She was fortunately not challenged, the hall being empty of the other women, who were engaged precisely9 in arraying themselves to that dire10 end. Once in the grounds, she recognized that, with a site, a view that struck the note, set an example to its inmates11, Waterbath ought to have been charming. How she herself, with such elements to handle, would have taken the fine hint of nature! Suddenly, at the turn of a walk, she came on a member of the party, a young lady seated on a bench in deep and lonely meditation12. She had observed the girl at dinner and afterwards: she was always looking at girls with an apprehensive13 or speculative14 reference to her son. Deep in her heart was a conviction that Owen would, in spite of all her spells, marry at last a frump; and this from no evidence that she could have represented as adequate, but simply from her deep uneasiness, her belief that such a special sensibility as her own could have been inflicted15 on a woman only as a source of anguish16. It would be her fate, her discipline, her cross, to have a frump brought hideously17 home to her. This girl, one of the two Vetches, had no beauty, but Mrs. Gereth, scanning the dullness for a sign of life, had been straightway able to classify such a figure as the least, for the moment, of her afflictions. Fleda Vetch was dressed with an idea, though perhaps with not much else; and that made a bond when there was none other, especially as in this case the idea was real, not imitation. Mrs. Gereth had long ago generalized the truth that the temperament18 of the frump is amply consistent with a certain usual prettiness. There were five girls in the party, and the prettiness of this one, slim, pale, and black-haired, was less likely than that of the others ever to occasion an exchange of platitudes19. The two less developed Brigstocks, daughters of the house, were in particular tiresomely20 "lovely." A second glance, this morning, at the young lady before her conveyed to Mrs. Gereth the soothing21 assurance that she also was guiltless of looking hot and fine. They had had no talk as yet, but this was a note that would effectually introduce them if the girl should show herself in the least conscious of their community. She got up from her seat with a smile that but partly dissipated the prostration22 Mrs. Gereth had recognized in her attitude. The elder woman drew her down again, and for a minute, as they sat together, their eyes met and sent out mutual23 soundings. "Are you safe? Can I utter it?" each of them said to the other, quickly recognizing, almost proclaiming, their common need to escape. The tremendous fancy, as it came to be called, that Mrs. Gereth was destined24 to take to Fleda Vetch virtually began with this discovery that the poor child had been moved to flight even more promptly25 than herself. That the poor child no less quickly perceived how far she could now go was proved by the immense friendliness26 with which she instantly broke out: "Isn't it too dreadful?"
"Horrible—horrible!" cried Mrs. Gereth, with a laugh, "and it's really a comfort to be able to say it." She had an idea, for it was her ambition, that she successfully made a secret of that awkward oddity, her proneness27 to be rendered unhappy by the presence of the dreadful. Her passion for the exquisite28 was the cause of this, but it was a passion she considered that she never advertised nor gloried in, contenting herself with letting it regulate her steps and show quietly in her life, remembering at all times that there are few things more soundless than a deep devotion. She was therefore struck with the acuteness of the little girl who had already put a finger on her hidden spring. What was dreadful now, what was horrible, was the intimate ugliness of Waterbath, and it was of that phenomenon these ladies talked while they sat in the shade and drew refreshment29 from the great tranquil30 sky, from which no blue saucers were suspended. It was an ugliness fundamental and systematic31, the result of the abnormal nature of the Brigstocks, from whose composition the principle of taste had been extravagantly32 omitted. In the arrangement of their home some other principle, remarkably33 active, but uncanny and obscure, had operated instead, with consequences depressing to behold34, consequences that took the form of a universal futility35. The house was bad in all conscience, but it might have passed if they had only let it alone. This saving mercy was beyond them; they had smothered36 it with trumpery37 ornament38 and scrapbook art, with strange excrescences and bunchy draperies, with gimcracks that might have been keepsakes for maid-servants and nondescript conveniences that might have been prizes for the blind. They had gone wildly astray over carpets and curtains; they had an infallible instinct for disaster, and were so cruelly doom-ridden that it rendered them almost tragic39. Their drawing-room, Mrs. Gereth lowered her voice to mention, caused her face to burn, and each of the new friends confided40 to the other that in her own apartment she had given way to tears. There was in the elder lady's a set of comic water-colors, a family joke by a family genius, and in the younger's a souvenir from some centennial or other Exhibition, that they shudderingly41 alluded42 to. The house was perversely43 full of souvenirs of places even more ugly than itself and of things it would have been a pious44 duty to forget. The worst horror was the acres of varnish45, something advertised and smelly, with which everything was smeared46; it was Fleda Vetch's conviction that the application of it, by their own hands and hilariously47 shoving each other, was the amusement of the Brigstocks on rainy days.
When, as criticism deepened, Fleda dropped the suggestion that some people would perhaps see something in Mona, Mrs. Gereth caught her up with a groan48 of protest, a smothered familiar cry of "Oh, my dear!" Mona was the eldest49 of the three, the one Mrs. Gereth most suspected. She confided to her young friend that it was her suspicion that had brought her to Waterbath; and this was going very far, for on the spot, as a refuge, a remedy, she had clutched at the idea that something might be done with the girl before her. It was her fancied exposure at any rate that had sharpened the shock; made her ask herself with a terrible chill if fate could really be plotting to saddle her with a daughter-in-law brought up in such a place. She had seen Mona in her appropriate setting and she had seen Owen, handsome and heavy, dangle50 beside her; but the effect of these first hours had happily not been to darken the prospect51. It was clearer to her that she could never accept Mona, but it was after all by no means certain that Owen would ask her to. He had sat by somebody else at dinner, and afterwards he had talked to Mrs. Firmin, who was as dreadful as all the rest, but redeemingly married. His heaviness, which in her need of expansion she freely named, had two aspects: one of them his monstrous52 lack of taste, the other his exaggerated prudence53. If it should come to a question of carrying Mona with a high hand there would be no need to worry, for that was rarely his manner of proceeding54.
Invited by her companion, who had asked if it weren't wonderful, Mrs. Gereth had begun to say a word about Poynton; but she heard a sound of voices that made her stop short. The next moment she rose to her feet, and Fleda could see that her alarm was by no means quenched55. Behind the place where they had been sitting the ground dropped with a certain steepness, forming a long grassy56 bank, up which Owen Gereth and Mona Brigstock, dressed for church but making a familiar joke of it, were in the act of scrambling57 and helping58 each other. When they had reached the even ground Fleda was able to read the meaning of the exclamation59 in which Mrs. Gereth had expressed her reserves on the subject of Miss Brigstock's personality. Miss Brigstock had been laughing and even romping60, but the circumstance hadn't contributed the ghost of an expression to her countenance61. Tall, straight and fair, long-limbed and strangely festooned, she stood there without a look in her eye or any perceptible intention of any sort in any other feature. She belonged to the type in which speech is an unaided emission62 of sound and the secret of being is impenetrably and incorruptibly kept. Her expression would probably have been beautiful if she had had one, but whatever she communicated she communicated, in a manner best known to herself, without signs. This was not the case with Owen Gereth, who had plenty of them, and all very simple and immediate63. Robust64 and artless, eminently65 natural, yet perfectly66 correct, he looked pointlessly active and pleasantly dull. Like his mother and like Fleda Vetch, but not for the same reason, this young pair had come out to take a turn before church.
The meeting of the two couples was sensibly awkward, and Fleda, who was sagacious, took the measure of the shock inflicted on Mrs. Gereth. There had been intimacy67—oh yes, intimacy as well as puerility—in the horse-play of which they had just had a glimpse. The party began to stroll together to the house, and Fleda had again a sense of Mrs. Gereth's quick management in the way the lovers, or whatever they were, found themselves separated. She strolled behind with Mona, the mother possessing herself of her son, her exchange of remarks with whom, however, remained, as they went, suggestively inaudible. That member of the party in whose intenser consciousness we shall most profitably seek a reflection of the little drama with which we are concerned received an even livelier impression of Mrs. Gereth's intervention68 from the fact that ten minutes later, on the way to church, still another pairing had been effected. Owen walked with Fleda, and it was an amusement to the girl to feel sure that this was by his mother's direction. Fleda had other amusements as well: such as noting that Mrs. Gereth was now with Mona Brigstock; such as observing that she was all affability to that young woman; such as reflecting that, masterful and clever, with a great bright spirit, she was one of those who impose themselves as an influence; such as feeling finally that Owen Gereth was absolutely beautiful and delightfully69 dense70. This young person had even from herself wonderful secrets of delicacy71 and pride; but she came as near distinctness as in the consideration of such matters she had ever come at all in now surrendering herself to the idea that it was of a pleasant effect and rather remarkable72 to be stupid without offense—of a pleasanter effect and more remarkable indeed than to be clever and horrid73. Owen Gereth at any rate, with his inches, his features, and his lapses74, was neither of these latter things. She herself was prepared, if she should ever marry, to contribute all the cleverness, and she liked to think that her husband would be a force grateful for direction. She was in her small way a spirit of the same family as Mrs. Gereth. On that flushed and huddled75 Sunday a great matter occurred; her little life became aware of a singular quickening. Her meagre past fell away from her like a garment of the wrong fashion, and as she came up to town on the Monday what she stared at in the suburban76 fields from the train was a future full of the things she particularly loved.
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1
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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hideously
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| adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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tiresomely
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| adj. 令人厌倦的，讨厌的 | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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prostration
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| n. 平伏, 跪倒, 疲劳 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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proneness
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| n.俯伏，倾向 | |
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28
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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30
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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31
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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futility
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| n.无用 | |
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36
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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trumpery
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| n.无价值的杂物；adj.（物品）中看不中用的 | |
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38
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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40
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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41
shudderingly
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42
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perversely
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| adv. 倔强地 | |
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44
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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45
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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46
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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47
hilariously
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48
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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49
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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50
dangle
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| v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂 | |
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51
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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52
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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53
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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54
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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55
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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56
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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57
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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58
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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59
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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60
romping
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| adj.嬉戏喧闹的，乱蹦乱闹的v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的现在分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
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61
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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62
emission
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| n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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67
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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68
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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69
delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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71
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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74
lapses
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| n.失误，过失( lapse的名词复数 )；小毛病；行为失检；偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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75
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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76
suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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