Isola fancied that her adventure was all over and done with after that ceremonious call of inquiry2; but in so narrow a world as that of Trelasco it was scarcely possible to have seen the last of a man who lived within three miles; and she and Lord Lostwithiel met now and then in the course of her solitary3 rambles4. The walk into Fowey, following the old disused railway, was almost her favourite, and one which she had occasion to take oftener than any other, since Tabitha was a stay-at-home person, and expected her young mistress to do all the marketing5, so that Isola had usually[Pg 34] some errand to take her into the narrow street on the hillside above the sea. It was at Fowey that she oftenest met Lostwithiel. His yacht, the Vendetta6, was in the harbour under repairs, and he went down to look at the work daily, and often dawdled7 upon the deck till dusk, watching the carpenters, or talking to his captain. They had been half over the world together, master and man, and were almost as familiar as brothers. The crew were half English and half foreign; and it was a curious mixture of languages in which Lostwithiel talked to them. They were most of them old hands on board the Vendetta, and would have stood by the owner of the craft if he had wanted to sail her up the Phlegethon.
She was a schooner8 of two hundred and fifty tons, built for speed, and with a rakish rig. She had cost, with her fittings, her extra silk sails for racing9, more money than Lostwithiel cared to remember; but he loved her as a man loves his mistress, and if she were costly10 and exacting11, she was no worse than other mistresses, and she was true as steel, which they are not always; and so he felt that he had money's worth in her. He showed her to Isola one evening from the promontory12 above the harbour, where she met him in the autumn sundown. Her work at the butcher's and the grocer's being done, she had gone up to that airy height by Point Neptune13 to refresh herself with a long look seaward before she went back to her home in the valley. Lostwithiel took her away from the Point, and made her look down into the harbour.
"Isn't she a beauty?" he asked, pointing below.
Her inexperienced eyes roamed about among the boats, colliers, fishing-boats, half a dozen yachts of different tonnage.
"Which is yours?" she asked.
"Which? Why, there is only one decent boat in the harbour. The schooner."
She saw which boat he meant by the direction in which he flourished his walking-stick, but was not learned in distinc[Pg 35]tions of rig. The Vendetta, being under repair, did not seem to her especially lovely.
"Have you pretty cabins?" she asked childishly.
"Oh yes, they're pretty enough; but that's not the question. Look at her lines. She skims over the water like a gull14. Ladies seem to think only what a boat looks like inside. I believe my boat is rather exceptional, from a lady's point of view. Will you come on board and have a look at her?"
"Thanks, no; I couldn't possibly. It will be dark before I get home as it is."
"But it wouldn't take you a quarter of an hour, and we could row you up the river in no time—ever so much faster than you could walk."
Isola looked frightened at the very idea.
"Not for the world!" she said. "Tabitha would think I had gone mad. She would begin to fancy that I could never go out without over-staying the daylight, and troubling you to send me home."
"Ah, but it is so long since you were last belated," he said, in his low caressing15 voice, with a tone that was new to her and different from all other voices; "ages and ages ago—half a lifetime. There could be no harm in being just a little late this mild evening, and I would row you home—myself, under the new moon. Look at her swinging up in the grey blue there above Polruan. She looks like a fairy boat, anchored in the sky by that star hanging a fathom16 below her keel. I look at her, and wish—wish—wish!"
He looked up, pale in the twilight17, with dark deep-set eyes, of which it was never easy to read the expression. Perhaps that inscrutable look made those sunken and by no means brilliant eyes more interesting than some much handsomer eyes—interesting with the deep interest that belongs to the unknowable.
"Good night," said Isola. "I'm afraid that I shall be very late."
"Good night. You would be earlier if you would trust to the boat."
[Pg 36]
He held out his hand, and she gave him hers, hesitatingly for the first time in their acquaintance. It was after this parting in the wintry sundown that she first began to look troubled at meeting him.
The troubled feeling grew upon her somehow. In a life so lonely and uneventful trifles assume undue18 importance. She tried to avoid him, and on her journeys to Fowey she finished her business in the village street and turned homewards without having climbed the promontory by that rugged20 walk she loved so well. It needed some self-denial to forego that keen pleasure of standing21 on the windy height and gazing across the western sea towards Ushant and her native province; but she knew that Lord Lostwithiel spent a good deal of his time lounging on the heights above the harbour, and she did not want to meet him again.
Although she lived her quiet life in the shortening days for nearly a month without meeting him, she was not allowed to forget his existence. Wherever she went people talked about him and speculated about him. Every detail of his existence made matter for discussion; his yacht, his political opinions, his talents, his income, his matrimonial prospects22, the likelihood or unlikelihood of his settling down permanently23 at the Mount, and taking the hounds, which were probably to be without a master within a measurable distance of time. There was so little to talk about in Trelasco and those scattered24 hamlets between Fowey and Lostwithiel.
Isola found herself joining in the talk at afternoon tea-parties, those casual droppings in of charitable ladies who had been their rounds among the cottagers and came back to the atmosphere of gentility worn out by long stories of woes25 and ailments26, sore legs and rheumatic joints27, and were very glad to discuss a local nobleman over a cup of delicately flavoured Indian tea in the glow of a flower-scented drawing-room.
Among other houses Mrs. Disney visited Glenaveril, Mr. Crowther's great red-brick mansion28, with its pepper-box[Pg 37] turrets29, and Jacobean windows, after the manner of Burleigh House by Stamford town.
Here lived in wealth and state quite the most important family within a mile of Trelasco, the Vansittart Crowthers, erst of Pilbury Mills, near Stroud, now as much county as a family can make itself after its head has passed his fortieth birthday. Nobody quite knew how Mr. Crowther had come to be a Vansittart—unless by the easy process of baptism and the complaisance30 of an aristocratic sponsor; but the Crowthers had been known in Stroud for nearly two hundred years, and had kept their sacks upright, as Mr. Crowther called it, all that time.
Fortune had favoured this last of the Crowthers, and, at forty years of age, he had found himself rich enough to dispose of his business to two younger brothers and a brother-in-law, and to convert himself into a landed proprietor31. He bought up all the land that was to be had about Trelasco. Cornish people cling to their land like limpets to a rock; and it was not easy to acquire the ownership of the soil. In the prosperous past, when land was paying nearly four per cent. in other parts of England, Cornishmen were content to hold estates that yielded only two per cent.; but the days of decay had come when Mr. Crowther entered the market, and he was able to buy out more than one gentleman of ancient lineage.
When he had secured his land, he sent to Plymouth for an architect, and he so harried32 that architect and so tampered33 with his drawings that the result of much labour and outlay34 was that monstrosity in red brick with stone dressings35, known in the neighbourhood as Glenaveril. Mr. Crowther's elder daughter was deep in Lord Lytton's newly published poem when the house was being finished, and had imposed that euphonious36 name upon her father. Glenaveril. The house really was in a glen, or at least in a wooded valley, and Glenaveril seemed to suit it to perfection; and so the romantic name of a romantic poem was cut in massive Gothic letters on the granite37 pillars of[Pg 38] Vansittart Crowther's gate, beneath a shield which exhibited the coat of arms made and provided by the Herald's College.
Mrs. Vansittart Crowther was at home on Thursday afternoons, when the choicest Indian tea and the thickest cream, coffee as in Paris, and the daintiest cakes and muffins which a professed38 cook could provide, furnished the zest39 to conversation; for it could scarcely be said that the conversation gave a zest to those creature comforts. It would be perhaps nearer the mark to say that Mrs. Crowther was supposed to sit in the drawing-room on these occasions while the two Miss Crowthers were at home. The mistress of Glenaveril was not an aspiring40 woman; and in her heart of hearts she preferred Gloucestershire to Cornwall, and the stuccoed villa19 on the Cheltenham road, with its acre and a half of tennis-lawn and flower-beds, open to the blazing sun, and powdered with the summer dust, to Glenaveril, with its solemn belt of woodlands, and its too spacious41 grandeur42. She was not vulgar or illiterate43. She never misplaced an aspirate. She had learnt to play the piano and to talk French at the politest of young ladies' schools at Cheltenham. She never dressed outrageously44, or behaved rudely. She had neither red hands nor splay feet. She was in all things blameless; and yet Belinda and Alicia, her daughters, were ashamed of her, and did their utmost to keep her, and her tastes, and her opinions in the background. She had no style. She was not "smart." She seemed incapable45 of grasping the ideas, or understanding the ways of smart people; or at least her daughters thought so.
"Your mother is one of the best women I know," said the curate to Alicia, being on the most confidential46 terms with both sisters, "and yet you and Miss Crowther are always trying to edit her."
"Father wants a great deal more editing than mother," said Belinda, "but there's no use in talking to him. He is encased in the armour47 of self-esteem. It made my blood[Pg 39] run cold to see him taking Lord Lostwithiel over the grounds and stables the other day—praising everything, and pointing out this and that,—and even saying how much things had cost!"
"I dare say it was vulgar," agreed the curate, "but it's human nature. I've seen a duke behave in pretty much the same way. Children are always proud of their new toys, and men are but children of a larger growth, don't you know. You'll find there's a family resemblance in humanity, and that nature is stronger than training."
"Lord Lostwithiel would never behave in that kind of way—boring people about his stables."
"Lord Lostwithiel doesn't care about stables—he would bore you about his yacht, I dare say."
"No, he never talks of himself or his own affairs. That is just the charm of his manner. He makes us all believe that he is thinking about us; and yet I dare say he forgets us directly he is outside the gate."
"I'm sure he does," replied Mr. Colfox, the curate. "There isn't a more selfish man living than Lostwithiel."
The fair Belinda looked at him angrily. There are assertions which young ladies make on purpose to have them controverted48.
Mrs. Disney hated the great red-brick porch, with its vaulted49 roof and monstrous50 iron lantern, and the bell which made such a clamour, as if it meant fire, or at least dinner, when she touched the hanging brass51 handle. She hated to find herself face to face with a tall footman, who hardly condescended52 to say whether his mistress were at home or not, but just preceded her languidly along the broad corridor, where the carpet was so thick that it felt like turf, and flung open the drawing-room door with an air, and pronounced her name into empty space, so remote were the half-dozen ladies at the other end of the room, clustered round Belinda's tea-table, and fed with cake by Alicia, while Mrs. Crowther sat in the window a little way off, with her basket of woolwork at her side, and her fat[Pg 40] somnolent53 pug lying at her feet. To Isola it was an ordeal54 to have to walk the length of the drawing-room, navigating55 her course amidst an archipelago of expensive things—Florentine tables, portfolios56 of engravings, Louis Seize Jardinières, easels supporting the last expensive etching from Goupil's—to the window where Mrs. Crowther waited to receive her, rising with her lap full of wools, to shake hands with simple friendliness57 and without a vestige58 of style. Belinda shook hands on a level with the tip of her sharp retroussé nose, and twirled the silken train of her tea-gown with the serpentine59 grace of Sarah Bernhardt. She prided herself on those serpentine movements and languid graces which belong to the Gr?co-Belgravian period; while Alicia held herself like a ramrod, and took her stand upon being nothing if not sporting. Her olive-cloth gown and starched60 collar, her neat double-soled boots and cloth gaiters, were a standing reproach to Belinda's silken slovenliness61 and embroidered62 slippers63, always dropping off her restless feet, and being chased surreptitiously among her lace and pongee frillings. Poor Mrs. Crowther disliked the Guard's collar, which she felt was writing premature64 wrinkles upon her younger girl's throat, but she positively65 loathed66 the loose elegance67 of the Indian silk tea-gown, with its wide Oriental sleeves, exhibiting naked arms to the broad daylight. That sloppy68 raiment made a discord69 in the subdued70 harmony of the visitors' tailor-made gowns—well worn some of them—brown, and grey, and indigo71, and russet; and Mrs. Crowther was tortured by the conviction that her elder daughter looked disreputable. This honest matron was fond of Isola Disney. In her own simple phraseology, she had "taken to her;" and pressed the girl-wife to come every Thursday afternoon.
"It must be so lonely for you," she said gently, "with your husband so far away, and you such a child, too. I wonder your mamma doesn't come and stay with you for a bit. You must always come on our Thursdays. Now mind you do, my dear."
[Pg 41]
"I don't think our Thursdays are remarkably72 enlivening, mother," said Alicia, objecting to the faintest suggestion of fussiness73, the crying sin of both her parents. And then she turned to Isola, and measured her from head to foot. "It's rather a pity you don't hunt," she said. "We had a splendid morning with the hounds."
"Perhaps I may get a little hunting by-and-by, when my husband comes home."
"Ah, but one can't begin all at once; and this is a difficult country; breakneck hills, and nasty banks. Have you hunted much?"
"Hardly at all. I was out in a boar-hunt once, near Angers, but only as a looker-on. It was a grand sight. The Duke of Beaufort came over to Brittany on purpose to join in it."
"How glorious a boar-hunt must be! I must get my father to take me to Angers next year. Do you know a great many people there?"
"No, only two or three professors at the college, and the Marquis de Querangal, the gentleman who has the boar-hounds. His daughter used to visit at Dinan, and she and I were great friends."
"Lord Lostwithiel talked about boar-hunting the other night," said Alicia. "It must be capital fun." His name recurred74 in this way, whatever the conversation might be, with more certainty than Zero on the wheel at roulette.
He had been there in the evening, Isola thought. There had been a dinner-party, perhaps, at which he had been present. She had not long to wonder. The name once pronounced, the stream of talk flowed on. Yes, there had been a dinner, and Lord Lostwithiel had been delightful75; so brilliant in conversation as compared with everybody else; so witty76, so cynical77, so fin1 de siècle.
"I didn't hear him say anything very much out of the common," said Mrs. Crowther, in her matter-of-fact way.
She liked having a nobleman or any other local magnate at her table; but she had too much common sense to be[Pg 42] hypnotized by his magnificence, and made to taste milk and water as Maronean wine.
"Do you know Lord Lostwithiel?" Belinda asked languidly, as Isola sipped78 her tea, sitting shyly in the broad glare of a colossal79 fireplace. "Oh yes, by-the-by, you met him here the week before last."
Mrs. Disney blushed to the roots of those soft tendril-like curls which clustered about her forehead; but she said never a word. She had no occasion to tell them the history of that meeting in the rain, or of those many subsequent meetings which had drifted her into almost the familiarity of an old friendship. They might take credit to themselves for having made her acquainted with their star if they liked. She had seen plenty of smart people at Dinan in those sunny summer months when visitors came from Dinard to look at the old quiet inland city. Lostwithiel's rank had no disturbing influence upon her mind. It was himself—something in his look and in his voice, in the mere80 touch of his hand—an indescribable something which of late had moved her in his presence, and made her faintly tremulous at the sound of his name.
He was announced while they were talking of him, and he seemed surprised to come suddenly upon that slim unobtrusive figure almost hidden by Belinda's flowing garment and fuller form. Belinda was decidedly handsome—handsomer than an heiress need be; but she was also just a shade larger than an heiress need be at three and twenty. She was a Rubens' beauty, expansive, florid, and fair, with reddish auburn hair piled on the top of her head. Sitting between this massive beauty and the still more massive chimney-piece, Mrs. Disney was completely hidden from the new arrival.
He discovered her suddenly while he was shaking hands with Belinda, and his quick glance of pleased surprise did not escape that young lady's steely blue eyes. Not a look or a breath ever does escape observation in a village drawing-room. Even the intellectual people, the people who[Pg 43] devour81 all Mudie's most solid books—travels, memoirs82, metaphysics, agnostic novels—even these are as keenly interested in their neighbours' thoughts and feelings as the unlettered rustic83 in the village street.
Lostwithiel took the proffered84 cup of tea, and planted himself near Mrs. Disney, with his back against the marble caryatid which bore up one-half of the chimney-piece. Alicia began to talk to him about his yacht. How were the repairs going on? and so on, and so on, delighted to air her technical knowledge. He answered her somewhat languidly, as if the Vendetta were not first in his thoughts at this particular moment.
"What about this ball?" he asked presently. "You are all going to be there, of course?"
"Do you mean the hunt ball at Lostwithiel?"
"Of course! What other ball could I mean? It is the great festivity of these parts. The one tremendous event of the winter season. It was a grand idea of you new people to revive the old festivity, which had become a tradition. I wore my first dress coat at the Lostwithiel Hunt Ball nearly twenty years ago. I think it was there I first fell in love, with a young lady in pink tulle, who was miserable85 because she had been mistaken enough to wear pink at a hunt ball. I condoled86 with her, assured her that in my eyes she was lovely, although her gown clashed—that was her word, I remember—with the pink coats. My coat was not pink, and I believe she favoured me a little on that account. She gave me a good many waltzes in the course of the evening, and I can answer for her never wearing that pink frock again, for I trampled87 it to shreds88. There were traces of her to be found all over the rooms, as if I had been Greenacre and she my victim's body."
"It will be rather a humdrum89 ball, I'm afraid," said Belinda. "All the best people seem to be away."
"Never mind that if the worst people can dance. I am on the committee, so I will answer for the supper and the champagne90. You like a dry brand, of course, Miss Crowther?"
[Pg 44]
"I never touch wine of any kind."
"No; then my chief virtue91 will be thrown away upon you. Are all young ladies blue-ribbonites nowadays, I wonder? Mrs. Disney, pray tell me you are interested in the champagne question."
"I am not going to the ball."
"Not going! Oh, but it is a duty which you owe to the county! Do you think because you are an alien and a foreigner you can flout92 our local gaieties—fleer at our solemnities? No, it is incumbent93 upon you to give us your support."
"Yes, my dear, you must go to the ball," put in Mrs. Crowther, in her motherly tone. "You are much too young and pretty to stay at home, like Cinderella, while we are all enjoying ourselves. Of course you must go. Mr. Crowther has put down his name for five and twenty tickets, and I'm sure there'll be one to spare for you, although we shall have a large house-party."
"Indeed, you are too kind, but I couldn't think——" faltered94 Isola, with a distressed95 look.
She knew that Lostwithiel was watching her from his vantage ground ever so far above her head. A man of six feet two has considerable advantages at a billiard-table, and in a quiet flirtation96 carried on in public.
"If it is a chaperon you are thinking about, I'll take care of you," urged good Mrs. Crowther.
"No, it isn't on that account. Mrs. Baynham offered to take me in her party. But I really would much rather not be there. It would seem horrid97 to me to be dancing in a great, dazzling room, among happy people, while Martin is in Burmah, perhaps in peril98 of his life on that very night. One can never tell. I often shudder99 at the thought of what may be happening to him while I am sitting quietly by the fire. And what should I feel at a ball?"
"I should hardly have expected you to have such romantic notions about Major Disney," said Belinda, coolly, "considering the difference in your ages."
[Pg 45]
"Do you suppose I care the less for him because he is twenty years older than I am?"
"Twenty! Is it really as much as that?" ejaculated Mrs. Crowther, unaffectedly shocked.
"He is just as dear to me," pursued Isola, warmly. "I look up to him, and love him with all my heart. There never was a better, truer man. From the time I began to read history I always admired great soldiers. I don't mean to say that Martin is a hero—only I know he is a thorough soldier—and he seemed to realize all my childish dreams."
She had spoken impetuously, fancying that there was some slight towards her absent husband in Miss Crowther's speech. Her flash of anger made a break in the conversation, and nothing more was said about her going or not going to the Hunt Ball. They talked of that entertainment in the abstract—discussed the floor—the lighting—the band—and the great people who might be induced to appear, if the proper pressure were put upon them.
"There is plenty of time," said Lostwithiel, "between now and the twenty-second of December—nearly three weeks. Time for you and your sister to get new frocks from London or Paris, Miss Crowther. You mean having new frocks, I suppose?"
"One generally does have a new frock for a dance," replied Belinda, "though the fashions this winter are so completely odious100 that I would much rather appear in a gown of my great-grandmother's."
Lostwithiel smiled his slow secret smile high up in the fainter firelight. He was reflecting upon his notion of Miss Crowther's great-grandmother, in linsey-wolsey, with a lavender print apron101, a costume that would be hardly impressive at a Hunt Ball. He did not give the young lady credit for a great-grandmother from the Society point of view. There was the mother yonder—inoffensive respectability—the grandmother would be humbler—and the great-grandmother he imagined at the wash-tub, or cooking the noontide meal for an artisan husband. He had never yet[Pg 46] realized the idea of numerous generations of middle-class life upon the same plane, the same dead level of prosperous commerce.
Isola rose to take leave, after having let her tea get cold, and dropped half her cake on the Persian rug. She felt shyer in that house than in any other. She had a feeling that there she was weighed in the balance and found wanting; that unfriendly eyes were scrutinizing102 her gloves and hat, and appraising103 her features and complexion104. She felt herself insignificant105, colourless, insipid106 beside that brilliant Miss Crowther, with her vivid beauty, and her self-assured airs and graces.
Tabitha urged her to be of good heart when she hinted at these feelings.
"Why, Lord have mercy upon us, ma'am, however grand they may all look, it's nothing but wool—only wool; and I heard there used to be a good deal of devil's dust mixed with it, after this Mr. Crowther came into the business."
The dusk was thickening as she went along the short avenue which led to the gates. Mr. Crowther, having built his house in a wood, had been able to cut himself out a carriage drive, which gave him an avenue of more than two centuries' growth, and thus imparted an air of spurious antiquity107 to his demesne108. He felt, as he looked at the massive boles of those old Spanish chestnuts109, as if he had belonged to the soil since the Commonwealth110.
Even the lodge111 was an important building, Tudor on one side, and monastic on the other; with that agreeable hodge-podge of styles which the modern architect loveth. It was a better house than the curate lived in, as he often told Miss Crowther.
Isola quickened her pace outside that solemn gateway112, and seemed to breathe more freely. She hurried even faster at the sound of a footstep behind her, though there was no need for nervous apprehensions113 at that early hour in the November evening on the high road between Fowey and Trelasco. Did she know that firm, quick footfall; or was it an instinctive[Pg 47] avoidance of an unknown danger which made her hurry on till her heart began to beat stormily, and her breath came in short gasps114?
"My dear Mrs. Disney, do you usually walk as if for a wager115?" asked a voice behind her. "I can generally get over the ground pretty fast, but it was as much as I could do to overtake you without running."
He was not breathless, however. His tones were firm and tranquil116. It was she who could scarcely speak.
"I'm afraid I am very late," she answered nervously117.
"For what? For afternoon tea by your own fireside? Have you anybody waiting for you at the Angler's Nest, that you should be in such a hurry to get home?"
"No, there is no one waiting, except Tabitha. I expect no one."
"Then why walk yourself into a fever?"
"Tabitha gets fidgety if I am out after dusk."
"Then let Tabitha fidget! It will be good for her liver. Those adipose118 people require small worries to keep them in health. You mustn't over-pace yourself to oblige Tabitha."
She had slackened her steps, and he was walking by her side, looking down at her from that superb altitude which gave him an unfair advantage. How could she, upon her lower level, escape those searching glances?
She knew that her way home was his way home, so far as the bend of the road which led away from the river; and to avoid him for the intervening distance would have been difficult. She must submit to his company on the road, or make a greater effort than it was in her nature to make.
"You mean to go to this ball, don't you?" he asked earnestly.
"I think not."
"Oh, but pray do! Why should you shut yourself from all the pleasures of this world, and live like a nun119, always? You might surely make just one exception for such a grand event as the Hunt Ball. You have no idea how much we all think of it hereabouts. Remember, it will be the first public[Pg 48] dance we have had at Lostwithiel for ever so many years. You will see family diamonds enough to make you fancy you are at St. James's. Do you think Major Disney would dislike your having just one evening's dissipation?"
"Oh no, he would not mind! He is only too kind and indulgent. He would have liked me to spend the winter with my sister in Hans Place, where there would have been gaieties of all kinds; but I don't want to go into society while Martin is away. It would not make me happy."
"But if it made some one else happy—if it made other people happy to see you there?"
"Oh, but it would not matter to anybody! I am a stranger in the land. People are only kind to me for my husband's sake."
"Your modesty120 becomes you as the dew becomes a rose. I won't gainsay121 you—only be sure you will be missed if you don't go to the ball. And if you do go—well, it will be an opportunity of making nice friends. It will be your début in county society."
"Without my husband? Please don't say any more about it, Lord Lostwithiel. I had much rather stay at home."
He changed the conversation instantly, asking her what she thought of Glenaveril.
"I think the situation most lovely."
"Yes, there we are all agreed. Mr. Crowther had the good taste to find a charming site, and the bad taste to erect122 an architectural monstrosity, a chimera123 in red brick. There was a grange once in the heart of that wood, and the Crowthers have the advantage of acorns124 and chestnuts that sowed themselves while the sleepy old monks125 were telling their beads126. How do you like Miss Crowther?"
"I hardly know her well enough to like or dislike her. She is very handsome."
"So was Rubens' wife, Helena Forman; but what would one do in a world peopled with Helena Formans? There are galleries in Antwerp which no man should enter without smoke-coloured spectacles, if he would avoid being blinded[Pg 49] by a blaze of red-haired beauty. I am told that the Miss Crowthers will have, at least, a million of money between them in days to come, and that they are destined127 to make great matches. Perhaps we shall see some of their soupirants at the ball. Since the decay of the landed interest, the chasse aux dots has become fiercer than of old."
This seemed to come strangely from him who had already been talked of as a possible candidate for one of the Miss Crowthers. It would be such a particularly suitable match, Mrs. Baynham, the doctor's wife, had told Isola. What could his lordship look for beyond a fine fortune and a handsome wife?
"They would make such a splendid pair," said Mrs. Baynham, talking of them as if they were carriage-horses.
Mrs. Disney and her companion crossed a narrow meadow, from the high road to the river-path which was the nearest way to the Angler's Nest. The river went rippling128 by under the gathering129 grey of the November evening. On their right hand there was the gloom of dark woods: and from the meadow on their left rose a thick white mist, like a sea that threatened to swallow them up in its phantasmal tide. The sound of distant oars130, dipping with rhythmical131 measure, was the only sound except their own voices.
Did that three-quarters of a mile seem longer or shorter than usual? Isola hardly knew; but when she saw the lights shining in Tabitha's kitchen, and the fire-glow in the drawing-room, she was glad with the gladness of one who escapes from some fancied danger of ghosts or goblins.
Lostwithiel detained her at the gate.
"Good night," he said; "good night. You will change your mind, won't you, Mrs. Disney? It is not in one so gentle as you to be inflexible132 about such a trifle. Say that you will honour our ball."
She drew herself up a little, as if in protest against his pertinacity133.
"I really cannot understand why you should care whether I go or stay away," she said coldly.
[Pg 50]
"Oh, but I do care! It is childish, perhaps, on my part, but I do care; I care tremendously; more than I have cared about anything for a long time. It is so small a thing on your part—it means so much for me! Say you will be there."
"Is that you, ma'am?" asked Tabitha's pleasant voice, while Tabitha's substantial soles made themselves audible upon the gravel134 path. "I was beginning to get fidgety about you."
"Good night," said Isola, shortly, as she passed through the gate.
It shut with a sharp little click of the latch135, and she vanished among the laurels136 and arbutus. He heard her voice and Tabitha's as they walked towards the house in friendly conversation, mistress and maid.
There was a great over-blown Dijon rose nodding its heavy head over the fence. Roses linger so late in that soft western air. Lostwithiel plucked the flower, and pulled off its petals137 one by one as he walked towards the village street.
"Will she go—will she stay—go—stay—go—stay?" he muttered, as the petals fluttered to the ground.
"Go! Yes, of course she will go," he said to himself as the last leaf fell. "Does it need ghost from the grave or rose from the garden to tell me that?"
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
fin
|
|
| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
inquiry
|
|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
rambles
|
|
| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
marketing
|
|
| n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
vendetta
|
|
| n.世仇，宿怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
dawdled
|
|
| v.混（时间）( dawdle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
schooner
|
|
| n.纵帆船 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
racing
|
|
| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
exacting
|
|
| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
promontory
|
|
| n.海角；岬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
Neptune
|
|
| n.海王星 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
gull
|
|
| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
caressing
|
|
| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
fathom
|
|
| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
undue
|
|
| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
villa
|
|
| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
prospects
|
|
| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
permanently
|
|
| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
woes
|
|
| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
ailments
|
|
| 疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
joints
|
|
| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
mansion
|
|
| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
turrets
|
|
| （六角）转台( turret的名词复数 )； （战舰和坦克等上的）转动炮塔； （摄影机等上的）镜头转台； （旧时攻城用的）塔车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
complaisance
|
|
| n.彬彬有礼，殷勤，柔顺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
proprietor
|
|
| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
harried
|
|
| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
tampered
|
|
| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
outlay
|
|
| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
dressings
|
|
| n.敷料剂；穿衣( dressing的名词复数 )；穿戴；（拌制色拉的）调料；（保护伤口的）敷料 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
euphonious
|
|
| adj.好听的，悦耳的，和谐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
granite
|
|
| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
professed
|
|
| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
zest
|
|
| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
aspiring
|
|
| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
spacious
|
|
| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
grandeur
|
|
| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
illiterate
|
|
| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
outrageously
|
|
| 凶残地； 肆无忌惮地； 令人不能容忍地； 不寻常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
incapable
|
|
| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
confidential
|
|
| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
armour
|
|
| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
controverted
|
|
| v.争论，反驳，否定( controvert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
49
vaulted
|
|
| adj.拱状的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
condescended
|
|
| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
somnolent
|
|
| adj.想睡的，催眠的；adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
ordeal
|
|
| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
navigating
|
|
| v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
portfolios
|
|
| n.投资组合( portfolio的名词复数 )；（保险）业务量；（公司或机构提供的）系列产品；纸夹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
friendliness
|
|
| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
vestige
|
|
| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
serpentine
|
|
| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
starched
|
|
| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
slovenliness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
embroidered
|
|
| adj．绣花的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
slippers
|
|
| n. 拖鞋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
premature
|
|
| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
positively
|
|
| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
loathed
|
|
| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
elegance
|
|
| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
sloppy
|
|
| adj.邋遢的，不整洁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
discord
|
|
| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
subdued
|
|
| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
indigo
|
|
| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
remarkably
|
|
| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
fussiness
|
|
| [医]易激怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
recurred
|
|
| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
delightful
|
|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
witty
|
|
| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
cynical
|
|
| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
sipped
|
|
| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
colossal
|
|
| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
devour
|
|
| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
memoirs
|
|
| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
rustic
|
|
| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
proffered
|
|
| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
condoled
|
|
| v.表示同情，吊唁( condole的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
trampled
|
|
| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
shreds
|
|
| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
humdrum
|
|
| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
champagne
|
|
| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
flout
|
|
| v./n.嘲弄，愚弄，轻视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
incumbent
|
|
| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
faltered
|
|
| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
distressed
|
|
| 痛苦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
flirtation
|
|
| n.调情，调戏，挑逗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
horrid
|
|
| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
peril
|
|
| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
odious
|
|
| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
apron
|
|
| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
scrutinizing
|
|
| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
appraising
|
|
| v.估价( appraise的现在分词 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
complexion
|
|
| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
insignificant
|
|
| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
insipid
|
|
| adj.无味的，枯燥乏味的，单调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
antiquity
|
|
| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
demesne
|
|
| n.领域，私有土地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
chestnuts
|
|
| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
commonwealth
|
|
| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
lodge
|
|
| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
gateway
|
|
| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
apprehensions
|
|
| 疑惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
gasps
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
wager
|
|
| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
tranquil
|
|
| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
nervously
|
|
| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
adipose
|
|
| adj.脂肪质的，脂肪多的；n.（储于脂肪组织中的）动物脂肪；肥胖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
nun
|
|
| n.修女，尼姑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
modesty
|
|
| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
gainsay
|
|
| v.否认，反驳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
erect
|
|
| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
chimera
|
|
| n.神话怪物；梦幻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
acorns
|
|
| n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
monks
|
|
| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
beads
|
|
| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
rippling
|
|
| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
oars
|
|
| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
rhythmical
|
|
| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
inflexible
|
|
| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
pertinacity
|
|
| n.执拗，顽固 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
134
gravel
|
|
| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
latch
|
|
| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
laurels
|
|
| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
petals
|
|
| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |