One-third of the room was divided from the rest by an arched and fretted4 screen of red lacquer, and within this open cage stood Mrs. John, surveying winsomely5 the expanse of little tables, little chairs, big chairs, huge chairs, sofas, rugs, flower-vases, and knick-knacks. She had an advantage over most blondes nearing the forties in that she had not stoutened. She was in fact thin as well as short; but her face was too thin. Still, it dimpled, and she held her head knowingly on one side, and her bright hair was wonderfully done up. Dressed richly as she was, and assisted by the rejuvenating6 magic of jewels, she produced, in the shadow of the screen, a notable effect of youthful vivacity7, which only the insult of close inspection8 could destroy. With sinuous9 gestures she waved Mr. Enwright's metaphorical10 palm before the approaching George. Her smile flattered him; her frail11, dinging hand flattered him. He had known her in her harsh morning moods; he had seen that persuasive12, manufactured mask vanish for whole minutes, to reveal a petty egotism, giving way, regardless of appearances, to rage; he clearly observed now the hard, preoccupied13 eyes. Nevertheless, the charm which she exercised was undeniable. Her husband was permanently14 under its spell. There he stood, near her, big, coarsening, good-natured, content, proud of her. He mixed a cocktail15 and he threw a match into the fire, in exactly the old Five Towns manner, which he would never lose. But as for her, she had thrown off all trace of the Five Towns; she had learnt London, deliberately16, thoroughly17. And even George, with the unmerciful, ruthless judgment18 of his years, was obliged to admit that she possessed19 a genuine pertinacity20 and had marvellously accomplished21 an ambition. She had held John Orgreave for considerably22 over a decade; she had had the tremendous courage to Leave the heavy provincial23 manufacturer, her first husband; she had passed through the Divorce Court as a respondent without blenching24; she had slowly darned her reputation with such skill that you could scarcely put your finger on the place where the hole had been; and lo! she was reigning25 in Bedford Park and had all she wanted—except youth. Nor did she in the least show the resigned, disillusioned26 air of women who have but recently lost their youth. She bore herself just as though she still had no fear of strong lights, and as though she was still the dazzling, dashing blonde of whom John in his earliest twenties used to say, with ingenuous27 enthusiasm, that she was 'ripping'—the ripping Mrs. Chris Hamson. An epical28 creature!
This domestic organism created by Mrs. John inspired George, and instantly he was rapt away in dreams of his own future. He said to himself again, and more forcibly, that he had a natural taste for luxury and expensiveness, and that he would have the one and practise the other. He invented gorgeous interiors which would be his and in which he would be paramount29 and at ease. He positively30 yearned31 for them. He was impatient to get back home and resume the long labours that would lead him to them. Every grand adjunct of life must be his, and he could not wait. Absurd to apprehend32 that Marguerite would not rise to his dreams! Of course she would! She would fit herself perfectly33 into them, completing them. She would understand all the artistic34 aspects of them, because she was an artist; and in addition she would be mistress, wife, hostess, commanding impeccable servants, receiving friends with beauty and unsurpassable sweet dignity, wearing costly35 frocks and jewels as though she had never worn anything else. She had the calm power, she had the individuality, to fulfil all his desires for her. She would be the authentic36 queen of which Mrs. John was merely the imitation. He wanted intensely to talk to her about the future.... And then he had the seductive idea of making presentable his bed-sitting-room at Mr. Haim's. He saw the room instantaneously transformed; he at once invented each necessary dodge37 for absolutely hiding during the day the inconvenient38 fact that it had to serve as a bedroom at night; he refurnished it; he found the money to refurnish it. And just as he was impatient to get back home in order to work, so he was impatient to get back home in order to transform his chamber39 into the ideal. Delay irked him painfully. And yet he was extremely happy in the excitement of the dreams that ached to be fulfilled.
"Now, Mr. Enwright," said Mrs. John in an accent to draw honey out of a boulder40. "You haven't told me what you think of it."
Enwright was wandering about by himself.
"He's coming on with his lithographs," he replied, as if after a decision. "One or two of these are rather interesting."
"Oh! I don't mean the lithographs. You know those are all Jack's affairs. I mean—well, the room. Now do pay me a compliment."
The other guests listened.
Enwright gave a little self-conscious smile, characteristic of him in these dilemmas41, half kind and half malicious42.
"You must have taken a great deal of trouble over it," he said, with bright amiability43; and then relapsing from the effort: "it's all very nice and harmless."
"Oh! Mr. Enwright! Is that all?" She pouted44, though still waving the palm. "And you so fond of the eighteenth century, too!"
"But I heard a rumour45 at the beginning of this year that we're living in the twentieth," said Enwright.
"And I thought I should please you!" sighed Adela. "What ought I to have done?"
"Well, you might have asked me to design you some furniture. Nobody ever has asked me yet." He rubbed his eyeglasses and blinked.
"Oh! You geniuses.... Janet darling!"
Mrs. John moved forward to meet Miss Orgreave, John's appreciably46 elder sister, spinster, who lived with another brother, Charles, a doctor at Ealing. Janet was a prim47 emaciated48 creature, very straight and dignified49, whose glance always seemed to hesitate between benevolence50 and fastidiousness. Janet and Charles had consented to forget the episode of the Divorce Court. Marion, however, the eldest51 Orgreave sister, mother of a family of daughters, had never received the divorcee. On the other hand the divorcee, obeying her own code, had obstinately52 ignored the wife of Jim Orgreave, a younger brother, who, according to the universal opinion, had married disgracefully.
When the sisters-in-law had embraced, with that unconvincing fulsomeness53 which is apt to result from a charitable act of oblivion, Janet turned lovingly to George and asked after his mother. She was his mother's most intimate friend. In the past he had called her Auntie, and was accustomed to kiss her and be kissed. Indeed he feared that she might want to kiss him now, but he was spared. As with negligence54 of tone he answered her fond inquiries55, he was busy reconstructing quite anew his scheme for the bed-sitting room—for it had actually been an eighteenth-century scheme, and inspired by the notions of Mrs. John!
At the lunch-table George found that the party consisted of ten persons, of whom one, seated next to himself, was a youngish, somewhat plump woman who had arrived at the last moment. He had not been introduced to her, nor to the four other strangers, for it had lately reached Bedford Park that introductions were no longer the correct prelude56 to a meal. A hostess who wished to be modern should throw her guests in ignorance together and leave them to acquire knowledge by their own initiative. This device added to the piquancy57 of a gathering58. Moreover, there was always a theory that each individual was well known, and that therefore to introduce was subtly to insult. On Mrs. John's right was a beautifully braided gentleman of forty or so, in brown, with brown necktie and hair to match, and the hair was so perfect and ended so abruptly59 that George at first took it for a wig60; but soon afterwards he decided61 that he had been unkind. Mr. Enwright was opposite to this brown gentleman.
Mrs. John began by hoping that the brown gentleman had been to church.
"I'm afraid I haven't," he replied, with gentle regret in his voice.
And in the course of the conversation he was frequently afraid. Nevertheless his attitude was by no means a fearful attitude; on the contrary it was very confident. He would grasp the edge of the table with his hands, and narrate62 at length, smiling amiably63, and looking from side to side regularly like a public speaker. He narrated64 in detail the difficulties which he had in obtaining the right sort of cutlets rightly cooked at his club, and added: "But of course there's only one club in London that would be satisfactory in all this—shall I say?—finesse, and I'm afraid I don't belong to it."
"The Orleans."
"Oh yes, the Orleans! I suppose that is the best."
And everybody seemed glad and proud that everybody had known of the culinary supremacy66 of the Orleans.
"I'm afraid you'll all think I'm horribly greedy," said the brown gentleman apologetically. And then at once, having noticed that Mr. Enwright was gazing up at the great sham67 oak rafters that were glued on to the white ceiling, he started upon this new architectural picturesqueness68 which was to London and the beginning of the twentieth century what the enamelled milking-stool had been to the provinces and the end of the nineteenth century—namely, a reminder69 that even in an industrial age romance should still survive in the hearts of men. The brown gentleman remarked that with due deference70 to 'you professional gentlemen,' he was afraid he liked the sham rafters, because they reminded him of the good old times and all that sort of thing.
He was not only a conscientious71 conversationalist, but he originated talk in others, and listened to them with his best attention. And he invariably stepped into gaps with praise-worthy tact72 and skill. Thus the chat meandered73 easily from subject to subject—the Automobile74 Club's tour from London to Southsea, the latest hotel, Richter, the war (which the brown gentleman treated with tired respect, as some venerable survival that had forgotten to die), the abnormally early fogs, and the abnormally violent and destructive gales75. An argument arose as to whether these startling weather phenomena76 were or were not a hint to mankind from some undefined Higher Power that a new century had in truth begun and that mankind had better mind what it was about. Mrs. John favoured the notion, and so did Miss Orgreave, whereas John Orgreave coarsely laughed at it. The brown gentleman held the scales admirably; he was chivalrously77 sympathetic to the two ladies, and yet he respected John's materialism78. He did, however, venture to point out the contradictions in the character of 'our host,' who was really very responsive to music and art, but who seemed curiously79 to ignore certain other influences—etc. etc.
"How true that is!" murmured Mrs. John.
The brown gentleman modestly enjoyed his triumph. With only three people had he failed—Mr. Enwright, George, and the youngish woman next to George.
George was surprised. He had certainly taken her for a married woman, and one of his generalizations81 about life was that he did not like young married women; hence he had not liked her. He now regarded her with fresh interest. She blushed a little, and looked very young indeed.
"Oh! Paris is all right!" she answered shortly.
The brown gentleman after a long, musing82 smile, discreetly83 abandoned the opening; but George, inquiring in a low voice if she lived in Paris, began a private talk with Miss Ingram, who did live in Paris. He had his doubts about her entire agreeableness, but at any rate they got on to a natural, brusque footing, which contrasted with the somewhat ceremonious manner of the general conversation. She exceeded George in brusqueness, and tended to patronize him as a youngster. He noticed that she had yellow eyes.
"What do you think of his wig?" she demanded in an astonishing whisper, when the meal was over and chairs were being vacated.
" Is it a wig?" George exclaimed ingenuously84.
"Oh, you boys!" she protested, with superiority. "Of course it's a wig."
"'Is it a wig!'" she scorned him.
"Well, I'm not up in wigs," said George. "Who is he, anyhow?"
"I forget his name. I've only met him once, here at tea. I think he's a tea-merchant. He seemed to remember me all right."
"A tea-merchant! I wonder why Mrs. John put him on her right, then, and Mr. Enwright on her left." George resented the precedence.
"Is Mr. Enwright really very great, then?"
"Great! You bet he is.... I was in Paris with him in the summer. Whereabouts do you live in Paris?"
She improved, especially at the point where she said that Mr. Enwright's face was one of the most wonderful faces that she had ever seen. Evidently she knew Paris as well as George knew London. Apparently86 she had always lived there. But their interchanges concerning Paris, on a sofa in the drawing-room, were stopped by a general departure. Mr. Enwright began it. The tea-merchant instantly supported the movement. Miss Ingram herself rose. The affair was at an end. Nothing interesting had been said in the general talk, and little that was sincere. No topic had been explored, no argument taken to a finish. No wit worth mentioning had glinted. But everybody had behaved very well, and had demonstrated that he or she was familiar with the usages of society and with aspects of existence with which it was proper to be familiar. And everybody—even Mr. Enwright—thanked Mrs. John most heartily87 for her quite delightful88 luncheon89; Mrs. John insisted warmly on her own pleasure and her appreciation90 of her guests' extreme good nature in troubling to come, and she was beyond question joyously91 triumphant92. And George, relieved, thought, as he tried to rival the rest in gratitude93 to Mrs. John:
"What was it all about? What did they all come for? I came because she made me. But why did the others come?"
The lunch had passed like a mild nightmare, and he felt as though, with the inconsequence of dream-people, these people had gone away without having accomplished some essential act which had been the object of their gathering.
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1
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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lithographs
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| n.平版印刷品( lithograph的名词复数 ) | |
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fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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winsomely
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rejuvenating
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| 使变得年轻，使恢复活力( rejuvenate的现在分词 ) | |
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vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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sinuous
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| adj.蜿蜒的，迂回的 | |
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metaphorical
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| a.隐喻的，比喻的 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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cocktail
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| n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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pertinacity
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| n.执拗，顽固 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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blenching
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| v.（因惊吓而）退缩，惊悸( blench的现在分词 )；（使）变白，（使）变苍白 | |
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reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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disillusioned
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| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
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ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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epical
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| adj.叙事诗的，英勇的 | |
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paramount
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| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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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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boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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dilemmas
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| n.左右为难( dilemma的名词复数 )；窘境，困境 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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amiability
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| n.和蔼可亲的，亲切的，友善的 | |
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pouted
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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appreciably
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| adv.相当大地 | |
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prim
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| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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48
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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51
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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52
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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fulsomeness
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| n.虚情，谄媚 | |
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negligence
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| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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56
prelude
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| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
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piquancy
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| n.辛辣，辣味，痛快 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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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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narrate
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| v.讲，叙述 | |
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amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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picturesqueness
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reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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meandered
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| （指溪流、河流等）蜿蜒而流( meander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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gales
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| 龙猫 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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chivalrously
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| adv.象骑士一样地 | |
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materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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pointedly
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| adv.尖地，明显地 | |
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generalizations
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| 一般化( generalization的名词复数 )； 普通化； 归纳； 概论 | |
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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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83
discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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84
ingenuously
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| adv.率直地，正直地 | |
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85
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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86
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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87
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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88
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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89
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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90
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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91
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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92
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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93
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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