Gail, in a pretty little rose-coloured morning robe, with soft frills of lace around her white throat and at her white elbows, sat on the floor of the music room amid a chaos1 of sheet music. She was humming a gay little song suggested by one of the titles through which she had leafed, and was gradually sorting her music for the yacht party; instrumental pieces here, popular things there, another little pile of old-fashioned glees which the assembled crowd might sing, just here a little stack of her own solos, nearby the rector’s favourites, between the two their duets. It was her part in one of the latter she was humming now, missing, as she sang, the strong accompaniment of the Reverend Smith Boyd’s mellow2 voice. She was more peaceful this morning than she had been for many days.
The butler came through the hall, and Gail looked up with a suppressed giggle3 as she saw him pass the door. She always had an absurd idea that his hinges should be oiled.
“Miss Gail is not at home, sir,” she heard the butler say, and Gail paused with a sheet of music suspended in her hand, the whole expression of her face changing. She had only given instructions that one person should receive that invariable message.
“I beg your pardon, sir!” was the next observation 310Gail heard, in a tone of as near startled remonstrance4 as was possible to the butler’s wooden voice.
There was a sound almost as of a scuffle, and then Allison, with his top coat on his arm and his hat in his hand, strode to the doorway5 of the music room, followed immediately by the butler, who looked as if his hair had been peeled a little at the edges. Allison had apparently6 brushed roughly past him, and had disturbed his equanimity7 for the balance of his life.
Gail was on her feet almost instantaneously with the apparition8 in the doorway, and she still held the sheet of music which she had been about to deposit on one of the piles. Allison’s eyes had a queer effect of being sunken, and there was a strange nervous tension in him. Gail dismissed the butler with a nod.
“You were informed that I am not at home,” she said.
“I meant to see you,” he replied, with a certain determined9 insolence10 in his tone which she could not escape. There was a triumph in it, too, as if his having swept the butler aside were only a part of his imperious intention. “I have some things to say to you to which you must listen.”
“You had better say them all then, because this is your last opportunity,” she told him, pale with anger, and with a quaver in her voice which she would have given much to suppress.
He cast on her a look which blazed. He had not slept since he had seen her last. He smiled, and the smile was a snarl11, displaying his teeth. Something more than anger crept into Gail’s pallor.
“I have come to ask you again to marry me, Gail. The matter is too vital to be let pass without the most serious effort of which I am capable. I can not do 311without you. I have a need for you which is greater than anything of which you could conceive. I come to you humbly12, Gail, to ask you to reconsider your hasty answer of last night. I want you to marry me.”
For just a moment his eyes had softened13, and Gail felt a slight trace of pity for him; but in the pity itself there was revulsion.
“I can not,” she told him.
“You must!” he immediately rejoined. “As I would build up an empire to win you, I would destroy one to win you. You spoke14 last night of what you called the cruelty and trickery of the building up of my big transportation monopoly. If it is that which stands between us, it shall not do so for a moment longer. Marry me, and I will stop it just where it is. Why, I only built this for you, and if you don’t like it, I shall have nothing to do with it.” In that he lied, and consciously. He knew that the moment he had made sure of her his ambition to conquer would come uppermost again, and that he would pursue his dream of conquest with even more ardour than before, because he had been refreshed.
“That would make no difference, Mr. Allison,” she replied. “I told you, last night, that I would not marry you because I do not, and could not, love you. There does not need to be any other reason.” There was in her an inexplicable15 tension, a reflex of his own, but, though her face was still pale, she stood very calmly before him.
The savageness17 which was in him, held too long in leash18, sprang into his face, his eyes, his lips, the set of his jaws19. He advanced a step towards her. His hands contracted.
“I shall not again ask you to love me,” he harshly 312stated; “but you must marry me. I have made up my mind to that.”
“Impossible!” Angry now and contemptuous.
“I’ll make you! There is no resource I will not use. I’ll bankrupt your family. I’ll wipe it off the earth.”
Gail’s nails were pressing into her palms. She felt that her lips were cold. Her eyes were widening, as the horror of him began to grow on her. He was glaring at her now, and there was no attempt to conceal20 the savage16 cruelty on his face.
“I’ll compromise you,” he went on. “I’ll connect your name with mine in such a way that marriage with me will be your only resource. I’ll be an influence you can’t escape. There will not be a step you can take in which you will not feel that I am the master of it. Marry you? I’ll have you if it takes ten years! I’ll have no other end in life. I’ll put into that one purpose all the strength, and all the will that I have put into the accomplishment21 of everything which I have done; and the longer you delay me the sooner I’ll break you when I do get you.”
Out of her very weakness had come strength; out of her overwhelming humiliation22 had come pride, and though the blood had left her face waxen and cold, something within her discovered a will which was as strong in resistance as his was in attack. She knew it, and trembled in the knowledge of it.
“You can’t make me marry you,” she said, with infinite scorn and contempt.
He clenched23 his fists and gritted24 his teeth. Into his eyes there sprang a blaze which she had never before seen, but dimly, in the eyes of any man; but she needed no experience to tell her its despicable meaning. His lips, which had been snarling25, suddenly took a downward 313twitch, and were half parted. His nostrils26 were distended27, and the blood, flooding into his face, empurpled it.
“Then I’ll have you anyhow!” he hoarsely28 told her, and, his arms tensed and his head slightly lowered forward, he made as if to advance toward her. He saw in her frightened eyes that she would scream, but he did not know that at that moment she could not. Her heart seemed to have lost its action, and she stood, trembling, faint, in the midst of her strewn music, with the sensation that the room was turning dark.
The house was very quiet. Mrs. Sargent and Mrs. Davies were upstairs. The servants were all in the rear of the house, or below, or in the upper rooms, at their morning work. He turned swiftly and closed the door of the music room, then he whirled again towards her, with ferocity in his eyes. He came slowly, every movement of him alive with ponderous29 strength. He was a maniac30. He was insane. He was frenzied31 by one mad thought which had swept out of his universe every other consideration, and the glut32 to kill was no more fearful than the purpose which possessed33 him now.
Gail, standing34 slight, fragile, her brown eyes staring, her brown hair dishevelled about her white brow, felt every atom of strength leaving her, devoured35 in the overwhelming might of this monstrous36 creature. The sheet of music, which she had been holding all this time, dropped from her nerveless fingers and fluttered to the floor!
That noise, slight as it was, served to arrest the progress of the man for just an instant. He was in no frame to reason, but some instinct urged him to speed. He crouched37 slightly, as a wild beast might. But the 314flutter of that sheet of music had done more for Gail than it had for him. It had loosed the paralysis38 which had held her, had broken the fascination39 of horror with which she had been spellbound. Just behind her was a low French window which led to a small side balcony. With one bound she burst this open, she did not know how, and had leaped over the light balcony rail, and ran across the lawn to the rectory gate, up the steps and into the side door, and into the study, where the Reverend Smith Boyd sat toiling40 over a sermon.
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1
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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3
giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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4
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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5
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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6
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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7
equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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8
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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9
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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10
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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11
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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12
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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13
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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14
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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15
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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16
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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17
savageness
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| 天然，野蛮 | |
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18
leash
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| n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住 | |
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19
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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20
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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21
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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22
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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23
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
gritted
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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25
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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26
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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27
distended
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| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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29
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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30
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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31
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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32
glut
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| n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽 | |
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33
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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34
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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35
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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36
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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37
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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39
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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40
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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