I think we had forgotten Miss Summersley Satchel3 altogether. But she appeared as we sat down to tea at that same table at which we had breakfasted, and joined us as a matter of course. Conceivably she found the two animated4 friends of the morning had become rather taciturn. Indeed there came a lapse5 of silence so portentous6 that I roused myself to effort and told her, all over again, as I realized afterwards, the difficulties that had benighted7 me upon Titlis. Then Miss Satchel regaled Mary with some particulars of the various comings and goings of the hotel. I became anxious to end this tension and went into the inn to pay my bill and get my knapsack. When I came out Mary stood up.
"I'll come just a little way with you, Stephen," she said, and I could have fancied the glasses of the companion flashed to hear the surname of the morning reappear a Christian8 name in the afternoon....
"Is that woman behind us safe?" I asked, breaking the silence as we went up the mountain-side.
Mary looked over her shoulder for a contemplative second.
"She's always been—discretion itself."
We thought no more of Miss Satchel.
"This parting," said Mary, "is the worst of the price we have to pay.... Now it comes to the end there seem a thousand things one hasn't said...."
And presently she came back to that. "We shan't remember this so much perhaps. It was there we met, over there in the sunlight—among those rocks. I suppose—perhaps—we managed to say something...."
As the ascent9 grew steeper it became clear that if I was to reach the Melch See Inn by nightfall, our moment for parting had come. And with a "Well," and a white-lipped smile and a glance at the Argus-eyed hotel, she held out her hand to me. "I shall live on this, brother Stephen," she said, "for years."
"I too," I answered....
It was wonderful to stand and face her there, and see her real and living with the warm sunlight on her, and her face one glowing tenderness. We clasped hands; all the warm life of our hands met and clung and parted.
I went on alone up the winding path,—it zigzags10 up the mountain-side in full sight of the hotel for the better part of an hour—climbing steadily11 higher and looking back and looking back until she was just a little strip of white—that halted and seemed to wave to me. I waved back and found myself weeping. "You fool!" I said to myself, "Go on"; and it was by an effort that I kept on my way instead of running back to her again. Presently the curvature of the slope came up between us and hid her altogether, hid the hotel, hid the lakes and the cliffs....
It seemed to me that I could not possibly see her any more. It was as if I knew that sun had set for ever.
点击收听单词发音
1 moored | |
adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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2 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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3 satchel | |
n.(皮或帆布的)书包 | |
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4 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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5 lapse | |
n.过失,流逝,失效,抛弃信仰,间隔;vi.堕落,停止,失效,流逝;vt.使失效 | |
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6 portentous | |
adj.不祥的,可怕的,装腔作势的 | |
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7 benighted | |
adj.蒙昧的 | |
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8 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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9 ascent | |
n.(声望或地位)提高;上升,升高;登高 | |
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10 zigzags | |
n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路,曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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11 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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