In the evening she took an Abeille from the top of the pile on the counter, and throwing a light shawl over her head, started with the paper over to the locksmith’s shop. She did not know if she were committing a sin in so doing. She would ask Father Fochelle on Saturday, when she went to confession3. She did not think it could be a sin; she would have called long before on any other sick neighbor, and she intuitively felt that in this distinction might lie the possibility of sin.
The shop was deserted4 except for the presence of Lacodie’s little boy of five, who sat upon the floor playing with the tools and contrivances which all his days he had coveted5, and which all his days had been denied to him. Mamzelle Fleurette mounted the narrow stairway in the rear of the shop which led to an upper landing and then into the room of the married couple. She stood a while hesitating 284upon this landing before venturing to knock softly upon the partly open door through which she could hear their voices.
“I thought,” she remarked apologetically to Augustine, “that perhaps Monsieur Lacodie might like to look at the paper and you had no time to come for it, so I brought it myself.”
“Come in, come in, Mamzelle Fleurette. It’s Mamzelle Fleurette who comes to inquire about you, Lacodie,” Augustine called out loudly to her husband, whose half consciousness she somehow confounded with deafness.
Mamzelle Fleurette drew mincingly6 forward, clasping her thin hands together at the waist line, and she peeped timorously7 at Lacodie lying lost amid the bedclothes. His black mane was tossed wildly over the pillow and lent a fictitious8 pallor to the yellow waxiness9 of his drawn10 features. An approaching chill was sending incipient11 shudders12 through his frame, and making his teeth claque. But he still turned his head courteously13 in Mamzelle Fleurette’s direction.
285“Bien bon de votre part, Mamzelle Fleurette—mais c’est fini. J’suis flambé, flambé, flambé!”
Oh, the pain of it! to hear him in such extremity thanking her for her visit, assuring her in the same breath that all was over with him. She wondered how Augustine could hear it so composedly. She whisperingly inquired if a priest had been summoned.
“Inutile; il n’en veut pas,” was Augustine’s reply. So he would have no priest at his bedside, and here was a new weight of bitterness for Mamzelle Fleurette to carry all her days.
She flitted back to her store through the darkness, herself like a slim shadow. The November evening was chill and misty14. A dull aureole shot out from the feeble gas jet at the corner, only faintly and for an instant illumining her figure as it glided15 rapidly and noiselessly along the banquette. Mamzelle Fleurette slept little and prayed much that night. Saturday morning Lacodie died. On Sunday he was buried and Mamzelle Fleurette did not go to the funeral, because Father Fochelle told her plainly she had no business there.
286It seemed inexpressibly hard to Mamzelle Fleurette that she was not permitted to hold Lacodie in tender remembrance now that he was dead. But Father Fochelle, with his practical insight, made no compromise with sentimentality; and she did not question his authority, or his ability to master the subtleties16 of a situation utterly17 beyond reach of her own powers.
It was no longer a pleasure for Mamzelle Fleurette to go to confession as it had formerly18 been. Her heart went on loving Lacodie and her soul went on struggling; for she made this delicate and puzzling distinction between heart and soul, and pictured the two as set in a very death struggle against each other.
“I cannot help it, father. I try, but I cannot help it. To love him is like breathing; I do not know how to help it. I pray, and pray, and it does no good, for half of my prayers are for the repose19 of his soul. It surely cannot be a sin, to pray for the repose of his soul?”
Father Fochelle was heartily20 sick and tired of Mamzelle Fleurette and her stupidities. Oftentimes he was tempted21 to drive her from 287the confessional, and forbid her return until she should have regained22 a rational state of mind. But he could not withhold23 absolution from a penitent24 who, week after week, acknowledged her shortcoming and strove with all her faculties25 to overcome it and atone26 for it.
点击收听单词发音
1 clattering | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的现在分词形式) | |
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2 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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3 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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4 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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5 coveted | |
adj.令人垂涎的;垂涎的,梦寐以求的v.贪求,觊觎(covet的过去分词);垂涎;贪图 | |
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6 mincingly | |
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7 timorously | |
adv.胆怯地,羞怯地 | |
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8 fictitious | |
adj.虚构的,假设的;空头的 | |
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9 waxiness | |
n.蜡质,柔软,可塑 | |
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10 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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11 incipient | |
adj.起初的,发端的,初期的 | |
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12 shudders | |
n.颤动,打颤,战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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13 courteously | |
adv.有礼貌地,亲切地 | |
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14 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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15 glided | |
v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 );掠过;(鸟或飞机 ) 滑翔 | |
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16 subtleties | |
细微( subtlety的名词复数 ); 精细; 巧妙; 细微的差别等 | |
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17 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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18 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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19 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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20 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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21 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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22 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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23 withhold | |
v.拒绝,不给;使停止,阻挡 | |
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24 penitent | |
adj.后悔的;n.后悔者;忏悔者 | |
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25 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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26 atone | |
v.赎罪,补偿 | |
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