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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted1 with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing2. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of “ killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall3 any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion4 that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before
her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares5. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless6 sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob7 came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke8 repression9 and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed10 away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive11 to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents12, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom13 rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath:“ free,free,free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes.They stayed keen and bright.Her pulses beat fast,and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence14 with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him -- sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
“ Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.Spring days,and summer days,and all sorts of days that would be her own.She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder15 that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish16 triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended17 the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel stained, composedly carrying his grip sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
But Richards was too late.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease -- of joy that kills.
点击收听单词发音
1 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2 concealing | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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3 forestall | |
vt.抢在…之前采取行动;预先阻止 | |
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4 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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5 wares | |
n. 货物, 商品 | |
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6 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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7 sob | |
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
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8 bespoke | |
adj.(产品)订做的;专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 );订(货);证明;预先请求 | |
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9 repression | |
n.镇压,抑制,抑压 | |
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10 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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11 elusive | |
adj.难以表达(捉摸)的;令人困惑的;逃避的 | |
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12 scents | |
n.香水( scent的名词复数 );气味;(动物的)臭迹;(尤指狗的)嗅觉 | |
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13 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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14 persistence | |
n.坚持,持续,存留 | |
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15 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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16 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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17 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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