"Perhaps you will wake up and find the sun shining and the birdssinging," she said compassionately1, smoothing the little boy's hair, forher husband, with his caustic2 saying that it would not be fine, haddashed his spirits she could see. This going to the Lighthouse was a passionof his, she saw, and then, as if her husband had not said enough,with his caustic saying that it would not be fine tomorrow, this odiouslittle man went and rubbed it in all over again.
"Perhaps it will be fine tomorrow," she said, smoothing his hair.
All she could do now was to admire the refrigerator, and turn thepages of the Stores list in the hope that she might come upon somethinglike a rake, or a mowing-machine, which, with its prongs and its handles,would need the greatest skill and care in cutting out. All these youngmen parodied3 her husband, she reflected; he said it would rain; they saidit would be a positive tornado4.
But here, as she turned the page, suddenly her search for the picture ofa rake or a mowing-machine was interrupted. The gruff murmur5, irregularlybroken by the taking out of pipes and the putting in of pipes whichhad kept on assuring her, though she could not hear what was said (asshe sat in the window which opened on the terrace), that the men werehappily talking; this sound, which had lasted now half an hour and hadtaken its place soothingly6 in the scale of sounds pressing on top of her,such as the tap of balls upon bats, the sharp, sudden bark now and then,"How's that? How's that?" of the children playing cricket, had ceased; sothat the monotonous8 fall of the waves on the beach, which for the mostpart beat a measured and soothing7 tattoo9 to her thoughts and seemedconsolingly to repeat over and over again as she sat with the children thewords of some old cradle song, murmured by nature, "I am guardingyou—I am your support," but at other times suddenly and unexpectedly,especially when her mind raised itself slightly from the task actually inhand, had no such kindly10 meaning, but like a ghostly roll of drums remorselesslybeat the measure of life, made one think of the destruction ofthe island and its engulfment11 in the sea, and warned her whose day hadslipped past in one quick doing after another that it was all ephermal asa rainbow—this sound which had been obscured and concealed12 underthe other sounds suddenly thundered hollow in her ears and made herlook up with an impulse of terror.
They had ceased to talk; that was the explanation. Falling in onesecond from the tension which had gripped her to the other extremewhich, as if to recoup her for her unnecessary expense of emotion, wascool, amused, and even faintly malicious13, she concluded that poorCharles Tansley had been shed. That was of little account to her. If herhusband required sacrifices (and indeed he did) she cheerfully offeredup to him Charles Tansley, who had snubbed her little boy.
One moment more, with her head raised, she listened, as if she waitedfor some habitual14 sound, some regular mechanical sound; and then,hearing something rhythmical15, half said, half chanted, beginning in thegarden, as her husband beat up and down the terrace, somethingbetween a croak16 and a song, she was soothed17 once more, assured againthat all was well, and looking down at the book on her knee found thepicture of a pocket knife with six blades which could only be cut out ifJames was very careful.
Suddenly a loud cry, as of a sleep-walker, half roused, somethingaboutStormed at with shot and shellsung out with the utmost intensity18 in her ear, made her turn apprehensivelyto see if anyone had heard him. Only Lily Briscoe, she wasglad to find; and that did not matter. But the sight of the girl standing19 onthe edge of the lawn painting reminded her; she was supposed to bekeeping her head as much in the same position as possible for Lily's picture.
Lily's picture! Mrs Ramsay smiled. With her little Chinese eyes andher puckered-up face, she would never marry; one could not take herpainting very seriously; she was an independent little creature, and MrsRamsay liked her for it; so, remembering her promise, she bent20 her head.
1 compassionately | |
adv.表示怜悯地,有同情心地 | |
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2 caustic | |
adj.刻薄的,腐蚀性的 | |
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3 parodied | |
v.滑稽地模仿,拙劣地模仿( parody的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4 tornado | |
n.飓风,龙卷风 | |
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5 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
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6 soothingly | |
adv.抚慰地,安慰地;镇痛地 | |
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7 soothing | |
adj.慰藉的;使人宽心的;镇静的 | |
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8 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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9 tattoo | |
n.纹身,(皮肤上的)刺花纹;vt.刺花纹于 | |
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10 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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11 engulfment | |
[医]吞食,病毒固定 | |
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12 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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13 malicious | |
adj.有恶意的,心怀恶意的 | |
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14 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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15 rhythmical | |
adj.有节奏的,有韵律的 | |
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16 croak | |
vi.嘎嘎叫,发牢骚 | |
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17 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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18 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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19 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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20 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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