酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Lady Baltimore-Part31_Owen Wister(1860-1938)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
much better than I could have answered them before its occurrence. With

one fact--the great fact of love--established, it was not difficult to



account for at least one or two of the several things that puzzled me.

There could be no doubt that Hortense loved John Mayrant, loved him



beyond her own control. When this love had begun, made no matter. Perhaps

it began on the bridge, when the money was torn, and Eliza La Heu had



appeared. The Kings Port version of Hortense's indifference to John

before the event of the phosphates might well enough be true. It might



even well enough be true that she had taken him and his phosphates at

Newport for lack of anything better at hand, and because she was sick of



disappointed hopes. In this case, Charley's subsequent appearance as

something very much better (if the phosphates were to fail) would



perfectly explain the various postponements of the wedding.

So I was able to answer my questions to myself thus: How much did Charley



know?--Just what he could see for himself, and what he had most likely

heard from Newport gossip. He could have heard of an old engagement, made



purely for money's sake, and of recent delays created by the lady; and he

could see the gentleman--an impossible husband from a Wall Street



standpoint!--to whom Hortense was evidently tempering her final refusal

by indulgently taking an interest in helping along his phosphate fortune.



Charley would not refuse to lend her his aid in this estimable

benevolence; nor would it occur to Charley's sensibilities how such



benevolence would be taken by John if John were not "taken" himself. Yes,

Charley was plainly fooled, and fooled the more readily because he had



the old version of the truth. How should he suspect there was a revised

version? How should he discover that passion had now changed sides, that



it was now John who allowed himself to be loved? The signs of this did

not occur before his eyes. Of course, Charley would not stay fooled



forever; the hours of that were numbered,--but their number was quite

beyond my guessing!



How much would Charley stand? He would stand a good deal, because the

measure of his toleration was the measure of his desire for Hortense; and



it was plain that he wanted her very much indeed. But how much would John

stand? How soon would his "fire-eating" traditions produce a "difficulty"?



Why had they not done this already? Well, the garden had in some way

helped me to frame a fairly reasonable answer for this also. Poor



Hortense had become as powerless to woo John to warmth as poor Venus had

been with Adonis; and passion, in changing sides, had advanced the boy's



knowledge. He knew now the difference between the embraces of his lady

when she had merely wanted his phosphates, and these other caresses now



that, she wanted him. In his ceaseless search for some possible loophole

of escape, his eye could not have overlooked the chance that lay in



Charley, and he was far too canny to blast his forlorn hope. He had

probably wondered what had changed the nature of Hortense's caresses, and



the adventure of the torn money could scarce have failed to suggest

itself to the mind of a youth who, little as he had trodden the ways of



the world, evidently possessed some lively instincts regarding the nature

of women. To batter Charley as he had battered Juno's nephew, might



result in winding the arms of Hortense around his own neck more tightly

than ever.



Why Hortense should keep Charley "on" any longer, was what I could least

fathom, but I trusted her to have excellent reasons for anything that she



did. "It's sure to be quite simple, once you know it," I told myself; and

the near future proved me to be right.



Thus I laid most of my enigmas to rest; there was but one which now and

then awakened still. Were Hortense a raw girl of eighteen, I could easily



grant that the "fire-eater" in John would be sure to move her. But

Hortense had travelled many miles away from the green forests of romance;



her present fields were carpeted, not with grass and flowers, but with

Oriental mats and rugs, and it was electric lights, not the moon and



stars, that shone upon her highly seasoned nights. No, torn money and

all, it was not appropriate in a woman of her experience; and so I still



found myself inquiring in the words of Beverly Rodgers, "But what can she

want him for?"



The next time that I met Mrs. Gregory St. Michael it was on my way to

join the party at the old church, which Mrs. Weguelin was going to show



them. The card-case was in her hand, and the sight of it prompted me to

allude to Hortense Rieppe.



"I find her beauty growing upon me?" I declared.

Mrs. Gregory did not deny the beauty, although she spoke with reserve at



first. "It is to be said that she knows how to write a suitable note,"

the lady also admitted.






文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号