小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » The Rising Tide » CHAPTER XV
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER XV
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
Except for the Lakeville ladies, so looked down upon by Flora1, Fred had very few visitors that summer. Even Laura did not come very often, though Lakeville was only five miles from Laketon. Perhaps she was afraid of being asked questions. In September both girls were invited by a school friend to come to the seashore for two or three weeks, but Laura waited to know that Fred had declined the invitation ("I can't fool with Society. I'm on my job!" said Fred) before she, Laura, accepted it.

There was, however, one formal call which gave Frederica great joy; her grandmother and Miss Eliza Graham came over from the Laurels2 to see her—and she never behaved more outrageously3! She told Mr. Weston afterward4 that she had had the time of her life joshing Mrs. Holmes. He assured her that she was an imp5, but that he would gladly have paid the price of admission if he had only known that the circus was going to take place. He asked his cousin about it afterward, but her description of the scene was not so funny as Fred's. Indeed, it was rather pathetic—poor Freddy, fighting her grandmother, while Miss Eliza stood outside the ring, so to speak, and watched, pityingly.

"For there's nothing one can do for her, Arthur," Miss[Pg 173] Eliza told him; "she's got to get some very hard knocks before she'll give up advising the Creator how to manage His world."

She and Mr. Weston had found a deserted6 spot on the veranda7 at the Laurels, and she told him what she thought of Freddy. "It's a sort of violent righteousness that possesses the child," she said. "Where does she come from, Arthur? That mother! That grandmother! She must be a foundling."

"Her father had power. His righteousness was not very violent, but his temper was."

"She must make her mother very unhappy."

"Yeast8 makes dough9 uncomfortable, I suppose," he admitted.

"She's an unscrupulous truth-teller," Miss Graham said, and repeated some of the impertinently accurate things that Frederica, sitting in her ugly little living-room, with the Japanese fans on the walls, and yellow "Votes for Women" pennons over the doors, had flung at Mrs. Holmes. "Her grandmother said the 'women of to-day cheapened themselves'; to which she replied that 'the women of yesterday were dear at any price'!"

"She told me she had merely been truthful," Mr. Weston said. "Justifying10 herself on the ground of Truth is Fred's form of repentance11. But the girl suffers, Cousin Eliza!"

"She'll have to suffer a good deal before she'll amount to anything," Miss Eliza said, dryly; "I wanted to shake her! Arthur, if you had any missionary12 spirit, you would marry her."

[Pg 174]

"But Cousin Mary says she is 'not a young woman who is calculated'—"

They both laughed. "Nonsense! If she gets a master, she'll make him happy. A good-natured boy won't do. The gray mare13 would be the better horse. Marry her and beat her."

"Maitland will have to do the beating," he said. But he could not evade14 her.

"Don't be a fool. Take her! I know you want her."

"I do," he confessed. "But the little matter of her not wanting me seems to be an obstacle."

Miss Eliza, her old eagle head silhouetted15 against the dazzle of the lake, meditated16; then she said, "Is she engaged to Mr. Maitland?"

"No, but she's going to be. Besides, dear lady, I am forty-seven and she is twenty-six. Youth calls to Youth! Please don't suggest that she might prefer to be an 'old man's darling.'"

"You're not an old man. But the average young man—if he fell in love with her—would be under her thumb."

"Why do you say 'if'? Maitland has fallen in love with her, head over heels! He can't stop talking about her brains for five minutes at a time!"

Miss Eliza gave him a keen look. "Well, perhaps human nature has changed since my time. Then, a boy didn't fall in love with a girl's brains, though a grown man sometimes did. Cleverness in a girl is like playfulness in a kitten; it amuses a middle-aged17 man. The next thing he knows, he's in love!"

"Amuses!" Arthur Weston broke in, cynically18; "to[Pg 175] 'amuse' a middle-aged man doesn't seem a very satisfying occupation for a girl. Don't you think she'd rather have a boy's ridiculously solemn devotion?"

"But don't I tell you?—Love comes next! And I know you are in love, because you are so foolish. Arthur, I'm ashamed of you! Do have some spunk19. Get her! Get her! I don't believe she's in love with that boy."

He gave a rather hopeless laugh. "Oh, yes, she is. I haven't the ghost of a chance; besides—" he paused, took off his glasses, and put them on again, with deliberation—"besides, if I had a chance, I'd be a cur to take it. As you know, I had a blow below the belt. A man never quite gets his wind again, after a little affair like mine. It would be great luck for me to have Fred, but what sort of luck would it be for her to spend her life 'amusing' me?"

"Nonsense! I won't listen to such—" she paused, while three girls, romping20 along, arm in arm, swept past them, down the veranda. "Pretty things, aren't they?" she said, looking after them with tender old eyes; "how lovely Youth is!—even when it does its best to be ugly as to clothes and manners, like two of those youngsters. They didn't even see us, they were so absorbed in being young, bless their hearts! The outside one who bowed is a Wharton girl. She is a charming child, charming! And doing wonderfully at college. But those others—!"

"Awful," he agreed. "Cousin Eliza, what's the matter with women, nowadays?"

"Perfectly21 simple. They are drunk!"

"Drunk?"

"With the sudden sense of freedom. My dear boy,[Pg 176] reflect: When you were born—no, you're too young"—he waved a deprecating hand, but he liked the phrase—"when I was born—that's seventy-three years ago—women were dependent upon your delightful22 sex; so, of course, they were cowards and you were bullies23. Oh, yes; there were exceptions! There were courageous24 women, and henpecked men. And, of course, cowardice25 didn't always know it was cowardly, and bullying26 was often nothing but kindness. But you can say what you please, women were not free! They had to do what their men wanted—or quarrel with their families, and strike out for themselves! And what was there for them to do to earn their living? Outside of domestic service, nothing but teaching, sewing, and Sairey Gamp nursing! When I was a girl I did not know enough to teach and I hated sewing. So, if I had wanted to do anything my father and mother didn't approve of, I couldn't have kicked up my heels and said, 'I'll support myself!' Besides, I shouldn't have dared. The Fifth Commandment was still in existence when I was young. But now," she ended, "that's all changed. Girls can kick up their heels whenever they feel like it!"

He laughed, and said that Fred Payton had kicked entirely27 over the traces.

"She's not the only one," Miss Graham said; "those three girls who passed us have done it. That nice Wharton child is going to study law, if you please! Yes, Freedom! It's gone to their heads; it's champagne28 on empty stomachs. Empty only for the last two generations—before that there were endless occupations to fill our stomachs.[Pg 177] (My metaphors29 are a little mixed!) When I was a girl, the daughters of a house, even when people were as well off as Father, always had things to do—'Duties,' we called them. But nowadays there's not enough housework to go round; so if girls are rich, they play at work in—in anything, just to kill time! Like your Miss Freddy."

"Fred is making a success of her real-estate business," he said; "I hadn't a particle of faith in it, but she's making it go."

"It doesn't matter whether you have faith or not; the change has come: she had to have something to do! That's the secret of the situation, and there's no use kicking against it. You men have just got to accept the fact of the change. All you can do is to fall back on the thing that hasn't changed, and never can change, and never will change. Give girls that and they will get sober!"

He looked puzzled.

"My dear boy, let them be women, be wives, be mothers! Then being suffragists, or real-estate agents, or anything else, won't do them the slightest harm. Marry them, Arthur, marry them!"

"All of them?" he protested, in alarm.

She laughed, but held her own. "I always tell Mary that all that nice, bad child, your Freddy Payton, needs, is a husband. Which Mary thinks is very indelicate in me. But it's true. As for suffrage30 that the women are all cackling about, I don't care a—a—"

"Damn?" he suggested.

"Copper31," she reproved him. "I don't care a copper about it! I've always called myself an anti, but I never[Pg 178] really gave it much thought, one way or the other, until I went to an anti-suffrage meeting last year; that made me a suffragist! I declare, the foolishness of some of their arguments against voting went a long ways toward proving that perhaps they really haven't the brains to vote! Somebody said—Bessie Childs, I believe it was—that the ballot32 would take woman out of the Home. I reflected that Bridge took Bessie out of her home, for three or four hours once a week, and voting would take her out for three or four minutes, once a year. But I kept quiet until somebody intimated that the 'hand that rocks the cradle' is not competent, if you please, to deposit a ballot! Then I stood right up in meeting, and said, 'I'm only a poor old maid, but to my way of thinking, if the hand is as incompetent33 as that, it is far more dangerous to trust a cradle to it than a ballot!'"

"What did they say to that?"

"They said a cradle was every woman's first duty. 'But it would be most improper34 in me to have a cradle!' I said. I know they thought me coarse."

"So you are a suffragist?"

"Indeed I'm not! I went to a suffrage meeting, and really, Arthur, I was ashamed of my sex; such violence! such conceit35! such shallowness! such impropriety! One of them said that any married woman whose husband did not believe in suffrage should leave him or else have branded on her forehead a word—I cannot repeat to you the word she used. And another of them said that all the antis were 'idiotic36 droolers.' I thought of my dear sister, and I just couldn't stand that! I said, 'Well, ladies, if[Pg 179] the women who don't want the vote are idiots, is it wise to thrust it upon them? Will idiots make good voters?'"

"You had 'em there."

"No; they just said 'the vote would educate women.' And as for women not wanting it—'why, we'll cram37 it down their throats,' one of them said. Nice idea of democracy, wasn't it? She explained that some slaves hadn't wanted freedom, but that was no reason for not abolishing slavery! And, of course, she was right. The suffragists have brains, you know, Arthur. Well, as a result of a dose of each party, I'm nothing at all—very much."

"You're agin' 'em both?" he suggested.

"Oh, I still call myself an anti, because the antis are, at least, harmless; but I really don't care much, one way or the other. No; the thing that troubles me isn't suffrage or non-suffrage; it's the fact that somehow women seem to be fighting Nature. That worries me. I know that Nature can be depended upon to spank38 them into common sense when she gets hold of them, but, unfortunately, men won't help Nature out. They don't like girls like Miss Payton—I mean, the young men don't. They don't like girls who are cleverer than they are; but no girl is cleverer than you! Do 'come out of the West, Lochinvar, come out of the West'!"

He laughed and shook his head. "My dear cousin, I am dead in love with you, so don't try to turn my affections in another direction. Besides, Howard Maitland is coming home the end of November."

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 flora 4j7x1     
n.(某一地区的)植物群
参考例句:
  • The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
  • All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。
2 laurels 0pSzBr     
n.桂冠,荣誉
参考例句:
  • The path was lined with laurels.小路两旁都种有月桂树。
  • He reaped the laurels in the finals.他在决赛中荣膺冠军。
3 outrageously 5839725482b08165d14c361297da866a     
凶残地; 肆无忌惮地; 令人不能容忍地; 不寻常地
参考例句:
  • Leila kept smiling her outrageously cute smile. 莱拉脸上始终挂着非常可爱的笑容。
  • He flirts outrageously. 他肆无忌惮地调情。
4 afterward fK6y3     
adv.后来;以后
参考例句:
  • Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏,然后吃饭。
  • Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来,这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。
5 imp Qy3yY     
n.顽童
参考例句:
  • What a little imp you are!你这个淘气包!
  • There's a little imp always running with him.他总有一个小鬼跟着。
6 deserted GukzoL     
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的
参考例句:
  • The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
  • The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。
7 veranda XfczWG     
n.走廊;阳台
参考例句:
  • She sat in the shade on the veranda.她坐在阳台上的遮荫处。
  • They were strolling up and down the veranda.他们在走廊上来回徜徉。
8 yeast 7VIzu     
n.酵母;酵母片;泡沫;v.发酵;起泡沫
参考例句:
  • Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
  • The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。
9 dough hkbzg     
n.生面团;钱,现款
参考例句:
  • She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
  • The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。
10 justifying 5347bd663b20240e91345e662973de7a     
证明…有理( justify的现在分词 ); 为…辩护; 对…作出解释; 为…辩解(或辩护)
参考例句:
  • He admitted it without justifying it. 他不加辩解地承认这个想法。
  • The fellow-travellers'service usually consisted of justifying all the tergiversations of Soviet intenal and foreign policy. 同路人的服务通常包括对苏联国内外政策中一切互相矛盾之处进行辩护。
11 repentance ZCnyS     
n.懊悔
参考例句:
  • He shows no repentance for what he has done.他对他的所作所为一点也不懊悔。
  • Christ is inviting sinners to repentance.基督正在敦请有罪的人悔悟。
12 missionary ID8xX     
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士
参考例句:
  • She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
  • I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。
13 mare Y24y3     
n.母马,母驴
参考例句:
  • The mare has just thrown a foal in the stable.那匹母马刚刚在马厩里产下了一只小马驹。
  • The mare foundered under the heavy load and collapsed in the road.那母马因负载过重而倒在路上。
14 evade evade     
vt.逃避,回避;避开,躲避
参考例句:
  • He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
  • You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人,你怎么能对这个问题不置可否?
15 silhouetted 4f4f3ccd0698303d7829ad553dcf9eef     
显出轮廓的,显示影像的
参考例句:
  • We could see a church silhouetted against the skyline. 我们可以看到一座教堂凸现在天际。
  • The stark jagged rocks were silhouetted against the sky. 光秃嶙峋的岩石衬托着天空的背景矗立在那里。
16 meditated b9ec4fbda181d662ff4d16ad25198422     
深思,沉思,冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 ); 内心策划,考虑
参考例句:
  • He meditated for two days before giving his answer. 他在作出答复之前考虑了两天。
  • She meditated for 2 days before giving her answer. 她考虑了两天才答复。
17 middle-aged UopzSS     
adj.中年的
参考例句:
  • I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
  • The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。
18 cynically 3e178b26da70ce04aff3ac920973009f     
adv.爱嘲笑地,冷笑地
参考例句:
  • "Holding down the receiver,'said Daisy cynically. “挂上话筒在讲。”黛西冷嘲热讽地说。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比
  • The Democrats sensibly (if cynically) set about closing the God gap. 民主党在明智(有些讽刺)的减少宗教引起的问题。 来自互联网
19 spunk YGozt     
n.勇气,胆量
参考例句:
  • After his death,the soldier was cited for spunk.那位士兵死后因作战勇敢而受到表彰。
  • I admired her independence and her spunk.我敬佩她的独立精神和勇气。
20 romping 48063131e70b870cf3535576d1ae057d     
adj.嬉戏喧闹的,乱蹦乱闹的v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的现在分词 );(尤指在赛跑或竞选等中)轻易获胜
参考例句:
  • kids romping around in the snow 在雪地里嬉戏喧闹的孩子
  • I found the general romping in the living room with his five children. 我发现将军在客厅里与他的五个小孩嬉戏。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
21 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
22 delightful 6xzxT     
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的
参考例句:
  • We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
  • Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。
23 bullies bullies     
n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负
参考例句:
  • Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
  • Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。
24 courageous HzSx7     
adj.勇敢的,有胆量的
参考例句:
  • We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
  • He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。
25 cowardice norzB     
n.胆小,怯懦
参考例句:
  • His cowardice reflects on his character.他的胆怯对他的性格带来不良影响。
  • His refusal to help simply pinpointed his cowardice.他拒绝帮助正显示他的胆小。
26 bullying f23dd48b95ce083d3774838a76074f5f     
v.恐吓,威逼( bully的现在分词 );豪;跋扈
参考例句:
  • Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
  • All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
27 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
28 champagne iwBzh3     
n.香槟酒;微黄色
参考例句:
  • There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
  • They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。
29 metaphors 83e73a88f6ce7dc55e75641ff9fe3c41     
隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
  • Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使,他是雄狮都是比喻说法。
30 suffrage NhpyX     
n.投票,选举权,参政权
参考例句:
  • The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance.妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
  • The voters gave their suffrage to him.投票人都投票选他。
31 copper HZXyU     
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的
参考例句:
  • The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
  • Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。
32 ballot jujzB     
n.(不记名)投票,投票总数,投票权;vi.投票
参考例句:
  • The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
  • The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。
33 incompetent JcUzW     
adj.无能力的,不能胜任的
参考例句:
  • He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
  • He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。
34 improper b9txi     
adj.不适当的,不合适的,不正确的,不合礼仪的
参考例句:
  • Short trousers are improper at a dance.舞会上穿短裤不成体统。
  • Laughing and joking are improper at a funeral.葬礼时大笑和开玩笑是不合适的。
35 conceit raVyy     
n.自负,自高自大
参考例句:
  • As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后,谦虚使人进步。
  • She seems to be eaten up with her own conceit.她仿佛已经被骄傲冲昏了头脑。
36 idiotic wcFzd     
adj.白痴的
参考例句:
  • It is idiotic to go shopping with no money.去买东西而不带钱是很蠢的。
  • The child's idiotic deeds caused his family much trouble.那小孩愚蠢的行为给家庭带来许多麻烦。
37 cram 6oizE     
v.填塞,塞满,临时抱佛脚,为考试而学习
参考例句:
  • There was such a cram in the church.教堂里拥挤得要命。
  • The room's full,we can't cram any more people in.屋里满满的,再也挤不进去人了。
38 spank NFFzE     
v.打,拍打(在屁股上)
参考例句:
  • Be careful.If you don't work hard,I'll spank your bottom.你再不好好学习,小心被打屁股。
  • He does it very often.I really get mad.I can't help spank him sometimes.他经常这样做。我很气愤。有时候我忍不住打他的屁股。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533