Maggie, after a short parley8, was induced to seal her remembrance with a kiss. Invited then to explain her appearance at Saint-Germain, she embarked9 on a recital10 in which the general, according to the infantine method, was so fatally sacrificed to the particular that Longmore looked about him for a superior source of information. He found it in Maggie’s mamma, who was seated with another lady at the opposite end of the terrace; so, taking the child by the hand, he led her back to her companions.
Maggie’s mamma was a young American lady, as you would immediately have perceived, with a pretty and friendly face and a great elegance12 of fresh finery. She greeted Longmore with amazement13 and joy, mentioning his name to her friend and bidding him bring a chair and sit with them. The other lady, in whom, though she was equally young and perhaps even prettier, muslins and laces and feathers were less of a feature, remained silent, stroking the hair of the little girl, whom she had drawn14 against her knee. She had never heard of Longmore, but she now took in that her companion had crossed the ocean with him, had met him afterwards in travelling and—having left her husband in Wall Street—was indebted to him for sundry15 services. Maggie’s mamma turned from time to time and smiled at this lady with an air of invitation; the latter smiled back and continued gracefully16 to say nothing. For ten minutes, meanwhile, Longmore felt a revival17 of interest in his old acquaintance; then (as mild riddles18 are more amusing than mere19 commonplaces) it gave way to curiosity about her friend. His eyes wandered; her volubility shook a sort of sweetness out of the friend’s silence.
The stranger was perhaps not obviously a beauty nor obviously an American, but essentially20 both for the really seeing eye. She was slight and fair and, though naturally pale, was delicately flushed just now, as by the effect of late agitation21. What chiefly struck Longmore in her face was the union of a pair of beautifully gentle, almost languid grey eyes with a mouth that was all expression and intention. Her forehead was a trifle more expansive than belongs to classic types, and her thick brown hair dressed out of the fashion, just then even more ugly than usual. Her throat and bust22 were slender, but all the more in harmony with certain rapid charming movements of the head, which she had a way of throwing back every now and then with an air of attention and a sidelong glance from her dove-like eyes. She seemed at once alert and indifferent, contemplative and restless, and Longmore very soon discovered that if she was not a brilliant beauty she was at least a most attaching one. This very impression made him magnanimous. He was certain he had interrupted a confidential23 conversation, and judged it discreet24 to withdraw, having first learned from Maggie’s mamma—Mrs. Draper—that she was to take the six o’clock train back to Paris. He promised to meet her at the station.
He kept his appointment, and Mrs. Draper arrived betimes, accompanied by her friend. The latter, however, made her farewells at the door and drove away again, giving Longmore time only to raise his hat. “Who is she?” he asked with visible ardour as he brought the traveller her tickets.
“Come and see me to-morrow at the Hotel de l’Empire,” she answered, “and I’ll tell you all about her.” The force of this offer in making him punctual at the Hotel de l’Empire Longmore doubtless never exactly measured; and it was perhaps well he was vague, for he found his friend, who was on the point of leaving Paris, so distracted by procrastinating25 milliners and perjured26 lingeres that coherence27 had quite deserted28 her. “You must find Saint-Germain dreadfully dull,” she nevertheless had the presence of mind to say as he was going. “Why won’t you come with me to London?”
“Introduce me to Madame de Mauves,” he answered, “and Saint-Germain will quite satisfy me.” All he had learned was the lady’s name and residence.
Longmore’s further enquiries were arrested by the arrival of a young lady with a bandbox; but he went away with the promise of a note of introduction, to be immediately dispatched to him at Saint-Germain.
He then waited a week, but the note never came, and he felt how little it was for Mrs. Draper to complain of engagements unperformed. He lounged on the terrace and walked in the forest, studied suburban30 street life and made a languid attempt to investigate the records of the court of the exiled Stuarts; but he spent most of his time in wondering where Madame de Mauves lived and whether she ever walked on the terrace. Sometimes, he was at last able to recognise; for one afternoon toward dusk he made her out from a distance, arrested there alone and leaning against the low wall. In his momentary31 hesitation32 to approach her there was almost a shade of trepidation33, but his curiosity was not chilled by such a measure of the effect of a quarter of an hour’s acquaintance. She at once recovered their connexion, on his drawing near, and showed it with the frankness of a person unprovided with a great choice of contacts. Her dress, her expression, were the same as before; her charm came out like that of fine music on a second hearing. She soon made conversation easy by asking him for news of Mrs. Draper. Longmore told her that he was daily expecting news and after a pause mentioned the promised note of introduction.
“It seems less necessary now,” he said—“for me at least. But for you—I should have liked you to know the good things our friend would probably have been able to say about me.”
“If it arrives at last,” she answered, “you must come and see me and bring it. If it doesn’t you must come without it.”
Then, as she continued to linger through the thickening twilight34, she explained that she was waiting for her husband, who was to arrive in the train from Paris and who often passed along the terrace on his way home. Longmore well remembered that Mrs. Draper had spoken of uneasy things in her life, and he found it natural to guess that this same husband was the source of them. Edified36 by his six months in Paris, “What else is possible,” he put it, “for a sweet American girl who marries an unholy foreigner?”
But this quiet dependence37 on her lord’s return rather shook his shrewdness, and it received a further check from the free confidence with which she turned to greet an approaching figure. Longmore distinguished38 in the fading light a stoutish39 gentleman, on the fair side of forty, in a high grey hat, whose countenance40, obscure as yet against the quarter from which it came, mainly presented to view the large outward twist of its moustache. M. de Mauves saluted41 his wife with punctilious42 gallantry and, having bowed to Longmore, asked her several questions in French. Before taking his offered arm to walk to their carriage, which was in waiting at the gate of the terrace, she introduced our hero as a friend of Mrs. Draper and also a fellow countryman, whom she hoped they might have the pleasure of seeing, as she said, chez eux. M. de Mauves responded briefly44, but civilly, in fair English, and led his wife away.
Longmore watched him as he went, renewing the curl of his main facial feature—watched him with an irritation45 devoid46 of any mentionable ground. His one pretext47 for gnashing his teeth would have been in his apprehension48 that this gentleman’s worst English might prove a matter to shame his own best French. For reasons involved apparently49 in the very structure of his being Longmore found a colloquial50 use of that idiom as insecure as the back of a restive51 horse, and was obliged to take his exercise, as he was aware, with more tension than grace. He reflected meanwhile with comfort that Madame de Mauves and he had a common tongue, and his anxiety yielded to his relief at finding on his table that evening a letter from Mrs. Draper. It enclosed a short formal missive to Madame de Mauves, but the epistle itself was copious52 and confidential. She had deferred53 writing till she reached London, where for a week, of course, she had found other amusements.
“I think it’s the sight of so many women here who don’t look at all like her that has reminded me by the law of contraries of my charming friend at Saint-Germain and my promise to introduce you to her,” she wrote. “I believe I spoke35 to you of her rather blighted54 state, and I wondered afterwards whether I hadn’t been guilty of a breach55 of confidence. But you would certainly have arrived at guesses of your own, and, besides, she has never told me her secrets. The only one she ever pretended to was that she’s the happiest creature in the world, after assuring me of which, poor thing, she went off into tears; so that I prayed to be delivered from such happiness. It’s the miserable56 story of an American girl born neither to submit basely nor to rebel crookedly57 marrying a shining sinful Frenchman who believes a woman must do one or the other of those things. The lightest of US have a ballast that they can’t imagine, and the poorest a moral imagination that they don’t require. She was romantic and perverse—she thought the world she had been brought up in too vulgar or at least too prosaic58. To have a decent home-life isn’t perhaps the greatest of adventures; but I think she wishes nowadays she hadn’t gone in quite so desperately59 for thrills. M. de Mauves cared of course for nothing but her money, which he’s spending royally on his menus plaisirs. I hope you appreciate the compliment I pay you when I recommend you to go and cheer up a lady domestically dejected. Believe me, I’ve given no other man a proof of this esteem60; so if you were to take me in an inferior sense I would never speak to you again. Prove to this fine sore creature that our manners may have all the grace without wanting to make such selfish terms for it. She avoids society and lives quite alone, seeing no one but a horrible French sister-in-law. Do let me hear that you’ve made her patience a little less absent-minded. Make her WANT to forget; make her like you.”
This ingenious appeal left the young man uneasy. He found himself in presence of more complications than had been in his reckoning. To call on Madame de Mauves with his present knowledge struck him as akin11 to fishing in troubled waters. He was of modest composition, and yet he asked himself whether an appearance of attentions from any gallant43 gentleman mightn’t give another twist to her tangle61. A flattering sense of unwonted opportunity, however—of such a possible value constituted for him as he had never before been invited to rise to—made him with the lapse62 of time more confident, possibly more reckless. It was too inspiring not to act upon the idea of kindling63 a truer light in his fair countrywoman’s slow smile, and at least he hoped to persuade her that even a raw representative of the social order she had not done justice to was not necessarily a mere fortuitous collocation of atoms. He immediately called on her.
该作者其它作品
《The Golden Bowl》
《The Wings of the Dove鸽之翼》
《The Jolly Corner欢乐角落》
该作者其它作品
《The Golden Bowl》
《The Wings of the Dove鸽之翼》
《The Jolly Corner欢乐角落》
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1
domed
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| adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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7
wayfaring
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| adj.旅行的n.徒步旅行 | |
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8
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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18
riddles
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| n.谜（语）( riddle的名词复数 )；猜不透的难题，难解之谜 | |
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19
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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20
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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21
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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23
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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procrastinating
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| 拖延，耽搁( procrastinate的现在分词 )； 拖拉 | |
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perjured
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| adj.伪证的，犯伪证罪的v.发假誓，作伪证( perjure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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coherence
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| n.紧凑；连贯；一致性 | |
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28
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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31
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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32
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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edified
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| v.开导，启发( edify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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stoutish
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| 略胖的 | |
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40
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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41
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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42
punctilious
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| adj.谨慎的，谨小慎微的 | |
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43
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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44
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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45
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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46
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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47
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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48
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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49
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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50
colloquial
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| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
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51
restive
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| adj.不安宁的，不安静的 | |
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52
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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53
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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54
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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55
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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56
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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57
crookedly
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| adv. 弯曲地，不诚实地 | |
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58
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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59
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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60
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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61
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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62
lapse
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| 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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63
kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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