He appeared before the board of examiners, pale, dejected, resigned, with no crest13 whatever, and impressed that formidable body as being at least a modest youth, high-bred and dignified14, who would not be rejected for personal reasons did he survive the mental ordeal—a finale which sometimes surprised the cock-sure aspirant15 for diplomatic honours.
And he had passed! Not brilliantly, but he was launched upon the diplomatic sea, and he had no apprehension16, with his immense family influence and the talents he was beginning to appreciate, of foundering17. For a few moments he felt an inclination18 to be wildly jubilant. But this he sternly repressed, shrugged19 his shoulders, and reminded himself that such a commonplace achievement was to be expected of any man who had brains instead of porridge in his skull20. To this succeeded an hour of irritation21 and disgust that he had not distinguished22 himself, put his rival competitors to the blush, made them wish he had forborne to enter the lists. But he was generous and philosophical23, and this mood also passed. He wrote a note to Lord Bridgminster, and sent telegrams to Countess Tann, Princess Nachmeister, Fr?ulein Lutz, and his mother. Then he felt that he might dismiss the tiresome24 matter from his mind, as well as the harrowing ordeal that awaited him in the north, and settle down to the enjoyment25 of such plays as the month of August afforded.
He found the English drama and its interpretations26 tame and trite27 after those highly seasoned performances of the Continent with what were practically whole star casts, but they were better than visiting political country houses with his mother; and he slept late, strolled up and down Piccadilly, and wrote daily notes to Margarethe Styr, whom he missed quite as much as he had anticipated. It would have been interesting to abuse the play with her and drive out into the cool green English country every afternoon. He consoled himself by reading several new books he had not heard of while abroad, and sending them to her with colloquial28 ramblings on the fly-leaves. It was very cool and pleasant in his mother’s little house in Chesterfield Street, where hitherto he had passed but a night or two during hasty visits from Paris. He had been little in England since Lady Bridgminster, shorn of her power, had departed out of Bridgminster House in St. James’s Square, and made a nest for herself on the income of a dowager supplemented by a small annual allowance from her tight-fisted papa, and occasional checks from the duchess; the latter assisting her to enjoy life after a fashion and contract new debts.
Ordham had always been vaguely30 sorry for his mother, and his examination of the little house, this first time he was alone in it, deepened and somewhat clarified his sympathy. It seemed to him that she had just missed everything. She had almost been a great beauty, but although the general effect she managed to achieve, still made people, particularly in a ballroom31, turn and stare at her, a closer inspection32 found the face, in spite of its large blue eyes, almost insignificant33. If not born with a consuming desire for individual recognition, she had planted the ambition early in life, and consistently cultivated it. But although a feature in London society, she was not a personality, and there is a vast difference. Even her position in the political world, towering as it had been, she owed to her husband, brilliant, fascinating, and one of the chiefs of his party, as well as to the superb entertainments his income permitted her to give in St. James’s Square and Yorkshire. She had facility of speech, of pen, in all les graces; but she was devoid34 of originality35, and almost stopped short of being clever. Distinguished in manner, she was deficient36 in charm and made no slaves. With a sincere love of beauty, she lacked the eye which corresponds to ear in music, and there was always a want of harmony in the detail of both her dress and her rooms. Worldly by birth and training, she was bohemian (of a sort) by instinct, and even when in Bridgminster House had mixed her parties in a fashion which society, less anxious to be amused at any cost than it became a few years later, condemned37; and although nothing but indiscretions of which she was incapable38 could deprive her of the great position to which she had been born, and had held no less through her long period as a political hostess than her immense and powerful connection, she was now merely the faddish39 daughter of one peer and widow of another, instead of the personal force she still so ardently40 desired to be.
Even the pretty little house (for which, of course, she paid an exorbitant41 rent) lacked the individuality to which its rich collection of blue china and hawthorn42 jars, Chippendale and old oak furniture, fine brasses43, antique vases, and Venetian mirrors, bits of Italian tapestry44 and stained glass, entitled it. The drawing-room, unexpectedly large, like so many of the drawing-rooms in those little houses in Mayfair, should have been a memorial sonnet45 to Rossetti, and it looked like the embodiment of his first incoherent dreams when groping for the formul? of the new art-religion. At the end of this room was the famous portrait which Rossetti had painted at his own request. He had seen the young girl at the opera and thought her the living embodiment of Beatrice. One of his few patrons had been able to persuade the duke that the fashionably obscure artist was a genius, but more because he would disdain46 payment than because of any enthusiasm inspired by pictures which the duke thought as stiff and outlandish as those ridiculous formal gardens about Ordham Castle. He was a Briton to his marrow47, was his Grace, and he carried his detestation of all things foreign to such an extent that he had never paid a second visit to the Continent nor to any of those country houses which kept green the memories of Palladio and Inigo Jones. But his daughter, who had also gone to the patron’s house to see “the Rossettis,” had conceived an immediate passion for the new school, and sweetly gave her father no peace until he consented to let the artist paint her. The duke yielded with the utmost ungraciousness, and stipulated48 that the man—what was his name?—was to charge nothing for the honour, and was to present the portrait to Lady Patricia at once—there should be no public exhibition. As Rossetti never exhibited, and asked for nothing but the joy of painting this Renaissance49 lady who might have served as the original inspiration of the Brotherhood50, he agreed to anything and eagerly awaited the day appointed for the first sitting.
She had not entered his studio and removed her bonnet51 before he saw the mistake he had made. Here was no Beata Beatrix, no medi?val saint, no about-to-be-murdered spouse52 of a sixteenth-century Italian, haunting immense and gloomy chambers53, but an excessively thin narrow young English girl almost six feet in height, with a little white face of no particular character, immense blue eyes without a particle of expression, and an extraordinary mass of pale golden hair, which stood out from her head like wings. But Rossetti was an artist. If his spirits went down to zero, it was not long before they ascended54 with a rush. At least here was material to work on; that hair, that poise55 of head, that aristocratic languor56 were no delusion57, and he could conjure58 up his first impression of her and the dreams of beauty which had haunted him ever since. In short, he idealized her, and the long picture (which had been exhibited to all London society for twenty-five years) was one of the most characteristic things he had ever done, and, perhaps, had contributed as much as any cause to Lady Bridgminster’s fatal desire to express so much more than she could conceive. Against a background of dull blue tapestry, with full throat strained, the jaw59 line from chin to ear salient, with lids slowly drooping60, hair that seemed to be an aura emanating61 from the pure young fires of her spirit, stood this vision in diaphanous62 white clasping against her angelic flatness an upright sheaf of Annunciation lilies. The thinness was the willow63 grace of a reed, the pale complexion64 the white symbol of maidenly65 exaltation; the half-opened eyes, as blue as an Italian lake, were looking straight into paradise. When this wonderful picture was finished and had been admired by the artists that worshipped at his shrine66, Rossetti, with his tongue in his cheek, covered the hands and arms with tan-coloured suède gloves. In that touch, done perhaps, in a moment of unconscious foresight67, as of deliberate sarcasm68, Rossetti had epitomized the life of Lady Bridgminster.
He had intended to make many sketches69 of her during these sittings, but she inspired him no further, as much to her disappointment as to his. Nevertheless, he liked her well enough, and went to her house after she married Bridgminster as long as he went anywhere. He had no reason to regret the acquaintance, for she bought several of his pictures, patronized the entire Brotherhood, was one of the first to acknowledge the genius of Burne-Jones, and commissioned the greatest decorator of modern times to refurnish the state drawing-rooms of Ordham in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
Lady Bridgminster was superstitious70 about this picture, and, when moving from palace to hovel, to use her own expression, took it with her, refusing the offer of the new millionnaire to whom her step-son had unaccountably leased the splendid theatre of her triumphs. Not only did it remind her, that in spite of six sons and what she regarded as a lifetime of disappointments, she had once been young and romantic like other women, but she had a fancy that it was her real self, and that did she let it go out of her keeping she should become but a grey shadow flitting amongst people who never could be quite sure whether she were there or not. This was her one imaginative flight, and she cherished it.
“Lady Pat” was little broader and even less covered with flesh than when the picture was painted a quarter of a century ago. How she had ever contrived71 to produce six strapping72 boys was one of those mysteries which Nature will explain one day, no doubt, with other paradoxes73. But they had cost her few pains, and nurses and tutors had brought, were bringing, them up. At Ordham Castle, where they had lived the year round, until the older boys went to school and the father’s death consigned74 the younger to the dower house in Kent, she had complained of their noise, but as a matter of fact she had not a nerve in her body. She was as hard and supple29 as a Toledo blade, with all the brain she really needed, and an internal organization practically flawless. With an appearance of the most ?sthetic delicacy75, she had never had so much as an attack of indigestion, never succumbed76 to the blues77, when that malady78 was raging, and had no more emotional capacity than an incubator. Oscar Wilde once said of Lady Bridgminster that she would tempt79 St. Anthony to keep his vows80; and true it was that, although only thirty-nine at the time of her husband’s death, still reigning81 as a beauty, and a great lady of whom any husband might be proud, not even an ambitious merchant had sought her hand. But by this time she knew her limitations far better than people fancied, and had neither the hope nor the wish to marry again. But she was a restless dissatisfied creature, bitterly regretting Bridgminster House and Ordham, and always flitting about in search of novelty and distraction82. Her son, lying on the sofa in the drawing-room during the warm hours of the afternoon, contrasted her with Margarethe Styr, and pitied her, not the woman whose past was so black that even his imagination dared not lift the curtain.
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1
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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6
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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7
fatuous
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| adj.愚昧的；昏庸的 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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aspirant
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| n.热望者；adj.渴望的 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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foundering
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| v.创始人( founder的现在分词 ) | |
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18
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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19
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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20
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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21
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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22
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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23
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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24
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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25
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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interpretations
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| n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解 | |
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27
trite
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| adj.陈腐的 | |
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colloquial
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| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
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supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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30
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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31
ballroom
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| n.舞厅 | |
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32
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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38
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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faddish
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| adj.好赶时髦的；一时流行的 | |
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40
ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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41
exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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42
hawthorn
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| 山楂 | |
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43
brasses
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| n.黄铜( brass的名词复数 )；铜管乐器；钱；黄铜饰品（尤指马挽具上的黄铜圆片） | |
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44
tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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45
sonnet
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| n.十四行诗 | |
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46
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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47
marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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48
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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49
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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50
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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51
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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52
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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53
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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54
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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56
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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57
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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58
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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59
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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60
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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61
emanating
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的现在分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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62
diaphanous
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| adj.(布)精致的，半透明的 | |
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63
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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64
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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maidenly
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| adj. 像处女的, 谨慎的, 稳静的 | |
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66
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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67
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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68
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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69
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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70
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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71
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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72
strapping
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| adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式 | |
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73
paradoxes
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| n.似非而是的隽语，看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 )；用于语言文学中的上述隽语；有矛盾特点的人[事物，情况] | |
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74
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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75
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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76
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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77
blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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81
reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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82
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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