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CHAPTER IX VISITORS
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 MISS Mason was sitting in her studio at four o’clock on Sunday afternoon. She was reading a small, red-covered book, within whose pages was enshrined a brief account of the life and work of Whistler.
 
At intervals1 she looked up from her reading to glance round the studio and smile. It was her dream incarnate2. She had waited forty-three years for its birth. She realized now that she had always wanted it, had always believed in it. All through the old days in the rose-beds, when she had pruned3 the trees, when she had grafted4 new buds, when she had watched the flowers expanding, she had dreamt of this studio. Only at moments it had looked real; generally it was far off and shadowy, but always it had been before her, and something had whispered to her heart, “Wait; one day it will come.”
 
And now it was no faint shadowy dream, but a living reality, and it would bring more glorious realities in its train. Nothing could be too wonderful to happen in the castle of her dreams.
 
Again she looked round the studio, and again she smiled. She would have liked to sing for happiness, only her voice was too gruff and cracked. She would have liked to dance for joy, only her old legs were too stiff. But she minded neither of these things, for her heart was beating to a little gay secret tune5 in which joy and thankfulness were woven in delicious harmony.
 
From behind the door that led to the tiny kitchen she heard murmured sounds and an occasional deep laugh. Sally’s scrappy little note had been answered by the appearance of Jim in his Sunday-best, shining from the washtub, redolent of yellow soap, every trace of his black weekday occupation removed. They were now cooing like a pair of young turtle-doves in a cage.
 
Suddenly Miss Mason was startled by a knock.
 
A moment later the door which led from the studio to the little vestibule opened, and Sally announced:
 
“Mr. Kirby and Mr. Oldfield.”
 
Miss Mason’s heart fluttered. It is an odd emotion, and now nearly out of fashion. It belonged to the days of “Cranford,” “Evelina,” and “Sense and Sensibility.” Now all emotions are big and passionate6, or calm and well-controlled. There are few gentle excitements left.
 
In spite of the fluttering, Miss Mason rose to her feet, a quiet dignified7 old figure.
 
“I am very pleased to see you,” she said, and she gave them each her hand with the air of a queen. “Sally,” she said, “bring tea.”
 
She sat down again. There was a little pink flush in her cheeks. For forty-three years she had spoken to no man of her own class except the vicar and doctor. The interview with Mr. Davis being purely8 on business did not count.
 
Barnabas and Dan put their caps on the oak chest beside the Sèvres bowl which was filled with the pink roses with whose portraiture9 Miss Mason had so sadly failed. Then they sat down.
 
There was a moment’s pause. Even Barnabas’ mental picture of Miss Mason—a picture supplied by Sally’s unconscious imitation of her—had not quite come up to the quaintness10 of the reality. He felt that he had suddenly stepped back at least a century. There was about the atmosphere a hint of potpourri12 and long ago half-forgotten days that are laid up in lavender. There was a completeness about the whole thing—from the oak dresser with its blue plates, the Sèvres bowl and the pink roses, to the woman in her voluminous black dress, wide white collar, and abundant grey hair covered with the finest of old lace caps—a completeness that only an artist could fully13 realize, though most people would have felt.
 
She was so extraordinarily14 ugly too. No ordinary commonplace plainness of feature, but downright ugliness, yet without the smallest trace of repulsiveness15 in it. It was a fascinating [Pg 88]kind of ugliness, and the eyes in the ugly face—they alone were really beautiful—shone like bits of red-brown amber16. It is a colour rarely seen.
 
Barnabas broke the silence.
 
“Your studio,” he said, “is charming. Dan and I watched the furniture coming in on Thursday morning. If it is not impertinent of me, may I congratulate you on it?”
 
“Glad you like it,” said Miss Mason. “It’s the first studio I’ve ever seen, but it’s the kind I always wanted. Have always pictured studios in my mind like this one.”
 
“You’re lucky in your mental images,” said Dan. “If you saw ours——” he broke off and shrugged17 his shoulders.
 
“But perhaps,” said Miss Mason anxiously, “yours is the real thing, and mine——”
 
“Yours,” said Barnabas, “is the dream to which we aspire18, and to which we cannot achieve. When you see ours—and we hope you will honour us with your presence—you will realize how very far short of our aspirations19 they must fall.”
 
“But,” said Miss Mason almost wistfully, “you paint real pictures in them.”
 
“Try to do so,” said Dan gruffly, “and a few of us succeed. Even in that most of us fail as we fail in our furniture. Paul and Michael are our geniuses.”
 
“Paul and Michael?” queried20 Miss Mason.
 
“Mr. Treherne and Mr. Chester,” explained [Pg 89]Barnabas. “They live in studios numbers one and three respectively. Jasper Merton has number five, Alan Farley number four, Dan number two, and mine is number six, next door to you.”
 
“The garden with the faun,” said Miss Mason.
 
“The garden with the faun,” replied Barnabas. And then he got up to move a table for Sally, who had come in with the tea-things, blue willow21 china on a tray covered with the daintiest of damask cloths. She brought in more dishes with cakes and bread and butter, and a copper22 kettle which was singing its heart out on a little spirit lamp. Then she left the room.
 
Miss Mason warmed the teapot and the tea-cups, measured the tea, and filled the teapot with boiling water. Then she took up the sugar-tongs.
 
“Sugar?” she asked.
 
“One lump each,” said Barnabas.
 
She put the little cubes into the cups, poured in milk and tea, and handed the cups to the men.
 
“Help yourselves,” she said. Then she looked up and smiled.
 
“Am quite delighted to see you,” she said, “but you’ll have to do the talking. Don’t suppose I’ve spoken more than six words a day for the last twenty years, till the last three weeks. Then it has been entirely23 about furniture. I’ve got out of the way of conversation.”
 
“Barnabas will supply the need,” said Dan. “He has the biggest flow of conversation I’ve ever met. Only it’s largely nonsense.”
 
“Should like nonsense,” said Miss Mason. “Never talked nonsense in my life.”
 
“No?” queried Barnabas politely, his eyes twinkling.
 
Then they all three laughed. And in the laugh Miss Mason forgot that she was trying to hide her shyness, for it suddenly disappeared, and there was nothing left to hide. She forgot that she had never set eyes on the men till ten minutes ago. She was no longer a hostess trying to feel at ease with strangers. She was just a happy woman talking to two happy men, the difference in age forgotten. Such a magic god is laughter.
 
And before an hour was over Miss Mason felt that she knew all about them. Not the things in which some people consider the knowledge of their fellow-men to consist—their father’s profession, their mother’s family, their relationship to various grandees24, the towns in which they have lived, the schools at which they have been educated, the number of their brothers and their sisters, all of which, if you come to think of it, are pure accidents, and have nothing to do with the man himself.
 
It was none of these things Miss Mason learnt. She found out that Barnabas had a universal love for nature and his fellow-men, in fact, for everything alive; and that his heart was as [Pg 91]sunny as his laugh. And that Dan’s rather gruff manner hid a heart as tender as a woman’s. There were a thousand minor25 characteristics she would discover by and by, but these were the salient facts, and showed the true man.
 
When they said good-bye it was with a promise from her to visit their studios, and with an assurance from them that the other four men were going to call on her.
 
They did—Jasper Merton the next day alone; Paul, Alan, and Michael on the Tuesday. Barnabas and Dan had broken the ice for her, and Miss Mason received them with little trepidation26. Having come once they came again.
 
And not one of them guessed in what a curious way the influence of the quaint11 old lady was to be woven into the lives of at least three of them. For the Three Fates, who sit all day long spinning in three great black chairs, are strange and ancient dames27, and they saw in Miss Mason a kindred spirit. In fact, they laughed to think of her likeness28 to them as she sat in the carved oak chair in her studio with her knitting in her hands.
 
And Miss Mason took one and all of the six artists of the courtyard to her heart and loved them spontaneously as a mother loves her sons. But Jasper she guessed was unhappy, and she was sorry for him, and she was a tiny bit afraid of Michael’s tongue and Alan she did not quite understand, and Paul she was as proud of as if he were truly her son, and Dan gave her a delightful29 feeling of being protected, he was so big, but Barnabas—though she loved them all—took the first place in her heart.

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1 intervals f46c9d8b430e8c86dea610ec56b7cbef     
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息
参考例句:
  • The forecast said there would be sunny intervals and showers. 预报间晴,有阵雨。
  • Meetings take place at fortnightly intervals. 每两周开一次会。
2 incarnate dcqzT     
adj.化身的,人体化的,肉色的
参考例句:
  • She was happiness incarnate.她是幸福的化身。
  • That enemy officer is a devil incarnate.那个敌军军官简直是魔鬼的化身。
3 pruned f85c1df15d6cc4e51e146e7321c6b2a5     
v.修剪(树木等)( prune的过去式和过去分词 );精简某事物,除去某事物多余的部分
参考例句:
  • Next year's budget will have to be drastically pruned. 下一年度的预算将大幅度削减。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The roses had been pruned back savagely. 玫瑰被狠狠地修剪了一番。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 grafted adfa8973f8de58d9bd9c5b67221a3cfe     
移植( graft的过去式和过去分词 ); 嫁接; 使(思想、制度等)成为(…的一部份); 植根
参考例句:
  • No art can be grafted with success on another art. 没有哪种艺术能成功地嫁接到另一种艺术上。
  • Apples are easily grafted. 苹果树很容易嫁接。
5 tune NmnwW     
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整
参考例句:
  • He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子,并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
  • The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。
6 passionate rLDxd     
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的
参考例句:
  • He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
  • He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。
7 dignified NuZzfb     
a.可敬的,高贵的
参考例句:
  • Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence. 在整个审讯过程中,他始终沉默以保持尊严。
  • He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend. 他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。
8 purely 8Sqxf     
adv.纯粹地,完全地
参考例句:
  • I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
  • This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。
9 portraiture JPhxz     
n.肖像画法
参考例句:
  • I am going to have my portraiture taken.我请人给自己画张肖像。
  • The painting of beautiful women was another field of portraiture.人物画中的另一个领域是仕女画。
10 quaintness 8e82c438d10a5c2c8c2080f7ef348e89     
n.离奇有趣,古怪的事物
参考例句:
  • The shops had still a pleasant quaintness. 店铺里依然弥漫着一种亲切的古雅气氛。 来自辞典例句
  • She liked the old cottage; its quaintness was appealing. 她喜欢那个老旧的小屋,其奇巧的风格很吸引人。 来自互联网
11 quaint 7tqy2     
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的
参考例句:
  • There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里,有很多小巷。
  • They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。
12 potpourri PPKxj     
n.混合之事物;百花香
参考例句:
  • As tobacco cigarette burns,a potpourri of 4000 chemicals is released,including carbon monoxide and hydrocyanic acid.当烟被点燃时,融合了四千种化学品的气体被释放出来,其中包括一氧化碳和氢氰酸。
  • Even so,there is a slight odour of potpourri emanating from Longfellow.纵然如此,也还是可以闻到来自朗费罗的一种轻微的杂烩的味道。
13 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
14 extraordinarily Vlwxw     
adv.格外地;极端地
参考例句:
  • She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
  • The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨,大海出奇地宁静。
15 repulsiveness 0243ed283ddf6d3c3813870431a105cb     
参考例句:
  • In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. 因此,劳动越使人感到厌恶,工资也就越减少。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言
16 amber LzazBn     
n.琥珀;琥珀色;adj.琥珀制的
参考例句:
  • Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗?
  • This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。
17 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》
18 aspire ANbz2     
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于
参考例句:
  • Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
  • I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。
19 aspirations a60ebedc36cdd304870aeab399069f9e     
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音
参考例句:
  • I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
  • The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。
20 queried 5c2c5662d89da782d75e74125d6f6932     
v.质疑,对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 );询问
参考例句:
  • She queried what he said. 她对他说的话表示怀疑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • \"What does he have to do?\" queried Chin dubiously. “他有什么心事?”琴向觉民问道,她的脸上现出疑惑不解的神情。 来自汉英文学 - 家(1-26) - 家(1-26)
21 willow bMFz6     
n.柳树
参考例句:
  • The river was sparsely lined with willow trees.河边疏疏落落有几棵柳树。
  • The willow's shadow falls on the lake.垂柳的影子倒映在湖面上。
22 copper HZXyU     
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的
参考例句:
  • The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
  • Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。
23 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
24 grandees b56a4bfd572b54025901b6b6f4afff8a     
n.贵族,大公,显贵者( grandee的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The highest-ranking members of the Spanish aristocracy are the grandees. 西班牙贵族中爵位最高的成员乃是大公。 来自辞典例句
  • Several grandees of the town are present at the party. 城里的几位要人出席了晚会。 来自互联网
25 minor e7fzR     
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
参考例句:
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
26 trepidation igDy3     
n.惊恐,惶恐
参考例句:
  • The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
  • The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。
27 dames 0bcc1f9ca96d029b7531e0fc36ae2c5c     
n.(在英国)夫人(一种封号),夫人(爵士妻子的称号)( dame的名词复数 );女人
参考例句:
  • Dames would not comment any further. Dames将不再更多的评论。 来自互联网
  • Flowers, candy, jewelry, seemed the principal things in which the elegant dames were interested. 鲜花、糖果和珠宝看来是那些贵妇人的主要兴趣所在。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
28 likeness P1txX     
n.相像,相似(之处)
参考例句:
  • I think the painter has produced a very true likeness.我认为这位画家画得非常逼真。
  • She treasured the painted likeness of her son.她珍藏她儿子的画像。
29 delightful 6xzxT     
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的
参考例句:
  • We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
  • Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。


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