But she moved away in a moment with an impatient sigh and returned to the warm comfort of the gallery. It was now four months since she had seen Ordham, and she was still unable to break the mental habit of discussing all things interesting with him, invoking3 him to share her pleasure. She had but just now called his attention to the contrast of the beryl green of the river with the crystal groves4 beyond. Yesterday she had caught herself discussing A Rebours with him. Was it not time to banish5 this senseless habit?
It was, of course, the effect of living alone, and some time since she had made up her mind to go constantly into society upon its return, become a persistent6 seeker after the lighter7 distractions8 of the world. She sighed again as she thought of that ideal life she had led in this villa9 by the Isar for nearly seven years, and which she found it impossible to renew. But she had opened the gates of her Eden deliberately10, and it was fair that she should pay the price.
She had made no attempt to develop her infrequent interchange of notes with Ordham into a correspondence, partly because she knew that a young bridegroom has no reserve fund of sentiment, no active memories of the past, partly because she had persuaded herself of a firm belief in the wisdom of severed11 relations. But yesterday she had received a call from Princess Nachmeister, who had been flitting about, avoiding her castle after a brief sojourn12 in the summer, as she was in an economical temper and indisposed to entertain a horde13 of relatives. In Paris she had met Mrs. Cutting, whose detention14 in New York had been mercifully brief, and had gone with her to Ordham Castle. Immediately upon her return to Munich she had flown to her admirable Styr with news of their jüngling. The Ordhams were entertaining one great house party after another, and in the most brilliant fashion imaginable. Those Americans! They cared not what they spent. Mabel received with the aplomb15 of six seasons, and was increasingly beautiful, with frocks—But frocks! New ones came every week from Paris. In spite of a certain expected event, mercifully distant, she was quite well, and with that tall slender figure—enfin! The jüngling? He was the most perfect host imaginable. He even sacrificed himself and rode to hounds with his guests; a lazy careless rider, but often in the lead, nevertheless. Need she ask? So much exercise and outdoor life had improved him; he was beginning to have a more lusty look, while losing nothing of that aloof17 air, that perfect courtesy. But he glowed. Ah, yes! no doubt with happiness as well as health. His career? She had had but few words with him on the subject, for with royalties18, she could not sit beside him at dinner; but once or twice he had managed to place her next to him at luncheon19; yes, she had asked him, and he had said that no doubt he should go abroad late in the following year, that fortunately these unavoidable delays would not ruin his prospects20. But he had spoken languidly; it was evident that he was well content. And why not? Gott! but that was a life. Forty million marks and as much again when dear Adela was gathered to her American ancestors. Gott! One of the greatest places in England virtually his own, a broken-down elder brother, and a lovely wife!
“I forgot that I had been so ambitious for him,” continued the old dame21, contritely22. “I said: ‘But this is enough. Why fly in the face of providence23 by asking all things? And if dear Mabel is so opposed to life on our Continent—what substitute, indeed, could we offer her, since she does not mind the climate of this island?’ And he said, in his old manner: ‘Of course. Why indeed? She is so happy that I am almost in love with England myself. It is all very wonderful.’ Then when I was gone from that enchanted24 scene, I reproached myself. Shall he bury those great abilities in matrimony, in society, in that country which is always making great men but very properly sending them elsewhere? Is he not made to manipulate the destinies of Europe? I should have remonstrated25 instead of weakly yielding, almost participating in his happiness, the charming creature! It was such a delight to hear him jest and run on in his old fashion, to see him happy as the young should be happy. We must trust to time. He will wake up. It may be two years, three. But he was born to be a diplomatist and a great one, and that is not for nothing. Mabel may rule now, he may be philosophically26 happy, but—”
Judiciously27 interrogated28, the keen old observer admitted that Mabel was selfish, spoilt, “American.” She loved Ordham. But yes! Was it not his lot to be loved? Too much, no doubt. He had the gift, the genius of charm, and when a young thing was married to him—enfin! Had she, Olivia Nachmeister, been fifty years younger, she should have married and worshipped him herself. But Mabel had no real sensuousness29 in her nature, none of those strong emotions that make the woman the willing subject of a resolute30 man. She loved, yes; but with youth, selfishness, vanity, romantic sentiment, the instinct of the race. That little brain would be cool and calculating in its fondest moments. He might win if ever it came to a great battle of two wills, crush that poor little butterfly, who fancied herself a personage of vast importance; but he never would manage her. But never! That was her part, and whether he recognized that fact, and was resigned, other causes keeping him in England, or whether he was merely enthralled32, she could not say. But he had a jaw33. Ma foi, but a jaw! And Mabel had been indulged like a—well, an American princess (“Who more disciplined than ours?”), from the moment she screeched34 in her cradle. “Some day—well, what matter? Do not all have their troubles? They are fortunate, those two, but they are not immortals35. Think of our beloved King, and of Rudolph von Hapsburg. But the future Bridgminster has one talent denied these poor princes, what you call ‘landing on his feet.’ Through no management of his, perhaps, but destiny—women?—Yes, shall not we always arrange that he alights in the safe spot, dry, sound, whole, even if he has whirled through the air in the heart of what you call a cyclone36? What happens to the women? Ah, many die in this world that a few may live, dear Gr?fin16.” It was a mere31 matter of destiny—of the survival of the strongest—of charm, perhaps? She was a student of effects, not of causes. It was enough to know the surface of this terrible world; but dig up the roots and put them under the microscope? Not she! That was for clever people like Die Styr and their dear jüngling.
To do Excellenz justice, she had not come altogether to torment37 Styr with this picture of Ordham’s felicity, for she was still convinced that there had been but a pleasant summer friendship between the two, whose only undercurrent was the subtle influence exercised upon Ordham in behalf of his examinations. To no other woman would she have given the benefit of the doubt for a moment, but not only had Styr let the young man go, permitted him to marry, but she looked quite the same as ever. She was an artist, nothing more. They came to that! What the Nachmeister had forgotten, possibly because the fact was so glaring that it blinded her, was that Styr was a great actress. And she was something more, a woman of magnificent pride, of iron strength of will. Not a tear had she shed over the loss of Ordham, not a moment’s sleep had she lost since that night when she had very nearly taken all Munich into her confidence. She could summon sleep, banish thought, the moment her head touched the pillow. She had no mind to furnish gossip for Nachmeister, still less to ruin her own life. If she chose to spend her idler hours in his imagined society, why not? That was compensation of a sort and did no harm.
She had persistently38 refused to sing Isolde again, for not only was she aware that Munich would demand a repetition of her last performance, an impossible feat39 even for her, but, strong as she was, she shrank from too vivid a reminder40 of that awful night. She had weathered a storm of feeling that would have prostrated41 a weaker or a less seasoned woman; but avaunt its memory, nevertheless!
The worst was over, yes, but not for a moment did she cease to miss him, to regret, to long unreasonably42 for his return. Her mind argued that an episode of that sort when closed was closed forever, but her heart ached. True, she had had the perfect experience she deliberately planned, she possessed43 a beautiful memory; but she found this cold comfort, now that she no longer pretended to deny that she loved him, that her imagination had woven itself all over that Ordham so unknown to others, until he was almost visibly hers.
This morning she asked herself squarely what she intended to do, admitting as squarely that from the very first she had had no real intention of remaining quiescent44 and forgotten. She could meet him within a week if she chose, for a prima donna can always develop a throat and demand a rest. But she was quite positive that the time had not yet come for their second meeting. She knew that he would tire of his Mabel, hate her, beyond doubt, and before long; but she did not care to see him until then. Ordham complacently45 in love with a pretty doll might sicken her; she was resigned never to find again the young man she had known, but she wanted him in his next evolution, not this! not this!
She had remained becalmed, unanalytical, until yesterday, because nothing had occurred to rouse her from the half melancholy46 half pleasurable state of mind into which she had drifted. But Princess Nachmeister’s gossip had filled her with rage and bitterness. The sleeping devil she so seldom permitted to assert itself stirred, yawned, awakened48. The little fool had lived in her paradise long enough. She comprehended the intentions of Mabel Ordham and her mother, for Excellenz had prattled49 for quite an hour. They purposed to turn this brilliant gifted but incomparably lazy young man into the mere husband of a rich wife, of a professional beauty, manipulating and drugging him until the springs that carry ambition over discouragement and opposition50 had sagged51, broken, and he would sink down into his good fortune, entertaining the great of the land at his castle, proud of the enormous social importance to which he had attained52 in his youth; taking the waters at Carlsbad, growing stouter53 every year; wintering on the Riviera; everywhere following his wife at a respectful distance while her court crowded at her heels; taking out his increasing brood for an occasional romp54 in the park—
She sprang to her feet with a hoarse55 cry of rage and a face that would have made Excellenz cross and excoriate56 herself. But before she reached her desk that other self so assiduously cultivated these last nine years cried out peremptorily57. True, she did take a deep and legitimate58 interest in this young man whose future was threatened, but that was not the impulse which drove her to open a campaign that must shatter his domestic life. No woman, particularly no woman constantly exercising an art, occupies herself for long with the future of any man that has not vitally interested her. Friendship between the sexes is casual, a mere matter of time and habit, never demonstrating itself during long absences unless love skulks59 at the foundations. Had Ordham interested her no more vitally than he had interested so many others during his memorable60 sojourn in Munich his future could have taken care of itself. But not only was he her chief work, whom she would not renounce61 unfinished, but she wanted him to be conscious that his soul, his ego62, was hers. The passions of the body, what were they to the passions of the heart? There were remedies for the impulses that man shared in common with the beasts, but none short of death for that imperious demand of the soul for its mate. It was the one thing that made her give some credence63 to religious belief, this insistent64 desire of the hidden ego for one other ego out of the billions of egos65 on Earth alone. Possibly these two had sought one another since the birth of Time; perhaps they had been united and severed, united and severed; paying, no doubt, for sins and crimes for which no other adequate punishment could be devised even by a resourceful God. If she had committed crimes in another existence instead of hideous66 sins as in this, it was possible that her punishment was that brief tormenting67 glimpse of her other part, possible also that she should be just, and accept the natural sequence as final.
But his secret, invisible life?
She made a last-effort to be “fine,” always a pitiful effort in people foredoomed by the very strength of their wills and passions, the anarchistic68 tendencies of their strong brains, to failure. Let him go! When he was older! Time might awaken47 him, ambition call, with no assistance from her. Let him be happy as long as he could; untroubled. Let that poor child, whose worst offence, after all, was her love for this charming young man—bah! Not for nothing was she the greatest of Isoldes. She went straight to her desk.
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1
sheathed
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| adj.雕塑像下半身包在鞘中的；覆盖的；铠装的；装鞘了的v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的过去式和过去分词 )；包，覆盖 | |
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2
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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invoking
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| v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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4
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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distractions
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| n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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11
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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detention
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| n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下 | |
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aplomb
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| n.沉着，镇静 | |
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fin
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| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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royalties
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| 特许权使用费 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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contritely
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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24
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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25
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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philosophically
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| adv.哲学上；富有哲理性地；贤明地；冷静地 | |
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judiciously
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| adv.明断地，明智而审慎地 | |
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interrogated
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| v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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sensuousness
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| n.知觉 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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enthralled
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| 迷住，吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到非常愉快 | |
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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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34
screeched
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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35
immortals
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| 不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 )； 永生不朽者 | |
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cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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37
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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38
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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39
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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40
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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41
prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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42
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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43
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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44
quiescent
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| adj.静止的，不活动的，寂静的 | |
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45
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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46
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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47
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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48
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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49
prattled
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| v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话( prattle的过去式和过去分词 )；发出连续而无意义的声音；闲扯；东拉西扯 | |
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50
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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51
sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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52
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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53
stouter
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| 粗壮的( stout的比较级 )； 结实的； 坚固的； 坚定的 | |
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54
romp
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| n.欢闹；v.嬉闹玩笑 | |
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55
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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56
excoriate
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| v.使磨破皮；剥皮 | |
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57
peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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58
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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59
skulks
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的第三人称单数 ) | |
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60
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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61
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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62
ego
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| n.自我，自己，自尊 | |
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63
credence
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| n.信用，祭器台，供桌，凭证 | |
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64
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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65
egos
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| 自我，自尊，自负( ego的名词复数 ) | |
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66
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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67
tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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68
anarchistic
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| 无政府主义的 | |
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