Teresa, Mrs. Thropplestance, was the richest and most intractable old woman in the county of Woldshire. In her dealings with the world in general her manner suggested a blend between a Mistress of the Robes and a Master of Foxhounds, with the vocabulary of both. In her domestic circle she comported1 herself in the arbitrary style that one attributes, probably without the least justification2, to an American political Boss in the bosom3 of his caucus4. The late Theodore Thropplestance had left her, some thirty-five years ago, in absolute possession of a considerable fortune, a large landed property, and a gallery full of valuable pictures. In those intervening years she had outlived her son and quarrelled with her elder grandson, who had married without her consent or approval. Bertie Thropplestance, her younger grandson, was the heir-designate to her property, and as such he was a centre of interest and concern to some half-hundred ambitious mothers with daughters of marriageable age. Bertie was an amiable5, easy-going young man, who was quite ready to marry anyone who was favourably6 recommended to his notice, but he was not going to waste his time in falling in love with anyone who would come under his grandmother’s veto. The favourable7 recommendation would have to come from Mrs. Thropplestance.
Teresa’s house-parties were always rounded off with a plentiful8 garnishing9 of presentable young women and alert, attendant mothers, but the old lady was emphatically discouraging whenever any one of her girl guests became at all likely to outbid the others as a possible granddaughter-inlaw. It was the inheritance of her fortune and estate that was in question, and she was evidently disposed to exercise and enjoy her powers of selection and rejection10 to the utmost. Bertie’s preferences did not greatly matter; he was of the sort who can be stolidly11 happy with any kind of wife; he had cheerfully put up with his grandmother all his life, so was not likely to fret12 and fume13 over anything that might befall him in the way of a helpmate.
The party that gathered under Teresa’s roof in Christmas week of the year nineteen-hundred-and-something was of smaller proportions than usual, and Mrs. Yonelet, who formed one of the party, was inclined to deduce hopeful augury14 from this circumstance. Dora Yonelet and Bertie were so obviously made for one another, she confided15 to the vicar’s wife, and if the old lady were accustomed to seeing them about a lot together she might adopt the view that they would make a suitable married couple.
“People soon get used to an idea if it is dangled16 constantly before their eyes,” said Mrs. Yonelet hopefully, “and the more often Teresa sees those young people together, happy in each other’s company, the more she will get to take a kindly17 interest in Dora as a possible and desirable wife for Bertie.”
“My dear,” said the vicar’s wife resignedly, “my own Sybil was thrown together with Bertie under the most romantic circumstances — I’ll tell you about it some day — but it made no impression whatever on Teresa; she put her foot down in the most uncompromising fashion, and Sybil married an Indian civilian18.”
“Quite right of her,” said Mrs. Yonelet with vague approval; “it’s what any girl of spirit would have done. Still, that was a year or two ago, I believe; Bertie is older now, and so is Teresa. Naturally she must be anxious to see him settled.”
The vicar’s wife reflected that Teresa seemed to be the one person who showed no immediate19 anxiety to supply Bertie with a wife, but she kept the thought to herself.
Mrs. Yonelet was a woman of resourceful energy and generalship; she involved the other members of the house-party, the deadweight, so to speak, in all manner of exercises and occupations that segregated20 them from Bertie and Dora, who were left to their own devisings — that is to say, to Dora’s devisings and Bertie’s accommodating acquiescence21. Dora helped in the Christmas decorations of the parish church, and Bertie helped her to help. Together they fed the swans, till the birds went on a dyspepsia-strike, together they played billiards22, together they photographed the village almshouses, and, at a respectful distance, the tame elk23 that browsed24 in solitary25 aloofness26 in the park. It was “tame” in the sense that it had long ago discarded the least vestige27 of fear of the human race; nothing in its record encouraged its human neighbours to feel a reciprocal confidence.
Whatever sport or exercise or occupation Bertie and Dora indulged in together was unfailingly chronicled and advertised by Mrs. Yonelet for the due enlightenment of Bertie’s grandmother.
“Those two inseparables have just come in from a bicycle ride,” she would announce; “quite a picture they make, so fresh and glowing after their spin.”
“A picture needing words,” would be Teresa’s private comment, and as far as Bertie was concerned she was determined28 that the words should remain unspoken.
On the afternoon after Christmas Day Mrs. Yonelet dashed into the drawing-room, where her hostess was sitting amid a circle of guests and teacups and muffin-dishes. Fate had placed what seemed like a trump-card in the hands of the patiently-manoeuvring mother. With eyes blazing with excitement and a voice heavily escorted with exclamation30 marks she made a dramatic announcement.
“Bertie has saved Dora from the elk!”
In swift, excited sentences, broken with maternal31 emotion, she gave supplementary32 information as to how the treacherous33 animal had ambushed34 Dora as she was hunting for a strayed golf ball, and how Bertie had dashed to her rescue with a stable fork and driven the beast off in the nick of time.
“It was touch and go! She threw her niblick at it, but that didn’t stop it. In another moment she would have been crushed beneath its hoofs,” panted Mrs. Yonelet.
“The animal is not safe,” said Teresa, handing her agitated35 guest a cup of tea. “I forget if you take sugar. I suppose the solitary life it leads has soured its temper. There are muffins in the grate. It’s not my fault; I’ve tried to get it a mate for ever so long. You don’t know of anyone with a lady elk for sale or exchange, do you?” she asked the company generally.
But Mrs. Yonelet was in no humour to listen to talk of elk marriages. The mating of two human beings was the subject uppermost in her mind, and the opportunity for advancing her pet project was too valuable to be neglected.
“Teresa,” she exclaimed impressively, “after those two young people have been thrown together so dramatically, nothing can be quite the same again between them. Bertie has done more than save Dora’s life; he has earned her affection. One cannot help feeling that Fate has consecrated36 them for one another.”
“Exactly what the vicar’s wife said when Bertie saved Sybil from the elk a year or two ago,” observed Teresa placidly37; “I pointed38 out to her that he had rescued Mirabel Hicks from the same predicement a few months previously39, and that priority really belonged to the gardener’s boy, who had been rescued in the January of that year. There is a good deal of sameness in country life, you know.”
“It seems to be a very dangerous animal,” said one of the guests.
“That’s what the mother of the gardener’s boy said,” remarked Teresa; “she wanted me to have it destroyed, but I pointed out to her that she had eleven children and I had only one elk. I also gave her a black silk skirt; she said that though there hadn’t been a funeral in her family she felt as if there had been. Anyhow, we parted friends. I can’t offer you a silk skirt, Emily, but you may have another cup of tea. As I have already remarked, there are muffins in the grate.”
Teresa dosed the discussion, having deftly40 conveyed the impression that she considered the mother of the gardener’s boy had shown a far more reasonable spirit than the parents of other elk-assaulted victims.
“Teresa is devoid41 of feeling,” said Mrs. Yonelet afterwards to the vicar’s wife; “to sit there, talking of muffins, with an appalling42 tragedy only narrowly averted43 —”
“Of course you know whom she really intends Bertie to marry?” asked the vicar’s wife; “I’ve noticed it for some time. The Bickelbys’ German governess.”
“A German governess! What an idea!” gasped44 Mrs. Yonelet.
“She’s of quite good family, I believe,” said the vicar’s wife, “and not at all the mouse-inthe-back-ground sort of person that governesses are usually supposed to be. In fact, next to Teresa, she’s about the most assertive45 and combative46 personality in the neighbourhood. She’s pointed out to my husband all sorts of errors in his sermons, and she gave Sir Laurence a public lecture on how he ought to handle the hounds. You know how sensitive Sir Laurence is about any criticism of his Mastership, and to have a governess laying down the law to him nearly drove him into a fit. She’s behaved like that to every one, except, of course, Teresa, and every one has been defensively rude to her in return. The Bickelbys are simply too afraid of her to get rid of her. Now isn’t that exactly the sort of woman whom Teresa would take a delight in installing as her successor? Imagine the discomfort47 and awkwardness in the county if we suddenly found that she was to be the future hostess at the Hall. Teresa’s only regret will be that she won’t be alive to see it.”
“But,” objected Mrs. Yonelet, “surely Bertie hasn’t shown the least sign of being attracted in that quarter?”
“Oh, she’s quite nice-looking in a way, and dresses well, and plays a good game of tennis. She often comes across the park with messages from the Bickelby mansion48, and one of these days Bertie will rescue her from the elk, which has become almost a habit with him, and Teresa will say that Fate has consecrated them to one another. Bertie might not be disposed to pay much attention to the consecrations of Fate, but he would not dream of opposing his grandmother.”
The vicar’s wife spoke29 with the quiet authority of one who has intuitive knowledge, and in her heart of hearts Mrs. Yonelet believed her.
Six months later the elk had to be destroyed. In a fit of exceptional moroseness49 it had killed the Bickelbys’ German governess. It was an irony50 of its fate that it should achieve popularity in the last moments of its career; at any rate, it established, the record of being the only living thing that had permanently51 thwarted52 Teresa Thropplestance’s plans.
Dora Yonelet broke off her engagement with an Indian civilian, and married Bertie three months after his grandmother’s death — Teresa did not long survive the German governess fiasco. At Christmas time every year young Mrs. Thropplestance hangs an extra large festoon of evergreens53 on the elk horns that decorate the hall.
“It was a fearsome beast,” she observes to Bertie, “but I always feel that it was instrumental in bringing us together.”
Which, of course, was true.
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comported
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| v.表现( comport的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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caucus
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| n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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garnishing
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| v.给（上餐桌的食物）加装饰( garnish的现在分词 ) | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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fume
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| n.(usu pl.)(浓烈或难闻的)烟，气，汽 | |
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augury
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| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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segregated
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| 分开的； 被隔离的 | |
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acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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billiards
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| n.台球 | |
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elk
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| n.麋鹿 | |
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browsed
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| v.吃草( browse的过去式和过去分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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aloofness
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| 超然态度 | |
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vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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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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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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supplementary
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| adj.补充的，附加的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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ambushed
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| v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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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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assertive
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| adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的 | |
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combative
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| adj.好战的；好斗的 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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moroseness
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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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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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52
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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53
evergreens
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| n.常青树，常绿植物，万年青( evergreen的名词复数 ) | |
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