PART ONE DECEMBER 22ND

PART ONE DECEMBER 22ND
Stephen pulled up the collar of his coat as he walked briskly along the platform. Overhead a dim
fog clouded the station. Large engines hissed¹ superbly, throwing off clouds of steam into the cold
raw air. Everything was dirty and smoke-grimed.
Stephen thought with revulsion:
“What a foul² country—what a foul city!”
His first excited reaction to London, its shops, its restaurants, its well-dressed, attractive
women, had faded. He saw it now as a glittering rhinestone³ set in a dingy⁴ setting.
Supposing he were back in South Africa now . . . He felt a quick pang⁵ of homesickness.
Sunshine—blue skies—gardens of flowers—cool blue flowers—hedges of plumbago—blue
convolvulus clinging to every little shanty⁶.
And here—dirt, grime, and endless, incessant⁷ crowds—moving, hurrying—jostling. Busy
ants running industriously⁹ about their anthill.
For a moment he thought, “I wish I hadn’t come. . . .”
Then he remembered his purpose and his lips set back in a grim line. No, by hell, he’d go on
with it! He’d planned this for years. He’d always meant to do—what he was going to do. Yes,
he’d go on with it!
That momentary¹⁰ reluctance¹¹, that sudden questioning of himself: “Why? Is it worth it? Why
dwell on the past? Why not wipe out the whole thing?”—all that was only weakness. He was not a
boy—to be turned this way and that by the whim¹² of the moment. He was a man of forty, assured,
purposeful. He would go on with it. He would do what he had come to England to do.
He got on the train and passed along the corridor looking for a place. He had waved aside a
porter and was carrying his own raw-hide suitcase. He looked into carriage after carriage. The
train was full. It was only three days before Christmas. Stephen Farr looked distastefully at the
crowded carriages.
People! Incessant, innumerable people! And all so—so—what was the word—so drab-
looking! So alike, so horribly alike! Those that hadn’t got faces like sheep had faces like rabbits,
he thought. Some of them chattered¹³ and fussed. Some, heavily middle-aged¹⁴ men, grunted¹⁵. More
like pigs, those. Even the girls, slender, egg-faced, scarlet-lipped, were of a depressing uniformity.
He thought with a sudden longing¹⁶ of open veldt, sunbaked and lonely. . . .
And then, suddenly, he caught his breath, looking into a carriage. This girl was different.
Black hair, rich creamy pallor—eyes with the depth and darkness of night in them. The sad proud
eyes of the South . . . It was all wrong that this girl should be sitting in this train among these dull,
drab-looking people—all wrong that she should be going into the dreary¹⁷ midlands of England. She
should have been on a balcony, a rose between her lips, a piece of black lace draping her proud
head, and there should have been dust and heat and the smell of blood—the smell of the bullring
—in the air . . . She should be somewhere splendid, not squeezed into the corner of a third-class
carriage.
He was an observant man. He did not fail to note the shabbiness of her little black coat and
skirt, the cheap quality of her fabric¹⁸ gloves, the flimsy shoes and the defiant¹⁹ note of a flame-red
handbag. Nevertheless splendour was the quality he associated with her. She was splendid, fine,
exotic. . . .
What the hell was she doing in this country of fogs and chills and hurrying industrious⁸ ants?
He thought, “I’ve got to know who she is and what she’s doing here . . . I’ve got to know.
. . .”

1 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

2 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

3 rhinestone   

n.水晶石，莱茵石

参考例句：

• She often wears that cheap showy rhinestone bracelet.她经常戴那个廉价艳丽的水晶手镯。
• Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing,当她发现一个缺了几颗人造钻石的手镯时，有些孩子鄙笑起来。

4 dingy   

adj.昏暗的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• It was a street of dingy houses huddled together. 这是一条挤满了破旧房子的街巷。
• The dingy cottage was converted into a neat tasteful residence.那间脏黑的小屋已变成一个整洁雅致的住宅。

5 pang   

n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷

参考例句：

• She experienced a sharp pang of disappointment.她经历了失望的巨大痛苦。
• She was beginning to know the pang of disappointed love.她开始尝到了失恋的痛苦。

6 shanty   

n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子

参考例句：

• His childhood was spent in a shanty.他的童年是在一个简陋小屋里度过的。
• I want to quit this shanty.我想离开这烂房子。

7 incessant   

adj.不停的，连续的

参考例句：

• We have had incessant snowfall since yesterday afternoon.从昨天下午开始就持续不断地下雪。
• She is tired of his incessant demands for affection.她厌倦了他对感情的不断索取。

8 industrious   

adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的

参考例句：

• If the tiller is industrious,the farmland is productive.人勤地不懒。
• She was an industrious and willing worker.她是个勤劳肯干的员工。

9 industriously   

参考例句：

• She paces the whole class in studying English industriously. 她在刻苦学习英语上给全班同学树立了榜样。
• He industriously engages in unostentatious hard work. 他勤勤恳恳，埋头苦干。

10 momentary   

adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的

参考例句：

• We are in momentary expectation of the arrival of you.我们无时无刻不在盼望你的到来。
• I caught a momentary glimpse of them.我瞥了他们一眼。

11 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

12 whim   

n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想

参考例句：

• I bought the encyclopedia on a whim.我凭一时的兴致买了这本百科全书。
• He had a sudden whim to go sailing today.今天他突然想要去航海。

13 chattered   

（人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤

参考例句：

• They chattered away happily for a while. 他们高兴地闲扯了一会儿。
• We chattered like two teenagers. 我们聊着天，像两个十多岁的孩子。

14 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

15 grunted   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说

参考例句：

• She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。
• She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。

16 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

17 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。

18 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

19 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。