On reaching home he talked about Durham until the fact that he had a friend penetrated1 into the minds of his family. Ada wondered whether it was brother to a certain Miss Durham—not but what she was an only child—while Mrs Hall confused it with a don named Cumberland. Maurice was deeply wounded. One strong feeling arouses another, and a pro-found irritation2 against his womenkind set in. His relations with them hitherto had been trivial but stable, but it seemed iniqui-tous that anyone should mispronounce the name of the man who was more to him than all the world. Home emasculated every-thing.
It was the same with his atheism3. No one felt as deeply as he expected. With the crudity4 of youth he drew his mother apart and said that he should always respect her religious prejudices and those of the girls, but that his own conscience permitted him to attend church no longer. She said it was a great misfor-tune.
"I knew you would be upset. I cannot help it, mother dearest. I am made that way and it is no good arguing."
"Your poor father always went to church."
"I'm not my father."
"Morrie, Morrie, what a thing to say."
"Well, he isn't," said Kitty in her perky way. "Really, mother, come."
"Kitty, dear, you here," cried Mrs Hall, feeling that disap-proval was due and unwilling5 to bestow6 it on her son. "We were talking about things not suited, and you are perfectly7 wrong be-sides, for Maurice is the image of his father—Dr Barry said so."
"Well, Dr Barry doesn't go to church himself," said Maurice, falling into the family habit of talking all over the shop.
"He is a most clever man," said Mrs Hall with finality, "and Mrs Barry's the same."
This slip of their mother's convulsed Ada and Kitty. They would not stop laughing at the idea of Mrs Barry's being a man, and Maurice's atheism was forgotten. He did not communicate on Easter Sunday, and supposed the row would come then, as in Durham's case. But no one took any notice, for the suburbs no longer exact Christianity. This disgusted him; it made him look at society with new eyes. Did society, while professing8 to be so moral and sensitive, really mind anything?
He wrote often to Durham—long letters trying carefully to express shades of feeling. Durham made little of them and said so. His replies were equally long. Maurice never let them out of his pocket, changing them from suit to suit and even pinning them in his pyjamas9 when he went to bed. He would wake up and touch them and, watching the reflections from the street lamp, remember how he used to feel afraid as a little boy.
Episode of Gladys Olcott.
Miss Olcott was one of their infrequent guests. She had been good to Mrs Hall and Ada in some hydro, and, receiving an in-vitation, had followed it up. She was charming—at least the women said so, and male callers told the son of the house he was a lucky dog. He laughed, they laughed, and having ignored her at first he took to paying her attentions.
Now Maurice, though he did not know it, had become an at-tractive young man. Much exercise had tamed his clumsiness. He was heavy but alert, and his face seemed following the ex-ample of his body. Mrs Hall put it down to his moustache— "Maurice's moustache will be the making of him"—a remark more profound than she realized. Certainly the little black line of it did pull his face together, and show up his teeth when he smiled, and his clothes suited him also: by Durham's advice he kept to flannel10 trousers, even on Sunday.
He turned his smile on Miss Olcott—it seemed the proper thing to do. She responded. He put his muscles at her service by taking her out in his new side-car. He sprawled11 at her feet. Find-ing she smoked, he persuaded her to stop behind with him in the dining-room and to look between his eyes. Blue vapour quivered and shredded12 and built dissolving walls, and Maurice's thoughts voyaged with it, to vanish as soon as a window was opened for fresh air. He saw that she was pleased, and his family, servants and all, intrigued13; he determined14 to go further.
Something went wrong at once. Maurice paid her compli-ments, said that her hair etc. was ripping. She tried to stop him, but he was insensitive, and did not know that he had annoyed her. He had read that girls always pretended to stop men who complimented them. He haunted her. When she excused herself from riding with him on the last day he played the domineering male. She was his guest, she came, and having taken her to some scenery that he considered romantic he pressed her little hand between his own.
It was not that Miss Olcott objected to having her hand pressed. Others had done it and Maurice could have done it had he guessed how. But she knew something was wrong. His touch revolted her. It was a corpse's. Springing up she cried, "Mr Hall, don't be silly. I meandon't be silly. I am not saying it to make you sillier."
"Miss Olcott—Gladys—I'd rather die than offend—" growled15 the boy, trying to keep it up.
"I must go back by train," she said, crying a little. "I must, I'm awfully16 sorry." She arrived home before him with a sensible little story about a headache and dust in her eyes, but his family also knew that something had gone wrong.
Except for this episode the vac passed pleasantly. Maurice did some reading, following his friend's advice rather than his tutor's, and he asserted in one or two ways his belief that he was grown up. At his instigation his mother dismissed the Howells who had long paralyzed the outdoor department, and set up a motor-car instead of a carriage. Everyone was impressed, in-cluding the Howells. He also called upon his father's old partner. He had inherited some business aptitude17 and some money, and it was settled that when he left Cambridge he should enter the firm as an unauthorized clerk; Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers18. Maurice was stepping into the niche19 that England had prepared for him.
莫瑞斯回家后，总是念叨德拉姆，直到全家人都把他有个朋友的事铭刻在心中。艾达想象着他或许是一位德拉姆小姐的哥哥，不过，她记得那位小姐是独生女。霍尔太太则把德拉姆和一位姓坎伯兰（译注：德拉姆是英格兰东北部一郡。坎伯兰是英格兰西北部一郡。）的大学教师混淆起来了。莫瑞斯深受伤害。受伤害的强烈感情激起了另一种感情。心灵深处，他对家中的女眷感到不快。迄今他和她们的关系虽然平凡却是稳定的。但是无论谁竟然把对他来说比全世界还重要的友人的姓名搞错，在他看来简直是不可饶恕的。一切东西的主要内容都被家庭生活抽掉了。
他的无神论也遭到同样的下场。任何人都没像他所料想的那样把他的话当真。凭借年轻人的任性，他将母亲拉到一边，说他今后也尊重母亲和妹妹们的宗教偏见，然而他本人的良心再也不容许他进教堂了。她说，这真是天大的不幸。
“最亲爱的妈妈，我知道这会让您心烦意乱。我天生就是这样一个人，您说服不了我。”
“你那可怜的爸爸一向是进教堂的。”
“我不是我爸爸。”
“莫瑞，莫瑞，你怎么能这么说话呢。”
“喏，哥哥确实不是爸爸，”吉蒂照例出言不逊，“一点儿不假。妈妈，您过来吧。”
“吉蒂，亲爱的，你呀，”霍尔太太大声说。她感到应该对儿子的言论表示不以为然，却又不愿意跟他摊牌。“我们在谈一个深奥的问题。而且你也完全错了，因为莫瑞斯简直就像是他爸爸，巴里大夫这么说过。”
“喏，巴里大夫本人也不进教堂呀。”莫瑞斯说。这一家人说话一向是东拉西扯，他也受了影响。
“他是一位无比聪明的绅士。”霍尔太太斩钉截铁地说，“巴里太太也一样。”
母亲的口误使艾达和吉蒂笑得前仰后合。一想到巴里太太居然成了一位绅士，她们就笑个不停，莫瑞斯的无神论被抛到脑后了。在星期日，复活节这一天，他没有领圣餐。他原以为会像德拉姆那样会引起一番争吵，然而任何人都没有理会，因为在郊外，人们对基督教已经不再重视了。这令他反感透了，他用新的眼光看待社会。世人道貌岸然，看上去能体贴旁人的感情，难道骨子里竟对什么都漠不关心吗？
他经常给德拉姆写信——一封封长信，试图细腻地表达感情的荫翳。德拉姆把这看得无足轻重，而且坦诚相告。德拉姆的回信也一样冗长。莫瑞斯总是随身携带着它们，每次换衣服就把它们移到另一件衣服的兜里。睡觉时，甚至用别针别在睡衣上。半夜里醒来，他抚摸它们，留心观察着在街灯映照下的天花板上的投影，并想起自己还是个小男孩时，曾经多么害怕过。
还发生了一件关于格拉迪斯·奥尔科特小姐的事情。
奥尔科特小姐是他们家不常来往的客人中的一个。在一家水疗旅馆里，她曾对霍尔太太和艾达照顾得无微不至，因此应邀而来。她是个妩媚的姑娘，至少女人们都这么说。男客们则对这家的儿子说，他是个幸运儿。他笑了，他们笑了。起初，莫瑞斯没把她看在眼里、自此对她献起殷勤来了。
莫瑞斯本人没有意识到，他已成为一个英俊的青年。大量的体育锻炼使得他不再那么笨手笨脚了。身体很重，但动作敏捷，面部好像也随着变得线条优美。霍尔太太把这归功于他嘴唇上面那一簇小胡子。“莫瑞斯的小胡子可以造就他。”她这句评语比她所意识到的要深刻。那一小道黑线确实使他脸上的表情富于魅力，从而他微笑的时候牙齿就很显眼了。莫瑞斯还很会穿衣服，在德拉姆的劝告下，即使在星期天他也一直穿法兰绒长裤。
他朝着奥尔科特小姐微笑——好像应该这么做，她以笑脸相迎。他用体力为她效劳，让她坐在他那辆簇新的摩托车挎斗里，带她出去兜风。他伸开四肢，躺在她脚下。他发现她抽烟．就说服她跟他一起留在饭厅里。只剩他们两个人后，他要她凝视他的眼睛。蓝色水雾颤动着，一缕一缕的，融化成一堵堵墙壁，莫瑞斯也随着浮想联翩。新鲜空气从一扇打开的窗户飘进来，一切突然都消失了。他看出她是满意的。他的母亲、妹妹们以及仆人们，也被激起极大的好奇心。他打定主意继续做下去。
紧接着就失败了。莫瑞斯恭维她说，她的一头秀发非常好等等。她试图制止他，然而他不敏感，不知道自己惹恼了她。他在书中读到过，女孩总是假装制止那些向她们说奉承话的男人。他缠住她。最后一天，她托辞不肯坐进他那辆摩托车的挎斗．，于是他扮演了盛气凌人的大男子汉角色。奥尔科特小姐是来做客的，只好跟着他去兜风。他把她带到他认为富于浪漫色彩的风景区，用双手攥住她那两只小小的手。
奥尔科特小姐并不反对自己的手被攥住。别的男人也这么做过，只要莫瑞斯懂得该怎样做，她是不会感到不满的。但是她觉得有些不正常，他的触摸使她反感，那种感觉像是来自于尸体的。她跳起来喊道：“霍尔先生，别这么愚蠢。我的意思是说，别这么傻。我不是为了让你做出更傻的事才这么说的。”
“奥尔科特小姐——格拉迪斯——我宁肯死掉，也不愿意得罪你——”小伙子低声吼叫，他打算继续跟她周旋。
“我得乘火车回去。”她边抽泣边说，“我非坐火车不可，请原谅。”她比他先到了家，撒了个适当的小谎，头痛啦，眼睛里进了沙子啦。然而他的家人觉察到出了什么问题。
除了这段插曲，假期过得挺愉快。莫瑞斯读了些书，与其说是在导师的指教下，不如说是接受了德拉姆的建议。他确信自己已长大成人，为了证实这一点，他做了一两件事。他鼓动母亲将多年来使全家人的户外活动陷于瘫痪状态的豪厄尔夫妇解雇，并把马车换成小轿车。每一个人都心悦诚服，包括豪厄尔夫妇。他还拜访了父亲的一位老搭档。莫瑞斯从父亲那里继承了点儿从事商业的才能以及一笔钱。于是莫瑞斯决定从剑桥毕业后，就作为一名不持有股东资格的社员进入希尔与霍尔证券交易公司。他将迈入英国为他准备的、非常适合他的领域。
收听单词发音 |
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penetrated
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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crudity
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| n.粗糙，生硬；adj.粗略的 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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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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professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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pyjamas
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| n.（宽大的）睡衣裤 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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shredded
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| shred的过去式和过去分词 | |
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intrigued
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| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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brokers
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| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
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niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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