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CHAPTER XIX THE FULL MOON
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 The sun was cold, the dark dead Moon
 
Hung low behind dull leaden bars,
 
And you came barefoot down the sky
 
Between the grey unlighted Stars.
 
You laid your hand upon my soul,
 
My soul that cried to you for rest,
 
And all the light of the lost Sun
 
Was in the comfort of your breast.
 
There was no veil upon your heart,
 
There was no veil upon your eyes;
 
I did not know the Stars were dim,
 
Nor long for that dead Moon to rise.
 
They dined with Edward and Mary next day.
 
The centipedes were still immured1, and Edward made tentative overtures2 to David on the subject of broaching3 the case after dinner.
 
“Edward is the soul of hospitality,” David said afterwards. “He keeps his best to the end. First, a positively4 good dinner, then some comparatively enjoyable music, and, last of all, the superlatively enthralling5 centipedes.”
 
 
At the time, he complied with a very good grace. He even contrived6 a respectable degree of enthusiasm when the subject came up.
 
It was Mary who insisted on the comparatively agreeable music.
 
“No—I will not have you two going off by yourselves the moment you’ve swallowed your dinner. It’s not good for people. Edward will certainly have indigestion—yes, Edward, you know you will. Come and have coffee with us in a proper and decent fashion, and we’ll have some music, and then you shall do anything you like, and I’ll talk to Elizabeth.”
 
Edward sang only one song, and then said that he was hoarse7, which was not true. But Elizabeth was glad when the door closed upon him and David, for the song Edward had sung was the one thing on earth which she felt least able to hear. He sang, O Moon of my Delight, transposed by Mary to suit his voice, and he sang it with his usual tuneful correctness.
 
Elizabeth looked up only once, and that was just at the end. David was looking at her with a frown of perplexity. But as Edward remarked that he was hoarse, David passed his hand across his eyes for a moment, as if to brush something away, and rose with alacrity8 to leave the room.
 
When they were gone Mary drew a chair close to her sister and sat down. She was rather silent for a time, and Elizabeth was beginning to find it hard to keep her own thoughts at bay, when Mary said in a new, gentle voice:
 
“Liz, I’m so happy.”
 
“Are you, Molly?” She spoke9 rather absently, and Mary became softly offended.
 
“Don’t you want to know why, Liz? I don’t believe you care a bit. I don’t believe you’d mind if I were ever so miserable10, now that you’ve got David, and are happy yourself!”
 
Elizabeth came back to her surroundings.
 
“Oh, Molly, what a goose you are, and what a monster you make me out. What is it, Mollykins, tell me?”
 
“I’ve a great mind not to. I don’t believe you really care. I wouldn’t tell you a word, only I can’t help it. Oh, Liz, I’m going to have a baby, and I thought I never should. I was making myself wretched about it.”
 
She caught Elizabeth’s hand and squeezed it.
 
“Oh, Liz, be glad for me. I’m so glad and happy, and I want some one to be glad too. You don’t know how I’ve wanted it. No one knows. I’ve simply hated all the people in the Morning Post who had babies. I’ve not even read the first column for weeks, and when Sybil Delamere sent me an invitation to her baby’s christening—she was married the same day I was, you know—I just tore it up and burnt it. And now it’s really coming to me, and you’re to be glad for me, Liz.”
 
“Molly, darling, I am glad—so glad.”
 
“Really?”
 
Mary looked up into her sister’s face, searchingly.
 
“You’re thinking of me, really of me—not about David, as you were just now? Oh, yes, I knew.”
 
Elizabeth laughed.
 
“Really, Molly, mayn’t I think of my own husband?”
 
“Not when I’m telling you about a thing like this,” said Mary. “Liz, you are the first person I have told, the very first.”
 
Elizabeth did not allow her thoughts to wander again. As they talked, the rain beat heavily against the windows, and they heard the rush of it in the gutters11 below.
 
“What a pity,” Mary cried. “How quickly it has come up, and last night was so lovely. Did you see the moon? And to-night it is full.”
 
“Yes, to-night it is full,” said Elizabeth.
 
Edward and Mary came down to see their guests off. Edward shut the door behind them.
 
“What a night!” he exclaimed. But Mary came close and whispered:
 
“I’ve told her.”
 
“Have you?”
 
Edward’s tone was just the least shade perfunctory. He slid home the bolt of the door and turning, caught Mary in his arms and hugged her.
 
“O Mary, darling!”
 
Mary glowed, responsive.
 
“O Mary, darling, it really is a new spider,” he cried.
 
David and Elizabeth walked home in a steady downpour. Mary had lent her overshoes, and she had tucked up her dress under a mackintosh of Edward’s. There was much merriment over their departure with a large umbrella between them, but as they walked home, they both grew silent. Elizabeth said good-night in the hall, and ran up to her room. To-night he would not come. Oh, to-night she felt quite sure that he would not come. It was dark. She heard the rain falling into the river, and she could just see how the trees bent12 in the rush of it. And yet she sat for an hour, by her window, in the dark, waiting breathlessly for that which would not happen.
 
The time went slowly by. The rain fell, and it was cold. Elizabeth lay down in the great square bed, and presently she slept, lulled13 by the steady dropping of the rain. She slept, and in her sleep she dreamed that she was sinking fathoms14 deep in a stormy, angry sea. Far overhead, she could hear the clash of the waves, and the long, long sullen15 roar of the swelling16 storm. And she went down and down into a black darkness that was deeper than any night—down, till she lost the roar of the storm above, down until all sound was gone, and she was alone in a black silence that would never lift or break again. Her soul was cold and blind, and most unendurably alone. Then something touched her, something that was warm. There came upon her that strange sense of home-coming, which comes to us in dreams, when love comes back to us across the sundering17 years, and all the pains of life, the pains of death, vanish and are gone, and we are come home—home to the place where we would be.
 
 
In her dream Elizabeth was come home. It was so long, so long, that she had wandered—so many years, so many lands—such weary feet and such a weary way. Now she was come home.
 
She stirred and opened her eyes. The rain had ceased. The room was dark, but the moon shone, for a single shaft18 struck between the curtains and lay above the bed like a silver feather dropped from some great passing wing.
 
Elizabeth was awake. She saw these things. She was come home. David’s arms were about her in the darkness.

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1 immured 8727048a152406d66991e43b6eeaa1c8     
v.禁闭,监禁( immure的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She was like a prisoner so long immured that freedom dazes him. 她象一个长年累月被关闭的囚犯,自由使她迷乱茫然。 来自辞典例句
  • He immured himself in a small room to work undisturbed. 他自己关在小屋里埋头工作,以免受到骚扰。 来自辞典例句
2 overtures 0ed0d32776ccf6fae49696706f6020ad     
n.主动的表示,提议;(向某人做出的)友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 );(歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的)序曲,前奏曲
参考例句:
  • Their government is making overtures for peace. 他们的政府正在提出和平建议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He had lately begun to make clumsy yet endearing overtures of friendship. 最近他开始主动表示友好,样子笨拙却又招人喜爱。 来自辞典例句
3 broaching d6447387a8414cfd97c31c74c711a22f     
n.拉削;推削;铰孔;扩孔v.谈起( broach的现在分词 );打开并开始用;用凿子扩大(或修光);(在桶上)钻孔取液体
参考例句:
  • Before broaching the subject of this lecture, I should like to recall that the discoveries of radium and of polonium were made by Pierre Curie in collaboration with me. 在开始讨论这次演讲的话题之前,我还想回忆一下,镭和钋发现是皮埃尔·居里与我合作完成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • A: Can you use broaching to make a gear? 你能用拉削技术制作齿轮吗? 来自互联网
4 positively vPTxw     
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实
参考例句:
  • She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
  • The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。
5 enthralling b491b0cfdbf95ce2c84d3fe85b18f2cb     
迷人的
参考例句:
  • There will be an enthralling race tomorrow. 明天会有场吸引人的比赛。
  • There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence. 在这样地施加影响时,令人感到销魂夺魄。
6 contrived ivBzmO     
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的
参考例句:
  • There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
  • The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。
7 hoarse 5dqzA     
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的
参考例句:
  • He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
  • He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动,嗓子都喊哑了。
8 alacrity MfFyL     
n.敏捷,轻快,乐意
参考例句:
  • Although the man was very old,he still moved with alacrity.他虽然很老,动作仍很敏捷。
  • He accepted my invitation with alacrity.他欣然接受我的邀请。
9 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。
10 miserable g18yk     
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的
参考例句:
  • It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他,这是可耻的。
  • Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。
11 gutters 498deb49a59c1db2896b69c1523f128c     
(路边)排水沟( gutter的名词复数 ); 阴沟; (屋顶的)天沟; 贫贱的境地
参考例句:
  • Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
  • They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来,以后就在街头长大。
12 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
13 lulled c799460fe7029a292576ebc15da4e955     
vt.使镇静,使安静(lull的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • They lulled her into a false sense of security. 他们哄骗她,使她产生一种虚假的安全感。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The movement of the train lulled me to sleep. 火车轻微的震动催我进入梦乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 fathoms eef76eb8bfaf6d8f8c0ed4de2cf47dcc     
英寻( fathom的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The harbour is four fathoms deep. 港深为四英寻。
  • One bait was down forty fathoms. 有个鱼饵下沉到四十英寻的深处。
15 sullen kHGzl     
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的
参考例句:
  • He looked up at the sullen sky.他抬头看了一眼阴沉的天空。
  • Susan was sullen in the morning because she hadn't slept well.苏珊今天早上郁闷不乐,因为昨晚没睡好。
16 swelling OUzzd     
n.肿胀
参考例句:
  • Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
  • There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。
17 sundering ee55e203f638b8a916aff56de5f748ed     
v.隔开,分开( sunder的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • Where were now her discreet plans for sundering their lives for ever? 现在,她那个考虑周到的永远斩断他们之间生活联系的计划哪里去了呢? 来自辞典例句
18 shaft YEtzp     
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物
参考例句:
  • He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
  • This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。


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