To this queenly city must come first and fullest all news of her own sons, and here the "five" would not themselves be "missing" should better tidings--or worse--come seeking them over the wires.
"At the front?" replied Doctor Sevier to Anna, "why, at the front you'll be kept in the rear, lost in a storm of false rumors1."
General Brodnax, in a letter rife2 with fatherly romantic tenderness and with splendid praise of Hilary as foremost in the glorious feat3 which had saved old "Roaring Betsy" but lost (or mislaid) him and his three comrades, also bade her wait. Everything, he assured her, that human sympathy or the art of war--or Beauregard's special orders--could effect was being done to find the priceless heroes. In the retreat of a great host--ah, me! retreat was his very word and the host was Dixie's--retreating after its first battle, and that an awful one, in deluging4 rains over frightful5 roads and brimming streams, unsheltered, ill fed, with sick and wounded men and reeling vehicles hourly breaking down, a hovering6 foe7 to be fended8 off, and every dwelling9 in the land a hospitable10 refuge, even captains of artillery11 or staff might be most honorably and alarmingly missing yet reappear safe and sound. So, for a week and more it was sit and wait, pace the floor and wait, wake in the night and wait; so for Flora12 as well as for Anna (with a difference), both of them anxious for Charlie--and Steve--and Maxime, but in anguish13 for another.
Then tidings, sure enough! glad tidings! Mandeville and Maxime safe in camp again and back to duty, whole, hale and in the saddle. Their letters came by the wasted yellow hands of two or three of the home-coming wounded, scores of whom were arriving by every south-bound train. From the aide-de-camp and the color-bearer came the first whole story of how Kincaid, with his picked volunteers, barely a gun detachment, and with Mandeville, who had brought the General's consent, had stolen noiselessly over the water-soaked leaves of a thickety oak wood in the earliest glimmer15 of a rainy dawn and drawn16 off the abandoned gun by hand to its waiting horses; also how, when threatened by a hostile patrol, Hilary, Mandeville, Maxime and Charlie had hurried back on foot into the wood and hotly checked the pursuit long enough for their fellows to mount the team, lay a shoulder to every miry wheel and flounder away with the prize. But beyond that keen moment when the four, after their one volley from ambush17, had sprung this way and that shouting absurd orders to make-believe men, cheering and firing from behind trees, and (cut off from their horses) had made for a gully and swamp, the two returned ones could tell nothing of the two unreturned except that neither of them, dead or alive, was anywhere on the ground of the fight or flight as they knew it. For days, inside the enemy's advancing lines, they had prowled in ravines and lain in blackberry patches and sassafras fence-rows, fed and helped on of nights by the beggared yet still warm-hearted farm people and getting through at last, but with never a trace of Kincaid or Charlie, though after their own perilous18 search they had inquired, inquired, inquired.
So, wait, said every one and every dumb condition, even the miseries19 of the great gray army, of which Anna had mind pictures again, as it toiled20 through mire21 and lightning, rain, sleet22 and hail, and as its thousands of sick and shattered lay in Corinth dying fifty a day. And Flora and Anna waited, though with minds placid23 only to each other and the outer world.
"Yes," moaned Anna to Constance, when found at dead of night staring Corinthward from a chamber24 window. "Yes, friends advise! All our friends advise! What daring thing did any one ever do who waited for friends to advise it? Does your Steve wait for friends to advise?... Patience? Ah, lend me yours! You don't need it now.... Fortitude25? Oh, I never had any!... What? command the courage to do nothing when nothing is the only hard thing to do? Who, I? Connie! I don't even want it. I'm a craven; I want the easy thing! I want to go nurse the box-carloads and mule-wagonloads of wounded at Corinth, at Okolona and strewed26 all the way down to Mobile--that's full of them. Hilary may be somewhere among them--unidentified! They say he wore no badge of rank that morning, you know, and carried the carbine of a wounded cavalryman27 to whom he had given his coat. Oh, he's mine, Con14, and I'm his. We're not engaged, we're married, and I must go. It's only a step--except in miles--and I'm going! I'm going for your sake and Miranda's. You know you're staying on my account, not for me to settle this bazaar29 business but to wait for news that's never coming till I go and bring it!"
This tiny, puny30, paltry31 business of the bazaar--the whereabouts of the dagger32 and its wealth, or of the detectives, gone for good into military secret service at the front--she drearily33 smiled away the whole trivial riddle34 as she lay of nights contriving35 new searches for that inestimable, living treasure, whose perpetual "missing," right yonder "almost in sight from the housetop," was a dagger in her heart.
And the Valcours? Yes, they, too, had their frantic36 impulses to rise and fly. For Madame, though her lean bosom37 bled for the lost boy, the fiercest pain of waiting was that its iron coercion38 lay in their penury39. For Flora its sharpest pangs40 were in her own rage; a rage not of the earlier, cold sort against Anna and whoever belonged to Anna--that transport had always been more than half a joy--but a new, hot rage against herself and the finical cheapness of her scheming, a rage that stabbed her fair complacency with the revelation that she had a heart, and a heart that could ache after another. The knife of that rage turned in her breast every time she cried to the grandam, "We must go!" and that rapacious41 torment42 simpered, "No funds," adding sidewise hints toward Anna's jewels, still diligently43 manoeuvred for, but still somewhere up-stairs in Callender House, sure to go with Anna should Anna go while the manoeuvrers were away.
A long lane to any one, was such waiting, lighted, for Anna, only by a faint reflection of that luster44 of big generals' strategy and that invincibility45 of the Southern heart which, to all New Orleans and even to nations beyond seas, clad Dixie's every gain in light and hid her gravest disasters in beguiling46 shadow. But suddenly one day the long lane turned. The secret had just leaked out that the forts down the river were furiously engaged with the enemy's mortar-boats a few miles below them and that in the past forty-eight hours one huge bomb every minute, three thousand in all, had dropped into those forts or burst over them, yet the forts were "proving themselves impregnable." The lane turned and there stood Charlie.
There he stood, in the stairway door of the front room overlooking Jackson Square. The grandmother and sister had been keenly debating the news and what to do about it, the elder bird fierce to stay, the younger bent47 on flight, and had just separated to different windows, when they heard, turned and beheld48 him there, a stranger in tattered49 gray and railway dirt, yet their own coxcomb50 boy from his curls to his ill-shod feet. Flora had hardly caught her breath or believed her eyes before the grandmother was on his neck patting and petting his cheeks and head and plying51 questions in three languages: When, where, how, why, how, where and when?
Dimly he reflected their fond demonstrations52. No gladness was in his face. His speech, as hurried as theirs, answered no queries53. He asked loftily for air, soap, water and the privacy of his own room, and when they had followed him there and seen him scour54 face, arms, neck, and head, rub dry and resume his jacket and belt, he had grown only more careworn55 and had not yet let his sister's eyes rest on his.
He had but a few hours to spend in the city, he said; had brought despatches and must carry others back by the next train. His story, he insisted, was too long to tell before he had delivered certain battery letters; one to Victorine, two to Constance Mandeville, and so on. Here was one to Flora, from Captain Irby; perhaps the story was in it. At any rate, its bearer must rush along now. He toppled his "grannie" into a rocking-chair and started away. He "would be back as soon as ever he--"
But Flora filled the doorway56. He had to harden his glance to hers at last. In her breast were acutest emotions widely at war, yet in her eyes he saw only an unfeeling light, and it was the old woman behind him who alone noted57 how painfully the girl's fingers were pinched upon Irby's unopened letter. The boy's stare betrayed no less anger than suffering and as Flora spoke58 he flushed.
"Charlie," she melodiously59 began, but his outcry silenced her:
"Now, by the eternal great God Almighty60, Flora Valcour, if you dare to ask me that--" He turned to the grandmother, dropped to his knees, buried his face in her lap and sobbed61.
With genuine tenderness she stroked his locks. Yet while she did so she lifted to the sister a face lighted up with a mirth of deliverance. To nod, toss, and nod again, was poor show for her glee; she smirked62 and writhed63 to the disdaining64 girl like a child at a mirror, and, though sitting thus confined, gave all the effects of jigging65 over the floor. Hilary out of the way! Kincaid eliminated, and the whole question free of him, this inheritance question so small and mean to all but her and Irby, but to him and her so large, so paramount66! Silently, but plainly to the girl, her mouth widely motioned, "Il est mort! grace"--one hand stopped stroking long enough to make merrily the sign of cross--"grace au ciel, il est mort!"
No moment of equal bitterness had Flora Valcour ever known. To tell half her distresses67 would lose us in their tangle68, midmost in which was a choking fury against the man whom unwillingly69 she loved, for escaping her, even by a glorious death. One thought alone--that Anna, as truly as if stricken blind, would sit in darkness the rest of her days--lightened her torture, and with that thought she smiled a stony70 loathing71 on the mincing72 grandam and the boy's unlifted head. Suddenly, purpose gleamed from her. She could not break forth73 herself, but to escape suffocation74 she must and would procure75 an outburst somewhere. Measuredly, but with every nerve and tendon overstrung, she began to pace the room.
"Don't cry, Charlie," she smoothly76 said in a voice as cold as the crawl of a snake. The brother knew the tone, had known it from childhood, and the girl, glancing back on him, was pleased to see him stiffen77. A few steps on she added pensively78, "For a soldier to cry--and befo' ladies--a ladies' man--of that batt'rie--tha's hardly fair--to the ladies, eh, grandmama?"
But the boy only pressed his forehead harder down and clutched the aged28 knees under it till their owner put on, to the scintillant79 beauty, a look of alarm and warning. The girl, musingly80 retracing81 her calculated steps to where the kneeler seemed to clinch82 himself to his posture83, halted, stroked with her slippered84 toe a sole of his rude shoes and spoke once more: "Do they oft-ten boohoo like that, grandma, those artillerie?"
The boy whirled up with the old woman clinging. A stream of oaths and curses appallingly85 original poured from him, not as through the lips alone but from his very eyes and nostrils86. That the girl was first of all a fool and damned was but a trivial part of the cry--of the explosion of his whole year's mistaken or half-mistaken inferences and smothered87 indignation. With equal flatness and blindness he accused her of rejoicing in the death of Kincaid: the noblest captain (he ramped88 on) that ever led a battery; kindest friend that ever ruled a camp; gayest, hottest, daringest fighter of Shiloh's field; fiercest for man's purity that ever loved the touch of women's fingers; sternest that ever wept on the field of death with the dying in his arms; and the scornfullest of promotion89 that ever was cheated of it at headquarters.
All these extravagances he cursed out, too witless to see that this same hero of his was the one human being, himself barely excepted, for whose life his sister cared. He charged her of never having forgiven Hilary for making Anna godmother of their flag, and of being in some dark league against him--"hell only knew what"--along with that snail90 of a cousin whom everybody but Kincaid himself and the silly old uncle knew to be the fallen man's most venomous foe. Throughout the storm the grandmother's fingers pattered soothing91 caresses92, while Flora stood as unruffled by his true surmises93 as by any, a look of cold interest in her narrowed eyes, and her whole bodily and spiritual frame drinking relief from his transport. Now, while he still raged, she tenderly smiled on their trembling ancestress.
"Really, you know grandmama, sometimes me also I feel like that, when to smazh the furniture 't would be a delightful--or to wring94 somebody the neck, yes. But for us, and to-day, even to get a li'l' mad, how is that a possibl'?" She turned again, archly, to the brother, but flashed in alarm and sprang toward him.
His arm stiffly held her off. With failing eyes bent on the whimpering grandmother he sighed a disheartened oath and threshed into a chair gasping--
"My wound--opened again."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
rumors
|
|
| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
rife
|
|
| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
feat
|
|
| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
deluging
|
|
| v.使淹没( deluge的现在分词 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
frightful
|
|
| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
foe
|
|
| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
fended
|
|
| v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的过去式和过去分词 )；挡开，避开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
dwelling
|
|
| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
hospitable
|
|
| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
artillery
|
|
| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
flora
|
|
| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
anguish
|
|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
con
|
|
| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
glimmer
|
|
| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
ambush
|
|
| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
perilous
|
|
| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
miseries
|
|
| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
toiled
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
mire
|
|
| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
sleet
|
|
| n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
placid
|
|
| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
fortitude
|
|
| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
strewed
|
|
| v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 )；散落于；点缀；撒满 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
cavalryman
|
|
| 骑兵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
aged
|
|
| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bazaar
|
|
| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
puny
|
|
| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
paltry
|
|
| adj.无价值的，微不足道的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
dagger
|
|
| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
drearily
|
|
| 沉寂地，厌倦地，可怕地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
riddle
|
|
| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
contriving
|
|
| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的现在分词 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
frantic
|
|
| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
coercion
|
|
| n.强制，高压统治 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
penury
|
|
| n.贫穷，拮据 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
pangs
|
|
| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
rapacious
|
|
| adj.贪婪的，强夺的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
torment
|
|
| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
diligently
|
|
| ad.industriously;carefully | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
luster
|
|
| n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
invincibility
|
|
| n.无敌，绝对不败 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
beguiling
|
|
| adj.欺骗的，诱人的v.欺骗( beguile的现在分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
beheld
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
tattered
|
|
| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
coxcomb
|
|
| n.花花公子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
plying
|
|
| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
demonstrations
|
|
| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
queries
|
|
| n.问题( query的名词复数 )；疑问；询问；问号v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的第三人称单数 )；询问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
scour
|
|
| v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
careworn
|
|
| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
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： |
|
|
|
|
59
melodiously
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
60
almighty
|
|
| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
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： |
|
|
|
|
62
smirked
|
|
| v.傻笑( smirk的过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
writhed
|
|
| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
disdaining
|
|
| 鄙视( disdain的现在分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
65
jigging
|
|
| n.跳汰选，簸选v.（使）上下急动( jig的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
paramount
|
|
| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
distresses
|
|
| n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 )；痛苦；贫困；危险 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
tangle
|
|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
unwillingly
|
|
| adv.不情愿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
stony
|
|
| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
loathing
|
|
| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
mincing
|
|
| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
suffocation
|
|
| n.窒息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
procure
|
|
| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
smoothly
|
|
| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
stiffen
|
|
| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
pensively
|
|
| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
scintillant
|
|
| adj.产生火花的，闪烁（耀）的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
80
musingly
|
|
| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
81
retracing
|
|
| v.折回( retrace的现在分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
clinch
|
|
| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
posture
|
|
| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
slippered
|
|
| 穿拖鞋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
appallingly
|
|
| 毛骨悚然地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
nostrils
|
|
| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
smothered
|
|
| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
ramped
|
|
| 土堤斜坡( ramp的过去式和过去分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
promotion
|
|
| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
snail
|
|
| n.蜗牛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
soothing
|
|
| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
caresses
|
|
| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
surmises
|
|
| v.臆测，推断( surmise的第三人称单数 )；揣测；猜想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
wring
|
|
| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |