Wandering through clear chambers17 where the general effect made preferences almost as impossible as if they had been shocks, pausing at open doors where vistas18 were long and bland19, she would, even if she had not already known, have discovered for herself that Poynton was the record of a life. It was written in great syllables20 of color and form, the tongues of other countries and the hands of rare artists. It was all France and Italy, with their ages composed to rest. For England you looked out of old windows—it was England that was the wide embrace. While outside, on the low terraces, she contradicted gardeners and refined on nature, Mrs. Gereth left her guest to finger fondly the brasses21 that Louis Quinze might have thumbed, to sit with Venetian velvets just held in a loving palm, to hang over cases of enamels22 and pass and repass before cabinets. There were not many pictures—the panels and the stuffs were themselves the picture; and in all the great wainscoted house there was not an inch of pasted paper. What struck Fleda most in it was the high pride of her friend's taste, a fine arrogance23, a sense of style which, however amused and amusing, never compromised nor stooped. She felt indeed, as this lady had intimated to her that she would, both a respect and a compassion24 that she had not known before; the vision of the coming surrender filled her with an equal pain. To give it all up, to die to it—that thought ached in her breast. She herself could imagine clinging there with a closeness separate from dignity. To have created such a place was to have had dignity enough; when there was a question of defending it the fiercest attitude was the right one. After so intense a taking of possession she too was to give it up; for she reflected that if Mrs. Gereth's remaining there would have offered her a sort of future—stretching away in safe years on the other side of a gulf—the advent25 of the others could only be, by the same law, a great vague menace, the ruffling26 of a still water. Such were the emotions of a hungry girl whose sensibility was almost as great as her opportunities for comparison had been small. The museums had done something for her, but nature had done more.
If Owen had not come down with them nor joined them later, it was because he still found London jolly; yet the question remained of whether the jollity of London was not merely the only name his small vocabulary yielded for the jollity of Mona Brigstock. There was indeed in his conduct another ambiguity—something that required explaining so long as his motive27 didn't come to the surface. If he was in love, what was the matter? And what was the matter still more if he wasn't? The mystery was at last cleared up: this Fleda gathered from the tone in which, one morning at breakfast, a letter just opened made Mrs. Gereth cry out. Her dismay was almost a shriek28: "Why, he's bringing her down—he wants her to see the house!" They flew, the two women, into each other's arms and, with their heads together, soon made out that the reason, the baffling reason why nothing had yet happened, was that Mona didn't know, or Owen didn't, whether Poynton would really please her. She was coming down to judge; and could anything in the world be more like poor Owen than the ponderous29 probity30 which had kept him from pressing her for a reply till she should have learned whether she approved what he had to offer her? That was a scruple15 it had naturally been impossible to impute31. If only they might fondly hope, Mrs. Gereth wailed32, that the girl's expectations would be dashed! There was a fine consistency33, a sincerity34 quite affecting, in her arguing that the better the place should happen to look and to express the conceptions to which it owed its origin, the less it would speak to an intelligence so primitive35. How could a Brigstock possibly understand what it was all about? How, really, could a Brigstock logically do anything but hate it? Mrs. Gereth, even as she whisked away linen36 shrouds37, persuaded herself of the possibility on Mona's part of some bewildered blankness, some collapse38 of admiration that would prove disconcerting to her swain—a hope of which Fleda at least could see the absurdity39 and which gave the measure of the poor lady's strange, almost maniacal40 disposition41 to thrust in everywhere the question of "things," to read all behavior in the light of some fancied relation to them. "Things" were of course the sum of the world; only, for Mrs. Gereth, the sum of the world was rare French furniture and Oriental china. She could at a stretch imagine people's not having, but she couldn't imagine their not wanting and not missing.
The young couple were to be accompanied by Mrs. Brigstock, and with a prevision of how fiercely they would be watched Fleda became conscious, before the party arrived, of an amused, diplomatic pity for them. Almost as much as Mrs. Gereth's her taste was her life, but her life was somehow the larger for it. Besides, she had another care now: there was some one she wouldn't have liked to see humiliated42 even in the form of a young lady who would contribute to his never suspecting so much delicacy43. When this young lady appeared Fleda tried, so far as the wish to efface44 herself allowed, to be mainly the person to take her about, show her the house, and cover up her ignorance. Owen's announcement had been that, as trains made it convenient, they would present themselves for luncheon45 and depart before dinner; but Mrs. Gereth, true to her system of glaring civility, proposed and obtained an extension, a dining and spending of the night. She made her young friend wonder against what rebellion of fact she was sacrificing in advance so profusely46 to form. Fleda was appalled47, after the first hour, by the rash innocence48 with which Mona had accepted the responsibility of observation, and indeed by the large levity49 with which, sitting there like a bored tourist in fine scenery, she exercised it. She felt in her nerves the effect of such a manner on her companion's, and it was this that made her want to entice50 the girl away, give her some merciful warning or some jocular cue. Mona met intense looks, however, with eyes that might have been blue beads51, the only ones she had—eyes into which Fleda thought it strange Owen Gereth should have to plunge52 for his fate and his mother for a confession53 of whether Poynton was a success. She made no remark that helped to supply this light; her impression at any rate had nothing in common with the feeling that, as the beauty of the place throbbed54 out like music, had caused Fleda Vetch to burst into tears. She was as content to say nothing as if, Mrs. Gereth afterwards exclaimed, she had been keeping her mouth shut in a railway-tunnel. Mrs. Gereth contrived55 at the end of an hour to convey to Fleda that it was plain she was brutally56 ignorant; but Fleda more subtly discovered that her ignorance was obscurely active.
She was not so stupid as not to see that something, though she scarcely knew what, was expected of her that she couldn't give; and the only mode her intelligence suggested of meeting the expectation was to plant her big feet and pull another way. Mrs. Gereth wanted her to rise, somehow or somewhere, and was prepared to hate her if she didn't: very well, she couldn't, she wouldn't rise; she already moved at the altitude that suited her, and was able to see that, since she was exposed to the hatred57, she might at least enjoy the calm. The smallest trouble, for a girl with no nonsense about her, was to earn what she incurred58; so that, a dim instinct teaching her she would earn it best by not being effusive59, and combining with the conviction that she now held Owen, and therefore the place, she had the pleasure of her honesty as well as of her security. Didn't her very honesty lead her to be belligerently60 blank about Poynton, inasmuch as it was just Poynton that was forced upon her as a subject for effusiveness61? Such subjects, to Mona Brigstock, had an air almost of indecency, and the house became uncanny to her through such an appeal—an appeal that, somewhere in the twilight62 of her being, as Fleda was sure, she thanked heaven she was the girl stiffly to draw back from. She was a person whom pressure at a given point infallibly caused to expand in the wrong place instead of, as it is usually administered in the hope of doing, the right one. Her mother, to make up for this, broke out universally, pronounced everything "most striking," and was visibly happy that Owen's captor should be so far on the way to strike: but she jarred upon Mrs. Gereth by her formula of admiration, which was that anything she looked at was "in the style" of something else. This was to show how much she had seen, but it only showed she had seen nothing; everything at Poynton was in the style of Poynton, and poor Mrs. Brigstock, who at least was determined63 to rise, and had brought with her a trophy64 of her journey, a "lady's magazine" purchased at the station, a horrible thing with patterns for antimacassars, which, as it was quite new, the first number, and seemed so clever, she kindly65 offered to leave for the house, was in the style of a vulgar old woman who wore silver jewelry66 and tried to pass off a gross avidity as a sense of the beautiful.
By the day's end it was clear to Fleda Vetch that, however Mona judged, the day had been determinant; whether or no she felt the charm, she felt the challenge: at an early moment Owen Gereth would be able to tell his mother the worst. Nevertheless, when the elder lady, at bedtime, coming in a dressing-gown and a high fever to the younger one's room, cried out, "She hates it; but what will she do?" Fleda pretended vagueness, played at obscurity and assented67 disingenuously68 to the proposition that they at least had a respite69. The future was dark to her, but there was a silken thread she could clutch in the gloom—she would never give Owen away. He might give himself—he even certainly would; but that was his own affair, and his blunders, his innocence, only added to the appeal he made to her. She would cover him, she would protect him, and beyond thinking her a cheerful inmate70 he would never guess her intention, any more than, beyond thinking her clever enough for anything, his acute mother would discover it. From this hour, with Mrs. Gereth, there was a flaw in her frankness: her admirable friend continued to know everything she did; what was to remain unknown was the general motive.
From the window of her room, the next morning before breakfast, the girl saw Owen in the garden with Mona, who strolled beside him with a listening parasol, but without a visible look for the great florid picture that had been hung there by Mrs. Gereth's hand. Mona kept dropping her eyes, as she walked, to catch the sheen of her patent-leather shoes, which resembled a man's and which she kicked forward a little—it gave her an odd movement—to help her see what she thought of them. When Fleda came down Mrs. Gereth was in the breakfast-room; and at that moment Owen, through a long window, passed in alone from the terrace and very endearingly kissed his mother. It immediately struck the girl that she was in their way, for hadn't he been borne on a wave of joy exactly to announce, before the Brigstocks departed, that Mona had at last faltered71 out the sweet word he had been waiting for? He shook hands with his friendly violence, but Fleda contrived not to look into his face: what she liked most to see in it was not the reflection of Mona's big boot-toes. She could bear well enough that young lady herself, but she couldn't bear Owen's opinion of her. She was on the point of slipping into the garden when the movement was checked by Mrs. Gereth's suddenly drawing her close, as if for the morning embrace, and then, while she kept her there with the bravery of the night's repose72, breaking out: "Well, my dear boy, what does your young friend there make of our odds73 and ends?"
"Oh, she thinks they're all right!"
Fleda immediately guessed from his tone that he had not come in to say what she supposed; there was even something in it to confirm Mrs. Gereth's belief that their danger had dropped. She was sure, moreover, that his tribute to Mona's taste was a repetition of the eloquent74 words in which the girl had herself recorded it; she could indeed hear, with all vividness, the pretty passage between the pair. "Don't you think it's rather jolly, the old shop?" "Oh, it's all right!" Mona had graciously remarked; and then they had probably, with a slap on a back, run another race up or down a green bank. Fleda knew Mrs. Gereth had not yet uttered a word to her son that would have shown him how much she feared; but it was impossible to feel her friend's arm round her and not become aware that this friend was now throbbing75 with a strange intention. Owen's reply had scarcely been of a nature to usher76 in a discussion of Mona's sensibilities; but Mrs. Gereth went on, in a moment, with an innocence of which Fleda could measure the cold hypocrisy77: "Has she any sort of feeling for nice old things?" The question was as fresh as the morning light.
"Oh, of course she likes everything that's nice." And Owen, who constitutionally disliked questions—an answer was almost as hateful to him as a "trick" to a big dog—smiled kindly at Fleda and conveyed that she would understand what he meant even if his mother didn't. Fleda, however, mainly understood that Mrs. Gereth, with an odd, wild laugh, held her so hard that she hurt her.
"I could give up everything without a pang78, I think, to a person I could trust, I could respect." The girl heard her voice tremble under the effort to show nothing but what she wanted to show, and felt the sincerity of her implication that the piety79 most real to her was to be on one's knees before one's high standard. "The best things here, as you know, are the things your father and I collected, things all that we worked for and waited for and suffered for. Yes," cried Mrs. Gereth, with a fine freedom of fancy, "there are things in the house that we almost starved for! They were our religion, they were our life, they were us! And now they're only me—except that they're also you, thank God, a little, you dear!" she continued, suddenly inflicting80 on Fleda a kiss apparently81 intended to knock her into position. "There isn't one of them I don't know and love—yes, as one remembers and cherishes the happiest moments of one's life. Blindfold82, in the dark, with the brush of a finger, I could tell one from another. They're living things to me; they know me, they return the touch of my hand. But I could let them all go, since I have to, so strangely, to another affection, another conscience. There's a care they want, there's a sympathy that draws out their beauty. Rather than make them over to a woman ignorant and vulgar, I think I'd deface them with my own hands. Can't you see me, Fleda, and wouldn't you do it yourself?"—she appealed to her companion with glittering eyes. "I couldn't bear the thought of such a woman here—I couldn't. I don't know what she'd do; she'd be sure to invent some deviltry, if it should be only to bring in her own little belongings83 and horrors. The world is full of cheap gimcracks, in this awful age, and they're thrust in at one at every turn. They'd be thrust in here, on top of my treasures, my own. Who would save them for me—I ask you who would?" and she turned again to Fleda with a dry, strained smile. Her handsome, high-nosed, excited face might have been that of Don Quixote tilting84 at a windmill. Drawn85 into the eddy86 of this outpouring, the girl, scared and embarrassed, laughed off her exposure; but only to feel herself more passionately87 caught up and, as it seemed to her, thrust down the fine open mouth (it showed such perfect teeth) with which poor Owen's slow cerebration gaped88. "You would, of course—only you, in all the world, because you know, you feel, as I do myself, what's good and true and pure." No severity of the moral law could have taken a higher tone in this implication of the young lady who had not the only virtue89 Mrs. Gereth actively90 esteemed91. "You would replace me, you would watch over them, you would keep the place right," she austerely92 pursued, "and with you here—yes, with you, I believe I might rest, at last, in my grave!" She threw herself on Fleda's neck, and before Fleda, horribly shamed, could shake her off, had burst into tears which couldn't have been explained, but which might perhaps have been understood.
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1
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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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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tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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7
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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8
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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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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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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flair
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| n.天赋，本领，才华；洞察力 | |
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satiety
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| n.饱和；(市场的)充分供应 | |
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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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15
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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16
initiation
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| n.开始 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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18
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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21
brasses
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| n.黄铜( brass的名词复数 )；铜管乐器；钱；黄铜饰品（尤指马挽具上的黄铜圆片） | |
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22
enamels
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| 搪瓷( enamel的名词复数 )； 珐琅； 釉药； 瓷漆 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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ruffling
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| 弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 )； 弄乱； 激怒； 扰乱 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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probity
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| n.刚直；廉洁，正直 | |
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impute
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| v.归咎于 | |
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32
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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37
shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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38
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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39
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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40
maniacal
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| adj.发疯的 | |
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41
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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42
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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43
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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44
efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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45
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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46
profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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47
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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48
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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49
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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50
entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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51
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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52
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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53
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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54
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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55
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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56
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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57
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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58
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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effusive
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| adj.热情洋溢的；感情(过多)流露的 | |
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60
belligerently
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61
effusiveness
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| n.吐露，唠叨 | |
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62
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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63
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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64
trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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65
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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67
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disingenuously
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| adv.不诚实地，不坦白地 | |
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69
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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70
inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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71
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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72
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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73
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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74
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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75
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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76
usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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77
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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78
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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79
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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80
inflicting
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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81
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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82
blindfold
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| vt.蒙住…的眼睛；adj.盲目的；adv.盲目地；n.蒙眼的绷带[布等]； 障眼物，蒙蔽人的事物 | |
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83
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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84
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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85
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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86
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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87
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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88
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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89
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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90
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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91
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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92
austerely
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| adv.严格地，朴质地 | |
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