A feeling of oppression and drowsiness1 overcame Edna during the service. Her head began to ache, and the lights on the altar swayed before her eyes. Another time she might have made an effort to regain2 her composure; but her one thought was to quit the stifling3 atmosphere of the church and reach the open air. She arose, climbing over Robert’s feet with a muttered apology. Old Monsieur Farival, flurried, curious, stood up, but upon seeing that Robert had followed Mrs. Pontellier, he sank back into his seat. He whispered an anxious inquiry4 of the lady in black, who did not notice him or reply, but kept her eyes fastened upon the pages of her velvet5 prayer-book.
“I felt giddy and almost overcome,” Edna said, lifting her hands instinctively6 to her head and pushing her straw hat up from her forehead. “I couldn’t have stayed through the service.” They were outside in the shadow of the church. Robert was full of solicitude7.
“It was folly8 to have thought of going in the first place, let alone staying. Come over to Madame Antoine’s ; you can rest there.” He took her arm and led her away, looking anxiously and continuously down into her face.
How still it was, with only the voice of the sea whispering through the reeds that grew in the salt-water pools! The long line of little gray, weather-beaten houses nestled peacefully among the orange trees. It must always have been God’s day on that low, drowsy9 island, Edna thought. They stopped, leaning over a jagged fence made of sea-drift, to ask for water. A youth, a mild-faced Acadian, was drawing water from the cistern10, which was nothing more than a rusty11 buoy12, with an opening on one side, sunk in the ground. The water which the youth handed to them in a tin pail was not cold to taste, but it was cool to her heated face, and it greatly revived and refreshed her.
Madame Antoine’s cot was at the far end of the village. She welcomed them with all the native hospitality, as she would have opened her door to let the sunlight in. She was fat, and walked heavily and clumsily across the floor. She could speak no English, but when Robert made her understand that the lady who accompanied him was ill and desired to rest, she was all eagerness to make Edna feel at home and to dispose of her comfortably.
The whole place was immaculately clean, and the big, four-posted bed, snow-white, invited one to repose14. It stood in a small side room which looked out across a narrow grass plot toward the shed, where there was a disabled boat lying keel upward.
Madame Antoine had not gone to mass. Her son Tonie had, but she supposed he would soon be back, and she invited Robert to be seated and wait for him. But he went and sat outside the door and smoked. Madame Antoine busied herself in the large front room preparing dinner. She was boiling mullets over a few red coals in the huge fireplace.
Edna, left alone in the little side room, loosened her clothes, removing the greater part of them. She bathed her face, her neck and arms in the basin that stood between the windows. She took off her shoes and stockings and stretched herself in the very center of the high, white bed. How luxurious15 it felt to rest thus in a strange, quaint16 bed, with its sweet country odor of laurel lingering about the sheets and mattress17! She stretched her strong limbs that ached a little. She ran her fingers through her loosened hair for a while. She looked at her round arms as she held them straight up and rubbed them one after the other, observing closely, as if it were something she saw for the first time, the fine, firm quality and texture18 of her flesh. She clasped her hands easily above her head, and it was thus she fell asleep.
She slept lightly at first, half awake and drowsily19 attentive20 to the things about her. She could hear Madame Antoine’s heavy, scraping tread as she walked back and forth21 on the sanded floor. Some chickens were clucking outside the windows, scratching for bits of gravel22 in the grass. Later she half heard the voices of Robert and Tonie talking under the shed. She did not stir. Even her eyelids23 rested numb24 and heavily over her sleepy eyes. The voices went on-Tonie’s slow, Acadian drawl, Robert’s quick, soft, smooth French. She understood French imperfectly unless directly addressed, and the voices were only part of the other drowsy, muffled25 sounds lulling26 her senses.
When Edna awoke it was with the conviction that she had slept long and soundly. The voices were hushed under the shed. Madame Antoine’s step was no longer to be heard in the adjoining room. Even the chickens had gone elsewhere to scratch and cluck. The mosquito bar was drawn27 over her; the old woman had come in while she slept and let down the bar. Edna arose quietly from the bed, and looking between the curtains of the window, she saw by the slanting28 rays of the sun that the afternoon was far advanced. Robert was out there under the shed, reclining in the shade against the sloping keel of the overturned boat. He was reading from a book. Tonie was no longer with him. She wondered what had become of the rest of the party. She peeped out at him two or three times as she stood washing herself in the little basin between the windows.
Madame Antoine had laid some coarse, clean towels upon a chair, and had placed a box of poudre de riz within easy reach. Edna dabbed29 the powder upon her nose and cheeks as she looked at herself closely in the little distorted mirror which hung on the wall above the basin. Her eyes were bright and wide awake and her face glowed.
When she had completed her toilet she walked into the adjoining room. She was very hungry. No one was there. But there was a cloth spread upon the table that stood against the wall, and a cover was laid for one, with a crusty brown loaf and a bottle of wine beside the plate. Edna bit a piece from the brown loaf, tearing it with her strong, white teeth. She poured some of the wine into the glass and drank it down. Then she went softly out of doors, and plucking an orange from the low-hanging bough30 of a tree, threw it at Robert, who did not know she was awake and up.
An illumination broke over his whole face when he saw her and joined her under the orange tree.
“How many years have I slept?” she inquired. “The whole island seems changed. A new race of beings must have sprung up, leaving only you and me as past relics31. How many ages ago did Madame Antoine and Tonie die? and when did our people from Grand Isle32 disappear from the earth?”
He familiarly adjusted a ruffle33 upon her shoulder.
“You have slept precisely34 one hundred years. I was left here to guard your slumbers35; and for one hundred years I have been out under the shed reading a book. The only evil I couldn’t prevent was to keep a broiled36 fowl37 from drying up.”
“If it has turned to stone, still will I eat it,” said Edna, moving with him into the house. “But really, what has become of Monsieur Farival and the others?”
“Gone hours ago. When they found that you were sleeping they thought it best not to awake you. Any way, I wouldn’t have let them. What was I here for?”
“I wonder if Leonce will be uneasy!” she speculated, as she seated herself at table.
“Of course not; he knows you are with me,” Robert replied, as he busied himself among sundry38 pans and covered dishes which had been left standing39 on the hearth40.
“Where are Madame Antoine and her son?” asked Edna.
“Gone to Vespers, and to visit some friends, I believe. I am to take you back in Tonie’s boat whenever you are ready to go.”
He stirred the smoldering41 ashes till the broiled fowl began to sizzle afresh. He served her with no mean repast, dripping the coffee anew and sharing it with her. Madame Antoine had cooked little else than the mullets, but while Edna slept Robert had foraged42 the island. He was childishly gratified to discover her appetite, and to see the relish43 with which she ate the food which he had procured44 for her.
“Shall we go right away?” she asked, after draining her glass and brushing together the crumbs45 of the crusty loaf.
“The sun isn’t as low as it will be in two hours,” he answered.
“The sun will be gone in two hours.”
“Well, let it go; who cares!”
They waited a good while under the orange trees, till Madame Antoine came back, panting, waddling46, with a thousand apologies to explain her absence. Tonie did not dare to return. He was shy, and would not willingly face any woman except his mother.
It was very pleasant to stay there under the orange trees, while the sun dipped lower and lower, turning the western sky to flaming copper47 and gold. The shadows lengthened48 and crept out like stealthy, grotesque49 monsters across the grass.
Edna and Robert both sat upon the ground-that is, he lay upon the ground beside her, occasionally picking at the hem13 of her muslin gown.
Madame Antoine seated her fat body, broad and squat50, upon a bench beside the door. She had been talking all the afternoon, and had wound herself up to the storytelling pitch.
And what stories she told them! But twice in her life she had left the Cheniere Caminada, and then for the briefest span. All her years she had squatted51 and waddled52 there upon the island, gathering53 legends of the Baratarians and the sea. The night came on, with the moon to lighten it. Edna could hear the whispering voices of dead men and the click of muffled gold.
When she and Robert stepped into Tonie’s boat, with the red lateen sail, misty54 spirit forms were prowling in the shadows and among the reeds, and upon the water were phantom55 ships, speeding to cover.
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drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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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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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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cistern
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| n.贮水池 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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buoy
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| n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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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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mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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lulling
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的现在分词形式） | |
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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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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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dabbed
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| （用某物）轻触( dab的过去式和过去分词 )； 轻而快地擦掉（或抹掉）； 快速擦拭； （用某物）轻而快地涂上（或点上）… | |
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bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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ruffle
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| v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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broiled
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| a.烤过的 | |
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fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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smoldering
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| v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 ) | |
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42
foraged
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| v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西） | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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44
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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45
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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46
waddling
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的现在分词 ) | |
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47
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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48
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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50
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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51
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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52
waddled
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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54
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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55
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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