all so much in common with the fact, in my own situation, as to which you’ve no scruple32 in showing me your exuberant33 joy. You clap your hands over my being if you’ll forgive the vulgarity of my calling things by their names got out of the way; yet I must suffer in silence to see you rather more in it than ever.”
Jean turned again upon her companion a face bewildered and alarmed: unguardedly stepping into water that she had believed shallow, she found herself caught up in a current of fast-moving depths a cold, full tide that set straight out to sea. “ Where am I?” her scared silence seemed for the moment to ask. Her quick intelligence indeed, came to her aid, and she spoke34 in a voice out of which she showed that she tried to keep her heart-beats. “You call things, certainly, by names that are extraordinary; but I, at any rate, follow you far enough to be able to remind you that what I just said about your engage ment was provoked by your introducing the subject.”
Rose was silent a moment, but without prejudice, clearly, to her firm possession of the ground she stood on a power to be effectively cool in exact proportion as her interlocutress was troubled. “ I introduced the subject for two reasons. One of them was that your eager descent upon us at that particular moment seemed to present you in the light of an inquirer whom it would be really rude not to gratify. The other was just to see if you would succeed in restraining your glee.”
“Then your story isn’t true?” Jean asked with a promptitude that betrayed the limits of her cir35 cumspection.
“There you are again!” Rose laughed. “ Do you know your apprehensions36 are barely decent? I haven’t, however, laid a trap with a bait that’s all make-believe. It’s perfectly true that Mr. Vidal has again pressed me hard it’s not true that I’ve yet given him an answer completely final. But as I mean to at the earliest moment, you can say so to whomever you like.”
“I can surely leave the saying so to you!” Jean returned. “ But I shall be sorry to appear to have treated you with a want of confidence that may give you a complaint to make on the score of my manners as to which you set me too high an example by the rare perfection of your own. Let me simply let you know, then, to cover every possibility of that sort, that I intend, under no circumstances ever ever to marry. So far as that knowledge may satisfy you, you’re welcome to the satisfaction. Perhaps in consideration of it,” Jean wound up, with an effect that must have struck her own ear as the greatest she had ever produced “ perhaps in consideration of it you’ll kindly37 do what I ask you.”
The poor girl was destined38 to see her effect reduced to her mere39 personal sense of it. Rose made no movement save to lay her hands on Effie’s shoulders, while that young lady looked up at the friend of other occasions in round-eyed detachment, following the talk enough for curiosity, but not enough either for comprehension or for agitation40. “You take my surrender for granted, I suppose, because you’ve worked so long to produce the impression, which no one, for your good fortune, has gainsaid41, that she’s safe only in your hands. But I gainsay42 it at last, for her safety becomes a very different thing from the moment you give such a glimpse of your open field as you must excuse my still continuing to hold that you do give. My ‘ knowledge ’ to use your term that you’ll never marry has exactly as much and as little weight as your word for it. I leave it to your conscience to estimate that wonderful amount. You say too much both more than I ask you and more than I can oblige you by prescribing to myself to take seriously. You do thereby43 injustice44 to what must be always on the cards for you the possible failure of the great impediment, fm disinterested45 in the matter I shall marry, as” I’ve had the honour to inform you, without having to think at all of impediments or failures. That’s the difference between us, and it seems to me that it alters everything. I had a delicacy46 but now I’ve nothing in the world but a fear.”
Jean had got up before these remarks had gone far, but even though she fell back a few steps her dismay was a force that condemned47 her to take them in. “God forbid I should understand you,” she panted; “I only make out that you say and mean horrible things and that you’re doing your best to seek a quarrel with me from which you shall derive48 some advantage that, I’m happy to feel, is beyond my conception.” Both the women were now as pale as death, and Rose was brought to her feet by the pure passion of this retort. The manner of it was such as to leave Jean nothing but to walk away, which she instantly proceeded to do. At the end of ten paces, however, she turned to look at their companion, who stood beside Rose, held by the hand, and whom, as if from a certain considera tion for infant innocence49 and a certain instinct of fair play, she had not attempted to put on her side by a single direct appeal from intimate eyes. This appeal she now risked, and the way the little girl’s face mutely met it suddenly precipitated50 her to blind supplication51. She became weak she broke down. “ I beseech52 you to let me have her.”
Rose Armiger’s countenance53 made no secret of her appreciation54 of this collapse55. “ I’ll let you have her on one condition,” she presently replied.
“What condition? ”
“That you deny to me on the spot that you’ve but one feeling in your soul. Oh, don’t look vacant and dazed,” Rose derisively56 pursued; “don’t look as if you didn’t know what feeling I mean! Renounce57 it repudiate58 it, and I’ll never touch her again! ”
Jean gazed in sombre stupefaction. “I know what feeling you mean,” she said at last, “and I’m incapable59 of meeting your condition. I ‘ deny,’ I ‘ renounce,’ I ‘ repudiate ’ as little as I hope, as I dream, or as I feel that I’m likely ever again even to utter!” Then she brought out in her baffled
sadness, but with so little vulgarity of pride that she sounded, rather, a note of compassion60 for a perversity61 so deep: “ It’s because of that that I want her! ”
“Because you adore him and she’s his? ”
Jean faltered62, but she was launched. “ Because I adore him and she’s his.”
“ I want her for another reason,” Rose declared. “I adored her poor mother and she’s hers. That’s my ground, that’s my love, that’s my faith.” She caught Effie up again; she held her in two strong arms and dealt her a kiss that was a long consecra tion. “ It’s as your dear dead mother’s, my own my sweet, that if it’s time I shall carry you to bed!” She passed swiftly down the slope with her burden and took the turn which led her out of sight. Jean stood watching her till she disappeared and then waited till she had emerged for the usual minute on the rise in the middle of the bridge. She saw her stop again there, she saw her again, as if in the triumph a great open-air insolence63 of possession, press her face to the little girl’s. Then they dipped together to the further end and were lost, and Jean, after taking a few vague steps on the lawn, paused, as if sick with the aftertaste of her encounter, and turned to the nearest seat. It was close to Mrs. Beever’s blighted64 tea-table, and when she had sunk into the chair she threw her arms upon this support and wearily dropped her head.
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1
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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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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amenity
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| n.pl.生活福利设施，文娱康乐场所；（不可数）愉快，适意 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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joust
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| v.马上长枪比武，竞争 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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jocose
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| adj.开玩笑的，滑稽的 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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23
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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reassurance
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| n.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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28
bestowing
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| 砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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29
meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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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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35
cir
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| abbr.circular 通知；circulation （货币，货物等的）流通；circle 圆；circa (Latin=about) （拉丁语）大约 | |
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apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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37
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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40
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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41
gainsaid
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
gainsay
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| v.否认，反驳 | |
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43
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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44
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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45
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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46
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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47
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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48
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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49
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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50
precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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51
supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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52
beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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53
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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54
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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55
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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56
derisively
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| adv. 嘲笑地，嘲弄地 | |
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57
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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58
repudiate
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| v.拒绝，拒付，拒绝履行 | |
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59
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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60
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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62
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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63
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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64
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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