She was reassured1 as to Cyril during the next few days. He did not attempt to repeat his ingenious naughtiness of the Monday evening, and he came directly home for tea; moreover he had, as a kind of miracle performed to dazzle her, actually arisen early on the Tuesday morning and done his arithmetic. To express her satisfaction she had manufactured a specially2 elaborate straw- frame for the sketch3 after Sir Edwin Landseer, and had hung it in her bedroom: an honour which Cyril appreciated. She was as happy as a woman suffering from a recent amputation4 can be; and compared with the long nightmare created by Samuel's monomania and illness, her existence seemed to be now a beneficent calm.
Cyril, she thought, had realized the importance in her eyes of tea, of that evening hour and that companionship which were for her the flowering of the day. And she had such confidence in his goodness that she would pour the boiling water on the Horniman tea-leaves even before he arrived: certainty could not be more sure. And then, on the Friday of the first week, he was late! He bounded in, after dark, and the state of his clothes indicated too clearly that he had been playing football in the mud that was a grassy5 field in summer.
"Have you been kept in, my boy?" she asked, for the sake of form.
"No, mother," he said casually6. "We were just kicking the ball about a bit. Am I late?"
"Better go and tidy yourself," she said, not replying to his question. "You can't sit down in that state. And I'll have some fresh tea made. This is spoilt."
"Oh, very well!"
Her sacred tea--the institution which she wanted to hallow by long habit, and which was to count before everything with both of them- -had been carelessly sacrificed to the kicking of a football in mud! And his father buried not ten days! She was wounded: a deep, clean, dangerous wound that would not bleed. She tried to be glad that he had not lied; he might easily have lied, saying that he had been detained for a fault and could not help being late. No! He was not given to lying; he would lie, like any human being, when a great occasion demanded such prudence7, but he was not a liar8; he might fairly be called a truthful9 boy. She tried to be glad, and did not succeed. She would have preferred him to have lied.
Amy, grumbling10, had to boil more water.
When he returned to the parlour, superficially cleaned, Constance expected him to apologize in his roundabout boyish way; at any rate to woo and wheedle11 her, to show by some gesture that he was conscious of having put an affront12 on her. But his attitude was quite otherwise. His attitude was rather brusque and overbearing and noisy. He ate a very considerable amount of jam, far too quickly, and then asked for more, in a tone of a monarch13 who calls for his own. And ere tea was finished he said boldly, apropos14 of nothing:
"I say, mother, you'll just have to let me go to the School of Art after Easter."
And stared at her with a fixed15 challenge in his eyes.
He meant, by the School of Art, the evening classes at the School of Art. His father had decided16 absolutely against the project. His father had said that it would interfere17 with his lessons, would keep him up too late at night, and involve absence from home in the evening. The last had always been the real objection. His father had not been able to believe that Cyril's desire to study art sprang purely18 from his love of art; he could not avoid suspecting that it was a plan to obtain freedom in the evenings-- that freedom which Samuel had invariably forbidden. In all Cyril's suggestions Samuel had been ready to detect the same scheme lurking19. He had finally said that when Cyril left school and took to a vocation20, then he could study art at night if he chose, but not before.
"You know what your father said!" Constance replied.
"But, mother! That's all very well! I'm sure father would have agreed. If I'm going to take up drawing I ought to do it at once. That's what the drawing-master says, and I suppose he ought to know." He finished on a tone of insolence21.
"I can't allow you to do it yet," said Constance, quietly. "It's quite out of the question. Quite!"
He pouted22 and then he sulked. It was war between them. At times he was the image of his Aunt Sophia. He would not leave the subject alone; but he would not listen to Constance's reasoning. He openly accused her of harshness. He asked her how she could expect him to get on if she thwarted23 him in his most earnest desires. He pointed24 to other boys whose parents were wiser.
"It's all very fine of you to put it on father!" he observed sarcastically25.
He gave up his drawing entirely26.
When she hinted that if he attended the School of Art she would be condemned27 to solitary28 evenings, he looked at her as though saying: "Well, and if you are--?" He seemed to have no heart.
After several weeks of intense unhappiness she said: "How many evenings do you want to go?"
The war was over.
He was charming again. When she was alone she could cling to him again. And she said to herself: "If we can be happy together only when I give way to him, I must give way to him." And there was ecstasy29 in her yielding. "After all," she said to herself, "perhaps it's very important that he should go to the School of Art." She solaced30 herself with such thoughts on three solitary evenings a week, waiting for him to come home.
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1
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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2
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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3
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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4
amputation
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| n.截肢 | |
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5
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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7
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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8
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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9
truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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wheedle
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| v.劝诱，哄骗 | |
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affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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apropos
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| adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于 | |
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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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16
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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22
pouted
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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24
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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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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27
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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28
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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solaced
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| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
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