The Priory gardens were looking lovely under the rays of the hot sun of the fading August afternoon; but the harmonious1 tints2 of tree and lawn, of bank and blossom, faded into an indistinct mass before the eyes of Gerard Buckland as he turned away from Rachel Davison, after a low-voiced greeting which he uttered mechanically, without knowing what he said.
If she had been unmoved at the meeting, or if her manner and look had been different, he would not have been so much perturbed3 as he was. But it was not merely that she looked infinitely4 surprised, startled, and alarmed at the sight of him, but that there was in her face an expression which seemed to bear only one possible interpretation5: she looked guilty.
Try as he would to forget the impression her face made upon him at that first moment of astonishment6 at the meeting, he could not banish7 the disagreeable impression.
She had turned at once from him, after the first words of greeting, to speak again to Arthur Aldington, and to make inquiries8 after the rest of his family.[159] But Gerard saw in this rapid turning away from himself only another proof of guilty consciousness on her part that he was there and that he was watching her.
He turned away into the gardens, leaving the terrace and going down towards the broad fish-pond, which lay in a hollow at the end of a series of velvety9 lawns broken up by flower beds which were a mass of tall, handsome, flowering plants.
The gardens were one of the sights of the county, and even in the state of uneasiness and anxiety from which he was suffering, Gerard was conscious of their beauty.
So, too, were other people. For wandering about among the high hedges of yew10 and over the soft lawns, he found a dozen groups of two and three persons, enjoying the warm summer air, and gathering11 under the shade of the lime trees where Mrs. Van Santen was pouring out tea.
The lady threw at Gerard the apprehensive12 glance with which she greeted everyone who approached her whom she did not know well. He looked at her narrowly, but there was nothing in the least suspicious about her; she was a plain-featured, motherly woman who gave the impression of being more used to a simple, homely13 style of life than to the state which now surrounded her; and the gentleness with which she evidently tried to live up to the new life prepossessed him in her favor.
[160]She smiled at him rather shyly, and invited him to take a seat beside her.
“I’m new to this,” she said, with a strong American accent, as she poured him out a cup of tea; “to all this company, I mean. I’m used to a quieter sort of life altogether; and your smart British society folks make me shiver some!”
“Well, I hope you won’t look upon me as belonging to the people who make you shiver,” said Gerard, much taken with her gentle looks and her homely form of speech. “So you don’t like us, Mrs. Van Santen, so much as your friends on the other side of the Atlantic?”
“I don’t say that,” replied Mrs. Van Santen, in the slow drawl which Gerard found rather attractive. “I’ve no doubt many of the people who frighten me because I’m not used to them only need to be better known. But it’s just this, Mr. Buckland, when you’ve been used to a quiet, homely kind of life, and you get suddenly plunged15 into a livelier sort, why, it takes you time for you to feel your feet, you know!”
“Of course it does. But why should you be forced to lead anything but the kind of life you like, and you’re used to?”
“Well, it’s like this,” said the good lady confidentially16; “you Britishers think a mighty17 deal more of the dollars than folks do over on the other side!”
She shook her head shrewdly, and brushed back the braids of her grayish hair, which she wore parted in the middle and done in a severely19 plain knot behind.
“I never knew the value of money,” she said emphatically, “till I came over here. Where we come from there are many who have money, and nobody thinks much of us; but over here we find friends among the smart people, and yet there’s nothing to make us stand out from other folks!”
“I think there is, by what I hear—and what I see,” added Gerard courteously20. “Your younger daughter, Miss Cora, has a voice that we very rarely hear except on a professional platform, and everyone says you give entertainments which are unique.”
She laughed.
“I don’t see anything so special about them,” she said simply, “except that perhaps we’re not so stiff as you English people. But I should have thought that was against us, instead of being in our favor!”
He laughed.
“There’s a great deal of pretense21 and what we call cant22 about us English,” admitted Gerard. “We have bound ourselves by very rigid23 rules; but we like to escape from them sometimes, and we do it by going abroad, or by visiting people of wider notions than our own.”
[162]“Oh, that’s it, is it? Well, I daresay, you’re about right. But it’s puzzling too, to see how your great ladies and your smart men come to see us, when on our own side we’re not thought much of.”
It was impossible not to like this simple homely creature, with her lasting24 wonder at the ease with which she and her family had established themselves in London society, and the freedom with which they had been “taken up.”
Gerard found it less surprising than she did. The very mixture of simplicity25 and homeliness26, as represented by the gentle middle-aged27 woman who disdained28 the aid of much extravagance in dress, and frankly29 spoke30 her mind about herself and her family, with the grace and accomplishments31 of the daughters, and the devotion to cards of the sons, formed a combination new and attractive to people who were tired of more commonplace households.
And the cleverness with which the Van Santens had chosen to locate themselves in one of the prettiest places near London, and the taste with which they had respected the beauties in which they found themselves, all combined to make the Priory the most popular resort of the moment with a considerable portion of the great world.
A few belated stayers in London, who found a delightful32 Sunday resort in the Priory, and a great many people staying in the country houses and river villas33 came over each week-end in their motor-cars[163] to spend a few hours in the merry atmosphere, unburdened with Sabbatarian restrictions34, of the lively Americans.
While he was still sipping35 tea and chatting with Mrs. Van Santen, the sight of Rachel Davison, coming slowly from the house, accompanied on one side by the younger and better-looking of the two male Van Santens, made Gerard frown with displeasure.
Miss Davison was exquisitely36 dressed, as usual, and looked exceedingly handsome in a gown of black lace with a long train and lines of jet upon it, finished with enormous jet tassels37. A large number of tassels, similar in design, but of smaller size, dangled38 from her bodice; and from underneath39 the short, full black sleeves and up to the throat from the slightly open black bodice, an underbodice and sleeves, very full and of creamy white transparent40 material, peeped out, finishing the costume with a relieving touch.
Her dark hair, coiled high and fastened by amber41 and jet combs and pins, set off the delicate pallor of her face.
Gerard, who had never conquered the jealousy42 with which he looked upon any other man who seemed to attract any of her attention, frowned when he noted43 the evident admiration44 of the younger Van Santen, who was tall, broad-shouldered, and good-looking.
Perhaps it was because he hated the sight of a good-looking man near Miss Davison that Gerard[164] took an instinctive45 and strong dislike to this Denver Van Santen, and told himself that the fellow was ill-mannered, presumptuous46, and “bad-form” altogether.
On the other side of Miss Davison was an Englishman, a young baronet, who was already making himself conspicuous47 by the rapidity with which he was dissipating the fortune which he had recently inherited with the title.
Gerard, uneasily glancing from the one to the other, and from these three to the groups of gay visitors who were laughing and talking around them, wondered what sort of position the rest of the guests held, and whether there were many present of the type represented by the spendthrift young baronet.
There were two or three racing48 ladies, women of birth and position, whose rank enabled them to go fearlessly wherever they fancied, without calling down upon themselves the decree of banishment49 which lesser50 mortals can only avoid by extreme discretion51.
Gerard wondered whether the ladies he saw were all of that venturesome type, and whether it was considered rather a daring thing to visit these bridge-playing Americans in the snug52 retreat they had chosen for themselves.
Meanwhile Miss Davison had been brought to the group under the lime trees, and placed in a comfortable chair, and waited upon assiduously by the[165] two young men who had accompanied her from the house.
Sir William Gurdon, the young baronet, was complaining of his ill-luck at poker53. Denver Van Santen laughed at him.
“Wants a cool head—poker,” he remarked; “and to keep your mind on what you’re doing. That Cora and her singing were enough to distract anybody. We’ll get farther away from the music this evening, if we play any more.”
“Yes,” assented54 Sir William. “I should awfully55 like to play again, but I don’t want to make such a duffer of myself as I did this afternoon.”
“I don’t think you’re cut out for a poker-player. If I were you I should give it up,” said Denver, in a decided56 tone.
Sir William resented this as an imputation57 that he was not cool-headed.
“I don’t know why you should say that,” he said rather sharply. “I suppose poker has to be learned like everything else, and probably you play it better now than when you first began.”
Denver shook his head modestly.
“Not always,” he said; “sometimes I’m an arrant58 duffer at it. Why the other day I was cleaned out, absolutely cleaned out, by a fellow who hadn’t played half a dozen times in his life. I did feel a fool, I can tell you!”
“You shall try again with me this evening,” said[166] the baronet. “I’m not going to be beaten without a struggle, at that or at anything else.”
“You’ll only get licked,” he said simply. “Whatever sort of a player you may make some day, and if you go on trying I suppose you will do all right in time, you’re not strong enough to play with old hands like me and the two others who were with us to-day.”
“It’s an almighty61 shame to play cards all Sunday!” she said, in her homely way. “I wonder you’re not ashamed of yourself, Denver, to start it!”
“Well, so I am, perhaps,” said he good-humoredly; “but I love cards, and if anyone else wants to play, I’m ready to take him on, you bet!”
Miss Davison, seated near Mrs. Van Santen, was sipping tea and nibbling62 bread and butter. Gerard, when the other two young men grew warm in discussion of poker and moved away a little, took the seat beside her.
“Different this, from the way the Aldingtons spend their Sunday!” said he, in a low voice as soon as their hostess had turned to talk to someone else.
“Yes,” said Rachel. “It’s rather shocking—till you get used to it.”
“I think it would always seem shocking to me,”[167] said Gerard. “I don’t think I have any strong Sabbatarian instincts, but I suppose the old Puritan survives in us English, for I must confess that to see cards played all day on Sunday grates upon me; and I should have thought,” he added quickly, in a lower voice, “that it would have grated on you too.”
This home-thrust made her blush.
“One has to make allowance,” she said, “for other people’s ways. It’s quite true, as you say, that one’s Puritan instincts revolt from the continual card-playing; but I suppose that very strict people would say it’s just as wrong to amuse oneself as one does at the Aldingtons’, with music and conversation.”
“I don’t see how there could be the same objection to that.”
“It’s only a question of degree.”
“So that you really wouldn’t mind if we all, at the Aldingtons’, were to sit down to poker and baccarat, instead of spending the Sundays there as we do?”
She turned to him quickly.
“I really don’t see that we are called upon to decide those questions,” she said. “Each one must lay down his own laws of conduct. As a matter of fact, it’s a sentiment, and not any law, human or divine, that guides us in the matter, isn’t it? You can’t pretend that card-playing comes under the head of work, can you?”
[168]Stung by what he took to be her indifference63, Gerard made a very indiscreet speech.
“Work! I’m not so sure of that,” said he.
Miss Davison turned to him quickly.
“Pray, what do you mean?” she asked sharply.
But he did not venture to say more. Indeed, he felt that he had nothing to say. He could not well have defined the secret instinct which made him vaguely64 suspect that there was something wrong about the play, just because Miss Davison was in the house at the time.
He certainly would not have liked to avow65 that that was his reason for his faint suspicions. But that it was because Rachel, who had been concerned none the less he knew, at the bottom of his heart, in other dubious66 transactions, was present at the Priory, that he suspected, on hearing that Arthur Aldington had lost his money, that all was not as fair as it looked in the play.
“Surely you don’t imagine,” she said, “that you would meet Lady Sylvia and the Marchioness at houses where there was anything wrong! I’m afraid, Mr. Buckland, you let your Puritanism carry you a great deal too far.”
She spoke with so much emphasis that he felt ashamed of what he had said, the more so that he really had no grounds for supposing that the two[169] wealthy young Americans would do anything that was not fair. Indeed, he had himself heard one of them trying to persuade a silly fellow not to play poker any more.
“Well,” he said, in a shame-faced manner, “I admit that there’s something so distasteful to me in seeing men win money under their own roof, that I said what I had no right to say.”
“I’m glad you admit so much,” said Rachel with dignity. “It is not a very nice suggestion to make that my friends, the people in whose house I am staying, are other than honorable.”
Remembering what he was forced to suspect concerning her, Gerard could not help casting at her a quick glance, at which she blushed again.
She knew very well that he suspected her of complicity in other risky68 adventures, and she had no right to challenge him.
“Well,” said he, “I suppose I ought to apologize, but I confess that if I am forced to play cards here, and one feels awkward at refusing always, when one is asked, I shall feel very despondent69 at having to pit myself against such a lot of good players.”
A change came over Rachel’s face. For a moment she sat silent, but then she rose from her chair, and with a glance which invited him to follow her, sauntered away to a flower-border, where she stopped, as if to admire the mass of gorgeous blossom in front of her.
[170]He looked at her, as she stood, a beautiful and even queenly figure, in her glittering black dress against the green of the foliage70 and the rich coloring of the flowers; and if she had turned at that moment she would almost have been able to read in Gerard’s face the feeling at his heart, the passionate71 wistful longing14 to know the truth, the whole truth about her, to learn, for good or ill, the secret which he knew was gnawing72 at her heart, to be able to tell, once for all, whether the woman who attracted him in spite of his knowledge, in spite of his judgment73, was worthy74 or unworthy of an honest man’s love.
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1
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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9
velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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yew
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| n.紫杉属树木 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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cant
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| n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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homeliness
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| n.简朴，朴实；相貌平平 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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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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accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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tassels
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| n.穗( tassel的名词复数 )；流苏状物；（植物的）穗；玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 )；使抽穗， （为了使作物茁壮生长）摘去穗状雄花；用流苏装饰 | |
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38
dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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45
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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presumptuous
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| adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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48
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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51
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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52
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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53
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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54
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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56
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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imputation
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| n.归罪，责难 | |
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arrant
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| adj.极端的；最大的 | |
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dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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60
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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nibbling
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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63
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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64
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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avow
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| v.承认，公开宣称 | |
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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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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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69
despondent
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| adj.失望的，沮丧的，泄气的 | |
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70
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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71
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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72
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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