小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » The Old Room » CHAPTER III
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER III
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
 Fru Adelheid stood on the balcony. She plucked the red flowers and threw them into the square below. She wore a long, white gown; her gloves and her white boa lay on the ground. She had just come from the theatre and had been bored.
 
Now she turned towards the room.
 
Cordt sat huddled1 together before the fireplace and stared in front of him. She wanted to see his face and called to him. He pushed back his chair and looked up:
 
“I was thinking of the play we have been to see,” he said.
 
“Yes, it was stupid.”
 
She drew the other chair over the floor, so that she could look at the jar with the naked man writhing2 through thorns.
 
[27]“There was a time when I was tired of law,” said Cordt. “I was glad when the poet showed me a marriage that was broken for love. I used to think that people grew greater through it and that Heaven seemed higher and earth more green.”
 
She shuddered3 again and wrapped her skirt closer about her feet.
 
“Now I am so tired of lawlessness. I loathe4 these women and their lovers.”
 
“You are married yourself now,” she answered.
 
“What do you say?”
 
He looked up. She could see that he had not caught her words and she was glad.
 
“There must be a struggle, no doubt,” she said.
 
“Of course there must. There is. In the old days, they were not allowed to come together and now they are not allowed to stay together.”
 
[28]She said nothing, but let her hand glide5 over the jar.
 
“All these faithless wives have lowered love. I could imagine a woman of refinement6 stifling7 her love, because she would not give it scope.”
 
“Because she was afraid.”
 
“Because she was refined.”
 
They sat silent for a time and looked at the live embers in the white ashes.
 
“Do you think there are many who do that?”
 
He looked up.
 
“Do you think there are many faithless wives?”
 
“I don’t know. Why shouldn’t there be?”
 
He leant his head on his hands. Fru Adelheid played with the jar.
 
“But I can’t understand that people care to go to the theatre.”
 
“Where would you have them go?”
 
[29]He pushed back his chair so that he could see her. She remained sitting as she sat and thought of nothing.
 
“Adelheid,” he said, “I suppose you wouldn’t care to stay at home to-night?”
 
She lay back in her chair and looked at her hands.
 
“Oh,” she said, “I wanted to go out to supper.”
 
“I should so much like to talk to you.”
 
“But I did come home from the theatre, dear,” she replied and put out her hand to him.
 
He did not see it and she let it fall.
 
“I would rather have stayed at home after the theatre, Adelheid.”
 
“Yes, I see,” she answered and just shrugged8 her shoulders. “I did not understand.”
 
“But you understood it in the theatre. And now you want to sup out all the same.”
 
[30]He bent9 over to her to catch her eyes. She said nothing and did not look at him.
 
“Adelheid.”
 
Fru Adelheid knit her brow:
 
“I don’t go to the theatre, you see, for the sake of the play,” she said. “That does not amuse me. But it amuses me to watch that sea of people and to hear them clamor and then fall silent. I like the way they clap and the way they are quite still when anything good is being said on the stage. Then something sings inside me and I enjoy it.”
 
He looked at her for a moment; then he laughed and rubbed his hands. Fru Adelheid turned her chair towards him, so close that her knees touched his:
 
“What is it that you wanted to talk to me about this evening?” she asked. “That couldn’t be postponed10 until the theatre was over? That couldn’t wait[31] for an hour, now that I feel like going out to supper?”
 
He looked at her and shook his head.
 
“Was it anything? Or were you only tired and empty, as I was ... and as the faithless wives are ... and the modern poets and ... and everybody?”
 
“No, Adelheid,” he said. “No. It was nothing. Nothing at all.”
 
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said and suddenly flung herself violently back in her chair. “There is something behind your words.”
 
Cordt nodded.
 
“You are angry with me. What is it that I do? We live no differently, that I know of, from other people in our circle. We travel, we go to the theatre, we go out and we receive our friends at home. We meet amusing people, artists ... everybody who is anybody.”
 
[32]“Are you always amused among amusing people?”
 
She looked at him a little doubtfully:
 
“There is no such thing as always anywhere.”
 
“No,” he said, “more’s the pity. There is not.”
 
They sat silent, both steeped in thought. Then he pushed his hair from his forehead and said, calmly:
 
“Try if you can understand me, Adelheid. When a woman marries and becomes a mother, she usually becomes quiet ... quieter, I mean. I mean that there are victories which she cannot win, triumphs which she cannot achieve ... which she does not trouble about. She does not trouble about them, Adelheid, because she has deepened her life ... because she has come so near to one man that the approach of other men is distasteful to her. Then she becomes quiet[33] ... quieter. And this quietness is not empty, but just richer than all the rest.”
 
She looked at him with a strangely inquisitive11 flash in her angry eyes:
 
“Are you jealous?” she asked.
 
He shook his head and made a gesture of denial with his hand. But she sprang from her chair and stood before him with great, proud eyes:
 
“You ought to be, Cordt,” she said. “You ought to be. I am yours and I love you. You won me once: see to it that you know how to keep me. Fight for me, Cordt. I am young, I am pretty and the world is full of men.”
 
He rose deliberately12 and looked at her till she thought for a moment that he would strike her.
 
“You will be twenty-six next month,” he said. “And, besides, we in our family don’t fight to keep our wives.”
 
“Cordt.”
 
[34]She sat down without knowing what she was doing. He looked at her and she looked back at him. She could not help thinking how tall he was; and how easily he wore his clothes; and that one of his shoulders was a little lower than the other.
 
Then he crossed the room, so quickly that he nearly tripped over the carpet. He struggled with the old spinning-wheel and pulled it over the floor. She followed him with her eyes.
 
“Can you spin on my great-grandmother’s wheel, Adelheid?” he asked.
 
She crossed her arms on her breast and looked at him.
 
“Can’t you, Adelheid? Couldn’t you learn? Not if I begged you to?”
 
He pulled the spinning-wheel right in front of her and placed it as if she were to use it then and there. Then he sat down in his chair again.
 
[35]“Don’t you think you could, Adelheid?”
 
They looked hard at each other. Then they became timid and shy and dropped their eyes.
 
They both thought of holding out their hands, but neither could see the other’s. They longed to throw themselves into each other’s arms, but they sat as stiff as statues. Their lips trembled; but they did not look at each other and neither knew anything of the other’s thought.
 
“I am thinking how very small we look in these big chairs,” he said, at last.
 
His voice was calm and she grew quite calm at once. It was all over; there was peace in their souls. It was not a reconciliation13, for they remembered no quarrel. Their glances rested confidently upon each other.
 
[36]There was nothing between them and they were friends.
 
“I wonder if we are inferior to those who sat here before us,” she said. “Different, yes; but inferior?”
 
They both rose.
 
“Much inferior,” said Cordt, “and much less happy.”
 
They crossed the room and went out on the balcony, as was their custom before they went to bed.
 
The stars of the September night rode in a high sky. Most of the lamps were extinguished and there were but few people in the square. A drunken man was singing far away. The sound of the water falling in the fountain swelled14 up in the silence.
 
“How beautiful it is here!” he said.
 
“Yes.”
 
“And now the summer nights are over and we have not enjoyed them.”
 
[37]She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
 
“I do not think that in the whole world there is a square so pretty as this,” he said.
 
“Oh, yes ... in Florence....”
 
He sighed and led her into the room:
 
“We have travelled too much, Adelheid.”
 
She crossed the floor quickly and opened the door. He remained standing15 on the balcony.
 
It had all seethed16 up in him again. He fought against it, but to no purpose.
 
“Are you coming, Cordt?”
 
She was outside in the passage and could not see him.
 
“Do you go.... I will come presently.”
 
He forced his voice to be as calm as possible, but it sounded very unnatural17 in his own ears. He stood quite still and[38] listened. She remained standing for a moment, as though she were considering.
 
Then she closed the door and went. He could hear that she went hurriedly.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 huddled 39b87f9ca342d61fe478b5034beb4139     
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
  • We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。
2 writhing 8e4d2653b7af038722d3f7503ad7849c     
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • She was writhing around on the floor in agony. 她痛得在地板上直打滚。
  • He was writhing on the ground in agony. 他痛苦地在地上打滚。
3 shuddered 70137c95ff493fbfede89987ee46ab86     
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动
参考例句:
  • He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车,车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 loathe 60jxB     
v.厌恶,嫌恶
参考例句:
  • I loathe the smell of burning rubber.我厌恶燃着的橡胶散发的气味。
  • You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时,你会厌恶油腻的气味。
5 glide 2gExT     
n./v.溜,滑行;(时间)消逝
参考例句:
  • We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着,眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
  • So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞,宛如滑翔。
6 refinement kinyX     
n.文雅;高尚;精美;精制;精炼
参考例句:
  • Sally is a woman of great refinement and beauty. 莎莉是个温文尔雅又很漂亮的女士。
  • Good manners and correct speech are marks of refinement.彬彬有礼和谈吐得体是文雅的标志。
7 stifling dhxz7C     
a.令人窒息的
参考例句:
  • The weather is stifling. It looks like rain. 今天太闷热,光景是要下雨。
  • We were stifling in that hot room with all the windows closed. 我们在那间关着窗户的热屋子里,简直透不过气来。
8 shrugged 497904474a48f991a3d1961b0476ebce     
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀,什么也没说。
  • She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩,装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
10 postponed 9dc016075e0da542aaa70e9f01bf4ab1     
vt.& vi.延期,缓办,(使)延迟vt.把…放在次要地位;[语]把…放在后面(或句尾)vi.(疟疾等)延缓发作(或复发)
参考例句:
  • The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
  • The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。
11 inquisitive s64xi     
adj.求知欲强的,好奇的,好寻根究底的
参考例句:
  • Children are usually inquisitive.小孩通常很好问。
  • A pat answer is not going to satisfy an inquisitive audience.陈腔烂调的答案不能满足好奇的听众。
12 deliberately Gulzvq     
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地
参考例句:
  • The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
  • They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。
13 reconciliation DUhxh     
n.和解,和谐,一致
参考例句:
  • He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
  • Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。
14 swelled bd4016b2ddc016008c1fc5827f252c73     
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情)
参考例句:
  • The infection swelled his hand. 由于感染,他的手肿了起来。
  • After the heavy rain the river swelled. 大雨过后,河水猛涨。
15 standing 2hCzgo     
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。
16 seethed 9421e7f0215c1a9ead7d20695b8a9883     
(液体)沸腾( seethe的过去式和过去分词 ); 激动,大怒; 强压怒火; 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth)
参考例句:
  • She seethed silently in the corner. 她在角落里默默地生闷气。
  • He seethed with rage as the train left without him. 他误了火车,怒火中烧。
17 unnatural 5f2zAc     
adj.不自然的;反常的
参考例句:
  • Did her behaviour seem unnatural in any way?她有任何反常表现吗?
  • She has an unnatural smile on her face.她脸上挂着做作的微笑。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533