CHAPTER XVIII The Bottom of the Valley

 When the same afternoon had worn to evening, Power rode down to the river. His comings and goings at the hut passed unremarked. Gregory kept always ready his loud welcome, and his wife asked no questions and made no difficulties.

 

Power arrived every evening at sunset, and spent by the Pool the first hours of dark. For this end he endured the remainder of the day. He walked now on the very bottom of the valley into which he had descended¹. He rode no more to Surprise, and, calamity² on calamity, he was losing Mick O'Neill, his friend. Gloom bestrode a third horse when they rode together on the work of the run, until by one accord they sought each other out as little as need be; and in mute agreement came to visit here, the one when the other should be gone.

 

The sun had gone down on the edge of the plain when Power reached the Pool. As he entered the trees darkness was falling, and the[Pg 265] stars were coming out. When the horse brought him into the clearing the lamplight looked from the doorway³ of the hut in a broad beam and voices met him from indoors. He tethered the beast in an old place and put the saddle on end at the foot of a tree. Before he had done Moll Gregory was standing⁴ in the doorway of the hut.

 

"Is that you, Jim?"

 

"Yes, Molly."

 

He went across to her. Father and mother were within. Gregory swung on his seat in anxious welcome, and the woman nodded good-night. The four of them talked together for a little while.

 

"Round agen to see us?" cried Gregory. "Been about the run to-day I reckon from the look of you. Hot work moving about in the middle of the day. It don't seem to cool off at night now. The rains must be coming."

 

"It looks like it," Power answered.

 

"Have you heard what's happened?" said the woman. "The boss here ran into Mr. King yesterday. Mr. King won't touch the show since it went into the hard stuff, and says the boss owes him twenty quid or something and has a paper to show it." She turned bitterly on Gregory. "You always was a fool rushing to sign things."

 

"I had to keep going somehow, mother."

 

Moll raised her head. "I'll fix it, dad, when he's round next."

 

"I suppose things aren't too good lately?" Power said.

 

"I reckon they aren't. Since the show turned out a fake, there's not a bob to be raised anywhere. They're turning up tick at the store; too. They growl⁵ if you ask for a tin of dog."

 

"I reckon, Dad, Mr. Power might give us a hand until things was better, if it was put to him," said the woman.

 

"Is that what you are after?" Power answered.

 

"A-haw, haw, haw! We wouldn't say no if you made the offer," said Gregory, showing his dirty teeth.

 

"I'll think about it."

 

"There's a gentleman for you, mother! Put it here, Mr. Power." Gregory pushed out a dirty hand.

 

"It's early yet," Power answered from the doorway.

 

Presently Power and Molly were wandering among the trees—the night fallen upon them, dark, hot and murmurous⁶ with tiny voices.

 

They wandered along old ways, and said again old sayings, and did again old deeds. Who shall answer why she was ready to wander with him night by night through these majestic⁷ ways, taking his kisses, lying within his arms, and caring nothing for him? Lips set upon lips—no more could his kisses mean to her. Perhaps she had grown so lonely that she could bid no one begone. Perhaps twenty years of that hot land had set in flames her little heart. Perhaps it was her doom⁸ to fan fever and make men mad. Why did he come and come again, a threadbare lover, the despised even of himself? Why was he so unwearying with his embraces, unless it was because he had become an amorous⁹ wandering Jew, who had scoffed¹⁰ once at pure lips, and must now kiss for ever, and for ever fail to set passion afire.

 

They sat down presently on a fallen tree lying among the climbing grasses at the upper end of the Pool. Night by night he and she from their seat there had remarked the margin¹¹ of the water shrink from them. To-night they sat down again—he to wonder at his madness, she to do a hundred wanton acts—to tease the dog, to toss boughs¹² upon the water and hark to the sudden splash.

 

"Molly, what did you mean just now when you said you would make things right with Mr. King? Twenty pounds is twenty pounds to him and always will be."

 

"Aw, I didn't mean much. I know how to fix him. That's all."

 

 

"Child, you don't have dealings with him now, do you? You told me you never saw him."

 

"I can't help it if he comes. He's not this way too often."

 

"What terms are you on with him? Tell me the truth."

 

"It's not to do with you, I reckon, what our terms are. I've been kind to you when you asked me."

 

"You don't understand. All men are not like me. I sit here night by night hanging my hands, too fond of you to do you harm. But other men——. Tell me. I won't be angry. Has he ever persuaded you too far?"

 

"A gel only lives once. You told me that yourself."

 

"Molly! If half the world comes knocking on your door must you let them all in?"

 

"You could have had as much as him. Wake up, Jim. There's news for you."

 

"I don't feel like news just now."

 

"We had a stranger round these ways to-day. Guess who."

 

"I am a poor guesser."

 

"Guess."

 

"Man or woman?"

 

"Woman."

 

"I don't know a woman to come all this way.[Pg 269] Not Mrs. Elliott, forgotten to-night's supper, and climbed on to a horse?"

 

"Miss Neville."

 

"Maud!"

 

"Her."

 

"Well," he said coldly after a moment. "What have you to tell me?"

 

"There's nothing to tell. I thought it news for you, that's all."

 

"She must have ridden this way for a change. She often rides."

 

"She came to see Moll Gregory, and she saw Moll Gregory."

 

"What is it you are wanting to tell me? Be quick if you mean to say anything."

 

"That's not the way to ask for news."

 

"Very well. We won't discuss her further."

 

"You and she is too grand for us poor people. She came here on a like high racket to ask me to give you yes or no, and she tells me it's not on her account she's come; but because she is sorry for you. She says if I have loved somebody I'll know what she means. I can count a feller for every feller of hers."

 

"That's enough."

 

"What's enough?"

 

"Enough said. We've talked enough of this."

 

"Turning sulky now. Miss Neville will be kind to you if you go back."

 

 

"Molly, there's a good child, don't tease my temper any more. We'll talk of what you like, but forget this one thing. Why should I say a word in her defence? How does she need it, who is so far from our reach that you can't understand her, and I haven't the skill to price what I have lost? If you want to learn what love is go to her with your lesson books. All I have done has been of no account. You and I, child, could kiss on and on for ever, and with us all the crying lovers who count love a mere¹³ spending of kisses; and all those kisses kissed would fly up in the scales when what she had to bring was laid in the other balance."

 

He fell into a sudden black mood—an evil habit he had learned lately. He remembered he sat upon the fallen tree, and at his feet in the coarse grasses lay the loveliest woman he would ever look upon. The night was shrill¹⁴ with tiny voices, and endless lightnings opened and closed the skies, but for the time these things did not affect him.

 

It seemed he was coming to the bottom of the cup whose rim¹⁵ his lips had held for so long. The last drops were against his mouth and the sediment¹⁶ was on his tongue. And, lo! it appeared as if some virtue¹⁷ in the sediment quickened the eyesight of the spirit, for at last he could point a finger and say there was substance and there[Pg 271] shadow. Lo! what he had once thought substance was now revealed as shadow, and what he had believed shadow was assuredly substance.

 

He woke up when the child laid a hand in his own. "Say something, Jim, or I am going home." He kissed her very gently and started to talk to her. But from that hour his passion began to die.

 

1 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

2 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

3 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 growl   

v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣

参考例句：

• The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫，尾巴也跟着摇摆。
• The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。

6 murmurous   

adj.低声的

参考例句：

7 majestic   

adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的

参考例句：

• In the distance rose the majestic Alps.远处耸立着雄伟的阿尔卑斯山。
• He looks majestic in uniform.他穿上军装显得很威风。

8 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

9 amorous   

adj.多情的；有关爱情的

参考例句：

• They exchanged amorous glances and clearly made known their passions.二人眉来眼去，以目传情。
• She gave him an amorous look.她脉脉含情的看他一眼。

10 scoffed   

嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scoffed at our amateurish attempts. 他对我们不在行的尝试嗤之以鼻。
• A hundred years ago people scoffed at the idea. 一百年前人们曾嘲笑过这种想法。

11 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

12 boughs   

大树枝( bough的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The green boughs glittered with all their pearls of dew. 绿枝上闪烁着露珠的光彩。
• A breeze sighed in the higher boughs. 微风在高高的树枝上叹息着。

13 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

14 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

15 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

16 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

17 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。