But it strains the reader’s eyes to look so far afield. Back across the wide blue expanse of the broad Atlantic his gaze returns, and straight beneath him he sees various people[67] who approach each other slowly, ignorant of the strange fact that the impending13 upheaval14 in a minor15 city of Europe is to have a marked influence upon their respective lives.
Behold16 Ludovics, the restless victim of too much patriotism17 and too little self-control, pausing in helpless hesitation18 outside the gateway19 of a road-house not many miles above Harlem Bridge. The afternoon has grown warm, and Ludovics has walked far and fast. Is it strange that he craves20 a stimulant21?
Look forward, farther eastward22. If your eye has not grown weary, you will observe that a youth and two women are seated on the piazza23 of the Country Club, engaged in the harmless occupation of discussing the adaptability24 of the weather and the roads to a spin on their wheels. Unless our impressions are deceptive25, the youth is Ned Strong, and one of the women is his sister. You have not yet been introduced to their companion, Mrs. Brevoort, but surely you have heard of the beautiful widow who last season made herself famous on two continents by refusing to turn over to an English peer her fortune and her liberty. There are those who say that she was sufficiently26 eccentric to love her husband and to mourn him dead, but the impression has prevailed in the Westchester set of late that what an English duke failed to accomplish Ned Strong bids fair to compass.
Turning your gaze away from this attractive trio, after you have noted27, perhaps, that an air of melancholy28 seems to surround the tall, lithe29 figure of Kate Strong, you will observe[68] that Norman Benedict has just left a New York train at the New Rochelle station, and that his face bears an expression of suppressed excitement kept in check by a set purpose that may at any moment encounter insuperable obstacles. If you watch him a moment, you will see that he bargains with the driver of a light, open carriage, and, after making terms, enters the vehicle and is driven toward the Sound.
Has your eye grown weary? Surely Prince Carlo is worthy30 of a little optic effort on your part. See him seated on the balcony of the ramshackle old manor31 house, his cheek resting on his hand as he gazes mournfully across the restless waves of the Sound and wonders what passes in the palace at Rexopolis. Could he see, as we have seen, the restless populace, the armed guards, the busy cavalry, he would know that a crisis in the fate of his country is at hand, and the look of settled melancholy on his handsome face would change to an expression of mingled32 anger and despair. But Prince Carlo is young, and youth inclines to hope. The beauty of the scene that lies before him on this bracing33 autumnal afternoon is conducive34 to an optimistic mood, and, in spite of the seemingly desperate character of his position, the young man dreams rather of love than war, and the smiling face of a fair-haired American girl comes between him and the frowning countenance35 of red-scarred revolution.
Perhaps Prince Carlo is undergoing a temptation different from any that ever before assaulted a son of kings. It is possible that under the influence of a caressing36 environment,[69] lulling37 his senses by the beauty of earth, and sea and sky and the gentle kisses of the warm south wind, he thinks with a shudder38 of the horrors that surround him in a palace far away, and longs for the peace that life in a land where it would be “always afternoon” would bestow39. What if his father died and he, the crown prince, should never return to Rexania? What if, taking to his heart a wife who would be his queen in a kingdom where no traitors41 lurked42, he should forever abandon the cares and perils43 that had made his father’s existence one long nightmare, to which death alone could bring relief? It might be that the historians of his country would call him, in the years to come, a traitor40 to the cause he had been born into the world to uphold, the Judas Iscariot of age-end monarchy44. But, for all that, his gain would be peace and love.
Prince Carlo’s temptation was not a mere45 weighing of abstract propositions, nor even the natural inclination46 of an imaginative youth to take the flower-bedecked path of least resistance. There was an influence at work to make him subservient47 to the wishes of the men surrounding him that none of them suspected and that he himself only vaguely48 realized. How great an impression the few hours he had spent in Kate Strong’s companionship had made upon him he was just beginning dimly to appreciate. He found himself practically unable to compel his mind to dwell for any great length of time on the weighty problems that were his to solve. He would discover, to his dismay, that while mentally in search of a path that would lead him in honor from the difficulties[70] that beset49 him, his mind obstinately50 refused to confine itself to his immediate51 environment and all that was involved therein, and would devote itself to reproducing for his delight the tones of a maiden’s voice, the gleam of her eloquent52 eyes, the fascinations53 of her gestures and her smiles.
He upon whom rested the destinies of a nation—perhaps the future of institutions hallowed by time and claiming a divine origin—had become little more than a love-sick youth, gazing dreamily upon the heaving bosom54 of a land-locked sea and longing55 for the presence of the woman his young heart craved56.
Thus beneath us have we seen a few of the countless57 millions upon whom the September sun shone down that day; and we know that in their comings and their goings they wove unconsciously that web of destiny whose warp58 and woof fashion the garment that hides the mystery of life.
点击收听单词发音
1 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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2 thronged | |
v.成群,挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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4 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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5 constrained | |
adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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6 regiments | |
(军队的)团( regiment的名词复数 ); 大量的人或物 | |
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7 cavalry | |
n.骑兵;轻装甲部队 | |
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8 monarchies | |
n. 君主政体, 君主国, 君主政治 | |
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9 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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10 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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11 anachronistic | |
adj.时代错误的 | |
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12 cult | |
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜 | |
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13 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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14 upheaval | |
n.胀起,(地壳)的隆起;剧变,动乱 | |
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15 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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16 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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17 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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18 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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19 gateway | |
n.大门口,出入口,途径,方法 | |
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20 craves | |
渴望,热望( crave的第三人称单数 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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21 stimulant | |
n.刺激物,兴奋剂 | |
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22 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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23 piazza | |
n.广场;走廊 | |
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24 adaptability | |
n.适应性 | |
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25 deceptive | |
adj.骗人的,造成假象的,靠不住的 | |
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26 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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27 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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28 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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29 lithe | |
adj.(指人、身体)柔软的,易弯的 | |
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30 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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31 manor | |
n.庄园,领地 | |
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32 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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33 bracing | |
adj.令人振奋的 | |
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34 conducive | |
adj.有益的,有助的 | |
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35 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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36 caressing | |
爱抚的,表现爱情的,亲切的 | |
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37 lulling | |
vt.使镇静,使安静(lull的现在分词形式) | |
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38 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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39 bestow | |
v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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40 traitor | |
n.叛徒,卖国贼 | |
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41 traitors | |
卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 ); 叛徒; 背叛者; 背信弃义的人 | |
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42 lurked | |
vi.潜伏,埋伏(lurk的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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43 perils | |
极大危险( peril的名词复数 ); 危险的事(或环境) | |
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44 monarchy | |
n.君主,最高统治者;君主政体,君主国 | |
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45 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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46 inclination | |
n.倾斜;点头;弯腰;斜坡;倾度;倾向;爱好 | |
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47 subservient | |
adj.卑屈的,阿谀的 | |
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48 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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49 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
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50 obstinately | |
ad.固执地,顽固地 | |
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51 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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52 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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53 fascinations | |
n.魅力( fascination的名词复数 );有魅力的东西;迷恋;陶醉 | |
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54 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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55 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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56 craved | |
渴望,热望( crave的过去式 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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57 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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58 warp | |
vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见 | |
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