She was standing1 still when I approached the pool. The forest around us was so silent that when I spoke2 the sound of my own voice startled me.
“No,” she said — and her voice was smooth as flowing water, “I have not lost my way. Will he come to me, your beautiful dog?”
Before I could speak, Voyou crept to her and laid his silky head against her knees.
“But surely,” said I, “you did not come here alone.”
“Alone? I did come alone.”
“I do not know Cardinal,” she said.
“Ste. Croix in Canada is forty miles at least — how did you come into the Cardinal Woods?” I asked amazed.
“Into the woods?” she repeated a little impatiently.
“Yes.”
“Your beautiful dog I am fond of, but I am not fond of being questioned,” she said quietly.
“My name is Ysonde and I came to the fountain here to see your dog.”
I was properly quenched6. After a moment or two I did say that in another hour in would be growing dusky, but she neither replied nor looked at me.
“This,” I ventured, “is a beautiful pool — you call it a fountain — a delicious fountain: I have never before seen it. It is hard to imagine that nature did all this.”
“Is it?” she said.
“Don’t you think so?” I asked.
“I haven’t thought; I wish when you go you would leave me your dog.”
“My — my dog?”
“If you don’t mind,” she said sweetly, and looked at me for the first time in the face.
For an instant our glances met, then she grew grave, and I saw that her eyes were fixed7 on my forehead. Suddenly she rose and drew nearer, looking intently at my forehead. There was a faint mark there, a tiny crescent, just over my eyebrow9. It was a birthmark.
“Is that a scar?” she demanded drawing nearer.
“That crescent-shaped mark? No.”
“No? Are you sure?” she insisted.
“Perfectly,” I replied, astonished.
“A— a birthmark?”
“Yes — may I ask why?”
As she drew away from me, I saw that the color had fled from her cheeks. For a second she clasped both hands over her eyes as if to shut out my face, then slowly dropping her hands, she sat down on a long square block of stone which half encircled the basin, and on which to my amazement10 I saw carving11. Voyou went to her again and laid his head in her lap.
“What is your name?” she asked at length.
“Roy Cardenhe.”
“Mine is Ysonde. I carved these dragon-flies on the stone, these fishes and shells and butterflies you see.”
“You! They are wonderfully delicate — but those are not American dragon-flies —”
“You are very talented,” I said, “where did you study?”
“I? I never studied — I knew how. I saw things and cut them out of stone. Do you like them? Some time I will show you other things that I have done. If I had a great lump of bronze I could make your dog, beautiful as he is.”
“It is there, shining on the sand,” she said, leaning over the pool with me . . . “Where,” said I, looking at our reflected faces in the water. For it was only in the water that I had dared, as yet, to look her long in the face.
The pool mirrored the exquisite15 oval of her head, the heavy hair, the eyes. I heard the silken rustle16 of her girdle, I caught the flash of a white arm, and the hammer was drawn17 up dripping with spray.
The troubled surface of the pool grew calm and again I saw her eyes reflected.
“Listen,” she said in a low voice, “do you think you will come again to my fountain?”
“I will come,” I said. My voice was dull; the noise of water filled my ears.
Then a swift shadow sped across the pool; I rubbed my eyes. Where her reflected face had bent18 beside mine there was nothing mirrored but the rosy19 evening sky with one pale star glimmering20.
I drew myself up and turned. She was gone. I saw the faint stars twinkling above me in the afterglow, I saw the tall trees motionless in the still evening air, I saw my dog slumbering21 at my feet.
The sweet scent8 in the air had faded, leaving in my nostrils22 the heavy odor of fern and forest mould. A blind fear seized me, and I caught up my gun and sprang into the darkening woods.
The dog followed me, crashing through the undergrowth at my side. Duller and duller grew the light, but I strode on, the sweat pouring from my face and hair, my mind a chaos23. How I reached the spinney I can hardly tell. As I turned up the path I caught a glimpse of a human face peering at me from the darkening thicket24 — a horrible human face, yellow and drawn with high-boned cheeks and narrow eyes.
Involuntarily I halted; the dog at my heels snarled25. Then I sprang straight at it, floundering blindly through the thicket, but the night had fallen swiftly and I found myself panting and struggling in a maze4 of twisted shrubbery and twining vines, unable to see the very undergrowth that ensnared me.
It was a pale face, and a scratched one that I carried to a late dinner that night. Howlett served me, dumb reproach in his eyes, for the soup had been standing and the grouse26 was juiceless.
David brought the dogs in after they had had their supper, and I drew my chair before the blaze and set my ale on a table beside me. The dogs curled up at my feet, blinking gravely at the sparks that snapped and flew in eddying27 showers from the heavy birch logs.
“David,” said I, “did you say you saw a Chinaman today?”
“I did sir.”
“What do you think about it now?”
“I may have been mistaken sir —”
“The usual, sir.”
“Is there much gone?”
“About three swallows, sir, as usual.”
“You don’t suppose there could have been any mistake about that whiskey — no medicine could have gotten into it for instance.”
David smiled and said, “No sir.”
“Well,” said I, “I have had an extraordinary dream.”
When I said “dream,” I felt comforted and reassured29. I had scarcely dared to say it before, even to myself.
“An extraordinary dream,” I repeated; “I fell asleep in the woods about five o’clock, in that pretty glade30 where the fountain — I mean the pool is. You know the place?”
“I do not, sir.”
I described it minutely, twice, but David shook his head.
“Carved stone did you say sir? I never chanced on it. You don’t mean the New Spring —”
“No, no! This glade is way beyond that. Is it possible that any people inhabit the forest between here and the Canada line?”
“Nobody short of Ste. Croix; at least I have no knowledge of any.”
“Of course,” said I, “when I thought I saw a Chinaman, it was imagination. Of course I had been more impressed than I was aware of by your adventure. Of course you saw no Chinaman, David.”
I sent him off to bed, saying I should keep the dogs with me all night; and when he was gone, I took a good long draught32 of ale, “just to shame the devil,” as Pierpont said, and lighted a cigar.
Then I thought of Barris and Pierpont, and their cold bed, for I knew they would not dare build a fire, and, in spite of the hot chimney corner and the crackling blaze, I shivered in sympathy.
“I’ll tell Barris and Pierpont the whole story and take them to see the carved stone and the fountain,” I thought to myself; “what a marvelous dream it was — Ysonde — if it was a dream.”
Then I went to the mirror and examined the faint white mark above my eyebrow.
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收听单词发音
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1
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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2
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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3
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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4
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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5
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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6
quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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7
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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8
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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9
eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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10
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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11
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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12
chisel
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| n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿 | |
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13
pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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14
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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15
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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16
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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17
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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18
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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19
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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20
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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21
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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22
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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23
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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24
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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25
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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26
grouse
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| n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦 | |
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27
eddying
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| 涡流，涡流的形成 | |
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28
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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29
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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30
glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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31
dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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32
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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