She stood at the door of the attic1, looking in upon them with something unfriendly in the expression of her eyes. The tone in which she announced Lady Gerardine's correspondent was not without a shade of malicious2 triumph.
Rosamond and Major Bethune were sitting one at each end of the old writing-table that had been Harry3 English's. Between them lay a pile of papers. From the landing, Baby had heard Bethune's voice uplifted in unwonted animation4, and then the ring of her aunt's laugh.
As she entered, the man rose. But Lady Gerardine merely turned her head towards the intruder with an involuntary contraction5 of the eyebrows6.
"Dear child," she said, and Aspasia felt the impatience7 of interruption under the gentleness of the tone, "we are at work."
"At work! It had sounded like it," thought the girl, ironically.
"Runkle writes from Brindisi," she said, turning over in her hand the thin envelope with the foreign stamp. "We shall have him home directly."
If she had hoped to create a sensation with her news, here was a failure. Bethune stood impassive. Lady Gerardine had all the air of one to whom Sir Arthur's movements were the least of concerns. She turned with a little impatient gesture to Major Bethune!
"Do sit down again," she said, "and go on. You have not told me whether Harry won the race. Oh, he must have won. I never saw any one ride as he did."
Aspasia's pretty, defiant8 countenance9 changed. Of late she had occasionally known an undefined lurking10 anxiety about her aunt—it now sprang out of ambush11 and seized her again. She put one hand over Rosamond's clasped fingers, and with the other held the letter before the abstracted eyes.
"But you must read it," she said, half tenderly, half authoritatively12.
"Presently," said Lady Gerardine. And then, as if irritated by the disturbing document, seized it and laid it on one side. "Here, Baby," said she, "come and take your favourite place on the floor, and Major Bethune will begin his story again. You will like to hear how Harry took the conceit13 out of these Lancers who thought that nobody could ride a horse but themselves."
Baby flung a swift look at Bethune, half appeal, half fright. He was gnawing14 the corner of his moustache and staring under his heavy brows at Rosamond's lace—beautiful, unconscious, eager. He seemed perplexed15.
"But, my goodness," cried Aspasia, and for very little more she would have burst into tears, "you know what the Runkle is, both of you. Don't you see this is perfectly16 idiotic17? Some one will have to read his letter and see what he's got to say."
"Read it you, then," retorted Lady Gerardine, with sudden heat. Her eyes flashed, the blood rushed into her cheeks. She was as angry as the sleeper18 who is shaken from some fair dream that he would fain hold fast. Thereupon Baby's temper flamed likewise. She shrugged19 her shoulders, snapped the letter from the table, tore it open. Lady Gerardine began to sort the papers before her, once more determinedly20 abstracted from the situation. The girl flung herself down on the window-seat below the dormer, and, with pouting21 lips and scornfully uplifted eyebrows, set to work to peruse22 the marital23 document.
"Poor Runkle hopes," she cried sarcastically24, "that you have not been making yourself ill again with anxiety about him because he missed the last mail. (Fancy, if we'd only known dear Runkle missed the last mail!) You must forgive him, Aunt. Lady Aspasia insisted on being taken to Agra, to see the Taj.... Runkle will be in England almost as soon as this letter. (Oh, joy!) Lady Aspasia has insisted on his going to stay at Melbury Towers first. She is having all sorts of interesting people to meet him. (Aren't you jealous, Aunt?) When once she's got him, she doesn't mean to let him go—(Fancy, the Runkle!)—Oh——" She dropped her hands with the crinkling thin sheet and surveyed Lady Gerardine with some gravity: "He wants us to join him there!"
"Who—where?"
"Us—you and me, Aunt Rosamond, at Melbury. We're to meet him there, he says, immediately, and stay over Christmas. Lady Aspasia will write."
"I cannot go," said Rosamond, quietly, as if that decided25 the question.
Once again Aspasia hesitated in distress26 between the advisability of discussion with any one so unreasonable27, and the danger of exciting a highly nervous patient. With a despairing shake of her fluffy28 head, she finally returned to the letter and read on in a voice from which all the angry zest29 had departed.
"'I shall spend a couple of days in Paris. Lady Aspasia has implored30 me to give her my opinion upon some old furniture. I propose, however, to send Muhammed Saif-u-din—my native secretary, you remember—straight to you at Saltwoods. He has some important work to finish for me, and Jani will know how to look after him. He will arrive about the evening of the tenth.' That's to-morrow," said the girl, breaking off. "Lord, I'm glad you're here, Major Bethune! Gracious! This old place is creepy enough without having a black man wandering about the passages and the orchards31.... Fancy us, all alone in the middle of the downs! He might cut all our throats, and nobody know anything, till the baker32 came. I do think our Runkle might keep his own blackamoors to himself."
Rosamond looked indifferent. She drummed the table softly with her fingers, as if in protest against the waste of time. Bethune still stood without speaking. His attitude had not changed a fraction, neither had his brooding face. Aspasia thought that she could have flung the inkpot at him with much satisfaction.
"That's all," she concluded drily; "Runkle is his dear wife's devoted33 husband." She threw a hard emphasis on the words. Rosamond suddenly paled and set her lips close.
"Oh yes! there's a postscript34; he wants an answer immediately to Claridge's—and who do you think was their fellow traveller? Dr. Chatelard—he's to be at Melbury, too. It's all fish that comes to Lady Aspasia's net—evidently. Well?"
Still there was silence.
It was a clear day. A shaft35 of wintry sunshine pierced in between the ivy36 sprays, and caught the girl as she sat; her crisp aureole of hair seemed palely afire; sparks of the same faint yellow flame enkindled her eyes, and even the ends of her long eyelashes. She sat stiff and stern, her face was somewhat pallid37. Bethune glanced at her suddenly. The sky was blue through the little panes38 beyond: he thought she made a quaintly39 pretty picture.
"Well!" repeated Miss Cuningham, "you had better wire to Runkle, I think."
Lady Gerardine rose from her seat with so swift a movement that, startled, Baby jumped from her perch40. The elder woman was passion white; her nostrils41 were dilated42.
"Leave me, Aspasia," she said, pointing to the door with a gesture at once dignified43 and incensed44. "You disturb me."
"Well, I never!" exclaimed the ill-used girl. She checked herself suddenly and made a rush for the passage; if she spoke45 another word the tears would certainly come, and that (she thought) would be the last straw.
Quick as she was, Bethune was before her. He opened the door for her to pass. His air of detachment, the banality46 of the courtesy, seemed to her an insult; she flung a look of scathing47 reproach at him as she flounced by.
With Sir Arthur's letter clutched in her hand she sought refuge in her own room; and there on the small white bed shed some of the bitterest and angriest tears she had ever known. The thought of the two in the attic room galled48 her beyond endurance.
"Hasn't she had two husbands already?" sobbed49 she to herself, catching50 at the crudest conclusions with all the inconsequence of her years, "and couldn't she leave just this one man alone? ... 'You disturb me'—oh!"
Yet Bethune had remained in the attic scarcely a minute after Aspasia herself had left it. When he had returned to the table, Lady Gerardine had gazed at him a span or two with vague eyes—then she had passed her hand over her forehead, sighed wearily, and fallen into her seat.
"I can do no more to-day!" she had said. "Take those papers. You see I have copied out all in sequence, even the most trivial detail, till the Sandhurst examination. Make what use of them you like. I—forgive me, it is very stupid—but I feel troubled. And please—do not talk to me about this any more until I ask you to."
So she had dismissed him. And, dismissed, he returned to the study, which had been allotted51 for his use, and placed her voluminous notes with his own typewritten manuscript, pending52 the task of collation53. Then he fell into a long reverie, and his thoughts were neither of Harry English nor of Miss Aspasia Cuningham.
* * * * *
But even in anger Baby was loyal; some instinct, rather than any positive train of reasoning, told her that Sir Arthur's arrival at the present juncture54 would inevitably55 precipitate56 matters to a most undesirable57 climax58. On the other hand: how keep him away if his wife persisted in her attitude of indifference59 and silence? ...
"Good gracious, we'll have Runkle turning up in a special train before the week's out!" How to prevent it?
With much labour she finally concocted60 and despatched a telegram of Machiavellian61 artfulness to await arrival at Claridge's, taking further upon herself to sign it in Lady Gerardine's name:
Just received letter. Overjoyed return, trust you can make arrangements to join me here at once; unfortunate presence of guest prevents my leaving. Otherwise would meet you London before Melbury.
"That will do it, I think," said the astute62 young lady. "If Runkle thinks that any one is trying to dictate63 to him or to interfere64 with his own sacred arrangements—the trick is done."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
attic
|
|
| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
malicious
|
|
| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
harry
|
|
| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
animation
|
|
| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
contraction
|
|
| n.缩略词，缩写式，害病 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
impatience
|
|
| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
defiant
|
|
| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
lurking
|
|
| 潜在 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
ambush
|
|
| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
authoritatively
|
|
| 命令式地，有权威地，可信地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
conceit
|
|
| n.自负，自高自大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
gnawing
|
|
| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
perplexed
|
|
| adj.不知所措的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
idiotic
|
|
| adj.白痴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
sleeper
|
|
| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
determinedly
|
|
| adv.决意地；坚决地，坚定地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
pouting
|
|
| v.撅（嘴）( pout的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
peruse
|
|
| v.细读，精读 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
marital
|
|
| adj.婚姻的，夫妻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
sarcastically
|
|
| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
distress
|
|
| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
unreasonable
|
|
| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
fluffy
|
|
| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
zest
|
|
| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
implored
|
|
| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
orchards
|
|
| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
baker
|
|
| n.面包师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
postscript
|
|
| n.附言，又及；(正文后的)补充说明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
shaft
|
|
| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
ivy
|
|
| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
pallid
|
|
| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
panes
|
|
| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
quaintly
|
|
| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
perch
|
|
| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
nostrils
|
|
| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
dilated
|
|
| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
dignified
|
|
| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
incensed
|
|
| 盛怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
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： |
|
|
|
|
46
banality
|
|
| n.陈腐；平庸；陈词滥调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
scathing
|
|
| adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
galled
|
|
| v.使…擦痛( gall的过去式和过去分词 )；擦伤；烦扰；侮辱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
sobbed
|
|
| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
allotted
|
|
| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
pending
|
|
| prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
collation
|
|
| n.便餐；整理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
juncture
|
|
| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
inevitably
|
|
| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
precipitate
|
|
| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
undesirable
|
|
| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
climax
|
|
| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
concocted
|
|
| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
machiavellian
|
|
| adj.权谋的，狡诈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
astute
|
|
| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
dictate
|
|
| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |