IT is time to speak of Julia, who till now has played an intermittent1 and somewhat enigmatic part in Sebastian’s drama. It was thus she appeared to me at the time, and I to her. We pursued separate aims which brought us near to one another, but we remained strangers. She told me later that she had made a kind of note of me in her mind, as, scanning the shelf for a particular book, one will sometimes have one’s attention caught by another, take it down, glance at the title page and, saying ‘I must read that, too, when I’ve the time,’ replace it, and continue the search. On my side the interest was keener, for there was always the physical likeness2 between brother and sister, which, caught repeatedly in different poses, under different lights, each time pierced me anew; and, as Sebastian in his sharp decline seemed daily to fade and crumble3, so much the more did Julia stand out clear and firm.
She was thin in those days, flat-chested, leggy; she seemed all limbs and neck, bodiless, spidery; thus far she conformed to the fashion, but the hair-cut and the hats of the period, and the blank stare and gape4 of the period, and the clownish dabs5 of rouge6 high on the cheekbones, could not reduce her to type.
When I first met her, when she met me in the station yard and drove me home through the twilight7, that high summer of 1923, she was just eighteen and fresh from her first London season.
Some said it was the most brilliant season since the war, that things were getting into their stride again. Julia was at the centre of it. There were then remaining perhaps half a dozen London houses which could be called ‘historic’; Marchmain House in St James’s was one of them, and the ball given for Julia, in spite of the ignoble8 costume of the time, was by all accounts a splendid spectacle. Sebastian went down for it and half-heartedly suggested my coming with him; I refused and came to regret my refusal, for it was the last ball of its kind given there; the last of a splendid series. How could I have known? There seemed time for everything in those days; the world was open to be explored at leisure. I was so full of Oxford9 that summer; London could wait, I thought.
The other great houses belonged to kinsmen10 or to childhood friends of Julia’s, and beside s them there were countless11 substantial houses in the squares of Mayfair and Belgravia, alight and thronged12, one or other of them, night after night. Foreigners returning on post from their own waste lands wrote home that here they seemed to catch a glimpse of the world they had believed lost forever, among the mud and wire, and through those halcyon13 weeks Julia darted14 and shone, part of the sunshine between the tress, part of the candle-light in the mirror’s spectrum15, so that elderly men and women sitting aside with their memories, saw her as herself the blue-bird. ‘ “Bridey” Marchmain’s eldest16 girl,’ they said. ‘Pity he can’t see her tonight.’ That night and the night after, wherever she went always in her own little circle of intimates, she brought a moment of Joy, such as strikes deep to the heart on the river’s bank when the kingfisher suddenly flares17 across the water.
This was the creature, neither child nor woman, that drove me through the dusk that summer evening, untroubled by love, taken aback by the power of her own beauty, hesitating on the cool edge of life one who had suddenly found herself armed, unawares; the heroine of a fairy story turning over in her hands the magic ring; she had only to stroke it with her fingertips and whisper the charmed word, for the earth to open at her feet and belch18 forth19 her titanic20 servant, the fawning21 monster who would bring her whatever she asked., but bring it, perhaps, in unwelcome shape. She had no interest in me that evening; the jinn rumbled22 below us uncalled; she lived apart in a little world, within a little world, the innermost of a system of concentric spheres, like the ivory balls laboriously23 carved in China; a little problem troubling her mind - little, as she saw it, in abstract terms and symbols. She was wondering dispassionately and leagues distant from reality, whom she should marry. Thus strategists hesitate over the map, the few pins and lines of coloured chalk, contemplating24 a change in the pins and lines, a matter of inches, which outside the room, out of sight of the studious officers, may engulf25 past, present, and future in ruin or life. She was a symbol to herself then, lacking the life of both child and women; victory and defeat were changes of pin and line; she knew nothing of war. ‘If only one lived abroad,’ she thought, ‘where these things are arranged between parents and lawyers.’
To be married, soon and splendidly, was the aim of all her friends. If she looked further than the wedding, it was to see marriage as the beginning of individual existence; the skirmish where one gained one’s spurs, from which one set out on the true quests of life.
She outshone by far all the girls of her age, but she knew that, in that little world within a world which she inhabited, there were certain grave disabilities from which she suffered. On the sofas against the wall where the old people counted up the points, there were things against her. There was the scandal of her father; that slight, inherited stain upon her brightness that seemed deepened by something in her own way of life - waywardness and wilfulness27, a less disciplined habit than most of her contemporaries; but for that, who knows?...
One subject eclipsed all others in importance for the ladies along the wall; who would the young princes marry? They could not hope for purer lineage or a more gracious presence than Julia’s; but there was this faint shadow on her that unfitted her for the highest honours; there was also her religion.
Nothing could have been further from Julia’s ambitions than a royal marriage. She knew, or thought she knew, what she wanted and it was not that. But wherever she turned, it seemed, her religion stood as a barrier between her and her natural goal. As it seemed to her, the thing was a dead loss. If she apostatized now, having been brought up in the Church, she would go to hell, while the Protestant girls of her acquaintance, schooled in happy ignorance, could marry eldest sons, live at peace with their world, and get to heaven before her. There could be no eldest son for her, and younger sons were indelicate things, necessary, but not to be much spoken of. Younger sons had none of the privileges of obscurity; it was their plain duty to remain hidden until some disaster perchance promoted them to their brother’s places, and, since this was their function, it was desirable that they should keep themselves wholly suitable for succession. Perhaps in a family of three or four boys, a Catholic might get the youngest without opposition28. There were of course the Catholics themselves, but these came seldom into the little world Julia had made for herself; those who did were her mother’s kinsmen, who, to her, seemed grim and eccentric. Of the dozen or so rich and noble Catholic families, none at that time had an heir of the right age. Foreigners - there were many among her mother’s family - were tricky29 about money, odd in their ways, and a sure mark of failure in the English girl who wed26 them. What was there left? This was Julia’s problem after her weeks of triumph in London. She knew it was not insurmountable. There must, she thought, be a number of people outside her own world who were well qualified30 to be drawn31 into it; the shame was that she must seek them.
Not for her the cruel, delicate luxury of choice, the indolent, cat-and-mouse pastimes of the hearth-rug. No Penelope she; she must hunt in the forest. She had made a preposterous32 little picture of the kind of man who would do: he was an English diplomat33 of great but not very virile34 beauty, now abroad, with a house smaller than Brideshead, nearer to London; he was old, thirty-two or -three, and had been recently and tragically35 widowed; Julia thought she would prefer a man a little subdued36 by earlier grief. He had a great career before him but had grown listless in his loneliness; she was not sure he was not in danger of falling into the hands of an unscrupulous foreign adventuress; he needed a new infusion37 of young life to carry him to the Embassy at Paris. While professing38 a mild agnosticism himself he had a liking39 for the shows of religion and was perfectly40 agreeable to having his children brought up Catholic; he believed, however in the prudent41 restriction42 of his family to two boys and a girl, comfortably, spaced over twelve years, and did not demand, as a Catholic husband might, yearly pregnancies43. He had twelve thousand a year above his pay, and no near relations. Someone like that would do, Julia thought, and she was in search of him when she met me at the railway station. I was not her man. She told me as much, without a word, when she took the cigarette from my lips.
All this I learned about Julia, bit by bit, as one does learn the former - as it seems at the time, the preparatory - life of a woman one loves, so that one thinks of oneself as having been part of it, directing it by devious44 ways, towards oneself.
Julia left Sebastian and me at Brideshead and went to stay with an aunt, Lady Rosscommon, in her villa45 at Cap Ferrat. All the way she pondered her problem. She had given a name to her widower-diplomat; she called him “Eustace”, and from that moment he became a figure of fun to her, a little interior, incommunicable joke, so that when at last such a man did cross her path - though he was not a diplomat but a wistful major in the Life Guards - and fall in love with her and offer her just those gifts she had chosen, she sent him away moodier46 and more wistful than ever; for by that time she had met Rex Mottram.
Rex’s age was greatly in his favour, for among Julia’s friends there was a kind of gerontophilic snobbery47; young men were held to be gauche48 and pimply49; it was thought very much more chic50 to be seen lunching alone at the Ritz - a thing, in any case, allowed to few girls of that day, to the tiny circle of Julia’s intimates; a thing looked at askance by the elders who kept the score, chatting pleasantly against the walls of the ballrooms51 - at the table on the left as you came in, with a starched52 and wrinkled old roué whom your mother had be warned of as a girl, than than in the centre of the room with a party of exuberant53 young bloods. Rex, indeed, was neither starched nor wrinkled; his seniors thought him a pushful young cad, but Julia recognized the unmistakable chic - the flavour of ‘Max’ and ‘F. E.’ and the Prince of Wales, of the big table in the Sporting Club, the second magnum, and the fourth cigar, of the chauffeur54 kept waiting hour after hour without compunction - which her friends would envy. His social position was unique; it had an air of mystery, even of crime, about it; people said Rex went about armed. Julia and her friends had a fascinated abhorrence55 of what they called ‘Pont Street’; they collected phrases that damned their user, and among themselves - and often, disconcertingly, in public - talked a language made up of them. It was ‘Pont Street’ to wear a signet ring and to give chocolates at the theatre; it was ‘Pont Street’ at a dance to say, ‘Can I forage56 for you?’ Whatever Rex might be, he was definitely not ‘Pont Street’. He had stepped straight from the underworld into the world of Brenda Champion who was herself the innermost of a number of concentric ivory spheres.
Perhaps Julia recognized in Brenda Champion an intimation of what she and her friends
might be in twelve years’ time; there was an antagonism57 between the girl and the woman that was hard to explain otherwise. Certainly the fact of his being Brenda Champion’s property sharpened Julia’s appetite for Rex. Rex and Brenda Champion were staying at the next villa on Cap Ferrat, taken that year by a newspaper magnate, and frequented by politicians. They would not normally have come within Lady Rosscommon’s ambit, but, living so close, the parties mingled58 and at once, Rex began warily59 to pay his court.
All that summer he had been feeling restless. Mrs Champion had proved a dead end; it had all been intensely exciting at first, but now the bonds had begun to chafe60. Mrs Champion lived as, he found, the English seemed apt to do, in a little world within a little world; Rex demanded a wider horizon. He wanted to consolidate61 his gains; to strike the black ensign, go ashore62, hang the cutlass up over the chimney, and think about the crops. It was time he married; he, too, was in search of a ‘Eustace’, but, living as he did, he met few girls. He knew of Julia; she was by all accounts top debutante63, a suitable prize.
With Mrs Champion’s cold eyes watching behind her sunglasses, there was little Rex could do at Cap Ferrat except establish a friendliness64 which could be widened later. He was never entirely65 alone with Julia, but he saw to it that she was included in most things they did; he taught her chemin-de-fer, he arranged that it was always in his car that they drove to Monte Carlo or Nice; he did enough to make Lady Rosscommon. write to Lady Marchmain, and Mrs Champion move him, sooner than they had planned, to Antibes. Julia went to Salzburg to join her mother.
‘Aunt Fanny tells me you made great friends with Mr Mottram. I’m sure he can’t be very nice.’
‘I don’t think he is,’ said Julia. ‘I don’t know that I like nice people.’ There is proverbially a mystery among most men of new wealth, how they made their first ten thousand; it is the qualities they showed then, before they became bullies66, when every man was someone to be placated67, when only hope sustained them and they could count on nothing from the world but what could be charmed from it, that make them, if they survive their triumph, successful with women. Rex, in the comparative freedom of London, became abject68 to Julia; he planned his life about hers where he would meet her, ingratiating himself with those who could report well of him to her; he sat on a number of charitable committees in order to be near Lady Marchmain; he offered his services to Brideshead in getting him a seat in Parliament (but was there rebuffed); he expressed a keen interest in the Catholic Church until he found that this was no way to Julia’s heart. He was always ready to drive her in his Hispano wherever she wanted to go; he took her and parties of her friends to ring-side seats at prize-fights and introduced them afterwards to the pugilists; and all the time he never once made love to her. From being agreeable, he became indispensable to her; from having been proud of him in public she became a little ashamed, but by that time, between Christmas and Easter, he had become indispensable. And then, without in the least expecting it, she suddenly found herself in love.
It came to her, this disturbing and unsought revelation, one evening in May, when Rex had told her he would be busy at the House, and, driving by chance down Charles Street, she saw him leaving what she knew to be Brenda Champion’s house. She was so hurt and angry that she could barely keep up appearances through dinner; as soon as she could, she went home and cried bitterly for ten minutes; then she felt hungry, wished she had eaten more at dinner, ordered some bread-and-milk, and went to bed saying:
‘When Mr Mottram telephones in the morning, whatever time it is, say I am not to be disturbed.’
Next day she breakfasted in bed as usual, read the papers, telephoned to her friends.
Finally she asked: ‘Did Mr Mottram ring up by any chance?’
‘Oh yes my lady four times. Shall I put him through when he rings again?’
‘Yes. No. Say I’ve gone out.’
When she came downstairs there was a message for her on the hall table. Mr Mottram expects Lady Julia at the Ritz at 1.30. ‘I shall lunch at home today, ‘ she said. That afternoon she went shopping with her mother; they had tea with an aunt and returned at six.
‘Mr Mottram is waiting, my Lady. I’ve shown him into the library.’
‘Oh, mummy, I can’t be bothered with him. Do tell him to go home.’ ‘That’s not at all kind, Julia. I’ve often said he’s not my favourite among your friends, but I have grown quite used to him, almost to like him. You really mustn’t take people up and drop them like this - particularly people like Mr Mottram.’ Oh, mummy, must I see him? There’ll be a scene if I do.’
‘Nonsense, Julia, you twist that poor man round your finger.’
So Julia went into the library and came out an hour later engaged to be married.
‘Oh, mummy, I warned you this would happen if I went in there.’ ‘You did nothing of the kind. You merely said there would be a scene. I never conceived of a scene of this kind.’
‘Anyway, you do like him, mummy. You said so.’
‘He has been very kind in a number of ways. I regard him as entirely unsuitable as your husband. So will everyone.’
‘Damn everybody.’
‘We know nothing about him. He may have black blood - in fact he is suspiciously dark. Darling, the whole thing’s impossible. I can’t see how you can have been so foolish.’
‘Well, what right have I got otherwise to be angry with him if he goes with that horrible old woman? You make a great thing about rescuing fallen women. Well, I’m rescuing, a fallen man for a change. I’m saving Rex from mortal sin.’ ‘Don’t be irreverent, Julia.’
‘Well, isn’t it mortal sin to sleep with Brenda Champion?’
‘Or indecent.’
‘He’s promised never to see her again. I couldn’t ask him to do that unless I admitted I was in love with him could I?’
‘Mrs Champion’s morals, thank God, are not my business. Your happiness is. If you must know, I think Mr Mottram a kind and useful friend, but I wouldn’t trust him an inch, and I’m sure he’ll have very unpleasant children. They always revert69. I’ve no doubt you’ll regret the whole thing in a few days. Meanwhile nothing is to be done. No one must be told anything or allowed to suspect. You must stop lunching with him. You may see him here, of course, but nowhere in public. You had better send him to me and I will have a little talk to him about it.’ Thus began a year’s secret engagement for Julia; a time of great stress, for Rex made love to her that afternoon for the first time; not, as had happened to her once or twice before with sentimental70 and uncertain boys, but with a passion that disclosed the corner of something like it in her. Their passion frightened her, and she came back from the confessional one day determined72 to put an end to it. ‘Otherwise I must stop seeing you,’ she said.
Rex was humble73 at once, just as he had been in the winter, day after day, when he used to wait for her in the cold in his big car.
‘If only we could be married immediately,’ she said.
For six weeks they remained at arm’s length, kissing when they met and parted, sitting meantime at a distance, talking of what they would do and where they would live and of Rex’s chances of an under-secretaryship. Julia was content, deep in love, living in the future. Then, just before the end of the session, she learned that Rex had been staying the week-end with a stockbroker75 at Sunningdale, when he said he was at his constituency, and that Mrs Champion had been there, too.
On the evening she heard of this, when Rex came as usual to Marchmain House, they
re-enacted the scene of two months before.
‘What do you expect?’ he said. ‘What right have you to ask so much, when you give so little?’
She took her problem to Farm Street and propounded76 it in general terms, not in the confessional, but in a dark little parlour kept for such interviews. ‘Surely, Father, it can’t be wrong to commit a small sin myself in order to keep him from a much worse one?’
But the gentle old Jesuit was unyielding. She barely listened to him; he was refusing her what she wanted, that was all she needed to know.
When he had finished he said, ‘Now you had better make your confession71.’ ‘No, thank you,’ she said, as though refusing the offer of something in a shop. ‘I don’t think I want to today,’ and walked angrily home.
From that moment she shut her mind against her religion. And Lady Marchmain saw this and added it to her new grief for Sebastian and her old grief for her husband and to the deadly sickness in her body, and took all these sorrows with her daily to church; it seemed her heart was transfixed with the swords of her dolours, a living heart to match the plaster and paint; what comfort she took home with her, God knows.
So the year-wore on and the secret of the engagement spread from Julia’s confidantes to their confidantes, until, like ripples77 at last breaking on the mud-verge, there were hints of it in the Press, and Lady Rosscommon as Lady-in-Waiting was closely questioned about it, and something had to be done. Then, after Julia had refused to make her Christmas communion and Lady Marchmain had found herself betrayed first by me, then by Mr Samgrass, then by Cordelia, in the first grey days of 1925, she decided78 to act. She forbade all talk of an engagement; she forbade Julia and Rex ever to meet; she made plans for shutting Marchmain House for six months and taking Julia on a tour of visits to their foreign kinsmen. It was characteristic of an old, atavistic callousness79 that went with her delicacy80 that, even at this crisis, she did not think it unreasonable81 to put Sebastian in Rex’s charge on the journey to Dr Borethus, and Rex, having failed her in that matter, went on to Monte Carlo, where he completed her rout82. Lord Marchmain did not concern himself with the finer points of Rex’s character; those, he believed, were his daughter’s business. Rex seemed a rough, healthy, prosperous fellow whose name was already familiar to him from reading the political reports; he gambled in an open-handed but sensible manner; he seemed to keep reasonably good company; he had a future; Lady Marchmain disliked him. Lord Marchmain was, on the whole, relieved that Julia should have chosen so well, and gave his consent to an immediate74 marriage.
Rex gave himself to the preparations with gusto. He bought her a ring, not, as she expected, from a tray at Cartier’s, but in a back room in Hatton Garden from a man who brought stones out of a safe in little bags and displayed them for her on a writing-desk; then another man in another back room made designs for the setting, with a stub of pencil on a sheet, of note-paper, and the result excited the admiration83 of all her friends. ‘How d you know about these things, Rex?’ she asked.
She was daily surprised by the things he knew and the things he did not know; both, at the time, added to his attraction.
His present house in Hertford Street was large enough for them both, and had lately been furnished and decorated by the most expensive firm. Julia said she did not want a house in the country yet; they could always take places furnished when they wanted to go away.
There was trouble about the marriage settlement with which Julia refused to interest herself. The lawyers were in despair. Rex absolutely refused to settle any capital. ‘What do I want with trustee stock?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know, darling.’
‘I make money work for me,’ he said. ‘I expect fifteen, twenty per cent and I get it. It’s pure waste tying up capital at three and a half’ ‘I’m sure it is, darling.’
‘These fellows talk as though I were trying to rob you. It’s they who are doing the robbing. They want to rob you of two thirds of the income I can make you.’ ‘Does it matter, Rex? We’ve got heaps, haven’t we?’
Rex hoped to have the whole of Julia’s dowry in his hands, to make it work for him. The lawyers insisted on tying it up, but they could not get, as they asked, a like sum from him. Finally, grudgingly84, he agreed to insure his life, after explaining at length to the lawyers that this was merely a device for putting part of his legitimate85 profits into other people’s pockets; but he had some connection with an insurance office which made the arrangement slightly less painful to him, by which he took for himself the agent’s commission which the lawyers were themselves expecting. Last and least came the question of Rex’s religion. He had once attended a royal wedding in Madrid, and he wanted something of the kind for himself. ‘That’s one thing your Church can do,’ he said, ‘put on a good show. You never saw anything to equal the cardinals86. How many do you have in England?’ ‘Only one, darling.’
‘Only one? Can we hire some others from abroad?’
It was then explained to him that a mixed marriage was a very unostentatious affair.
‘How d’you mean “mixed”;’ I’m not a nigger or anything.’
‘No, darling, between a Catholic and a Protestant.’
‘Oh, that? Well, if that’s all, it’s soon unmixed. I’ll become a Catholic. What does one have to do?’
Lady Marchmain was dismayed and perplexed88 by this new development; it was no good her telling herself that in charity she must assume his good faith; it brought back memories of another courtship and another conversion89. ‘Rex,’ she said. ‘I sometimes wonder if you realize how big a thing you are taking on in the Faith. It would be very wicked to take a step like this without believing sincerely.’ He was masterly in his treatment of her.
‘I don’t pretend to be a very devout90 man,’ he said, ‘nor much of a theologian, but I know it’s a bad plan to have two religions in one house. A man needs a religion. If your Church is good enough for Julia, it’s good enough for me.’ ‘Very well,’ she said, ‘I will see about having you instructed.’ ‘Look, Lady Marchmain, I have the time. Instruction will be wasted on me. Just you give me the form and I’ll sign on the dotted line.’
‘It usually takes some months - often a lifetime.’
‘Well, I’m a quick learner. Try me.’
So Rex was sent to Farm Street to Father Mowbray, a priest renowned91 for his triumphs with obdurate92 catechumens. After the third interview he came to tea with Lady Marchmain.
‘Well, how do you find my future son-in-law?’
‘He’s the most difficult convert I have ever met.’
‘Oh dear, I thought he was going to make it so easy.’
‘That’s exactly it. I can’t get anywhere near him. He doesn’t seem to have the least intellectual curiosity or natural piety93.
‘The first day I wanted to find out what sort of religious life he had till now, so I asked him what he meant by prayer. He said: “I don’t mean anything. You tell me.” I tried to, in a few words, and he said: “Right. So much for prayer; What’s the next thing?” I gave him the catechism to take away. Yesterday I asked him whether Our Lord had more than one nature. He said: “Just as many as you say, Father.” ‘Then again I asked him: “Supposing the Pope looked up and saw a cloud and said ‘It’s going to rain’, would that be bound to happen?” “Oh, yes, Father.” “But supposing it didn’t?” He thought a moment and said, “I suppose it would be sort of raining spiritually, only we were too sinful to see it.”
‘Lady Marchmain, he doesn’t correspond to any degree of paganism known to the missionaries94.’
‘Julia,’ said Lady Marchmain, when the priest had gone, ‘are you sure that Rex isn’t doing this thing purely95 with the idea of pleasing us?’
‘I don’t think it enters his head,’ said Julia.
‘He’s really sincere in his conversion?’
‘He’s absolutely determined to become a Catholic, mummy,’ and to herself she said:
‘In her long history the Church must have had some pretty queer converts. I don’t suppose all Clovis’s army were exactly Catholic-minded. One more won’t hurt.’ Next week the Jesuit came to tea again. It was the Easter holidays and Cordelia was there, too.
‘Lady Marchmain,’ he said. ‘You should have chosen one of the younger fathers for this task. I shall be dead long before Rex is a Catholic.’ ‘Oh dear, I thought it was going so well.’
‘It was, in a sense. He was exceptionally docile96, and he accepted everything I told him, remembered bits of it, asked no questions. I wasn’t happy about him. He seemed to have no sense of reality, but I knew he was coming under a steady Catholic influence, so I was willing to receive him. One has to take a chance sometimes with semi-imbeciles, for instance. You never know quite how much they have understood. As long as you know there’s someone to keep an eye on them, you do take the chance.’ ‘How I wish Rex could hear this!’ said Cordelia.
‘But yesterday I got a regular eye-opener. The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant people are. With anyone over fifty you can be fairly confident what’s been taught and what’s been left out. But these young people have such an intelligent, knowledgeable97 surface, and then the crust suddenly breaks and you look down into the depths of confusion you didn’t know existed. Take yesterday. He seemed to be doing very well. He learned large bits of the catechism by heart, and the Lord’s Prayer, and the Hail Mary. Then I asked him as usual if there was anything troubling him, and he looked at me in a crafty98 way and said, “Look, Father, I don’t think you’re being straight with me. I want to join your Church and I’m going to join your Church, but you’re holding too much back.” I asked what he meant, and he said: “I’ve had a long talk with a Catholic - a very pious99 well-educated one and I’ve learned a thing or two.
For instance, that you have to sleep with your feet pointing East because that’s the
direction of heaven, and if you die in the night you can walk there. Now I’ll sleep with my feet pointing any way that suits Julia, but d’you expect a grown man to believe about walking to heaven? And what about the Pope who made one of his horses a Cardinal87? And what about the box you keep in the church porch, and if you put in a pound note with someone’s name on it, they get sent to hell. I don’t say there mayn’t be a good reason for all this,” he said, “but you ought to tell me about it and not let me find out for myself.”’
‘What can the poor man have meant?’ said Lady Marchmain.
‘You see he’s a long way from the Church yet,’ said Father Mowbray. ‘But who can he have been talking to? Did he dream it all? Cordelia, what’s the matter?’
‘What a chump! Oh, mummy, what a glorious chump!’
‘Cordelia, it was you.’
‘Oh, mummy, who could have dreamed he’d swallow it? I told him such a lot besides.
About the sacred monkeys in the Vatican - all kinds of things.’
‘Well, you’ve very considerably100 increased my work,’ said Father Mowbray.
‘Poor Rex,’ said Lady Marchmain. ‘You know, I think it makes him rather lovable.
You must treat him like an idiot child, Father Mowbray.’ So the instruction was continued, and Father Mowbray at length consented to receive Rex a week before his wedding.
‘You’d think they’d be all over themselves to have me in,’ Rex complained. ‘I can be a lot of help to them one way and another; instead they’re like the chaps who issue, cards for a casino. What’s more,’ he added, ‘Cordelia’s got me so muddled101 I don’t know what’s in the catechism and what she’s invented.’ Thus things stood three weeks before the wedding; the cards had gone out, presents were coming in fast, the bridesmaids were delighted with their dresses. Then came what Julia called ‘Bridey’s bombshell’. With characteristic ruthlessness he tossed his load of explosive without warning into what, till then, had been a happy family party. The library at Marchmain House was being devoted102 to wedding presents; Lady Marchmain, Julia, Cordelia, and Rex were busy unpacking103 and listing them. Brideshead came in and watched them for a moment. ‘Chinky vases from Aunt Betty,’ said Cordelia. ‘Old stuff. I remember them on the stairs at Buckborne.’
‘What’s all this?’ asked Brideshead.
‘Mr, Mrs, and Miss Pendle-Garthwaite, one early morning tea set. Goode’s, thirty shillings, jolly mean.’
‘You’d better pack all that stuff up again.’
‘Bridey, what do you mean?’
‘Only that the wedding’s off.’
‘Bridey’
‘I thought I’d better make some inquiries104 about my prospective105 brother-in-law, as no one else seemed interested,’ said Brideshead. ‘I got the final answer tonight. He was married in Montreal in 1915 to a Miss Sarah Evangeline Cutler, who is still living there.’ ‘Rex, is this true?’
Rex stood with a jade106 dragon in his hand looking at it critically; then he set it carefully on its ebony stand and smiled openly and innocently at them all. ‘Sure it’s true,’ he said. ‘What about it? What are you all looking so het up about? She isn’t a thing to me. She never meant any good. I was only a kid, anyhow. The sort of mistake anyone might make. I got my divorce back in 1919. I didn’t even know where she was living till Bridey here told me. What’s all the rumpus?’ ‘You might have told me,’ said Julia.
‘You never asked. Honest, I’ve not given her a thought in years.
His sincerity107 was so plain that they had to sit down and talk about it calmly. ‘Don’t you realize, you poor sweet oaf,’ said Julia, ‘that you can’t get married as a Catholic when you’ve another wife alive?’
‘But I haven’t. Didn’t I just tell you we were divorced six years ago.’
‘But you can’t be divorced as a Catholic.’
‘I wasn’t a Catholic and I was divorced. I’ve got the papers somewhere.’
‘But didn’t Father Mowbray explain to you about marriage?’ ‘He said I wasn’t to be divorced from you. Well, I don’t want to be. I can’t remember all he told me - sacred monkeys, plenary indulgences, four last things - if I remembered all he told me I shouldn’t have time for anything else. Anyhow, what about your Italian cousin, Francesca? - she married twice.’
‘All right then, I’ll get an annulment. What does it cost? Who do I get it from? Has Father Mowbray got one? I only want to do what’s right. Nobody told me.’ It was a long time before Rex could be convinced of the existence of a serious impediment to his marriage. The discussion took them to dinner, lay dormant109 in the presence of the servants, started again as soon as they were alone, and lasted long after midnight. Up, down, and round the argument circled and swooped110 like a gull111, now out to sea, out of sight, cloud-bound, among irrelevances and repetitions, now right on the patch where the offal floated.
‘What d’you want me to do? Who should I see?’ Rex kept asking. ‘Don’t tell me there isn’t someone who can fix this.’
‘There’s nothing to do, Rex,’ said Brideshead. ‘It simply means your marriage can’t take place. I’m sorry from everyone’s point of view that it’s come so suddenly. You ought to have told us yourself’ ‘Look said Rex. ‘Maybe what you say is right; maybe strictly112 by law I shouldn’t get married in your cathedral. But the cathedral is booked; no one there is asking any questions; the Cardinal knows nothing about it; Father Mowbray knows nothing about it. Nobody except us knows a thing. So why make a lot of trouble? Just stay mum and let the thing go through, as if nothing had happened. Who loses anything by that? Maybe I risk going to hell. Well, I’ll risk it. What’s it got to do with anyone else?’ ‘Why not?’ said Julia. ‘I don’t believe these priests know everything. I don’t believe in hell for things like that. I don’t know that I believe in it for anything. Anyway, that’s our look out. We’re not asking you to risk your souls. Just keep away.’
‘Julia, I hate you,’ said Cordelia, and left the room.
‘We’re all tired,’ said Lady Marchmain. ‘If there was anything to say, I’d suggest our discussing it in the morning.’
‘But there’s nothing to discuss,’ said Brideshead, ‘except what’ is the least offensive way we can close the whole incident. Mother and I will decide that. We must put a notice in The Times and the Morning Post; the presents will have to go back. I don’t know what is usual about the bridesmaids’ dresses.’
‘Just a moment,’ said Rex. ‘Just a moment. Maybe you can stop us marrying in your cathedral. All right, to hell, we’ll be married in a Protestant church.’ ‘I can stop that, too,’ said Lady Marchmain.
‘But I don’t think you will, mummy,’ said Julia. ‘You see, I’ve been Rex’s mistress for some time now, and I shall go on being, married or not.’ ‘Rex, is this true?’
‘No damn it, it’s not, ‘ said Rex. ‘I wish it were.’
‘I see we shall have to discuss it all again in the morning,’ said Lady Marchmain faintly. ‘I can’t go on any more now.’
And she needed her son’s help up the stairs.
‘What on earth made you tell your mother that?’ I asked, when, years later, Julia described the scene to me.
‘That’s exactly what Rex wanted to know. I suppose because I thought it was true. Not literally113 - though you must remember I was only twenty, and no one really knows the “facts of life” by being told them - but, of course, I didn’t mean it was true literally. I didn’t know how else to express it. I meant I was much too deep with Rex just to be able to say “the marriage arranged will not now take place”, and leave it at that. I wanted to be made an honest woman. I’ve been wanting it ever since come to think of it.’ ‘And then?’
‘And then the talks went on and on. Poor mummy. And priests came into it and aunts came into it. There were all kinds of suggestions - that Rex should go to Canada, that Father Mowbray should go to Rome and see if there were any possible grounds for an annulment; that I should go abroad for a year. In the middle of it Rex just telegraphed to papa: “Julia and I prefer wedding ceremony take place by Protestant rites114. Have you any objection?” He answered, “Delighted”, and that settled the matter as far as mummy stopping us legally went. There was a lot of personal appeal after that. I was sent to talk to priests and nuns115 and aunts. Rex just went on quietly - or fairly quietly - with the plans.
‘Oh, Charles, what a squalid wedding! The Savoy Chapel116 was the place where divorced couples got married in those days - a poky little place not at all what Rex had intended. I wanted just to slip into a registry office one morning and get the thing over with a couple of charwomen as witnesses, but nothing else would do but Rex had to have bridesmaids and orange blossom and the Wedding March. It was gruesome. ‘Poor mummy behaved like a martyr117 and insisted on my having her lace in spite of everything. Well, she more or less had to - the dress had been planned round it. My own friends came, of course, and the curious accomplices118 Rex called his friends; the rest of the party were very oddly assorted119. None of mummy’s family came, of course, one or two of papa’s. All the stuffy120 people stayed away - you know, the Anchorages and Chasms121 and Vanbrughs - and I thought, “Thank God for that, they always look down their noses at me, anyhow,” but Rex was furious, because it was just them he wanted apparently122.
‘I hoped at one moment there’d be no party at all. Mummy said we couldn’t use Marchers, and Rex wanted to telegraph papa and invade the place with an army of caterers headed by the family solicitor123. In the end it was decided to have a party the evening before at home to see the presents - apparently that was all right according to Father Mowbray. Well, no one can ever resist going to see her own present, so that was quite a success, but the reception Rex gave next day at the Savoy for the wedding guests was very squalid.
‘There was great awkwardness about the tenants124. In the end Bridey went down and gave them a dinner and bonfire there which wasn’t at all what they expected in return for their silver soup tureen.
‘Poor Cordelia took it hardest. She had looked forward so much to being my bridesmaid - it was a thing we used to talk about long before I came out - and of course she was a very pious child, too. At first she wouldn’t speak to me. Then on the morning of the wedding - I’d moved to Aunt Fanny Rosscommon’s the evening before; it was thought more suitable - she, came bursting in before I was up, straight from Farm Street,
in floods of tears, begged me not to marry, then hugged me, gave me a dear little brooch she’d bought, and said she prayed I’d always be happy. Always happy, Charles! ‘It was an awfully125 unpopular wedding, you know. Everyone took mummy’s side, as everyone always did - not that she got any benefit from it. All through her life mummy had all the sympathy of everyone except those she loved. They all said I’d behaved abominably126 to her. In fact, poor Rex found he’d married an outcast, which was exactly the opposite of all he’d wanted.
‘So you see things never looked like going right. There was a hoodoo on us from the start. But I was still nuts about Rex.
‘Funny to think of, isn’t it?
‘You know Father Mowbray hit on the truth about Rex at once, that it took me a year of marriage to see. He simply wasn’t all there. He wasn’t a complete human being at all. He was a tiny bit of one, unnaturally127 developed; something in a bottle, an organ kept alive in a laboratory. I thought he was a sort of primitive128 savage129, but he was something absolutely modem130 and up-to-date that only this ghastly age could produce. A tiny bit of a man pretending he was the whole.
‘Well, it’s all over now.’
It was ten years later that she said this to me in a storm in the Atlantic.
现在该谈谈朱莉娅了，在塞巴斯蒂安这出戏中，到现在她一直扮演了一个时隐时现的、有点像迷一样的角色。当时她给我的印象也正是这个样子，而我给她的，也是如此。我们各自追求的目标使我们彼此接近，但是我们依然还是陌生人。她后来跟我说，她在脑子里多少还是注意到我的，这就好比一个人查看书架专门要找某一本书，可是有时另一本书会引起他的注意一样，他把这本书取下来，瞥了一眼封面上的书名说：“有了时间我一定也要读读这本书，”然后又把它放回原处，继续寻找他要找的书。我的兴趣要更浓一些，因为在兄妹之间总是存在着身体上的相似，这种相似在不同的姿势中，在不同的光线下，每次看起来都重新触动我，而且，由于塞巴斯蒂安的形象迅速颓唐，仿佛每天都变得暗淡、模糊，而朱莉娅的形象就显得更加清晰和实在了。
那时她很瘦，胸脯扁平，双腿修长；她的四肢和脖子很显眼，而身体却不引人注意，就像个蜘蛛似的。从这些方面看，她是时髦的，但是那个时代的发式和女帽，那个时代的茫然目光和张嘴凝视的神情，还有颧骨高处涂的两团可笑的胭脂，都不能使她成为时髦的典型。
当我初次遇到她的时候，也就是她在那个车站的车场里接到我，在暮色中开车送我到家的一九二三年那个盛夏的时候，她刚刚十八岁，初次参加伦敦社交季节。
有人说，那是战争爆发以来最为盛大辉煌的一次社交季节了，生活又在大步前进。朱莉娅当时是社交场上令人瞩目的人物。当时大概还遗留着五六家可以称之为“历史上著名的”伦敦世家；圣詹姆斯大街上的马奇梅因公馆就是其中的一个。为朱莉娅举行的舞会，尽管当时的服装简陋粗糙，但据大家说，还是颇为壮观的。塞巴斯蒂安也为此来到伦敦，只是随便提了一句让我和他一起去参加舞会；我拒绝了，可是接着我又后悔不应该拒绝，因为这是那里举行的最后一次舞会了；而且也是一系列辉煌舞会的最后一场了。
我怎么会预见到这些呢？在那些日子里，似乎有的是时间去干任何事情；社交界是开放的，可以从从容容地去细看一番。那个夏天我心里想的差不多都是牛津的事；我想，伦敦还可以等等再说。
另外几处大公馆是属于朱莉娅男性亲属的或她幼年时的朋友们的，除此之外，在五月市街区和贝尔格拉维亚街区还有无数的富裕人家，那里灯火通明，人们摩肩接踵，轮番举行舞会，夜夜不断，那些从荒芜的国土上返任的外国人给他们国内写信说道，在伦敦他们仿佛瞥见了他们原以为永远在泥泞和铁丝网中消失了的那个世界。经过几个平稳幸福的星期，朱莉娅崭露头角，光彩照人，犹如透过树林缝隙的阳光，又如镜子里的烛光，使得那些坐在一边回忆自己当年的上了岁数的男人和女人们看出她就像自己过去一样是一只幸福的青鸟。“那是‘布赖德’·马奇梅因家的长女，”他们说，“可惜他今晚看不到她。”
那一夜，以及接踵而来的几夜，她所到之处，总是一头扎在亲密朋友的小圈子里，引起了一阵欢乐声，如翠鸟倏地掠过水面，引起河岸上的人心里猛地一惊。
就是这个人，已经不是孩子，但还不是妇人，在那个夏日傍晚的薄暮中给我开车，她没有尝过爱情的苦恼，由于她自己的美而吃惊，却在生活的冷漠边缘上犹豫。她猛然发现自己无意中已经武装起来了；这位神话故事中的女主角转动手里那只魔指环；她只消用指尖摸一下这只魔指环，轻声念着咒语，大地就会在她脚下裂开，她那个力大无比的仆人就会冒出来，无论她要求什么，那位谄媚的妖怪都会给她带来，可是带来的东西的形状也许不能令她满意。
那天晚上她对我没有兴趣；那个精灵不请自来，在我们下面低沉地响着；她离群索居在一个狭小的世界里，而且不走出这个狭小的世界，住在像精心雕刻的镂空的中国象牙球的最深处。有些问题苦恼着她——照抽象术语和符号来讲在她看来是微不足道的。她不动感情又远离现实，战略家们就是这样面对地图上一些大头钉和彩色粉笔的线条踌躇不决，他们冥思苦索着大头钉和粉笔线条如何变动，虽说就是几英寸的事，可是在外面，在这些小心谨慎的军官们看不见的地方，却会把过去、现在和将来的生活毁掉或保存下来。当时对她自己来说，她也无非是个符号，既缺乏孩子的生活，也缺乏妇人的经验；胜利和失败要看大头钉和线条的种种变化；而她对战争却一无所知。
“要是住在国外的话，”她思考着，“这些事情由父母和律师一道安排就好了。”
赶快结婚，而且要仪式隆重，这就是她所有朋友们的目标。如果她的眼光看得远一点的话，她就会把结婚看成是独立生活的开始；看成是一种使人受到鼓励的战斗，是从此探索人生真谛的途径。
她比她同年龄的姑娘们光彩照人得多，不过她知道在她所居住的那个世界里的狭小的地方，她为了某些严重缺陷而苦恼。老人们坐在靠墙的沙发上，计算了分数，存在着于她不利的事情，有她父亲的丑闻，这丑闻留给她污点，那个不大的污点，落在她明朗的性格上，由于她自己的生活方式似乎污点更加深——她任性、固执，比起大多数同年龄人显得较缺乏训练；可是，如果没有这一切，后果如何，又有谁知道呢？……
对于坐在靠墙沙发椅上的夫人们，有一个话题使别的一切话题都黯然失色：年轻的王子们会和谁结婚呢？他们不能期待比朱莉娅血统更纯粹，或风度比她更优雅的了；可是她身上却笼罩着一层淡淡的阴影，使她无法享受这种至高无上的荣誉；还有她的宗教信仰问题。
朱莉娅最不敢奢望的事情，就是与皇室攀亲了。她知道，或许她自以为知道，她想望的是什么，反正决不是与皇室结亲。可是无论她向哪里发展，她的宗教信仰似乎是她婚姻方面的一个障碍。
她觉得，这是一件无可挽回的事了。即使她这时背叛原来的宗教信仰，由于从小受的是天主教教育，她也得下地狱，而那些和她认识的信新教的姑娘们受的教育使她们天真快乐，能够和长子结婚，与身边的社会相安无事，而且要在她之前进入天国。对她来说，根本不可能找到长子了，而次子们都是一些鄙俗的家伙，对于她乃是必然的，但是并没有什么值得称道的。幼子们无权让自己默默无闻；他们明显的义务是不要出头露面，等着什么意外的灾祸把他们推上长兄的位置，因为这也是他们应起的作用，所以就要求他们完全保持着随时适合接替长兄的状态。也许在一个有三四个男孩的家庭里，一个天主教的女孩可以嫁给最小的儿子而不致引起非议，当然还有一些本人就是天主教徒，但是他们很少进入到朱莉娅给自己创造的小圈子里面；进入这个小圈子里的人都是她母亲那边的男性亲属，她觉得那些人都太冷酷太怪僻了。在当时五六个富有而高贵的天主教家庭中，又没有一个年龄与她相当的男孩子。而外国人呢——在她母亲的家族方面，外国人很多——那些人对于钱财又都诡计多端，习惯很怪僻，一个英国姑娘要嫁给这种外国人，结果必定是失败的。还有什么人可供选择呢。
上面是朱莉娅在伦敦几个星期获得胜利之后所遇到的问题。她知道这个问题不是不能解决的。她感觉到她的圈子外边肯定还有一些够格的人可以引到她的圈子里面来的。使她感到羞耻的是她得去寻找他们。那种严格的、精挑细选的奢望，在壁炉前地毯上捉迷藏的消遣，可不是她的了。她并不是珀涅罗珀；她必须在森林里去寻猎。
她曾经描画出过一个她认为可以的男人的荒唐可笑的形象，那个人很漂亮但并不是特别具有男性美的英国外交家，此时正在国外，有一所比布赖兹赫德小些的庄园，离伦敦较近；他岁数不小，有三十二三，新近悲惨地丧偶；朱莉娅觉得她更喜欢由于早年的不幸而有些消沉的男人。他本来有着远大前程，可是由于生活寂寞已经变得冷漠了；她无法确定的是，他是不是有可能落入无耻的外国女骗子手中；他需要注入一种新的青春活力，好把他带进驻巴黎的大使馆去。虽然他自己宣称相信一种温和的不可知论，但他还喜欢宗教仪式，并且同意让他的孩子们受到天主教的教育。他还相信他的家庭要谨慎地限制在生两个男孩和一个女孩之内，并且要舒适地把这三个孩子分散在十二年里生，而不像一个天主教的丈夫要求的那样，要她年年都怀孕。除了工资，他每年还有一万二千镑的进项，而且没有家庭负担，朱莉娅想，像这样的人是中她意的，那一年夏天她去火车站接我的时候，就在寻找他。我并不是她所要找的人。当她从我的嘴唇上取下香烟的时候，尽管一句话没说，但是其实已经把这些都告诉我了。
我所知道的关于朱莉娅的这一切，都是一点一滴得来的，正如一个人了解一个他所爱恋的女人的早年生活一样——这生活，在当时，仿佛是她生活的准备阶段——这个人就会认为自己就是她生活的一部分，迂回曲折地把她早年生活引向自己。
朱莉娅把我和塞巴斯蒂安留在了布赖兹赫德，自己去了她的舅妈罗斯康芒夫人那里，住在弗拉角她的别墅里。一路上她都在思索她的问题。她已经给她那位丧偶的外交官起了一个名字；她把他叫做“尤斯塔斯”，从那时起，他已经成为她的一个有趣的人物了，稍稍有些内向，不苟言笑，因此当最后这么一个人和她邂逅相遇的时候——虽然他并不是个外交官而是御林军骑兵团的愁闷的少校——他立刻就爱上了朱莉娅，而且送给她的礼物恰恰都是她中意的，可是她把他打发走了，让他比以前更加愁闷；因为这时她已经遇到了雷克斯·莫特拉姆。
雷克斯的年龄对他十分有利，因为在朱莉娅的朋友中有一些过分敬老的势利之徒；而青年人都被认为是不善交际，满脸脓疱。让人家看见单独在利兹餐厅吃午饭，是很时髦不过的事——这种事无论如何当时的女孩子是不允许做的，但朱莉娅的小群密友却可以做，这种事，上了年岁的爱说闲话的人看了表示轻蔑，他们一边靠在舞厅的墙边愉快地闲聊天——在你进门时左边桌上坐着一个古板的满脸皱纹的老浪子，你母亲在做姑娘时人家就曾提醒她要提防着的人，而不是舞厅中央那一伙精力充沛的年轻的子弟。雷克斯的确既不古板又没有皱纹；他的上司认为他是个有进取心的年轻人，但是朱莉娅却在他身上看出明确的潇洒风度——马克斯和弗·伊和皇太子的风度来，还看出狩猎俱乐部大桌子边的人的情调，喝第二瓶两夸脱的大瓶酒，吸第四支雪茄，还有满不在乎地让汽车司机一连等上好几个小时的气派——这些都会让她的朋友们嫉妒。雷克斯的社会地位是很独特的，围绕着这种社会地位有一种神秘的甚至是犯罪的气氛；人家都说雷克斯带着枪到处闯荡过。朱莉娅和她的朋友们非常憎恨所谓的“庞特街”；她们把那些用了要遭天谴的语言都搜集起来，在她们中间——也常常在大庭广众之前令人吃惊地——用这种拼凑起来的语言来说话。戴着图章戒指，看戏的时候送人巧克力糖，这就是所谓“庞特街”的做派；也正是“庞特街”才在跳舞的时候说，“我能为你去抢劫吗？”管他雷克斯是什么人，反正他肯定不是“庞特街”。他曾从下流社会径直步入布伦达·钱皮恩的圈子，而她本身就处在许多镂空象牙球的最深处。也许朱莉娅在布伦达·钱皮恩身上就清楚地看出她和她的朋友十二年内的形象来；在这个姑娘和那种女人之间存在着一种对抗情绪，这对抗是很难用别的方式来解释的。确实，单单是雷克斯被布伦达·钱皮恩据为己有这件事本身，就加深了朱莉娅对雷克斯的好感。
雷克斯和布伦达·钱皮恩刚好也在弗拉角，就住在邻近的一家别墅里，那一年这所别墅被一位报界巨头买下了，频繁出入的都是些政客们。通常他们并不经常进入罗斯康芒夫人的领地来；可是他们住得太近了，这两伙人混到了一起，于是雷克斯就立刻小心翼翼地开始献起殷勤来。
整个夏天雷克斯都觉得坐卧不安。事实证明钱皮恩太太是一条没有出路的死胡同；最初这两个人打得火热，而现在种种束缚开始使他恼火了。他发现钱皮恩太太的生活也像英国人习惯的生活一样，也是生活在一个狭小世界的小圈子里，而雷克斯要求一个更广阔的天地。他要巩固他的利益；他要降下黑旗上岸生活，要把水手用的弯刀收起来，盘算起种地的收成。他这时也该结婚了；他也正在寻找一个“尤斯塔斯”，可是，像他过去那样生活，他遇不到姑娘。他听说过朱莉娅，照大家的说法，她乃是初进社交界的少女中的佼佼者，是个很值得追求的对象。
由于钱皮恩太太墨镜后面冷冰冰的眼睛监视着，雷克斯在弗拉角是很难施展得开的，只能建立一种日后能够发展的友谊而已。他从来没有跟朱莉娅单独在一起过，不过他也留意使她参加到他们的一切活动里来；他教她打牌赌博，他们驱车去蒙特卡洛或是去尼斯的时候，他总设法安排让她们坐在他的汽车里；他还一个劲儿地怂恿罗斯康芒夫人给马奇梅因夫人写信，钱皮恩太太还没有等他和罗斯康芒夫人筹划停当，就迫使他去了昂蒂布了。
朱莉娅去萨尔茨堡和她母亲住在一起了。
“范妮舅妈告诉我说，你和莫特拉姆先生来往很密切。我敢肯定他决不会是很体面的人。”
“我也觉得他不是，”朱莉娅说，“可是我知道我自己并不喜欢很体面的人。”
人人都知道，在大部分暴发户的男人中间，有一个如何发第一笔万镑家财的秘密，那就是他们变成恶棍之前所表现出来的品质；那时侯，他们得安抚每一个人，那时侯只有希望支持他们，他们不能依靠世界上任何东西，只能依靠以魅力取来的东西，如果他能在胜利后存活下来，他就会在女人方面获得成功。雷克斯生活在伦敦比较自由的气氛里，他对朱莉娅的手段越来越卑鄙，他故意把自己的生活围绕着她的生活安排，在什么地方会遇见她，他就去什么地方；对于凡是能够向她讲自己好话的人他都讨好巴结；为了接近马奇梅因夫人，他还参加了许多慈善事业委员会；他多次给布赖兹赫德帮忙，要给他弄到一个议会的席位（可是遭到议会拒绝）；对天主教他也表现出强烈的兴趣，直到他发现这并不能使朱莉娅动心才作罢。他随时准备开了他那部小轿车送她去她要去的地方。他还把她和她的朋友们带到职业拳击赛比赛场的最好坐位去看比赛，比赛结束后还把她们引见给拳击家们；可是从始至终他一次也没有向她表露过爱情。对于她，雷克斯从一个合意的人变成一个不可少的人。在公开的场合，她先是以雷克斯为骄傲，后来变得有点不好意思，但是到了从圣诞节到复活节中间的那段时间，雷克斯已经变成为不可少的人了。后来，她一点也没有料到，她突然发现自己堕入情网了。
可是五月的一个傍晚，当雷克斯跟她说过他在议院办事，当她偶然开车到查尔斯大街，瞥见雷克斯正从据她所知是布伦达·钱皮恩的家的那个地方出来的时候，那件令人心烦意乱、不期而遇的意外事却临到她身上。她感到那么伤心，那么愤怒，以致在吃晚饭的过程中，她几乎无法装门面。她一吃完饭，就马上回到家里，失声痛哭了十分钟；后来她感到饿了，这才想到要是刚才吃晚饭的时候多吃点就好了，于是又叫人拿来面包牛奶，睡觉的时候吩咐说：“要是莫特拉姆先生早晨打电话来，不管是什么时候，就说我不要人打搅。”
第二天她像往常那样在床上吃了早餐，看了报纸，给朋友们打过电话。最后她还是问道：“是不是凑巧有莫特拉姆先生来的电话呢？”
“有的，小姐，来过四次呢。如果他再来电话，我是不是给接过来呢？”
“接过来。不要接。就说我出去了。”
她到了楼下，大厅的桌子上有她的一封信。莫特拉姆先生希望朱莉娅小姐一点半时到利兹餐厅。“今天我可要在家里吃饭啦。”她说。
下午她和母亲出去买东西；然后她们又和一位姨妈一起喝了茶，六点钟时回到家里。
“莫特拉姆先生正等着呢，小姐。我已经把他带到图书室去了。”
“哎呀，妈妈，我可不能让他给打搅了。叫他回家去吧。”
“朱莉娅，这样做也太不友好了。虽然以前我常常说，你的朋友中我并不特别喜欢他，可是我倒对他越来越习惯了，差不多喜欢他了。你不能对人这样忽冷忽热呢——特别是对像莫特拉姆这样的人。”
“嗯，妈妈，我非得见他吗？恐怕见了面准得吵起来。”
“别胡扯了，朱莉娅，你这是在随意摆布那个可怜的人哩。”
就这样朱莉娅走进了那间图书室，一个小时后出来的时候他们已经订婚了。
“咳，妈妈，我警告过你，我要是进去的话准会发生这种事。”
“你根本就没有这样说过。你只是说准会吵架的。这样的吵架我可是绝对想象不出来呀。”
“不管怎么着，你是喜欢他的，妈妈，你这样说过啦。”
“他以前在许多方面还是非常不错的。可是他要做你的丈夫，我认为可完全不合适。大家也都会这么想的。”
“什么大家，见鬼去吧。”
收听单词发音 |
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intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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dabs
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| 少许( dab的名词复数 )； 是…能手； 做某事很在行； 在某方面技术熟练 | |
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rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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halcyon
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| n.平静的，愉快的 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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spectrum
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| n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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flares
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| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
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belch
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| v.打嗝，喷出 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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fawning
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| adj.乞怜的，奉承的v.（尤指狗等）跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的现在分词 )；巴结；讨好 | |
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rumbled
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| 发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋） | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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engulf
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| vt.吞没，吞食 | |
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wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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wilfulness
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| 任性；倔强 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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tricky
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| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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virile
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| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
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tragically
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| adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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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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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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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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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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pregnancies
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| 怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 ) | |
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devious
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| adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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moodier
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| adj.喜怒无常的( moody的比较级 )；忧悒的；（无缘无故）不高兴的；脾气坏的 | |
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snobbery
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| n. 充绅士气派, 俗不可耐的性格 | |
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gauche
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| adj.笨拙的，粗鲁的 | |
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pimply
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| adj.肿泡的；有疙瘩的；多粉刺的；有丘疹的 | |
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chic
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| n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的 | |
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ballrooms
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| n.舞厅( ballroom的名词复数 ) | |
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52
starched
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| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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54
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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55
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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56
forage
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| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
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antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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60
chafe
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| v.擦伤；冲洗；惹怒 | |
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61
consolidate
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| v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并 | |
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62
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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63
debutante
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| n.初入社交界的少女 | |
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64
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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65
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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66
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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67
placated
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| v.安抚，抚慰，使平静( placate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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69
revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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70
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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72
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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73
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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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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75
stockbroker
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| n.股票（或证券），经纪人（或机构） | |
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propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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78
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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79
callousness
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80
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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81
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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82
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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83
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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84
grudgingly
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85
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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86
cardinals
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| 红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数 | |
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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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88
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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89
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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90
devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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92
obdurate
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| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
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93
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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94
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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knowledgeable
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| adj.知识渊博的；有见识的 | |
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98
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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99
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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100
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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101
muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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102
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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103
unpacking
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| n.取出货物，拆包[箱]v.从（包裹等）中取出（所装的东西），打开行李取出( unpack的现在分词 )；拆包；解除…的负担；吐露（心事等） | |
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104
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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105
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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106
jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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107
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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108
annulment
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| n.废除，取消，（法院对婚姻等）判决无效 | |
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109
dormant
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| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
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110
swooped
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| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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111
gull
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| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
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112
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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113
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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114
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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115
nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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116
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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117
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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118
accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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119
assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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120
stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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121
chasms
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| 裂缝( chasm的名词复数 )； 裂口； 分歧； 差别 | |
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122
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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123
solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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124
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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125
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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126
abominably
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| adv. 可恶地，可恨地，恶劣地 | |
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127
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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128
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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129
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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130
modem
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| n.调制解调器 | |
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