There was a feeling of relaxation1 next day, which was a Sunday. Anafter-the-party feeling. On the lawn the marquee and tents flapped limplyin a damp breeze, awaiting removal by the caterer’s men at early dawn onthe morrow. On Monday we would all set to work to take stock of whatdamage had been done, and clear things up. Today, Rhoda had wisely de-cided, it would be better to go out as much as possible.
We all went to church, and listened respectfully to Mr. Dane Calthrop’sscholarly sermon on a text taken from Isaiah which seemed to deal lesswith religion than with Persian history.
“We’re going to lunch with Mr. Venables,” explained Rhoda afterwards.
“You’ll like him, Mark. He’s really a most interesting man. Been every-where and done everything. Knows all sorts of out-of-the-way things. Hebought Priors Court about three years ago. And the things he’s done to itmust have cost him a fortune. He had polio and is semi-crippled, so he hasto go about in a wheeled chair. It’s very sad for him because up to then hewas a great traveller, I believe. Of course he’s rolling in money, and, as Isay, he’s done up the house in a wonderful way—it was an absolute ruin,falling to pieces. It’s full of the most gorgeous stuff. The sale rooms are hisprincipal interest nowadays, I believe.”
Priors Court was only a few miles away. We drove there and our hostcame wheeling himself along the hall to meet us.
“Nice of you all to come,” he said heartily2. “You must be exhausted3 afteryesterday. The whole thing was a great success, Rhoda.”
Mr. Venables was a man of about fifty, with a thin hawklike4 face and abeaked nose that stood out from it arrogantly5. He wore an open wing col-lar which gave him a faintly old-fashioned air.
Rhoda made introductions.
Venables smiled at Mrs. Oliver.
“I met this lady yesterday in her professional capacity,” he said. “Six ofher books with signatures. Takes care of six presents for Christmas. Greatstuff you write, Mrs. Oliver. Give us more of it. Can’t have too much of it.”
He grinned at Ginger6. “You nearly landed me with a live duck, young wo-man.” Then he turned to me. “I enjoyed your article in the Review lastmonth,” he said.
“It was awfully7 good of you to come to our fête, Mr. Venables,” saidRhoda. “After that generous cheque you sent us, I didn’t really hope thatyou’d turn up in person.”
“Oh, I enjoy that kind of thing. Part of English rural life, isn’t it? I camehome clasping a most terrible Kewpie doll from the hoopla, and had asplendid but unrealistic future prophesied8 me by Our Sybil, all dressed upin a tinsel turban with about a ton of fake Egyptian beads9 slung10 over hertorso.”
“Good old Sybil,” said Colonel Despard. “We’re going there to tea withThyrza this afternoon. It’s an interesting old place.”
“The Pale Horse? Yes. I rather wish it had been left as an inn. I alwaysfeel that that place has had a mysterious and unusually wicked past his-tory. It can’t have been smuggling11; we’re not near enough to the sea forthat. A resort for highwaymen, perhaps? Or rich travellers spent the nightthere and were never seen again. It seems, somehow, rather tame to haveturned it into a desirable residence for three old maids.”
“Oh— I never think of them like that!” cried Rhoda. “Sybil Stamfordis,perhaps—with her saris and her scarabs, and always seeing auras roundpeople’s heads—she is rather ridiculous. But there’s something really awe-inspiring about Thyrza, don’t you agree? You feel she knows just whatyou’re thinking. She doesn’t talk about having second sight—but everyonesays that she has got it.”
“And Bella, far from being an old maid, has buried two husbands,” ad-ded Colonel Despard.
“I sincerely beg her pardon,” said Venables, laughing.
“With sinister12 interpretations13 of the deaths from the neighbours,” addedDespard. “It’s said they displeased14 her, so she turned her eyes on them,and they slowly sickened and pined away!”
“Of course, I forgot, she is the local witch?”
“So Mrs. Dane Calthrop says.”
“Interesting thing, witchcraft,” said Venables thoughtfully. “All over theworld you get variations of it—I remember when I was in East Africa—”
He talked easily, and entertainingly, on the subject. He spoke15 of medi-cine men in Africa; of little-known cults16 in Borneo. He promised that, afterlunch, he would show us some West African sorcerers’ masks.
“There’s everything in this house,” declared Rhoda with a laugh.
“Oh well —” he shrugged17 his shoulders —“if you can’t go out toeverything—then everything must be made to come to you.”
Just for a moment there was a sudden bitterness in his voice. He gave aswift glance downwards18 towards his paralysed legs.
“‘The world is so full of a number of things,’” he quoted. “I think that’s al-ways been my undoing19. There’s so much I want to know about—to see! Ohwell I haven’t done too badly in my time. And even now—life has its con-solations.”
“Why here?” asked Mrs. Oliver suddenly.
The others had been slightly ill at ease, as people become when a hint oftragedy looms20 in the air. Mrs. Oliver alone had been unaffected. She askedbecause she wanted to know. And her frank curiosity restored the light-hearted atmosphere.
Venables looked towards her inquiringly.
“I mean,” said Mrs. Oliver, “why did you come to live here, in this neigh-bourhood? So far away from things that are going on. Was it because youhad friends here?”
“No. I chose this part of the world, since you are interested, because Ihad no friends here.”
A faint ironical22 smile touched his lips.
How deeply, I wondered, had his disability affected21 him? Had the loss ofunfettered movement, of liberty to explore the world, bitten deep into hissoul? Or had he managed to adapt himself to altered circumstances withcomparative equanimity—with a real greatness of spirit?
As though Venables had read my thoughts, he said: “In your article youquestioned the meaning of the term ‘greatness’—you compared the differ-ent meanings attached to it—in the East and the West. But what do we allmean nowadays, here in England, when we use the term ‘a great man’?—”
“Greatness of intellect, certainly,” I said, “and surely moral strength aswell?”
He looked at me, his eyes bright and shining.
“Is there no such thing as an evil man, then, who can be described asgreat?” he asked.
“Of course there is,” cried Rhoda. “Napoleon and Hitler and oh, lots ofpeople. They were all great men.”
“Because of the effect they produced?” said Despard. “But if one hadknown them personally—I wonder if one would have been impressed.”
Ginger leaned forward and ran her fingers through her carroty mop ofhair.
“That’s an interesting thought,” she said. “Mightn’t they, perhaps, haveseemed pathetic, undersized little figures. Strutting23, posturing24, feeling in-adequate, determined25 to be someone, even if they pulled the world downround them?”
“Oh, no,” said Rhoda vehemently26. “They couldn’t have produced the res-ults they did if they had been like that.”
“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Oliver. “After all, the stupidest child can set ahouse on fire quite easily.”
“Come, come,” said Venables. “I really can’t go along with this modernplaying down of evil as something that doesn’t really exist. There is evil.
And evil is powerful. Sometimes more powerful than good. It’s there. Ithas to be recognised—and fought. Otherwise—” he spread out his hands.
“We go down to darkness.”
“Of course I was brought up on the devil,” said Mrs. Oliver, apologetic-ally. “Believing in him, I mean. But you know he always did seem to me sosilly. With hoofs27 and a tail and all that. Capering28 about like a ham actor. Ofcourse I often have a master criminal in my stories—people like it—butreally he gets harder and harder to do. So long as one doesn’t know whohe is, I can keep him impressive—but when it all comes out—he seems,somehow, so inadequate29. A kind of anticlimax30. It’s much easier if you justhave a bank manager who’s embezzled31 the funds, or a husband whowants to get rid of his wife and marry the children’s governess. So muchmore natural—if you know what I mean.”
Everyone laughed and Mrs. Oliver said apologetically:
“I know I haven’t put it very well—but you do see what I mean?”
We all said that we knew exactly what she meant.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
relaxation
|
|
| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
hawklike
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
5
arrogantly
|
|
| adv.傲慢地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
ginger
|
|
| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
prophesied
|
|
| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
beads
|
|
| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
slung
|
|
| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
smuggling
|
|
| n.走私 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
interpretations
|
|
| n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
displeased
|
|
| a.不快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
cults
|
|
| n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
downwards
|
|
| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
undoing
|
|
| n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
looms
|
|
| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
ironical
|
|
| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
strutting
|
|
| 加固，支撑物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
posturing
|
|
| 做出某种姿势( posture的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
vehemently
|
|
| adv. 热烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
hoofs
|
|
| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
capering
|
|
| v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的现在分词 )；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
inadequate
|
|
| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
anticlimax
|
|
| n.令人扫兴的结局；突降法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
embezzled
|
|
| v.贪污，盗用（公款）( embezzle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |