It is true that Rachel held Councillor Thomas Batchgrew in hatred2, that she had never pardoned him for the insult which he had put upon her in the Imperial Cinema de Luxe; and that, indeed, she could never pardon him for simply being Thomas Batchgrew. Nevertheless, there was that evening in her heart a little softening3 towards him. The fact was that the councillor had been flattering her. She would have denied warmly that she was susceptible4 to flattery; even if authoritatively5 informed that no human being whatever is unsusceptible to flattery, she would still have protested that she at any rate was, for, like numerous young and inexperienced women, she had persuaded herself that she was the one exception to various otherwise universal rules.
It remained that Thomas Batchgrew had been flattering her. On arrival he had greeted her with that tinge6 of deference7 which from an old man never fails to thrill a girl. Rachel's pride as a young married woman was tigerishly alert and hungry that evening. Thomas Batchgrew, little by little, tamed and fed it very judiciously8 at intervals10, until at length it seemed to purr content around him like a cat. The phenomenon was remarkable11, and the more so in that Rachel was convinced that, whereas she was as critical and inimical as ever, old Batchgrew had slightly improved. He behaved "heartily," and everybody appreciates such behaviour in the Five Towns. He was by nature far too insensitive to notice that the married lovers were treating each other with that finished courtesy which is the symptom of a tiff12 or of a misunderstanding. And the married lovers, noticing that he noticed nothing, were soon encouraged to make peace; and by means of certain tones and gestures peace was declared in the very presence of the unperceiving old brute15, which was peculiarly delightful17 to the contracting parties.
Rachel had less difficulty with the supper than she feared, whereby also her good-humour was fostered. With half a cold leg of mutton, some cheeses, and the magnificent fancy remains19 of an At Home tea, arrayed with the d'oyleys and embroidered20 cloths which brides always richly receive in the Five Towns, a most handsome and impressive supper can be concocted21. Rachel was astonished at the splendour of her own table. Mr. Batchgrew treated this supper with unsurpassable tact22. The adjectives he applied23 to it were short and emphatic24 and spoken with a full mouth. He ate the supper; he kept on eating it; he passed his plate with alacrity25; he refused naught26. And as the meal neared its end he emitted those natural inarticulate noises from his throat which in Persia are a sign of high breeding. Useless for Rachel in her heart to call him a glutton—his attitude towards her supper was impeccable.
And now the solid part of the supper was over. One extremity27 of the Chesterfield had been drawn28 closer to the fire—an operation easily possible in its new advantageous29 position—and Louis as master of the house had mended the fire after his own method, and Rachel sat upright (somewhat in the manner of Mrs. Maldon) in the arm-chair opposite Mr. Batchgrew, extended half-reclining on the Chesterfield. And Mrs. Tams entered with coffee.
"You'll have coffee, Mr. Batchgrew?" said the hostess.
"Oh, but you must have some of Louise's coffee," said Louis, standing13 negligently33 in front of the fire.
Already, though under a month old as a husband, Louis, following the eternal example of good husbands, had acquired the sure belief that his wife could achieve a higher degree of excellence34 in certain affairs than any other wife in the world. He had selected coffee as Rachel's speciality.
"Louise's?" repeated old Batchgrew, puzzled, in his heavy voice.
Rachel flushed and smiled.
"He calls me Louise, you know," said she.
"Calls you Louise, does he?" Batchgrew muttered indifferently. But he took a cup of coffee, stirred part of its contents into the saucer and on to the Chesterfield, and began to sup the remainder with a prodigious35 splutter of ingurgitation.
"And you must have a cigarette, too," Louis carelessly insisted. And Mr. Batchgrew agreed, though it was notorious that he only smoked once in a blue moon, because all tobacco was apt to be too strong for him.
"You can clear away," Rachel whispered, in the frigid36 tones of one accustomed to command cohorts of servants in the luxury of historic castles.
"Yes, ma'am," Mrs. Tams whispered back nervously37, proud as a major-domo, though with less than a major-domo's aplomb38.
No pride, however, could have outclassed Rachel's. She had had a full day, and the evening was the crown of the day, because in the evening she was entertaining privately39 for the first time. She was the one lady of the party; for these two men she represented woman, and they were her men. They depended on her for their physical well-being40, and not in vain. She was the hostess; hers to command; hers the complex responsibility of the house. She had begun supper with painful timidity, but the timidity had now nearly vanished in the flush of social success. Critical as only a young wife can be, she was excellently well satisfied with Louis' performance in the role of host. She grew more than ever sure that there was only one Louis. See him manipulate a cigarette—it was the perfection of worldliness and agreeable, sensuous41 grace! See him hold a match to Mr. Batchgrew's cigarette!
Now Mr. Batchgrew smoked a cigarette clumsily. He seemed not to be able to decide whether a cigarette was something to smoke or something to eat. Mr. Batchgrew was more ungainly than ever, stretched in his characteristic attitude at an angle of forty-five degrees; his long whiskers were more absurdly than ever like two tails of a wire-haired white dog; his voice more coarsely than ever rolled about the room like undignified thunder. He was an old, old man, and a sinister42. It was precisely43 his age that caressed45 Rachel's pride. That any man so old should have come to her house for supper, should be treating her as an equal and with the directness of allusion46 in conversation due to a married woman but improper47 to a young girl—this was very sweet to Rachel. The subdued48 stir made by Mrs. Tams in clearing the table was for Rachel a delicious background to the scene. The one flaw in it was her short skirt, which she had not had time to change. Louis had protested that it was entirely49 in order, and indeed admirably coquettish, but Rachel would have preferred a long train of soft drapery disposed with art round the front of her chair.
"What you want here is electricity," said Thomas Batchgrew, gazing at the incandescent50 gas; he could never miss a chance, and was never discouraged in the pursuit of his own advantage.
"I could put ye in summat as 'u'd—;"
Rachel broke in a clear, calm decision—
"I don't think we shall have any electricity just yet."
The gesture of the economical wife in her was so final that old Batchgrew raised his eyebrows53 with a grin at Louis, and Louis humorously drew down the corners of his mouth in response. It was as if they had both said, in awe—
"She has spoken!"
And Rachel, still further flattered and happy, was obliged to smile.
When Mrs. Tams had made her last tiptoe journey from the room and closed the door with due silent respect upon those great ones, the expression of Thomas Batchgrew's face changed somewhat; he looked round, as though for spies, and then drew a packet of papers from his pocket. And the expression of the other two faces changed also. For the true purpose of the executor's visit was now to be made formally manifest.
"By the way," Louis interrupted him. "Is Julian back?"
"Julian back? Not as I know of," said Mr. Batchgrew aggressively. "Why?"
"We thought we saw him walking down Moorthorne Road to-night."
"Yes," said Rachel. "We both thought we saw him."
"It couldn't have been Julian," said Louis, confidently, to Rachel.
"No, it couldn't," said Rachel.
But neither conjured56 away the secret uneasiness of the other. And as for Rachel, she knew that all through the evening she had, inexplicably57, been disturbed by an apprehension58 that Julian, after his long and strange sojourn59 in South Africa, had returned to the district. Why the possible advent60 of Julian should disconcert her, she thought she could not divine. Mr. Batchgrew's demeanour as he answered Louis' question mysteriously increased her apprehension. At one moment she said to herself, "Of course it wasn't Julian." At the next, "I'm quite sure I couldn't be mistaken." At the next, "And supposing it was Julian—what of it?"
II
When Batchgrew and Louis, sitting side by side on the Chesterfield, began to turn over documents and peer into columns, and carry the finger horizontally across sheets of paper in search of figures, Rachel tactfully withdrew, not from the room, but from the conversation, it being her proper role to pretend that she did not and could not understand the complicated details which they were discussing. She expected some rather dazzling revelation of men's trained methods at this "business interview" (as Louis had announced it), for her brother and father had never allowed her the slightest knowledge of their daily affairs. But she was disappointed. She thought that both the men were somewhat absurdly and self-consciously trying to be solemn and learned. Louis beyond doubt was self-conscious—acting18 as it were to impress his wife—and Batchgrew's efforts to be hearty63 and youthful with the young roused her private ridicule64.
Moreover, nothing fresh emerged from the interview. She had known all of it before from Louis. Batchgrew was merely repeating and resuming. And Louis was listening with politeness to recitals67 with which he was quite familiar. In words almost identical with those already reported to her by Louis, Batchgrew insisted on the honesty and efficiency of the valuer in Hanbridge, a lifelong friend of his own, who had for a specially68 low fee put a price on the house at Bycars and its contents for the purpose of a division between Louis and Julian. And now, as previously69 with Louis, Rachel failed to comprehend how the valuer, if he had been favourably70 disposed towards Louis, as Batchgrew averred71, could at the same time have behaved honestly towards Julian. But neither Louis nor Batchgrew seemed to realize the point. They both apparently72 flattered themselves with much simplicity73 upon the partiality of the lifelong friend and valuer for Louis, without perceiving the logical deduction74 that if he was partial he was a rascal75. Further, Thomas Batchgrew "rubbed Rachel the wrong way" by subtly emphasizing his own marvellous abilities as a trustee and executor, and by assuring Louis repeatedly that all conceivable books of account, correspondence, and documents were open for his inspection76 at any time. Batchgrew, in Rachel's opinion, might as well have said, "You naturally suspect me of being a knave77, but I can prove to you that you are wrong."
Finally, they came to the grand total of Louis' inheritance, which Rachel had known by heart for several days past; yet Batchgrew rolled it out as a piece of tremendous news, and immediately afterwards hinted that the sum represented less than the true worth of Louis' inheritance, and that he, Batchgrew, as well as his lifelong friend the valuer, had been influenced by a partiality for Louis. For example, he had contrived78 to put all the house property, except the house at Bycars, into Julian's share; which was extremely advantageous for Louis because the federation79 of the Five Towns into one borough80 had rendered property values the most capricious and least calculable of all worldly possessions.... And Louis tried to smile knowingly at the knowing trustee and executor with his amiable81 partiality for one legatee as against the other. Louis' share, beyond the Bycars house, was in the gilt-edged stock of limited companies which sold water and other necessaries of life to the public on their own terms.
Rachel left the pair for a moment, and returned from upstairs with a grey jacket of Louis' from which she had to unstitch the black crêpe armlet announcing to the world Louis' grief for his dead great-aunt; the period of mourning was long over, and it would not have been quite nice for Louis to continue announcing his grief.
As she came back into the room she heard the word "debentures83," and that single word changed her mood instantly from bland84 feminine toleration to porcupinish defensiveness85. She did not, as a fact, know what debentures were. She could not for a fortune have defined the difference between a debenture82 and a share. She only knew that debentures were connected with "limited companies"—not waterworks companies, which she classed with the Bank of England—but just any limited companies, which were in her mind a bottomless pit for the savings86 of the foolish. She had an idea that a debenture was, if anything, more fatal than a share. She was, of course, quite wrong, according to general principles; but, unfortunately, women, as all men sooner or later learn, have a disconcerting habit of being right in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. In a single moment, without justification87, she had in her heart declared war on all debentures. And as soon as she gathered that Thomas Batchgrew was suggesting to Louis the exchange of waterworks stock for seven per cent. debentures in the United Midland Cinemas Corporation, Limited, she became more than ever convinced that her instinct about debentures was but too correct. She sat down primly88, and detached the armlet, and removed all the bits of black cotton from the sleeve, and never raised her head nor offered a remark, but she was furious—furious to protect her husband against sharks and against himself.
The conduct and demeanour of Thomas Batchgrew were now explained. His visit, his flattery, his heartiness89, his youthfulness, all had a motive90. He had safeguarded Louis' interests under the will in order to rob him afterwards as a cinematograph speculator. The thing was as clear as daylight. And yet Louis did not seem to see it. Louis listened to Batchgrew's ingenious arguments with naïve interest and was obviously impressed. When Batchgrew called him "a business man as smart as they make 'em," and then proved that the money so invested would be as safe as in a stocking, Louis agreed with a great air of acumen91 that certainly it would. When Batchgrew pointed62 out that, under the proposed new investment, Louis would be receiving in income thirty or thirty-five shillings for every pound under the old investments, Louis' eye glistened92—positively93 glistened! Rachel trembled. She saw her husband beggared, and there was nothing that frightened her more than the prospect94 of Louis without a reserve of private income. She did not argue the position—she simply knew that Louis without sure resources behind him would be a very dangerous and uncertain Louis, perhaps a tragic95 Louis. She frankly96 admitted this to herself. And old Batchgrew went on talking and inveigling97 until Rachel was ready to believe that the device of debentures had been originally invented by Thomas Batchgrew himself with felonious intent.
"Well, ye'll think it over," said Thomas Batchgrew.
"Oh I will!" said Louis eagerly.
And Rachel asked herself, almost shaking—"Is it possible that he is such a simpleton?"
"Only I must know by Tuesday," said Thomas Batchgrew. "I thought I'd give ye th' chance, but I can't keep it open later than Tuesday."
"Thanks, awfully," said Louis. "I'm very much obliged for the offer. I'll let you know—before Tuesday."
Rachel frowned as she folded up the jacket. If, however, the two men could have seen into her mind they would have perceived symptoms of danger more agitating100 than one little frown.
"Of course," said Thomas Batchgrew easily, with a short laugh, in the lobby, "if it hadna been for her making away with that nine hundred and sixty-odd pound, you'd ha' had a round sum o' thousands to invest. I've been thinking o'er that matter, and all I can see for it is as her must ha' thrown th' money into th' fire in mistake for th' envelope, or with th' envelope. That's all as I can see for it."
"Never thought of that!" he cried. "It very probably was that. Strange it never occurred to me!"
Rachel said nothing. She had extreme difficulty in keeping control of herself while old Batchgrew, with numerous senile precautions, took his slow departure. She forgot that she was a hostess and a woman of the world.
III
"Hello! What's that?" Rachel asked, in a self-conscious voice, when they were in the parlour again.
Louis had almost surreptitiously taken an envelope from his pocket, and was extracting a paper from it.
On finding themselves alone they had not followed their usual custom of bursting into comment, favourable102 or unfavourable, on the departed—a practice due more to a desire to rouse and enjoy each other's individualities than to a genuine interest in the third person. Nor had they impulsively103 or deliberately104 kissed, as they were liable to do after release from a spell of worldliness. On the contrary, both were still constrained105, as if the third person was still with them. The fact was that there were two other persons in the room, darkly discerned by Louis and Rachel—namely, a different, inimical Rachel and a different, inimical Louis. All four, the seen and the half-seen, walked stealthily, like rival beasts in the edge of the jungle.
"Oh!" said Louis with an air of nonchalance106. "It came by the last post while old Batch1 was here, and I just shoved it into my pocket."
The arrivals of the post were always interesting to them, for during the weeks after marriage letters are apt to be more numerous than usual, and to contain delicate and enchanting107 surprises. Both of them were always strictly108 ceremonious in the handling of each other's letters, and yet both deprecated this ceremoniousness in the beloved. Louis urged Rachel to open his letters without scruple109, and Rachel did the same to Louis. But both—Louis by chivalry110 and Rachel by pride—were prevented from acting on the invitation. The envelope in Louis' hand did not contain a letter, but only a circular. The fact that the flap of the envelope was unsealed and the stamp a mere65 halfpenny ought rightly to have deprived the packet of all significance as a subject of curiosity. Nevertheless, the different, inimical Rachel, probably out of sheer perversity111, went up to Louis and looked over his shoulder as he read the communication, which was a printed circular, somewhat yellowed, with blanks neatly112 filled in, and the whole neatly signed by a churchwarden, informing Louis that his application for sittings at St. Luke's Church (commonly called the Old Church) had been granted. It is to be noted113 that, though applications for sittings in the Old Church were not overwhelmingly frequent, and might indeed very easily have been coped with by means of autograph replies, the authorities had a sufficient sense of dignity always to circularize the applicants114.
This document, harmless enough, and surely a proof of laudable aspirations115 in Louis, gravely displeased116 the different, inimical Rachel, and was used by her for bellicose117 purposes.
"But wasn't it understood that we were to go to the Old Church?" said the other Louis, full of ingenious innocence119.
"Oh! Was it?"
"Didn't I mention it?"
"I don't remember."
"I'm sure I did."
The truth was that Louis had once casually120 remarked that he supposed they would attend the Old Church. Rachel would have joyously121 attended any church or any chapel122 with him. At Knype she had irregularly attended the Bethesda Chapel—sometimes (in the evenings) with her father, oftener alone, never with her brother. During her brief employment with Mrs. Maldon she had been only once to a place of worship, the new chapel in Moorthorne Road, which was the nearest to Bycars and had therefore been favoured by Mrs. Maldon when her limbs were stiff. In the abstract she approved of religious rites123. Theologically her ignorance was such that she could not have distinguished124 between the tenets of church and the tenets of chapel, and this ignorance she shared with the large majority of the serious inhabitants of the Five Towns. Why, then, should she have "pulled a face" (as the saying down there is) at the Old Parish Church?
One reason, which would have applied equally to church or chapel, was that she was disconcerted and even alarmed by Louis' manifest tendency to settle down into utter correctness. Louis had hitherto been a devotee of joy—never as a bachelor had he done aught to increase the labour of churchwardens—and it was somehow as a devotee of joy that Rachel had married him. Rachel had been settled down all her life, and naturally desired and expected that an unsettling process should now occur in her career. It seemed to her that in mere decency125 Louis might have allowed at any rate a year or two to pass before occupying himself so stringently126 with her eternal welfare. She belonged to the middle class (intermediate between the industrial and the aristocratic employing) which is responsible for the Five Towns' reputation for joylessness, the class which sticks its chin out and gets things done (however queer the things done may be), the class which keeps the district together and maintains its solidity, the class which is ashamed of nothing but idleness, frank enjoyment127, and the caprice of the moment. (Its idiomatic128 phrase for expressing the experience of gladness, "I sang 'O be joyful,'" alone demonstrates its unwillingness129 to rejoice.) She had espoused130 the hedonistic class (always secretly envied by the other), and Louis' behaviour as a member of that class had already begun to disappoint her. Was it fair of him to say in his conduct: "The fun is over. We must be strictly conventional now"? His costly131 caprices for Llandudno and the pleasures of idleness were quite beside the point.
Another reason for her objection to Louis' overtures132 to the Old Church was that they increased her suspicion of his snobbishness133. No person nourished from infancy135 in chapel can bring himself to believe that the chief motive of church-goers is not the snobbish134 motive of social propriety136. And dissenters137 are so convinced that, if chapel means salvation138 in the next world, church means salvation in this, that to this day, regardless of the feelings of their pastors139, they will go to church once in their lives—to get married. At any rate, Rachel was positively sure that no anxiety about his own soul or about hers had led Louis to join the Old Church.
"Have you been confirmed?" she asked.
"Yes, of course," Louis replied politely.
She did not like that "of course."
"Shall I have to be?"
"I don't know."
"Well," said she, "I can tell you one thing—I shan't be."
IV
Rachel went on—
"You aren't really going to throw your money away on those debenture things of Mr. Batchgrew's, are you?"
Louis now knew the worst, and he had been suspecting it. Rachel's tone fully61 displayed her sentiments, and completed the disclosure that "the little thing" was angry and aggressive. (In his mind Louis regarded her at moments, as "the little thing.") But his own politeness was so profoundly rooted that practically no phenomenon of rudeness could overthrow140 it.
"No," he said, "I'm not going to 'throw my money away' on them."
"That's all right, then," she said, affecting not to perceive his drift. "I thought you were."
"But I propose to put my money into them, subject to anything you, as a financial expert, may have to say."
Nervously she had gone to the window and was pretending to straighten a blind.
"I don't think you need to make fun of me," she said. "You think I don't notice when you make fun of me. But I do—always."
"Look here, young 'un," Louis suddenly began to cajole, very winningly.
"I'm about as old as you are," said she, "and perhaps in some ways a bit older. And I must say I really wonder at you being ready to help Mr. Batchgrew after the way he insulted me in the cinema."
"Insulted you in the cinema!" Louis cried, genuinely startled, and then somewhat hurt because Rachel argued like a woman instead of like a man. In reflecting upon the excellences141 of Rachel he had often said to himself that her unique charm consisted in the fact that she combined the attractiveness of woman with the powerful commonsense142 of man. In common with a whole enthusiastic army of young husbands he had been convinced that his wife was the one female creature on earth to whom you could talk as you would to a male. "Oh!" he murmured.
"Have you forgotten it, then?" she asked coldly. To herself she was saying: "Why am I behaving like this? After all, he's done no harm yet." But she had set out, and she must continue, driven by the terrible fear of what he might do. She stared at the blind. Through a slit143 of window at one side of it she could see the lamp-post and the iron kerb of the pavement.
"But that's all over long ago," he protested amiably144. "Just look how friendly you were with him yourself over supper! Besides—"
"Besides what? I wasn't friendly. I was only polite. I had to be. Nobody's called Mr. Batchgrew worse names than you have. But you forget. Only I don't forget. There's lots of things I don't forget, although I don't make a song about them. I shan't forget in a hurry how you let go of my bike without telling me and I fell all over the road. I know I'm lots more black and blue even than I was."
If Rachel would but have argued according to his rules of debate, Louis was confident that he could have conducted the affair to a proper issue. But she would not. What could he say? In a flash he saw a vista145 of, say, forty years of conjugal146 argument with a woman incapable147 of reason, and trembled. Then he looked again, and saw the lines of Rachel's figure in her delightful short skirt and was reassured148. But still he did not know what to say. Rachel spared him further cogitation149 on that particular aspect of the question by turning round and exclaiming, passionately150, with a break in her voice—
"Can't you see that he'll swindle you out of the money?"
It seemed to her that the security of their whole future depended on her firmness and strong sagacity at that moment. She felt herself to be very wise and also, happily, very vigorous. But at the same time she was afflicted151 by a kind of despair at the thought that Louis had indeed been, and still was, ready to commit the disastrous152 folly153 of confiding154 money to Thomas Batchgrew for investment. And as Louis had had a flashing vision of the future, so did Rachel now have such a vision. But hers was more terrible than his. Louis foresaw merely vexation. Rachel foresaw ruin doubtfully staved off by eternal vigilance on her part and by nothing else—an instant's sleepiness, and they might be in the gutter155 and she the wife of a ne'er-do-well. She perceived that she must be reconciled to a future in which the strain of intense vigilance could never once be relaxed. Strange that a creature so young and healthy and in love should be so pessimistic, but thus it was! She remembered in in spite of herself the warnings against Louis which she had been compelled to listen to in the previous year.
"Odd, of course!" said Louis. "But I can't exactly see how he'll swindle me out of the money! A debenture is a debenture."
"Is it?"
"Do you know what a debenture is, my child?"
"I don't need to know what a debenture is, when Mr. Batchgrew's mixed up in it."
Louis suppressed a sigh. He first thought of trying to explain to her just what a debenture was. Then he abandoned the enterprise as too complicated, and also as futile156. Though he should prove to her that a debenture combined the safety of the Bank of England with the brilliance157 of a successful gambling158 transaction, she would not budge159. He was acquiring valuable and painful knowledge concerning women every second. He grew sad, not simply with the weight of this new knowledge, but more because, though he had envisaged160 certain difficulties of married existence, he had not envisaged this difficulty. He had not dreamed that a wife would demand a share, and demand it furiously, in the control of his business affairs. He had sincerely imagined that wives listened with much respect and little comprehension when business was on the carpet, content to murmur51 soothingly161 from time to time, "Just as you think best, dear." Life had unpleasantly astonished him.
It was on the tip of his tongue to say to Rachel, with steadying facetiousness—
"You mustn't forget that I know a bit about these things, having spent years of my young life in a bank."
But a vague instinct told him that to draw attention to his career in the bank might be unwise—at any rate, in principle.
"Can't you see," Rachel charged again, "that Mr. Batchgrew has only been flattering you all this time so as to get hold of your money? And wasn't it just like him to begin again harping162 on the electricity?>"
"Flattering me?"
"Well, he couldn't bear you before—if you'd only heard the things he used to say!—and now he simply licks your boots."
"What things did he say?" Louis asked, disturbed.
"Oh, never mind!"
"The money will be perfectly165 safe," he insisted, "and our income pretty nearly doubled. I suppose I ought to know more about these things than you."
"What's the use of income being doubled if you lose the capital?" Rachel snapped, now taking a horrid166, perverse167 pleasure in the perilous168 altercation169. "And if it's so safe why is he ready to give you so much interest?"
The worst of women, Louis reflected, is that in the midst of a silly argument that you can shatter in ten words they will by a fluke insert some awkward piece of genuine ratiocination170, the answer to which must necessarily be lengthy171 and ineffective.
"It's no good arguing," he said pleasantly, and then repeated, "I ought to know more about these things than you."
Rachel raised her voice in exasperation—
"I don't see it, I don't see it at all. If it hadn't been for me you'd have thrown up your situation—and a nice state of affairs there would have been then! And how much money would you have wasted on holidays and so on and so on if I hadn't stopped you, I should like to know!"
Louis was still more astonished. Indeed, he was rather nettled172. His urbanity was unimpaired, but he permitted himself a slight acidity173 of tone as he retorted with gentle malice—
"Well, you can't help the colour of your hair. So I'll keep my nerve."
"I didn't expect to be insulted!" cried Rachel, flushing far redder than that rich hair of hers, and paced pompously174 out of the room, her face working violently. The door was ajar. She passed Mrs. Tams on the stairs, blindly, with lowered head.
V
In the conjugal bedroom, full of gas-glare and shadows, there were two old women. One was Mrs. Tams, ministering; the other was Rachel Fores, once and not long ago the beloved and courted girlish Louise of a chevalier, now aged14 by all the sorrow of the world. She lay in bed—in her bed nearest the fireplace and farthest from the door.
She had undressed herself with every accustomed ceremony, arranging each article of attire175, including the fine frock left on the bed, carefully in its place, as is meet in a chamber176 where tidiness depends on the loyal cooperation of two persons, but through her tears. She had slipped sobbing177 into bed. The other bed was empty, and its emptiness seemed sinister to her. Would it ever be occupied again? Impossible that it should ever be occupied again! Its rightful occupant was immeasurably far off, along miles of passages, down leagues of stairs, separated by impregnable doors, in another universe, the universe of the ground floor. Of course she might have sprung up, put on her enchanting dressing-gown, tripped down a few steps in a moment of time, and peeped in at the parlour door—just peeped in, in that magic ribboned peignoir, and glanced—and the whole planet would have been reborn. But she could not. If the salvation of the human race had depended on it, she could not—partly because she was a native of the Five Towns, where such things are not done, and no doubt partly because she was just herself.
She was now more grieved than angry with Louis. He had been wrong; he was a foolish, unreliable boy—but he was a boy. Whereas she was his mother, and ought to have known better. Yes, she had become his mother in the interval9. For herself she experienced both pity and anger. What angered her was her clumsiness. Why had she lost her temper and her head? She saw clearly how she might have brought him round to her view with a soft phrase, a peculiar16 inflection, a tiny appeal, a caress44, a mere dimpling of the cheek. She saw him revolving178 on her little finger.... She knew all things now because she was so old. And then suddenly she was bathing luxuriously179 in self-pity, and young and imperious, and violently resentful of the insult which he had put upon her—an insult which recalled the half-forgotten humiliations of her school-days, when loutish180 girls had baptized her with the name of a vegetable.... And then, again suddenly, she deeply desired that Louis should come upstairs and bully181 her.
She attached a superstitious182 and terrible importance to the tragical183 episode in the parlour because it was their first quarrel as husband and wife. True, she had stormed at him before their engagement, but even then he had kept intact his respect for her, whereas now, a husband, he had shamed her. The breach184, she knew, could never be closed. She had only to glance at the empty bed to be sure that it was eternal. It had been made slowly yet swiftly; and it was complete and unbridgable ere she had realized its existence. When she contrasted the idyllic185 afternoon with the tragedy of the night, she was astounded186 by the swiftness of the change. The catastrophe187 lay, not in the threatened loss of vast sums of money and consequent ruin—that had diminished to insignificance188!—but in the breach.
And then Mrs. Tams had inserted herself in the bedroom. Mrs. Tams knew or guessed everything. And she would not pretend that she did not; and Rachel would not pretend—did not even care to pretend, for Mrs. Tams was so unimportant that nobody minded her. Mrs. Tams had heard and seen. She commiserated189. She stroked timidly with her gnarled hand the short, fragile sleeve of the nightgown, whereat Rachel sobbed190 afresh, with more plenteous tears, and tried to articulate a word, and could not till the third attempt. The word was "handkerchief." She was not weeping in comfort. Mrs. Tams was aware of the right drawer and drew from it a little white thing—yet not so little, for Rachel was Rachel!—and shook out its quadrangular folds, and it seemed beautiful in the gaslight; and Rachel took it and sobbed "Thank you."
Mrs. Tams rose higher than even a general servant; she was the soubrette, the confidential191 maid, the very echo of the young and haughty192 mistress, leagued with the worshipped creature against the wickedness and wile193 of a whole sex. Mrs. Tams had no illusions save the sublime194 illusion that her mistress was an angel and a martyr195. Mrs. Tams had been married, and she had seen a daughter married. She was an authority on first quarrels and could and did tell tales of first quarrels—tales in which the husband, while admittedly an utterly196 callous197 monster, had at the same time somehow some leaven198 of decency. Soon she was launched in the epic199 recital66 of the birth and death of a grandchild; Rachel, being a married women like the rest, could properly listen to every interesting and recondite200 detail. Rachel sobbed and sympathized with the classic tale. And both women, as it was unrolled, kept well in their minds the vision of the vile201 man, mysterious and implacable, alone in the parlour. Occasionally Mrs. Tams listened for a footstep, ready discreetly202 to withdraw at the slightest symptom on the stairs. Once when she did this, Rachel murmured, weakly, "He won't—" and then lapsed203 into new weeping. And after a little time Mrs. Tams departed.
《How to Live on 24 Hours a Day》
《How to Live on 24 Hours a Day》
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1
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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authoritatively
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| 命令式地，有权威地，可信地 | |
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tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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judiciously
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| adv.明断地，明智而审慎地 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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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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tiff
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| n.小争吵，生气 | |
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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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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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19
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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concocted
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| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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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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advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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negligently
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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frigid
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| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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aplomb
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| n.沉着，镇静 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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sensuous
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| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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49
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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incandescent
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| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
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51
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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53
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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54
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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55
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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57
inexplicably
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| adv.无法说明地，难以理解地，令人难以理解的是 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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59
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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60
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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61
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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64
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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65
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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66
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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67
recitals
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| n.独唱会( recital的名词复数 )；独奏会；小型音乐会、舞蹈表演会等；一系列事件等的详述 | |
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68
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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69
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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70
favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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71
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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72
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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73
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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74
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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75
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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76
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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77
knave
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| n.流氓；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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80
borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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81
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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82
debenture
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| n.债券；信用债券；（海关）退税凭单 | |
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83
debentures
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| n.公司债券( debenture的名词复数 ) | |
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84
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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85
defensiveness
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| 防御性 | |
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86
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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87
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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88
primly
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| adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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heartiness
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| 诚实，热心 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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acumen
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| n.敏锐，聪明 | |
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92
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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93
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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94
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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95
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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96
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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97
inveigling
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| v.诱骗，引诱( inveigle的现在分词 ) | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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99
hooted
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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100
agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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101
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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103
impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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104
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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106
nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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108
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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109
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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113
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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applicants
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| 申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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115
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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116
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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bellicose
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| adj.好战的；好争吵的 | |
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118
ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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119
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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120
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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121
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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122
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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123
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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124
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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125
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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126
stringently
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| adv.严格地，严厉地 | |
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127
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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128
idiomatic
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| adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的 | |
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129
unwillingness
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| n. 不愿意，不情愿 | |
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130
espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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131
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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132
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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133
snobbishness
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| 势利； 势利眼 | |
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134
snobbish
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| adj.势利的，谄上欺下的 | |
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135
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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136
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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137
dissenters
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| n.持异议者，持不同意见者( dissenter的名词复数 ) | |
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138
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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139
pastors
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| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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140
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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141
excellences
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| n.卓越( excellence的名词复数 )；（只用于所修饰的名词后）杰出的；卓越的；出类拔萃的 | |
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142
commonsense
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| adj.有常识的；明白事理的；注重实际的 | |
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143
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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144
amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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145
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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146
conjugal
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| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
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147
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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148
reassured
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| 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) | |
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149
cogitation
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| n.仔细思考，计划，设计 | |
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150
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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151
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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153
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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confiding
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| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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155
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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157
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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158
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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159
budge
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| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
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160
envisaged
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| 想像，设想( envisage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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161
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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harping
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| n.反复述说 | |
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163
glum
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| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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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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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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167
perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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168
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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169
altercation
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| n.争吵，争论 | |
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170
ratiocination
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| n.推理；推断 | |
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171
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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172
nettled
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| v.拿荨麻打，拿荨麻刺（nettle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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173
acidity
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| n.酸度，酸性 | |
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174
pompously
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| adv.傲慢地，盛大壮观地；大模大样 | |
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175
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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176
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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177
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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178
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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179
luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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180
loutish
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| adj.粗鲁的 | |
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181
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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182
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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183
tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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184
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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185
idyllic
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| adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的 | |
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186
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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187
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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188
insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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189
commiserated
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| v.怜悯，同情( commiserate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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190
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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191
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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192
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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193
wile
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| v.诡计，引诱；n.欺骗，欺诈 | |
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194
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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195
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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196
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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197
callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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198
leaven
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| v.使发酵；n.酵母；影响 | |
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199
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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200
recondite
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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201
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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202
discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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203
lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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