She had come round by way of Victorine's small, tight-fenced garden of crape-myrtles, oleanders and pomegranates--where also the water was in the streets, backwater from the overflowed12 swamp-forests between city and lake--and had sent her to Charlie's bedside. Pleasant it would be for us to turn back with the damsel and see her, with heart as open as her arms, kiss the painted grandam, and at once proceed to make herself practically invaluable13; or to observe her every now and then dazzle her adored patient with a tear-gem of joy or pity, or of gratitude14 that she lived in a time when heroic things could happen right at home and to the lowliest, even to her; sweet woes15 like this, that let down, for virtuous16 love, the barriers of humdrum17 convention. But Flora draws us on, she and Anna. As she touched the bell-knob Constance sprang out to welcome her, though not to ask her in--till she could have a word with her alone, the young wife explained.
"I saw you coming," she said, drawing her out to the balustrade. "You didn't get Anna's note of last night--too bad! I've just found out--her maid forgot it! What do you reckon we've been doing all day long? Packing! We're going we don't know where! Vicksburg, Jackson, Meridian18, Mobile, wherever Anna can best hunt Hilary from--and Charlie too, of course."
"Yes," said Flora, one way to the speaker and quite another way to herself.
"Yes, she wants to do it, and Doctor Sevier says it's the only thing for her. Ah, Flora, how well you can understand that!"
"Indeed, yes," sighed the listener, both ways again.
"We know how absolutely you believe the city's our best base, else we'd have asked you to go with us." The ever genuine Constance felt a mortifying19 speciousness20 in her words and so piled them on. "We know the city is best--unless it should fall, and it won't--oh, it won't, God's not going to let so many prayers go unanswered, Flora! But we've tossed reason aside and are going by instinct, the way I always feel safest in, dear. Ah, poor Anna! Oh, Flora, she's so sweet about it!"
"Yes? Ab-out what?"
"You, dear, and whoever is suffering the same--"
Flora softly winced21 and Constance blamed herself so to have pained another sister's love. "And she's so quiet," added the speaker, "but, oh, so pale--and so hard either to comfort or encourage, or even to discourage. There's nothing you can say that she isn't already heart-sick of saying herself, to herself, and I beg you, dear, in your longing22 to comfort her, please don't bring up a single maybe-this or maybe-that; any hope, I mean, founded on a mere23 doubt."
"Ah, but sometime' the doubt--it is the hope!"
"Yes, sometimes; but not to her, any more. Oh, Flora, if it's just as true of you, you won't be--begrudge my saying it of my sister--that no saint ever went to her matyrdom better prepared than she is, right now, for the very worst that can be told. There's only one thing to which she never can and never will resign herself, and that is doubt. She can't breathe its air, Flora. As she says herself, she isn't so built; she hasn't that gift."
The musing24 Flora nodded compassionately25, but inwardly she said that, gift or no gift, Anna should serve her time in Doubting Castle, with her, Flora, for turnkey. Suddenly she put away her abstraction and with a summarizing gesture and chastened twinkle spoke26 out: "In short, you want to know for w'at am I come."
"Flora!"
"Ah, but, my dear, you are ri-ight. That is 'all correct,' as they say, and one thing I'm come for--'t is--" She handed out Mandeville's two letters.
The wife caught them to her bosom27, sprang to her tiptoes, beamed on the packet a second time and read aloud, "Urbanity of Corporal Valcour!" She heaved an ecstatic breath to speak on, but failed. Anna and Miranda had joined them and Flora had risen from her seat on the balustrade, aware at once that the r?le she had counted on was not to be hers, the r?le of comforter to an undone28 rival.
Pale indeed was the rival, pale as rivalry29 could wish. Yet instantly Flora saw, with a fiery30 inward sting, how beautiful pallor may be. And more she saw: with the chagrin31 then growing so common on every armed front--the chagrin of finding one's foe32 entrenched--she saw how utterly33 despair had failed to crush a gentle soul. Under cover of affliction's night and storm Anna, this whole Anna Callender, had been reinforced, had fortified34 and was a new problem.
She greeted Flora with a welcoming beam, but before speaking she caught her sister's arm and glanced herself, at the superscription.
"Flora!" she softly cried, "oh, Flora Valcour! has your brother--your Charlie!--come home alive and well?--What; no?--No, he has not?"
The visitor was shaking her head: "No. Ah, no! home, yes, and al-I've; but--"
"Oh, Flora, Flora! alive and at home! home and alive!" While the words came their speaker slowly folded her arms about the bearer of tidings, and with a wholly unwonted strength pressed her again to the rail and drew bosom to bosom, still exclaiming, "Alive! alive! Oh, whatever his plight35, be thankful, Flora, for so much! Alive enough to come home!"
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1
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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cleanse
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| vt.使清洁，使纯洁，清洗 | |
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mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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overlapping
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| adj./n.交迭（的） | |
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7
wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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hindrances
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| 阻碍者( hindrance的名词复数 )； 障碍物； 受到妨碍的状态 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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humdrum
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| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
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meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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mortifying
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| adj.抑制的，苦修的v.使受辱( mortify的现在分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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speciousness
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| n.似是而非 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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compassionately
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| adv.表示怜悯地，有同情心地 | |
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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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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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