His voice was low pitched, and even softer than Félicité’s. He was tall, sinewy6, swarthy, and altogether severe looking. His thick black hair waved, and it gleamed like the breast of a crow. The sweep of his mustache, which 40was not so black, outlined the broad contour of the mouth. Beneath the under lip grew a small tuft which he was much given to twisting, and which he permitted to grow, apparently7 for no other purpose. Cazeau’s eyes were dark blue, narrow and overshadowed. His hands were coarse and stiff from close acquaintance with farming tools and implements8, and he handled his fork and knife clumsily. But he was distinguished9 looking, and succeeded in commanding a good deal of respect, and even fear sometimes.
He ate his supper alone, by the light of a single coal-oil lamp that but faintly illuminated10 the big room, with its bare floor and huge rafters, and its heavy pieces of furniture that loomed11 dimly in the gloom of the apartment. Félicité, ministering to his wants, hovered12 about the table like a little, bent13, restless shadow.
She served him with a dish of sunfish fried crisp and brown. There was nothing else set before him beside the bread and butter and the bottle of red wine which she locked carefully in the buffet14 after he had poured his second glass. She was occupied with her mistress’s 41absence, and kept reverting15 to it after he had expressed his solicitude about the pony.
“Dat beat me! on’y marry two mont’, an’ got de head turn’ a’ready to go ’broad. C’est pas Chrétien, ténez!”
Cazeau shrugged16 his shoulders for answer, after he had drained his glass and pushed aside his plate. Félicité’s opinion of the unchristian-like behavior of his wife in leaving him thus alone after two months of marriage weighed little with him. He was used to solitude17, and did not mind a day or a night or two of it. He had lived alone ten years, since his first wife died, and Félicité might have known better than to suppose that he cared. He told her she was a fool. It sounded like a compliment in his modulated18, caressing19 voice. She grumbled20 to herself as she set about clearing the table, and Cazeau arose and walked outside on the gallery; his spur, which he had not removed upon entering the house, jangled at every step.
The night was beginning to deepen, and to gather black about the clusters of trees and shrubs21 that were grouped in the yard. In the beam of light from the open kitchen door a 42black boy stood feeding a brace22 of snarling23, hungry dogs; further away, on the steps of a cabin, some one was playing the accordion24; and in still another direction a little negro baby was crying lustily. Cazeau walked around to the front of the house, which was square, squat25 and one-story.
A belated wagon26 was driving in at the gate, and the impatient driver was swearing hoarsely27 at his jaded28 oxen. Félicité stepped out on the gallery, glass and polishing towel in hand, to investigate, and to wonder, too, who could be singing out on the river. It was a party of young people paddling around, waiting for the moon to rise, and they were singing Juanita, their voices coming tempered and melodious29 through the distance and the night.
Cazeau’s horse was waiting, saddled, ready to be mounted, for Cazeau had many things to attend to before bed-time; so many things that there was not left to him a moment in which to think of Athénaïse. He felt her absence, though, like a dull, insistent30 pain.
However, before he slept that night he was visited by the thought of her, and by a vision of her fair young face with its drooping31 lips 43and sullen32 and averted33 eyes. The marriage had been a blunder; he had only to look into her eyes to feel that, to discover her growing aversion. But it was a thing not by any possibility to be undone34. He was quite prepared to make the best of it, and expected no less than a like effort on her part. The less she revisited the rigolet, the better. He would find means to keep her at home hereafter.
These unpleasant reflections kept Cazeau awake far into the night, notwithstanding the craving35 of his whole body for rest and sleep. The moon was shining, and its pale effulgence36 reached dimly into the room, and with it a touch of the cool breath of the spring night. There was an unusual stillness abroad; no sound to be heard save the distant, tireless, plaintive37 notes of the accordion.
点击收听单词发音
1 fretted | |
焦躁的,附有弦马的,腐蚀的 | |
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2 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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3 solicitude | |
n.焦虑 | |
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4 pony | |
adj.小型的;n.小马 | |
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5 misgiving | |
n.疑虑,担忧,害怕 | |
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6 sinewy | |
adj.多腱的,强壮有力的 | |
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7 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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8 implements | |
n.工具( implement的名词复数 );家具;手段;[法律]履行(契约等)v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 );执行;贯彻;使生效 | |
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9 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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10 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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11 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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12 hovered | |
鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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13 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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14 buffet | |
n.自助餐;饮食柜台;餐台 | |
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15 reverting | |
恢复( revert的现在分词 ); 重提; 回到…上; 归还 | |
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16 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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17 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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18 modulated | |
已调整[制]的,被调的 | |
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19 caressing | |
爱抚的,表现爱情的,亲切的 | |
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20 grumbled | |
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声 | |
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21 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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22 brace | |
n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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23 snarling | |
v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的现在分词 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
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24 accordion | |
n.手风琴;adj.可折叠的 | |
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25 squat | |
v.蹲坐,蹲下;n.蹲下;adj.矮胖的,粗矮的 | |
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26 wagon | |
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车 | |
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27 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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28 jaded | |
adj.精疲力竭的;厌倦的;(因过饱或过多而)腻烦的;迟钝的 | |
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29 melodious | |
adj.旋律美妙的,调子优美的,音乐性的 | |
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30 insistent | |
adj.迫切的,坚持的 | |
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31 drooping | |
adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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32 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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33 averted | |
防止,避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 ); 转移 | |
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34 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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35 craving | |
n.渴望,热望 | |
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36 effulgence | |
n.光辉 | |
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37 plaintive | |
adj.可怜的,伤心的 | |
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