With a smile of frank satisfaction he remarked:
“You dealt very effectively and expeditiously5 with that black-frocked firebrand, monsieur. You must have great influence at headquarters to be able to treat La Garne with so little ceremony.”
Now, puzzled though I was, I was marvellously elated by my easy victory over the notorious Black Abbé. There was doubtless a vainglorious6 ring in the would-be modest voice with which I answered.
37“Yes,” said I, “I did not expect quite so swift a triumph. I thought I might even be driven to threats ill fitting the dignity of his office. But doubtless he saw that I was rather in earnest.”
“He certainly seemed to regard you as one having authority,” said De Lamourie gravely.
“Or even,” murmured Madame, with that dryness in her voice, “as in some way his confederate.”
“Or Vaurin’s,” came a cold suggestion from Mademoiselle. Her eyes were gazing steadily7 into the fire; but I caught the scornful curl of her lip.
At this I felt myself flush hotly, I knew not just why. It seemed as if I lay under some obscure but disgraceful imputation8. With sudden warmth I cried:
“I have no authority, save as an officer of the king, with a clean record and a sword not unproven. I have no confederate, nor am I like to be engaged in such work as shall make one needful. And as for this Vaurin,” I demanded, turning to Yvonne, “who is he? He seems a personage indeed; yet never had I heard of him till the commandant of Beauséjour gave me a letter for his hand.”
“I cannot doubt you, monsieur,” interposed Anderson heartily9. “This Vaurin is a very sorry scoundrel, a spy and an assassin, who does the dirty work of those who employ him. I think it 38was ill done of Vergor to give to any gentleman a commission to that foul10 cur.”
I sprang to my feet and walked thrice up and down the room, while all sat silent. I think my anger was plain enough to every one, for the old friendliness—as I afterwards remembered—came back to the faces of Monsieur and Madame de Lamourie, and Yvonne’s eyes shone upon me for an instant with a wistfulness which I could not understand. Yet this, as I said, is but what came back to me afterwards. I felt Yvonne’s eyes but as in a dream at that moment.
“Vergor shall answer to me,” I cried bitterly. “It is ill work serving under the public thieves whom the intendant puts in power to-day. One never knows what baseness may not be demanded of him. Vergor shall clear himself, or meet me!”
“What hope is there for your cause,” asked Anderson, “when they who guide New France are so corrupt11?”
“They are not all corrupt!” I declared with vehemence12. “The governor is honest. The general is honour itself. But, alas13, the most grievous enemies of New France are those within her gate! Bigot is the prince of robbers. His hands and those of his gang are at her throat. It is he we fear, and not you English, brave and innumerable though you are.”
And with this my indignation at Vergor, who, it 39was plain, had put upon me an errand unbecoming to a gentleman and an officer of the king, spread out to include the whole corrupt crew of which the intendant Bigot was the too efficient captain. Seating myself again by the hearth14, I gave bitter account of the wrong and infamy15 at Quebec, and showed how, to the anguish16 of her faithful sons, New France was being stripped and laid bare to the enemy. My heart being as dead with my own sudden sorrow, the story which I told of my country’s plight17 was steeped in dark forebodings.
When I had finished, the conversation became general, and I presently withdrew into my heaviness. I remember that Madame rallied me, at last, on my silence; but Yvonne came quickly and sweetly to my help, recalling my long day’s journey and insisting upon my drinking a cup of spiced brandy—“very sound and good,” she declared, “and but late from Louisburg, no thanks to King George!”
As I sat sipping18 of the fragrant19 brew—though it had been wormwood it had seemed to me delicate from her hand—I tried to gather together the shattered fragments of my dream.
There she sat—of all women the one woman, as I had in the long, solitary20 night-watches come to know, whom my soul needed and my body needed. My inmost thought, speaking with itself in nakedest sincerity21, declared that it was she 40only whom God had made for me—or for whom God had made me. The whole truth, as I felt it, required both statements to perfect its expression. There she sat, so near that her voice was making a wonder of music in my ears, so near that her eyes from time to time flashed a palpable radiance upon my face; yet further away than when I lightened with dreams of her the long marches beside the Miami or lay awake to think of her, in the remote huts of the Natchez. So far away had a word, a brief word, put her; yet here she sat where I could grasp her just by stretching out my hand.
As I thought of it her eyes met mine. I swear that I made no motion. My grasp never relaxed from the arm of the black old chair where it had fixed22 itself. Yet the thought must have cried out to her, for a look of alarm, yet not wholly of denial, flickered23 for one heart-beat in her gaze. She rose, with a little aimless movement, looked at me, swayed her body toward me almost imperceptibly, then sat down again in her old place with her face averted. At once she began talking with a whimsical gayety that engrossed24 all ears and left me again in my gloom.
I scrutinized25 this man, the New Englander, who sat drinking her with his eyes. For the joy that was in his face as he watched her I cursed him—yet ere the curse had gone forth26 I blessed him 41bitterly. How could I curse him when I saw that his soul was on its knees to her, as mine was. I felt myself moved toward him in a strange affection. Yet—and yet!
He was a tall man, well over six feet in height, of a goodly breadth of shoulder,—taller than myself by three inches at least, and heavier in build. He had beauty, too, which I could not boast of; though before love taught me humility27 I had been vain enough to deem my face not all ill-favored. His abundant light hair, slightly waving; his ruddy, somewhat square face, with its good chin and kind mouth; his frank and cheerful blue eyes, fearless but not aggressive; his air of directness and good intention—all compelled my tribute of admiration28, and made me think little of my own sombre and sallow countenance29, with its straight black hair, straight black brows, straight black moustache; its mouth large and hard set; its eyes wherein mirth and moroseness30 were at frequent strife31 for mastery. Being, as I have reluctantly confessed, a vain man without good cause for vanity, I knew the face well—and it was with small satisfaction I remembered it now, while looking upon the manly32 fairness of George Anderson.
Yet, such is the inconsistency of men, I was conscious of a faint, inexplicable33 pity for him. I felt myself stronger than he, and wiser in the knowledge of life. But he had the promise of that 42which to me was more than life. He had, as I kept telling myself, Yvonne’s love; yet—had he? So obstinate34 is hope, I would not yield all credence35 to this telling. At least I had one advantage, if no other. I was wiser than he in this, that I knew my love for Yvonne, and he did not know it. Yet this was but a poor vantage, and even upon the moment I had resolved to throw it away. I resolved that he should be as wise as I on this point, if telling could make him so.
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1
constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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2
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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3
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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4
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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5
expeditiously
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| adv.迅速地，敏捷地 | |
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6
vainglorious
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| adj.自负的；夸大的 | |
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7
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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8
imputation
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| n.归罪，责难 | |
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9
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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10
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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11
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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12
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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13
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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14
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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15
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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16
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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17
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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18
sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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19
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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20
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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21
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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22
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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23
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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25
scrutinized
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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27
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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28
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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29
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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30
moroseness
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31
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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32
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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33
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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34
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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35
credence
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| n.信用，祭器台，供桌，凭证 | |
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