As they left the dining-room, Louie burst out with it. He and Rosamond were to take Doctor and Mrs. St. Peter to France for the summer. Louie had decided4 upon the dates, the boat, the itinerary5; he was intoxicated6 with the pleasure of planning.
“Understand,” he said, “it is to be our excursion, from Hamilton back to Hamilton. We’ll travel in the most ample comfort, but not in magnificence. We’ll go down to Biarritz for a little fashionable life, and stop at Marseilles to see your foster-brother, Charles Thierault. The rest of the summer we’ll lead a scholarly life in Paris. I have my own reasons for wishing you to go along, Professor. The pleasure of your company would be quite enough, but I have also other reasons. I want to see the intellectual side of Paris, and to meet some of the savants and men of letters whom you know. What a shame Gaston Paris is not living! We could very nicely make up a little party at Lapérouse for him. But there are others.”
Mrs. St. Peter developed the argument. “Yes, Louie, you and Godfrey can lunch with the scholars while Rosamond and I are shopping.”
Marsellus looked alarmed. “Not at all, Dearest! It’s to be understood that I always shop with you. I adore the shops in Paris. Besides, we shall want you with us when we lunch with celebrities7. When was a savant, and a Frenchman, not eager for the company of two charming ladies at déjeuner? And you may have too much of the society of your sposi; very nice for you to have variety. You must keep a little engagement book: Lundi, déjeuner, M. Emile Faguet. Mercredi, diner, M. Anatole France; and so on.”
St. Peter chuckled8. “I’m afraid you exaggerate the circumference9 of my social circle, Louie. I haven’t the pleasure of knowing Anatole France.”
“No matter; we can have M. Paul Bourget for Wednesday.”
“You can help us, too, about finding things for the house, Papa,” said Rosamond. “We expect to pick up a good many things. The Thieraults ought to know good shops down in the South, where prices have not gone up.”
“I’m afraid the antiquaries are centralized in Paris. I never saw anything very interesting in Lyons or the Midi. However, they may exist.”
“Charles Thierault is still interested in a shipping-line that runs to the City of Mexico for us. They would go in without duty, and Louie thinks he can get them across the border as household goods.”
“That sounds practicable, Rosie. It might be managed.”
Marsellus laughed and patted his wife’s hand. “Oh-ho, cher Papa, you haven’t begun to find how practical we can be!”
“Well, Louie, it’s a tempting10 idea, and I’ll think it over. I’ll see whether I can arrange my work.” St. Peter knew at that moment that he would never be one of this light-hearted expedition, and he hated himself for the ungracious drawing-back that he felt in the region of his diaphragm.
The family discussed their summer plans all evening. Louie wanted to write at once for rooms at the Meurice, but Mrs. St. Peter ruled it out as too expensive.
That night, after he was in bed, St. Peter tried in vain to justify11 himself in his inevitable12 refusal. He liked Paris, and he liked Louie. But one couldn’t do one’s own things in another person’s way; selfish or not, that was the truth. Besides, he would not be needed. He could trust Louie to take every care of Lillian, and nobody could please her more than her son-inlaw. Beaux-fils, apparently13, were meant by Providence14 to take the husband’s place when husbands had ceased to be lovers. Marsellus never forgot one of the hundred foolish little attentions that Lillian loved. Best of all, he admired her extravagantly15, her distinction was priceless to him. Many people admired her, but Louie more than most. That worldliness, that willingness to get the most out of occasions and people, which had developed so strongly in Lillian in the last few years, seemed to Louie as natural and proper as it seemed unnatural17 to Godfrey. It was an element that had always been in Lillian, and as long as it resulted in mere18 fastidiousness, was not a means to an end, St. Peter liked it, too. He knew it was due to this worldliness, even more than to the fact that his wife had a little money of her own, that she and his daughters had never been drab and a little pathetic, like some of the faculty19 women. They hadn’t much, but they were never absurd. They never made shabby compromises. If they couldn’t get the right thing, they went without. Usually they had the right thing, and it got paid for, somehow. He couldn’t say they were extravagant16; the old house had been funny and bare enough, but there were no ugly things in it.
Since Rosamond’s marriage to Marsellus, both she and her mother had changed bewilderingly in some respects — changed and hardened. But Louie, who had done the damage, had not damaged himself. It was to him that one appealed, — for Augusta, for Professor Crane, for the bruised20 feelings of people less fortunate. It was less because of Louie than for any other reason that he would refuse this princely invitation.
He could get out of it without hurting anybody — though he knew Louie would be sorry. He could simply insist that he must work, and that he couldn’t work away from his old study. There were some advantages about being a writer of histories. The desk was a shelter one could hide behind, it was a hole one could creep into.
When St. Peter told his family of his decision, Louie was disappointed; but he was respectful, and readily conceded that the Professor’s first duty was to his work. Rosamond was incredulous and piqued21; she didn’t see how he could be so ungenerous as to spoil an arrangement which would give pleasure to everyone concerned. His wife looked at him with thoughtful disbelief.
When they were alone together, she approached the matter more directly than was her wont22 nowadays.
“Godfrey,” she said slowly and sadly, “I wonder what it is that makes you draw away from your family. Or who it is.”
“My dear, are you going to be jealous?”
“I wish I were going to be. I’d much rather see you foolish about some woman than becoming lonely and inhuman23.”
“Well, the habit of living with ideas grows on one, I suppose, just as inevitably24 as the more cheerful habit of living with various ladies. There’s something to be said for both.”
“I think you ideas were best when you were your most human self.”
St. Peter sighed. “I can’t contradict you there. But I must go on as I can. It is not always May.”
“You are not old enough for the pose you take. That’s what puzzles me. For so many years you never seemed to grow at all older, though I did. Two years ago you were an impetuous young man. Now you save yourself in everything. You’re naturally warm and affectionate; all at once you begin shutting yourself away from everybody. I don’t think you’ll be happier for it.” Up to this point she had been lecturing him. Now she suddenly crossed the room and sat down on the arm of his chair, looking into his face and twisting up the ends of his military eyebrows25 with her thumb and middle finger. “Why is it, Godfrey? I can’t see any change in your face, though I watch you so closely. It’s in your mind, in your mood. Something has come over you. Is it merely that you know too much, I wonder? Too much to be happy? You were always the wisest person in the world. What is it, can’t you tell me?”
“I can’t altogether tell myself, Lillian. It’s not wholly a matter of the calendar. It’s the feeling that I’ve put a great deal behind me, where I can’t go back to it again — and I don’t really wish to go back. The way would be too long and too fatiguing26. Perhaps, for a home-staying man, I’ve lived pretty hard. I wasn’t willing to slight anything — you, or my desk, or my students. And now I seem to be tremendously tired. One pays, coming or going. A man has got only just so much in him; when it’s gone he slumps27. Even the first Napoleon did.” They both laughed. That was an old joke — the Professor’s darkest secret. At the font he had been christened Napoleon Godfrey St. Peter. There had always been a Napoleon in the family, since a remote grandfather got his discharge from the Grande Armée. Godfrey had abbreviated28 his name in Kansas, and even his daughters didn’t know what it had been originally.
“I think, you know,” he told his wife as he rose to go to bed, “that I’ll get my second wind. But for the present I don’t want anything very stimulating29. Paris is too beautiful, and too full of memories.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
dreariest
|
|
| 使人闷闷不乐或沮丧的( dreary的最高级 )； 阴沉的； 令人厌烦的； 单调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
bleakest
|
|
| 阴冷的( bleak的最高级 )； （状况）无望的； 没有希望的； 光秃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
specialties
|
|
| n.专门，特性，特别；专业( specialty的名词复数 )；特性；特制品；盖印的契约 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
itinerary
|
|
| n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
intoxicated
|
|
| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
celebrities
|
|
| n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
circumference
|
|
| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
tempting
|
|
| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
extravagantly
|
|
| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
extravagant
|
|
| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
unnatural
|
|
| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
faculty
|
|
| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
bruised
|
|
| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
piqued
|
|
| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
wont
|
|
| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
inhuman
|
|
| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
inevitably
|
|
| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
fatiguing
|
|
| a.使人劳累的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
slumps
|
|
| 萧条期( slump的名词复数 )； （个人、球队等的）低潮状态； （销售量、价格、价值等的）骤降； 猛跌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
abbreviated
|
|
| adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
stimulating
|
|
| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |