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.
. . .”
![](../../../skin/default/image/4.jpg)
点击
收听单词发音
![收听单词发音](/template/default/tingnovel/images/play.gif)
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: |
|
|
2
foul
![]() |
|
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3
rhinestone
![]() |
|
n.水晶石,莱茵石 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4
dingy
![]() |
|
adj.昏暗的,肮脏的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5
pang
![]() |
|
n.剧痛,悲痛,苦闷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6
shanty
![]() |
|
n.小屋,棚屋;船工号子 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7
incessant
![]() |
|
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8
industrious
![]() |
|
adj.勤劳的,刻苦的,奋发的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9
industriously
![]() |
|
参考例句: |
|
|
10
momentary
![]() |
|
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11
reluctance
![]() |
|
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12
whim
![]() |
|
n.一时的兴致,突然的念头;奇想,幻想 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
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: |
|
|
14
middle-aged
![]() |
|
adj.中年的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
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: |
|
|
16
longing
![]() |
|
n.(for)渴望 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17
dreary
![]() |
|
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18
fabric
![]() |
|
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19
defiant
![]() |
|
adj.无礼的,挑战的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |