CHAPTER XXII THE WONDERFUL WOMAN

But underneath¹ the wonderfulness there was a heartache. You can hardly expect it to have been otherwise; and, for my part, I would not have had it otherwise. She wouldn’t have been one quarter the adorable old lady she was, if there hadn’t been that heartache.

 

If, from some lofty and ascetic² perch³, she could have calmly contemplated⁴ her approaching departure from Delancey Castle with never a tremor⁵, with never a soul-stabbing, then, very assuredly, she would have been one of a genus of human beings that I would find it in vain to attempt to comprehend. It is through the very humanity of the saints that one feels their lovableness. They felt intensely; they had their loves and their hates, their likes and their dislikes, their joys and their sorrows; they were living, sensitive, human creatures, not masses of granite⁶, nor insensible [Pg 163]lumps of putty. And it wasn’t one atom because they didn’t care for happiness and pleasure, and possibly even for luxury, that they became saints, but just because they did care, and caring gave all these things as a free and generous gift to God.

 

Of course you know this every bit as well as I do, but I like to remind myself of it every now and then. And sometimes God may have given them back their own actual gifts to Him, even while they were still on earth,—gifts refined, transmuted⁷ by some wonderful purifying process in His hands. But most often it would seem that He gave them another gift in exchange,—that wonderful gift, Sorrow, of which only a saint can see the true beauty. Yet always He gave them back in full and overflowing⁸ measure one gift that must of necessity have been offered with the other gifts,—the gift of love towards Him.

 

I don’t mean to infer from this that Lady Mary was a saint. That would be a matter on which I naturally should not venture to express an opinion. One leaves such decisions to God and the Holy Fathers. But she was very assuredly a wonderful woman, as Father Maloney had remarked.

 

[Pg 164]

 

If her heart was old in years, it was young in immortal⁹ youth. She revelled¹⁰ in the sunshine, she revelled in happiness; I am not sure that she didn’t bask¹¹ in it. I fancy there would be little real gratitude¹² if we accepted these gifts timorously¹⁴, fearing lest their removal should follow quickly. To my thinking, the truest gratitude, the fullest trust, is to accept them with whole-hearted enjoyment¹⁵, to say a real “thank You” for the loan, when the time comes that God asks us to give it back again. Naturally our manners would be as disagreeable as those of a badly brought-up child if we clung to the gift lent us till it had to be taken from us by force. The first hint is sufficient for a nicely brought-up child. But never be grudging¹⁶ or timorous¹³ of enjoyment during such time as the happiness is lent.

 

Truly I believe this was Lady Mary’s attitude. Now, of course, there was a big sense of loss, a pretty heavy heartache, and even the tiniest question, Why? At the first, I don’t think that she had realized that the happiness had been merely a loan. She had looked upon it as hers by right. There’s the danger with prolonged loans. You begin to forget that they aren’t actually yours. [Pg 165]But, if she had forgotten, it was only for a moment; and now, in spite of the heartache, her “thank You” was genuinely spoken.

 

Lady Mary was sitting by a window facing towards the sea. It shone pearly iridescent¹⁷, in the evening light. The sky beyond reflected the glory of the sunset; grey near the water, it merged¹⁸ upwards¹⁹ into soft rose-colour, and thence to blue-green. The earth was bathed in soft, glowing light.

 

Only the faintest whisper of air came through the open window,—a faint, cool sigh of relief after the heat of the day. Below, in the garden, were golden splotches of colour—beds of great African marigolds, a vivid contrast to the cool green of the close-dipped grass. Through the silence came the musical dripping of a fountain.

 

Overhead a door opened. She heard a child’s voice, and then a little burst of laughter. Again there was silence. And slowly the rose-colour faded in the sky, till only a pale lavender-grey haze²⁰ covered land and water.

 

The gold of the marigolds became softly blurred²¹; the green of the grass lost its colour.

 

A little haunting melody came suddenly into her [Pg 166]mind,—one she had often played in childhood. It was a melody by Heller. There is a footnote at the bottom of the page on which it is written, which designates it “Twilight,” or “Le crépuscule.” The latter word came into her mind at the moment. It held greater significance to her than the English word. It represented more clearly the onward²² stealing of the grey shadows, the soft sweet evening sadness, the slow passing of the day’s glory.

 

And then, once more, overhead a door opened. There was a pattering of footsteps along the corridor, a child’s voice, clear, demanding:

 

“Granny, prayers!”

 

Lady Mary got up from her chair. If there was something of the evening shadows in her eyes, I fancy there was also the aftermath of the sunset’s glory.

 

“Tomorrow I must tell Antony,” she said.

 

1 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

2 ascetic   

adj.禁欲的；严肃的

参考例句：

• The hermit followed an ascetic life-style.这个隐士过的是苦行生活。
• This is achieved by strict celibacy and ascetic practices.这要通过严厉的独身生活和禁欲修行而达到。

3 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

4 contemplated   

adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The doctor contemplated the difficult operation he had to perform. 医生仔细地考虑他所要做的棘手的手术。
• The government has contemplated reforming the entire tax system. 政府打算改革整个税收体制。

5 tremor   

n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震

参考例句：

• There was a slight tremor in his voice.他的声音有点颤抖。
• A slight earth tremor was felt in California.加利福尼亚发生了轻微的地震。

6 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

7 transmuted   

v.使变形，使变质，把…变成…( transmute的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was once thought that lead could be transmuted into gold. 有人曾经认为铅可以变成黄金。
• They transmuted the raw materials into finished products. 他们把原料变为成品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

9 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

10 revelled   

v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉

参考例句：

• The foreign guests revelled in the scenery of the lake. 外宾们十分喜爱湖上的景色。 来自辞典例句
• He revelled in those moments of idleness stolen from his work. 他喜爱学习之余的闲暇时刻。 来自辞典例句

11 bask   

vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于

参考例句：

• Turtles like to bask in the sun.海龟喜欢曝于阳光中。
• In winter afternoons,he likes to bask in the sun in his courtyard.冬日的午后，他喜欢坐在院子晒太阳。

12 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

13 timorous   

adj.胆怯的，胆小的

参考例句：

• She is as timorous as a rabbit.她胆小得像只兔子。
• The timorous rabbit ran away.那只胆小的兔子跑开了。

14 timorously   

adv.胆怯地，羞怯地

参考例句：

• Prissy climbed reluctantly from the wagon with many groans and timorously followed Scarlett up the avenue. 百里茜很不情愿从马车上爬下来，一路嘟囔，跟着思嘉胆怯地向那条林荫道走去。 来自飘（部分）

15 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

16 grudging   

adj.勉强的，吝啬的

参考例句：

• He felt a grudging respect for her talents as an organizer.他勉强地对她的组织才能表示尊重。
• After a pause he added"sir."in a dilatory,grudging way.停了一会他才慢吞吞地、勉勉强强地加了一声“先生”。

17 iridescent   

adj.彩虹色的，闪色的

参考例句：

• The iridescent bubbles were beautiful.这些闪着彩虹般颜色的大气泡很美。
• Male peacocks display their iridescent feathers for prospective female mates.雄性孔雀为了吸引雌性伴侣而展现了他们彩虹色的羽毛。

18 merged   

（使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中

参考例句：

• Turf wars are inevitable when two departments are merged. 两个部门合并时总免不了争争权限。
• The small shops were merged into a large market. 那些小商店合并成为一个大商场。

19 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

20 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

21 blurred   

v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离

参考例句：

• She suffered from dizziness and blurred vision. 她饱受头晕目眩之苦。
• Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears. 他们那种慢吞吞、含糊不清的声音在他听起来却很悦耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 onward   

adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先

参考例句：

• The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
• He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。