From first to last their acquaintance lasted ten days, but into that time Mr. Polly packed ten years of dreams.
“He don’t seem,” said Johnson, “to take a serious interest in anything. That shop at the corner’s bound to be snapped up if he don’t look out.”
The girl and Mr. Polly did not meet on every one of those ten days; one was Sunday and she could not come, and on the eighth the school reassembled and she made vague excuses. All their meetings amounted to this, that she sat on the wall, more or less in bounds as she expressed it, and let Mr. Polly fall in love with her and try to express it below. She sat in a state of irresponsible exaltation, watching him and at intervals1 prodding2 a vivisecting point of encouragement into him — with that strange passive cruelty which is natural to her sex and age.
And Mr. Polly fell in love, as though the world had given way beneath him and he had dropped through into another, into a world of luminous3 clouds and of desolate4 hopeless wildernesses5 of desiring and of wild valleys of unreasonable6 ecstasies7, a world whose infinite miseries8 were finer and in some inexplicable9 way sweeter than the purest gold of the daily life, whose joys — they were indeed but the merest remote glimpses of joy — were brighter than a dying martyr’s vision of heaven. Her smiling face looked down upon him out of heaven, her careless pose was the living body of life. It was senseless, it was utterly10 foolish, but all that was best and richest in Mr. Polly’s nature broke like a wave and foamed11 up at that girl’s feet, and died, and never touched her. And she sat on the wall and marvelled12 at him and was amused, and once, suddenly moved and wrung13 by his pleading, she bent14 down rather shamefacedly and gave him a freckled15, tennis-blistered little paw to kiss. And she looked into his eyes and suddenly felt a perplexity, a curious swimming of the mind that made her recoil16 and stiffen17, and wonder afterwards and dream. . . .
And then with some dim instinct of self-protection, she went and told her three best friends, great students of character all, of this remarkable18 phenomenon she had discovered on the other side of the wall.
“Look here,” said Mr. Polly, “I’m wild for the love of you! I can’t keep up this gesticulations game any more! I’m not a Knight19. Treat me as a human man. You may sit up there smiling, but I’d die in torments20 to have you mine for an hour. I’m nobody and nothing. But look here! Will you wait for me for five years? You’re just a girl yet, and it wouldn’t be hard.”
“Shut up!” said Christabel in an aside he did not hear, and something he did not see touched her hand.
“I’ve always been just dilletentytating about till now, but I could work. I’ve just woke up. Wait till I’ve got a chance with the money I’ve got.”
“But you haven’t got much money!”
“I’ve got enough to take a chance with, some sort of a chance. I’d find a chance. I’ll do that anyhow. I’ll go away. I mean what I say — I’ll stop trifling21 and shirking. If I don’t come back it won’t matter. If I do ——”
Her expression had become uneasy. Suddenly she bent down towards him.
“Don’t!” she said in an undertone.
“Don’t — what?”
“Don’t go on like this! You’re different! Go on being the knight who wants to kiss my hand as his — what did you call it?” The ghost of a smile curved her face. “Gurdrum!”
“But ——!”
Then through a pause they both stared at each other, listening.
A muffled22 tumult23 on the other side of the wall asserted itself.
“Shut up, Rosie!” said a voice.
“I tell you I will see! I can’t half hear. Give me a leg up!”
“You Idiot! He’ll see you. You’re spoiling everything.”
The bottom dropped out of Mr. Polly’s world. He felt as people must feel who are going to faint.
“You’ve got someone —” he said aghast.
She found life inexpressible to Mr. Polly. She addressed some unseen hearers. “You filthy24 little Beasts!” she cried with a sharp note of agony in her voice, and swung herself back over the wall and vanished. There was a squeal25 of pain and fear, and a swift, fierce altercation26.
For a couple of seconds he stood agape.
Then a wild resolve to confirm his worst sense of what was on the other side of the wall made him seize a log, put it against the stones, clutch the parapet with insecure fingers, and lug27 himself to a momentary28 balance on the wall.
Romance and his goddess had vanished.
A red-haired girl with a pigtail was wringing29 the wrist of a schoolfellow who shrieked30 with pain and cried: “Mercy! mercy! Ooo! Christabel!”
“You idiot!” cried Christabel. “You giggling31 Idiot!”
Two other young ladies made off through the beech32 trees from this outburst of savagery33.
Then the grip of Mr. Polly’s fingers gave, and he hit his chin against the stones and slipped clumsily to the ground again, scraping his cheek against the wall and hurting his shin against the log by which he had reached the top. Just for a moment he crouched34 against the wall.
He swore, staggered to the pile of logs and sat down.
He remained very still for some time, with his lips pressed together.
“Fool,” he said at last; “you Blithering Fool!” and began to rub his shin as though he had just discovered its bruises35.
Afterwards he found his face was wet with blood — which was none the less red stuff from the heart because it came from slight abrasions36.
收听单词发音 |
1
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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2
prodding
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| v.刺，戳( prod的现在分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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wildernesses
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| 荒野( wilderness的名词复数 )； 沙漠； （政治家）在野； 不再当政（或掌权） | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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ecstasies
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| 狂喜( ecstasy的名词复数 )； 出神； 入迷； 迷幻药 | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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foamed
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| 泡沫的 | |
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marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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15
freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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18
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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20
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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21
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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22
muffled
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| 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） | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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25
squeal
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| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
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26
altercation
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| n.争吵，争论 | |
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27
lug
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| n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动 | |
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28
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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29
wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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30
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
giggling
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 ) | |
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32
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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34
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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36
abrasions
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| n.磨损( abrasion的名词复数 )；擦伤处；摩擦；磨蚀（作用） | |
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