Exhibits the Springing of a Mine in a Newspaper Article
The powers of harmony would seem to be tried to their shrewdest pitch when Politics and Love are planted together in a human breast. This apparently1 opposite couple can nevertheless chant a very sweet accord, as was shown by Dacier on his homeward walk from Diana’s house. Let Love lead, the God will make music of any chamber-comrade. He was able to think of affairs of State while feeling the satisfied thirst of the lover whose pride, irritated by confidential2 wild eulogies3 of the beautiful woman, had recently clamoured for proofs of his commandership. The impression she stamped on him at Copsley remained, but it could not occupy the foreground for ever. He did not object to play second to her sprightly4 wits in converse5, if he had some warm testimony6 to his mastery over her blood. For the world had given her to him, enthusiastic friends had congratulated him: she had exalted7 him for true knightliness8; and he considered the proofs well earned, though he did not value them low. They were little by comparison. They lighted, instead of staining, her unparalleled high character.
She loved him. Full surely did she love him, or such a woman would never have consented to brave the world; once in their project of flight, and next, even more endearingly when contemplated9, in the sacrifice of her good name; not omitting that fervent10 memory of her pained submission11, but a palpitating submission, to his caress12. She was in his arms again at the thought of it. He had melted her, and won the confession13 of her senses by a surprise, and he owned that never had woman been so vigilantly14 self-guarded or so watchful15 to keep her lover amused and aloof16. Such a woman deserved long service. But then the long service deserved its time of harvest. Her surging look of reproach in submission pointed17 to the golden time, and as he was a man of honour, pledged to her for life, he had no remorse18, and no scruple19 in determining to exact her dated promise, on this occasion deliberately20. She was the woman to be his wife; she was his mind’s mate: they had hung apart in deference21 to mere22 scruples23 too long. During the fierce battle of the Session she would be his help, his fountain of counsel; and she would be the rosy24 gauze-veiled more than cold helper and adviser25, the being which would spur her womanly intelligence to acknowledge, on this occasion deliberately, the wisdom of the step. They had been so close to it! She might call it madness then: now it was wisdom. Each had complete experience of the other, and each vowed26 the step must be taken. As to the secret communicated, he exulted27 in the pardonable cunning of the impulse turning him back to her house after the guests had gone, and the dexterous28 play of his bait on the line, tempting29 her to guess and quit her queenly guard. Though it had not been distinctly schemed, the review of it in that light added to the enjoyment30. It had been dimly and richly conjectured31 as a hoped result. Small favours from her were really worth, thrice worth, the utmost from other women. They tasted the sweeter for the winning of them artfully—an honourable32 thing in love. Nature, rewarding the lover’s ingenuity33 and enterprise, inspires him with old Greek notions of right and wrong: and love is indeed a fluid mercurial34 realm, continually shifting the principles of rectitude and larceny35. As long as he means nobly, what is there to condemn36 him? Not she in her heart. She was the presiding divinity.
And she, his Tony, that splendid Diana, was the woman the world abused! Whom will it not abuse?
The slough37 she would have to plunge38 in before he could make her his own with the world’s consent, was already up to her throat. She must, and without further hesitation39, be steeped, that he might drag her out, washed of the imputed40 defilement41, and radiant, as she was in character. Reflection now said this; not impulse. Her words rang through him. At every meeting she said things to confound his estimate of the wits of women, or be remembered for some spirited ring they had: A high wind will make a dead leaf fly like a bird. He murmured it and flew with her. She quickened a vein42 of imagination that gave him entrance to a strangely brilliant sphere, above his own, where, she sustaining, he too could soar; and he did, scarce conscious of walking home, undressing, falling asleep.
The act of waking was an instantaneous recovery of his emotional rapture44 of the overnight; nor was it a bar to graver considerations. His Chief had gone down to a house in the country; his personal business was to see and sound the followers45 of their party—after another sight of his Tony. She would be sure to counsel sagaciously; she always did. She had a marvellous intuition of the natures of the men he worked with, solely46 from his chance descriptions of them; it was as though he started the bird and she transfixed it. And she should not have matter to rule her smooth brows: that he swore to. She should sway him as she pleased, be respected after her prescribed manner. The promise must be exacted; nothing besides, promise.—You see, Tony, you cannot be less than Tony to me now, he addressed the gentle phantom48 of her. Let me have your word, and I am your servant till the Session ends.—Tony blushes her swarthy crimson49: Diana, fluttering, rebukes50 her; but Diana is the appeasable Goddess; Tony is the woman, and she loves him. The glorious Goddess need not cut them adrift; they can show her a book of honest pages.
Dacier could truthfully say he had worshipped, done knightly51 service to the beloved woman, homage52 to the aureole encircling her. Those friends of his, covertly53 congratulating him on her preference, doubtless thought him more privileged than he was; but they did not know Diana; and they were welcome, if they would only believe, to the knowledge that he was at the feet of this most sovereign woman. He despised the particular Satyr-world which, whatever the nature or station of the woman, crowns the desecrator54, and bestows55 the title of Fool on the worshipper. He could have answered veraciously56 that she had kept him from folly57.
Nevertheless the term to service must come. In the assurance of the approaching term he stood braced58 against a blowing world; happy as men are when their muscles are strung for a prize they pluck with the energy and aim of their whole force.
Letters and morning papers were laid for him to peruse59 in his dressing43-room. He read his letters before the bath. Not much public news was expected at the present season. While dressing, he turned over the sheets of Whitmonby’s journal. Dull comments on stale things. Foreign news. Home news, with the leaders on them, identically dull. Behold60 the effect of Journalism61: a witty62 man, sparkling overnight, gets into his pulpit and proses; because he must say something, and he really knows nothing.
Journalists have an excessive overestimate63 of their influence. They cannot, as Diana said, comparing them with men on the Parliamentary platform, cannot feel they are aboard the big vessel64; they can only strive to raise a breeze, or find one to swell65; and they cannot measure the stoutness66 or the greatness of the good ship England. Dacier’s personal ambition was inferior to his desire to extend and strengthen his England. Parliament was the field, Government the office. How many conversations had passed between him and Diana on that patriotic67 dream! She had often filled his drooping68 sails; he owned it proudly:—and while the world, both the hoofed69 and the rectilinear portions, were biting at her character! Had he fretted70 her self-respect? He blamed himself, but a devoted71 service must have its term.
The paper of Mr. Tonans was reserved for perusal72 at breakfast. He reserved it because Tonans was an opponent, tricksy and surprising now and then, amusing too; unlikely to afford him serious reflections. The recent endeavours of his journal to whip the Government-team to a right-about-face were annoying, preposterous73. Dacier had admitted to Diana that Tonans merited the thanks of the country during ‘the discreditable Railway mania74, when his articles had a fine exhortative75 and prophetic twang, and had done marked good. Otherwise, as regarded the Ministry76, the veering77 gusts78 of Tonans were objectionable: he ‘raised the breeze’ wantonly as well as disagreeably. Any one can whip up the populace if he has the instruments; and Tonans frequently intruded79 on the Ministry’s prerogative80 to govern. The journalist was bidding against the statesman. But such is the condition of a rapidly Radicalizing country! We must take it as it is.
With a complacent81, What now, Dacier fixed47 his indifferent eyes on the first column of the leaders. He read, and his eyes grew horny. He jerked back at each sentence, electrified82, staring. The article was shorter than usual. Total Repeal83 was named; the precise date when the Minister intended calling Parliament together to propose it. The ‘Total Repeal’ might be guess-work—an Editor’s bold stroke; but the details, the date, were significant of positive information. The Minister’s definite and immediate84 instructions were exactly stated.
Where could the fellow have got hold of that? Dacier asked the blank ceiling.
He frowned at vacant corners of the room in an effort to conjure85 some speculation86 indicative of the source.
Had his Chief confided87 the secret to another and a traitor88? Had they been overheard in his library when the project determined89 on was put in plain speech?
The answer was no, impossible, to each question.
He glanced at Diana. She? But it was past midnight when he left her. And she would never have betrayed him, never, never. To imagine it a moment was an injury to her.
Where else could he look? It had been specially90 mentioned in the communication as a secret by his Chief, who trusted him and no others. Up to the consultation91 with the Cabinet, it was a thing to be guarded like life itself. Not to a soul except Diana would Dacier have breathed syllable92 of any secret—and one of this weight!
He ran down the article again. There were the facts; undeniable facts; and they detonated with audible roaring and rounding echoes of them over England. How did they come there? As well inquire how man came on the face of the earth.
He had to wipe his forehead perpetually. Think as he would in exaltation of Diana to shelter himself, he was the accused. He might not be the guilty, but he had opened his mouth; and though it was to her only, and she, as Dunstane had sworn, true as steel, he could not escape condemnation93. He had virtually betrayed his master. Diana would never betray her lover, but the thing was in the air as soon as uttered: and off to the printing-press! Dacier’s grotesque94 fancy under annoyance95 pictured a stream of small printer’s devils in flight from his babbling96 lips.
He consumed bits of breakfast, with a sour confession that a newspaper-article had hit him at last, and stunningly97.
Hat and coat were called for. The state of aimlessness in hot perplexity demands a show of action. Whither to go first was as obscure as what to do. Diana said of the Englishman’s hat and coat, that she supposed they were to make him a walking presentment of the house he had shut up behind him. A shot of the eye at the glass confirmed the likeness98, but with a ruefully wry-faced repudiation99 of it internally:—Not so shut up! the reverse of that-a common babbler.
However, there was no doubt of Diana. First he would call on her. The pleasantest dose in perturbations of the kind is instinctively100 taken first. She would console, perhaps direct him to guess how the secret had leaked. But so suddenly, immediately! It was inexplicable101.
Sudden and immediate consequences were experienced. On the steps of his house his way was blocked by the arrival of Mr. Quintin Manx, who jumped out of a cab, bellowing102 interjections and interrogations in a breath. Was there anything in that article? He had read it at breakfast, and it had choked him. Dacier was due at a house and could not wait: he said, rather sharply, he was not responsible for newspaper articles. Quintin Manx, a senior gentleman and junior landowner, vowed that no Minister intending to sell the country should treat him as a sheep. The shepherd might go; he would not carry his flock with him. But was there a twinkle of probability in the story?... that article! Dacier was unable to inform him; he was very hurried, had to keep an appointment.
‘If I let you go, will you come and lunch with me at two?’ said Quintin.
To get rid of him, Dacier nodded and agreed.
‘Two o’clock, mind!’ was bawled103 at his heels as he walked off with his long stride, unceremoniously leaving the pursy gentleman of sixty to settle with his cabman far to the rear.
收听单词发音 |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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eulogies
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| n.颂词，颂文( eulogy的名词复数 ) | |
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sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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knightliness
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| 骑士的，勋爵士的，骑士似的 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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vigilantly
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| adv.警觉地，警惕地 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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mercurial
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| adj.善变的，活泼的 | |
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larceny
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| n.盗窃（罪） | |
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condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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imputed
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| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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defilement
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| n.弄脏，污辱，污秽 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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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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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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rebukes
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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knightly
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| adj. 骑士般的 adv. 骑士般地 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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covertly
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| adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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desecrator
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| 亵渎，玷污； 把（神物）供俗用 | |
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bestows
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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veraciously
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| adv.诚实地 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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overestimate
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| v.估计过高，过高评价 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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stoutness
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| 坚固，刚毅 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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hoofed
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| adj.有蹄的，蹄形状的，装蹄的v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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exhortative
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| adj.劝告的，劝勉的 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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veering
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| n.改变的；犹豫的；顺时针方向转向；特指使船尾转向上风来改变航向v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的现在分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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intruded
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| n.侵入的，推进的v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 )；把…强加于 | |
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prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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electrified
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| v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋 | |
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repeal
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| n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消 | |
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84
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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85
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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86
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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87
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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88
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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90
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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91
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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92
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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93
condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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94
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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95
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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96
babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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97
stunningly
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| ad.令人目瞪口呆地；惊人地 | |
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98
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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99
repudiation
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| n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃 | |
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100
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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101
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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102
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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103
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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