In Bond Street that afternoon, he heard his name pronounced by a woman alighting from a motor car just in front of him. He recognised her with some difficulty. It was indeed Gertrude, looking entirely7 her old self.
“Still in London,” he remarked, as he stood by her side for a moment.
“Still here,” she assented8. “I had orders to wait—to meet my husband.”
“Your husband!”
She smiled with faint irony9.
“My husband. Are you surprised? He arrives to-day. He is quite excited at the idea of seeing me again.”
“I can well believe it,” Grant observed, a little bewildered.
“But you,” she went on. “You have not the appearance of amusing yourself at all. You are worn to a shadow, my dear Grant. Why do you worry so about this little game of politics? Believe me, for all your efforts, the world will be very much the same in five or ten years’ time.”
“The philosophy of sloth,” he reminded her, smiling.
“Perhaps so. But you seem, indeed, very miserable,” she continued, studying him for a moment. “What is the matter? Are your love affairs progressing ill?”
“I have no love affair,” he answered.
She looked at him for a moment searchingly, and her lips slowly parted. She laughed—laughed the more as his frown deepened.
“You poor man!” she exclaimed. “And after all your sacrifices! Perhaps it was not so much of a sacrifice, though,” she went on, glancing unconsciously at her reflection in the plate-glass window of the shop in front of which they were standing10. “I suppose I have gone off. What do you think, Grant?”
“You looked ill upon the steamer,” he told her. “To-day you look as well as you ever have done in your life.”
“I hope I do,” she murmured. “Otto would feel at once that he had been cheated out of something if I had lost my looks. I can never quite make up my mind,” she went on reflectively, “how much of my appearance I owe to my clothes. I have a wonderful flair11 for clothes, you know. Grant, and for wearing them.”
“People have remarked upon it,” he agreed a little drily.
She smiled.
“You’re getting bored,” she declared. “The trouble about me is that I’m so self-centred. I’m always talking about myself, and, of course, I ought to be sympathising with you. But how can I, Grant? You fix your mind and affections upon an ingenue of the most British type and then you nurse a broken heart because the inevitable happens.”
He broke away from the subject.
“May I take it, then,” he asked, “that you and your husband are reconciled?”
“We are about to be,” she admitted. “It is very amusing. I made the first overtures12, or rather Mr. Cornelius Blunn made them on my behalf. He pleaded my cause most eloquently13. I have been given to understand that I am forgiven. My husband arrives to-day. We are staying at the Ritz. I think I will not ask you to call.”
She saw the displeasure in his face. For a moment she faltered14. She was gripping her little gold purse tightly with the fingers of her left hand.
“I seem to you flippant?” she went on. “Well!—you must make allowances for me. This is not exactly the happiest day of my life. I suppose really I should look for happiness in other ways—trying to do good and all that sort of thing. If I were to play the much admired part of long-suffering heroine in the cinema romance of life, I should, of course, put on my plainest clothes, wait mysteriously upon your young ingenue, confess the whole truth to her at the cost of my own undying humiliation15, and not leave her until I had shown her the truth. Then I should telephone you. You would leap into a taxi and drive to Yeovil House. I should take a last look at your photograph and an overdose of veronal. Curtain to slow music!”
Grant’s feelings had suddenly changed. He realised the state of strain in which she was.
“You’re talking a great deal of nonsense, Gertrude,” he said. “I am glad to have seen you. I am glad to hear your news. If I may be allowed to say so, I do indeed wish you happiness. I wish that I could have had my share in bringing it to you.”
He passed on a little abruptly16, and Gertrude made her delayed entrance into the establishment where hovering17 satellites had been eagerly awaiting her. To Grant, the interview had been, in its way, a painful one. From a material point of view, Gertrude’s reconciliation18 with her husband was certainly the best thing that could have happened to her. Yet, during the whole of their conversation, he had been conscious of an uneasy environment of misery19. The meeting, notwithstanding a certain sense of relief which it brought him, had only increased his depression. He strolled on without any particular idea as to where he was going. At the corner of Bond Street and Piccadilly he heard a familiar voice and felt a friendly hand upon his shoulder.
“Why so woebegone, my young friend? You ought to be up in the seventh heavens to think of all the excitement you are causing.”
Grant was suddenly down again in the world of real things. He shook hands heartily20 with his new friend.
“Good morning, Admiral,” he said. “Do I look as though I were indulging in a fit of the blues21?”
“If I hadn’t been a brave man,” Sullivan declared—“we’re all brave in the navy!—I wouldn’t have ventured to speak to you. Come along and lunch.”
Grant hesitated. His companion took him by the arm.
“Ritz Grill22 Room—my favourite corner table,” he insisted. “We ought to have heaps to talk about—except that I am too hungry to talk at all. I’ve been up since five o’clock on your business—in the Marconi room at the Admiralty, most of the time.”
“Any news?”
“Not much that’s fresh, anyway. We’re getting things into shape for the moment we receive word from Washington. There’s a Cabinet Council to-day, you know. Lucky some of our friends can’t get hold of the agenda. We should have the whole world by its ears to-morrow.”
They descended23 the stairs and remained for a moment in the lounge of the Grill Room, while Sullivan ordered luncheon24 from an attentive25 maitre d’h?tel. The barkeeper was content with a nod.
“You like your cocktails26 dry, of course,” Sullivan went on. “I brought you here instead of the club because all the fellows would want to meet you and talk, and we’re not loquacious27, just at present, except to one another.”
“Very thoughtful of you,” Grant approved. “I had an idea that you might be coming across with us.”
“Can’t be done. We shall work the show from here. All the same, I must confess I had rather be in Washington. Have you sent that cable?”
“I’ve sent one a yard long. The trouble is the Government are pretty well convinced already. It’s the voters we want to get at. What I’m afraid of all the time is that the trouble will commence before the President has been empowered to sign.”
The Admiral rose to his feet in reply to a summons from the maitre d’h?tel and led his guest towards the table which had been prepared for them.
“Don’t worry too much about that, young fellow,” he enjoined28 cheerfully. “I’m a sailor, not a politician, but I can see my hand before my face in the daylight. If half the members of the pact29 go on the rampage—well, I shouldn’t be surprised if the other half didn’t follow suit. Now then, sit in that corner and try an English lobster30.”
“Another thing that rather puzzles me,” Grant remarked, as they proceeded with their luncheon, “is why our friends, the enemy, should have chosen for their enterprise the year in which England is policing the Asiatic seas on behalf of the Limitation of Armaments Committee. If it had been Germany’s year, for instance, they could have done what they liked.”
“Well, there are two reasons for that,” his companion explained. “The first is that the most important year, so far as secrecy31 is concerned, was last year, when some of their phantom32 ships were actually laid down. Last year, as you know, Germany policed the whole of the eastern waters and reported everything O. K. Then, their second reason, no doubt, is that England polices very strongly, and it means at least two capital ships and subsidiary craft detached from the main fleet. They think they’ve got rid of those units in case, by any chance, we should break the Pact and intervene. As a matter of fact, we have made a few changes,” he went on, lowering his tone. “Our best battleship and three destroyers are on their way home now. Australia’s replacing them for us.”
“I am going to ask you the most improper33 question a person in my position could ask of a person in yours,” Grant declared. “If the German fleet entered the Atlantic steaming westwards, before America had had time to join the Pact, should you interfere34?”
Sullivan grinned merrily.
“The politicians have to decide that,” he reminded his guest. “But a look round our naval35 ports to-day would probably surprise you.”
“How would your strength work out?”
“A trifle to their advantage on paper,” the Admiral admitted, “if you count the Russians in. But there might be a little difficulty about Russia keeping her appointment. They have just been served with a notice to receive a police patrol of inspection36 for a report to the Limitation of Armaments Committee. They will either have to show their hand or stay in their harbour. Then there’s another point to be borne in mind. I am a terribly pigheaded and prejudiced Britisher, and I swear by our own forces, but the French submarines have gone one or two ahead of us. I had sooner face the devil himself than the flotilla which is collecting in Cherbourg harbour.”
Grant’s eyes flashed for a moment.
“You mean that France—”
“Pooh! My dear fellow. I don’t mean anything,” Sullivan interrupted. “I’m a sailor, not a politician. But I’ll tell you this. France is very often misjudged. Thirty years ago the world thought her self-centred, selfish, neurotic37. So would any of us have been after what she went through. You wait. Jove! There’s our hostess of last night. Ripping, isn’t she? She’ll be the partie of the season. They say young Suffolk’s making the running. Makes one wish one were young again. Why not an international alliance, Slattery? Why don’t you go in with your millions? Old Yeovil thinks no end of you.”
Grant endured his companion’s careless banter38 without moving a muscle. Susan, the centre of a gay little party, looked round as she entered the inner room and nodded to the two men. There was a smile for each—the smile of a happy, light-hearted girl, who has nothing but good will for the whole world. And yet somehow or other it was a smile which Grant hated. He felt that it put the seal upon his ostracism39.
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1
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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flair
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| n.天赋，本领，才华；洞察力 | |
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overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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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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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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grill
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| n.烤架，铁格子，烤肉；v.烧，烤，严加盘问 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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cocktails
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| n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物 | |
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loquacious
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| adj.多嘴的，饶舌的 | |
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enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pact
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| n.合同，条约，公约，协定 | |
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lobster
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| n.龙虾，龙虾肉 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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35
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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neurotic
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| adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者 | |
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banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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ostracism
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| n.放逐；排斥 | |
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