Summer passed by. The Stirling clan—with the insignificant1 exception of Cousin Georgiana—had tacitly agreed to follow Uncle James’ example and look upon Valancy as one dead. To be sure, Valancy had an unquiet, ghostly habit of recurring2 resurrections when she and Barney clattered3 through Deerwood and out to the Port in that unspeakable car. Valancy, bareheaded, with stars in her eyes. Barney, bareheaded, smoking his pipe. But shaved. Always shaved now, if any of them had noticed it. They even had the audacity4 to go in to Uncle Benjamin’s store to buy groceries. Twice Uncle Benjamin ignored them. Was not Valancy one of the dead? While Snaith had never existed. But the third time he told Barney he was a scoundrel who should be hung for luring5 an unfortunate, weak-minded girl away from her home and friends.
Uncle Benjamin stared. It had never occurred to him that women had to be, or ought to be, “made happy.”
“You—you pup!” he said.
“Why be so unoriginal?” queried8 Barney amiably9. “Anybody could call me a pup. Why not think of something worthy10 of the Stirlings? Besides, I’m not a pup. I’m really quite a middle-aged11 dog. Thirty-five, if you’re interested in knowing.”
Uncle Benjamin remembered just in time that Valancy was dead. He turned his back on Barney.
Valancy was happy—gloriously and entirely12 so. She seemed to be living in a wonderful house of life and every day opened a new, mysterious room. It was in a world which had nothing in common with the one she had left behind—a world where time was not—which was young with immortal13 youth—where there was neither past nor future but only the present. She surrendered herself utterly14 to the charm of it.
The absolute freedom of it all was unbelievable. They could do exactly as they liked. No Mrs. Grundy. No traditions. No relatives. Or in-laws. “Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away,” as Barney quoted shamelessly.
Valancy had gone home once and got her cushions. And Cousin Georgiana had given her one of her famous candlewick spreads of most elaborate design. “For your spare-room bed, dear,” she said.
“But I haven’t got any spare-room,” said Valancy.
“But it’s a lovely spread,” said Valancy, with a kiss, “and I’m so glad to have it. I’ll put it on my own bed. Barney’s old patch-work quilt is getting ragged17.”
“I don’t see how you can be contented18 to live up back,” sighed Cousin Georgiana. “It’s so out of the world.”
“Contented!” Valancy laughed. What was the use of trying to explain to Cousin Georgiana. “It is,” she agreed, “most gloriously and entirely out of the world.”
“And you are really happy, dear?” asked Cousin Georgiana wistfully.
“I really am,” said Valancy gravely, her eyes dancing.
“Marriage is such a serious thing,” sighed Cousin Georgiana.
“When it’s going to last long,” agreed Valancy.
Cousin Georgiana did not understand this at all. But it worried her and she lay awake at nights wondering what Valancy meant by it.
Valancy loved her Blue Castle and was completely satisfied with it. The big living-room had three windows, all commanding exquisite19 views of exquisite Mistawis. The one in the end of the room was an oriel window—which Tom MacMurray, Barney explained, had got out of some little, old “up back” church that had been sold. It faced the west and when the sunsets flooded it Valancy’s whole being knelt in prayer as if in some great cathedral. The new moons always looked down through it, the lower pine boughs20 swayed about the top of it, and all through the nights the soft, dim silver of the lake dreamed through it.
There was a stone fireplace on the other side. No desecrating21 gas imitation but a real fireplace where you could burn real logs. With a big grizzly22 bearskin on the floor before it, and beside it a hideous23, red-plush sofa of Tom MacMurray’s régime. But its ugliness was hidden by silver-grey timber wolf skins, and Valancy’s cushions made it gay and comfortable. In a corner a nice, tall, lazy old clock ticked—the right kind of a clock. One that did not hurry the hours away but ticked them off deliberately24. It was the jolliest looking old clock. A fat, corpulent clock with a great, round, man’s face painted on it, the hands stretching out of its nose and the hours encircling it like a halo.
There was a big glass case of stuffed owls25 and several deer heads—likewise of Tom MacMurray’s vintage. Some comfortable old chairs that asked to be sat upon. A squat26 little chair with a cushion was prescriptively Banjo’s. If anybody else dared sit on it Banjo glared him out of it with his topaz-hued, black-ringed eyes. Banjo had an adorable habit of hanging over the back of it, trying to catch his own tail. Losing his temper because he couldn’t catch it. Giving it a fierce bite for spite when he did catch it. Yowling malignantly28 with pain. Barney and Valancy laughed at him until they ached. But it was Good Luck they loved. They were both agreed that Good Luck was so lovable that he practically amounted to an obsession29.
One side of the wall was lined with rough, homemade book-shelves filled with books, and between the two side windows hung an old mirror in a faded gilt30 frame, with fat cupids gamboling in the panel over the glass. A mirror, Valancy thought, that must be like the fabled31 mirror into which Venus had once looked and which thereafter reflected as beautiful every woman who looked into it. Valancy thought she was almost pretty in that mirror. But that may have been because she had shingled32 her hair.
This was before the day of bobs and was regarded as a wild, unheard-of proceeding—unless you had typhoid. When Mrs. Frederick heard of it she almost decided33 to erase34 Valancy’s name from the family Bible. Barney cut the hair, square off at the back of Valancy’s neck, bringing it down in a short black fringe over her forehead. It gave a meaning and a purpose to her little, three-cornered face that it never had possessed35 before. Even her nose ceased to irritate her. Her eyes were bright, and her sallow skin had cleared to the hue27 of creamy ivory. The old family joke had come true—she was really fat at last—anyway, no longer skinny. Valancy might never be beautiful, but she was of the type that looks its best in the woods—elfin—mocking—alluring.
Her heart bothered her very little. When an attack threatened she was generally able to head it off with Dr. Trent’s prescription36. The only bad one she had was one night when she was temporarily out of medicine. And it was a bad one. For the time being, Valancy realised keenly that death was actually waiting to pounce37 on her any moment. But the rest of the time she would not—did not—let herself remember it at all.
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1
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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luring
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式） | |
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eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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8
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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16
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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desecrating
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| 毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的现在分词 ) | |
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grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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malignantly
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| 怀恶意地； 恶毒地； 有害地； 恶性地 | |
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obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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30
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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31
fabled
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| adj.寓言中的，虚构的 | |
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32
shingled
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| adj.盖木瓦的；贴有墙面板的v.用木瓦盖(shingle的过去式和过去分词形式) | |
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33
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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34
erase
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| v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹 | |
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35
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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36
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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37
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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