Without even waiting for an answer from her husband regarding his opinion or wishes in the matter, Edna hastened her preparations for quitting her home on Esplanade Street and moving into the little house around the block. A feverish1 anxiety attended her every action in that direction. There was no moment of deliberation, no interval2 of repose3 between the thought and its fulfillment. Early upon the morning following those hours passed in Arobin’s society, Edna set about securing her new abode4 and hurrying her arrangements for occupying it. Within the precincts of her home she felt like one who has entered and lingered within the portals of some forbidden temple in which a thousand muffled5 voices bade her begone.
Whatever was her own in the house, everything which she had acquired aside from her husband’s bounty6, she caused to be transported to the other house, supplying simple and meager7 deficiencies from her own resources.
Arobin found her with rolled sleeves, working in company with the house-maid when he looked in during the afternoon. She was splendid and robust8, and had never appeared handsomer than in the old blue gown, with a red silk handkerchief knotted at random9 around her head to protect her hair from the dust. She was mounted upon a high stepladder, unhooking a picture from the wall when he entered. He had found the front door open, and had followed his ring by walking in unceremoniously.
“Come down!” he said. “Do you want to kill yourself?” She greeted him with affected10 carelessness, and appeared absorbed in her occupation.
If he had expected to find her languishing11, reproachful, or indulging in sentimental12 tears, he must have been greatly surprised.
He was no doubt prepared for any emergency, ready for any one of the foregoing attitudes, just as he bent13 himself easily and naturally to the situation which confronted him.
“Please come down,” he insisted, holding the ladder and looking up at her.
“No,” she answered; “Ellen is afraid to mount the ladder. Joe is working over at the ‘pigeon house’-that’s the name Ellen gives it, because it’s so small and looks like a pigeon house-and some one has to do this.”
Arobin pulled off his coat, and expressed himself ready and willing to tempt14 fate in her place. Ellen brought him one of her dust-caps, and went into contortions15 of mirth, which she found it impossible to control, when she saw him put it on before the mirror as grotesquely16 as he could. Edna herself could not refrain from smiling when she fastened it at his request. So it was he who in turn mounted the ladder, unhooking pictures and curtains, and dislodging ornaments17 as Edna directed. When he had finished he took off his dust-cap and went out to wash his hands.
Edna was sitting on the tabouret, idly brushing the tips of a feather duster along the carpet when he came in again.
“Is there anything more you will let me do?” he asked.
“That is all,” she answered. “Ellen can manage the rest.” She kept the young woman occupied in the drawing-room, unwilling18 to be left alone with Arobin.
“What about the dinner?” he asked; “the grand event, the coup19 d’etat?”
“It will be day after to-morrow. Why do you call it the ‘coup d’etat?’ Oh! it will be very fine; all my best of everything-crystal, silver and gold, Sevres, flowers, music, and champagne20 to swim in. I’ll let Leonce pay the bills. I wonder what he’ll say when he sees the bills.
“And you ask me why I call it a coup d’etat?” Arobin had put on his coat, and he stood before her and asked if his cravat21 was plumb22. She told him it was, looking no higher than the tip of his collar.
“When do you go to the ‘pigeon house?’-with all due acknowledgment to Ellen.”
“Day after to-morrow, after the dinner. I shall sleep there.”
“Ellen, will you very kindly23 get me a glass of water?” asked Arobin. “The dust in the curtains, if you will pardon me for hinting such a thing, has parched24 my throat to a crisp.”
“While Ellen gets the water,” said Edna, rising, “I will say good-by and let you go. I must get rid of this grime, and I have a million things to do and think of.”
“When shall I see you?” asked Arobin, seeking to detain her, the maid having left the room.
“At the dinner, of course. You are invited.”
“Not before?-not to-night or to-morrow morning or tomorrow noon or night? or the day after morning or noon? Can’t you see yourself, without my telling you, what an eternity25 it is?”
He had followed her into the hall and to the foot of the stairway, looking up at her as she mounted with her face half turned to him.
“Not an instant sooner,” she said. But she laughed and looked at him with eyes that at once gave him courage to wait and made it torture to wait.
1 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 muffled | |
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) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 bounty | |
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 meager | |
adj.缺乏的,不足的,瘦的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 robust | |
adj.强壮的,强健的,粗野的,需要体力的,浓的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 languishing | |
a. 衰弱下去的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 tempt | |
vt.引诱,勾引,吸引,引起…的兴趣 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 contortions | |
n.扭歪,弯曲;扭曲,弄歪,歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 grotesquely | |
adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 coup | |
n.政变;突然而成功的行动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 champagne | |
n.香槟酒;微黄色 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 cravat | |
n.领巾,领结;v.使穿有领结的服装,使结领结 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 plumb | |
adv.精确地,完全地;v.了解意义,测水深 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 parched | |
adj.焦干的;极渴的;v.(使)焦干 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |