“Your mother down yet?”
Edgar kept his eyes glued to his newspaper.
“I don’t know.”
The baron was puzzled.
“Slept badly, Eddie?” The baron was counting on a joke to help him over the situation again, but Edgar merely tossed out a contemptuous “No” and continued to study the paper.
“Stupid,” the baron murmured, shrugging his shoulders and walked away. Hostilities10 had been declared.
Toward his mother Edgar’s manner was cool and polite. When she made an awkward attempt to send him off to the tennis-court, he gave her a quiet rebuff, and his smile and the bitter curl at the corners of his mouth showed that he was no longer to be fooled.
“I’d rather go walking with you, mamma,” he said with assumed friendliness11, looking her straight in the eyes. His answer was obviously not to her taste. She hesitated and seemed to be looking for something.
Edgar waited, but his distrust was lively, and his instincts, all astir, extracted a secret hostile intent from everything the baron and his mother now said. Suspicion was beginning to give him remarkable13 perspicacity14 sometimes. Instead, therefore, of waiting in the hall, as he had been bidden, he went outside to a spot from which he commanded a view not only of the main entrance but of all the exits from the hotel. Something in him scented15 deception16. He hid himself behind a pile of wood, as the Indians do in the books, and when, about half an hour later, he saw his mother actually coming out of a side door carrying a bunch of exquisite17 roses and followed by the baron, the traitor18, he laughed in glee. They seemed to be gay and full of spirits. Were they feeling relieved at having escaped him to be alone with their secret? They laughed as they talked, and turned into the road leading to the woods.
The moment had come. Edgar, as though mere9 chance had brought him that way, strolled out from behind the woodpile and walked to meet them, with the utmost composure, allowing himself ample time to feast upon their surprise. When they caught sight of him they were quite taken aback, he saw, and exchanged a glance of astonishment19. The child advanced slowly, with an assumed nonchalant air, never removing his mocking gaze from their faces.
“Oh, here you are, Eddie. We were looking for you inside,” his mother said finally.
“The shameless liar20!” the child thought, but held his lips set hard, keeping back the secret of his hate. The three stood there irresolutely21, one watchful22 of the others.
“Well, let’s go on,” said the woman, annoyed, but resigned, and plucked one of the lovely roses to bite. Her nostrils23 were quivering, a sign in her of extreme anger. Edgar stood still, as though it were a matter of indifference24 to him whether they walked on or not, looked up at the sky, waited for them to start, then followed leisurely25. The baron made one more attempt.
“There’s a tennis tournament to-day. Have you ever seen one?”
The baron was not worth an answer any more. Edgar merely gave him a scornful look and pursed his lips for whistling. That was his full reply. His hate showed its bared teeth.
Edgar’s unwished-for presence weighed upon the two like a nightmare. They felt very like convicts who follow their keeper gritting26 their teeth and clenching27 their fists in secret. Edgar neither did nor said anything out of the way, yet he became, every moment, more unbearable28 to them, with his watchful glances out of great moist eyes and his dogged sullenness29 which was like a prolonged growl31 at any attempt they made at an advance.
“Go on ahead of us,” his mother suddenly snapped, made altogether ill at ease by his intent listening to everything she and the baron were saying. “Don’t be hopping32 right at my toes. It makes me fidgety.”
Edgar obeyed. But at every few steps he would face about and stand still, waiting for them to catch up if they had lingered behind, letting his gaze travel over them diabolically33 and enmeshing them in a fiery34 net of hate, in which, they felt, they were being inextricably entangled35. His malevolent36 silence corroded37 their good spirits like an acid, his gaze dashed extinguishing gall38 on their conversation. The baron made no other attempts to court the woman beside him, feeling, infuriatedly, that she was slipping away from him because her fear of that annoying, obnoxious39 child was cooling the passion he had fanned into a flame with so much difficulty. After repeated unsuccessful attempts at a conversation they jogged along the path in complete silence, hearing nothing but the rustling40 of the leaves and their own dejected footsteps.
There was active hostility now in each of the three. The betrayed child perceived with satisfaction how their anger gathered helplessly against his own little, despised person. Every now and then he cast a shrewd, ironic41 look at the baron’s sullen30 face and saw how he was muttering curses between gritted42 teeth and had to restrain himself from hurling43 them out at him. He also observed with sarcastic44 glee how his mother’s fury was mounting and that both of them were longing45 for an opportunity to attack him and send him away, or render him innocuous. But he gave them no opening, the tactics of his hate had been prepared too well in advance and left no spots exposed.
“Let us go back,” his mother burst out, feeling she could no longer control herself and that she must do something, if only cry out, under the imposition of this torture.
“A pity,” said Edgar quietly, “it’s so lovely.”
The other two realized the child was making fun of them, but they dared not retort, their tyrant46 having learned marvellously in two days the supreme47 art of self-control. Not a quiver in his face betrayed his mordant48 irony49. Without another word being spoken they retraced50 the long way back to the hotel.
When Edgar and his mother were alone together in her room, her excitement was still seething51. She tossed her gloves and parasol down angrily. Edgar did not fail to note these signs and was aware that her electrified52 nerves would seek to discharge themselves, but he courted an outburst and remained in her room on purpose. She paced up and down, seated herself, drummed on the table with her fingers, and jumped up again.
“How untidy you look. You go around filthy53. It’s a disgrace. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself—a boy of your age!”
Without a word of opposition54 Edgar went to his mother’s toilet table and washed and combed himself. His cold, obdurate55 silence and the ironic quiver of his lips drove her to a frenzy56. Nothing would have satisfied her so much as to give him a sound beating.
“Go to your room,” she screamed, unable to endure his presence a second longer. Edgar smiled and left the room.
How the two trembled before him! How they dreaded57 every moment in his presence, the merciless grip of his eyes! The worse they felt the more he gloated, and the more challenging became his satisfaction. Edgar tortured the two defenceless creatures with the almost animal cruelty of children. The baron, because he had not given up hope of playing a trick on the lad and was thinking of nothing but the goal of his desires, could still contain his anger, but Edgar’s mother was losing her hold upon herself and kept constantly slipping. It was a relief to her to be able to shriek58 at him.
“Don’t play with your fork,” she cried at table. “You’re an ill-bred monkey. You don’t deserve to be in the company of grown-up people.”
Edgar smiled, with his head tipped a trifle to one side. He knew his mother’s outburst was a sign of desperation and took pride in having made her betray herself. His manner and glance were now as composed as a physician’s. In previous days he might have answered back rudely so as to annoy her. But hate teaches many things, and quickly. How he kept quiet, and still kept quiet, and still kept quiet, until his mother, under the pressure of his silence, began to scream. She could stand it no longer. When they rose from table and Edgar with his matter-of-course air of attachment59 preceded to follow her and the baron, her pent-up anger suddenly burst out. She cast prudence60 to the winds and let out the truth. Tortured by his crawling presence she reared like a horse pestered61 by crawling flies.
“Why do you keep tagging after me like a child of three? I don’t want you around us all the time. Children should not always be with their elders. Please remember that. Spend an hour or two by yourself for once. Read something, or do whatever you want. Leave me alone. You make me nervous with your creepy ways and that disgusting hang-dog air of yours!”
He had wrested62 it from her at last—the confession63! He smiled, while the baron and his mother seemed embarrassed. She swung about, turning her back, and was about to leave, in a fury with herself for having admitted so much to her little son, when Edgar’s voice came, saying coolly:
“Papa does not want me to be by myself here. He made me promise not to be wild, and to stay with you.” Edgar emphasized “Papa,” having noticed on the previous occasion when he used the word that it had had a paralyzing effect upon both of them. In some way or other, therefore, he inferred, his father must be implicated64 in this great mystery and must have a secret power over them, because the very mention of him seemed to frighten and distress65 them. They said nothing this time either. They laid down their arms.
The mother left the room with the baron, and Edgar followed behind, not humbly66 like a servitor, but hard, strict, inexorable, like a guard over prisoners, rattling67 the chains against which they strained in vain. Hate had steeled his child’s strength. He, the ignorant one, was stronger than the two older people whose hands were held fast by the great secret.
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收听单词发音
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1
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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3
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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voluptuous
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| adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的 | |
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goad
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| n.刺棒，刺痛物；激励；vt.激励，刺激 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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heartiness
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| 诚实，热心 | |
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curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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12
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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14
perspicacity
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| n. 敏锐, 聪明, 洞察力 | |
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15
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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16
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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17
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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18
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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20
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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21
irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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23
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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24
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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26
gritting
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的现在分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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27
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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28
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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29
sullenness
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| n. 愠怒, 沉闷, 情绪消沉 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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31
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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32
hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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diabolically
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34
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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35
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
malevolent
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| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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corroded
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| 已被腐蚀的 | |
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gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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40
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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41
ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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42
gritted
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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43
hurling
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| n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的现在分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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44
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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45
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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46
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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47
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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48
mordant
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| adj.讽刺的；尖酸的 | |
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49
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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50
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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51
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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52
electrified
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| v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋 | |
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53
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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54
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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55
obdurate
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| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
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56
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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57
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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58
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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59
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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60
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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61
pestered
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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63
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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64
implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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65
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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66
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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67
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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