One half of the black entrance swung open, and a middle-aged11 gentleman dressed like Lord Lechford's stockbroker12, but who was in reality his butler, said in answer to G.J.'s enquiry:
"Lady Queenie is not at home, sir."
"But it is five o'clock," protested G.J., suddenly sick of Queen's impudent13 unreliability. "And I have an appointment with her at five."
The butler's face relaxed ever so little from its occupational inhumanity of a suet pudding; the spirit of compassion14 seemed to inform it for an instant.
"Her ladyship went out about a quarter of an hour ago, sir."
"When d'you think she'll be back?"
The suet pudding was restored.
"That I could not say, sir."
"Damn the girl!" said G.J. to himself; and aloud: "Please tell her ladyship that I've called."
"Mr. Hoape, is it not, sir?"
"It is."
"There's nobody at home, sir, except Mrs. Carlos Smith. Mrs. Carlos Smith is in Lady Queenie's apartments."
"Mrs. Carlos Smith!" exclaimed G.J., who had not seen Concepcion for some seventeen months; nor heard from her for nearly as long, nor heard of her since the previous year.
"Yes, sir."
"Ask her if she can see me, will you?" said G.J. impetuously, after a slight pause.
He stepped on to the tessellated pavement of the outer hall. On the raised tessellated pavement of the inner hall stood two meditative17 youngish footmen, possibly musing18 upon the problems of the intensification19 of the Military Service Act which were then exciting journalists and statesmen. Beyond was the renowned20 staircase, which, rising with insubstantial grace, lost itself in silvery altitude like the way to heaven. Presently G.J. was mounting the staircase and passing statues by Canova and Thorwaldsen, and portraits of which the heads had been painted by Lawrence and the hands and draperies by Lawrence's hireling, and huger canvasses21 on which the heads and breasts had been painted by Rubens and everything else by Rubens's regiment22 of hirelings. The guiding footman preceded him through a great chamber23 which he recognised as the drawing-room in its winding24 sheet, and then up a small and insignificant25 staircase; and G.J. was on ground strange to him, for never till then had he been higher than the first-floor in Lechford House.
Lady Queenie's apartments did violence to G.J.'s sensibilities as an upholder of traditionalism in all the arts, of the theory that every sound movement in any art must derive26 from its predecessor27. Some months earlier he had met for a few minutes the creative leader of the newest development in internal decoration, and he vividly28 remembered a saying of the grey-haired, slouch-hatted man: "At the present day the only people in the world with really vital perceptions about decoration are African niggers, and the only inspiring productions are the coloured cotton stuffs designed for the African native market." The remark had amused and stimulated29 him, but he had never troubled to go in search of examples of the inspiring influence of African taste on London domesticity. He now saw perhaps the supreme30 instance lodged31 in Lechford House, like a new and truculent32 state within a great Empire.
Lady Queenie had imposed terms on her family, and under threats of rupture33, of separation, of scandal, Lady Queenie's exotic nest had come into existence in the very fortress34 of unchangeable British convention. The phenomenon was a war phenomenon due to the war, begotten35 by the war; for Lady Queenie had said that if she was to do war-work without disaster to her sanity36 she must have the right environment. Thus the putting together of Lady Queenie's nest had proceeded concurrently37 with the building of national projectile38 factories and of square miles of offices for the girl clerks of ministries39 and departments of government.
The footman left G.J. alone in a room designated the boudoir. G.J. resented the boudoir, because it was like nothing that he had ever witnessed. The walls were irregularly covered with rhombuses, rhomboids, lozenges, diamonds, triangles, and parallelograms; the carpet was treated likewise, and also the upholstery and the cushions. The colourings of the scene in their excessive brightness, crudity40 and variety surpassed G.J.'s conception of the possible. He had learned the value of colour before Queen was born, and in the Albany had translated principle into practice. But the hues41 of the boudoir made the gaudiest42 effects of Regency furniture appear sombre. The place resembled a gigantic and glittering kaleidoscope deranged43 and arrested.
G.J.'s glance ran round the room like a hunted animal seeking escape, and found no escape. He was as disturbed as he might have been disturbed by drinking a liqueur on the top of a cocktail44. Nevertheless he had to admit that some of the contrasts of pure colour were rather beautiful, even impressive; and he hated to admit it. He was aware of a terrible apprehension45 that he would never be the same man again, and that henceforth his own abode46 would be eternally stricken for him with the curse of insipidity47. Regaining48 somewhat his nerve, he looked for pictures. There were no pictures. But every piece of furniture was painted with primitive49 sketches50 of human figures, or of flowers, or of vessels51, or of animals. On the front of the mantelpiece were perversely52 but brilliantly depicted53, with a high degree of finish, two nude54, crouching55 women who gazed longingly56 at each other across the impassable semicircular abyss of the fireplace; and just above their heads, on a scroll57, ran these words:
"The ways of God are strange."
He heard movements and a slight cough in the next room, the door leading to which was ajar. Concepcion's cough; he thought he recognised it. Five minutes ago he had had no notion of seeing her; now he was about to see her. And he felt excited and troubled, as much by the sudden violence of life as by the mere58 prospect59 of the meeting. After her husband's death Concepcion had soon withdrawn60 from London. A large engineering firm on the Clyde, one of the heads of which happened to be constitutionally a pioneer, was establishing a canteen for its workmen, and Concepcion, the tentacles61 of whose influence would stretch to any length, had decided62 that she ought to take up canteen work, and in particular the canteen work of just that firm. But first of all, to strengthen her prestige and acquire new prestige, she had gone to the United States, with a powerful introduction to Sears, Roebuck and Company of Chicago, in order to study industrial canteenism in its most advanced and intricate manifestations63. Portraits of Concepcion in splendid furs on the deck of the steamer in the act of preparing to study industrial canteenism in its most advanced and intricate manifestations had appeared in the illustrated64 weeklies. The luxurious65 trip had cost several hundreds of pounds, but it was war expenditure66, and, moreover, Concepcion had come into considerable sums of money through her deceased husband. Her return to Britain had never been published. Advertisements of Concepcion ceased. Only a few friends knew that she was in the most active retirement67 on the Clyde. G.J. had written to her twice but had obtained no replies. One fact he knew, that she had not had a child. Lady Queenie had not mentioned her; it was understood that the inseparables had quarrelled in the heroic manner and separated for ever.
She entered the boudoir slowly. G.J. grew self-conscious, as it were because she was still the martyr68 of destiny and he was not. She wore a lavender-tinted gown of Queen's; he knew it was Queen's because he had seen precisely69 such a gown on Queen, and there could not possibly be another gown precisely like that very challenging gown. It suited Queen, but it did not suit Concepcion. She looked older; she was thirty-two, and might have been taken for thirty-five. She was very pale, with immense fatigued70 eyes; but her ridiculous nose had preserved all its originality71. And she had the same slightly masculine air—perhaps somewhat intensified—with an added dignity. And G.J. thought: "She is as mysterious and unfathomable as I am myself." And he was impressed and perturbed72.
With a faint, sardonic73 smile, glancing at him as a physical equal from her unusual height (she was as tall as Lady Queenie), she said abruptly74 and casually75:
"Am I changed?"
"No," he replied as abruptly and casually, clasping almost inimically her ringed hand—she was wearing Queenie's rings. "But you're tired. The journey, I suppose."
"It's not that. We sat up till five o'clock this morning, talking."
"Who?"
"Queen and I."
"What did you do that for?"
"Well, you see, we'd had the devil's own row—" She stopped, leaving his imagination to complete the picture of the meeting and the night talk.
"What about?"
"She never wanted me to leave London. I came back last night with only a handbag just as she was going out to dinner. She didn't go out to dinner. Queen is a white woman. Nobody knows how white Queen is. I didn't know myself until last night."
There was a pause. G.J. said:
"I had an appointment here with the white woman, on business."
"Yes, I know," said Concepcion negligently77. "She'll be home soon."
Something infinitesimally malicious78 in the voice and gaze sent the singular idea shooting through his mind that Queen had gone out on purpose so that Concepcion might have him alone for a while. And he was wary79 of both of them, as he might have been of two pagan goddesses whom he, a poor defiant81 mortal, suspected of having laid an eye on him for their own ends.
"You've changed, anyhow," said Concepcion.
"Older?"
"No. Harder."
He was startled, not displeased82.
"How—harder?"
"More sure of yourself," said Concepcion, with a trace of the old harsh egotism in her tone. "It appears you're a perfect tyrant83 on the Lechford Committee now you're vice-chairman, and all the more footling members dread84 the days when you're in the chair. It appears also that you've really overthrown85 two chairmen, and yet won't take the situation yourself."
He was still more startled, but now positively86 flattered by the world's estimate of his activities and individuality. He saw himself in a new light.
"This what you were talking about until five a.m.?"
The butler entered.
"Shall I serve tea, Madam?"
Concepcion looked at the man scornfully:
"Yes."
One of the minor87 stalwarts entered and arranged a table, and the other followed with a glittering, steaming tray in his hands, while the butler hovered88 like a winged hippopotamus89 over the operation. Concepcion half sat down by the table, and then, altering her mind, dropped on to a vast chaise-longue, as wide as a bed, and covered with as many cushions as would have stocked a cushion shop, which occupied the principal place in front of the hearth90. The hem80 of her rich gown just touched the floor. G.J. could see that she was wearing the transparent91 deep-purple stockings that Queen wore with the transparent lavender gown. Her right shoulder rose high from the mass of the body, and her head was sunk between two cushions. Her voice came smothered92 from the cushions:
"Damn it! G.J. Don't look at me like that."
There was no answer. He lit a cigarette. The ebullient94 kettle kept lifting its lid in growing impatience95. But Concepcion seemed to have forgotten the tea. G.J. had a thought, distinct like a bubble on a sea of thoughts, that if the tea was already made, as no doubt it was, it would soon be stewed96. Concepcion said:
"The matter is that I'm a ruined woman, and Queen can't understand."
And in the bewildering voluptuous97 brightness and luxury of the room G.J. had the sensation of being a poor, baffled ghost groping in the night of existence. Concepcion's left arm slipped over the edge of the day-bed and hung limp and pale, the curved fingers touching98 the carpet.
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1
con
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| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
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renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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connoisseur
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| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
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pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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10
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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stockbroker
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| n.股票（或证券），经纪人（或机构） | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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15
raisin
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| n.葡萄干 | |
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16
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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intensification
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| n.激烈化，增强明暗度；加厚 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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21
canvasses
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| n.检票员，游说者，推销员( canvass的名词复数 )v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的第三人称单数 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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22
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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24
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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25
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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26
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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29
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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31
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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32
truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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33
rupture
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| n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂 | |
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34
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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35
begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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concurrently
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| adv.同时地 | |
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projectile
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| n.投射物，发射体；adj.向前开进的；推进的；抛掷的 | |
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ministries
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| （政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期 | |
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40
crudity
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| n.粗糙，生硬；adj.粗略的 | |
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41
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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42
gaudiest
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| adj.花哨的，俗气的( gaudy的最高级 ) | |
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deranged
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| adj.疯狂的 | |
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44
cocktail
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| n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物 | |
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45
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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46
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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insipidity
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| n.枯燥无味，清淡，无精神；无生气状 | |
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48
regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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49
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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50
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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51
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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52
perversely
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| adv. 倔强地 | |
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53
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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54
nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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longingly
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| adv. 渴望地 热望地 | |
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57
scroll
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| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
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58
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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60
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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61
tentacles
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| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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64
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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69
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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70
fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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71
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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72
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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76
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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77
negligently
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78
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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80
hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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81
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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82
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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83
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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84
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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85
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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86
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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87
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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88
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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89
hippopotamus
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| n.河马 | |
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90
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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91
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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92
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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93
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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94
ebullient
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| adj.兴高采烈的，奔放的 | |
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95
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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96
stewed
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| adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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97
voluptuous
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| adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的 | |
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98
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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