CHAPTER THE SEVENTH Lady Harman learns about Herself 5 6

 Lady Harman's mind was so greatly exercised by Susan Burnet's voluminous confidences that it was only when she returned to her own morning room that she recalled the pawning¹ problem. She went back to Sir Isaac's study and found Susan with all her measurements taken and on the very edge of departure.

 

"Oh Susan!" she said.

 

She found the matter a little difficult to broach². Susan remained in an attitude of respectful expectation.

 

"I wanted to ask you," said Lady Harman and then broke off to shut the door. Susan's interest increased.

 

"You know, Susan," said Lady Harman with an air of talking about commonplace things, "Sir Isaac is very rich and—of course—very generous.... But sometimes one feels, one wants a little money of one's own."

 

"I think I can understand that, my lady," said Susan.

 

"I knew you would," said Lady Harman and then with a brightness that was slightly forced, "I can't always get money of my own. It's difficult—sometimes."

 

And then blushing vividly³: "I've got lots of things.... Susan, have you ever pawned⁴ anything?"

 

And so she broached⁵ it.

 

"Not since I got fairly into work," said Susan; "I wouldn't have it. But when I was little we were always pawning things. Why! we've pawned kettles!..."

 

She flashed three reminiscences.

 

Meanwhile Lady Harman produced a little glittering object and held it between finger and thumb. "If I went into a pawnshop near here," she said, "it would seem so odd.... This ring, Susan, must be worth thirty or forty pounds. And it seems so silly when I have it that I should really be wanting money...."

 

Susan displayed a peculiar⁶ reluctance⁷ to handle the ring. "I've never," she said, "pawned anything valuable—not valuable like that. Suppose—suppose they wanted to know how I had come by it."

 

"It's more than Alice earns in a year," she said. "It's——" she eyed the glittering treasure; "it's a queer thing for me to have."

 

A certain embarrassment⁸ arose between them. Lady Harman's need of money became more apparent. "I'll do it for you," said Susan, "indeed I'll do it. But——There's one thing——"

 

Her face flushed hotly. "It isn't that I want to make difficulties. But people in our position—we aren't like people in your position. It's awkward sometimes to explain things. You've got a good character, but people don't know it. You can't be too careful. It isn't sufficient—just to be honest. If I take that——If you were just to give me a little note—in your handwriting—on your paper—just asking me——I don't suppose I need show it to anyone...."

 

"I'll write the note," said Lady Harman. A new set of uncomfortable ideas was dawning upon her. "But Susan——You don't mean that anyone, anyone who's really honest—might get into trouble?"

 

"You can't be too careful," said Susan, manifestly resolved not to give our highly civilized¹⁰ state half a chance with her.

 

6

The problem of Sir Isaac and just what he was doing and what he thought he was doing and what he meant to do increased in importance in Lady Harman's mind as the days passed by. He had an air of being malignantly¹¹ up to something and she could not imagine what this something could be. He spoke¹² to her very little but he looked at her a great deal. He had more and more of the quality of a premeditated imminent¹³ explosion....

 

One morning she was standing¹⁴ quite still in the drawing-room thinking over this now almost oppressive problem of why the situation did not develop further with him, when she became aware of a thin flat unusual book upon the small side table near the great armchair at the side of the fire. He had been reading that overnight and it lay obliquely—it might almost have been left out for her.

 

She picked it up. It was The Taming of the Shrew in that excellent folio edition of Henley's which makes each play a comfortable thin book apart. A curiosity to learn what it was had drawn¹⁵ her husband to English Literature made her turn over the pages. The Taming of the Shrew was a play she knew very slightly. For the Harmans, though deeply implicated¹⁶ like most other rich and striving people in plans for honouring the immortal¹⁷ William, like most other people found scanty¹⁸ leisure to read him.

 

As she turned over the pages a pencil mark caught her eye. Thence words were underlined and further accentuated¹⁹ by a deeply scored line in the margin²⁰.

 

"But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.

Nay²¹; look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret²²;

I will be master of what is mine own:

She is my goods, my chattels²³; she is my house,

She is my household stuff, my field, my barn,

My horse, my ox, my ass⁹, my any thing:

And here she stands, touch her whoever dare;

I'll bring mine action on the proudest He,

That stops my way in Padua."

With a slightly heightened colour, Lady Harman read on and presently found another page slashed²⁴ with Sir Isaac's approval....

 

Her face became thoughtful. Did he mean to attempt—Petruchio? He could never dare. There were servants, there were the people one met, the world.... He would never dare....

 

What a strange play it was! Shakespear of course was wonderfully wise, the crown of English wisdom, the culminating English mind,—or else one might almost find something a little stupid and clumsy.... Did women nowadays really feel like these Elizabethan wives who talked—like girls, very forward girls indeed, but girls of sixteen?...

 

She read the culminating speech of Katherine and now she had so forgotten Sir Isaac she scarcely noted²⁵ the pencil line that endorsed²⁶ the immortal words.

 

"Thy husband is thy Lord, thy Life, thy Keeper,

Thy Head, thy Sovereign; one who cares for thee,

And for thy maintenance commits his body

To painful labour both by sea and land,

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,

While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;

And craves²⁷ no other tribute at thy hands

But love, fair looks, and true obedience²⁸;

Too little payment for so great a debt.

Such duty as the Subject owes the Prince,

Even such a woman oweth to her husband;

And when she is froward, peevish²⁹, sullen³⁰, sour,

And not obedient to his honest will,

What is she but a foul³¹ contending Rebel

And graceless traitor³² to her loving Lord?

I am ashamed that women are so simple

To offer war, where they should kneel for peace;

 

My mind has been as big as one of yours,

My heat as great; my reason, haply, more,

To bandy word for word and frown for frown.

But now I see our lances are but straws;

Our strength is weak, our weakness past compare,

Seeming that most which we indeed least are...."

She wasn't indignant. Something in these lines took hold of her protesting imagination.

 

She knew that so she could have spoken of a man.

 

But that man,—she apprehended³³ him as vaguely³⁴ as an Anglican bishop³⁵ apprehends³⁶ God. He was obscured altogether by shadows; he had only one known characteristic, that he was totally unlike Sir Isaac. And the play was false she felt in giving this speech to a broken woman. Such things are not said by broken women. Broken women do no more than cheat and lie. But so a woman might speak out of her unconquered wilfulness³⁷, as a queen might give her lover a kingdom out of the fullness of her heart.

1 pawning   

v.典当，抵押( pawn的现在分词 )；以（某事物）担保

参考例句：

• He is contemplating pawning his watch. 他正在考虑抵押他的手表。 来自辞典例句
• My clothes were excellent, and I had jewellery; but I never even thought of pawning them. 我的衣服是很讲究的，我有珠宝；但是我从没想到要把它们当掉。 来自辞典例句

2 broach   

v.开瓶，提出(题目)

参考例句：

• It's a good chance to broach the subject.这是开始提出那个问题的好机会。
• I thought I'd better broach the matter with my boss.我想我最好还是跟老板说一下这事。

3 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

4 pawned   

v.典当，抵押( pawn的过去式和过去分词 )；以（某事物）担保

参考例句：

• He pawned his gold watch to pay the rent. 他抵当了金表用以交租。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has redeemed her pawned jewellery. 她赎回了当掉的珠宝。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 broached   

v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体

参考例句：

• She broached the subject of a picnic to her mother. 她向母亲提起野餐的问题。 来自辞典例句
• He broached the subject to the stranger. 他对陌生人提起那话题。 来自辞典例句

6 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

7 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

8 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

9 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

10 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

11 malignantly   

怀恶意地； 恶毒地； 有害地； 恶性地

参考例句：

• It was as if Osmond deliberately, almost malignantly, had put the lights out one by one. 仿佛奥斯蒙德怀着幸灾乐祸的心情，在有意识地把灯一盏一盏吹灭。
• Neck of uterus can live after scalelike cell cancer performs an operation malignantly successfully how long? 宫颈鳞状细胞癌恶性做手术成功后能活多久？

12 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

16 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

18 scanty   

adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的

参考例句：

• There is scanty evidence to support their accusations.他们的指控证据不足。
• The rainfall was rather scanty this month.这个月的雨量不足。

19 accentuated   

v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于

参考例句：

• The problem is accentuated by a shortage of water and electricity. 缺乏水电使问题愈加严重。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her black hair accentuated the delicateness of her skin. 她那乌黑的头发更衬托出她洁嫩的皮肤。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

20 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

21 nay   

adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者

参考例句：

• He was grateful for and proud of his son's remarkable,nay,unique performance.他为儿子出色的，不，应该是独一无二的表演心怀感激和骄傲。
• Long essays,nay,whole books have been written on this.许多长篇大论的文章，不，应该说是整部整部的书都是关于这件事的。

22 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.

23 chattels   

n.动产，奴隶( chattel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• An assignment is a total alienation of chattels personal. 动产转让是指属人动产的完全转让。 来自辞典例句
• Alan and I, getting our chattels together, struck into another road to reassume our flight. 艾伦和我收拾好我们的财物，急匆匆地走上了另一条路，继续过我们的亡命生活。 来自辞典例句

24 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

26 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

27 craves   

渴望，热望( crave的第三人称单数 )； 恳求，请求

参考例句：

• The tree craves calm but the wind will not drop. 树欲静而风不止。
• Victory would give him a passport to the riches he craves. 胜利将使他有机会获得自己梦寐以求的财富。

28 obedience   

n.服从，顺从

参考例句：

• Society has a right to expect obedience of the law.社会有权要求人人遵守法律。
• Soldiers act in obedience to the orders of their superior officers.士兵们遵照上级军官的命令行动。

29 peevish   

adj.易怒的，坏脾气的

参考例句：

• A peevish child is unhappy and makes others unhappy.一个脾气暴躁的孩子自己不高兴也使别人不高兴。
• She glared down at me with a peevish expression on her face.她低头瞪着我，一脸怒气。

30 sullen   

adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的

参考例句：

• He looked up at the sullen sky.他抬头看了一眼阴沉的天空。
• Susan was sullen in the morning because she hadn't slept well.苏珊今天早上郁闷不乐，因为昨晚没睡好。

31 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

32 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

33 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

34 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

35 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

36 apprehends   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的第三人称单数 )； 理解

参考例句：

• A guilty man apprehends danger in every sound. 犯了罪的人对每一个声音都感到风声鹤唳。
• The police maintain order in the city, help prevent crime, apprehends lawbreakers and directs traffic. 警察维持城市的秩序，协助防止犯罪，逮捕犯法者及指挥交通。

37 wilfulness   

任性；倔强

参考例句：

• I refuse to stand by and see the company allowed to run aground because of one woman's wilfulness. 我不会袖手旁观，眼看公司因为一个女人的一意孤行而触礁。 来自柯林斯例句