His first proceeding23 after the long hours of sleepless24 passion that had followed his wife's Hampton Court escapade, had been to place himself in communication with Mr. Brumley. He learnt at Mr. Brumley's club that that gentleman had slept there overnight and had started but a quarter of an hour before, back to Black Strand. Sir Isaac in hot pursuit and gathering force and assistance in mid25 flight reached Black Strand by midday.
It was with a certain twinge of the conscience that Mr. Brumley perceived his visitor, but it speedily became clear that Sir Isaac had no knowledge of the guilty circumstances of the day before. He had come to buy Black Strand—incontinently, that was all. He was going, it became clear at once, to buy it with all its fittings and furnishings as it stood, lock, stock and barrel. Mr. Brumley, concealing26 that wild elation27, that sense of a joyous28 rebirth, that only the liquidation29 of nearly all one's possessions can give, was firm but not excessive. Sir Isaac haggled30 as a wave breaks and then gave in and presently they were making a memorandum31 upon the pretty writing-desk beneath the traditional rose Euphemia had established there when Mr. Brumley was young and already successful.
This done, and it was done in less than fifteen minutes, Sir Isaac produced a rather crumpled32 young architect from the motor-car as a conjurer might produce a rabbit from a hat, a builder from Aleham appeared astonishingly in a dog-cart—he had been summoned by telegram—and Sir Isaac began there and then to discuss alterations33, enlargements and, more particularly, with a view to his nursery requirements, the conversion34 of the empty barn into a nursery wing and its connexion with the house by a corridor across the shrubbery.
"It will take you three months," said the builder from Aleham. "And the worst time of the year coming."
"It won't take three weeks—if I have to bring down a young army from London to do it," said Sir Isaac.
"But such a thing as plastering——"
"We won't have plastering."
"There's canvas and paper, of course," said the young architect.
"There's canvas and paper," said Sir Isaac. "And those new patent building units, so far as the corridor goes. I've seen the ads."
"Oh if you do things in that way," said the builder from Aleham with bitter resignation....
2
The morning dawned at last when the surprise was ripe. It was four days after Susan's visit, and she was due again on the morrow with the money that would enable her employer to go to Lady Viping's now imminent36 dinner. Lady Harman had had to cut the Social Friends' meeting altogether, but the day before the surprise Agatha Alimony had come to tea in her jobbed car, and they had gone together to the committee meeting of the Shakespear Dinner Society. Sir Isaac had ignored that defiance37, and it was an unusually confident and quite unsuspicious woman who descended38 in a warm October sunshine to the surprise. In the breakfast-room she discovered an awe-stricken Snagsby standing39 with his plate-basket before her husband, and her husband wearing strange unusual tweeds and gaiters,—buttoned gaiters, and standing a-straddle,—unusually a-straddle, on the hearthrug.
"That's enough, Snagsby," said Sir Isaac, at her entrance. "Bring it all."
She met Snagsby's eye, and it was portentous40.
Latterly Snagsby's eye had lost the assurance of his former days. She had noted41 it before, she noted it now more than ever; as though he was losing confidence, as though he was beginning to doubt, as though the world he had once seemed to rule grew insecure beneath his feet. For a moment she met his eye; it might have been a warning he conveyed, it might have been an appeal for sympathy, and then he had gone. She looked at the table. Sir Isaac had breakfasted acutely.
In silence, among the wreckage42 and with a certain wonder growing, Lady Harman attended to her needs.
Sir Isaac cleared his throat.
She became aware that he had spoken. "What did you say, Isaac?" she asked, looking up. He seemed to have widened his straddle almost dangerously, and he spoke43 with a certain conscious forcefulness.
"We're going to move out of this house, Elly," he said. "We're going down into the country right away."
She sat back in her chair and regarded his pinched and determined44 visage.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I've bought that house of Brumley's,—Black Strand. We're going to move down there—now. I've told the servants.... When you've done your breakfast, you'd better get Peters to pack your things. The big car's going to be ready at half-past ten."
Lady Harman reflected.
"To-morrow evening," she said, "I was going out to dinner at Lady Viping's."
"Not my affair—seemingly," said Sir Isaac with irony45. "Well, the car's going to be ready at half-past ten."
"But that dinner——!"
"We'll think about it when the time comes."
Husband and wife regarded each other.
"I've had about enough of London," said Sir Isaac. "So we're going to shift the scenery. See?"
Lady Harman felt that one might adduce good arguments against this course if only one knew of them.
Sir Isaac had a bright idea. He rang.
"Snagsby," he said, "just tell Peters to pack up Lady Harman's things...."
"Well!" said Lady Harman, as the door closed on Snagsby. Her mind was full of confused protest, but she had again that entirely feminine and demoralizing conviction that if she tried to express it she would weep or stumble into some such emotional disaster. If now she went upstairs and told Peters not to pack——!
Sir Isaac walked slowly to the window, and stood for a time staring out into the garden.
Extraordinary bumpings began overhead in Sir Isaac's room. No doubt somebody was packing something....
Lady Harman realized with a deepening humiliation46 that she dared not dispute before the servants, and that he could. "But the children——" she said at last.
"I've told Mrs. Harblow," he said, over his shoulder. "Told her it was a bit of a surprise." He turned, with a momentary47 lapse48 into something like humour. "You see," he said, "it is a bit of a surprise."
"But what are you going to do with this house?"
"Lock it all up for a bit.... I don't see any sense in living where we aren't happy. Perhaps down there we shall manage better...."
It emerged from the confusion of Lady Harman's mind that perhaps she had better go to the nursery, and see how things were getting on there. Sir Isaac watched her departure with a slightly dubious49 eye, made little noises with his teeth for a time, and then went towards the telephone.
In the hall she found two strange young men in green aprons50 assisting the under-butler to remove the hats and overcoats and such-like personal material into a motor-van outside. She heard two of the housemaids scurrying51 upstairs. "'Arf an hour," said one, "isn't what I call a proper time to pack a box in."
In the nursery the children were disputing furiously what toys were to be taken into the country.
Lady Harman was a very greatly astonished woman. The surprise had been entirely successful.
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1
subjugation
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| n.镇压，平息，征服 | |
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estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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4
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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5
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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7
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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8
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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9
decadent
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| adj.颓废的，衰落的，堕落的 | |
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10
veracity
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| n.诚实 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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12
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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13
imbibed
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| v.吸收( imbibe的过去式和过去分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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14
censored
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| 受审查的，被删剪的 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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17
isolate
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| vt.使孤立，隔离 | |
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18
acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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19
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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20
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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21
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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catering
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| n. 给养 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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24
sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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29
liquidation
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| n.清算，停止营业 | |
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30
haggled
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| v.讨价还价( haggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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32
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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33
alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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34
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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35
whitewash
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| v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰 | |
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36
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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38
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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39
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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40
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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41
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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42
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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43
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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44
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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45
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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46
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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47
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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48
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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49
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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50
aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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51
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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