Jocantha Bessbury was in the mood to be serenely1 and graciously happy. Her world was a pleasant place, and it was wearing one of its pleasantest aspects. Gregory had managed to get home for a hurried lunch and a smoke afterwards in the little snuggery; the lunch had been a good one, and there was just time to do justice to the coffee and cigarettes. Both were excellent in their way, and Gregory was, in his way, an excellent husband. Jocantha rather suspected herself of making him a very charming wife, and more than suspected herself of having a first-rate dressmaker.
“I don’t suppose a more thoroughly2 contented3 personality is to be found in all Chelsea,” observed Jocantha in allusion4 to herself; “except perhaps Attab,” she continued, glancing towards the large tabby-marked cat that lay in considerable ease in a corner of the divan5. “He lies there, purring and dreaming, shifting his limbs now and then in an ecstasy6 of cushioned comfort. He seems the incarnation of everything soft and silky and velvety7, without a sharp edge in his composition, a dreamer whose philosophy is sleep and let sleep; and then, as evening draws on, he goes out into the garden with a red glint in his eyes and slays8 a drowsy9 sparrow.”
“As every pair of sparrows hatches out ten or more young ones in the year, while their food supply remains10 stationary11, it is just as well that the Attabs of the community should have that idea of how to pass an amusing afternoon,” said Gregory. Having delivered himself of this sage12 comment he lit another cigarette, bade Jocantha a playfully affectionate good-bye, and departed into the outer world.
“Remember, dinner’s a wee bit earlier to-night, as we’re going to the Haymarket,” she called after him.
Left to herself, Jocantha continued the process of looking at her life with placid13, introspective eyes. If she had not everything she wanted in this world, at least she was very well pleased with what she had got. She was very well pleased, for instance, with the snuggery, which contrived14 somehow to be cosy15 and dainty and expensive all at once. The porcelain16 was rare and beautiful, the Chinese enamels17 took on wonderful tints18 in the firelight, the rugs and hangings led the eye through sumptuous19 harmonies of colouring. It was a room in which one might have suitably entertained an ambassador or an archbishop, but it was also a room in which one could cut out pictures for a scrap-book without feeling that one was scandalising the deities20 of the place with one’s litter. And as with the snuggery, so with the rest of the house, and as with the house, so with the other departments of Jocantha’s life; she really had good reason for being one of the most contented women in Chelsea.
From being in a mood of simmering satisfaction with her lot she passed to the phase of being generously commiserating21 for those thousands around her whose lives and circumstances were dull, cheap, pleasureless, and empty. Work girls, shop assistants and so forth22, the class that have neither the happy-go-lucky freedom of the poor nor the leisured freedom of the rich, came specially23 within the range of her sympathy. It was sad to think that there were young people who, after a long day’s work, had to sit alone in chill, dreary24 bedrooms because they could not afford the price of a cup of coffee and a sandwich in a restaurant, still less a shilling for a theatre gallery.
Jocantha’s mind was still dwelling25 on this theme when she started forth on an afternoon campaign of desultory26 shopping; it would be rather a comforting thing, she told herself, if she could do something, on the spur of the moment, to bring a gleam of pleasure and interest into the life of even one or two wistful-hearted, empty-pocketed workers; it would add a good deal to her sense of enjoyment27 at the theatre that night. She would get two upper circle tickets for a popular play, make her way into some cheap tea-shop, and present the tickets to the first couple of interesting work girls with whom she could casually28 drop into conversation. She could explain matters by saying that she was unable to use the tickets herself and did not want them to be wasted, and, on the other hand, did not want the trouble of sending them back. On further reflection she decided29 that it might be better to get only one ticket and give it to some lonely-looking girl sitting eating her frugal30 meal by herself; the girl might scrape acquaintance with her next-seat neighbour at the theatre and lay the foundations of a lasting31 friendship.
With the Fairy Godmother impulse strong upon her, Jocantha marched into a ticket agency and selected with immense care an upper circle seat for the “Yellow Peacock,” a play that was attracting a considerable amount of discussion and criticism. Then she went forth in search of a tea-shop and philanthropic adventure, at about the same time that Attab sauntered into the garden with a mind attuned32 to sparrow stalking. In a corner of an A.B.C. shop she found an unoccupied table, whereat she promptly33 installed herself, impelled34 by the fact that at the next table was sitting a young girl, rather plain of feature, with tired, listless eyes, and a general air of uncomplaining forlornness. Her dress was of poor material, but aimed at being in the fashion, her hair was pretty, and her complexion35 bad; she was finishing a modest meal of tea and scone36, and she was not very different in her way from thousands of other girls who were finishing, or beginning, or continuing their teas in London tea-shops at that exact moment. The odds37 were enormously in favour of the supposition that she had never seen the “Yellow Peacock”; obviously she supplied excellent material for Jocantha’s first experiment in haphazard38 benefaction.
Jocantha ordered some tea and a muffin, and then turned a friendly scrutiny39 on her neighbour with a view to catching40 her eye. At that precise moment the girl’s face lit up with sudden pleasure, her eyes sparkled, a flush came into her cheeks, and she looked almost pretty. A young man, whom she greeted with an affectionate “Hullo, Bertie,” came up to her table and took his seat in a chair facing her. Jocantha looked hard at the new-comer; he was in appearance a few years younger than herself, very much better looking than Gregory, rather better looking, in fact, than any of the young men of her set. She guessed him to be a well-mannered young clerk in some wholesale41 warehouse42, existing and amusing himself as best he might on a tiny salary, and commanding a holiday of about two weeks in the year. He was aware, of course, of his good looks, but with the shy self-consciousness of the Anglo–Saxon, not the blatant43 complacency of the Latin or Semite. He was obviously on terms of friendly intimacy44 with the girl he was talking to, probably they were drifting towards a formal engagement. Jocantha pictured the boy’s home, in a rather narrow circle, with a tiresome45 mother who always wanted to know how and where he spent his evenings. He would exchange that humdrum46 thraldom47 in due course for a home of his own, dominated by a chronic48 scarcity49 of pounds, shillings, and pence, and a dearth50 of most of the things that made life attractive or comfortable. Jocantha felt extremely sorry for him. She wondered if he had seen the “Yellow Peacock”; the odds were enormously in favour of the supposition that he had not. The girl had finished her tea and would shortly be going back to her work; when the boy was alone it would be quite easy for Jocantha to say: “My husband has made other arrangements for me this evening; would you care to make use of this ticket, which would otherwise be wasted?” Then she could come there again one afternoon for tea, and, if she saw him, ask him how he liked the play. If he was a nice boy and improved on acquaintance he could be given more theatre tickets, and perhaps asked to come one Sunday to tea at Chelsea. Jocantha made up her mind that he would improve on acquaintance, and that Gregory would like him, and that the Fairy Godmother business would prove far more entertaining than she had originally anticipated. The boy was distinctly presentable; he knew how to brush his hair, which was possibly an imitative faculty51; he knew what colour of tie suited him, which might be intuition; he was exactly the type that Jocantha admired, which of course was accident. Altogether she was rather pleased when the girl looked at the clock and bade a friendly but hurried farewell to her companion. Bertie nodded “good-bye,” gulped52 down a mouthful of tea, and then produced from his overcoat pocket a paper-covered book, bearing the title “Sepoy and Sahib, a tale of the great Mutiny.”
The laws of tea-shop etiquette53 forbid that you should offer theatre tickets to a stranger without having first caught the stranger’s eye. It is even better if you can ask to have a sugar basin passed to you, having previously54 concealed55 the fact that you have a large and well-filled sugar basin on your own table; this is not difficult to manage, as the printed menu is generally nearly as large as the table, and can be made to stand on end. Jocantha set to work hopefully; she had a long and rather high-pitched discussion with the waitress concerning alleged56 defects in an altogether blameless muffin, she made loud and plaintive57 inquiries58 about the tube service to some impossibly remote suburb, she talked with brilliant insincerity to the tea-shop kitten, and as a last resort she upset a milk-jug and swore at it daintily. Altogether she attracted a good deal of attention, but never for a moment did she attract the attention of the boy with the beautifully-brushed hair, who was some thousands of miles away in the baking plains of Hindostan, amid deserted59 bungalows60, seething61 bazaars62, and riotous63 barrack squares, listening to the throbbing64 of tom-toms and the distant rattle65 of musketry.
Jocantha went back to her house in Chelsea, which struck her for the first time as looking dull and over-furnished. She had a resentful conviction that Gregory would be uninteresting at dinner, and that the play would be stupid after dinner. On the whole her frame of mind showed a marked divergence66 from the purring complacency of Attab, who was again curled up in his corner of the divan with a great peace radiating from every curve of his body.
But then he had killed his sparrow.
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1
serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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slays
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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enamels
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| 搪瓷( enamel的名词复数 )； 珐琅； 釉药； 瓷漆 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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commiserating
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| v.怜悯，同情( commiserate的现在分词 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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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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30
frugal
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| adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的 | |
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31
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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attuned
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| v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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scone
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| n.圆饼，甜饼，司康饼 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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haphazard
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| adj.无计划的，随意的，杂乱无章的 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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42
warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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43
blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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44
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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45
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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46
humdrum
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| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
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47
thraldom
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| n.奴隶的身份，奴役，束缚 | |
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48
chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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49
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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50
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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51
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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52
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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53
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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54
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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55
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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56
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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58
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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59
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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60
bungalows
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| n.平房( bungalow的名词复数 )；单层小屋，多于一层的小屋 | |
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61
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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62
bazaars
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| （东方国家的）市场( bazaar的名词复数 )； 义卖； 义卖市场； （出售花哨商品等的）小商品市场 | |
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63
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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64
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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66
divergence
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| n.分歧，岔开 | |
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