Corin, from the depths of one armchair, regarded John in the depths of another.
“For sheer, racy, brilliant conversation commend me to you,” he remarked sarcastically1. “For the last hour at least—I’ve had my eye on the clock—you’ve uttered no single word. You’ve rivalled the immortal2 William’s lover in your sighs. Talk of a furnace, it’s like ten furnaces you’ve been. Sigh, sigh, and again sigh. What’s the matter with you, man? Is it love, sorrow, or remorse3 for an ill-spent youth? Come, out with it. Disburden your soul of the worm i’ the bud which is feeding on your damask cheek. Speak, I implore4 you.”
John roused himself.
“Oh,” he responded airily enough, “in the matter of conversation I fancied we’d had enough [Pg 86]of it at dinner—supper—whatever the original, but wholly appetizing meal might be called. We conversed5 pretty tolerably, I fancy.”
“Conversation!” Corin’s voice expressed a depth of utter scorn. “Conversation! If that’s what he calls the airy, frothy, soap-bubble words which fell from his lips! Oh, you didn’t deceive me. I saw in them the mere6 cloak to an aching heart. You just over-did the lighthearted careless rôle. You’ve said fifty times more in the last hour. But now I want the translation, the interpretation7. Where’s the use of first frivolling, and then glooming? Strike the happy medium. Come, consider me a confidant,” he ended on a note of coaxing8.
John laughed. Then he relapsed into gloom, frowning.
“It’s no laughing matter,” he said.
“It wasn’t I who laughed,” urged Corin gently. “Come, tell me.”
“Oh, well,” said John stretching out his legs. And forthwith he set himself to speak, succinctly9, concisely10.
“Bless the man!” cried Corin at the end of the recital11, “so it’s that that’s weighing on his mind.”
[Pg 87]
“Well?” demanded John surprised, and not a little injured. “And isn’t it enough to weigh on a man’s mind? Isn’t it an entirely12 unparalleled situation? Isn’t it an unthinkable, inconceivable situation?”
Corin waved his cigarette in the air.
“Oh, I’ll grant you all that. But you’re too susceptible13. You’re too—too ultra-sympathetic. It isn’t your Castle. It isn’t your relation that has appeared unwanted from the other side of Nowhere. It isn’t you who have got to take a back seat and see Americans vault14 over your head into the position you have just vacated.” He stopped.
Corin sighed.
“It’s the only sensible way.”
“Hang sense,” muttered John.
“My dear fellow,” urged Corin soothingly16, “look at matters in a reasonable light. Here are you sighing, frowning, suffering real mental pain on behalf of a family—a quite picturesque17 and interesting family, I’ve no doubt, but one with which you have the barest bowing acquaintance,[Pg 88] the merest superficial knowledge. Your attitude isn’t reasonable, it’s altogether exaggerated and beside the mark.”
“It’s merely ordinary decent human sympathy,” retorted John.
“Then,” he remarked coolly, “defend me from your company when you are suffering from extraordinary human sympathy. Seriously, though,” he went on, “aren’t you being a trifle exalté in the matter? Aren’t you plunging19 the sword of sympathy a bit too deeply into your heart? For a moment—just for one brief infinitesimal moment—consider facts as they are. Here are we two, dropped by the merest chance upon this place, fallen upon it by the merest freak of fortune—three weeks ago I’d never even heard of its existence—and we’ve really no more individual connection with it than with—with Mount Popocatepetl. What possible reason, or, I might say, what right or justification20, has either one of us to take to heart the private and personal trials of a family living here. It’s—it’s almost an impertinence. We aren’t in the picture at all. We’re [Pg 89]altogether superfluous21 to them. Look at the whole thing from the point of view of an audience,” continued Corin blandly22. “A month or two hence the curtain will have fallen on this little drama, as far as we are concerned. We aren’t on the stage at all.”
John smiled, a little grim smile, provoked, no doubt, by the eminent23 common-sense of Corin’s statement.
“You have a really wonderfully level way of regarding matters,” he remarked.
“Isn’t it common-sense?” demanded Corin.
“Oh, yes, it’s common-sense right enough,” conceded John airily.
“You see,” continued Corin, secretly immensely pleased with what he considered the success of his theorems, “you see it is absolutely and entirely impossible for us as individuals to take to heart, deeply to heart, each individual grief of each individual person in the world. Consider, man, if one did, every perusal24 of the daily papers would be fraught25 with soul-agonizings, with horrible heart-burnings. It would become a sheer wasting of the nervous tissues, an utter and entire uneconomic expenditure26 of the sympathies. Also,” concluded[Pg 90] Corin, speaking now at top speed, “though you, in your isolated27 superiority of an orthodox religion, refuse to admit my theories, it is nevertheless a fact that all suffering is the outcome of justice, in a word, of karma, the inevitable28 demand for the payment of those debts which every individual has at one time or another voluntarily contracted.”
John grinned.
“I’ve heard that theory of yours before,” he remarked.
“Oh, I know your didymusical tendencies,” retorted Corin.
John laughed.
“I should have supposed,” quoth he, “that the shoe fitted another foot.”
But in his heart he was considering three points—three questions raised by a previous speech in the foregoing conversation. Firstly, was it a mere freak of fortune that had brought him to Malford? Secondly29, would the curtain presently fall on the drama so far as he was concerned? Thirdly, had Father Maloney considered his palpable sympathy in the business an impertinence?
[Pg 91]
To firstly and secondly his heart cried an emphatic30 negative. Thirdly, after all, was a minor31 consideration; but, having in mind Father Maloney’s shrewd old eyes, John was disposed to answer that question likewise in the negative.
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1
sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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2
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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4
implore
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| vt.乞求，恳求，哀求 | |
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5
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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6
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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7
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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8
coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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9
succinctly
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| adv.简洁地；简洁地，简便地 | |
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10
concisely
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| adv.简明地 | |
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11
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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12
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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13
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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14
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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15
frigidly
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| adv.寒冷地；冷漠地；冷淡地；呆板地 | |
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16
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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17
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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18
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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19
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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20
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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21
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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22
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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25
fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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29
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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30
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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31
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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