"Ah," returned Polly, the cook, shaking her head, "I'm afraid there's going to be awful trouble with missus, poor thing. I believe she's half out of her mind with jealousy2. Just think how she's been going on about Miss Maxfield. Why 'tis all over the place. And they say old Max is going to law against her, or something. But I can't but pity her, poor thing."
"Oh! they say worse of her than being out of her mind with jealousy," returned Lydia. "Don't you know what Mrs. Ravell's housemaid told her young man at the grocer's?" Et cetera, et cetera.
The discussion was checked in full career by their master returning to say that he should not go to the office until he had seen Mrs. Errington, and that he was then going to Whit3 Meadow to look for her. He went out past the kitchen and through the garden at the back of the house.
He looked about him when he got to the garden gate. Nothing to be seen but damp green meadow, leaden sky, and leaden river. Where was Castalia? A thought shot into his mind, swift and keen as an arrow—had she thrown herself into the Whit? And, if she had, what a load of his cares would be drowned with her! He walked a few paces towards the town, then turned and looked in the opposite direction. For as far as he could see, there was not a human being on the meadow-path. His eyes were very good and he used them eagerly, scanning all the space of Whit Meadow within their range of vision. At length he caught sight of something moving among a clump4 of low bushes—blackberry bushes and dog-roses, a tangle5 of leafless spikes6 now, although in the summer they would be fresh and fragrant7, and the holiday haunt of little merry children—which grew on a sloping part of the bank between him and the Whit. He walked straight towards it, and as he drew nearer, became satisfied that the moving figure was that of his wife. He recognised a dark tartan shawl which she wore. It was not bright enough to be visible at a long distance; but as he advanced he became sure that he knew it. In a few minutes the husband and wife stood face to face.
"This is a nice reception to give me," said Algernon, in a hard, cold voice, after they had looked at each other for a second, and Castalia had remained silent and still. In truth, she was physically8 unable to speak to him in that first moment of meeting. Her heart throbbed9 so that every beat of it seemed like an angry blow threatening her life.
"Why do you wander out alone in this way? Why do you conduct yourself like a mad woman? Though, indeed, perhaps you are not so wrong there; madness might excuse your conduct. Nothing else can."
"I couldn't stay in that house. I should have died there. Everything in every room reminded me of you."
She answered so faintly that he had to strain his ear to hear her, and her colourless lips trembled as the lips tremble of a person trying to keep back tears. But her eyes were quite dry.
Algernon was pale, with the peculiar10 ghastly pallor of a fresh ruddy complexion11. His blue eyes had a glitter in them like ice, not fire; and there was a set, sarcastic12, bitter smile on his mouth.
"Look here, Castalia; we had better understand one another at once. I shall begin by telling you what I have resolved upon, and what I have done, and you will then have to obey me implicitly13. There must be no sort of discussion or hesitation14. Come back to the house with me at once."
She shook her head quickly. "No! no! Tell me here—out here by ourselves, where no one can hear us. I cannot bear to go into that house yet."
"Pshaw! What intolerable fooling! Well, here be it. I have no time to waste. I have seen your uncle. Don't interrupt me! He has promised to get us out of this cursed place, and to find a post for me abroad as consul15. I had to exercise a good deal of persistence16 and ability to bring him to that point, but to that point I have brought him. We must keep him to it, and be active. My lady will move heaven and earth—or t'other place and earth, which is more in her line—to thwart17 us. Now, when it is necessary to keep things here as smooth as possible, to arouse no suspicion that we may be off at a moment's notice, to hold out hopes of everything being settled by Lord Seely's help, what do I find? I find that you have gone to a man who is a creditor18 of mine, who is not over fond of me to begin with, and have grossly and outrageously19 insulted him and his daughter! Just as if you had ingeniously cast about for the most effectual means of doing me a mischief20. I found this letter on the table. He threatens to ruin me, and he can do it. If my name is posted, my bills protested, and a public hullabaloo made about them and other matters, your uncle's influence will hardly suffice to get me the berth21 I want in the face of the opposition22 newspapers' bellowing23 on the subject. Your uncle is but small beer in London at best. But that much he might have managed, if you hadn't behaved in this maniacal24 way."
"And how have you behaved? Oh, Ancram, Ancram, I would not have believed—I could not——" She burst into tears, and sank down on the damp grass, covering her face with her hands, and shaking with sobs26.
"Listen! Castalia! Do you hear me?" said her husband, shaking her lightly by the arm.
She did not answer, but continued to cry convulsively, rocking herself to and fro.
Algernon stood looking down upon her with folded arms. "Upon my soul!" he said, after a minute, and with a contemptuous little nod of the head, which expressed an unbounded sense of the hopeless imbecility of the woman at his feet, and of his own long-suffering tolerance27 towards her, "Upon my life and soul, Castalia, I have never even heard of anyone so outrageously unreasonable28 as you are. Your jealousy—we may as well speak plainly—your jealousy has passed the bounds of sanity29. But, as I told you, I am not going to argue with you. I am going to give directions for your guidance, since it is quite clear you are unable to guide yourself. In the first place——for God's sake stop that noise!" he cried, a sudden fierce irritation30 piercing through his self-restraint. "In the first place, you must make a full, free, and humble31 apology to Rhoda Maxfield!"
Castalia started to her feet and confronted him. "Never!" she said. "I will never do it!"
"I told you I was not going to argue with you. I am giving you your orders. A full, free, and humble—very humble—apology to Rhoda Maxfield is our one chance of softening32 her father. And if you have any sense or conscience left, you must know that Rhoda richly deserves every apology you can make her."
"You think so, do you?"
"Yes; I think so. She is a thoroughly33 good and charming girl. The only crime she has ever committed against you is being young and pretty. And if you quarrel with every woman who is so, you will find the battle a rather unequal one." He could not resist the sneer34. He detested35 Castalia at that moment. Her whole nature, her violence, her passionate37 jealousy, her no less passionate love, her piteous grief, her demands on some sentiment in himself, which he knew to be non-existent; every turn of her body, every tone of her voice, were at that moment intensely repulsive38 to him.
The poor thing was stung into such pain by his taunt39 that she scarcely knew what she said or what she did.
"Oh, I know," she cried, "that you care more for her than for me! A pink-and-white face, that's all you value! More than wife, or—or—anything in the world. More than the honour of a gentleman. She's a devil; a sly, sleek40 little devil! She has got your love away from me. She has made you tell lies, and be cruel to me. But I'll expose her to all the world."
"What, in the name of all that's incomprehensible, has put this craze into your head against Rhoda Maxfield? It's the wildest thing!"
"Oh, Ancram! you can't deceive me any longer. I know—I have seen. She came on the sly to see you at the office. You used to go to her when you told me you had to be busy at the office. I watched you, I followed you all down Whitford High Street one night, and found out that you were cheating me."
"Ha! And you also opened my desk at the office, and took out letters and papers! Do you know what people are called who do such things?" said Algernon, now in a white heat of anger.
She drew back and looked at him. "Yes," she said, "I know."
"Have you no shame, then? No common sense? You attack a young lady—yes, a lady! A far better lady than you are!—of whom you take it into your head to be jealous, merely because she is pretty and admired by everybody. By me amongst the everybodies. Why not? I didn't lose my eyesight when I married you. You talk about my not loving you——! Do you think you go the way to make me do anything but detest36 the sight of you? You disgrace me in the town. You disgrace me before my clerk in the office. You and your relations persecuted41 me into marrying you, and now you haven't even the decency42 to behave like a rational being, but make yourself a laughing-stock, and me a butt43 for contemptuous pity in having tied myself to such a woman. One would have thought you would try to make some amends44 for the troubles I have been plunged45 into by my marriage."
She put her hands up one to each side of her head, and held them there tightly pressed. "Ancram," she said, "do you detest the sight of me?"
"You've tried your best to make me."
"Have you no spark of kindness or affection for me in your heart—not one?"
"Come, Castalia, let us have done with this! I thoroughly dislike and object to 'scenes' of any kind. You have a taste for them, unfortunately. What you have to do now is to do as I bid you, and try to make your peace by begging Rhoda's pardon, and so trying to undo46 a little of the mischief your insane temper has caused."
"Ancram, say one kind word to me!"
"Good God, Castalia! How can you be so exasperatingly47 childish?"
"One word! Say you love me a little still! Say you did love me when you married me! Don't let me believe that I have been a miserable48 dupe all along."
She no longer refused point-blank to obey him. She was bending into her old attitude of submission49 to his wishes. His ascendancy50 over her was paramount51 still. But she had made herself thoroughly obnoxious52 to him, and must be punished. Algernon's resentments53 were neither quick nor numerous, but they were lasting54. His distaste for certain temperaments55 was profound. Castalia's intensity56 of emotion, and her ungoverned way of showing it, roused a sense of antagonism57 in him, which came nearer to passion than anything he had ever felt. With the sure instinct of cruelty, he confronted her wild, eager, supplicating58 face with a hard, cold, sarcastic smile, and a slight shrug59. A blow from his hand would have been tender by comparison. Then he pulled out his watch and said, "How long do you intend this performance to last?" in the quietest voice in the world. And all the while he was in a white heat of anger, as I have said.
"Oh, Ancram! Oh, Ancram!" she cried. Then with a sudden change of tone, she said, "Will you promise me one thing? Will you swear never to see Rhoda Maxfield again? If you will do that, I will—I will—try to forgive you."
"To forgive me! Then you really have lost your senses?"
"No; I wish I had! I would rather be mad than know what I know. But think, Ancram, think well before you refuse me! This one thing is all I ask. Never see or speak to her, or write to her again—not even when I am dead! Swear it. I think if you swore it you would keep to it, wouldn't you? This one poor thing for all I have borne, for all I am willing to bear. I'll take that as a proof that you don't love her best. I'll be content with that. I'll give up everything else in the whole world. Only do this one thing for me, Ancram; I beg it on my knees!"
She did, indeed, fall on her knees as she spoke, and stretched out her clasped hands towards him. For one second their eyes met, then he turned his way and said, as quietly as ever, "I am going to Mr. and Miss Maxfield at once, with the most effectual apology which could be offered to them—namely, that you are a maniac25, and in any case not responsible for your actions, nor to be treated like a rational being."
She staggered up to her feet. "Very well," she gasped60 out, "then I shall not spare you—nor her. I have had a letter from my uncle. He has told me what you accused me of. I went to the office. That man there told me the same. The notes that I paid away to Ravell—you 'wondered'—you were 'uneasy!' Why, you gave me them yourself. Oh, Ancram, how could you have the heart? I wish I was dead!"
"I wish to God you were!"
She was standing61 close to the edge of the steep, slippery bank; and when he said these words she staggered and, with a little heart-broken moan, put out her hand to clutch at him, groping like a blind person. He shook off her grasp with a sudden rough movement, and the next instant she was deep in the dark ice-cold water.
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1
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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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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7
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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9
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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10
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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creditor
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| n.债仅人，债主，贷方 | |
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19
outrageously
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| 凶残地； 肆无忌惮地； 令人不能容忍地； 不寻常地 | |
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20
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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21
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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maniacal
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| adj.发疯的 | |
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maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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26
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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27
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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28
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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30
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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31
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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32
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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33
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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34
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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35
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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37
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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38
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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39
taunt
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| n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄 | |
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40
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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41
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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42
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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43
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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44
amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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45
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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46
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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47
exasperatingly
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48
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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49
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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50
ascendancy
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| n.统治权，支配力量 | |
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51
paramount
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| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
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52
obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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53
resentments
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| （因受虐待而）愤恨，不满，怨恨( resentment的名词复数 ) | |
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54
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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55
temperaments
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| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
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56
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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57
antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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58
supplicating
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| v.祈求，哀求，恳求( supplicate的现在分词 ) | |
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59
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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60
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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61
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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