He had slightly misrepresented the matter in saying that Catherine had consented to take the great step.
We left her just now declaring that she would burn her ships behind her; but Morris, after having elicited1 this declaration, had become conscious of good reasons for not taking it up.
He avoided, gracefully2 enough, fixing a day, though he left her under the impression that he had his eye on one. Catherine may have had her difficulties; but those of her circumspect3 suitor are also worthy4 of consideration.
The prize was certainly great; but it was only to be won by striking the happy mean between precipitancy and caution.
It would be all very well to take one's jump and trust to Providence5; Providence was more especially on the side of clever people, and clever people were known by an indisposition to risk their bones.
The ultimate reward of a union with a young woman who was both unattractive and impoverished6 ought to be connected with immediate7 disadvantages by some very palpable chain.
Between the fear of losing Catherine and her possible fortune altogether, and the fear of taking her too soon and finding this possible fortune as void of actuality as a collection of emptied bottles, it was not comfortable for Morris Townsend to choose; a fact that should be remembered by readers disposed to judge harshly of a young man who may have struck them as making but an indifferently successful use of fine natural parts.
He had not forgotten that in any event Catherine had her own ten thousand a year; he had devoted8 an abundance of meditation9 to this circumstance.
But with his fine parts he rated himself high, and he had a perfectly10 definite appreciation11 of his value, which seemed to him inadequately12 represented by the sum I have mentioned.
At the same time he reminded himself that this sum was considerable, that everything is relative, and that if a modest income is less desirable than a large one, the complete absence of revenue is nowhere accounted an advantage.
These reflexions gave him plenty of occupation, and made it necessary that he should trim his sail.
Dr. Sloper's opposition13 was the unknown quantity in the problem he had to work out.
The natural way to work it out was by marrying Catherine; but in mathematics there are many short cuts, and Morris was not without a hope that he should yet discover one.
When Catherine took him at his word and consented to renounce14 the attempt to mollify her father, he drew back skilfully15 enough, as I have said, and kept the wedding-day still an open question.
Her faith in his sincerity16 was so complete that she was incapable17 of suspecting that he was playing with her; her trouble just now was of another kind.
The poor girl had an admirable sense of honour; and from the moment she had brought herself to the point of violating her father's wish, it seemed to her that she had no right to enjoy his protection.
It was on her conscience that she ought to live under his roof only so long as she conformed to his wisdom.
There was a great deal of glory in such a position, but poor Catherine felt that she had forfeited18 her claim to it.
She had cast her lot with a young man against whom he had solemnly warned her, and broken the contract under which he provided her with a happy home.
She could not give up the young man, so she must leave the home; and the sooner the object of her preference offered her another the sooner her situation would lose its awkward twist.
This was close reasoning; but it was commingled19 with an infinite amount of merely instinctive20 penitence21.
Catherine's days at this time were dismal22, and the weight of some of her hours was almost more than she could bear.
Her father never looked at her, never spoke23 to her.
He knew perfectly what he was about, and this was part of a plan.
She looked at him as much as she dared (for she was afraid of seeming to offer herself to his observation), and she pitied him for the sorrow she had brought upon him.
She held up her head and busied her hands, and went about her daily occupations; and when the state of things in Washington Square seemed intolerable, she closed her eyes and indulged herself with an intellectual vision of the man for whose sake she had broken a sacred law.
Mrs. Penniman, of the three persons in Washington Square, had much the most of the manner that belongs to a great crisis.
If Catherine was quiet, she was quietly quiet, as I may say, and her pathetic effects, which there was no one to notice, were entirely24 unstudied and unintended. If the Doctor was stiff and dry and absolutely indifferent to the presence of his companions, it was so lightly, neatly25, easily done, that you would have had to know him well to discover that, on the whole, he rather enjoyed having to be so disagreeable.
But Mrs. Penniman was elaborately reserved and significantly silent; there was a richer rustle26 in the very deliberate movements to which she confined herself, and when she occasionally spoke, in connexion with some very trivial event, she had the air of meaning something deeper than what she said.
Between Catherine and her father nothing had passed since the evening she went to speak to him in his study.
She had something to say to him--it seemed to her she ought to say it; but she kept it back, for fear of irritating him.
He also had something to say to her; but he was determined27 not to speak first. He was interested, as we know, in seeing how, if she were left to herself, she would "stick."
At last she told him she had seen Morris Townsend again, and that their relations remained quite the same.
"I think we shall marry--before very long.
And probably, meanwhile, I shall see him rather often; about once a week, not more."
The Doctor looked at her coldly from head to foot, as if she had been a stranger.
It was the first time his eyes had rested on her for a week, which was fortunate, if that was to be their expression.
"Why not three times a day?" he asked.
"What prevents your meeting as often as you choose?"
She turned away a moment; there were tears in her eyes.
Then she said, "It is better once a week."
"I don't see how it is better.
It is as bad as it can be.
If you flatter yourself that I care for little modifications28 of that sort, you are very much mistaken.
It is as wrong of you to see him once a week as it would be to see him all day long.
Not that it matters to me, however."
Catherine tried to follow these words, but they seemed to lead towards a vague horror from which she recoiled29.
"I think we shall marry pretty soon," she repeated at last.
Her father gave her his dreadful look again, as if she were some one else.
"Why do you tell me that?
It's no concern of mine."
"Oh, father!" she broke out, "don't you care, even if you do feel so?"
"Not a button.
Once you marry, it's quite the same to me when or where or why you do it; and if you think to compound for your folly30 by hoisting31 your flag in this way, you may spare yourself the trouble."
With this he turned away.
But the next day he spoke to her of his own accord, and his manner was somewhat changed.
"Shall you be married within the next four or five months?" he asked.
"I don't know, father," said Catherine.
"It is not very easy for us to make up our minds."
"Put it off, then, for six months, and in the meantime I will take you to Europe.
I should like you very much to go."
It gave her such delight, after his words of the day before, to hear that he should "like" her to do something, and that he still had in his heart any of the tenderness of preference, that she gave a little exclamation32 of joy.
But then she became conscious that Morris was not included in this proposal, and that--as regards really going--she would greatly prefer to remain at home with him.
But she blushed, none the less, more comfortably than she had done of late.
"It would be delightful33 to go to Europe," she remarked, with a sense that the idea was not original, and that her tone was not all it might be.
"Very well, then, we will go.
Pack up your clothes."
"I had better tell Mr. Townsend," said Catherine.
Her father fixed34 his cold eyes upon her.
"If you mean that you had better ask his leave, all that remains35 to me is to hope he will give it."
The girl was sharply touched by the pathetic ring of the words; it was the most calculated, the most dramatic little speech the Doctor had ever uttered.
She felt that it was a great thing for her, under the circumstances, to have this fine opportunity of showing him her respect; and yet there was something else that she felt as well, and that she presently expressed.
"I sometimes think that if I do what you dislike so much, I ought not to stay with you."
"To stay with me?"
"If I live with you, I ought to obey you."
"If that's your theory, it's certainly mine," said the Doctor, with a dry laugh.
"But if I don't obey you, I ought not to live with you--to enjoy your kindness and protection."
This striking argument gave the Doctor a sudden sense of having underestimated his daughter; it seemed even more than worthy of a young woman who had revealed the quality of unaggressive obstinacy36. But it displeased37 him--displeased him deeply, and he signified as much.
"That idea is in very bad taste," he said.
"Did you get it from Mr. Townsend?"
"Oh no; it's my own!" said Catherine eagerly.
"Keep it to yourself, then," her father answered, more than ever determined she should go to Europe.
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elicited
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| 引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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circumspect
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| adj.慎重的，谨慎的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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inadequately
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| ad.不够地；不够好地 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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forfeited
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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commingled
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| v.混合，掺和，合并( commingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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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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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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hoisting
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| 起重，提升 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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