The rebel spirit is quickly astir when a man’s in love, and so it was with Jeffray after his sparring with Mr. Lot. That gentleman’s red-visaged and swaggering hauteur1 had irritated Richard not a little, and he was in no temper to be driven at the sword’s-point to the altar. Already he was waxing world-wise enough to recognize the truth that Mr. Lot was ready to presume upon his supposed timidity. The suspicion awoke a sense of resistance in Jeffray, an instinctive2 feeling of antagonism3 that was only human. Left to his own sensitive and generous impulses, he would probably have found no great difficulty in bringing himself before Miss Jilian’s feet. Her brother’s threatening interference checked the free flow of pity, and made Richard Jeffray recoil4 and consider the future for himself.
He was still in a fever about Bess, and unable to bear with any calmness the thought of her sacrifice to the lewd5 cunning of her cousin. Jeffray felt that his word had been pledged to the girl, pledged for her honor’s sake, and that he had failed through circumstance to keep his pledge. The bond was as real to him as his betrothal6 to Miss Hardacre, and far more real in the matter of romance. On the one hand, he recognized a perfunctory and half-pitying sense of duty; on the other, all the passionate7 chivalry8 that had lain latent till now within his heart.
Why should he not desire to befriend the girl in her trouble? Was there any dishonor in the desire, and need the world know how much tenderness must needs be locked and hidden in his heart? He would not make love to her or court her love in turn. And yet was it not possible that he might succor9 her in her distress10, comfort her, lighten her lot a little? He might even protect her from Dan’s brutality11, should that savage12 give him a reasonable and an honorable excuse. Bess was married. So far there was an impenetrable barrier between them. He could not break the gate of fate, but he might touch her hands between the bars.
Nothing was more natural, therefore, to such philosophy than that Jeffray should signalize his return to the saddle by a pilgrimage through Pevensel in quest of Bess. The brisk delight of a canter over the purpling moors13 was itself a joy to a man who had been three weeks abed. How the larks14 sang, and how the broom flashed and glittered in the wind! The cloud galleons15 bellied16 out their white sails over the crests17 of the downs. The diverse greens, checkering the landscape, seemed dusted with gold-dust by the daughters of the dawn. The day brought back to him the warm, romantic splendor18 of the south, the memory of Sicilian skies and the isles19 of Greece, a-dream in the blue Ægean.
Richard rode down to the weir-pool, and found no life there save a heron standing20 in the shallows, the bird rising on its heavy wings and flapping away above the trees. He crossed at the ford21 and rode in and out among the ruins, scanning the ivied windows and searching behind the crumbling22 piers23 that were bearded with ferns. No Bess was there, though the very grasses seemed to smell of the sweet woodland odor of her clothes. Jeffray came into the refectory that was rendered the more mysterious by her dream, but found no red flower blooming, no swarthy girl waiting to lift up her face to his.
He abandoned Holy Cross at last, but loitered at the pool a moment. The water lay like glass above the curling cornice that thundered down into the crackling foam24 below. The grass-land was ablaze25 with gold, deep, dewy, the grass-land of a dream. Jeffray was wondering within himself whether he should take the path that led up towards the hamlet, in the hope that Bess might be coming to the ruins. Crossing the ford again, he plunged26 upward into the woods, not guessing at the moment that his heart’s desire was very near.
It was at the winding27 down of the path into a little dell in the midst of a larch-wood that Richard, with a sudden leap of the heart, saw a streak28 of color coming amid the trees. The tall, stiff trunks crowded all around the dell that lay like a green bowl under the vaultings of the boughs30 above. Wild hyacinths spread a blue mist over the lush, green grass, and a few late wind-flowers were scattered31 like snow-flakes under the trees.
Jeffray had reined32 in instinctively33. Bess was coming down the path, walking with her head bowed down, breaking a dead bough29 in pieces between her hands. She wandered aimlessly from side to side, as though life had little purpose for her now. A red scarf covered her shoulders and was knotted over her bosom34, her brown neck bare, the black masses of her hair shining in the sunlight, an errant strand35 or two falling down each cheek.
Jeffray’s black mare36 tossed her head, the rattling37 of the bit and bridle38 causing Bess to start and look up rapidly. She had come to a place where the knotted roots of a fir ran across the path, the ground falling away on the farther side and making a species of rough dais. She stood motionless, leaning forward slightly, her eyes fixed39 on Jeffray with wondering steadfastness40. For a moment they looked at each other, with no sound to break the silence save the soughing of the wind in the tree-tops overhead.
Jeffray dismounted, left the mare loose, and went slowly towards Bess. Her eyes were still fixed steadily41 on his, yet she seemed to quail42 a little and grow pale as he drew near to her. Richard could see her trembling excitement, her hands opening and shutting spasmodically as she stood above him in all the swarthy splendor of her loveliness.
“Bess.”
She gave a sudden, low cry, twisted away from him, and, throwing her arms up against the trunk of the fir, leaned against it with her cheek against the rough, brittle43 bark. Jeffray’s hands fell limp to his sides. He stood looking at Bess helplessly, as though shocked and baffled by her deep distress, knowing not for the moment what to do or say.
It was not long before she seemed to master herself, and, falling aside from the trunk of the tree, turned a dull and almost sullen44 face to his.
“I did not think I should see you to-day,” she said, with monotonous45 steadiness.
Richard, hot and cold by turns, watched her earnestly.
“I came to try and find you, Bess,” he answered.
“Find me!”
There was an indescribable ring of self-scorn in her voice, though she carried her head more bravely and labored46 less with her breathing.
“Am I worth finding, Mr. Jeffray?”
“I have been much troubled for your sake, Bess.”
She flashed a wonderful look at him, her eyes lighting47 up like water in the sun. It was sympathy she needed, and the flow of a friend’s words.
“Ah, you are very good to me,” she said.
“I gave you a promise; I failed to keep it, and I am sorry.”
Jeffray stood like a man confessing his dishonor, for the girl’s self-shame had shaken him, and her eyes were fixed upon his face. She stepped down with sudden noiselessness and stood close to Jeffray, bending towards him a little.
“I know,” she said, hurriedly. “Yes, you were ill; you could not help me; it was no fault of yours. You would have helped me, yes; I know that, and—and I thank you.”
She hung her head again, and swung away from him with a look of miserable48 and overpowering shame. Her eyes were dull and tearless, her mouth bitter and very sullen. Jeffray stretched out his hand and touched her arm.
“Bess.”
“Bess, I can’t bear it, this misery50 of yours. I heard all after I saw you at Thorney Chapel51. They tricked you, Dan and Isaac together. It should have been otherwise had I not been in bed.”
A peculiar52 light kindled53 in the girl’s eyes. It seemed born of wonder, of incredulity, and some subtle and uprushing joy. Was her shame bitter, then, to this earnest-faced man, so bitter that it could make him stammer54, grow fierce, and look at her in a way that made her whole body tingle55? Warmth seemed to spread from her heart, up through her brown neck, through all her flesh till she felt alive to the eyes that gazed at hers.
“Mr. Richard—”
“Yes.”
She drooped56 a little towards him, her hands hanging passive, her lips growing full and tender again, her eyes losing all their thick and sullen thoughtfulness.
“I have been very miserable. I had one joy left to me—”
“Bess.”
“The hope that I might see—see you—again. Yes, every day, every day when I could escape from Dan, I have come down through the woods to Holy Cross.”
Jeffray was standing with his head thrown back, his eyes fixed on Bess’s face. She moved still nearer to him, speaking hurriedly, passionately57, as though afraid that he might stay her words.
“Yes, they took me away. I fought, but they were too strong for me. Dan had tried to bring me to shame, and I had run away—to you—to save me. And then, and then—you can see—you can understand—”
She threw up her arm with a great catching58 of her breath and covered her face. Jeffray, feeling like a man who has drunk of the wine of the immortals59, held out both his hands to her with a hoarse60 cry.
“Bess. Listen to me. Before God—I want to help you.”
She rocked to and fro a moment, then dropped her arm, and looked at him with an almost childish trust.
“I must see you again, see you—soon.”
“Where?”
“Not at Holy Cross, no, it is too near. There is the Hermit’s Rock in the yew61 valley—above Thorney Chapel—”
Jeffray had straightened up with the air of a man ready to march with a forlorn hope.
“I know it,” he said.
“It is a wild place. I can fool Dan. I will be patient.”
She seemed to be plotting it all with all the passionate and ready ardor62 of her heart. To Jeffray even this perilous63 and solemn complicity was very sweet. His reason appeared to have been heated to white heat and cooled again like a tempered sword to serve him.
She looked at him dearly, as though he held all the warmth and light that life could give.
“I will ride to the yew valley every evening—till—”
“Till?”
“You can come.”
A great sigh escaped her. She drooped her face nearer to his, her lips apart, her eyes shining.
“I shall come,” she said.
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1
hauteur
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| n.傲慢 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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lewd
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| adj.淫荡的 | |
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betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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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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chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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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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moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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galleons
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| n.大型帆船( galleon的名词复数 ) | |
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bellied
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| adj.有腹的，大肚子的 | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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18
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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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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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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24
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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26
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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27
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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28
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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29
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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31
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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32
reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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37
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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38
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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steadfastness
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| n.坚定，稳当 | |
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41
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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42
quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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43
brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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44
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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46
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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47
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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48
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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51
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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53
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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54
stammer
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| n.结巴，口吃；v.结结巴巴地说 | |
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55
tingle
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| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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56
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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immortals
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| 不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 )； 永生不朽者 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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yew
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| n.紫杉属树木 | |
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62
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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