Lady Beach-Mandarin always had her luncheons2 in a family way at a large round table so that nobody could get out of her range, and she insisted upon conversation being general, except for her mother who was impenetrably deaf and the Swiss governess of her only daughter Phyllis who was incomprehensible in any European tongue. The mother was incalculably old and had been a friend of Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset; she maintained an intermittent3 monologue4 about the private lives of those great figures; nobody paid the slightest attention to her but one felt she enriched the table with an undertow of literary associations. A small dark stealthy butler and a convulsive boy with hair (apparently) taking the place of eyes waited. On this occasion Lady Beach-Mandarin had gathered together two cousins, maiden6 ladies from Perth, wearing valiant7 hats, Toomer the wit and censor8, and Miss Sharsper the novelist (whom Toomer detested), a gentleman named Roper whom she had invited under a misapprehension that he was the Arctic Roper, and Mr. Brumley. She had tried Mr. Roper with questions about penguins9, seals, cold and darkness, icebergs10 and glaciers11, Captain Scott, Doctor Cook and the shape of the earth, and all in vain, and feeling at last that something was wrong, she demanded abruptly12 whether Mr. Brumley had sold his house.
"I'm selling it," said Mr. Brumley, "by almost imperceptible degrees."
"Haggles and higgles. He higgles passionately14. He goes white and breaks into a cold perspiration15. He wants me now to include the gardener's tools—in whatever price we agree upon."
"A rich man like that ought to be easy and generous," said Lady Beach-Mandarin.
"Then he wouldn't be a rich man like that," said Mr. Toomer.
"But doesn't it distress16 you highly, Mr. Brumley," one of the Perth ladies asked, "to be leaving Euphemia's Home to strangers? The man may go altering it."
"That—that weighs with me very much," said Mr. Brumley, recalled to his professions. "There—I put my trust in Lady Harman."
"You've seen her again?" asked Lady Beach-Mandarin.
"There's eighteen years between them," said Toomer.
"It's one of those cases," began Mr. Brumley with a note of scientific detachment, "where one is really tempted17 to be ultra-feminist. It's clear, he uses every advantage. He's her owner, her keeper, her obstinate18 insensitive little tyrant19.... And yet there's a sort of effect, as though nothing was decided20.... As if she was only just growing up."
"They've been married six or seven years," said Toomer. "She was just eighteen."
"They went over the house together and whenever she spoke21 he contradicted her with a sort of vicious playfulness. Tried to poke22 clumsy fun at her. Called her 'Lady Harman.' Only it was quite evident that what she said stuck in his mind.... Very queer—interesting people."
"I wouldn't have anyone allowed to marry until they were five-and-twenty," said Lady Beach-Mandarin.
"Sweet seventeen must contrive23 to wait," said Lady Beach-Mandarin. "Sweet fourteen has to—and when I was fourteen—I was Ardent25! There's no earthly objection to a little harmless flirtation26 of course. It's the marrying."
"You'd conduce to romance," said Miss Sharsper, "anyhow. Eighteen won't bear restriction27 and everyone would begin by eloping—illegally."
"I'd put them back," said Lady Beach-Mandarin. "Oh! remorselessly."
Mr. Roper, who was more and more manifestly not the Arctic one, remarked that she would "give the girls no end of an adolescence28...."
Mr. Brumley did not attend very closely to the subsequent conversation. His mind had gone back to Black Strand29 and the second visit that Lady Harman, this time under her natural and proper protection, had paid him. A little thread from the old lady's discourse30 drifted by him. She had scented31 marriage in the air and she was saying, "of course they ought to have let Victor Hugo marry over and over again. He would have made it all so beautiful. He could throw a Splendour over—over almost anything." Mr. Brumley sank out of attention altogether. It was so difficult to express his sense of Lady Harman as a captive, enclosed but unsubdued. She had been as open and shining as a celandine flower in the sunshine on that first invasion, but on the second it had been like overcast33 weather and her starry34 petals35 had been shut and still. She hadn't been in the least subdued32 or effaced36, but closed, inaccessible37 to conversational38 bees, that astonishing honey of trust and easy friendship had been hidden in a dignified39 impenetrable reserve. She had had the effect of being not so much specially40 shut against Mr. Brumley as habitually41 shut against her husband, as a protection against his continual clumsy mental interferences. And once when Sir Isaac had made a sudden allusion42 to price Mr. Brumley had glanced at her and met her eyes....
"Of course," he said, coming up to the conversational surface again, "a woman like that is bound to fight her way out."
"Queen Mary!" cried Miss Sharsper. "Fight her way out!"
"Queen Mary!" said Mr. Brumley, "No!—Lady Harman."
"I was talking of Queen Mary," said Miss Sharsper.
"And Mr. Brumley was thinking of Lady Harman!" cried Lady Beach-Mandarin.
"Well," said Mr. Brumley, "I confess I do think about her. She seems to me to be so typical in many ways of—of everything that is weak in the feminine position. As a type—yes, she's perfect."
"I've never seen this lady," said Miss Sharsper. "Is she beautiful?"
"I've not seen her myself yet," said Lady Beach-Mandarin. "She's Mr. Brumley's particular discovery."
"You haven't called?" he asked with a faint reproach.
"But I've been going to—oh! tremendously. And you revive all my curiosity. Why shouldn't some of us this very afternoon——?"
She caught at her own passing idea and held it. "Let's Go," she cried. "Let's visit the wife of this Ogre, the last of the women in captivity43. We'll take the big car and make a party and call en masse."
"But you, Susan?"
Miss Sharsper declared she would love to come. Wasn't it her business to study out-of-the-way types? Mr. Roper produced a knowing sort of engagement—"I'm provided for already, Lady Beach-Mandarin," he said, and the cousins from Perth had to do some shopping.
"Then we three will be the expedition," said the hostess. "And afterwards if we survive we'll tell you our adventures. It's a house on Putney Hill, isn't it, where this Christian45 maiden, so to speak, is held captive? I've had her in my mind, but I've always intended to call with Agatha Alimony; she's so inspiring to down-trodden women."
"Not exactly down-trodden," said Mr. Brumley, "not down-trodden. That's what's so curious about it."
"And what shall we do when we get there?" cried Lady Beach-Mandarin. "I feel we ought to do something more than call. Can't we carry her off right away, Mr. Brumley? I want to go right in to her and say 'Look here! I'm on your side. Your husband's a tyrant. I'm help and rescue. I'm all that a woman ought to be—fine and large. Come out from under that unworthy man's heel!'"
"Suppose she isn't at all the sort of person you seem to think she is," said Miss Sharsper. "And suppose she came!"
"Suppose she didn't," reflected Mr. Roper.
"I seem to see your flight," said Mr. Toomer. "And the newspaper placards and head-lines. 'Lady Beach-Mandarin elopes with the wife of an eminent46 confectioner. She is stopped at the landing stage by the staff of the Dover Branch establishment. Recapture of the fugitive47 after a hot struggle. Brumley, the eminent littérateur, stunned48 by a spent bun....'"
"We're all talking great nonsense," said Lady Beach-Mandarin. "But anyhow we'll make our call. And I know!—I'll make her accept an invitation to lunch without him."
"If she won't?" threw out Mr. Roper.
"I will," said Lady Beach-Mandarin with roguish determination. "And if I can't——"
"Not ask him too!" protested Mr. Brumley.
"Why not get her to come to your Social Friends meeting," said Miss Sharsper.
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1
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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luncheons
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| n.午餐，午宴( luncheon的名词复数 ) | |
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intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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monologue
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| n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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censor
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| n./vt.审查，审查员；删改 | |
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penguins
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| n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 ) | |
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icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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glaciers
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| 冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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haggles
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| n.讨价还价( haggle的名词复数 )v.讨价还价( haggle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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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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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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poke
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| 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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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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contrives
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的第三人称单数 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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flirtation
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| n.调情，调戏，挑逗 | |
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restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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adolescence
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| n.青春期，青少年 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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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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overcast
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| adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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