Gerald returned to the bedroom which contained his wife and all else that he owned in the world at about nine o'clock that evening. Sophia was in bed. She had been driven to bed by weariness. She would have preferred to sit up to receive her husband, even if it had meant sitting up all night, but her body was too heavy for her spirit. She lay in the dark. She had eaten nothing. Gerald came straight into the room. He struck a match, which burned blue, with a stench, for several seconds, and then gave a clear, yellow flame. He lit a candle; and saw his wife.
"Oh!" he said; "you're there, are you?"
She offered no reply.
"Won't speak, eh?" he said. "Agreeable sort of wife! Well, have you made up your mind to do what I told you? I've come back especially to know."
She still did not speak.
He sat down, with his hat on, and stuck out his feet, wagging them to and fro on the heels.
"I'm quite without money," he went on. "And I'm sure your people will be glad to lend us a bit till I get some. Especially as it's a question of you starving as well as me. If I had enough to pay your fares to Bursley I'd pack you off. But I haven't."
She could only hear his exasperating1 voice. The end of the bed was between her eyes and his.
"Liar2!" she said, with uncompromising distinctness. The word reached him barbed with all the poison of her contempt and disgust.
There was a pause.
"Oh! I'm a liar, am I? Thanks. I lied enough to get you, I'll admit. But you never complained of that. I remember be-ginning the New Year well with a thumping3 lie just to have a sight of you, my vixen. But you didn't complain then. I took you with only the clothes on your back. And I've spent every cent I had on you. And now I'm spun4, you call me a liar."
She said nothing.
"However," he went on, "this is going to come to an end, this is!"
He rose, changed the position of the candle, putting it on a chest of drawers, and then drew his trunk from the wall, and knelt in front of it.
She gathered that he was packing his clothes. At first she did not comprehend his reference to beginning the New Year. Then his meaning revealed itself. That story to her mother about having been attacked by ruffians at the bottom of King Street had been an invention, a ruse5 to account plausibly6 for his presence on her mother's doorstep! And she had never suspected that the story was not true. In spite of her experience of his lying, she had never suspected that that particular statement was a lie. What a simpleton she was!
There was a continual movement in the room for about a quarter of an hour. Then a key turned in the lock of the trunk.
His head popped up over the foot of the bed. "This isn't a joke, you know," he said.
She kept silence.
"I give you one more chance. Will you write to your mother--or Constance if you like--or won't you?"
She scorned to reply in any way.
"I'm your husband," he said. "And it's your duty to obey me, particularly in an affair like this. I order you to write to your mother."
The corners of her lips turned downwards8.
Angered by her mute obstinacy9, he broke away from the bed with a sudden gesture.
"You do as you like," he cried, putting on his overcoat, "and I shall do as I like. You can't say I haven't warned you. It's your own deliberate choice, mind you! Whatever happens to you you've brought on yourself." He lifted and shrugged10 his shoulders to get the overcoat exactly into place on his shoulders.
She would not speak a word, not even to insist that she was indisposed.
He pushed his trunk outside the door, and returned to the bed.
"You understand," he said menacingly; "I'm off."
She looked up at the foul11 ceiling.
"Hm!" he sniffed12, bringing his reserves of pride to combat the persistent13 silence that was damaging his dignity. And he went off, sticking his head forward like a pugilist.
"Here!" she muttered. "You're forgetting this."
He turned.
She stretched her hand to the night-table and held up a red circlet.
"What is it?"
"It's the bit of paper off the cigar you bought in the Rue7 Montmartre this afternoon," she answered, in a significant tone.
He hesitated, then swore violently, and bounced out of the room. He had made her suffer, but she was almost repaid for everything by that moment of cruel triumph. She exulted14 in it, and never forgot it.
Five minutes later, the gloomy menial in felt slippers15 and alpaca jacket, who seemed to pass the whole of his life flitting in and out of bedrooms like a rabbit in a warren, carried Gerald's trunk downstairs. She recognized the peculiar16 tread of his slippers.
Then there was a knock at the door. The landlady17 entered, actuated by a legitimate18 curiosity.
"Madame is suffering?" the landlady began.
Sophia refused offers of food and nursing.
"Madame knows without doubt that monsieur has gone away?"
"Has he paid the bill?" Sophia asked bluntly.
"But yes, madame, till to-morrow. Then madame has want of nothing?"
"If you will extinguish the candle," said Sophia.
"All this," she reflected, listening in the dark to the ceaseless rattle20 of the street, "because mother and Constance wanted to see the elephant, and I had to go into father's room! I should never have caught sight of him from the drawing-room window!"
1 exasperating | |
adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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2 liar | |
n.说谎的人 | |
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3 thumping | |
adj.重大的,巨大的;重击的;尺码大的;极好的adv.极端地;非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词);狠打;怦怦地跳;全力支持 | |
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4 spun | |
v.纺,杜撰,急转身 | |
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5 ruse | |
n.诡计,计策;诡计 | |
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6 plausibly | |
似真地 | |
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7 rue | |
n.懊悔,芸香,后悔;v.后悔,悲伤,懊悔 | |
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8 downwards | |
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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9 obstinacy | |
n.顽固;(病痛等)难治 | |
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10 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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11 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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12 sniffed | |
v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说 | |
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13 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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14 exulted | |
狂喜,欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 slippers | |
n. 拖鞋 | |
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16 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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17 landlady | |
n.女房东,女地主 | |
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18 legitimate | |
adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法 | |
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19 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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20 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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