La plainte est pour le sot.
L’honnête homme trompé
S’en va et ne dit mot.
— M. DELANONI.
“AND so you cannot persuade Miss Gresley to come to us next week?” said Lord Newhaven, strolling into the dining-room at Westhope Abbey, where Rachel and Dick were sitting at a little supper-table laid for two in front of the high altar. The dining-room had formerly2 been the chapel3, and the carved stone altar still remained under the east window.
Lord Newhaven drew up a chair, and Rachel felt vaguely4 relieved at his presence. He had a knack5 of knowing when to appear, and when to efface6 himself.
“She can’t leave her book,” said Rachel.
“Her first book was very clever,” said Lord Newhaven, “and what was more, it was true. I hope for her own sake she will outgrow7 her love of truth, or it will make deadly enemies for her.”
“And good friends,” said Rachel.
“Possibly,” said Lord Newhaven, looking narrowly at her, and almost obliged to believe that she had spoken without self-consciousness. “But if she outgrows8 all her principles, I hope at any rate she won’t outgrow her sharp tongue. I liked her ever since she first came to this house, ten years ago, with Lady Susan Gresley. I remember saying that Captain Pratt, who called while she was here, was a ‘bounder.’ And Miss Gresley said she did not think he was quite a bounder, only on the boundary line. If you knew Captain Pratt, that describes him exactly.”
“I wish she had not said it,” said Rachel with a sigh. “She makes trouble for herself by saying things like that. Is Lady Newhaven in the drawing-room?”
“Yes, I heard her singing ‘The Lost Chord’ not ten minutes ago.”
“I will go up to her,” said Rachel.
“I do believe,” said Lord Newhaven, when Rachel had departed, “that she has an affection for Miss Gresley.”
“It is not necessary to be a detective in plain clothes to see that,” said Dick.
“No. It generally needs to be a magnifying glass to see a woman’s friendship, and then they are only expedients9 till we arrive, Dick. You need not be jealous of Miss Gresley. Miss West will forget all about her when she is Mrs. Vernon.”
“She does not seem very keen about that,” said Dick grimly. “I’m only marking time. I’m no forwarder than I was.”
“Well, it’s your own fault for fixing your affections on a woman who is not anxious to marry. She has no objection to you. It is marriage she does not like.”
“Oh! That’s bosh,” said Dick. “All women wish to be married, and if they don’t they ought to.”
He felt that an invidious reflection had been cast on Rachel.
“All the same, a man with one eye can see that women with money or anything that makes them independent of us don’t flatter us by their alacrity10 to marry us. They will make fools of themselves for love, none greater, and they will marry for love. But their different attitude towards us, their natural lords and masters, directly we are no longer necessary to them as stepping-stones to a home and a recognised position revolts me. If you had taken my advice at the start, you would have made up to one among the mob of women who are dependent on marriage for their very existence. If a man goes into that herd11 he will not be refused. And if he is it does not matter. It is the blessed custom of piling everything on to the eldest12 son, and leaving the women of the family almost penniless, which provides half of us with wives without any trouble to ourselves. Whatever we are, they have got to take us. The average dancing young woman living in luxury in her father’s house is between the devil and the deep sea. We are frequently the devil, but it is not surprising that she can’t face the alternative, a poverty to which she was not brought up, and in which she has seen her old spinster aunts. But I suppose in your case you really want the money?”
Dick looked rather hard at Lord Newhaven.
“I should not have said that unless I had known it to be a lie,” continued the latter, “because I dislike being kicked. But, Dick, listen to me. You have not,” with sudden misgiving13, “laid any little matrimonial project before her this evening, have you?”
“No, I was not quite such a fool as that.”
“Well! Such things do occur. Moonlight, you know, &c. &c. I was possessed14 by a devil once, and proposed by moonlight, as all my wife’s friends know, and probably her maid. But seriously, Dick, you are not making progress, as you say yourself.”
“Well!” rather sullenly15.
“Well, onlookers16 see most of the game. Miss West may — I don’t say she is — but if things go on as they are for another week she may become slightly bored. That was why I joined you at supper. She had had, for the time, enough.”
“Of me?” said Dick, reddening under his tan.
“Just so. It is a matter of no importance after marriage, but it should be avoided beforehand. Are you really in earnest about this?”
Dick delivered himself slowly and deliberately17 of certain platitudes18.
“Well, I hope I shall hear you say all that again some day in a condensed form before a clergyman. In the meanwhile —”
“In the meanwhile I had better clear out.”
“Yes; I don’t enjoy saying so in the presence of my own galantine and mayonnaise, but that is it. Go, and — come back.”
“If you have a Bradshaw,” said Dick, “I’ll look out my train now. I think there is an express to London about seven in the morning, if you can send me to the station.”
“But the post only comes in at eight.”
“Well, you can send my letters after me.”
“I daresay I can, my diplomatist. But you are not going to leave till the post has arrived, when you will receive business letters, requiring your immediate19 presence in London. You are not going to let a woman know that you leave on her account.”
“You are very sharp, Cackles,” said Dick, drearily20. “And I’ll take a leaf out of your book and lie, if you think it is the right thing. But I expect she will know very well that the same business which took me to that infernal temperance meeting has taken me to London.”
Rachel was vaguely relieved when Dick went off next morning. She was not, as a rule, oppressed by the attentions she received from young men, which in due season became “marked,” and then resulted in proposals neatly21 or clumsily expressed. But she was disturbed when she thought of Dick, and his departure was like the removal of a weight, not a heavy, but still a perceptible one. For Rachel was aware that Dick was in deadly earnest, and that his love was growing steadily22, almost unconsciously, was accumulating like snow, flake23 by flake, upon a mountain-side. Some day, perhaps not for a long time, but some day, there would be an avalanche24, and, in his own language, she “would be in it.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
bruit
|
|
| v.散布；n.（听诊时所听到的）杂音；吵闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
knack
|
|
| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
efface
|
|
| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
outgrow
|
|
| vt.长大得使…不再适用；成长得不再要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
outgrows
|
|
| 长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的第三人称单数 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
expedients
|
|
| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
alacrity
|
|
| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
herd
|
|
| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
eldest
|
|
| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
misgiving
|
|
| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
sullenly
|
|
| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
onlookers
|
|
| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
platitudes
|
|
| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
drearily
|
|
| 沉寂地，厌倦地，可怕地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
neatly
|
|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
steadily
|
|
| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
flake
|
|
| v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
avalanche
|
|
| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |