"Ah! Verney," quoth Mr. Stafford, flicking2 a hot brow, as he dashed in out of the sunshine, powdered with white dust from his walk and still bubbling with laughter. "Ah, Verney, playing butterfly in the golden hours while other fellows toil3 in the sweat of their brow! Jingo! lad, but you've lit on the very rose of the garden.—Mistress Kitty Bellairs, I kiss your hand."
At this Mistress Kitty felt her future lord's arm press her fingers to his ribs4, while he straightened his youthful back.
"Mr. Stafford," began he in solemn tones, "this lady——"
But she, knowing what was coming, interrupted ruthlessly.
"And pray, Mr. Stafford," quoth she, cocking her head at him with those birdlike airs and graces that were as natural to her as to any mincing5 dove—Mistress Kitty being of those that begin by making eyes in their nurses' arms, before they can speak, and end in a modish6 lace nightcap for the benefit of the doctor—"and whence may you come so late, and thus heated?"
"Whence?" cried Mr. Stafford, and overcome by the humour of his recollections, roused the solemn echoes of the Pump Room by his jovial7 laugh. "Ah, you may well ask! from the merriest meeting it has ever been my fate to attend. Oh, the face of him in his chair, between his gout and his temper! And fire-eating Jasper all for bullets; and old Foulks' teeth ready to drop out of his head at the indecorousness of it all!—Spicer, man, aha! hold me up.—Oh, madam," cried Mr. Stafford, wiping tears of ecstasy8 from his eyes and leaning as unceremoniously against Spicer as if the latter's lank9 figure were a pilaster specially10 intended for his support—"oh, madam, I could make you laugh had I the breath left for it."
"Indeed," cried Mistress Kitty, plunging11 in again, as it became evident to her that Lord Verney, with the gentle obstinacy12 that was part of his character, was once more preparing to make his nuptial13 statement. "Mr. Stafford, please speak then, for in sooth it seems to me a vastly long time since I have laughed."
"Gad14! you actually make me curious," put in Mr. Stafford's prop15.
"Oh dear, oh dear!" sighed Mr. Stafford, in a fresh fit, "ha, ha! By the way, Verney, weren't you also to have walked with the jealous husband this morning!—Ah, by the same token, and you too, Spicer? Gad. I'm glad you didn't, for if either of you had put lead in him I'd have missed the best joke of the season. Gad, I may say so. He, he, aha-ha, ho, ho!"
"Mr. Stafford," said my Lord Verney, as solemn as any owl16, while Mistress Kitty, caught by the infection of the genial17 Stafford's mirth, tittered upon his arm, "I have deeper reason than you think of to rejoice that the absurd misunderstanding was cleared up between Sir Jasper and myself. This lady and I——"
"Oh dear, the joke, the joke!" cried Mistress Bellairs, with loud impatience18, and stamped her little foot.
"Oh, my fair Bellairs," gasped19 Mr. Stafford, "had you but been there to share it with me!"
"This lady——" quoth Lord Verney.
"I wish indeed I had been!" cried she. And in very truth she did.
"Mrs. Bellairs," said the determined20 lover, "has consented to make me the happiest of men."
"Eh?" cried Mr. Stafford, and stopped on the edge of another guffaw21.
Mistress Kitty cast down her eyelids22. She felt she looked demure23 and almost bashful, and she hated herself in this character.
Mr. Stafford was one of the thirty-seven lovers of whom the lady had spoken so confidently, and as such was far from realising the solemn meaning of Lord Verney's announcement.
"Ah, madam," cried he reproachfully, "is't not enough to keep me for ever in Hades, must you needs add to my torture by showing me another in Paradise? But, my little Verney," he went on, turning good-naturedly to his young rival, "it is but fair to warn you that you will be wise to pause before getting yourself measured for your halo: the Paradise of this lady's favour is (alack, do I not know it?) of most precarious25 tenure26."
"This lady, sir," said Lord Verney, with rigid27 lips, "has promised to be my wife."
It was fortunate that Mr. Stafford had a prop: under the shock he staggered. Man of the world as he was, the most guileless astonishment28 was stamped on his countenance29.
Oh, how demure looked Mistress Kitty!
Spicer, a trifle yellow, became effusive30 in congratulations which were but coldly received by his patron.
"Ah, Kitty," whispered Mr. Stafford in Mistress Bellairs' shell-like ear, "do you like them so tender-green? Why, my dear, the lad's chin is as smooth as your own. What pleasantry is this?"
Kitty scraped her little foot and hung her head. Mistress Kitty coy! And yon poor innocent with his air of proprietorship—'twas a most humorous spectacle!
"I'm sure, Verney," cried Mr. Stafford, "I wish you joy, ha, ha! with all my heart! And you madam, he, he!—forgive me, friends—the thought of Sir Jasper's duel31 is still too much for me. Ha, ha! Support me, Spicer."
"She'll marry him, she'll marry him," cried Spicer with bilious32 vindictiveness33, looking over his shoulder at the couple, as they moved away.
"Marry him!—never she!" cried Stafford. "Kitty's no fool. Why, man, the little demon34 wouldn't have me! She loves her liberty and her pleasures too well. Did you not see? She could not look up for fear of showing the devilment in her eye. Cheerily, cheerily, my gallant35 Captain!" cried the spark, and struck the reedy shoulders that had buttressed36 him, in contemptuous good-natured valediction37. "You need not yet cast about for a new greenhorn to subsist38 upon."
*****
Mistress Kitty, glancing up at her Calf39, found, something to her astonishment and further displeasure, a new expression in his eyes. Ardour had been superseded40 by an unseasonable gravity.
"The creature is a complete menagerie!" she thought to herself, indignantly. "I vow41 he looks like nothing but an owl in the twilight42!"
They wandered together from the Pump Room on to the Abbey Flags, and so, slowly, into the cool and shady Orange Grove43; and in a sequestered44 spot they sat them down on a stone bench.
"When a man," said he, "has been, as I have, brought face to face, within the space of one short morning, with the great events of existence, Death and Love, how hollow and how unworthy do the mock joys and griefs of Society appear to him!"
"Oh la!" said she. "You alarm me. And when did you see Death, my lord?"
"Why," said he, with his innocent gravity, "had you not intervened, my dearest dear, between Sir Jasper and me, this morning, who knows what might have happened?"
"Oh, that!" said she, and her lip curled.
"Ay," said he, "where should I be now, Kitty? The thought haunts me in the midst of my great happiness. Had I killed Sir Jasper, could I have looked upon myself other than as a murderer?"
"Oh, fie, fie," interpolated his mistress impatiently, "who ever thinks of such things in little matters of honour!"
In her heart she told herself that the young man showed a prodigious45 want of savoir-vivre. In all candour he proceeded to display a still greater lack of that convenient quality.
"On the other hand, had I fallen, and that indeed was the more likely contingency46, it being my first affair of the kind, I tremble to think in what state my soul would have appeared before its Maker47." His voice quivered a moment.
"My Lord Verney," cried Kitty, turning upon him a most distressed48 countenance, "you have no idea how you shock me!"
And indeed he had not.
He took her distress49 for the sweetest womanly sympathy, and was emboldened50 to further confidence.
"I blush to tell you," he said, "that since I came to this gay Society of Bath, my life has not been all my conscience could approve of. The pious51 practices, the earnest principles of life so sedulously52 inculcated in me by my dear mother, have been but too easily cast aside."
"Oh dear!" cried Kitty in accents of yet greater pain.
"When we are married, my dear love," pursued Lord Verney, quietly encircling his mistress's little waist with his arm as he spoke24, but, absorbed as he was in his virtuous53 reflections, omitting to infuse any ardour into his embrace, "we shall not seek the brilliant world. We shall find all our happiness with each other, shall we not? Oh, how welcome my dear mother will make you at Verney Hall! It has always been her dream that I should marry early and settle on the estate."
Little shivers ran down Kitty's spine54. "Is it your intention to live with your mother when you are married?" she faltered55, and leaned weakly against the inert56 arm.
Enthusiastically he cried that the best of mothers and he could never be parted long.
"Oh, how you will love her!" he said, looking fondly at the Kitty of his imagination.
"From your tenderest years she sedulously inculcated in you earnest principles and pious practices, did she not?" murmured the Kitty of reality, with what was almost a moan.
"She did indeed," cried the youth.
Mistress Kitty closed her eyes and let her head droop57 upon his shoulder.
"I fear I am going to have the vapours," said she.
"'Tis, maybe, the spring heats," said he, and made as if he would rise.
"Maybe," said Mistress Kitty, becoming so limp all at once that he was forced to tighten58 his clasp. He glanced at her now in some alarm. She half opened bright eyes, and glimmered59 a languid little smile at him.
"At least," thought the widow, "if we must part (and part we must, my Calf and I) we shall part on a sweet moment. What—in a bower60, every scent61, every secret bird and leaf and sunbeam of which calls on thought of love, and I by his side—he to prate62 of his mother! An at least he does not bleat63 of my beauty again, my name is not Kitty!"
She sighed and closed her eyes. The delicate face lay but a span from his lips.
"I fear indeed you are faint," said he with solicitude64. "My mother has a sovereign cordial against such weakness."
Mistress Bellairs sat up very energetically for a fainting lady.
"Your mother..." she began with a flash of her eye, then checked herself abruptly65. "Adieu, Verney," said she, and stretched out her hand to him.
"Adieu!" he repeated, all bewilderment.
"Ay," said she, "there chimes the Abbey its silly old air. How long have I been with you, sir, alone? Fie, fie, and must I not think of my reputation?"
"Surely, as my future wife..." said he.
"Why then the more reason," she said, cutting him short; "must I not show myself duly discreet66? Think of your lady mother! Come, sir, take your leave."
A moment she was taunting67; a moment all delicious smiles.
"I'll make him bleat!" she thought, and stamped her foot upon it.
"As far as your door?" said he.
"Not a step," she vowed68. "Come, sir, adieu."
He took her hand; bent69 and kissed her sedately70.
"I will," said he, "go write the news to my mother."
"Oh go!" said she, and turned on her heel with a flounce and was out of his sight, round the corner of an ally, with a whisk and flutter of tempestuous71 petticoats, before his slow boy's wits had time to claim the moment for the next meeting.
There were actually tears in Mistress Kitty's eyes as she struck the gravel72 with her cane73. She rubbed her cherry lips where his kiss had rested with a furious hand.
"'Twas positively74 matrimonial," she cried within herself, with angry double-threaded reminiscence—"the Calf! Did ever woman spend a more ridiculous hour—and in Heaven's name, what's to be done?"
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1
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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flicking
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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10
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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11
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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12
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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13
nuptial
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| adj.婚姻的，婚礼的 | |
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14
gad
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| n.闲逛；v.闲逛 | |
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prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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18
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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19
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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20
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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21
guffaw
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| n.哄笑；突然的大笑 | |
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22
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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23
demure
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| adj.严肃的；端庄的 | |
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24
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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25
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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27
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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28
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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30
effusive
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| adj.热情洋溢的；感情(过多)流露的 | |
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31
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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32
bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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33
vindictiveness
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| 恶毒；怀恨在心 | |
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demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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buttressed
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| v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
valediction
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| n．告别演说，告别词 | |
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38
subsist
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| vi.生存，存在，供养 | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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40
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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41
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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42
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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43
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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44
sequestered
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| adj.扣押的；隐退的；幽静的；偏僻的v.使隔绝，使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 )；扣押 | |
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45
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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46
contingency
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| n.意外事件，可能性 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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50
emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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52
sedulously
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| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
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53
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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54
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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55
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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56
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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57
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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58
tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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59
glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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61
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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62
prate
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| v.瞎扯，胡说 | |
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63
bleat
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| v.咩咩叫，(讲)废话，哭诉；n.咩咩叫，废话，哭诉 | |
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64
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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65
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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66
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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67
taunting
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| 嘲讽( taunt的现在分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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68
vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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69
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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70
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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71
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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72
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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73
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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