Two brown blurs1 emerging from the farther end of the wood-vista gradually defined themselves as her step-son and anattendant game-keeper. They grew slowly upon the bluishbackground, with occasional delays and re-effacements, andshe sat still, waiting till they should reach the gate atthe end of the drive, where the keeper would turn off to hiscottage and Owen continue on to the house.
She watched his approach with a smile. From the first daysof her marriage she had been drawn2 to the boy, but it wasnot until after Effie's birth that she had really begun toknow him. The eager observation of her own child had shownher how much she had still to learn about the slight fairboy whom the holidays periodically restored to Givre. Owen,even then, both physically3 and morally, furnished her withthe oddest of commentaries on his father's mien4 and mind.
He would never, the family sighingly recognized, be nearlyas handsome as Mr. Leath; but his rather charminglyunbalanced face, with its brooding forehead and petulantboyish smile, suggested to Anna what his father'scountenance might have been could one have pictured its neatfeatures disordered by a rattling5 breeze. She even pushedthe analogy farther, and descried6 in her step-son's mind aquaintly-twisted reflection of her husband's. With hisbursts of door-slamming activity, his fits of bookishindolence, his crude revolutionary dogmatizing and hisflashes of precocious7 irony8, the boy was not unlike aboisterous embodiment of his father's theories. It was asthough Fraser Leath's ideas, accustomed to hang likemarionettes on their pegs9, should suddenly come down andwalk. There were moments, indeed, when Owen's humours musthave suggested to his progenitor10 the gambols11 of an infantFrankenstein; but to Anna they were the voice of her secretrebellions, and her tenderness to her step-son was partlybased on her severity toward herself. As he had the courageshe had lacked, so she meant him to have the chances she hadmissed; and every effort she made for him helped to keep herown hopes alive.
Her interest in Owen led her to think more often of hismother, and sometimes she would slip away and stand alonebefore her predecessor's portrait. Since her arrival atGivre the picture--a "full-length" by a once fashionableartist--had undergone the successive displacements12 of anexiled consort13 removed farther and farther from the throne;and Anna could not help noting that these stages coincidedwith the gradual decline of the artist's fame. She had afancy that if his credit had been in the ascendant the firstMrs. Leath might have continued to throne over the drawing-room mantel- piece, even to the exclusion14 of her successor'seffigy. Instead of this, her peregrinations had finallylanded her in the shrouded15 solitude16 of the billiard-room, anapartment which no one ever entered, but where it wasunderstood that "the light was better," or might have beenif the shutters17 had not been always closed.
Here the poor lady, elegantly dressed, and seated in themiddle of a large lonely canvas, in the blank contemplationof a gilt18 console, had always seemed to Anna to be waitingfor visitors who never came.
"Of course they never came, you poor thing! I wonder howlong it took you to find out that they never would?" Annahad more than once apostrophized her, with a derisionaddressed rather to herself than to the dead; but it wasonly after Effie's birth that it occurred to her to studymore closely the face in the picture, and speculate on thekind of visitors that Owen's mother might have hoped for.
"She certainly doesn't look as if they would have been thesame kind as mine: but there's no telling, from a portraitthat was so obviously done 'to please the family', and thatleaves Owen so unaccounted for. Well, they never came, thevisitors; they never came; and she died of it. She died ofit long before they buried her: I'm certain of that. Thoseare stone-dead eyes in the picture...The loneliness musthave been awful, if even Owen couldn't keep her from dyingof it. And to feel it so she must have HAD feelings--real live ones, the kind that twitch19 and tug20. And all shehad to look at all her life was a gilt console--yes, that'sit, a gilt console screwed to the wall! That's exactly andabsolutely what he is!"She did not mean, if she could help it, that either Effie orOwen should know that loneliness, or let her know it again.
They were three, now, to keep each other warm, and sheembraced both children in the same passion of motherhood, asthough one were not enough to shield her from herpredecessor's fate.
Sometimes she fancied that Owen Leath's response was warmerthan that of her own child. But then Effie was still hardlymore than a baby, and Owen, from the first, had been almost"old enough to understand": certainly DID understandnow, in a tacit way that yet perpetually spoke21 to her. Thissense of his understanding was the deepest element in theirfeeling for each other. There were so many things betweenthem that were never spoken of, or even indirectly22 alludedto, yet that, even in their occasional discussions anddifferences, formed the unadduced arguments making for finalagreement...
Musing on this, she continued to watch his approach; and herheart began to beat a little faster at the thought of whatshe had to say to him. But when he reached the gate she sawhim pause, and after a moment he turned aside as if to gaina cross-road through the park.
She started up and waved her sunshade, but he did not seeher. No doubt he meant to go back with the gamekeeper,perhaps to the kennels24, to see a retriever who had hurt hisleg. Suddenly she was seized by the whim23 to overtake him.
She threw down the parasol, thrust her letter into herbodice, and catching25 up her skirts began to run.
She was slight and light, with a natural ease and quicknessof gait, but she could not recall having run a yard sinceshe had romped26 with Owen in his school-days; nor did sheknow what impulse moved her now. She only knew that run shemust, that no other motion, short of flight, would have beenbuoyant enough for her humour. She seemed to be keepingpace with some inward rhythm, seeking to give bodilyexpression to the lyric27 rush of her thoughts. The earthalways felt elastic28 under her, and she had a conscious joyin treading it; but never had it been as soft and springy astoday. It seemed actually to rise and meet her as she went,so that she had the feeling, which sometimes came to her indreams, of skimming miraculously29 over short bright waves.
The air, too, seemed to break in waves against her, sweepingby on its current all the slanted30 lights and moist sharpperfumes of the failing day. She panted to herself: "Thisis nonsense!" her blood hummed back: "But it's glorious!"and she sped on till she saw that Owen had caught sight ofher and was striding back in her direction.
Then she stopped and waited, flushed and laughing, her handsclasped against the letter in her breast.
"No, I'm not mad," she called out; "but there's something inthe air today--don't you feel it?--And I wanted to have alittle talk with you," she added as he came up to her,smiling at him and linking her arm in his.
He smiled back, but above the smile she saw the shade ofanxiety which, for the last two months, had kept its fixedline between his handsome eyes.
"Owen, don't look like that! I don't want you to!" she saidimperiously.
He laughed. "You said that exactly like Effie. What do youwant me to do? To race with you as I do Effie? But Ishouldn't have a show!" he protested, still with the littlefrown between his eyes.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"To the kennels. But there's not the least need. The vethas seen Garry and he's all right. If there's anything youwanted to tell me----""Did I say there was? I just came out to meet you--I wantedto know if you'd had good sport."The shadow dropped on him again. "None at all. The fact isI didn't try. Jean and I have just been knocking about inthe woods. I wasn't in a sanguinary mood."They walked on with the same light gait, so nearly of aheight that keeping step came as naturally to them asbreathing. Anna stole another look at the young face on alevel with her own.
"You DID say there was something you wanted to tell me,"her step-son began after a pause.
"Well, there is." She slackened her pace involuntarily, andthey came to a pause and stood facing each other under thelimes.
"Is Darrow coming?" he asked.
She seldom blushed, but at the question a sudden heatsuffused her. She held her head high.
"Yes: he's coming. I've just heard. He arrives to-morrow.
But that's not----" She saw her blunder and tried to rectifyit. "Or rather, yes, in a way it is my reason for wantingto speak to you----""Because he's coming?""Because he's not yet here.""It's about him, then?"He looked at her kindly31, half-humourously, an almostfraternal wisdom in his smile.
"About----? No, no: I meant that I wanted to speak todaybecause it's our last day alone together.""Oh, I see." He had slipped his hands into the pockets ofhis tweed shooting jacket and lounged along at her side, hiseyes bent32 on the moist ruts of the drive, as though thematter had lost all interest for him.
"Owen----"He stopped again and faced her. "Look here, my dear, it'sno sort of use.""What's no use?""Anything on earth you can any of you say."She challenged him: "Am I one of 'any of you'?"He did not yield. "Well, then--anything on earth that evenYOU can say.""You don't in the least know what I can say--or what I meanto.""Don't I, generally?"She gave him this point, but only to make another. "Yes; butthis is particularly. I want to say...Owen, you've beenadmirable all through."He broke into a laugh in which the odd elder-brotherly notewas once more perceptible.
"Admirable," she emphasized. "And so has SHE.""Oh, and so have you to HER!" His voice broke down toboyishness. "I've never lost sight of that for a minute.
It's been altogether easier for her, though," he threw offpresently.
"On the whole, I suppose it has. Well----" she summed upwith a laugh, "aren't you all the better pleased to be toldyou've behaved as well as she?""Oh, you know, I've not done it for you," he tossed back ather, without the least note of hostility33 in the affectedlightness of his tone.
"Haven't you, though, perhaps--the least bit? Because, afterall, you knew I understood?""You've been awfully34 kind about pretending to."She laughed. "You don't believe me? You must remember I hadyour grandmother to consider.""Yes: and my father--and Effie, I suppose--and the outragedshades of Givre!" He paused, as if to lay more stress on theboyish sneer35: "Do you likewise include the late Monsieur deChantelle?"His step-mother did not appear to resent the thrust. Shewent on, in the same tone of affectionate persuasion36: "Yes:
I must have seemed to you too subject to Givre. Perhaps Ihave been. But you know that was not my real object inasking you to wait, to say nothing to your grandmotherbefore her return."He considered. "Your real object, of course, was to gaintime.""Yes--but for whom? Why not for YOU?""For me?" He flushed up quickly. "You don't mean----?"She laid her hand on his arm and looked gravely into hishandsome eyes.
"I mean that when your grandmother gets back from Ouchy Ishall speak to her----""You'll speak to her...?""Yes; if only you'll promise to give me time----""Time for her to send for Adelaide Painter?""Oh, she'll undoubtedly37 send for Adelaide Painter!"The allusion38 touched a spring of mirth in both their minds,and they exchanged a laughing look.
"Only you must promise not to rush things. You must give metime to prepare Adelaide too," Mrs. Leath went on.
"Prepare her too?" He drew away for a better look at her.
"Prepare her for what?""Why, to prepare your grandmother! For your marriage. Yes,that's what I mean. I'm going to see you through, you know----"His feint of indifference39 broke down and he caught her hand.
"Oh, you dear divine thing! I didn't dream----""I know you didn't." She dropped her gaze and began to walkon slowly. "I can't say you've convinced me of the wisdomof the step. Only I seem to see that other things mattermore--and that not missing things matters most. PerhapsI've changed--or YOUR not changing has convinced me.
I'm certain now that you won't budge40. And that was reallyall I ever cared about.""Oh, as to not budging--I told you so months ago: you mighthave been sure of that! And how can you be any surer todaythan yesterday?""I don't know. I suppose one learns something every day----""Not at Givre!" he laughed, and shot a half-ironic look ather. "But you haven't really BEEN at Givre lately--notfor months! Don't you suppose I've noticed that, my dear?"She echoed his laugh to merge41 it in an undenying sigh. "PoorGivre...""Poor empty Givre! With so many rooms full and yet not asoul in it--except of course my grandmother, who is itssoul!"They had reached the gateway42 of the court and stood lookingwith a common accord at the long soft-hued facade43 on whichthe autumn light was dying. "It looks so made to be happyin----" she murmured.
"Yes--today, today!" He pressed her arm a little. "Oh, youdarling--to have given it that look for me!" He paused, andthen went on in a lower voice: "Don't you feel we owe it tothe poor old place to do what we can to give it that look?
You, too, I mean? Come, let's make it grin from wing towing! I've such a mad desire to say outrageous44 things to it--haven't you? After all, in old times there must have beenliving people here!"Loosening her arm from his she continued to gaze up at thehouse-front, which seemed, in the plaintive45 decline oflight, to send her back the mute appeal of something doomed46.
"It IS beautiful," she said.
"A beautiful memory! Quite perfect to take out and turn overwhen I'm grinding at the law in New York, and you're----" Hebroke off and looked at her with a questioning smile.
"Come! Tell me. You and I don't have to say things to talkto each other. When you turn suddenly absentminded andmysterious I always feel like saying: 'Come back. All isdiscovered'."She returned his smile. "You know as much as I know. Ipromise you that."He wavered, as if for the first time uncertain how far hemight go. "I don't know Darrow as much as you know him," hepresently risked.
She frowned a little. "You said just now we didn't need tosay things""Was I speaking? I thought it was your eyes----" Hecaught her by both elbows and spun47 her halfway48 round, sothat the late sun shed a betraying gleam on her face.
"They're such awfully conversational49 eyes! Don't you supposethey told me long ago why it's just today you've made upyour mind that people have got to live their own lives--evenat Givre?"
收听单词发音 |
1
blurs
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| n.模糊( blur的名词复数 )；模糊之物；（移动的）模糊形状；模糊的记忆v.（使）变模糊( blur的第三人称单数 )；（使）难以区分 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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mien
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| n.风采；态度 | |
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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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descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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pegs
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| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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progenitor
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| n.祖先，先驱 | |
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gambols
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的第三人称单数 ) | |
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displacements
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| n.取代( displacement的名词复数 )；替代；移位；免职 | |
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consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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twitch
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| v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛 | |
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tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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kennels
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| n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场 | |
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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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romped
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| v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
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lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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slanted
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| 有偏见的； 倾斜的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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budge
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| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
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41
merge
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| v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体 | |
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42
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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43
facade
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| n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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46
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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47
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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48
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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49
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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