In one of those damp June-hot caves galleried into the sheer yellow-clay sides of her deep-sunken streets, desolate2 streets where Porter's great soaring, howling, burrowing3 "lamp-posts" blew up like steamboats and flew forty ways in search of women and children, dwelt the Callenders. Out among Pemberton's trenches4 and redans, where the woods were dense5 on the crowns and faces of the landside bluffs6, and the undergrowth was thick in the dark ravines, the minie-ball forever buzzed and pattered, and every now and then dabbed7 mortally into some head or breast. There ever closer and closer the blue boys dug and crept while they and the gray tossed back and forth8 the hellish hand-grenade, the heavenly hard-tack and tobacco, gay jokes and lighted bombs. There, mining and countermining, they blew one another to atoms, or under shrieking9 shells that tore limbs from the trees and made missiles of them hurled10 themselves to the assault and were hurled back. There, in a ruined villa11 whose shrubberies Kincaid named "Carrollton Gardens," quartered old Brodnax, dining on the fare we promised him from the first, and there the nephew sang an ancient song from which, to please his listeners, he had dropped "old Ireland" and made it run:
"O, my heart's in New Orleans wherever I go--"
meaning, for himself, that wherever roamed a certain maiden12 whose whereabouts in Dixie he could only conjecture13, there was the New Orleans of his heart.
One day in the last week of the siege a young mother in the Callenders' cave darted14 out into the sunshine to rescue her straying babe and was killed by a lump of iron. Bombardments rarely pause for slips like that, yet the Callenders ventured to her burial in a graveyard15 not far from "Carrollton Gardens." As sympathy yet takes chances with contagions16 it took them then with shells.
Flora17 Valcour daily took both risks--with contagions in a field hospital hard by the cemetery18, and with shells and stray balls when she fled at moments from the stinking19 wards20 to find good air and to commune with her heart's desires and designs. There was one hazard beside which foul21 air and stray shots were negligible, a siege within this siege. To be insured against the mere22 mathematical risk that those designs, thus far so fortunate, might by any least mishap23, in the snap of a finger, come to naught24 she would have taken chances with the hugest shell Grant or Porter could send. For six weeks Anna and Hilary--Anna not knowing if he was alive, he thinking her fifty leagues away--had been right here, hardly an hour's walk asunder25. With what tempest of heart did the severed26 pair rise at each dawn, lie down each night; but Flora suffered no less. Let either of the two get but one glimpse, hear but one word, of the other, and--better a shell, slay27 whom it might.
On her granddaughter's brow Madame Valcour saw the murk of the storm. "The lightning must strike some time, you are thinking, eh?" she simpered.
"No, not necessarily--thanks to your aid!"
Thanks far more to Flora's subtlety28 and diligence. It refreshed Madame to see how well the fair strategist kept her purposes hid. Not even Irby called them--those he discerned--hers. In any case, at any time, any possessive but my or mine, or my or mine on any lip but his, angered him. Wise Flora, whenever she alluded29 to their holding of the plighted30 ones apart, named the scheme his till that cloyed31, and then "ours" in a way that made it more richly his, even when--clearly to Madame, dimly to him, exasperatingly32 to both--her wiles33 for its success--woven around his cousin--became purely34 feminine blandishments for purely feminine ends. In her own mind she accorded Irby only the same partnership35 of aims which she contemptuously shared with the grandam, who, like Irby, still harped36 on assets, on that estate over in Louisiana which every one else, save his uncle, had all but forgotten. The plantation37 and its slaves were still Irby's objective, and though Flora was no less so, any chance that for jealousy38 of her and Hilary he might throw Anna into Hilary's arms, was offset39 by his evident conviction that the estate would in that moment be lost to him and that no estate meant no Flora. Madame kept that before him and he thanked and loathed40 her accordingly.
Flora's subtlety and diligence, yes, indeed. By skill in phrases and silences, by truth misshapen, by flatteries daintily fitted, artfully distributed, never overdone41; by a certain slow, basal co-operation from Irby (his getting Mandeville sent out by Pemberton with secret despatches to Johnston, for example), by a deft42 touch now and then from Madame, by this fine pertinacity43 of luck, and by a sweet new charity of speech and her kindness of ministration on every side, the pretty schemer had everybody blundering into her hand, even to the extent of keeping the three Callenders convinced that Kincaid's Battery had been cut off at Big Black Bridge and had gone, after all, to Mobile. No wonder she inwardly trembled.
And there was yet another reason: since coming into Vicksburg, all unaware44 yet why Anna so inordinately45 prized the old dagger46, she had told her where it still lay hid in Callender House. To a battery lad who had been there on the night of the weapon's disappearance47 and who had died in her arms at Champion's Hill, she had imputed48 a confession49 that, having found the moving panel, a soldier boy's pure wantonness had prompted him to the act which, in fact, only she had committed. So she had set Anna's whole soul upon getting back to New Orleans to regain50 the trinket-treasure and somehow get out with it to Mobile, imperiled Mobile, where now, if on earth anywhere, her hope was to find Hilary Kincaid.
Does it not tax all patience, that no better intuition of heart, no frenzy51 of true love in either Hilary or Anna--suffering the frenzies52 they did--should have taught them to rend53 the poor web that held them separate almost within the sound of each other's cry? No, not when we consider other sounds, surrounding conditions: miles and miles of riflemen and gunners in so constant a whirlwind of destruction and anguish54 that men like Maxime Lafontaine and Sam Gibbs went into open hysterics at their guns, and even while sleeping on their arms, under humming bullets and crashing shells and over mines ready to be sprung, sobbed55 and shivered like babes, aware in their slumbers56 that they might "die before they waked." In the town unearthly bowlings and volcanic57 thunders, close overhead, cried havoc58 in every street, at every cave door. There Anna, in low daily fevers, with her "heart in New Orleans," had to be "kept quiet" by Miranda and Constance, the latter as widowed as Anna, wondering whether "Steve was alive or not."
This is a history of hearts. Yet, time flying as it does, the wild fightings even in those hearts, the famishing, down-breaking sieges in them, must largely be left untold--Hilary's, Anna's, Flora's, all. Kincaid was in greater temptation than he knew. Many a battery boy, sick, sound or wounded--Charlie for one--saw it more plainly than he. Anna, supposed to be far away and away by choice, was still under the whole command's impeachment59, while Flora, amid conditions that gave every week the passional value of a peacetime year, was here at hand, an ever-ministering angel to them and to their hero; yet they never included him and Flora in one thought together but to banish60 it, though with tender reverence61. Behind a labored62 disguise of inattention they jealously watched lest the faintest blight63 or languor64 should mar65, in him, the perfect bloom of that invincible66 faith to, and faith in, the faithless Anna, which alone could satisfy their worship of him. Care for these watchers brought the two much together, and in every private moment they talked of the third one; Flora still fine in the role of Anna's devotee and Hilary's "pilot," rich in long-thought-out fabrications, but giving forth only what was wrung67 from her and parting with each word as if it cost her a pang68. Starving and sickening, fighting and falling, the haggard boys watched; yet so faultless was the maiden's art that when in a fury of affright at the risks of time she one day forced their commander to see her heart's starvation for him the battery saw nothing, and even to him she yet appeared faultless in modesty69 and utterly70, marvelously, splendidly ignorant of what she had done.
"Guide right!" he mused71 alone. "At last, H.K., your nickname's got a meaning worth living up to!"
While he mused, Flora, enraged72 both for him and against him, and with the rage burning in her eye and on her brow, stood before her seated grandmother, mutely giving gaze for gaze until the elder knew.
The old woman resumed her needle. "And all you have for it," was the first word, "is his pity, eh?"
"Wait!" murmured the girl. "I will win yet, if I have to lose--"
"Yes?" skeptically simpered the grandam, "--have to lose yourself to do it?"
The two gazed again until the maiden quietly nodded and her senior sprang half up:
"No, no! ah, no-no-no! There's a crime awaiting you, but not that! Oh, no, you are no such fool!"
"No?" The girl came near, bent73 low and with dancing eyes said, "I'll be fool enough to lead him on till his sense of honor--"
"Sense of--oh, ho, ho!"
"Sense of his honor and mine--will make him my prisoner. Or else--!" The speaker's eyes burned. Her bosom74 rose and fell.
"Yes," said the seated one--to her needle--"or else his sense that Charlie--My God! don't pinch my ear off!"
"Happy thought," laughed Flora, letting go, "but a very poor guess."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
desolate
|
|
| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
burrowing
|
|
| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的现在分词 )；翻寻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
trenches
|
|
| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
bluffs
|
|
| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
dabbed
|
|
| （用某物）轻触( dab的过去式和过去分词 )； 轻而快地擦掉（或抹掉）； 快速擦拭； （用某物）轻而快地涂上（或点上）… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
shrieking
|
|
| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
hurled
|
|
| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
villa
|
|
| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
maiden
|
|
| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
conjecture
|
|
| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
graveyard
|
|
| n.坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
contagions
|
|
| 传染( contagion的名词复数 )； 接触传染； 道德败坏； 歪风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
flora
|
|
| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
cemetery
|
|
| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
stinking
|
|
| adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
wards
|
|
| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
mishap
|
|
| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
naught
|
|
| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
asunder
|
|
| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
severed
|
|
| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
slay
|
|
| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
subtlety
|
|
| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
alluded
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
plighted
|
|
| vt.保证，约定（plight的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
cloyed
|
|
| v.发腻，倒胃口( cloy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
exasperatingly
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
wiles
|
|
| n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
partnership
|
|
| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
harped
|
|
| vi.弹竖琴（harp的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
plantation
|
|
| n.种植园，大农场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
offset
|
|
| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
loathed
|
|
| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
overdone
|
|
| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
deft
|
|
| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
pertinacity
|
|
| n.执拗，顽固 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
44
unaware
|
|
| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
inordinately
|
|
| adv.无度地，非常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
dagger
|
|
| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
disappearance
|
|
| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
imputed
|
|
| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
confession
|
|
| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
regain
|
|
| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
frenzy
|
|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
frenzies
|
|
| 狂乱( frenzy的名词复数 )； 极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
53
rend
|
|
| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
anguish
|
|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
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： |
|
|
|
|
56
slumbers
|
|
| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
volcanic
|
|
| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
havoc
|
|
| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
impeachment
|
|
| n.弹劾；控告；怀疑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
banish
|
|
| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
labored
|
|
| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
blight
|
|
| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
languor
|
|
| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
mar
|
|
| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
invincible
|
|
| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
wrung
|
|
| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
pang
|
|
| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
modesty
|
|
| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
enraged
|
|
| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |