“You’re pretty late.”
Eve sat down without taking off her hat. She had a feeling that these two had been discussing her just before she had come into the room, and that things which she was not expected to see had been, so to speak, pushed hurriedly under the sofa.
She found a round of cold beef, and a dish of young lettuces3 on the table. Her companions had got as far as milk pudding and stewed4 rhubarb.
“You must have been walking about four solid hours. Did you get lost?”
“No. I used to live down here.”
They stared.
“Oh, did you!”
“You’ve got pretty hot, anyhow.”
“I walked fast. I went farther than I meant to.”
“Meet any friends?”
“One or two.”
She caught a pair of mistrustful eyes fixed5 on her. They belonged to Joan Gaunt, who sat at the end of the table.
“I think we’ll have the lamp, Lizzie.”
“Right oh! or Eve won’t be able to hunt the slugs out of the lettuces.”
“Don’t be beastly.”
“You might cut me a piece of bread.”
The lamp was lit. The other two had finished their supper, but appeared inclined to sit there and watch Eve eat.
“You met some old friends?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you were careful.”
“Of course. I told them I was on a walking tour. I dare say I shan’t see them again.”
“No. I don’t think you’d better.”
Something in Joan Gaunt’s voice annoyed her. It was quietly but harshly dictatorial6, and Eve stiffened7.
“I don’t think you need worry. I can look after my own affairs.”
“Did you live in Basingford?”
“No. Out in the country.”
Lizzie Straker and Joan Gaunt exchanged glances. Something had happened to the woman in Eve, a something that was so patent and yet so mysterious that even these two fanatics8 noticed it and were puzzled. Had she looked into a mirror before entering the sitting-room, she would have been struck by a physical transfiguration of which she was for the moment unconscious. She had changed into a more spring-like and more sensitive study of herself. There was the indefinable suggestion of bloom upon fruit. Her face looked fuller, her skin more soft, her lips redder, her eyes brighter yet more elusive9. She had been bathing in deep and magic waters and had emerged with a shy tenderness hovering10 about her mouth, and an air of sensuous11 radiance.
Supper was cleared away. The lamp was replaced on the table. Joan Gaunt brought out a note-book and her cypher-written itinerary12. Lizzie Straker lit a cigarette.
“Business!”
They exchanged glances.
“Come along, Eve.”
Somehow the name seemed to strike all three of them with symbolical13 suggestiveness. Her comrades looked at her mistrustfully.
They sat down at the table.
“As you happen to know people here, you had better be on your guard. There is work to be done here. I have just wired to Galahad.”
Eve met Joan Gaunt’s eyes.
“Are there black sheep in Basingford?”
“A particularly black one. An anti-suffrage lunatic. She has been on platforms against us. That makes one feel bitter.”
“So it’s a she!”
“She’s a traitress—a fool.”
“I wonder if I know her name.”
“It’s Canterton—Mrs. James Canterton.”
Eve was leaning her elbows on the table, trying not to show how this news affected14 her. And suddenly she began to laugh.
Joan Gaunt’s face stiffened.
“What are you laughing at?”
It was wholesome15, helpless, exquisite16 laughter that escaped and bubbled over from a delicious sense of fun. What an ironical17 comedy. Eve did not realise the complete significance of what she said until she had said it.
“Why, I should have thought she was one of us!”
Her two comrades stared. They were becoming more and more puzzled, by this feminine thing that did not shape as they expected it to shape.
“I don’t see anything to laugh at.”
Eve did.
“But she ought to belong to us!”
“You seem to find it very funny. I don’t see anything funny about a woman being a political pimp for the men, and a rotten sentimentalist.”
“I should never have called Mrs. Canterton a sentimentalist.”
“Of course, you know her!”
“A little.”
“Well, she’s marked down here with three asterisks18. That means trouble for her. Of course, she’s married.”
“Yes.”
“And dotes on her husband and children, and all that.”
Eve grew serious.
“No, that’s the strange part of it. She and her husband don’t run in double harness. And she’s a fool with her own child.”
“But that’s absurd. I suppose her husband has treated her badly, as most of them do.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.”
“In nine cases out of ten it’s the man’s fault.”
“Perhaps this is the tenth.”
“Oh, rot! There’s a man somewhere. There must be someone else besides her husband, or she wouldn’t be talking for the men.”
“I don’t think so. If you knew Mrs. Canterton, you might understand.”
Yet she doubted whether they would have understood, for busybodies and extremists generally detest19 each other, especially when they are arguing from opposite sides of the table.
Eve wanted to be alone, to think things out, to face this new crisis that had opened before her so suddenly. It was the more dangerous and problematical since the strong current of her impulses flowed steadily20 towards Fernhill. She went to bed early, leaving Joan Gaunt and Lizzie Straker writing letters.
When the door had closed on Eve, they put down their pens and looked at each other.
“Something funny.”
“What’s happened to her?”
“She’s met someone, a man, I suppose. That’s how it struck me.”
Joan looked grim.
“Don’t giggle21 like that. She has been puzzling me for a long time. Once or twice I have almost suspected her of laughing at us.”
This sobered Lizzie Straker.
“What! I should like to see her laugh at me! I’ve learnt jiu-jitsu. I’d suppress her!”
“The question is, is she to be trusted? I’m not so sure that our Horsham friend wasn’t right.”
“Well, don’t tell her too much. And test her. Make her fire the next place. Then she’ll be compromised.”
“That’s an idea!”
“She has always hung back and let us do the work.”
They looked at each other across the table.
“Galahad ought to be here by lunch time.”
“We can make our arrangements. Leave after tea, hide in the woods, and do the job after dark.”
Eve slept well, in spite of all her problems. She woke to the sound of a blackbird singing in the garden, and the bird’s song suited her waking mood, being just the thing that Nature suggested. She slipped out of bed, drew back the chintz curtains, and looked out on a dewy lawn all dappled with yellow sunlight. The soul of the child and of the artist in her exulted24. She wanted to play with colours, to express herself, to make pictures. Yes; but she wanted more than that, and she knelt down in her nightdress before the looking-glass, and leaning her elbows on the table, stared into her own eyes.
She questioned herself.
“Woman, can you trust yourself? It is a big thing, such a big thing, both for him, and for you.”
It was a sulky breakfast table that morning. Lizzie Straker had the grumps, and appeared to be on the watch for something that could be pounced25 on. She was ready to provoke Eve into contradicting her, but the real Eve, the Eve that mattered, was elsewhere. She hardly heard what Lizzie Straker said.
“We move on this evening!”
“Oh!”
“Does that interest you?”
“Not more than usual.”
A telegram lay half hidden under Joan Gaunt’s plate.
“Lizzie and I are going off for a ramble.”
The hint that Eve was not wanted was conveyed with frankness.
“You had better stay in.”
“Dear comrade, why?”
“Well, you are known here.”
“That doesn’t sound very logical. Still, I don’t mind.”
The dictator in Joan Gaunt was speaking, but Eve was not irked by her tyranny on this particular morning. She was ready to laugh gently, to bear with these two women, whose ignorance was so pathetic. She would be content to spend the day alone, sitting under one of the elms at the end of the bowling26 green, and letting herself dream. The consciousness that she was on the edge of a crisis did not worry her, for somehow she believed that the problem was going to solve itself.
Joan Gaunt and Lizzie Straker started out from Basingford soon after nine, and chartered a small boy, who, for the sum of a penny, consented to act as guide to Fernhill. But all this was mere27 strategy, and when they had got rid of the boy, they turned aside into the fir woods instead of presenting themselves at the office where would-be visitors were supposed to interview one of the clerks. Joan Gaunt had a rough map drawn28 on a piece of note-paper, a map that had been sent down from headquarters. They explored the fir woods and the heath lands between Fernhill and Orchards29 Corner, and after an hour’s hunt they discovered what they had come in search of—Canterton’s new cottage standing30 with white plaster and black beams between the garden of rocks and the curtained gloom of the fir woods.
Joan Gaunt scribbled31 a few additional directions on the map. They struck a rough sandy road that was used for carting timber, and this woodland road joined the lane that ran past Orchards Corner. It was just the place for Galahad’s car to be hidden in while they made their night attack on the empty cottage.
In the meanwhile Eve was sitting under one of the elms at the end of the bowling green with a letter-pad on her knees. She had concluded that her comrades had designs upon Canterton’s property, that they meant to make a wreck32 of his glass-houses and rare plants, or to set fire to the sheds and offices, and she had not the slightest intention of suffering any such thing to happen. She was amused by the instant thoroughness of her own treachery. Her impulses had deserted33 without hesitation34 to the opposite camp.
She wrote:
“I am writing in case I should not see you to-day. My good comrades are Militants35, and your name is anathema36. I more than suspect that some part of your property will be attacked to-night. I send you a warning. But I do not want these comrades of mine to suffer because I choose to play renegade. Balk37 them and let them go.
“I am thinking hard,
“Eve.”
She wrote “Important ” and “Private” on the envelope, and appealed to the proprietor38 of the “Black Boar” to provide her with a reliable messenger to carry her letter to Fernhill. An old gentleman was taking a glass of beer in the bar, and this same old gentleman lived as a pensioner39 in one of the Fernhill cottages. He was sent out to see Eve, who handed him a shilling and the letter.
“I want Mr. Canterton to get this before twelve o’clock, and I want you to make sure he has it.”
“I’ll make sure o’ that, miss. I ain’t likely to forget.”
He toddled40 off, and before twelve o’clock Eve knew that her warning had carried, for a boy on a bicycle brought her a note from Canterton.
“Many thanks indeed. I understand. Let nothing prejudice you.”
Joan Gaunt and Lizzie Straker returned about half-past twelve, and five minutes later a big grey motor pulled up outside the inn. Mr. Lawrence Kentucky climbed out, and went in to order lunch.
From her room Eve had a view of the bowling green and of the doorway41 of a little summer-house that stood under the row of elms. She saw Lizzie Straker walk out into the garden and arrive casually42 at the door of the summer-house. Two minutes later Lawrence Kentucky wandered out with equal casualness, appeared drawn by some invisible and circuitous43 thread to the summer-house, and vanished inside.
Eve smiled. It was a comedy within a comedy, but there was no cynical44 edge to her amusement. She felt more kindly45 towards Lizzie Straker, and perhaps Eve pitied her a little because she seemed so incapable46 of distinguishing between gold and brass47.
Lawrence Kentucky did not stay more than five minutes in the summer-house. He had received his instructions, and Joan Gaunt’s map, and a promise from Lizzie Straker that she would keep watch in the lane up by Orchards Corner, so that he should not lose himself in the Fernhill woods. Lawrence Kentucky went in to lunch, and drove away soon afterwards in his big grey car.
She found that Lizzie Straker was in a bad temper when they sat down to lunch. The tête-à-tête in the summer-house had been too impersonal48 to please her, and Lawrence Kentucky had shown great tactlessness in asking questions about Eve. “Is Miss Carfax here? Where did you pick her up? Oh, one of Pallas’s kittens! Jolly good-looking girl.”
Lizzie was feeling scratchy, and she sparred with Eve.
“You’re a puzzler. I don’t believe you’re a bit keen, not what I call keen. I can’t sleep sometimes before doing something big.”
“I’m quite keen enough.”
“I don’t think you show it. You’ll have to buck49 up a bit, won’t she, Joan? We have to send in sealed reports, you know. Mrs. Falconer expects to know the inside of everybody.”
“Perhaps she expects too much.”
“Anyhow, it’s her money we’re spending.”
Eve flushed.
“I shall pay her back some day before very long.”
“You needn’t think I called you a sponger—I didn’t.”
“Oh, well, would it have mattered?”
They spent the afternoon in the garden, and had tea under the may tree. Joan Gaunt had asked for the bill, and for three packets of sandwiches. They paid the one, and stowed the sandwiches away in their knapsacks, and about five o’clock they resumed their walking tour.
A march of two miles brought them into the thick of the fir woods, and they had entered them by the timber track without meeting a soul. Joan Gaunt chose a spot where a clump50 of young firs offered a secret camping ground, for the lower boughs51 of the young trees being still green and bushy, made a dense52 screen that hid them admirably.
Eve understood that a night attack was imminent53, and realised that no individual rambles54 would be authorised by Joan Gaunt. She was to be penned in with these two fanatics for six long hours, an undenounced traitor55 who had betrayed them into the enemy’s hands. Canterton would have men on guard, and for the moment she was tempted56 to tell them the truth and so save them from being fooled.
But some subtle instinct held her back. She felt herself to be part of the adventure, that she would allow circumstances to lead, circumstances that might prove of peculiar57 significance. She was curious to see what would happen, curious to see how the woman in her would react.
So Eve lay down among the young firs with her knapsack under her head, and watched the sunlight playing in the boughs of the veterans overhead. They made a net of sable58 and gold that stretched out over her, a net that some god might let fall to tangle59 the lives of women and of men. She felt the imminence60 of Nature, felt herself part of the mysterious movement that could be sensed even in this solemn brooding wood.
Her two comrades lay on their fronts, each with a chin thrust out over a book. But Lizzie Straker soon grew restless. She kept clicking her heels together, and picking up dry fir cones61 and pulling them to pieces. Eve watched her from behind half closed lids.
She felt sorry for Lizzie Straker, because she guessed instinctively62 that Nature was playing her deep game even with this rebel.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
sitting-room
|
|
| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
ramble
|
|
| v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
lettuces
|
|
| n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
stewed
|
|
| adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
dictatorial
|
|
| adj. 独裁的，专断的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
stiffened
|
|
| 加强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
fanatics
|
|
| 狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
elusive
|
|
| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
sensuous
|
|
| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
itinerary
|
|
| n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
symbolical
|
|
| a.象征性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
wholesome
|
|
| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
exquisite
|
|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
ironical
|
|
| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
asterisks
|
|
| n.星号，星状物( asterisk的名词复数 )v.加星号于( asterisk的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
detest
|
|
| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
steadily
|
|
| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
giggle
|
|
| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
giggled
|
|
| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
scout
|
|
| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
exulted
|
|
| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
pounced
|
|
| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
bowling
|
|
| n.保龄球运动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
orchards
|
|
| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
scribbled
|
|
| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
wreck
|
|
| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
militants
|
|
| 激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
anathema
|
|
| n.诅咒；被诅咒的人(物)，十分讨厌的人(物) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
balk
|
|
| n.大方木料；v.妨碍；不愿前进或从事某事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
proprietor
|
|
| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
pensioner
|
|
| n.领养老金的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
toddled
|
|
| v.（幼儿等）东倒西歪地走( toddle的过去式和过去分词 )；蹒跚行走；溜达；散步 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
casually
|
|
| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
circuitous
|
|
| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
cynical
|
|
| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
incapable
|
|
| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
impersonal
|
|
| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
buck
|
|
| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
clump
|
|
| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
boughs
|
|
| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
imminent
|
|
| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
rambles
|
|
| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
traitor
|
|
| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
tempted
|
|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
sable
|
|
| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
tangle
|
|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
imminence
|
|
| n.急迫，危急 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
cones
|
|
| n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
instinctively
|
|
| adv.本能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |