【荆棘鸟】第四章 13
时间：2017-03-08 07:37:05
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（单词翻译）
as they fell to the ground he kicked them away, standing1 like a Praxiteles statue while she toured all the way around him, taking her time and looking. The last two days had exhilarated him, so did the sudden awareness2 that she was perhaps more vulnerable than he had imagined; but he knew her, and he felt quite safe in asking, "Do you want me to make love to you, Mary?" She eyed his flaccid penis, snorting with laughter. "I wouldn't dream of putting you to so much trouble! Do you need women, Ralph?" His head reared back scornfully. "No!"
"Men?"
"They're worse than women. No, I don't need them."
"How about yourself?"
"Least of all."
"Interesting." Pushing the window all the way up, she stepped through into the drawing room. "Ralph,
Cardinal3 de Bricassart!" she mocked. But away from those discerning eyes of his she
sagged4 back into her wing chair and
clenched5 her fists, the gesture which rails against the inconsistencies of fate. Naked, Father Ralph stepped off the
veranda6 to stand on the barbered lawn with his arms raised above his head, eyes closed; he let the rain pour over him in warm, probing, spearing runnels, an
exquisite7 sensation on bare skin. It was very dark. But he was still flaccid.
The
creek8 broke its banks and the water crept higher up the piles of Paddy's house, farther out across the Home Paddock toward the homestead itself.
"It will go down tomorrow," said Mary Carson when Paddy went to report, worried.
As usual, she was right; over the next week the water
ebbed9 and finally returned to its normal channels. The sun came out, the temperature
zoomed10 to a hundred and fifteen in the shade, and the grass seemed to take wing for the sky, thigh-high and clean,
bleached11 brilliant as
gilt12, hurting the eyes. Washed and dusted, the trees glittered, and the
hordes13 of parrots came back from wherever they had gone while the rain fell to flash their rainbow bodies amid the timber, more
loquacious14 than ever. Father Ralph had returned to
succor15 his neglected parishioners,
serene16 in the knowledge his
knuckles17 would not be rapped; under the
pristine18 white shirt next to his heart resided a check for one thousand pounds. The
bishop19 would be ecstatic.
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