Francie remembered now — she had forgotten it — Margaret de Cliche’s having told her she meant to come again. She hoped the marquise thought by this time that, on canvas at least, she looked a little more like a lady. Mme. de Cliche smiled at her at any rate and kissed her, as if in fact there could be no mistake. She smiled also at Mr. Flack, on Francie’s introducing him, and only looked grave when, after she had asked where the others were — the papa and the grande soeur — the girl replied that she hadn’t the least idea: her party consisted only of herself and Mr. Flack. Then Mme. de Cliche’s grace stiffened6, taking on a shade that brought back Francie’s sense that she was the individual, among all Gaston’s belongings7, who had pleased her least from the first. Mme. de Douves was superficially more formidable, but with her the second impression was comparatively comforting. It was just this second impression of the marquise that was not. There were perhaps others behind it, but the girl hadn’t yet arrived at them. Mr. Waterlow mightn’t have been very much prepossessed with Mr. Flack, but he was none the less perfectly8 civil to him and took much trouble to show him the work he had in hand, dragging out canvases, changing lights, moving him off to see things at the other end of the great room. While the two gentlemen were at a distance Mme. de Cliche expressed to Francie the conviction that she would allow her to see her home: on which Francie replied that she was not going home, but was going somewhere else with Mr. Flack. And she explained, as if it simplified the matter, that this gentleman was a big editor. Her sister-inlaw that was to be echoed the term and Francie developed her explanation. He was not the only big editor, but one of the many big editors, of an enormous American paper. He was going to publish an article — as big, as enormous, as all the rest of the business — about her portrait. Gaston knew him perfectly: it was Mr. Flack who had been the cause of Gaston’s being presented to her. Mme. de Cliche looked across at him as if the inadequacy9 of the cause projected an unfavourable light upon an effect hitherto perhaps not exactly measured; she appealed as to whether Francie thought Gaston would like her to drive about Paris alone with one of ces messieurs. “I’m sure I don’t know. I never asked him!” said Francie. “He ought to want me to be polite to a person who did so much for us.” Soon after this Mme. de Cliche retired10 with no fresh sign of any sense of the existence of Mr. Flack, though he stood in her path as she approached the door. She didn’t kiss our young lady again, and the girl observed that her leave-taking consisted of the simple words “Adieu mademoiselle.” She had already noted11 that in proportion as the Proberts became majestic12 they became articulately French. She and Mr. Flack remained in the studio but a short time longer, and when they were seated in the carriage again, at the door — they had come in Mr. Dosson’s open landau — her companion said “And now where shall we go?” He spoke as if on their way from the hotel he hadn’t touched upon the pleasant vision of a little turn in the Bois. He had insisted then that the day was made on purpose, the air full of spring. At present he seemed to wish to give himself the pleasure of making his companion choose that particular alternative. But she only answered rather impatiently:
“Wherever you like, wherever you like!” And she sat there swaying her parasol, looking about her, giving no order.
“Au Bois,” said George Flack to the coachman, leaning back on the soft cushions. For a few moments after the carriage had taken its easy elastic13 start they were silent; but he soon began again. “Was that lady one of your new relatives?”
“Do you mean one of Mr. Probert’s old ones? She’s his sister.”
“Is there any particular reason in that why she shouldn’t say good-morning to me?”
“She didn’t want you to remain with me. She doesn’t like you to go round with me. She wanted to carry me off.”
“What has she got against me?” Mr. Flack asked with a kind of portentous14 calm.
Francie seemed to consider a little. “Oh it’s these funny French ideas.”
“Funny? Some of them are very base,” said George Flack.
His companion made no answer; she only turned her eyes to right and left, admiring the splendid day and shining city. The great architectural vista15 was fair: the tall houses, with their polished shop-fronts, their balconies, their signs with accented letters, seemed to make a glitter of gilt16 and crystal as they rose in the sunny air. The colour of everything was cool and pretty and the sound of everything gay; the sense of a costly17 spectacle was everywhere. “Well, I like Paris anyway!” Francie exhaled18 at last with her little harmonising flatness.
“It’s lucky for you, since you’ve got to live here.”
“I haven’t got to; there’s no obligation. We haven’t settled anything about that.”
“Hasn’t that lady settled it for you?”
“Yes, very likely she has,” said Francie placidly19 enough. “I don’t like her so well as the others.”
“You like the others very much?”
“Of course I do. So would you if they had made so much of you.”
“That one at the studio didn’t make much of me, certainly,” Mr. Flack declared.
“Yes, she’s the most haughty,” Francie allowed.
“Well, what is it all about?” her friend demanded. “Who are they anyway?”
“Oh it would take me three hours to tell you,” the girl cheerfully sighed. “They go back a thousand years.”
“Well, we’ve GOT a thousand years — I mean three hours.” And George Flack settled himself more on his cushions and inhaled20 the pleasant air. “I AM getting something out of this drive, Miss Francie,” he went on. “It’s many a day since I’ve been to the old Bois. I don’t fool round much in woods.”
Francie replied candidly21 that for her too the occasion was most agreeable, and Mr. Flack pursued, looking round him with his hard smile, irrelevantly22 but sociably23: “Yes, these French ideas! I don’t see how you can stand them. Those they have about young ladies are horrid24.”
“Well, they tell me you like them better after you’re married.”
“Why after they’re married they’re worse — I mean the ideas. Every one knows that.”
“Well, they can make you like anything, the way they talk,” Francie said.
“And do they talk a great deal?”
“Well, I should think so. They don’t do much else, and all about the queerest things — things I never heard of.”
“Ah THAT I’ll bet my life on!” Mr. Flack returned with understanding.
“Of course,” his companion obligingly proceeded, “‘ve had most conversation with Mr. Probert.”
“The old gentleman?”
“No, very little with him. I mean with Gaston. But it’s not he that has told me most — it’s Mme. de Brecourt. She’s great on life, on THEIR life — it’s very interesting. She has told me all their histories, all their troubles and complications.”
“Complications?” Mr. Flack threw off. “That’s what she calls them. It seems very different from America. It’s just like a beautiful story — they have such strange feelings. But there are things you can see — without being told.”
“What sort of things?”
“Well, like Mme. de Cliche’s —” But Francie paused as if for a word.
Her friend was prompt with assistance. “Do you mean her complications?”
“Yes, and her husband’s. She has terrible ones. That’s why one must forgive her if she’s rather peculiar25. She’s very unhappy.”
“Do you mean through her husband?”
“Yes, he likes other ladies better. He flirts26 with Mme. de Brives.”
Mr. Flack’s hand closed over it. “Mme. de Brives?”
“Yes, she’s lovely,” said Francie. “She ain’t very young, but she’s fearfully attractive. And he used to go every day to have tea with Mme. de Villepreux. Mme. de Cliche can’t bear Mme. de Villepreux.”
“Well, he seems a kind of MEAN man,” George Flack moralised.
“Oh his mother was very bad. That was one thing they had against the marriage.”
“Who had? — against what marriage?”
“When Maggie Probert became engaged.”
“Is that what they call her — Maggie?”
“Her brother does; but every one else calls her Margot. Old Mme. de Cliche had a horrid reputation. Every one hated her.”
“Except those, I suppose, who liked her too much!” Mr. Flack permitted himself to guess. “And who’s Mme. de Villepreux?” he proceeded.
“She’s the daughter of Mme. de Marignac.”
“And who’s THAT old sinner?” the young man asked.
“Oh I guess she’s dead,” said Francie. “She used to be a great friend of Mr. Probert — of Gaston’s father.”
“He used to go to tea with her?”
“Almost every day. Susan says he has never been the same since her death.”
“The way they do come out with ’em!” Mr. Flack chuckled27. “And who the mischief’s Susan?”
“Why Mme. de Brecourt. Mr. Probert just loved Mme. de Marignac. Mme. de Villepreux isn’t so nice as her mother. She was brought up with the Proberts, like a sister, and now she carries on with Maxime.”
“With Maxime?”
“That’s M. de Cliche.”
“Oh I see — I see!” and George Flack engulfed28 it. They had reached the top of the Champs Elysees and were passing below the wondrous29 arch to which that gentle eminence30 forms a pedestal and which looks down even on splendid Paris from its immensity and across at the vain mask of the Tuileries and the river-moated Louvre and the twin towers of Notre Dame31 painted blue by the distance. The confluence32 of carriages — a sounding stream in which our friends became engaged — rolled into the large avenue leading to the Bois de Boulogne. Mr. Flack evidently enjoyed the scene; he gazed about him at their neighbours, at the villas33 and gardens on either hand; he took in the prospect34 of the far-stretching brown boskages and smooth alleys35 of the wood, of the hour they had yet to spend there, of the rest of Francie’s pleasant prattle36, of the place near the lake where they could alight and walk a little; even of the bench where they might sit down. “I see, I see,” he repeated with appreciation37. “You make me feel quite as if I were in the grand old monde.”
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1
cliche
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| n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的 | |
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2
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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3
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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4
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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5
expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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6
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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7
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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8
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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inadequacy
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| n.无法胜任，信心不足 | |
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10
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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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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14
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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16
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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17
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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18
exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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19
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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20
inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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22
irrelevantly
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| adv.不恰当地，不合适地；不相关地 | |
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sociably
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| adv.成群地 | |
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24
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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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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26
flirts
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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27
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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30
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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31
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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32
confluence
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| n.汇合，聚集 | |
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33
villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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34
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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35
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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36
prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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37
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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