She slept but a few hours. They were troubled and feverish1 hours, disturbed with dreams that were intangible, that eluded2 her, leaving only an impression upon her half-awakened senses of something unattainable. She was up and dressed in the cool of the early morning. The air was invigorating and steadied somewhat her faculties4. However, she was not seeking refreshment5 or help from any source, either external or from within. She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility.
Most of the people at that early hour were still in bed and asleep. A few, who intended to go over to the Cheniere for mass, were moving about. The lovers, who had laid their plans the night before, were already strolling toward the wharf6. The lady in black, with her Sunday prayer-book, velvet7 and gold-clasped, and her Sunday silver beads8, was following them at no great distance. Old Monsieur Farival was up, and was more than half inclined to do anything that suggested itself. He put on his big straw hat, and taking his umbrella from the stand in the hall, followed the lady in black, never overtaking her.
The little negro girl who worked Madame Lebrun’s sewing-machine was sweeping9 the galleries with long, absent-minded strokes of the broom. Edna sent her up into the house to awaken3 Robert.
“Tell him I am going to the Cheniere. The boat is ready; tell him to hurry.”
He had soon joined her. She had never sent for him before. She had never asked for him. She had never seemed to want him before. She did not appear conscious that she had done anything unusual in commanding his presence. He was apparently10 equally unconscious of anything extraordinary in the situation. But his face was suffused11 with a quiet glow when he met her.
They went together back to the kitchen to drink coffee. There was no time to wait for any nicety of service. They stood outside the window and the cook passed them their coffee and a roll, which they drank and ate from the window-sill. Edna said it tasted good.
She had not thought of coffee nor of anything. He told her he had often noticed that she lacked forethought.
“Wasn’t it enough to think of going to the Cheniere and waking you up?” she laughed. “Do I have to think of everything?-as Leonce says when he’s in a bad humor. I don’t blame him; he’d never be in a bad humor if it weren’t for me.”
They took a short cut across the sands. At a distance they could see the curious procession moving toward the wharf-the lovers, shoulder to shoulder, creeping; the lady in black, gaining steadily12 upon them; old Monsieur Farival, losing ground inch by inch, and a young barefooted Spanish girl, with a red kerchief on her head and a basket on her arm, bringing up the rear.
Robert knew the girl, and he talked to her a little in the boat. No one present understood what they said. Her name was Mariequita. She had a round, sly, piquant13 face and pretty black eyes. Her hands were small, and she kept them folded over the handle of her basket. Her feet were broad and coarse. She did not strive to hide them. Edna looked at her feet, and noticed the sand and slime between her brown toes.
Beaudelet grumbled14 because Mariequita was there, taking up so much room. In reality he was annoyed at having old Monsieur Farival, who considered himself the better sailor of the two. But he would not quarrel with so old a man as Monsieur Farival, so he quarreled with Mariequita. The girl was deprecatory at one moment, appealing to Robert. She was saucy15 the next, moving her head up and down, making “eyes” at Robert and making “mouths” at Beaudelet.
The lovers were all alone. They saw nothing, they heard nothing. The lady in black was counting her beads for the third time. Old Monsieur Farival talked incessantly16 of what he knew about handling a boat, and of what Beaudelet did not know on the same subject.
Edna liked it all. She looked Mariequita up and down, from her ugly brown toes to her pretty black eyes, and back again.
“Why does she look at me like that?” inquired the girl of Robert.
“Maybe she thinks you are pretty. Shall I ask her?”
“No. Is she your sweetheart?”
“She’s a married lady, and has two children.”
“Oh! well! Francisco ran away with Sylvano’s wife, who had four children. They took all his money and one of the children and stole his boat.”
“Shut up!”
“Does she understand?”
“Are those two married over there-leaning on each other?”
“Of course not,” laughed Robert.
“Of course not,” echoed Mariequita, with a serious, confirmatory bob of the head.
The sun was high up and beginning to bite. The swift breeze seemed to Edna to bury the sting of it into the pores of her face and hands. Robert held his umbrella over her. As they went cutting sidewise through the water, the sails bellied18 taut19, with the wind filling and overflowing20 them. Old Monsieur Farival laughed sardonically21 at something as he looked at the sails, and Beaudelet swore at the old man under his breath.
Sailing across the bay to the Cheniere Caminada, Edna felt as if she were being borne away from some anchorage which had held her fast, whose chains had been loosening-had snapped the night before when the mystic spirit was abroad, leaving her free to drift whithersoever she chose to set her sails. Robert spoke22 to her incessantly; he no longer noticed Mariequita. The girl had shrimps23 in her bamboo basket. They were covered with Spanish moss24. She beat the moss down impatiently, and muttered to herself sullenly25.
“Let us go to Grande Terre to-morrow?” said Robert in a low voice.
“What shall we do there?”
“Climb up the hill to the old fort and look at the little wriggling26 gold snakes, and watch the lizards27 sun themselves.”
She gazed away toward Grande Terre and thought she would like to be alone there with Robert, in the sun, listening to the ocean’s roar and watching the slimy lizards writhe28 in and out among the ruins of the old fort.
“And the next day or the next we can sail to the Bayou Brulow,” he went on.
“What shall we do there?”
“Anything-cast bait for fish.”
“No; we’ll go back to Grande Terre. Let the fish alone.”
“We’ll go wherever you like,” he said. “I’ll have Tonie come over and help me patch and trim my boat. We shall not need Beaudelet nor any one. Are you afraid of the pirogue?”
“Oh, no.”
“Then I’ll take you some night in the pirogue when the moon shines. Maybe your Gulf29 spirit will whisper to you in which of these islands the treasures are hidden-direct you to the very spot, perhaps.”
“And in a day we should be rich!” she laughed. “I’d give it all to you, the pirate gold and every bit of treasure we could dig up. I think you would know how to spend it. Pirate gold isn’t a thing to be hoarded30 or utilized31. It is something to squander32 and throw to the four winds, for the fun of seeing the golden specks33 fly.”
“We’d share it, and scatter34 it together,” he said. His face flushed.
They all went together up to the quaint35 little Gothic church of Our Lady of Lourdes, gleaming all brown and yellow with paint in the sun’s glare.
Only Beaudelet remained behind, tinkering at his boat, and Mariequita walked away with her basket of shrimps, casting a look of childish ill humor and reproach at Robert from the corner of her eye.
收听单词发音 |
1
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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eluded
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的过去式和过去分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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saucy
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| adj.无礼的；俊俏的；活泼的 | |
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incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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bellied
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| adj.有腹的，大肚子的 | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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sardonically
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| adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地 | |
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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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shrimps
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| n.虾，小虾( shrimp的名词复数 )；矮小的人 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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26
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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28
writhe
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| vt.挣扎，痛苦地扭曲；vi.扭曲，翻腾，受苦；n.翻腾，苦恼 | |
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29
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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hoarded
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| v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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utilized
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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squander
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| v.浪费，挥霍 | |
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specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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34
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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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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