It is curious how little I remember of Mary's childhood. All that has happened between us since lies between that and my present self like some luminous9 impenetrable mist. I know we liked each other, that I was taller than she was and thought her legs unreasonably10 thin, and that once when I knelt by accident on a dead stick she had brought into an Indian camp we had made near the end of the west shrubbery, she flew at me in a sudden fury, smacked12 my face, scratched me and had to be suppressed, and was suppressed with extreme difficulty by the united manhood of us three elder boys. Then it was I noted13 first the blazing blueness of her eyes. She was light and very plucky14, so that none of us cared to climb against her, and she was as difficult to hold as an eel15. But all these traits and characteristics vanished when she was transformed.
For what seems now a long space of time I had not seen her or any of the family except Philip; it was certainly a year or more, probably two; Maxton was at a crammer's and I think the others must have been in Canada with Lord Ladislaw. Then came some sort of estrangement16 between him and his wife, and she returned with Mary and Guy to Burnmore and stayed there all through the summer.
I was in a state of transition between the infinitely17 great and the infinitely little. I had just ceased to be that noble and potent18 being, that almost statesmanlike personage, a sixth form boy at Harbury, and I was going to be an Oxford19 undergraduate. Philip and I came down together by the same train from Harbury, I shared the Burnmore dog-cart and luggage cart, and he dropped me at the rectory. I was a long-limbed youngster of seventeen, as tall as I am now, and fair, so fair that I was still boyish-faced while most of my contemporaries and Philip (who favored his father) were at least smudgy with moustaches. With the head-master's valediction20 and the grave elder-brotherliness of old Henson, and the shrill21 cheers of a little crowd of juniors still echoing in my head, I very naturally came home in a mood of exalted22 gravity, and I can still remember pacing up and down the oblong lawn behind the rockery and the fig-tree wall with my father, talking of my outlook with all the tremendous savoir faire that was natural to my age, and noting with a secret gratification that our shoulders were now on a level. No doubt we were discussing Oxford and all that I was to do at Oxford; I don't remember a word of our speech though I recall the exact tint23 of its color and the distinctive24 feeling of our measured equal paces in the sunshine....
I must have gone up to Burnmore House the following afternoon. I went up alone and I was sent out through the little door at the end of the big gallery into the garden. In those days Lady Ladislaw had made an Indian pavilion under the tall trees at the east end of the house, and here I found her with her cousin Helena Christian entertaining a mixture of people, a carriageful from Hampton End, the two elder Fawneys and a man in brown who had I think ridden over from Chestoxter Castle. Lady Ladislaw welcomed me with ample graciousness—as though I was a personage. "The children" she said were still at tennis, and as she spoke25 I saw Guy, grown nearly beyond recognition and then a shining being in white, very straight and graceful26, with a big soft hat and overshadowed eyes that smiled, come out from the hurried endearments27 of the sunflakes under the shadows of the great chestnuts28, into the glow of summer light before the pavilion.
"Steve arrived!" she cried, and waved a welcoming racquet.
I do not remember what I said to her or what else she said or what anyone said. But I believe I could paint every detail of her effect. I know that when she came out of the brightness into the shadow of the pavilion it was like a regal condescension29, and I know that she was wonderfully self-possessed and helpful with her mother's hospitalities, and that I marvelled30 I had never before perceived the subtler sweetness in the cadence31 of her voice. I seem also to remember a severe internal struggle for my self-possession, and that I had to recall my exalted position in the sixth form to save myself from becoming tongue-tied and abashed32 and awkward and utterly33 shamed.
You see she had her hair up and very prettily34 dressed, and those aggressive lean legs of hers had vanished, and she was sheathed35 in muslin that showed her the most delicately slender and beautiful of young women. And she seemed so radiantly sure of herself!
After our first greeting I do not think I spoke to her or looked at her again throughout the meal. I took things that she handed me with an appearance of supreme36 indifference37, was politely attentive38 to the elder Miss Fawney, and engaged with Lady Ladislaw and the horsey little man in brown in a discussion of the possibility of mechanical vehicles upon the high road. That was in the early nineties. We were all of opinion that it was impossible to make a sufficiently39 light engine for the purpose. Afterwards Mary confessed to me how she had been looking forward to our meeting, and how snubbed I had made her feel....
Then a little later than this meeting in the pavilion, though I am not clear now whether it was the same or some subsequent afternoon, we are walking in the sunken garden, and great clouds of purple clematis and some less lavish40 heliotrope-colored creeper, foam41 up against the ruddy stone balustrading. Just in front of us a fountain gushes42 out of a grotto43 of artificial stalagmite and bathes the pedestal of an absurd little statuette of the God of Love. We are talking almost easily. She looks sideways at my face, already with the quiet controlled watchfulness44 of a woman interested in a man, she smiles and she talks of flowers and sunshine, the Canadian winter—and with an abrupt45 transition, of old times we've had together in the shrubbery and the wilderness46 of bracken out beyond. She seems tremendously grown-up and womanly to me. I am talking my best, and glad, and in a manner scared at the thrill her newly discovered beauty gives me, and keeping up my dignity and coherence47 with an effort. My attention is constantly being distracted to note how prettily she moves, to wonder why it is I never noticed the sweet fall, the faint delightful48 whisper of a lisp in her voice before.
We agree about the flowers and the sunshine and the Canadian winter—about everything. "I think so often of those games we used to invent," she declares. "So do I," I say, "so do I." And then with a sudden boldness: "Once I broke a stick of yours, a rotten stick you thought a sound one. Do you remember?"
Then we laugh together and seem to approach across a painful, unnecessary distance that has separated us. It vanishes for ever. "I couldn't now," she says, "smack11 your face like that, Stephen."
That seems to me a brilliantly daring and delightful thing for her to say, and jolly of her to use my Christian name too! "I believe I scratched," she adds.
"You never scratched," I assert with warm conviction. "Never."
"I did," she insists and I deny. "You couldn't."
"We're growing up," she cries. "That's what has happened to us. We shall never fight again with our hands and feet, never—until death do us part."
"For richer, or poorer," she cries, taking up my challenge with a lifting laugh in her voice.
And then to make it all nothing again, she exclaims at the white lilies that rise against masses of sweet bay along the further wall....
How plainly I can recall it all! How plainly and how brightly! As we came up the broad steps at the further end towards the tennis lawn, she turned suddenly upon me and with a novel assurance of command told me to stand still. "There," she said with a hand out and seemed to survey me with her chin up and her white neck at the level of my eyes. "Yes. A whole step," she estimated, "and more, taller than I. You will look down on me, Stephen, now, for all the rest of our days."
"I shall always stand," I answered, "a step or so below you."
"No," she said, "come up to the level. A girl should be smaller than a man. You are a man, Stephen—almost.... You must be near six feet.... Here's Guy with the box of balls."
She flitted about the tennis court before me, playing with Philip against Guy and myself. She punished some opening condescensions with a wicked vigor—and presently Guy and I were straining every nerve to save the set. She had a low close serve I remember that seemed perfectly50 straightforward51 and simple, and was very difficult to return.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
linguistic
|
|
| adj.语言的，语言学的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
avenge
|
|
| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
warfare
|
|
| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
Christians
|
|
| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
swell
|
|
| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
luminous
|
|
| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
unreasonably
|
|
| adv. 不合理地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
smack
|
|
| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
smacked
|
|
| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
plucky
|
|
| adj.勇敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
eel
|
|
| n.鳗鲡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
estrangement
|
|
| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
potent
|
|
| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
Oxford
|
|
| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
valediction
|
|
| n．告别演说，告别词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
shrill
|
|
| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
tint
|
|
| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
distinctive
|
|
| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
spoke
|
|
| 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： |
|
|
|
|
26
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
endearments
|
|
| n.表示爱慕的话语，亲热的表示( endearment的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
chestnuts
|
|
| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
condescension
|
|
| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
marvelled
|
|
| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
cadence
|
|
| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
abashed
|
|
| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
prettily
|
|
| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
sheathed
|
|
| adj.雕塑像下半身包在鞘中的；覆盖的；铠装的；装鞘了的v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的过去式和过去分词 )；包，覆盖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
attentive
|
|
| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
lavish
|
|
| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
foam
|
|
| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
gushes
|
|
| n.涌出，迸发( gush的名词复数 )v.喷，涌( gush的第三人称单数 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
grotto
|
|
| n.洞穴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
watchfulness
|
|
| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
abrupt
|
|
| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
coherence
|
|
| n.紧凑；连贯；一致性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
delightful
|
|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
precedent
|
|
| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
straightforward
|
|
| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |