In front of him, with half a dozen Provincial1 and suburban2 loungers in between, were two girls, both beautifully dressed, of whom Gerard at once recognized the elder to be Rachel Davison.
The transformation3, however, from the plainly dressed and dowdy4 girl he had met a few months ago at the Aldingtons, to the woman in a trained dress of écru lace, with a big brown hat trimmed with long ostrich5 plumes6 shading from palest pink to deepest crimson7, was so amazing, so complete, that he for a moment doubted whether he had made a mistake.
For the change was not in dress only. The beauty of the brilliant Rachel was of that type which is greatly enhanced by handsome dress, and she appeared ten times more beautiful now than she had done in the shabby clothes of the year before.
[18]The other girl Gerard guessed to be her sister, and a more charming contrast it would have been impossible to find than that of the pale dark beauty and the pink-and-white fair one beside her.
The younger girl was dressed in an ankle-length skirt of black lace, a blouse to match with elbow sleeves, and long black kid gloves to meet them. Her large mushroom hat was black also, and the only relief to the somber8 hue9 besides her golden hair and brilliant blonde coloring, consisted in a bunch of sweet peas which was tucked into her dress.
The good looks and smart appearance of the two girls attracted the attention of the crowd in the rooms to such a degree that wherever they went the people followed them, and Gerard had difficulty in forcing his way through the admiring mob to Rachel’s side.
The sight of her had confused his thoughts, made his heart beat fast, and revived, with extra vividness, the intense interest he had from the first felt in the girl.
With some diffidence he greeted her, and was relieved to find that she did not “cut” him, but holding out her hand with a smile, while a little tinge10 of pink color appeared in her cheeks, greeted him by name, thus showing that she had not, as he had feared, quite forgotten him.
“I’ve been most anxious for the pleasure of meeting you again, and I’ve asked the Aldingtons about[19] you, but you haven’t been to see them lately, they said,” he stammered11, although he felt as he spoke12 that it was rather a stupid thing to say.
She blushed a little more.
“I really haven’t much time for visiting now,” she said. “Let me introduce you to my sister Lilian, Mr. Buckland. She’s at school at Richmond, but I’ve brought her out for a day’s holiday.”
“You are living in town now?” he asked.
“Yes, I am staying with some friends. My mother is living down at Brighton, and I divide my time between them,” said Miss Davison.
Gerard hesitated. He wanted more than ever to know all about her, to be able to meet her at her home, to renew the acquaintance which had delighted and impressed him so much. But her words seemed to imply quite clearly that she had no such wish on her side.
“I—I had heard—the Aldingtons thought”—he stammered at last—“that you were married.”
She smiled.
“I’m not a marrying girl,” she said.
There was a pause and then he grew bold.
“You’ve taken my advice and found an opening for your talents,” said he.
Miss Davison looked alarmed.
“What do you mean?” she said quickly.
It was an awkward question to answer. He could not tell her that whereas she had been shabby and[20] ashamed of being seen in her mother’s modest home a few months ago, now she was resplendent in expensive clothes, and evidently as far removed as possible from the pinch of poverty.
“I mean,” he said diplomatically, “that from what I saw of you I am sure you would not have failed to find some opening for your energies, and” he dared to add, with a sly glance of admiration13, “to judge by what I see, you have succeeded.”
“We have had a little luck at last,” she said. “That’s all. It’s nothing to do with me.”
At that moment an elderly lady of distinguished16 appearance, who appeared to be acting17 as chaperon to the two girls, came up to them from the seat in the middle of the room, where she had been doing her inspection18 of the pictures—and the people—without fatigue19. Miss Davison had to turn to talk to her, but she did not introduce him. So he fell back upon the younger sister, who was full of excitement and happiness over her holiday.
“Don’t you find looking at pictures tiring?” asked he, for want of something better to say.
“Oh, no. You see this is a great treat for me, to come out with Rachel; so nothing bores me, as it might anyone who could do this sort of thing whenever he liked.”
[21]“You are very fond of your sister, I can see.”
The girl’s face beamed with affection as she answered—
“I adore Rachel. She’s so wonderfully clever and energetic, and good to us. Do you know that she has changed everything for mamma and me, by her cleverness and her hard work?”
“I’m not at all surprised,” said Gerard heartily20. “I told her when I met her first that I was sure she would find some opening for her talents. She said she had none, but I knew better.”
“No talents! Yes, isn’t it absurd? That’s what she always says,” cried Lilian merrily. “A girl who can make eight hundred a year, without any previous teaching or training, simply by drawing designs.”
“Indeed!” said Gerard, admiring but almost incredulous at the simplicity21 of the means.
“Yes,” pursued Lilian confidently. “Of course she has to work very hard, and she has to go about just where the firm that employs her wants her to go. But she says she likes it, and certainly they treat her very well.”
Gerard was puzzled. That any firm should pay a designer eight hundred a year, and want her to travel about for them seemed strange, he thought. He had had a vague idea that a designer must go through a thorough course of training before his talents were of much practical value; and to learn that a girl who[22] had had no experience of such work could, within a few months, make such a large income was a surprise to him.
“She must have to work very hard,” he said.
“Yes, but she finds time to go about and enjoy herself too. That is the wonderful part of it, and nobody could do it but Rachel,” babbled22 on the pretty childlike seventeen-year-old sister proudly. “Old Lady Jennings, whom she stays with, says she never sees her with a pencil in her hand when she’s at home. But she has a little studio somewhere off Regent Street—only she won’t tell us where, for fear we should go and disturb her at her work,” added the girl ingenuously23, “and when she has anything important to do, she just shuts herself up there, and works away for hours. I do wish I were clever like that!” she added wistfully.
“I’ve no doubt you’re clever too, in some other way,” almost stammered Gerard, puzzled and confused by the strange account the simple-hearted schoolgirl had given him.
He was conscious, even as he talked to the pretty child, that her sister was watching them with anxiety. Was Rachel anxious that Lilian should not be so frank?
Old Lady Jennings, the distinguished-looking chaperon, seemed to be anxious to have him introduced to her. But Rachel prevented this, and contrived24, without any appearance of incivility, to dismiss[23] Gerard within a few moments of the conversation he had had with her sister.
He was disturbed, ruffled25, rendered uneasy, and vaguely26 suspicious of he knew not what. But the impression made upon him by Miss Davison the elder, was stronger than ever, and he felt that he could not rest until he had found out more about her, and fathomed27 the mystery which appeared to surround her.
The more he thought about it, the more certain he felt that the younger sister must be under a misapprehension with regard to the income earned by her sister. Either it was much smaller than she supposed, and Rachel pretended that it was large, in order that the younger might not feel that she was a burden, or else Rachel had some other employment, more remunerative28, to eke29 out her income.
Was she on the stage? Though Gerard knew little about the theatrical30 profession except from the outside, he was vaguely sure that incomes of eight hundred a year cannot be made there except by actors and actresses who have some training or experience, or who have made such a mark for some special reason or other, that their names must be known to everybody.
That the girl in whom he felt such a strong interest would not stoop to anything unworthy he felt sure. But that he remembered, with an uneasiness which he could not stay, that singular treatment of[24] her friends the Aldingtons, for whom she had professed31 so much affection, and yet whom she did not scruple32 to neglect and even to “cut,” without any apparent reason.
And why would she not let him be introduced to old Lady Jennings, when the lady herself had evidently been willing, if not anxious, to know him? Why did such a young woman choose to wrap her doings and her whereabouts in a ridiculous mystery, which could not but be prejudicial both to herself and her young sister?
The whole thing was puzzling, irritating, and Gerard could think of nothing else.
He would have liked to think of Rachel Davison as he had seen her first, and to honor her for her valiant33 efforts to restore to her mother and sister the luxurious34 atmosphere of their old home, all by her own hard work.
Now, try as he would to dispel35 all doubts from his mind, he could not but feel that there was a mystery about her which was disquieting36. It was true that this Lady Jennings, with whom she was staying, was a woman with a high and even conspicuous37 position in the world. Not very rich, she was a great connoisseur38 and a much sought after hostess, and no girls on the threshold of life could have a better, a shrewder, or a more trustworthy friend.
But, on the other hand, Rachel had not been candid39 or truthful40 in her statements to him: was it possible[25] that she was equally lacking in candor41 to others?
She had told him that her prosperity was due to “luck,” and had expressly stated that it had “nothing to do with her.”
What did this discrepancy43 mean?
Gerard worried himself unceasingly about this, for he could not get the brilliant and beautiful Miss Davison out of his head. Lilian had said that her sister had a little studio somewhere near Regent Street, where she occupied herself with these wonderful designs which brought her in so handsome an income.
Mrs. Davison, she had said, lived at Brighton, and Rachel divided her time between her mother and Lady Jennings, whose address Gerard immediately set himself to discover.
It was near Sloane Street, a small house, the position of which suggested a rental44 quite out of proportion to its small size.
Gerard took a walk in that direction, and looked wistfully at the door at which he dared not knock. He felt himself to be growing even dangerously sentimental45 about this girl, and told himself he was a fool to think of a woman who certainly harbored no thought of him.
And yet—there was the rub!—it had seemed to him, that afternoon at the Academy, that Rachel[26] looked at him with a certain expression which suggested that, so far from having forgotten him, she retained almost as vivid a remembrance of him as he did of her. This was not a fancy, it was a fact, and it completed his subjugation46 to the tyranny of his ideal.
He began to haunt the West End, hovering47 between Sloane Street and Regent Street until one evening, when there was a grand dinner-party given, and a great crowd was assembled in one of the Squares in the expectation of the arrival of royalty48, he recognized, with a pang49 of surprise and terror which almost made him cry out aloud, the face and figure of Rachel Davison not far away from him.
She was dressed in a shabby skirt and blouse, and an old, shapeless black hat, but the disguise was ineffectual for him; he knew her at once, and was about to approach her, and to address her, when suddenly he saw her withdraw to the outskirts50 of the crowd, followed by a thickset man rather above the middle height. Gerard, hiding himself with a strange sickness at his heart, among the crowd, nevertheless kept watch.
And he saw her hand something bright and glistening51 to the man, and then disappear absolutely from sight.
Gerard staggered out of the crowd, faint as if he had received a physical wound.
Was Rachel a thief?
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
provincial
|
|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
suburban
|
|
| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
transformation
|
|
| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
dowdy
|
|
| adj.不整洁的；过旧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
ostrich
|
|
| n.鸵鸟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
plumes
|
|
| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
crimson
|
|
| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
somber
|
|
| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
hue
|
|
| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
tinge
|
|
| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
stammered
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
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： |
|
|
|
|
13
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
demure
|
|
| adj.严肃的；端庄的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
flickering
|
|
| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
inspection
|
|
| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
fatigue
|
|
| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
simplicity
|
|
| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
babbled
|
|
| v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
ingenuously
|
|
| adv.率直地，正直地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
contrived
|
|
| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
ruffled
|
|
| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
fathomed
|
|
| 理解…的真意( fathom的过去式和过去分词 )； 彻底了解； 弄清真相 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
remunerative
|
|
| adj.有报酬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
eke
|
|
| v.勉强度日，节约使用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
theatrical
|
|
| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
professed
|
|
| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
scruple
|
|
| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
valiant
|
|
| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
dispel
|
|
| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
disquieting
|
|
| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
connoisseur
|
|
| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
candid
|
|
| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
truthful
|
|
| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
candor
|
|
| n.坦白，率真 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
discrepancy
|
|
| n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
rental
|
|
| n.租赁，出租，出租业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
subjugation
|
|
| n.镇压，平息，征服 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
royalty
|
|
| n.皇家，皇族 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
pang
|
|
| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
outskirts
|
|
| n.郊外，郊区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
glistening
|
|
| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |