CHAPTER 7

 We parted at last at a cab¹-rank near a bridge over the Canal at the western end of Park Village. I remember that I made a last appeal to her as we walked towards it, and that we loitered on the bridge, careless of who might see us there, in a final conflict of our wills. "Before it is too late, Mary, dear," I said.

 

She shook her head, her white lips pressed together.

 

"But after the things that have happened. That night—the moonlight!"

 

"It's not fair," she said, "for you to talk of that. It isn't fair."

 

"But Mary. This is parting. This indeed is parting."

 

She answered never a word.

 

"Then at least talk to me again for one time more."

 

"Afterwards," she said. "Afterwards I will talk to you. Don't make things too hard for me, Stephen."

 

"If I could I would make this impossible. It's—it's hateful."

 

She turned to the kerb, and for a second or so we stood there without speaking. Then I beckoned² to a hansom.

 

She told me Beatrice Normandy's address.

 

I helped her into the cab. "Good-bye," I said with a weak affectation of an everyday separation, and I turned to the cabman with her instructions.

 

Then again we looked at one another. The cabman waited. "All right, sir?" he asked.

 

"Go ahead!" I said, and lifted my hat to the little white face within.

 

I watched the cab until it vanished³ round the curve⁴ of the road. Then I turned about to a world that had become very large and empty and meaningless.

1 cab   

n.计程车，出租车，出租单马车；vi.乘出租马车

参考例句：

• The cab drove over his legs.马车从他腿上碾过。
• Shall we walk or take a cab?我们步行还是坐出租车？

2 beckoned   

v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He beckoned to the waiter to bring the bill. 他招手示意服务生把账单送过来。
• The seated figure in the corner beckoned me over. 那个坐在角落里的人向我招手让我过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 vanished   

adj.消失了的v.消失( vanish的过去式和过去分词 )；突然不见；不复存在；绝迹

参考例句：

• He walked through—and vanished. Poof! Like that. 他走了过去，然后就嗖的一下子不见了。
• The magician vanished in a puff of smoke. 魔术师在一股烟雾中突然不见了。

4 curve   

n.曲线，弯曲，曲球；v.弯，使...弯曲

参考例句：

• The train slowed its speed as it went around the curve.火车在弯道行驶时放慢了速度。
• The path of an arrow is a curve.箭的轨迹是一条曲线。