To such a man as Steel the zest2 of life lay in the energetic stir and ostentatious bustle3 of success. His conceit4 was in his cleverness, in the smartness of his equipage and reputation, and in the flattering gossip that haunts a healer’s name. Parker Steel was essentially5 a selfish mortal, and selfish men are often the happiest, provided they succeed.
Yet no man, however selfish, can wholly stifle6 his own thoughts. That the silence he kept was an immoral7 silence, no man knew better than did Parker Steel. People would have shrunk from him had they known the truth, as a refined woman shrinks from the offensive carcass of a drunken tramp. His own niceness of taste revolted from the consciousness of chance and undeserved pollution. Ambition was strong in him, however, and the cold tenacity8 to hold what he had gained. More isolated9 than Selkirk on his island, he had to bear the bitterness of it alone, knowing that sympathy was locked out by silence.
The supreme10 trying of his powers of hypocrisy11 came for him in his attitude towards his wife. Parker Steel was in no sense an uxorious12 fellow, and neither he nor Betty were ever demonstrative towards each other. An occasional half-perfunctory meeting of the lips had satisfied both after the first year of marriage. For this reason Parker Steel’s ordeal13 was less complex and severe than if he had had to repulse14 an emotional and warm-blooded woman.
The first diplomatic development had been insomnia15; at least that was the excuse he made to Betty when he chose to sleep alone in his dressing-room at the back of the house. The faintest sound disturbed him, so he protested, and the rattle16 of wheels over the cobbles of the Square kept him irritably17 sleepless18 in the early hours of the morning. To Betty Steel there was no inconsistency in the excuse he gave. She thought him worried and overworked, and there was abundant justification19 for the latter evil. Winter and early spring are the briskest seasons of a doctor’s life. Dr. Steel had had seven severe cases of pneumonia20 on his list one week.
“You are too much in demand, Parker,” she had said. “There is always the possibility of a partner to be considered.”
“Thanks, no; I am not a believer in a co-operative business.”
“You must take a jaunt21 somewhere as soon as the work slackens.”
“All in good time, dear.”
“Sicily is fashionable.”
Parker Steel had indulged in optimistic reflections to distract her vigilance. She had sought to prove that he was in stale health by remarking that the wound on his forefinger22 had not completely healed. He was still wearing the finger-stall that covered the fons et origo mali.
“There is absolutely no need for you to fuss about me,” he had answered; “I am not made of iron, and the work tells. Three thousand a year is not earned without worry.”
“As much as that, Parker?”
He had touched a susceptible23 passion in her.
“Perhaps more. We shall be able to call our own tune24 before we are five-and-forty.”
“Heaven defend us, Parker, you hint at terrible things. Respectable obesity25, and morning prayers.”
Her husband had laughed, and given her plausible26 comfort.
“You will be more dangerous then than you are now,” he had said.
In truth, their fortunes were very much in the ascendant, and the social side of professional life had prospered27 in Mrs. Betty’s hands. The brunette was supreme in Roxton so far as beauty was concerned, supreme also in the yet more magic elements of graceful28 savoir-faire and tact29. She was one of those women who had learned to charm by flattery without seeming to be a sycophant30; moreover, she had tested the wisdom of propitiating31 her own sex by appearing even more amiable32 to women than to men. Since the passing of the Murchisons she had had nothing in the way of rivalry33 to fear. True, two “miserable squatters” had put up brass34 plates in the town, and scrambled35 for some of the poorer of James Murchison’s patients. Mrs. Betty had been able to call upon the wives with patronizing magnanimity. They were both rather dusty, round-backed ladies, with no pretensions36 to style, either in their own persons or in the persons of their husbands. One of these professional gentlemen, a huge and flat-faced Paddy, resembled a police constable37 in plain clothes. The other was rather a meek38 young man in glasses, destitute39 of any sense of humor, and very useful in the Sunday-school.
Roxton had weathered Lent and Easter, and Lady Sophia Gillingham, Dame40 President of the local habitation of the Primrose41 League; patroness of all Roxton charities, Dissenting42 enterprises excepted; and late lady-in-waiting to the Queen; had called her many dear friends together to discuss the coming Midsummer Bazaar43 that was held annually44 for the benefit of the Roxton Cottage Hospital. Roxton, like the majority of small country towns, was a veritable complexity45 of cliques46, and by “Roxton” should be understood the superior people who were unionists in politics, and Church Christians47 in religion. There were also Chapel48 Christians in Roxton, chiefly of Radical49 persuasion50, and therefore hardly decent in the sight of the genteel. People of “peculiar views” were rare, and not generally encouraged. Some of the orthodox even refused to buy a local tradesman’s boots, because that particular tradesman was not a believer in the Trinity. The inference is obvious that the “Roxton” concerned in Lady Sophia’s charitable bazaar, was superior and highly cultured Roxton, the Roxton of dinner-jackets and distinction, equipages, and Debrett.
To be a very dear friend of Lady Sophia Gillingham’s was to be one of the chosen and elect of God, and Betty Steel had come by that supreme and angelic exaltation. Perhaps Mignon’s kitten had purred and gambolled51 Mrs. Betty into favor; more probably the physician’s wife had nothing to learn from any cat. Betty Steel and her husband dined frequently at Roxton Priory. The brunette had even reached the unique felicity of being encouraged in informal and unexpected calls. Lady Sophia possessed52 a just and proper estimate of her own social position. She was fat, commonplace, and amiable, poorly educated, a woman of few ideas. But she was Lady Sophia Gillingham, and would have expected St. Peter to give her proper precedence over mere53 commoners in the anteroom of heaven.
The third Thursday after Easter Mrs. Betty Steel drove homeward in a radiant mood, with the spirit of spring stolen from the dull glint of a fat old lady’s eyes. There had been an opening committee meeting, and Lady Sophia had expressed it to be her wish that Mrs. Steel should be elected secretary. Moreover, the production of a play had been discussed, a pink muslin drama suited to the susceptibilities of the Anglican public. The part of heroine had been offered, not unanimously, to Mrs. Betty. And with a becoming spirit of diffidence she had accepted the honor, when pressed most graciously by the Lady Sophia’s own prosings.
Mrs. Betty might have impersonated April as she swept homeward under the high beneficence of St. Antonia’s elms. The warmth of worldly well-being54 plumps out a woman’s comeliness55. She expands and ripens56 in the sun of prosperity and praise, in contrast to the thousands of the ever-contriving poor, whose sordid57 faces are but the reflection of sordid facts.
Betty Steel’s face had an April alluringness that day; its outlines were soft and beautiful, suggestive of the delicacy58 of apple bloom seen through morning mist. She was exceeding well content with life, was Mrs. Betty, for her husband was in a position to write generous checks, and the people of Roxton seemed ready to pay her homage59.
Parker Steel was reading in the dining-room when this triumphant60 and happy lady came in like a white flower rising from a sheath of green. It was only when selfishly elated that the wife showed any flow of affection for her husband. For the once she had the air of an enthusiastic girl whom marriage had not robbed of her ideals.
“Dear old Parker—”
She went towards him with an out-stretching of the hands, as he dropped the Morning Post, and half rose from the lounge chair.
“Had a good time?”
“Quite splendid.”
She swooped61 towards him, not noticing the furtive62 yet watchful63 expression in her husband’s face.
“Give me a kiss, old Morning Post.”
“How is Madam Sophia?”
“Most affable.”
Parker Steel had caught her out-stretched hands. It was as though he were afraid of touching64 his wife’s lips.
“Making conquests, eh?”
“Waal—I guess that”—and she spoke65 through her nose.
“Dollars?”
“Enticing them into the family pocket.”
Something in her husband’s eyes touched Betty Steel beneath her vivacity66 and easy persiflage67. Her husband had risen from his chair, released her hands, and moved away towards the fire. She had a sudden instinct telling her that he was not glad of her return.
The wife’s airiness was damped instantly. Parker Steel had repelled68 her with the semi-playful air of a man not wishing to be bothered. She had noticed this suggestion of aloofness69 much in him of late, and had ascribed it to irritability70, the result of overwork.
“Anything the matter, dear?”
“Matter?”
He looked at her frankly71, with arched brows and open eyes.
“Yes, you seem tired—”
“There is some excuse for me. This is the first ten minutes I have had to myself—all day. It is an effort to talk when one’s tongue has been going for hours.”
His wife’s face appeared a little triste and peevish72. She glanced at herself in the mirror over the mantel-piece, and found herself wondering why life seemed composed of actions and reactions.
“Have you had tea?”
“No, I waited,” and he turned and rang the bell with a feeling of relief. It was trying to his watchfulness73 for Parker Steel to be left alone with his own wife. Even the white cap of the parlor-maid was welcome to him, or the flimsiest barrier that could aid him in his ordeal of silent self-isolation. The art of hypocrisy grows more complex with each new statement of relationships. And hypocrisy in the home is the reguilding of a substance that tarnishes74 with every day. The wear and tear of life erase75 the lying surface, and the daily daubing becomes a habit by necessity, even as a single dying of the hair pledges the vain mortal to perpetual self-decoration.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
zest
|
|
| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
bustle
|
|
| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
conceit
|
|
| n.自负，自高自大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
essentially
|
|
| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
stifle
|
|
| vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
immoral
|
|
| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
tenacity
|
|
| n.坚韧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
hypocrisy
|
|
| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
uxorious
|
|
| adj.宠爱妻子的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
ordeal
|
|
| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
repulse
|
|
| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
insomnia
|
|
| n.失眠，失眠症 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
rattle
|
|
| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
irritably
|
|
| ad.易生气地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
sleepless
|
|
| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
justification
|
|
| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
pneumonia
|
|
| n.肺炎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
jaunt
|
|
| v.短程旅游；n.游览 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
forefinger
|
|
| n.食指 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
susceptible
|
|
| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
tune
|
|
| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
obesity
|
|
| n.肥胖，肥大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
plausible
|
|
| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
prospered
|
|
| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
tact
|
|
| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
sycophant
|
|
| n.马屁精 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
propitiating
|
|
| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
32
amiable
|
|
| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
rivalry
|
|
| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
scrambled
|
|
| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
pretensions
|
|
| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
constable
|
|
| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
meek
|
|
| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
destitute
|
|
| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
dame
|
|
| n.女士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
primrose
|
|
| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
dissenting
|
|
| adj.不同意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
bazaar
|
|
| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
annually
|
|
| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
complexity
|
|
| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
cliques
|
|
| n.小集团，小圈子，派系( clique的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
Christians
|
|
| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
radical
|
|
| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
persuasion
|
|
| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
gambolled
|
|
| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
52
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
well-being
|
|
| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
comeliness
|
|
| n. 清秀, 美丽, 合宜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
ripens
|
|
| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
sordid
|
|
| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
delicacy
|
|
| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
homage
|
|
| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
triumphant
|
|
| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
swooped
|
|
| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
furtive
|
|
| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
vivacity
|
|
| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
persiflage
|
|
| n.戏弄；挖苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
repelled
|
|
| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
aloofness
|
|
| 超然态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
irritability
|
|
| n.易怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
peevish
|
|
| adj.易怒的，坏脾气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
watchfulness
|
|
| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
tarnishes
|
|
| 污点，瑕疵，无光泽( tarnish的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
erase
|
|
| v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |