Lilian, in a negligé, was somnolently1 stretched out in the easy chair in her room when Felix peeped in. He looked at her enquiringly in silence for a moment, and she gave him a hazy2 smile.
"Oh!" he said. "Then you won't feel like going into the Casino to-night after all?"
The apprehension7 which now for two days had been eating like a furtive8 cancer into her mind suddenly grew and contaminated the whole of her consciousness; she could not understand his levity9, for she had not concealed10 from him the sinister11 misgiving12.
"Yes!" she murmured with a sort of charming and victimized protest. "That's all very well, but----" And she stopped, and the smile expired from her face.
He shrugged13 his shoulders, gave a short, affectionate, humouring laugh, and said with kind superiority, utterly14 positive:
"What have I told you? The thing's absolutely imposs!"
And just as suddenly she was quite reassured15 and the apprehension vanished away. It could not exist against his perfect certitude. She lit up a new smile.
"Look here," he went on, "we'll dine in the Casino if we can. Of course, every blessed table may be booked, but I'll have a try."
A quarter of an hour later, when she had begun to dress, he returned with the exciting information that, at precisely16 the right instant, somebody had telephoned to countermand17 an inside table and he had secured it.
They arrived very late in the Casino restaurant, yet more diners came after them than had come before, so that ultimately it would have been difficult to draw a straight line between dinner and supper. The stars in the arched firmament18 of the vast and lofty hall challenged the stars of heaven in number and splendour, and seemed to win easily. Light fell in glittering floods on the flowered tables and on the shoulders of the women. In the centre of the floor was an oblong parquet19 sacred to dancing. The band, in which Englishmen and varied20 dagoes were mingled21, sat, clothed apparently22 in surplices, on a daïs in a mighty23 alcove24. The drummer and the banjoist each procured25 an unnatural26 union of light and sound by electric illumination of their instruments from within. The leader wore a battered27 opera hat, and at the end of a piece he would exclaim grimly and scornfully, "So that's that!" or, "We are the goods!" or some such phrase. Now and then the band overflowed28 into song, and the wild chants of the Marquesas or the Fiji Islands rang riotously29 through the correctness of the restaurant, and Lilian caught fragments of significant verse, such as:
"The rich get rich,
And the poor get children,
Ain't we got fun?"
showing that one touch of nature makes the Southern archipelago the very sister and bride of Europe.
The primary mission of the band was to induce a general exultant31 gaiety; and the mission was accomplished32, nobody understood how. Lilian exulted33 in the food, the wine, the glitter, the noise, the wise, humorous face of Felix, and the glances which assailed34 her on every hand. All care fell away from her. She forgot the future, and the whole of her vitality35 concentrated itself intensely in the moment. Most of the conversation at neighbouring tables was in English, and it was all about gambling36, dancing, golf, lawn-tennis, polo, cards, racing37, trains de luxe, clothes, hotels, prices, and women. Even in the incomprehensible French gabble that reached her she could distinguish words like "golf," and "bridge," and "picnic."
Then four elegant, waisted young men appeared mysteriously from nowhere and approached certain tables and bowed with an assured air, and instantly four elegant young women rose up, without being asked, and the professional couples began to display to the amateurs the true art of the dance. Lilian had never seen such dancing.
"Why are they all Spanish girls?" she innocently asked, struck by the rich, dark skin of the women.
"They're no more Spanish than you are," said Felix. "You perceive that one there. She's at our hotel, on our floor, and I've seen her as blonde as a Norwegian. The dark olive is the result of strange cosmetics38, and a jolly fine result, too. Nothing finer has been invented for a century. It's so perverse39. Don't you like it?"
"I think it's lovely!" she agreed with enthusiasm, also with a vague envy.
Later, when the senoritas had left their partners and resumed their interrupted meals, and the parquet was empty again, she said:
"I do really think it's awful, all this! It's so expensive, everything; and it's all for pleasure. The whole town's for pleasure." In the background she had a vision of her working life, with its discipline and cast-iron hours and wristlets and fatigue40 and privations and penury41. The click of the typewriter, the green-shaded lamps, the Tube, the cold bedroom, the washing and sewing done in the cold bedroom! The blue working frock with its pathetic red line of clumsy embroidery42!
"What about Margate?" Felix demanded quietly.
She was nonplussed43.
"Oh! But that's different!"
"It is. It's not half as good. You must remember there's nothing new in all this. It's been going on in the Mediterranean44 for thousands of years, and it's likely to go on for thousands of years more. It's what human nature is. What are you going to do about it? Would you abolish luxury and pleasure? Not you. Do you imagine that God created the shores of the Mediterranean and this climate for anything else but this? What frightens you is the tremendous organization and concentration of the affair. Nothing else. And let me tell you that this town is the most interesting town on the coast just now. The fellow that's got the new concession45 for the casino is a bit of a genius. He's moulding the place into something fresh. It used to be the primmest46 place on earth. He discovered that the English don't want to be prim30 any more; he showed them to themselves. Do you suppose all these women began to come here on their own? They're pawns47 in his great game. He brought them; but no nice-minded person asks how, nor whether they really pay for their meals or their rooms, nor how they manage to encourage big gambling in the baccarat rooms. This fellow has put the wind up to the next town up the coast: it used to be the most corrupt48 town in the whole of Europe, that place used to be! And now the rival genius there is introducing large families of children and nurses there in the hope of persuading the English that they prefer to be prim and domestic after all. The fact is these two geniuses are gambling against one another for far bigger stakes than any of the baccarat maniacs49. It's a battle for the command of the coast. That's what it is. You don't get the hang of it all at once; but you will in time. Let's dance."
Lilian was startled by the invitation, for they had not yet danced together. She remembered how, on that night when he first talked to her about herself, he had known that she was being deprived of an evening's dancing. They stood up as the chicken was being removed. She smiled at him with fresh admiration50. He had impregnated her with new ideas; he had reassured her; he had justified51 her enjoyment52; he was amazing; he was mad about her, in his restrained style; and now he would surprisingly dance with her.
Although they took the floor early in the dance, when only two other couples had begun to dance, it was impossible for her to be nervous within his arm. Half the room gazed at her, for she had attracted attention from the first. She knew that half the room was gazing at her, and she liked it. She guessed that half the room was saying: "Look at that fresh young creature who's with that middle-aged53 man--she must be really very young." And she liked it. She liked to show herself with the man who was more than old enough to be her father, worn by knowledge and experience and the corrupting54 of the world; to contrast her untried simplicity--the bloom of the virginal scarcely gone from it--with his grey hairs and his wrinkled, disillusioned55, passive eyes. She was happy in the thought that everybody knew that she must have given herself to him, and that there was something strange, sinister, and even odious56 in her abandonment. He had used the word "perverse." She did not wholly understand the word, but it appealed to her, and for her it expressed her mood.
She had noticed, in the room, how the women no longer unquestionably young were more consciously and carefully charming towards their men, receiving adulation but rendering57 it back; whereas the unquestionably young were more negligent58 and far more egotistic. And so she behaved like one no longer unquestionably young. She glanced up at her partner with ravishing, ecstatic smiles; she publicly adored him. And she was glad that her green and gold frock with its long arm-holes was not of the Wigmore Street cut, but quite other in origin and spirit and in its effect upon the imagination.
The dancing had by this time become general, but the olive-tinted temptresses were still prominent in the throng59, and sometimes she touched them in the curves of the dance. She knew where they beat her and where she beat them. And it was vouchsafed60 to her from the eyes of Felix that she was lovely and marvellous. She felt intensely, inexpressibly happy, and more than happy--triumphant. Her quiet, obstinate61 resentment62 against the domestic policy of her father died out, and she forgave him as she danced. She thought with a secret sigh almost painful in its relief:
"Thank God I have fulfilled myself and succeeded not too late!"
She had premonitions of power, a foretaste of dominion63. Felix was hers. She could influence him. She could re-make him. And for the thousandth time she breathed to him in her soul: "I have made you happy, but I will make you more happy--infinitely more happy. You don't know yet what I am capable of." He danced very correctly and quite nicely,--rather stiff, of course, but with a certain clever abandonment of his body to the rhythm. She thought: "With what women did he learn to dance? He must have danced a lot. Never will I ask! Never!" The fox-trot ended.
As they were crossing the floor to their table she saw Lord Mackworth dining with a man older than himself at a table near the windows. She sat down to the sweet. He had caught sight of her and was looking at her fixedly64. She stared at him for a moment with the casually65 interested stare of non-recognition, perfectly66 executed.
"The yacht hasn't left, then, after all," she reflected, and to Felix: "Did that big yacht leave to-night?"
"No," said Felix. "I heard they'd changed their minds." Felix had the faculty67 of hearing everything.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
somnolently
|
|
| adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地；催眠地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
2
hazy
|
|
| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
intonation
|
|
| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
hurrah
|
|
| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
gaily
|
|
| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
apprehension
|
|
| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
furtive
|
|
| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
levity
|
|
| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
misgiving
|
|
| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
countermand
|
|
| v.撤回(命令)，取消(订货) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
firmament
|
|
| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
parquet
|
|
| n.镶木地板 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
alcove
|
|
| n.凹室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
procured
|
|
| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
unnatural
|
|
| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
battered
|
|
| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
overflowed
|
|
| 溢出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
riotously
|
|
| adv.骚动地，暴乱地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
prim
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
exultant
|
|
| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
exulted
|
|
| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
assailed
|
|
| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
vitality
|
|
| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
racing
|
|
| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
cosmetics
|
|
| n.化妆品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
perverse
|
|
| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
fatigue
|
|
| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
penury
|
|
| n.贫穷，拮据 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
embroidery
|
|
| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
nonplussed
|
|
| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
Mediterranean
|
|
| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
concession
|
|
| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
primmest
|
|
| adj.循规蹈矩的( prim的最高级 )；整洁的；（人）一本正经 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
47
pawns
|
|
| n.（国际象棋中的）兵( pawn的名词复数 )；卒；被人利用的人；小卒v.典当，抵押( pawn的第三人称单数 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
corrupt
|
|
| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
maniacs
|
|
| n.疯子（maniac的复数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
enjoyment
|
|
| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
corrupting
|
|
| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
disillusioned
|
|
| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
odious
|
|
| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
rendering
|
|
| n.表现，描写 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
negligent
|
|
| adj.疏忽的；玩忽的；粗心大意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
throng
|
|
| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
vouchsafed
|
|
| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
obstinate
|
|
| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
resentment
|
|
| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
dominion
|
|
| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
fixedly
|
|
| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
casually
|
|
| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
faculty
|
|
| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |