They did come over. None of them stayed very long. Not that time, not ona first visit. They came over to have a look at me. I found them difficult tounderstand because of course they were all Americans. They were typeswith which I was not well acquainted. Some of them were pleasantenough. Uncle Frank, for instance. I agreed with Greta about him. Iwouldn’t have trusted him a yard. I had come across the same type in Eng-land. He was a big man with a bit of a paunch and pouches1 under his eyesthat gave him a dissipated look which was not far from the truth, I ima-gine. He had an eye for women, I thought, and even more of an eye for themain chance. He borrowed money from me once or twice, quite smallamounts, just, as it were, something to tide him over for a day or two. Ithought it was not so much that he needed the money but he wanted totest me out, to see if I lent money easily. It was rather worrying because Iwasn’t sure which was the best way to take it. Would it have been betterto refuse point blank and let him know I was a skinflint or was it better toassume an appearance of careless generosity2, which I was very far fromfeeling? To hell with Uncle Frank, I thought.
Cora, Ellie’s stepmother, was the one that interested me most. She was awoman of about forty, well turned out with tinted3 hair and a rather gush-ing manner. She was all sweetness to Ellie.
“You mustn’t mind those letters I wrote you, Ellie,” she said. “You mustadmit that it came as a terrible shock, your marrying like that. So secretly.
But of course I know it was Greta who put you up to it, doing it that way.”
“You mustn’t blame Greta,” said Ellie. “I didn’t mean to upset you all somuch. I just thought that—well, the less fuss—”
“Well, of course, Ellie dear, you have something there. All the men ofbusiness were simply livid. Stanford Lloyd and Andrew Lippincott. I sup-pose they thought everyone would blame them for not looking after youbetter. And of course they’d no idea what Mike would be like. They didn’trealize how charming he was going to be. I didn’t myself.”
She smiled across at me, a very sweet smile and one of the falsest onesI’d ever seen! I thought to myself that if ever a woman hated a man, it wasCora who hated me. I thought her sweetness to Ellie was understandableenough. Andrew Lippincott had gone back to America and had, no doubt,given her a few words of caution. Ellie was selling some of her property inAmerica, since she herself had definitely decided4 to live in England, butshe was going to make a large allowance to Cora so that the latter couldlive where she chose. Nobody mentioned Cora’s husband much. I gatheredhe’d already taken himself off to some other part of the world, and hadnot gone there alone. In all probability, I gathered, another divorce waspending. There wouldn’t be much alimony out of this one. Cora’s last mar-riage had been to a man a good many years younger than herself withmore attractions of a physical kind than cash.
Cora wanted that allowance. She was a woman of extravagant5 tastes. Nodoubt old Andrew Lippincott had hinted clearly enough that it could bediscontinued any time if Ellie chose, or if Cora so far forgot herself as tocriticize Ellie’s new husband too virulently6.
Cousin Reuben, or Uncle Reuben, did not make the journey. He wrote in-stead to Ellie a pleasant, noncommittal letter hoping she’d be very happy,but doubted if she would like living in England. “If you don’t, Ellie, youcome right back to the States. Don’t think you won’t get a welcome herebecause you will. Certainly you will from your Uncle Reuben.”
“He sounds rather nice,” I said to Ellie.
“Yes,” said Ellie meditatively7. She wasn’t, it seemed, quite so sure aboutit.
“Are you fond of any of them, Ellie?” I asked, “or oughtn’t I to ask that?”
“Of course you can ask me anything.” But she didn’t answer for a mo-ment or two all the same. Then she said, with a sort of finality and de-cision, “No, I don’t think I am. It seems odd, but I suppose it’s because theydon’t really belong to me. Only by environment, not by relationship. Theynone of them are my flesh and blood relations. I loved my father, what Iremembered of him. I think he was rather a weak man and I think mygrandfather was disappointed in him because he hadn’t got much head forbusiness. He didn’t want to go into the business life. He liked going to Flor-ida and fishing, that sort of thing. And then later he married Cora and Inever cared for Cora much — or Cora for me, for that matter. My ownmother, of course, I don’t remember. I liked Uncle Henry and Uncle Joe.
They were fun. In some ways more fun than my father was. He, I think,was in some ways a quiet and rather sad man. But the uncles enjoyedthemselves. Uncle Joe was, I think, a bit wild, the kind that is wild just be-cause they’ve got lots of money. Anyway, he was the one who got smashedup in the car, and the other one was killed fighting in the war. My grand-father was a sick man by that time and it was a terrible blow to him thatall his three sons were dead. He didn’t like Cora and he didn’t care muchfor any of his more distant relatives. Uncle Reuben for instance. He saidyou could never tell what Reuben was up to. That’s why he made arrange-ments to put his money in trust. A lot of it went to museums and hospitals.
He left Cora well provided for, and his daughter’s husband Uncle Frank.”
“But most of it to you?”
“Yes. And I think that worried him a little bit. He did his best to get itlooked after for me.”
“By Uncle Andrew and by Mr. Stanford Lloyd. A lawyer and a banker.”
“Yes. I suppose he didn’t think I could look after it very well by myself.
The odd thing is that he let me come into it at the age of twenty-one. Hedidn’t keep it in trust till I was twenty-five, as lots of people do. I expectthat was because I was a girl.”
“That’s odd,” I said, “it would seem to me that it ought to be the otherway round?”
Ellie shook her head. “No,” she said, “I think my grandfather thoughtthat young males were always wild and hit things up and that blondeswith evil designs got hold of them. I think he thought it would be a goodthing if they had plenty of time to sow their wild oats. That’s your Englishsaying, isn’t it? But he said once to me, ‘If a girl is going to have any senseat all, she’ll have it at twenty-one. It won’t make any difference makingher wait four years longer. If she’s going to be a fool she’ll be a fool bythen just as much.’ He said, too,” Ellie looked at me and smiled, “that hedidn’t think I was a fool. He said, ‘You mayn’t know very much about life,but you’ve got good sense, Ellie. Especially about people. I think you al-ways will have.’”
“I don’t suppose he would have liked me,” I said thoughtfully.
Ellie has a lot of honesty. She didn’t try and reassure8 me by saying any-thing but what was undoubtedly9 the truth.
“No,” she said, “I think he’d have been rather horrified10. To begin with,that is. He’d have had to get used to you.”
“Poor Ellie,” I said suddenly.
“Why do you say that?”
“I said it to you once before, do you remember?”
“Yes. You said poor little rich girl. You were quite right too.”
“I didn’t mean it the same way this time,” I said. “I didn’t mean that youwere poor because you were rich. I think I meant—” I hesitated. “You’vetoo many people,” I said, “at you. All round you. Too many people whowant things from you but who don’t really care about you. That’s true,isn’t it?”
“I think Uncle Andrew really cares about me,” said Ellie, a little doubt-fully. “He’s always been nice to me, sympathetic. The others—no, you’requite right. They only want things.”
“They come and cadge11 off you, don’t they? Borrow money off you, wantfavours. Want you to get them out of jams, that sort of thing. They’re atyou, at you, at you!”
“I suppose it’s quite natural,” said Ellie calmly, “but I’ve done with themall now. I’m coming to live here in England. I shan’t see much of them.”
She was wrong there, of course, but she hadn’t grasped that fact yet.
Stanford Lloyd came over later by himself. He brought a great many docu-ments and papers and things for Ellie to sign and wanted her agreementon investments. He talked to her about investments and shares and prop-erty that she owned, and the disposal of trust funds. It was all DoubleDutch to me. I couldn’t have helped her or advised her. I couldn’t havestopped Stanford Lloyd from cheating her, either. I hoped he wasn’t, buthow could anyone ignorant like myself be sure?
There was something about Stanford Lloyd that was almost too good tobe true. He was a banker, and he looked like a banker. He was rather ahandsome man though not young. He was very polite to me and thoughtdirt of me though he tried not to show it.
“Well,” I said when he had finally taken his departure, “that’s the last ofthe bunch.”
“You didn’t think much of any of them, did you?”
“I think your stepmother, Cora, is a double-faced bitch if I ever knewone. Sorry, Ellie, perhaps I oughtn’t to say that.”
“Why not, if that’s what you think? I expect you’re not far wrong.”
“You must have been lonely, Ellie,” I said.
“Yes, I was lonely. I knew girls of my own age. I went to a fashionableschool but I was never really free. If I made friends with people, somehowor other they’d get me separated, push another girl at me instead. Youknow? Everything was governed by the social register. If I’d cared enoughabout anybody to make a fuss—but I never got far enough. There wasnever anybody I really cared for. Not until Greta came, and theneverything was different. For the first time someone was really fond ofme. It was wonderful.” Her face softened12.
“I wish,” I said, as I turned away towards the window.
“What do you wish?”
“Oh I don’t know…I wish perhaps that you weren’t—weren’t quite so de-pendent on Greta. It’s a bad thing to be as dependent as that on anyone.”
“You don’t like her, Mike,” said Ellie.
“I do,” I protested hurriedly. “Indeed I do. But you must realize, Ellie,that she is—well, she’s quite a stranger to me. I suppose, let’s face it, I’m abit jealous of her. Jealous because she and you—well, I didn’t understandbefore—how linked together you were.”
“Don’t be jealous. She’s the only person who was good to me, who caredabout me—till I met you.”
“But you have met me,” I said, “and you’ve married me.” Then I saidagain what I’d said before. “And we’re going to live happily ever after-wards.”
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1
pouches
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| n.（放在衣袋里或连在腰带上的）小袋( pouch的名词复数 )；（袋鼠等的）育儿袋；邮袋；（某些动物贮存食物的）颊袋 | |
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2
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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virulently
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| 恶毒地，狠毒地 | |
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meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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cadge
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| v.乞讨 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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