But providence6 had not exhausted7 its miracles, and Lillie was not to spend a miserable8 afternoon. The miracle was speeding along towards her on the top of an omnibus—a miracle of beauty and smartness. On reaching the vicinity of the Old Maid's Club, the miracle, which was of course of the female gender9, tapped the driver amicably10 upon the hat with her parasol and said "Stop please." The petite creature was the spirit of self-help itself and scorned the aid of the gentleman in front of her, preferring to knock off his hat and crush the driver's so long as the independence of womanhood was maintained. But she maintained it charmingly and without malice11 and gave the conductor a sweet smile in addition to his fare as she tripped away to the Old Maids' Club.
Amicably said, "Stop please."
Lillie was fascinated the instant Turple the magnificent announced "Miss Wilkins" in suave12 tones. The mere13 advent14 of a candidate raised her spirits and she found herself chatting freely with her visitor even before she had put her through the catechism. But the catechism came at last.
"Why do I want to join you?" asked the miracle. "Because I am disgusted with my lover—because I am a femme incomprise. Oh, don't stare at me as if I were a medley15 of megrims and fashionable ailments16, I'm the very opposite of that. Mine is a buoyant, breezy, healthy nature, straightforward17 and simple. That's why I complain of being misunderstood. My lover is a poet—and the misunderstanding I have to endure at his hands is something appalling19. Every man is a bit of a poet where woman is concerned, and so every woman is more or less misunderstood, but when you are unfortunate enough to excite the affection of a real whole poet—well, that way madness lies. Your words are twisted into meanings you never intended, your motives20 are misconstrued, and your simplest actions are distorted. Silverplume, for it is the well-known author of 'Poems of Compassion21' that I have had the misfortune to captivate, never calls without laying a sonnet22 next day; in which remarks, that must be most misleading to those who do not know me, occur with painful frequency. His allowance is two kisses per day—one of salutation, one of farewell. We have only been actually engaged two months, yet I have counted up two hundred and thirty-nine distinct and separate kisses in the voluminous 'Sonnet Series' which he has devoted23 to our engagement, and, what is worse, he describes himself as depositing them.
It sounds as if I was berouged like a dowager. Purple passion, indeed! I let him kiss me because he appears to like it and because there seems something wrong about it—but as for really caring a pin one way or another, well, you Miss Dulcimer, know how much there is in that! This 'Sonnet Series' promises to be endless, the course of our acquaintanceship is depicted26 in its most minute phases with the most elaborate inaccuracy—if I smile, if I say: 'How do you do?' if I put my hand to my forehead, if I look into the fire, down go fourteen lines giving a whole world of significance to my meanest actions, and making Himalayas out of the most microscopic28 molehills. I am credited with thoughts I never dreamed of and sentiments I never felt, till I ask myself whether any other woman was ever so cruelly misunderstood as I? I grow afraid to do or say anything, lest I bring upon my head a new sonnet. But even so I cannot help looking something or the other; and when I come to read the sonnet I find it is always the other. Once I refused to see him for a whole week, but that only resulted in seven 'Sonnets29 of Absence,' imaginatively depicting30 what I was saying and doing each day, and containing a detailed31 analysis of his own sensations, as well as reminiscences of past happy hours together. Most of them I had no recollection of, and the only one I could at all share was that of a morning we spent on the Ramsgate cliffs where Silverplume put his handkerchief over his face and fell asleep. In the last line of the sonnet it came out:
I swooned for very joy and wearihead.'
But I knew it by the poppies. Then, dear Miss Dulcimer, you should just see the things he calls me—'Love's gonfalon and lodestar' and what-not. Very often I can't even find them in the dictionary and it makes me uneasy. Heaven knows what he may be saying about me! When he talks of
"'The rack of unevasive lunar things'
I do not so much complain, because it's their concern if they are libelled. It is different with incomprehensible remarks flung unmistakably at my own head such as
"'O chariest of Caryatides.'
It sounds like a reproach and I should like to know what I have done to deserve it. And then his general remarks are so monotonously33 unintelligible34. One of his longest poetical35 epistles, which is burnt into my memory because I had to pay twopence for extra postage, began with this lament36:
"'O sweet are roses in the summer time
And yet two-morrow never comes to-day.'
I cannot see any way out of it all except by breaking off our engagement. When we were first engaged, I don't deny I rather liked being written about in lovely-sounding lines but it is a sweet one is soon surfeited38 with, and Silverplume has raved39 about me to that extent that he has made me look ridiculous in the eyes of all my friends. If he had been moderate, they would have been envious40; now they laugh when they read of my wonderful charms, of my lithe41 snake's mouth, and my face which shames the sun and my Epipsychidiontic eyes (whatever that may be) and my
and say he is poking43 fun at me. But Silverplume is quite serious—I am sure of that, and it is the worst feature of the case. He carries on just the same in conversation, with the most improper44 allusions45 to heathen goddesses, and seems really to believe that I am absorbed in the sunset when I am thinking what to wear to-morrow. Just to give you an idea of how he misinterprets my silence let me read to you one of his sonnets called:
"'MOONSHINE.
The What Is Bound to Be and What Has Been,
How sweet with Thee beneath the moonlit treen,
To sit and catch a harmony uncaught
Within a world that mocks with margarine,
In chastened silence, mystic, epicene,
Exchanging incommunicable thought.
But Hell itself can never turn to loss,
"Another distressing54 feature about Silverplume—indeed, I think about all men—is their continuous capacity for love-making. You know, my dear Miss Dulcimer, with us it is a matter of times and seasons—we are creatures of strange and subtle susceptibilities, sometimes we are in the mood for love and ready to respond to all shades of sentimentality, but at other moments (and these the majority) men's amorous55 advances jar horribly. Men do not know this. Ever ready to make love themselves they think all moments are the same to us as to them. And of all men, poets are the most prepared to make love at a moment's notice. So that Silverplume himself is almost more trying than his verses."
"But after all you need not read them," observed Lillie. "They please him and they do not hurt you. And you have always the consolation of remembering it is not you he loves but the paragon56 he has evolved from his inner consciousness. Even taking into account his perennial57 affectionateness, your reason for refusing him seems scarcely strong enough."
"Ah, wait a moment—You have not heard the worst! I might perhaps have tolerated his metrical misinterpretations—indeed on my sending him a vigorous protest against the inaccuracies of his last collection (they came out so much more glaringly when brought all together from the various scattered58 publications to which Silverplume originally contributed them) he sent me back a semi-apologetic explanation thus conceived:
"'TO CELIA.'
"(You know of course my name is Diana, but that is his way.)
"''Tis not alone thy sweet eyes' gleam
Nor sunny glances,
For which I weave so oft a dream
Of dainty fancies.
"''Tis not alone thy witching play
Of grace fantastic
That makes me chant so oft a lay
Encomiastic.
"'Both editors and thee I see,
Thy face, their purses.
I offer heart and soul to thee,
To them my verses.'
"I was partially59 mollified by this, for if his poems were not merely complimentary60, and he really got paid for them, one might put up with inspiring them. We were reconciled [pg 316] and he took me to a reception at the house of a wealthy friend of his, a fellow-member of the Sonneteers' Society. It was here that I saw a sight that froze my young blood and warned me upon the edge of what a precipice61 I was standing18. When we got into the drawing-room, the first thing we saw was an awful apparition62 in a corner—a hideous63, unkempt, unwashed man in a dressing-gown and slippers64, with his eyes rolling wildly and his lips moving rhythmically65. It was the host.
"'Don't speak to him,' whispered the hostess. 'He doesn't see us. He has been like that all day. He came down to look to the decorations this morning, when the idea took him and he has been glued to the spot ever since. He has forgotten all about the reception—he doesn't know we're here and I thought it best not to disturb him till he is safely delivered of the sonnet.'
"'You are quite right,' everybody said in sympathetic awestruck tones and left a magic circle round the poet in labor27. But I felt a shudder66 run through my whole being. 'Goodness gracious, Silverplume,' I said, 'is this the way you poets go on?'"
"'No, no, Diana,' he assured me. 'It is all tommyrot (I quote Silverplume's words). The beggar is just bringing out a new volume, and although his wife has always distributed the most lavish67 hospitality to the critics, he has never been able to get himself taken seriously as a poet. There will be lots of critics here to-night and he is playing his last card. If he is not a genius now, he never will be.'
The poet plays his last card.
"'Oh, of course,' I replied sceptically, 'two of a trade.' I made him take me away and that was the end of our engagement. Even as it was, Silverplume's neglect of his appearance had been a constant thorn in my side, and if this was so before marriage, what could I hope for after? It was all very well for him to say his friend was only shamming68, but even so, how did I know he would not be reduced to that sort of thing himself when his popularity faded and younger rivals came along."
Lillie, who seemed to have some arrière-pensée, entered into an animated69 defence of the poet, but Miss Wilkins stood her ground and refused to withdraw her candidature.
"I don't want you to withdraw your candidature," said Lillie, frankly70. "I shall be charmed to entertain it. I am only arguing upon the general question."
And, indeed, Lillie was enraptured71 with Miss Wilkins. It was the attraction of opposites. A matter-of-fact woman who could reject a poet's love appealed to her with irresistible72 piquancy73. Miss Wilkins stayed on to tea (by which time she had become Diana) and they gossiped on all sorts of subjects, and Lillie gave her the outlines of the queerest stories of past candidates and in the Old Maids' Club that afternoon all went merry as a marriage bell.
"Well, good-bye, Lillie," said Diana at last.
"Good-bye, Diana," returned Lillie. "Now I understand you I hope you won't consider yourself a femme incomprmise any longer."
"It is only the men I complained of, dear."
"But we must ever remain incomprises by man," said Lillie. "Femme incomprise—why, it is the badge of all our sex."
"Yes," answered Diana. "A woman letting down her back hair is tragic74 to a man; to us she only recalls bedroom gossip. Good-bye."
And nodding brightly the brisk little creature sallied into the street and captured a passing 'bus.
点击收听单词发音
1 steadfastness | |
n.坚定,稳当 | |
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2 consolation | |
n.安慰,慰问 | |
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3 condemning | |
v.(通常因道义上的原因而)谴责( condemn的现在分词 );宣判;宣布…不能使用;迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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4 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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5 spats | |
n.口角( spat的名词复数 );小争吵;鞋罩;鞋套v.spit的过去式和过去分词( spat的第三人称单数 );口角;小争吵;鞋罩 | |
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6 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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7 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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8 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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9 gender | |
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性 | |
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10 amicably | |
adv.友善地 | |
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11 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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12 suave | |
adj.温和的;柔和的;文雅的 | |
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13 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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14 advent | |
n.(重要事件等的)到来,来临 | |
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15 medley | |
n.混合 | |
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16 ailments | |
疾病(尤指慢性病),不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
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17 straightforward | |
adj.正直的,坦率的;易懂的,简单的 | |
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18 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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19 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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20 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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21 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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22 sonnet | |
n.十四行诗 | |
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23 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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24 exiguous | |
adj.不足的,太少的 | |
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25 mantles | |
vt.&vi.覆盖(mantle的第三人称单数形式) | |
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26 depicted | |
描绘,描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 ); 描述 | |
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27 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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28 microscopic | |
adj.微小的,细微的,极小的,显微的 | |
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29 sonnets | |
n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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30 depicting | |
描绘,描画( depict的现在分词 ); 描述 | |
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31 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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32 mid | |
adj.中央的,中间的 | |
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33 monotonously | |
adv.单调地,无变化地 | |
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34 unintelligible | |
adj.无法了解的,难解的,莫明其妙的 | |
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35 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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36 lament | |
n.悲叹,悔恨,恸哭;v.哀悼,悔恨,悲叹 | |
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37 walruses | |
n.海象( walrus的名词复数 ) | |
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38 surfeited | |
v.吃得过多( surfeit的过去式和过去分词 );由于过量而厌腻 | |
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39 raved | |
v.胡言乱语( rave的过去式和过去分词 );愤怒地说;咆哮;痴心地说 | |
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40 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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41 lithe | |
adj.(指人、身体)柔软的,易弯的 | |
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42 cosmos | |
n.宇宙;秩序,和谐 | |
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43 poking | |
n. 刺,戳,袋 vt. 拨开,刺,戳 vi. 戳,刺,捅,搜索,伸出,行动散慢 | |
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44 improper | |
adj.不适当的,不合适的,不正确的,不合礼仪的 | |
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45 allusions | |
暗指,间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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46 naught | |
n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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47 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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48 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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49 sundry | |
adj.各式各样的,种种的 | |
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50 stumps | |
(被砍下的树的)树桩( stump的名词复数 ); 残肢; (板球三柱门的)柱; 残余部分 | |
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51 charing | |
n.炭化v.把…烧成炭,把…烧焦( char的现在分词 );烧成炭,烧焦;做杂役女佣 | |
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52 doffed | |
v.脱去,(尤指)脱帽( doff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53 cylinder | |
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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54 distressing | |
a.使人痛苦的 | |
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55 amorous | |
adj.多情的;有关爱情的 | |
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56 paragon | |
n.模范,典型 | |
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57 perennial | |
adj.终年的;长久的 | |
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58 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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59 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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60 complimentary | |
adj.赠送的,免费的,赞美的,恭维的 | |
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61 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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62 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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63 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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64 slippers | |
n. 拖鞋 | |
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65 rhythmically | |
adv.有节奏地 | |
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66 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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67 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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68 shamming | |
假装,冒充( sham的现在分词 ) | |
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69 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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70 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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71 enraptured | |
v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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73 piquancy | |
n.辛辣,辣味,痛快 | |
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74 tragic | |
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的 | |
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