IT took two brimming taxi-cabs to carry the Nicholas Lansings tothe station on their second honey-moon. In the first were Nick,Susy and the luggage of the whole party (little Nat's motor hornincluded, as a last concession1, and because he had hithertoforborne to play on it); and in the second, the five Fulmers,the bonne, who at the eleventh hour had refused to be left, acage-full of canaries, and a foundling kitten who had murderousdesigns on them; all of which had to be taken because, if thebonne came, there would be nobody left to look after them.
At the corner Susy tore herself from Nick's arms and held up theprocession while she ran back to the second taxi to make surethat the bonne had brought the house-key. It was found ofcourse that she hadn't but that Junie had; whereupon the caravangot under way again, and reached the station just as the trainwas starting; and there, by some miracle of good nature on thepart of the guard, they were all packed together into an emptycompartment--no doubt, as Susy remarked, because train officialsnever failed to spot a newly-married couple, and treat themkindly.
The children, sentinelled by Junie, at first gave promise ofsuperhuman goodness; but presently their feelings overflowed,and they were not to be quieted till it had been agreed that Natshould blow his motor-horn at each halt, while the twins calledout the names of the stations, and Geordie, with the canariesand kitten, affected2 to change trains.
Luckily the halts were few; but the excitement of travel,combined with over-indulgence in the chocolates imprudentlyprovided by Nick, overwhelmed Geordie with a sudden melancholythat could be appeased3 only by Susy's telling him stories tillthey arrived at Fontainebleau.
The day was soft, with mild gleams of sunlight on decayingfoliage; and after luggage and livestock4 had been dropped at thepension Susy confessed that she had promised the children ascamper in the forest, and buns in a tea-shop afterward5. Nickplacidly agreed, and darkness had long fallen, and a great manybuns been consumed, when at length the procession turned downthe street toward the pension, headed by Nick with the sleepingGeordie on his shoulder, while the others, speechless withfatigue and food, hung heavily on Susy.
It had been decided6 that, as the bonne was of the party, thechildren might be entrusted7 to her for the night, and Nick andSusy establish themselves in an adjacent hotel. Nick hadflattered himself that they might remove their possessions therewhen they returned from the tea-room; but Susy, manifestlysurprised at the idea, reminded him that her charges must firstbe given their supper and put to bed. She suggested that heshould meanwhile take the bags to the hotel, and promised tojoin him as soon as Geordie was asleep.
She was a long time coming, but waiting for her was sweet, evenin a deserted8 hotel reading-room insufficiently9 heated by asulky stove; and after he had glanced through his morning'smail, hurriedly thrust into his pocket as he left Paris, he sankinto a state of drowsy10 beatitude. It was all the maddestbusiness in the world, yet it did not give him the sense ofunreality that had made their first adventure a mere11 goldendream; and he sat and waited with the security of one in whomdear habits have struck deep roots. In this mood ofacquiescence even the presence of the five Fulmers seemed anatural and necessary consequence of all the rest; and when Susyat length appeared, a little pale and tired, with the broodinginward look that busy mothers bring from the nursery, that tooseemed natural and necessary, and part of the new order ofthings.
They had wandered out to a cheap restaurant for dinner; now, inthe damp December night, they were walking back to the hotelunder a sky full of rain-clouds. They seemed to have saideverything to each other, and yet barely to have begun what theyhad to tell; and at each step they took, their heavy feetdragged a great load of bliss12.
In the hotel almost all the lights were already out; and theygroped their way to the third floor room which was the only onethat Susy had found cheap enough. A ray from a street-lampstruck up through the unshuttered windows; and after Nick hadrevived the fire they drew their chairs close to it, and satquietly for a while in the dark.
Their silence was so sweet that Nick could not make up his mindto break it; not to do so gave his tossing spirit such a senseof permanence, of having at last unlimited13 time before him inwhich to taste his joy and let its sweetness stream through him.
But at length he roused himself to say: "It's queer how thingscoincide. I've had a little bit of good news in one of theletters I got this morning."Susy took the announcement serenely14. "Well, you would, youknow," she commented, as if the day had been too obviouslydesigned for bliss to escape the notice of its dispensers.
"Yes," he continued with a thrill of pardonable pride. "Duringthe cruise I did a couple of articles on Crete--oh, just travel-impressions, of course; they couldn't be more. But the editorof the New Review has accepted them, and asks for others. Andhere's his cheque, if you please! So you see you might have letme take the jolly room downstairs with the pink curtains. Andit makes me awfully15 hopeful about my book."He had expected a rapturous outburst, and perhaps somereassertion of wifely faith in the glorious future that awaitedThe Pageant16 of Alexander; and deep down under the lover's well-being17 the author felt a faint twinge of mortified18 vanity whenSusy, leaping to her feet, cried out, ravenously19 and withoutpreamble: "Oh, Nick, Nick--let me see how much they've givenyou!"He flourished the cheque before her in the firelight. "A coupleof hundred, you mercenary wretch20!""Oh, oh--" she gasped21, as if the good news had been almost toomuch for her tense nerves; and then surprised him by dropping tothe ground, and burying her face against his knees.
"Susy, my Susy," he whispered, his hand on her shaking shoulder.
"Why, dear, what is it? You're not crying?""Oh, Nick, Nick--two hundred? Two hundred dollars? Then I'vegot to tell you--oh now, at once!"A faint chill ran over him, and involuntarily his hand drew backfrom her bowed figure.
"Now? Oh, why now?" he protested. "What on earth does itmatter now--whatever it is?""But it does matter--it matters more than you can think!"She straightened herself, still kneeling before him, and liftedher head so that the firelight behind her turned her hair into aruddy halo. "Oh, Nick, the bracelet22--Ellie's bracelet ....
I've never returned it to her," she faltered23 out.
He felt himself recoiling24 under the hands with which sheclutched his knees. For an instant he did not remember what shealluded to; it was the mere mention of Ellie Vanderlyn's namethat had fallen between them like an icy shadow. What anincorrigible fool he had been to think they could ever shake offsuch memories, or cease to be the slaves of such a past!
"The bracelet?--Oh, yes," he said, suddenly understanding, andfeeling the chill mount slowly to his lips.
"Yes, the bracelet ... Oh, Nick, I meant to give it back atonce; I did--I did; but the day you went away I forgoteverything else. And when I found the thing, in the bottom ofmy bag, weeks afterward, I thought everything was over betweenyou and me, and I had begun to see Ellie again, and she was kindto me and how could I?" To save his life he could have found noanswer, and she pressed on: "And so this morning, when I sawyou were frightened by the expense of bringing all the childrenwith us, and when I felt I couldn't leave them, and couldn'tleave you either, I remembered the bracelet; and I sent you offto telephone while I rushed round the corner to a littlejeweller's where I'd been before, and pawned25 it so that youshouldn't have to pay for the children .... But now, darling,you see, if you've got all that money, I can get it out of pawnat once, can't I, and send it back to her?"She flung her arms about him, and he held her fast, wondering ifthe tears he felt were hers or his. Still he did not speak; butas he clasped her close she added, with an irrepressible flashof her old irony26: "Not that Ellie will understand why I've doneit. She's never yet been able to make out why you returned herscarf-pin."For a long time she continued to lean against him, her head onhis knees, as she had done on the terrace of Como on the lastnight of their honeymoon27. She had ceased to talk, and he satsilent also, passing his hand quietly to and fro over her hair.
The first rapture28 had been succeeded by soberer feelings. Herconfession had broken up the frozen pride about his heart, andhumbled him to the earth; but it had also roused forgottenthings, memories and scruples29 swept aside in the first rush oftheir reunion. He and she belonged to each other for always:
he understood that now. The impulse which had first drawn30 themtogether again, in spite of reason, in spite of themselvesalmost, that deep-seated instinctive31 need that each had of theother, would never again wholly let them go. Yet as he satthere he thought of Strefford, he thought of Coral Hicks. Hehad been a coward in regard to Coral, and Susy had been sincereand courageous32 in regard to Strefford. Yet his mind dwelt onCoral with tenderness, with compunction, with remorse33; and hewas almost sure that Susy had already put Strefford utterly34 outof her mind.
It was the old contrast between the two ways of loving, theman's way and the woman's; and after a moment it seemed to Nicknatural enough that Susy, from the very moment of finding himagain, should feel neither pity nor regret, and that Streffordshould already be to her as if he had never been. After all,there was something Providential in such arrangements.
He stooped closer, pressed her dreaming head between his hands,and whispered: "Wake up; it's bedtime."She rose; but as she moved away to turn on the light he caughther hand and drew her to the window. They leaned on the sill inthe darkness, and through the clouds, from which a few dropswere already falling, the moon, labouring upward, swam into aspace of sky, cast her troubled glory on them, and was againhidden.
收听单词发音 |
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concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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livestock
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| n.家畜，牲畜 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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insufficiently
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| adv.不够地，不能胜任地 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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18
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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ravenously
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| adv.大嚼地，饥饿地 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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pawned
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| v.典当，抵押( pawn的过去式和过去分词 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
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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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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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30
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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31
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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32
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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33
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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