If Darrow, on entering the drawing-room before dinner,examined its new occupant with unusual interest, it was moreon Owen Leath's account than his own.
Anna's hints had roused his interest in the lad's loveaffair, and he wondered what manner of girl the heroine ofthe coming conflict might be. He had guessed that Owen'srebellion symbolized1 for his step-mother her own longstruggle against the Leath conventions, and he understoodthat if Anna so passionately2 abetted3 him it was partlybecause, as she owned, she wanted his liberation to coincidewith hers.
The lady who was to represent, in the impending4 struggle,the forces of order and tradition was seated by the firewhen Darrow entered. Among the flowers and old furniture ofthe large pale-panelled room, Madame de Chantelle had theinanimate elegance5 of a figure introduced into a "still-life" to give the scale. And this, Darrow reflected, wasexactly what she doubtless regarded as her chief obligation:
he was sure she thought a great deal of "measure", andapproved of most things only up to a certain point.
She was a woman of sixty, with a figure at once young andold-fashioned. Her fair faded tints6, her quaint7 corseting,the passementerie on her tight-waisted dress, the velvetband on her tapering8 arm, made her resemble a "carte devisite" photograph of the middle sixties. One saw her,younger but no less invincibly9 lady-like, leaning on a chairwith a fringed back, a curl in her neck, a locket on hertuckered bosom10, toward the end of an embossed morocco albumbeginning with The Beauties of the Second Empire.
She received her daughter-in-law's suitor with an affabilitywhich implied her knowledge and approval of his suit.
Darrow had already guessed her to be a person who wouldinstinctively oppose any suggested changes, and then, afterone had exhausted11 one's main arguments, unexpectedly yieldto some small incidental reason, and adhere doggedly12 to hernew position. She boasted of her old-fashioned prejudices,talked a good deal of being a grandmother, and made a showof reaching up to tap Owen's shoulder, though his height waslittle more than hers.
She was full of a small pale prattle13 about the people shehad seen at Ouchy, as to whom she had the minute statisticalinformation of a gazetteer14, without any apparent sense ofpersonal differences. She said to Darrow: "They tell methings are very much changed in America...Of course in myyouth there WAS a Society"...She had no desire to returnthere she was sure the standards must be so different.
"There are charming people everywhere...and one must alwayslook on the best side...but when one has lived amongTraditions it's difficult to adapt one's self to the newideas...These dreadful views of marriage...it's so hard toexplain them to my French relations...I'm thankful to say Idon't pretend to understand them myself! But YOU'RE anEverard--I told Anna last spring in London that one seesthat instantly"...
She wandered off to the cooking and the service of the hotelat Ouchy. She attached great importance to gastronomicdetails and to the manners of hotel servants. There, too,there was a falling off, she said. "I don t know, ofcourse; but people say it's owing to the Americans.
Certainly my waiter had a way of slapping down thedishes...they tell me that many of them areAnarchists...belong to Unions, you know." She appealed toDarrow's reported knowledge of economic conditions toconfirm this ominous15 rumour16.
After dinner Owen Leath wandered into the next room, wherethe piano stood, and began to play among the shadows. Hisstep-mother presently joined him, and Darrow sat alone withMadame de Chantelle.
She took up the thread of her mild chat and carried it on atthe same pace as her knitting. Her conversation resembledthe large loose-stranded web between her fingers: now andthen she dropped a stitch, and went on regardless of the gapin the pattern.
Darrow listened with a lazy sense of well-being17. In themental lull18 of the after-dinner hour, with harmoniousmemories murmuring through his mind, and the soft tints andshadowy spaces of the fine old room charming his eyes toindolence, Madame de Chantelle's discourse19 seemed not out ofplace. He could understand that, in the long run, theatmosphere of Givre might be suffocating20; but in his presentmood its very limitations had a grace.
Presently he found the chance to say a word in his ownbehalf; and thereupon measured the advantage, never beforeparticularly apparent to him, of being related to theEverards of Albany. Madame de Chantelle's conception of hernative country--to which she had not returned since hertwentieth year--reminded him of an ancient geographer's mapof the Hyperborean regions. It was all a foggy blank, fromwhich only one or two fixed21 outlines emerged; and one ofthese belonged to the Everards of Albany.
The fact that they offered such firm footing--formed, so tospeak, a friendly territory on which the opposing powerscould meet and treat--helped him through the task ofexplaining and justifying22 himself as the successor of FraserLeath. Madame de Chantelle could not resist suchincontestable claims. She seemed to feel her son's hoveringand discriminating23 presence, and she gave Darrow the sensethat he was being tested and approved as a last addition tothe Leath Collection.
She also made him aware of the immense advantage hepossessed in belonging to the diplomatic profession. Shespoke of this humdrum25 calling as a Career, and gave Darrowto understand that she supposed him to have been seducingDuchesses when he was not negotiating Treaties. He heardagain quaint phrases which romantic old ladies had used inhis youth: "Brilliant diplomatic society...socialadvantages...the entree26 everywhere...nothing elseFORMS a young man in the same way..." and she sighinglyadded that she could have wished her grandson had chosen thesame path to glory.
Darrow prudently27 suppressed his own view of the profession,as well as the fact that he had adopted it provisionally,and for reasons less social than sociological; and the talkpresently passed on to the subject of his future plans.
Here again, Madame de Chantelle's awe28 of the Career made heradmit the necessity of Anna's consenting to an earlymarriage. The fact that Darrow was "ordered" to SouthAmerica seemed to put him in the romantic light of a youngsoldier charged to lead a forlorn hope: she sighed and said:
"At such moments a wife's duty is at her husband's side."The problem of Effie's future might have disturbed her, sheadded; but since Anna, for a time, consented to leave thelittle girl with her, that problem was at any rate deferred29.
She spoke24 plaintively30 of the responsibility of looking afterher granddaughter, but Darrow divined that she enjoyed theflavour of the word more than she felt the weight of thefact.
"Effie's a perfect child. She's more like my son, perhaps,than dear Owen. She'll never intentionally31 give me theleast trouble. But of course the responsibility will begreat...I'm not sure I should dare to undertake it if itwere not for her having such a treasure of a governess. HasAnna told you about our little governess? After all theworry we had last year, with one impossible creature afteranother, it seems providential, just now, to have found her.
At first we were afraid she was too young; but now we've thegreatest confidence in her. So clever and amusing--andSUCH a lady! I don't say her education's all it mightbe...no drawing or singing...but one can't have everything;and she speaks Italian..."Madame de Chantelle's fond insistence32 on the likenessbetween Effie Leath and her father, if not particularlygratifying to Darrow, had at least increased his desire tosee the little girl. It gave him an odd feeling ofdiscomfort to think that she should have any of thecharacteristics of the late Fraser Leath: he had, somehow,fantastically pictured her as the mystical offspring of theearly tenderness between himself and Anna Summers.
His encounter with Effie took place the next morning, on thelawn below the terrace, where he found her, in the earlysunshine, knocking about golf balls with her brother.
Almost at once, and with infinite relief, he saw that theresemblance of which Madame de Chantelle boasted was mainlyexternal. Even that discovery was slightly distasteful,though Darrow was forced to own that Fraser Leath'sstraight-featured fairness had lent itself to the productionof a peculiarly finished image of childish purity. But itwas evident that other elements had also gone to the makingof Effie, and that another spirit sat in her eyes. Herserious handshake, her "pretty" greeting, were worthy33 of theLeath tradition, and he guessed her to be more malleablethan Owen, more subject to the influences of Givre; but theshout with which she returned to her romp34 had in it the noteof her mother's emancipation35.
He had begged a holiday for her, and when Mrs. Leathappeared he and she and the little girl went off for aramble. Anna wished her daughter to have time to makefriends with Darrow before learning in what relation he wasto stand to her; and the three roamed the woods and fieldstill the distant chime of the stable-clock made them turnback for luncheon36.
Effie, who was attended by a shaggy terrier, had picked uptwo or three subordinate dogs at the stable; and as shetrotted on ahead with her yapping escort, Anna hung back tothrow a look at Darrow.
"Yes," he answered it, "she's exquisite37...Oh, I see what I'masking of you! But she'll be quite happy here, won't she?
And you must remember it won't be for long..."Anna sighed her acquiescence38. "Oh, she'll be happy here.
It's her nature to be happy. She'll apply herself to it,conscientiously, as she does to her lessons, and to what shecalls 'being good'...In a way, you see, that's just whatworries me. Her idea of 'being good' is to please theperson she's with--she puts her whole dear little mind onit! And so, if ever she's with the wrong person----""But surely there's no danger of that just now? Madame deChantelle tells me that you've at last put your hand on aperfect governess----"Anna, without answering, glanced away from him toward herdaughter.
"It's lucky, at any rate," Darrow continued, "that Madame deChantelle thinks her so.""Oh, I think very highly of her too.""Highly enough to feel quite satisfied to leave her withEffie?""Yes. She's just the person for Effie. Only, of course,one never knows...She's young, and she might take it intoher head to leave us..." After a pause she added: "I'mnaturally anxious to know what you think of her."When they entered the house the hands of the hall clockstood within a few minutes of the luncheon hour. Anna ledEffie off to have her hair smoothed and Darrow wandered intothe oak sitting-room39, which he found untenanted. The sunlay pleasantly on its brown walls, on the scattered40 booksand the flowers in old porcelain41 vases. In his eyeslingered the vision of the dark-haired mother mounting thestairs with her little fair daughter. The contrast betweenthem seemed a last touch of grace in the complex harmony ofthings. He stood in the window, looking out at the park,and brooding inwardly upon his happiness...
He was roused by Effie's voice and the scamper42 of her feetdown the long floors behind him.
"Here he is! Here he is!" she cried, flying over thethreshold.
He turned and stooped to her with a smile, and as she caughthis hand he perceived that she was trying to draw him towardsome one who had paused behind her in the doorway43, and whomhe supposed to be her mother.
"HERE he is!" Effie repeated, with her sweet impatience44.
The figure in the doorway came forward and Darrow, lookingup, found himself face to face with Sophy Viner. They stoodstill, a yard or two apart, and looked at each other withoutspeaking.
As they paused there, a shadow fell across one of theterrace windows, and Owen Leath stepped whistling into theroom. In his rough shooting clothes, with the glow ofexercise under his fair skin, he looked extraordinarilylight-hearted and happy. Darrow, with a quick side-glance,noticed this, and perceived also that the glow on theyouth's cheek had deepened suddenly to red. He too stoppedshort, and the three stood there motionless for a barelyperceptible beat of time. During its lapse45, Darrow's eyeshad turned back from Owen's face to that of the girl betweenthem. He had the sense that, whatever was done, it was hewho must do it, and that it must be done immediately. Hewent forward and held out his hand.
"How do you do, Miss Viner?"She answered: "How do you do?" in a voice that sounded clearand natural; and the next moment he again became aware ofsteps behind him, and knew that Mrs. Leath was in the room.
To his strained senses there seemed to be another justmeasurable pause before Anna said, looking gaily46 about thelittle group: "Has Owen introduced you? This is Effie'sfriend, Miss Viner."Effie, still hanging on her governess's arm, pressed herselfcloser with a little gesture of appropriation47; and MissViner laid her hand on her pupil's hair.
Darrow felt that Anna's eyes had turned to him.
"I think Miss Viner and I have met already--several yearsago in London.""I remember," said Sophy Viner, in the same clear voice.
"How charming! Then we're all friends. But luncheon must beready," said Mrs. Leath.
She turned back to the door, and the little procession moveddown the two long drawing-rooms, with Effie waltzing onahead.
收听单词发音 |
1
symbolized
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize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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abetted
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| v.教唆（犯罪）( abet的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；怂恿；支持 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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tapering
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| adj.尖端细的 | |
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invincibly
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| adv.难战胜地，无敌地 | |
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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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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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gazetteer
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| n.地名索引 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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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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justifying
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| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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discriminating
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| a.有辨别能力的 | |
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24
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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humdrum
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| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
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entree
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| n.入场权，进入权 | |
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prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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29
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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31
intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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32
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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33
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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34
romp
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| n.欢闹；v.嬉闹玩笑 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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36
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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37
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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39
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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40
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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41
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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42
scamper
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| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
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43
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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44
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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45
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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46
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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47
appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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