On Monday morning the two fugitives1 found themselves breakfasting at the Golden Pheasant in Blandford. They were in the course of an elaborate doubling movement through Dorsetshire towards Ringwood, where Jessie anticipated an answer from her schoolmistress friend. By this time they had been nearly sixty hours together, and you will understand that Mr. Hoopdriver's feelings had undergone a considerable intensification2 and development. At first Jessie had been only an impressionist sketch3 upon his mind, something feminine, active, and dazzling, something emphatically "above " him, cast into his company by a kindly4 fate. His chief idea, at the outset, as you know, had been to live up to her level, by pretending to be more exceptional, more wealthy, better educated, and, above all, better born than he was. His knowledge of the feminine mind was almost entirely5 derived6 from the young ladies he had met in business, and in that class (as in military society and among gentlemen's servants) the good old tradition of a brutal7 social exclusiveness is still religiously preserved. He had an almost intolerable dread8 of her thinking him a I bounder.' Later he began to perceive the distinction of her idiosyncracies. Coupled with a magnificent want of experience was a splendid enthusiasm for abstract views of the most advanced description, and her strength of conviction completely carried Hoopdriver away. She was going to Live her Own Life, with emphasis, and Mr. Hoopdriver was profoundly stirred to similar resolves. So soon as he grasped the tenor9 of her views, he perceived that he himself had thought as much from his earliest years. "Of course," he remarked, in a flash of sexual pride, "a man is freer than a woman. End in the Colonies, y'know, there isn't half the Conventionality you find in society in this country."
He made one or two essays in the display of unconventionality, and was quite unaware10 that he impressed her as a narrow-minded person. He suppressed the habits of years and made no proposal to go to church. He discussed church-going in a liberal spirit. "It's jest a habit," he said, "jest a custom. I don't see what good it does you at all, really." And he made a lot of excellent jokes at the chimney-pot hat, jokes he had read in the Globe 'turnovers11' on that subject. But he showed his gentle breeding by keeping his gloves on all through the Sunday's ride, and ostentatiously throwing away more than half a cigarette when they passed a church whose congregation was gathering12 for afternoon service. He cautiously avoided literary topics, except by way of compliment, seeing that she was presently to be writing books.
It was on Jessie's initiative that they attended service in the old-fashioned gallery of Blandford church. Jessie's conscience, I may perhaps tell you, was now suffering the severest twinges. She perceived clearly that things were not working out quite along the lines she had designed-. She had read her Olive Schreiner and George Egerton, and so forth13, with all the want of perfect comprehension of one who is still emotionally a girl. She knew the thing to do was to have a flat and to go to the British Museum and write leading articles for the daily p,tpers until something better came along. If Bechamel (detestable person) had kept his promises, instead of behaving with unspeakable horridness14, all would have been well. Now her only hope was that liberal-minded woman, Miss Mergle, who, a year ago, had sent her out, highly educated, into the world. Miss Mergle had told her at parting to live fearlessly and truly, and had further given her a volume of Emerson's Essays and Motley's "Dutch Republic," to help her through the rapids of adolescence15.
Jessie's feelings for her stepmother's household at Surbiton amounted to an active detestation. There are no graver or more solemn women in the world than these clever girls whose scholastic16 advancement17 has retarded18 their feminine coquetry. In spite of the advanced tone of 'Thomas Plantagenet's' antimarital novel, Jessie had speedily seen through that amiable19 woman's amiable defences. The variety of pose necessitated20 by the corps21 of 'Men' annoyed her to an altogether unreasonable22 degree. To return to this life of ridiculous unreality--unconditional capitulation to 'Conventionality' was an exasperating23 prospect24. Yet what else was there to do? You will understand, therefore, that at times she was moody25 (and Mr. Hoopdriver respectfully silent and attentive) and at times inclined to eloquent26 denunciation of the existing order of things. She was a Socialist27, Hoopdriver learnt, and he gave a vague intimation that he went further, intending, thereby28, no less than the horrors of anarchism. He would have owned up to the destruction of the Winter Palace indeed, had he had the faintest idea where the Winter Palace was, and had his assurance amounted to certainty that the Winter Palace was destroyed. He agreed with her cordially that the position of women was intolerable, but checked himself on the' verge29 of the proposition that a girl ought not to expect a fellow to hand down boxes for her when he was getting the 'swap30' from a customer. It was Jessie's preoccupation with her own perplexities, no doubt, that delayed the unveiling of Mr. Hoopdriver all through Saturday and Sunday. Once or twice, however, there were incidents that put him about terribly--even questions that savoured of suspicion.
On Sunday night, for no conceivable reason, an unwonted wakefulness came upon him. Unaccountably he realised he was a contemptible31 liar32, All through the small hours of Monday he reviewed the tale of his falsehoods, and when he tried to turn his mind from that, the financial problem suddenly rose upon him. He heard two o'clock strike, and three. It is odd how unhappy some of us are at times, when we are at our happiest.
1 fugitives | |
n.亡命者,逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 intensification | |
n.激烈化,增强明暗度;加厚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 sketch | |
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 tenor | |
n.男高音(歌手),次中音(乐器),要旨,大意 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 unaware | |
a.不知道的,未意识到的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 turnovers | |
n.营业额( turnover的名词复数 );失误(篮球术语);职工流动率;(商店的)货物周转率 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 horridness | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 adolescence | |
n.青春期,青少年 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 scholastic | |
adj.学校的,学院的,学术上的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 advancement | |
n.前进,促进,提升 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 retarded | |
a.智力迟钝的,智力发育迟缓的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 necessitated | |
使…成为必要,需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 corps | |
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 unreasonable | |
adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 exasperating | |
adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 moody | |
adj.心情不稳的,易怒的,喜怒无常的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 socialist | |
n.社会主义者;adj.社会主义的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 thereby | |
adv.因此,从而 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 swap | |
n.交换;vt.交换,用...作交易 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 contemptible | |
adj.可鄙的,可轻视的,卑劣的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 liar | |
n.说谎的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |