AN EXPENSIVE PRIVILEGE

 A rather uncomfortable thing happened the other day which threatened a schism¹ in my acquaintance and put me in a decidedly awkward position. It was no other than this: Mrs. Hilary Musgrave had definitely informed me that she did not approve of Lady Mickleham. The attitude is, no doubt, a conceivable one, but I was surprised that a woman of Mrs. Hilary’s large sympathies should adopt it. Besides, Mrs. Hilary is quite good-looking herself.

 

The history of the affair is much as follows: I called on Mrs. Hilary to see whether I could do anything, and she told me all about it. It appears that Mrs. Hilary had a bad cold and a cousin up from the country about the same time (she was justly aggrieved² at the double event), and being unable to go to the Duchess of Dexminster’s “squash,” she asked Dolly Mickleham to chaperon little Miss Phyllis. Little Miss Phyllis, of course, knew no one there—the Duchess least of all—(but then very few of us—yes, I was there—knew the Duchess, and the Duchess didn’t know any of us; I saw her shake hands with a waiter myself, just to be on the safe side), and an hour after the party began she was discovered wandering about in a most desolate³ condition. Dolly had told her that she would be in a certain place; and when Miss Phyllis came, Dolly was not there. The poor little lady wandered about for another hour, looking so lost that one was inclined to send for a policeman; and then she sat down on a seat by the wall, and, in desperation, asked her next-door neighbor if he knew Lady Mickleham by sight, and had he seen her lately? The next-door neighbor, by way of reply, called out to a quiet elderly gentleman who was sidling unobtrusively about, “Duke, are there any particularly snug⁴ corners in your house?” The Duke stopped, searched his memory, and said that at the end of the Red Corridor there was a passage, and that a few yards down the passage, if you turned very suddenly to the right, you would come on a little nook under the stairs. The little nook just held a settee, and the settee (the Duke thought) might just hold two people. The next-door neighbor thanked the Duke, and observed to Miss Phyllis—

 

“It will give me great pleasure to take you to Lady Mickleham.” So they went, it being then, according to Miss Phyllis’ sworn statement precisely⁵ two hours and five minutes since Dolly had disappeared; and, pursuing the route indicated by the Duke, they found Lady Mickleham. And Lady Mickleham exclaimed, “Good gracious, my dear, I’d quite forgotten you! Have you had an ice? Do take her to have an ice, Sir John.” (Sir John Berry was the next-door neighbor.) And with that Lady Mickleham is said to have resumed her conversation.

 

“Did you ever hear anything more atrocious?” concluded Mrs. Hilary. “I really cannot think what Lord Mickleham is doing.”

 

“You surely mean, what Lady Mickleham—?”

 

“No, I don’t,” said Mrs. Hilary, with extraordinary decision. “Anything might have happened to that poor child!”

 

“Oh, there were not many of the aristocracy present,” said I soothingly⁶.

 

“But it’s not that so much as the thing itself. She’s the most disgraceful flirt⁷ in London.”

 

“How do you know she was flirting⁸?” I inquired with a smile.

 

“How do I know?” echoed Mrs. Hilary.

 

“It is a very hasty conclusion,” I persisted. “Sometimes I stay talking with you for an hour or more. Are you, therefore, flirting with me?”

 

“With you!” exclaimed Mrs. Hilary, with a little laugh.

 

“Absurd as the supposition is,” I remarked, “it yet serves to point the argument. Lady Mickleham might have been talking with a friend, just in the quiet rational way in which we are talking now.”

 

“I don’t think that’s likely,” said Mrs. Hilary; and—well, I do not like to say that she sniffed—it would convey too strong an idea, but she did make an odd little sound something like a much etherealized sniff⁹.

 

I smiled again, and more broadly. I was enjoying beforehand the little victory which I was to enjoy over Mrs. Hilary. “Yet it happens to be true,” said I.

 

Mrs. Hilary was magnificently contemptuous.

 

“Lord Mickleham told you so, I suppose?” she asked. “And I suppose Lady Mickleham told him—poor man!”

 

“Why do you call him ‘poor man’?”

 

“Oh, never mind. Did he tell you?”

 

“Certainly not. The fact is, Mrs. Hilary—and really, you must excuse me for having kept you in the dark a little—it amused me so much to hear your suspicions.”

 

Mrs. Hilary rose to her feet.

 

“Well, what are you going to say?” she asked.

 

I laughed, as I answered: “Why, I was the man with Lady Mickleham when your friend and Berry inter—when they arrived, you know.”

 

Well, I should have thought—I should still think—that she would have been pleased—relieved, you know, to find her uncharitable opinion erroneous, and pleased to have it altered on the best authority. I’m sure that is how I should have felt. It was not, however, how Mrs. Hilary felt.

 

“I am deeply pained,” she observed after a long pause; and then she held out her hand.

 

“I was sure you’d forgive my little deception,” said I, grasping it. I thought still that she meant to bury all unkindness.

 

“I should never have thought it of you,” she went on.

 

“I didn’t know your friend was there at all,” I pleaded; for by now I was alarmed.

 

“Oh, please don’t shuffle¹⁰ like that,” said Mrs. Hilary.

 

She continued to stand, and I rose to my feet. Mrs. Hilary held out her hand again.

 

“Do you mean that I’m to go?” said I.

 

“I hope we shall see you again some day,” said Mrs. Hilary; the tone suggested that she was looking forward to some future existence, when my earthly sins should have been sufficiently¹¹ purged¹². It reminded me for the moment of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere.

 

“But I protest,” I began, “that my only object in telling you was to show you how absurd—”

 

“Is it any good talking about it now?” asked Mrs. Hilary. A discussion might possibly be fruitful in the dim futurity before mentioned—but not now—that was what she seemed to say.

 

“Lady Mickleham and I, on the occasion in question—” I began with dignity.

 

“Pray, spare me,” quote Mrs. Hilary, with much greater dignity.

 

I took my hat.

 

“Shall you be at home as usual on Thursday?” I asked.

 

“I have a great many people coming already,” she remarked.

 

“I can take a hint,” said I.

 

“I wish you’d take warning,” said Mrs. Hilary.

 

“I will take my leave,” said I—and I did, leaving Mrs. Hilary in a tragic¹³ attitude in the middle of the room. Never again shall I go out of my way to lull¹⁴ Mrs. Hilary’s suspicions.

 

A day or two after this very trying interview, Lady Mickleham’s victoria happened to stop opposite where I was seated in the park. I went to pay my respects.

 

“Do you mean to leave me nothing in the world,” I asked, just by way of introducing the subject of Mrs. Hilary. “One of my best friends has turned me out of her house on your account.”

 

“Oh, do tell me,” said Dolly, dimpling all over her face.

 

So I told her; I made the story as long as I could for reasons connected with the dimples.

 

“What fun!” exclaimed Dolly. “I told you at the time that a young unmarried person like you ought to be more careful.”

 

“I am just debating,” I observed, “whether to sacrifice you.”

 

“To sacrifice me, Mr. Carter?”

 

“Of course,” I explained; “if I dropped you, Mrs. Hilary would let me come again.”

 

“How charming that would be!” cried Dolly. “You would enjoy her nice serious conversation—all about Hilary!”

 

“She is apt,” I conceded, “to touch on Hilary. But she is very picturesque¹⁵.”

 

“Oh, yes, she’s handsome,” said Dolly.

 

There was a pause. Then Dolly said, “Well?”

 

“Well?” said I in return.

 

“It is goodbye?” asked Dolly, drawing down the corners of her mouth.

 

“It comes to this,” I remarked. “Supposing I forgive you—”

 

“As if it was my fault?”

 

“And risk Mrs. Hilary’s wrath—did you speak?”

 

“No; I laughed, Mr. Carter.”

 

“What shall I get out of it?”

 

The sun was shining brightly; it shone on Dolly; she had raised her parasol, but she blinked a little beneath it. She was smiling slightly still, and the dimple stuck to its post—like a sentinel, ready to rouse the rest from their brief repose¹⁶. Dolly lay back in the victoria, nestling luxuriously¹⁷ against the soft cushions. She turned her eyes for a moment on me.

 

“Why are you looking at me?” she asked.

 

“Because,” said I, “there is nothing better to look at.”

 

“Do you like doing it?” asked Dolly.

 

“It is a privilege,” said I politely.

 

“Well, then!” said Dolly.

 

“But,” I ventured to observe, “it’s rather an expensive one.”

 

“Then you mustn’t have it very often.”

 

“And it is shared by so many people.”

 

“Then,” said Dolly, smiling indulgently, “you must have it—a little oftener. Home, Roberts, please.”

 

I am not yet allowed at Mrs. Hilary Musgrave’s.

1 schism   

n.分派，派系，分裂

参考例句：

• The church seems to be on the brink of schism.教会似乎处于分裂的边缘。
• While some predict schism,others predict a good old fashioned compromise.在有些人预测分裂的同时，另一些人预测了有益的老式妥协。

2 aggrieved   

adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• He felt aggrieved at not being chosen for the team. 他因没被选到队里感到愤愤不平。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She is the aggrieved person whose fiance&1& did not show up for their wedding. 她很委屈，她的未婚夫未出现在他们的婚礼上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 desolate   

adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂

参考例句：

• The city was burned into a desolate waste.那座城市被烧成一片废墟。
• We all felt absolutely desolate when she left.她走后，我们都觉得万分孤寂。

4 snug   

adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房

参考例句：

• He showed us into a snug little sitting room.他领我们走进了一间温暖而舒适的小客厅。
• She had a small but snug home.她有个小小的但很舒适的家。

5 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

6 soothingly   

adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地

参考例句：

• The mother talked soothingly to her child. 母亲对自己的孩子安慰地说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He continued to talk quietly and soothingly to the girl until her frightened grip on his arm was relaxed. 他继续柔声安慰那姑娘，她那因恐惧而紧抓住他的手终于放松了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 flirt   

v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者

参考例句：

• He used to flirt with every girl he met.过去他总是看到一个姑娘便跟她调情。
• He watched the stranger flirt with his girlfriend and got fighting mad.看着那个陌生人和他女朋友调情，他都要抓狂了。

8 flirting   

v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Don't take her too seriously; she's only flirting with you. 别把她太当真，她只不过是在和你调情罢了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• 'she's always flirting with that new fellow Tseng!" “她还同新来厂里那个姓曾的吊膀子！ 来自子夜部分

9 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

10 shuffle   

n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走

参考例句：

• I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
• Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。

11 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

12 purged   

清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响

参考例句：

• He purged his enemies from the Party. 他把他的敌人从党内清洗出去。
• The iron in the chemical compound must be purged. 化学混合物中的铁必须清除。

13 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

14 lull   

v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇

参考例句：

• The drug put Simpson in a lull for thirty minutes.药物使辛普森安静了30分钟。
• Ground fighting flared up again after a two-week lull.经过两个星期的平静之后，地面战又突然爆发了。

15 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

16 repose   

v.(使)休息；n.安息

参考例句：

• Don't disturb her repose.不要打扰她休息。
• Her mouth seemed always to be smiling,even in repose.她的嘴角似乎总是挂着微笑，即使在睡眠时也是这样。

17 luxuriously   

adv.奢侈地，豪华地

参考例句：

• She put her nose luxuriously buried in heliotrope and tea roses. 她把自己的鼻子惬意地埋在天芥菜和庚申蔷薇花簇中。 来自辞典例句
• To be well dressed doesn't mean to be luxuriously dressed. 穿得好不一定衣着豪华。 来自辞典例句