Muted by garden walls and distance, a muffin-man passed up and down the streets, ringing his bell and crying to the night like a troubadour in search of romance. He crouched1 against the window, watching the winter dusk come drifting down. While watching, he fell asleep.
As though he had been coldly touched, he awoke startled, all his senses on edge. On the other side of the glass, peering in, standing2 directly over him, was a figure which he recognized as Harriet’s. At first he thought that she was trying to attract his attention; then he saw that she seemed unaware3 of him and that her attention was held by something beyond. A voice broke the stillness. It must have been that same voice that had roused him.
“My God, I’m wretched! For years it’s been always the same: the restlessness when I’m with her; the heartache when I’m without her. She won’t send me away and she won’t have me, and—and I haven’t the strength to go away myself. No, it isn’t strength. It’s something that I can’t tell even to you. Something that keeps me tortured and binds4 me to her.”
Scarcely daring to stir, Teddy turned his eyes away from Harriet, and stared into the darkness of the room. The air was tense with tragedy. In the flickering6 half-circle of firelight a man was crouched against the armchair—kneeling like a child with his head in the faery-godmother’s lap. He was sobbing7. Teddy had heard his mother cry; this was different. There was shame in the man’s crying and the dry choking sound of a horrible effort to regain8 self-mastery. The faery-godmother bent9 above him. Teddy could see the glint of her spectacles. She was whispering with her cheek against the flaxen head. The voice went on despairingly.
“Sometimes I wonder whether I do love her. Sometimes I feel hard and cold, so that I wouldn’t care if it were all ended. Sometimes I almost hate her. I want to start afresh—but I haven’t the courage. I know myself. If I were certain that I’d lost her, I should begin to idealize her as I did at first. God, if I could only forget!”
“My dear! My dear!” Mrs. Sheerug’s voice was broken. Her tired hands wandered over him, patting and caressing10. “My poor Hal! To think that any woman should dare to use you so and that I can’t prevent it! Why, Hal, if I could bear your burdens, and see you glad, and hear your laughter in the house, I’d—I’d die for you, Hal, to have you young and happy as you were. Doesn’t it mean anything to you that your mother can love you like that?”
He raised his face and put his arms about her neck. “I haven’t been good to you, mother. It’s like you to say that I have; but I haven’t. I’ve ignored you and given the best of myself to some one for whom it has no value. I’ve been sharp and irritable11 to you. You’ve wanted to ask questions—you had a right to ask questions; I’ve kept you at arm’s length. You’ve wanted to do what you’re doing now—to hold me close and show me that you cared; and I’ve—I’ve felt like striking you. That’s the way with a man when he’s pitied. You know I have.”
The gray head nodded. “But I’ve always understood, and—and you don’t want to strike me any longer.”
“You’re dearer than any woman in the world.”
“Dearer, but not so much desired.” She drew back from him, holding his face between her hands. “Hal, you’re my son, and you must listen to me. Perhaps I’m only a prejudiced old woman, years behind the times and jealous for my son’s happiness. Put it down to that, Hal; but let me have my say out. When I was young, girls didn’t treat men as Vashti treats you. If they loved a man, they married him. If they didn’t love him, they told him. They didn’t play fast and loose with him, and take presents from him, and keep him in suspense12, and waste his power of hoping. It’s the finest moment in a good girl’s life when a good man puts his life in her hands. If a girl can’t appreciate that, there’s something wrong with her—something so wrong that she can never make the most persistent13 lover happy. Vashti’s beautiful on the outside and she’s talented, but—but she’s not wholesome14.”
There was a pause full of unspoken pleadings and threatenings. The man jerked sharply away from his mother. Her hands slipped from his face to his shoulders. They stayed there clinging to him. His attitude was alert with offense16.
“Shall I go on?” she asked tremulously.
His answer came grimly. “Go on.”
“It’s the truth I’m telling you, Hal—the truth, as any one can see it except yourself. Beneath her charm she’s cold and selfish. Selfishness is like frost; it kills everything. In time it would kill your passion. She’s gracious till she gets a man in her power, then she’s capricious. You haven’t told me what she’s done to you, my dear. I’m a woman; I can guess—I can guess. She doesn’t love you. She loves to be loved; she never thinks of loving in return. She’s kept you begging like a dog—you, who are my son, of whom any girl might be proud. Perhaps you think that, if she were your wife, it would make a difference. It wouldn’t. You’d spend all your life sitting up like a dog, waiting for her to find time to pet you. You’re my son—the best son a mother ever had. It’s a woman’s business to worship her man, even though she blinds herself to do it You shan’t be a vain woman’s plaything.”
She waited for him to say something. She would have preferred the most brutal17 anger to this silence. It struck her down. He knelt before her rigid18, breathing heavily, his face hard and set.
She spoke15 again, slowly. “If ever Vashti were to accept you, it would be the worst day’s work. The gods you worship are different. Hers are—hers are worthless.”
He sprang to his feet, pushing aside his mother’s hand. His voice was low and stabbing. “Worthless! I won’t hear you say that. You don’t know—don’t understand. I ought to have gone on keeping this to myself—ought not to have spoken to you. No, don’t touch me. She’s good, I tell you. It’s my fault if I’m such a fool that I can’t make her care.”
He spoke like a man in doubt, anxious to convince himself.
“It’s not your fault, Hal. The finest years of life! Could any man give more? You’re belittling19 yourself that you may defend her. You’re the little baby I carried in my bosom20. I watched you grow up. I know you—all your strength and weakness. You’re the kind of man for whom love is as necessary as bread. Where there’s no kindness, you flicker5 out You lose your confidence with her and her friends; their flippancy21 stifles22 you. I don’t even doubt that you appear a fool. She’s a beautiful, heartless vampire23; if she married you, she’d absorb your personality and leave you shrunken—a nonentity24. She’s no standards, no religion, no sense of fairness; she wants luxury and a career and independence—and she wants you as well. Doesn’t want you as a comrade, but as an et cetera. She’s willing to accept all love’s privileges, none of its duties. She has plenty of self-pity, but no tenderness. Oh, my poor, poor Hal, what is it that you love in her? Is it her unresponsiveness?”
She seized both his hands, dragging herself up so that she leaned against his breast. “Hal, I’m afraid for you.” She kissed his mouth. “She’ll make you bad. She will. Oh, I know it. She’ll break your heart and appear all the time to be good herself. Can’t you see what your life would be with her?”
“I can see what it would be without her,” he said dully.
His mother’s voice fell flat “You can’t see that. God hides the future. There are good girls in the world. Life for you with her would be bitterness, while she went on smiling. She’s a woman who’ll always have a man in love with her—always a different man. She’ll never mean any harm, but every affection she breathes on will lose its freshness. She’s given you your chance to free yourself.”
She tried to draw him down to her. “Take it,” she urged.
He stooped, smoothed back the gray hair and kissed her wrinkled forehead.
“You’re going to?”
He loosed himself. “Mother, it’s shameful25 that we should speak so of a girl.”
Crossing the room, he opened the door and halted on the point of departure.
“Are you going to?”
“I can’t There are things I haven’t told you.”
As the door closed, she extended her arms to him, then buried her face in her hands. When the sound of his footsteps had died out utterly26, she followed.
Teddy turned from gazing into the darkened room. The window was empty. The other silent witness had departed.
As if coming to uphold him in his allegiance to romance, the Invincible27 Armada of dreamers sailed out: cresting28 the sullen29 horizon of housetops, the white moon swam into the heavens—the admiral ship of illusion, with lesser30 moons of faint stars following. He remembered that through all his years that white fleet of stars would be watching, riding steadily31 at anchor. Nothing of bitterness could sink one ship of that celestial32 armada. He clenched33 his hands. And nothing that he might hear of bitterness should sink one hope of his great belief in the goodness and kindness of the world.
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1
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
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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3
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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4
binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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5
flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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7
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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8
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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9
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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10
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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11
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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12
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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13
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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14
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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15
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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16
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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17
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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18
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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19
belittling
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| 使显得微小，轻视，贬低( belittle的现在分词 ) | |
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20
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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21
flippancy
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| n.轻率；浮躁；无礼的行动 | |
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22
stifles
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的第三人称单数 )； 镇压，遏制 | |
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23
vampire
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| n.吸血鬼 | |
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24
nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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25
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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26
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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27
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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28
cresting
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| n.顶饰v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的现在分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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29
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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30
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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31
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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32
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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33
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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