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CHAPTER XXX KNOTS UNTIED
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 ON Friday afternoon at half-past two Barnabas took Pippa to feed the monkeys and other animals at the Zoological Gardens. It was by Miss Mason’s special request.
 
During the time that elapsed between their departure and four o’clock Miss Mason was distinctly restless. She began to sew at some fine white cambric into which she was putting her most beautiful stitches. When she had returned from Hope, Bridget had told her of a Secret that was to arrive in the spring—a secret which if it was a boy was to be called Oliver, but Bridget hoped it would be Olive. She and Jasper were beamingly happy.
 
Miss Mason put in a few stitches, but she found it impossible to sit still. She dropped the work into a basket, got up from her chair, and began to walk up and down the room. Then she would suddenly sit down and begin to sew again.
 
“I’m an old fool,” she said. “I can no more help interfering1 than I can help breathing, and yet I’m as nervous as a cat.” And she began to watch the clock anxiously.
 
 
It had just chimed the hour in its silvery tone when Sally opened the door.
 
“The Duchessa di Corleone,” she said. She had learnt the name by now.
 
Sara came into the room. She was in a dark blue dress, and because the day was keen, though bright, she was wrapped in dark sable2 furs.
 
“My dear,” said Miss Mason, “I am quite delighted to see you. Sally, bring tea.”
 
Sara sat down and loosened her furs. Miss Mason looked at her. Her face was paler than even its usual worry warranted. It had lost the under-glow of warmth, and her eyes looked dark and sad.
 
“Did you have a good time in Devonshire?” she asked.
 
Delightful3,” said Miss Mason. “A few people grinned fatuously4 when they saw my old figure skipping over the rocks. But I said to myself, ‘The Duchessa wouldn’t see anything to laugh at,’ and so I didn’t care.”
 
Sara smiled. “You still remember our conversation long ago?”
 
“I’ve never forgotten it,” said Miss Mason emphatically. “I fancy if I had not seen you that evening I should have given up all my dreams and have gone back to the old house for the rest of my life. And what a lot I should have missed if I had.”
 
“And what a lot a great many people would have missed,” said Sara. “You’ve woven yourself into a good many lives. Why, dozens of babies would have been minus white woolly jackets, while several bigger babies would have lost a good deal of happiness.”
 
“Nice of you to say so,” said Miss Mason. And she began to pour out tea.
 
For the next twenty minutes they talked of little things—the visit to Devonshire, the donkey-tour, the flat Aurora5 and Alan had taken, and Pippa at present feeding the animals at the Zoo. Sara talked lightly and even gaily6. As Barnabas had said, she was a good actress. It was not till the meal was finished, then Miss Mason spoke7 on the subject of her heart.
 
“My dear,” she then said suddenly, “what is the matter?”
 
Sara flushed. “I can’t talk about it,” she said. She made no attempt at denial.
 
“I don’t really want you to tell me,” said Miss Mason, “because I know. But I think I can find a way out of the difficulty.”
 
Sara gave a little sad laugh. “If you can you are clever. I’ve thought and thought, and can see none.”
 
Miss Mason coughed. “It’s all perfectly8 simple, really,” she said, “only I don’t quite know how to begin to tell you. It seems to me that money is the most difficult thing in the world to talk about.” She took two envelopes from the table. “Will you, my dear, read the contents of those. It seems to me the simplest way.”
 
Sara took the envelopes—long ones—and drew out the parchment contents. She read slowly. At first she could hardly grasp their meaning, it had been so unexpectedly presented to her.
 
At last she looked up. Her face was quivering.
 
“But—but—I simply couldn’t——”
 
“But, my dear, why not?” said Miss Mason. “Will you look at the whole thing reasonably. If I chose to bequeath certain sums of money to you and Paul at my death I presume you would not feel it incumbent9 on you to refuse them. Why shouldn’t you accept them now?”
 
“But——” began Sara again. And she stopped, looking from the documents she held to Miss Mason.
 
“I know,” said Miss Mason, “that people often feel a kind of pride about accepting money, though why on earth they should calmly take it from dead people and refuse to accept it from living ones, I can’t imagine. Of course their argument might be that dead people can’t use it themselves. That would be true. But then this special living person can’t use all hers. Let me just put things clearly to you. I have a capital that brings me in fifteen thousand a year. Five thousand a year I am devoting to a certain scheme in which Barnabas is helping10 me. I wish to make over sufficient capital [Pg 296]to you and Paul to bring you in two thousand five hundred a year each. That will leave me with five thousand a year for my own use. My dear, I don’t even spend that.”
 
“But charities——” began Sara vaguely11.
 
“Pooh!” said Miss Mason. “I’m sick of them. If you’d written as many charitable letters as I have you’d have had enough of charities. I wrote hundreds for Miss Stanhope. She always filled in the amount she gave herself. I never knew what it was. But I can give to all the charities I want out of five thousand. Now, my dear, will you agree. Will you give me the pleasure of your acceptance and allow me a few more years on this extremely pleasant planet in which I can see your happiness, instead of waiting till I’m dead and coming then to drop a few grateful tears and white flowers on my grave. I’d infinitely12 prefer the former I assure you.”
 
Sara gave a little half-laughing sob13. “I accept with all my heart,” she said, “and I don’t know how ever I am to thank you.”
 
Miss Mason grunted14. “Now there’s another thing,” she said, “please don’t try. Do think if you can that the money just happened into the bank without any human agency. If you’re going to keep an eternal feeling of gratitude15 before your mind it will spoil everything. I want to be able to quarrel with you and Paul and scold you as much as I like, and if I felt that gratitude was preventing [Pg 297]you from answering me back it would destroy my whole pleasure in the proceeding16. Besides, my dear, if there is any debt owing it is I who owe it. I’ve never forgotten the hope you gave me the first evening we met.”
 
Sara stretched out her hands with a little laugh of pure happiness. It was the first time she had laughed like that for three months.
 
“And I tried to sermonize a little,” she cried. “And then we got on to fairy tales, and I was happier. Oh, isn’t life a fairy tale! And if we told all the dull, prosaic17 people of the truly delightful and unexpected things that happen wouldn’t they say that it was all made-up, and far-fetched, and things like that. When it is just that they are too stupid to see the happenings, and too heavy and dull to look over the wall in which they have enclosed themselves. I can’t tell you how happy I am. And will you think me a pig if I run away for a little while and tell Paul?”
 
She got up from her chair, radiant, vital, as she had been on the day she had first entered the studio.
 
“My dear,” said Miss Mason, “if you hadn’t said you were going I should have sent you.”
 
Sara held out both her hands. “It seems,” she said, “as if I were taking it too quietly, and as if I ought to have protested more. But after everything you said I really couldn’t. It was all so absolutely true. And we’d both so much rather have you here seeing our happiness in your wonderful legacy18, than that we should go to a grave to thank you, and lay that white flower tenderly on the grass.”
 
Miss Mason gave a gruff laugh. “You can’t conceive,” she said, “what pleasure you’ve given me.” Then quite suddenly she took Sara in her arms and kissed her.
 
“Now, my dear,” she said as she released her, “do, for goodness’ sake, go and make that poor Paul happy.”

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 interfering interfering     
adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词
参考例句:
  • He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事!
  • I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预,让我自己拿主意。
2 sable VYRxp     
n.黑貂;adj.黑色的
参考例句:
  • Artists' brushes are sometimes made of sable.画家的画笔有的是用貂毛制的。
  • Down the sable flood they glided.他们在黑黝黝的洪水中随波逐流。
3 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。
4 fatuously 41dc362f3ce45ca2819bfb123217b3d9     
adv.愚昧地,昏庸地,蠢地
参考例句:
  • He is not fatuously content with existing conditions. 他不会愚昧地满于现状的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • This time the opportunity presented what he fatuously termed to himself a 'cinch'. 这一次出现的机会极为难得,他满以为十拿九稳哩。 来自英汉文学 - 欧亨利
5 aurora aV9zX     
n.极光
参考例句:
  • The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
  • Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。
6 gaily lfPzC     
adv.欢乐地,高兴地
参考例句:
  • The children sing gaily.孩子们欢唱着。
  • She waved goodbye very gaily.她欢快地挥手告别。
7 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
8 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
9 incumbent wbmzy     
adj.成为责任的,有义务的;现任的,在职的
参考例句:
  • He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
  • It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。
10 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
11 vaguely BfuzOy     
adv.含糊地,暖昧地
参考例句:
  • He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
  • He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面,对一切都视而不见。
12 infinitely 0qhz2I     
adv.无限地,无穷地
参考例句:
  • There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
  • The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。
13 sob HwMwx     
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣
参考例句:
  • The child started to sob when he couldn't find his mother.孩子因找不到他妈妈哭了起来。
  • The girl didn't answer,but continued to sob with her head on the table.那个女孩不回答,也不抬起头来。她只顾低声哭着。
14 grunted f18a3a8ced1d857427f2252db2abbeaf     
(猪等)作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 ); (指人)发出类似的哼声; 咕哝着说
参考例句:
  • She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声,继续看书,不屑抬起头来看一眼。
  • She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。
15 gratitude p6wyS     
adj.感激,感谢
参考例句:
  • I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
  • She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。
16 proceeding Vktzvu     
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报
参考例句:
  • This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
  • The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。
17 prosaic i0szo     
adj.单调的,无趣的
参考例句:
  • The truth is more prosaic.真相更加乏味。
  • It was a prosaic description of the scene.这是对场景没有想象力的一个描述。
18 legacy 59YzD     
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西
参考例句:
  • They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
  • He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。


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