I have gathered since that after I left Martens he sent telegrams to Guy and Philip and her cousin Lord Tarvrille. He was I think amazed beyond measure at this revelation of the possibilities of his cold and distant wife, with a vast passion of jealousy8 awaking in him, and absolutely incapable9 of forming any plan to meet the demands of his extraordinary situation. Guy and Philip got to him that night, Tarvrille came down next morning, and Martens became a debate. Justin did not so much express views and intentions as have them extracted from him; it was manifest he was prepared for the amplest forgiveness of his wife if only I could be obliterated10 from their world. Confronted with her brothers, the two men in the world who could be frankly11 brutal12 to her, Mary's dignity suffered; she persisted she meant to go on seeing me, but she was reduced to passionate13 tears.
Into some such state of affairs I came that morning on the heels of my letter, demanding Lady Mary of a scared evasive butler.
Maxton and Tarvrille appeared: "Hullo, Stratton!" said Tarvrille, with a fine flavor of an agreeable chance meeting. Philip had doubts about his greeting me, and then extended his reluctant hand with a nervous grin to excuse the delay.
"I want to see Lady Mary," said I, stiffly.
"She's not up yet," said Tarvrille, with a hand on my shoulder. "Come and have a talk in the garden."
We went out with Tarvrille expanding the topic of the seasons. "It's a damned good month, November, say what you like about it." Philip walked grimly silent on my other hand.
"And it's a damned awkward situation you've got us into, Stratton," said Tarvrille, "say what you like about it."
"It isn't as though old Justin was any sort of beast," he reflected, "or anything like that, you know. He's a most astonishing decent chap, clean as they make them."
"This isn't a beastly intrigue," I said.
"It's one of those cases where things have to be readjusted. The best thing to do is for Mary and me to go abroad——"
"Yes, but does Mary think so?"
"Look here!" said Philip in a voice thick with rage. "I won't have Mary divorced. I won't. See? I won't."
"What the devil's it got to do with you?" I asked with an answering flash of fury.
Tarvrille's arm ran through mine. "Nobody's going to divorce Mary," he said reassuringly17. "Not even Justin. He doesn't want to, and nobody else can, and there you are!"
"But we two——"
"You two have had a tremendously good time. You've got found out—and there you are!"
"This thing has got to stop absolutely now," said Philip and echoed with a note of satisfaction in his own phrasing, "absolutely now."
"You see, Stratton," said Tarvrille as if he were expanding Philip's assertion, "there's been too many divorces in society. It's demoralizing people. It's discrediting18 us. It's setting class against class. Everybody is saying why don't these big people either set about respecting the law or altering it. Common people are getting too infernally clear-headed. Hitherto it's mattered so little.... But we can't stand any more of it, Stratton, now. It's something more than a private issue; it's a question of public policy. We can't stand any more divorces."
He reflected. "We have to consider something more than our own personal inclinations19. We've got no business to be here at all if we're not a responsible class. We owe something—to ourselves."
It was as if Tarvrille was as concerned as I was for this particular divorce, as if he struggled with a lively desire to see me and Mary happily married after the shortest possible interval20. And indeed he manifestly wasn't unsympathetic; he had the strongest proclivity21 for the romantic and picturesque22, and it was largely the romantic picturesqueness23 of renunciation that he urged upon me. Philip for the most part maintained a resentful silence; he was a clenched24 anger against me, against Mary, against the flaming possibilities that threatened the sister of Lord Maxton, that most promising25 and distinguished26 young man.
Of course their plans must have been definitely made before this talk, probably they had made them overnight, and probably it was Tarvrille had given them a practicable shape, but he threw over the whole of our talk so satisfying a suggestion of arrest and prolonged discussion that it never occurred to me that I should not be able to come again on the morrow and renew my demand to see Mary. Even when next day I turned my face to Martens and saw the flag had vanished from the flagstaff, it seemed merely a token of that household's perturbation. I thought the house looked oddly blank and sleepy as I drew near, but I did not perceive that this was because all the blinds were drawn27. The door upon the lawn was closed, and presently the butler came to open it. He was in an old white jacket, and collarless. "Lady Mary!" he said. "Lady Mary has gone, sir. She and Mr. Justin went yesterday after you called."
"Gone!" said I. "But where?"
"I think abroad, sir."
"Abroad!"
"I think abroad."
"But—— They've left an address?"
"Only to Mr. Justin's office," said the man. "Any letters will be forwarded from there."
I paused upon the step. He remained stiffly deferential28, but with an air of having disposed of me. He reproved me tacitly for forgetting that I ought to conceal29 my astonishment30 at this disappearance31. He was indeed an admirable man-servant. "Thank you," said I, and dropped away defeated from the door.
I went down the broad steps, walked out up the lawn, and surveyed house and trees and garden and sky. To the heights and the depths and the uttermost, I knew now what it was to be amazed....
点击收听单词发音
1 inversion | |
n.反向,倒转,倒置 | |
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2 thwarting | |
阻挠( thwart的现在分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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3 vowed | |
起誓,发誓(vow的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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4 sketched | |
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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5 jumble | |
vt.使混乱,混杂;n.混乱;杂乱的一堆 | |
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6 persuasion | |
n.劝说;说服;持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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7 intercepted | |
拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 ); 截住; 截击; 拦阻 | |
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8 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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9 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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10 obliterated | |
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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11 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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12 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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13 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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14 genially | |
adv.亲切地,和蔼地;快活地 | |
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15 Flared | |
adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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16 beacon | |
n.烽火,(警告用的)闪火灯,灯塔 | |
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17 reassuringly | |
ad.安心,可靠 | |
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18 discrediting | |
使不相信( discredit的现在分词 ); 使怀疑; 败坏…的名声; 拒绝相信 | |
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19 inclinations | |
倾向( inclination的名词复数 ); 倾斜; 爱好; 斜坡 | |
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20 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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21 proclivity | |
n.倾向,癖性 | |
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22 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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23 picturesqueness | |
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24 clenched | |
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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26 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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27 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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28 deferential | |
adj. 敬意的,恭敬的 | |
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29 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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30 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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31 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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