BETWEEN two vases that overflowed1 with scarlet2 geraniums, the worn stone steps of the inn-yard descended3 directly upon a gravel4 path in the old garden. The path—flanked on either side by tall hedges—wound completely around the garden and through the centre, in a kind of true lovers’ knot, in the loops of which were all old-fashioned flowers; pale tea roses—the last of September’s bloom—and mignonette; pansies and rosemary grew there, and the blue of larkspur. Only a few windows looked out upon it, and it was a secluded5 spot where the sun shone and the pigeons flocked. So still was it, in the farther corners, that there was scarcely a sound but the soft “kourre, kourre!” of the feathered visitors.
Here Lady Betty walked slowly, her hands behind her, her head a little on one side, as she talked to Clancarty, whom she still knew only[Pg 130] as Richard Trevor. She was dressed in white, a bunch of red flowers at her belt and red plumes6 in her hat, and either its broad brim or her mood cast a shadow in her eyes. They were softer, more pensive7, and less sparkling than usual.
“I was only eleven years old, sir,” she said, “a mere8 baby, and I have never seen Lord Clancarty since. How should I know how he looks? Is not my curiosity pardonable? Pray, Mr. Trevor, describe him.”
Her companion had been watching her keenly and now he smiled.
“I’m poor at descriptions, my lady,” he said calmly, “but take my word for it, Clancarty’s a handsome man.”
“About your height, sir?” asked Lady Betty, casting a quizzical, sidelong glance at him.
He took time to consider. “Very nearly, I should think, Lady Clancarty,” he said, “and straight as an arrow—with a good head and keen eyes, a fine nose, a firm chin—oh, a very handsome rascal9, madam, and quite unworthy of you.”
“Indeed,” said Betty, amused; “you take the side, then, of my family; they too believe him unworthy.”
[Pg 131]“He is unworthy, madam,” said the disguised nobleman gravely, “he is unworthy; but, in spite of that, I can’t advise you to cast him off. But for his skill as a swordsman I should have lost my life; I am therefore, of necessity, his true vassal10, Lady Clancarty, and I must plead his cause.”
“No one can plead it, sir,” she said sharply, “he should plead it himself.”
“He should indeed, madam,” he said earnestly, “but how? Many things keep back a proscribed12 exile and a beggar. How can he plead his cause with the heiress of an earl, a beautiful and gifted and wealthy woman? What can he offer her? A life of exile, poverty, and obscurity? My Lady Clancarty, any proud man might well pause.”
But Betty’s chin was elevated, her eyes scornful.
“The pride is, of course, all on his side, sir,” she said coolly; “there is naught13 to be said for her. How, think you, does a woman feel who is deserted14 by her husband? Ay, more, who is unacknowledged by him—unclaimed!”
He started and looked at her earnestly.
[Pg 132]“You are right, madam,” he said, “it is a grievous fault. I despise my Lord Clancarty for it, but I know that the day will come when he will sue for your forgiveness with all his heart. And he has never known you. He has been in battles, in sieges, in exile, in poverty, in illness, and he was but a lad when you were wedded15. My lady, I can say no more, even for him; I would fain say it for myself—but for him.”
She flashed a startled, wondering look at him; her heart stood still—after all, was he? was he not? She did not know, but his eyes held her; she blushed, palpitated, shrank like a mere child. From the first, she had thought this man her husband, but now—? An awful doubt shook her soul. Could it be that he was not? She put out her hands with a strange gesture as though she would hold him off.
“’Tis fourteen years, sir,” she said, “and he has never written me one word—or to my family for me.”
“That is not true,” he replied gravely; “I know, from Lord Clancarty’s own lips, that he has written to your father within a short time, ay, madam, twice since the Peace of Ryswick.”
“Ah,” said Lady Betty, for a light broke in upon her, and she thought of the tall old[Pg 133] man walking in the gallery at Althorpe, “I never knew it,” she added quietly, “my whole family opposes any mention of—of my husband.”
She pronounced the word with a soft adorable hesitation16, blushing rosily17 up to her very ears, and his eyes glowed as he looked at her. They turned a loop of the gravel walk and passed Melissa, who huddled18 against the hedge, courtesying low. Betty scarcely glanced at her.
“Then there is no one to plead my friend’s cause but your own heart, Lady Clancarty,” he said quietly, “your own heart and the tie that must plead for itself a little. I have no eloquence19 to match the occasion, willingly as I serve my benefactor20.”
“I tell you plainly, sir,” she retorted, “that I will hear only one suit, and that is from him; nor will I, mark you, promise to hear that favorably. Love, sir, is not cold and a laggard21 and full of excuses. If I am worth having I am worth winning.”
“Madam, I am constrained22 to tell the truth,” he said in a tone of deep emotion; “I believe that Lord Clancarty would die to win you.”
“Die, sir,” she said archly, “rather live. Dead he could not win me.”
[Pg 134]“Ay, and ’twould be the bitterness of death to lose you,” he said; “’tis so—even to think of it!”
The break in his words made her heart beat fast, but she was mistress of herself now.
“Especially after fourteen years of absence,” she mocked wickedly.
“Fourteen years in purgatory23, madam,” he replied, his tone full of pathos24, of powerful emotion under restraint; “and when the poor exile sees at last the gates of paradise!—ah, my lady, you will not close them in his face?”
She bowed her head a little, looking pensively25 at the ground. A thousand emotions swept across her charming face. Then she looked up, her eyes dancing with mischief,—arch, naughty, daring.
“A singular paradise for my Lord Clancarty,” she said, “a paradise with a Whiggish Protestant wife in it, and a Whiggish Protestant mother-in-law, and the greatest Whig in England for a brother-in-law. Sir, I need enumerate26 no more.”
The Irishman laughed a little bitterly.
“Madam,” he said, with daring tenderness in his tone, “you know not what love is! Who would count the cost—who loved? By all the saints, my lady, love burns away both[Pg 135] politics and creeds27; death itself is beaten by it—and hell! Ah, to teach you how to love. ’Twould be worth purgatory!” his gray eyes flashed, his strong face set itself sternly.
Lady Betty looking at him drew her breath hard; she was almost frightened. Here was a nature she could not conquer and she could not scorn. She bit her lip and looked steadily28 away, her heart beating in her throat.
“If Lord Clancarty came here,” he said after a moment, in a constrained voice, “would you see him? would you listen to him?”
She hesitated; she no longer believed that this man might be her husband; he had succeeded in misleading her, and her whole soul was tossing and burning in the fire of a new and passionate29 emotion, but she tried to think.
His eyes darkened and his face changed; she could not read it. They had come back to the old stone steps. At the top appeared Lady Sunderland and Lady Dacres, too far off as yet to be heard.
“He shall come, then, my lady,” he said very low, looking straight into her eyes, “he shall come—if he dies for it.”
[Pg 136]Lady Betty’s face was as white as her gown, and her fingers trembled as she swept her skirts aside on either hand and courtesied gracefully31.
“I bid you adieu, sir,” she said, and walked up the steps just as Lady Sunderland called out sharply,—
“Betty, Betty, come and take tea with us, my love, and teach Lady Dacres that old game of ‘Angel Beast’; she hath forgotten it. La, how white you are, my dear; a touch of rouge32 and a patch—you look like a ghost.”
“I am, madam,” said Lady Betty.
“Alice,” she said, “hast ever heard the legend of King Arthur?”
The poor handmaid yawned.
“Nay, madam,” she replied sleepily, “who was he?”
“A king of long ago, Alice,” Lady Betty explained, “I have heard the legend from my old Welsh nurse, and part of it relates to his wife, his queen. She was very beautiful, and she had never seen the king when the marriage was arranged.”
“Oh, mercy on us, madam!” exclaimed[Pg 137] Alice, “and she didn’t know what he looked like?”
“Not at all,” declared her mistress, “and she set out with all her maidens35 to go to his kingdom to be married—”
“Indeed, my lady, couldn’t he come for her—like a decent civil gentleman?” asked Alice rousing up.
“No, no, he couldn’t come,” said Lady Clancarty, “but he sent his best friend, a brave and noble knight36, to meet her, and she—she thought he was the king in disguise and—and she fell in love with him, and when she found out her mistake, and that the king was wholly unlike this knight, she couldn’t love her husband—she loved instead his friend.”
“My goodness, Lady Betty, how improper37!” said Alice horrified38, “his friend was a false man—and no true knight!”
Lady Betty had been sitting on the edge of Alice’s bed but she rose now and stood quite still, her white figure showing in the darkness.
“But, Alice, she was so beautiful, so fascinating—he couldn’t help it, he loved her!”
“He could help it,” said Alice stoutly39, “he stole her love from her husband! He could help it, just as a man can help stealing a horse.”
“And the queen?” she said faintly.
“She was a very wicked woman, madam,” declared the moralist, shaking up her pillows vigorously. “They do say that King Charles had an awful court; perhaps it was the fashion.”
“Perhaps it was,” admitted Lady Betty, and crept softly back to bed and wept salt tears in solitude41.
点击收听单词发音
1 overflowed | |
溢出的 | |
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2 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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3 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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4 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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5 secluded | |
adj.与世隔绝的;隐退的;偏僻的v.使隔开,使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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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 | |
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7 pensive | |
a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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8 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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9 rascal | |
n.流氓;不诚实的人 | |
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10 vassal | |
n.附庸的;属下;adj.奴仆的 | |
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11 petulant | |
adj.性急的,暴躁的 | |
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12 proscribed | |
v.正式宣布(某事物)有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13 naught | |
n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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14 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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15 wedded | |
adj.正式结婚的;渴望…的,执著于…的v.嫁,娶,(与…)结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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17 rosily | |
adv.带玫瑰色地,乐观地 | |
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18 huddled | |
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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19 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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20 benefactor | |
n. 恩人,行善的人,捐助人 | |
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21 laggard | |
n.落后者;adj.缓慢的,落后的 | |
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22 constrained | |
adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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23 purgatory | |
n.炼狱;苦难;adj.净化的,清洗的 | |
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24 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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25 pensively | |
adv.沉思地,焦虑地 | |
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26 enumerate | |
v.列举,计算,枚举,数 | |
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27 creeds | |
(尤指宗教)信条,教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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28 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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29 passionate | |
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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30 defiantly | |
adv.挑战地,大胆对抗地 | |
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31 gracefully | |
ad.大大方方地;优美地 | |
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32 rouge | |
n.胭脂,口红唇膏;v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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33 dames | |
n.(在英国)夫人(一种封号),夫人(爵士妻子的称号)( dame的名词复数 );女人 | |
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34 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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35 maidens | |
处女( maiden的名词复数 ); 少女; 未婚女子; (板球运动)未得分的一轮投球 | |
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36 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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37 improper | |
adj.不适当的,不合适的,不正确的,不合礼仪的 | |
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38 horrified | |
a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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39 stoutly | |
adv.牢固地,粗壮的 | |
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40 gasp | |
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
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41 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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