The lilac had fallen and the roses were in bloom when Jeffray took a stately and affectionate leave of the Lady Letitia, and journeyed back to Rodenham with Peter Gladden in his coach and four. The dowager had appeared sincerely sorry at Richard’s departure. He had refused to permit her to repay him the two hundred guineas that she had borrowed at Rodenham; moreover, he had made the old lady several handsome presents, lace and jewelry1 being still acceptable to the belle2 of seventy. Day by day the Lady Letitia diligently3 applauded Jeffray’s strengthening spirit of revolt, trumpeting4 in his ears the preposterous5 insolence6 of Mr. Lancelot’s contempt, and bidding him work out his own salvation7. Her only regret appeared to have been that Richard had refused her the joy of choosing him a wife.
Dick Wilson remarked the change in Jeffray when they walked in the garden on the evening of his return. The man’s face and figure appeared to have gained alertness and decision. There was a new suppleness8 and grace about his carriage that contrasted with the half-slouching and dreamy melancholy9 that had burdened him before. His eyes were keen and alive to the things about him. He carried his head high, and spoke10 with more decision than of old.
“I must confess, sir,” said the painter, frankly11, “that the air of Tunbridge seems to have suited you.”
Jeffray smiled as they paced the terrace side by side.
“I have been taking fencing lessons, Dick,” he said.
“Fencing lessons, sir?”
“From D’Aiglan, the Frenchman. He has done me a great deal of good. I am ready for any emergency.”
“I always thought that you were a man of peace, sir,” he said.
Jeffray laughed rather grimly, and, drawing Wilson away into the yew16 walk, told him briefly17 the whole tenor18 of his love affair with Miss Hardacre. He was beginning to learn that truth and the sword are much akin12, and that brave candor19 is often more magical than sentimental20 secretiveness. Wilson, much astonished, plodded21 to and fro at Jeffray’s side, fingering his chin and emitting an expressive14 interjection from time to time. He was a broad-minded student of the world’s whims22 and weaknesses, and his sympathies were wholly with Jeffray in the matter.
“What are you going to do, sir?” he asked at last.
“Tell the truth as kindly23 as I can, Dick, and defy this fire-eating cousin of mine. I have no intention of financing the family by marrying the daughter.”
“You have made up your mind, eh?”
Wilson brushed the tobacco ash and snuff from his waistcoat, whistled a few lines of a favorite ditty, and then laid his hand on Jeffray’s shoulder.
“I think you are right, sir,” he said.
“Thanks, Dick, thanks.”
“There is too much damned trafficking in matrimony in this world. I shall never forget old Hogarth’s preaching. Unless God and the heart are in the thing, the bond is but a pledge to the devil.”
Jeffray looked Wilson straight in the eyes.
“I am glad to hear you speak like this, Dick,” he said; “it strengthens me.”
“And I am glad, sir,” quoth the painter, “that you are one of the few people who can tell the truth.”
Meanwhile Bess had been watching and waiting in Pevensel for Jeffray’s return, eager to show him the brooch that Dan had given her—a cross within a circle of gold studded with emeralds. The brooch had proved to her that her memories of the past were not mere26 dreams begotten27 out of restless fancy of childhood. Perhaps old Ursula was not her aunt, and perhaps Dan and the forest-folk had no blood communion with her, as she had been taught to believe. Once she showed the brooch to Ursula, watching the old woman’s wrinkled face keenly the while. The crone had peered at it with some uneasiness, working her toothless mouth and fidgeting at her apron-strings with her fingers. She had asked Bess how she had come by the bauble28, and, being told that it was Dan’s present, she had held up her hands, turned her back on the girl, and refused to utter another word on the matter. Ursula’s attitude puzzled Bess. She went solemn-eyed through the early days of June, thinking of Jeffray and the past, and wondering what would happen in the future.
Twice she had quarrelled fiercely with Dan since he had given her the brooch, and it was only by grappling her passions down that she could keep her hands from shedding blood. Silence and an attitude of meek29 submission30 went sorely against the temper of her soul. It was only the dire31 necessity for dissimulation32 that held her quiet under her husband’s bullyings. For bully33 her he did after the fashion of a great, clumsy savage34, proud of his own huge strength and the prerogatives35 thereof. It pleased the oaf to fancy that he was taming Bess as he would have tamed a bad-tempered36 filly; that he was breaking her spirit, and fastening his bondage37 upon her with the masterful complacency of a lord and a possessor. Like a great ape he would grin and mock her, tweak her hair, pinch her arms, twit her with his triumph, and gloat over the passivity that seemed to flatter his strength. Now and again Bess’s anger would blaze up in hot revolt, a passion-play that lent a charm to the brute38 pride of conquest. He believed that he had tamed and subdued39 the girl, not suspecting that he was only stacking the pent-up fire within her heart.
It was not till Jeffray had ridden on three successive evenings to the yew valley that Bess was able to slip away from the hamlet to meet him. It was a still evening in June, the grass knee-deep in the golden meadows, the scent40 of the white may heavy on the air. The voices of the birds alone broke the deep silence of the summer woods. The black spires41 of the yews42 and their massive limbs were streaked43 and eyeleted with the flooding gold of the western sky.
Jeffray came first to the trysting-place, feeling like a man who has drunk a bumper44 of sparkling wine. He tethered his horse deep in one of the thickets45, and went and stood in the entry of the Hermit’s Cave, a rough chamber46 cut in the rock, with a low doorway47 and a mere slit48 of a window. The air was damp, pungent49, and refreshing50. Below lay the pool covered with white water-weed, where the old recluse51 of yore had drawn52 his water and kept his fish. There was still the outline of a cross cut in the wall of the chamber, and a broken bench of stone jutted53 out beneath the window.
Richard straightened suddenly as he leaned against the rough jamb of the doorway, and stood listening with a smile hovering54 about his mouth. Some one was singing in the yew wood—an old country song, simple and full of pathos55. The mellow56 and half-husky voice rose and fell amid the shadows of the trees.
Soon he saw her coming down the path, the gnarled and rugged57 trunks and spreading boughs58 building a sun-splashed colonnade59 towards the pool. Jeffray went down through the tall grass and met the girl at the edge of the wood.
They did not touch each other’s hands, but stood quite close together, smiling shyly like a pair of children. Neither seemed to have a single word to say for the moment. It was all silent intuition with them, a glance, a sense of nearness, a rush of blood to the face. They turned and walked towards the great stone by the pool. Bess sat down there. Richard found himself beside her, a foot of the bare rock between them.
The girl’s eyes were searching his face.
“You look quite brown and strong,” she said.
“Yes, I am strong again,” he answered her.
“Have you ridden here—before?”
“The two past evenings. I had a feeling that I should find you to-night.”
“Dan went out into the woods, and so—I came.”
They sat in silence a moment, looking at each other, and hearing no sound save the occasional plash of a fish leaping in the pool. Bess’s fingers were feeling for the brooch at her bosom60. She unpinned it, and, holding it in her palm, held it out to Jeffray with a smile.
“Dan has given me this,” she said.
Their fingers touched and lingered an instant in the contact.
“It is the brooch I remember—”
“Yes—”
“At the tall lady’s throat who was near me when I was a little child.”
Jeffray, who was staring at the thing, glanced up suddenly into Bess’s face. A look of mute inquiry61, of significant sympathy, flashed between them.
“How did the brooch come to Dan?” asked the man.
“I do not know.”
“Strange. Perhaps—”
“Dan went out one night, and gave me this in the morning. Where it came from I cannot tell, unless Isaac, his father, gave it him.”
Jeffray sat in thought, balancing the brooch in his palm, and gazing out over the still waters of the pool. Bess watched him, her hands resting on the stone, her brown forearms bare to the elbow.
“Bess,” he said to her at last.
She swayed slightly towards him, her eyes on his.
“Can you discover how Dan came by the brooch?”
She frowned, and her mouth hardened; it was not in her heart to seek anything from Dan.
“I will not ask anything from him,” she said.
“Why not, Bess?”
“Because I hate him, hate him night and day.”
Richard looked at her almost wistfully.
“Yet you may learn something of your past from him,” he said.
“Yes—”
“You may be no Grimshaw, Bess; you look to have finer blood in you than theirs.”
Bess lifted her head as though some ennoblement would be very sweet to one who felt the shame of her present lot. Any such discovery would lift her nearer to Jeffray and lessen62 that gulf63 between them that was ever stretched before her pride.
“I will try,” she said at last—“try what I can learn from Dan. He is a great fool, though he is so strong.”
“And you do not love him any better?”
“Love Dan?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, is there any heart in me that I should love the brute! I have felt near killing64 him before now.”
Scarcely had this burst of passion spent itself in words when Bess’s face grew bleak65 and set. She held up a hand and sat listening, rigid66 yet alert. Jeffray could hear nothing, for his ears were less quick to the sounds of the forest than the girl’s. Only by the look of strained intentness on her face could he tell that she caught sounds that did not reach his hearing.
“What is it?” he asked her, in a whisper.
“I hear a dog panting in the wood.”
“Ah!”
“Where is your horse?”
“Well out of sight of the path.”
“Good. Listen to that!”
The rapid sound of some brute beast’s breathing drew near out of the silence of the wood. Even Jeffray could hear it as he sat with his eyes fixed67 on Bess’s face. Then a whistle shrilled68 out from the darkness of the trees, seeming to make the still air quiver. It was Dan’s whistle, and the panting was the panting of his dog.
Quick as thought Bess started up, beckoned69 to Jeffray, and ran through the grass towards the hermitage. The man followed her, glancing back over his shoulder at the impenetrable shadows of the yews. Bess sprang in up the low steps of the doorway, seized Richard’s wrist as he entered after her, and, with her face close to his, spoke in a whisper.
“It is Dan, curse him!”
“He may not see us.”
“The devil must have put it into the fool’s head to come this way.”
“Shall I slip out and leave you?”
Bess understood the spirit that prompted him, and that it was not cowardice70 that inspired the question. They were still very close to each other, Bess’s stray side curls brushing Jeffray’s cheek.
“Stay with me,” she said.
“Bess!”
“Stay.”
“I will.”
She flashed a wonderful look at him of a sudden and tightened71 her fingers for one moment about his wrist. Jeffray colored as he drew his sword and watched Bess move towards the window. Stepping back to where the inner wall of the room lay in deep shadow, he heard the panting of the dog and the rasp of Dan’s gruff voice as he called the brute to heel.
Bess drew back from the window and came gliding72 along the wall towards Jeffray. He understood that she had caught a glimpse of Dan or of the dog, and that their one hope was that the man might pass by and keep the spaniel at his heel. Bess drew close to Jeffray and leaned back against the wall where the darkness lay. Their hands touched and held each other. A strong thrill passed up Jeffray’s arm. He could feel the warmth of Bess’s body as she half leaned against him. She was holding her breath and watching the stretch of sward that showed through the doorway.
Again they heard Dan calling to the dog. He was passing by the pool, and they could catch his heavy foot-falls on the grass. The footsteps ceased of a sudden, and they could hear the panting of the dog quite near. Jeffray felt the pressure of Bess’s fingers. They looked into each other’s eyes—one long look that seemed to challenge fate.
Dan’s harsh hail rang out again.
“Heel, Doll, heel—you bitch!”
The spaniel whimpered wistfully. They heard her move through the long grass, splash through the shallows of the pool, the sound of her breathing growing less and less. They saw Dan go striding past the doorway, his gun over his shoulder, a hare dangling73 by the legs from his left hand. In a flash he was gone, the black spaniel padding at his heels and looking back restlessly from time to time.
Bess gave a great sigh and leaned heavily against Jeffray. Somehow the man’s arm had crept round her, and he felt the full ebb74 and flow of her breath. The warmth of her body seemed to steal into him with a sense of nearness and of contact. Her head was half resting on his shoulder, her hair brushing his cheek.
“Bess.”
She turned her head and looked up at him, half wearily, yet with a tired tenderness. Her eyes seemed doubly bright in the cool darkness of the place.
“He has gone.”
“Thank God.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
jewelry
|
|
| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
belle
|
|
| n.靓女 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
diligently
|
|
| ad.industriously;carefully | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
trumpeting
|
|
| 大声说出或宣告（trumpet的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
preposterous
|
|
| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
insolence
|
|
| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
salvation
|
|
| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
suppleness
|
|
| 柔软； 灵活； 易弯曲； 顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
akin
|
|
| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
expressive
|
|
| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
expressively
|
|
| ad.表示(某事物)地；表达地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
yew
|
|
| n.紫杉属树木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tenor
|
|
| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
candor
|
|
| n.坦白，率真 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
plodded
|
|
| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
WHIMS
|
|
| 虚妄，禅病 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
contemplating
|
|
| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
hypocrisy
|
|
| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
begotten
|
|
| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
bauble
|
|
| n.美观而无价值的饰物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
meek
|
|
| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
submission
|
|
| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
dire
|
|
| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
dissimulation
|
|
| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
bully
|
|
| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
prerogatives
|
|
| n.权利( prerogative的名词复数 )；特权；大主教法庭；总督委任组成的法庭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
bad-tempered
|
|
| adj.脾气坏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
bondage
|
|
| n.奴役，束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
brute
|
|
| n.野兽，兽性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
subdued
|
|
| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
scent
|
|
| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
spires
|
|
| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
yews
|
|
| n.紫杉( yew的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
streaked
|
|
| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
bumper
|
|
| n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
thickets
|
|
| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
slit
|
|
| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
pungent
|
|
| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
refreshing
|
|
| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
recluse
|
|
| n.隐居者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
jutted
|
|
| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
pathos
|
|
| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
mellow
|
|
| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
boughs
|
|
| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
colonnade
|
|
| n.柱廊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
inquiry
|
|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
lessen
|
|
| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
bleak
|
|
| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
rigid
|
|
| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
shrilled
|
|
| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
beckoned
|
|
| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
cowardice
|
|
| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
tightened
|
|
| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
gliding
|
|
| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
dangling
|
|
| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
ebb
|
|
| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |