【英文读物】With Edged Tools.docx

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1、【英文读物】With Edged ToolsCHAPTER I. TWO GENERATIONS Why all delights are vain, but that most vain Which with pain purchased doth inherit pain.“My dearMadamwhat you call heart does not come into the question at all.”Sir John Meredith was sitting slightly behind Lady Cantourne, leaning towards her with a

2、 somewhat stiffened replica of his former grace. But he was not looking at herand she knew it.They were both watching a group at the other side of the great ballroom.“Sir John Meredith on Heart,” said the old lady, with a depth of significance in her voice.“And why not?”“Yes, indeed. Why not?”Sir Jo

3、hn smiled with that well-bred cynicism which a new school has not yet succeeded in imitating. They were of the old school, these two; and their worldliness, their cynicism, their conversational attitude, belonged to a bygone period. It was a cleaner period in some waysa period devoid of slums. Ours,

4、 on the contrary, is an age of slums wherein we all dabble to the detriment of our handsmental, literary, and theological.Sir John moved slightly in his chair, leaning one hand on one knee. His back was very flat, his clothes were perfect, his hair was not his own, nor yet his teeth. But his manners

5、 were entirely his own. His face was eighty years old, and yet he smiled his keen society smile with the best of them. There was not a young man in the room of whom he was afraid, conversationally.“No, Lady Cantourne,” he repeated. “Your charming niece is heartless. She will get on.”Lady Cantourne s

6、miled, and drew the glove further up her stout and motherly right arm.“She will get on,” she admitted. “As to the other, it is early to give an opinion.”“She has had the best of trainings,” he murmured. And Lady Cantourne turned on him with a twinkle amidst the wrinkles.“For which?” she asked.“Chois

7、issez!” he answered, with a bow.One sees a veteran swordsman take up the foil with a tentative turn of the wrist, lunging at thin air. His zest for the game has gone; but the skill lingers, and at times he is tempted to show the younger blades a pass or two. These were veteran fencers with a skill o

8、f their own, which they loved to display at times. The zest was that of remembrance; the sword-play of words was above the head of a younger generation given to slang and music-hall airs; and so these two had little bouts for their own edification, and enjoyed the glitter of it vastly.Sir Johns face

9、 relaxed into the only repose he ever allowed it; for he had a habit of twitching and moving his lips such as some old men have. And occasionally, in an access of further senility, he fumbled with his fingers at his mouth. He was clean shaven, and even in his old age he was handsome beyond other men

10、standing an upright six feet two.The object of his attention was the belle of that ball, Miss Millicent Chyne, who was hemmed into a corner by a group of eager dancers anxious to insert their names in some corner of her card. She was the fashion at that time. And she probably did not know that at le

11、ast half of the men crowded round because the other half were there. Nothing succeeds like the success that knows how to draw a crowd.She received the ovation self-possessedly enough, but without that hauteur affected by belles of ballsin books. She seemed to have a fresh smile for each new applican

12、ta smile which conveyed to each in turn the fact that she had been attempting all along to get her programme safely into his hands. A halting masculine pen will not be expected to explain how she compassed this, beyond a gentle intimation that masculine vanity had a good deal to do with her success.

13、“She is having an excellent time,” said Sir John, weighing on the modern phrase with a subtle sarcasm. He was addicted to the use of modern phraseology, spiced with a cynicism of his own.“Yes, I cannot help sympathising with hera little,” answered the lady.“Nor I. It will not last.”“Well, she is onl

14、y gathering the rosebuds.”“Wisely so, your ladyship. They at least LOOK as if they were going to last. The full-blown roses do not.”Lady Cantourne gave a little sigh. This was the difference between them. She could not watch without an occasional thought for a time that was no more. The man seemed t

15、o be content that the past had been lived through and would never renew itself.“After all,” she said, “she is my sisters child. The sympathy may only be a matter of blood. Perhaps I was like that myself once. Was I? You can tell me.”She looked slowly round the room and his face hardened. He knew tha

16、t she was reflecting that there was no one else who could tell her; and he did not like it.“No,” he answered readily.“And what was the difference?”She looked straight in front of her with a strange old-fashioned demureness.“Their name is legion, for they are many.”“Name a few. Was I as good-looking

17、as that, for instance?”He smileda wise, old, woman-searching smile.“You were better-looking than that,” he said, with a glance beneath his lashless lids. “Moreover, there was more of the grand lady about you. You behaved better. There was less shaking hands with your partners, less nodding and becki

18、ng, and none of that modern forwardness which is called, I believe, camaraderie.”“Thank you, Sir John,” she answered, looking at him frankly with a pleasant smile. “But it is probable that we had the faults of our age.”He fumbled at his lips, having reasons of his own for disliking too close a scrut

19、iny of his face.“That is more than probable,” he answered, rather indistinctly.“Then,” she said, tapping the back of his gloved hand with her fan, “we ought to be merciful to the faults of a succeeding generation. Tell me who is that young man with the long stride who is getting himself introduced n

20、ow.”“That,” answered Sir John, who prided himself upon knowing every oneknowing who they were and who they were not“is young Oscard.”“Son of the eccentric Oscard?”“Son of the eccentric Oscard.”“And where did he get that brown face?”“He got that in Africa, where he has been shooting. He forms part of

21、 some one elses bag at the present moment.”“What do you mean?”“He has been apportioned a dance. Your fair niece has bagged him.”If he had only known it, Guy Oscard won the privilege of a waltz by the same brown face which Lady Cantourne had so promptly noted. Coupled with a sturdy uprightness of car

22、riage, this raised him at a bound above the pallid habitues of ballroom and pavement. It was, perhaps, only natural that Millicent Chyne should have noted this man as soon as he crossed the threshold. He was as remarkable as some free and dignified denizen of the forest in the midst of domestic anim

23、als. She mentally put him down for a waltz, and before five minutes had elapsed he was bowing before her while a mutual friend murmured his name. One does not know how young ladies manage these little affairs, but the fact remains that they are managed. Moreover, it is a singular thing that the youn

24、g persons who succeed in the ballroom rarely succeed on the larger and rougher floor of life. Your belle of the ball, like your Senior Wrangler, never seems to do much afterwardsand Afterwards is Life.The other young men rather fell back before Guy Oscardscared, perhaps, by his long stride, and afra

25、id that he might crush their puny toes. This enabled Miss Chyne to give him the very next dance, of which the music was commencing.“I feel rather out of all this,” said Oscard, as they moved away together. “You must excuse uncouthness.”“I see no signs of it,” laughed Millicent. “You are behaving ver

26、y nicely. You cannot help being larger and stronger thanthe others. I should say it was an advantage and something to be proud of.”“Oh, it is not that,” replied Oscard; “it is a feeling of unkemptness and want of smartness among these men who look so clean and correct. Shall we dance?”He looked down

27、 at her, with an admiration which almost amounted to awe, as if afraid of entering the throng with such a dainty and wonderful charge upon his powers of steering. Millicent Chyne saw the glance and liked it. It was different from the others, quite devoid of criticism, rather simple and full of hones

28、t admiration. She was so beautiful that she could hardly be expected to be unaware of the fact. She had merely to make comparisons, to look in the mirror and see that her hair was fairer and softer, that her complexion was more delicately perfect, that her slight, rounded figure was more graceful th

29、an any around her. Added to this, she knew that she had more to say than other girlsa larger stock of those little frivolous, advice-seeking, aid-demanding nothings than her compeers seemed to possess.She knew that in saying them she could look brighter and prettier and more intelligent than her com

30、petitors.“Yes,” she said, “let us dance by all means.”Here also she knew her own proficiency, and in a few seconds she found that her partner was worthy of her skill.“Where have you been?” she asked presently. “I am sure you have been away somewhere, exploring or something.”“I have only been in Afri

31、ca, shooting.”“Oh, how interesting! You must tell me all about it!”“I am afraid,” replied Guy Oscard, with a somewhat shy laugh, “that that would NOT be interesting. Besides, I could not tell you now.”“No, but some other time. I suppose you are not going back to Africa to-morrow, Mr. Oscard?”“Not qu

32、ite. And perhaps we may meet somewhere else.”“I hope so,” replied Miss Chyne. “Besides, you know my aunt, Lady Cantourne. I live with her, you know.”“I know her slightly.”“Then take an opportunity of improving the acquaintanceship. She is sitting under the ragged banner over there.”Millicent Chyne i

33、ndicated the direction with a nod of the head, and while he looked she took the opportunity of glancing hastily round the room. She was seeking some one.“Yes,” said Oscard, “I see her, talking to an old gentleman who looks like Voltaire. I shall give her a chance of recognising me before the evening

34、 is out. I dont mind being snubbed if”He paused and steered neatly through a narrow place.“If what?” she asked, when they were in swing again.“If it means seeing you again,” he answered bluntlymore bluntly than she was accustomed to. But she liked it. It was a novelty after the smaller change of bal

35、lroom compliments.She was watching the door all the while.Presently the music ceased and they made their way back to the spot whence he had taken her. She led the way thither by an almost imperceptible pressure of her fingers on his arm. There were several men waiting there, and one or two more ente

36、ring the room and looking languidly round.“There comes the favoured one,” Lady Cantourne muttered, with a veiled glance towards her companion.Sir Johns grey eyes followed the direction of her glance.“My bright boy?” he inquired, with a wealth of sarcasm on the adjective.“Your bright boy,” she replie

37、d.“I hope not,” he said curtly.They were watching a tall fair man in the doorway who seemed to know everybody, so slow was his progress into the room. The most remarkable thing about this man was a certain grace of movement. He seemed to be specially constructed to live in narrow, hampered places. H

38、e was above six feet; but, being of slight build, he moved with a certain languidness which saved him from that unwieldiness usually associated with large men in a drawing-room.Such was Jack Meredith, one of the best known figures in London society. He had hitherto succeeded in moving through the ma

39、zes of that coterie, as he now moved through this room, without jarring against any one.CHAPTER II. OVER THE OLD GROUND A man who never makes mistakes never makes anything elseeither.Miss Millicent Chyne was vaguely conscious of successand such a consciousness is apt to make the best of us a trifle

40、elated. It was certainly one of the best balls of the season, and Miss Chynes dress was, without doubt, one of the most successful articles of its sort there.Jack Meredith saw that fact and noted it as soon as he came into the room. Moreover, it gratified him, and he was pleased to reflect that he w

41、as no mean critic in such matters. There could be no doubt about it, because he KNEW as well as any woman there. He knew that Millicent Chyne was dressed in the latest fashionno furbished-up gown from the hands of her maid, but a unique creation from Bond Street.“Well,” she asked in a low voice, as

42、she handed him her programme, “are you pleased with it?”“Eminently so.”She glanced down at her own dress. It was not the nervous glance of the debutante, but the practised flash of experienced eyes which see without appearing to look.“I am glad,” she murmured.He handed her back the card with the ort

43、hodox smile and bow of gratitude, but there was something more in his eyes.“Is that what you did it for?” he inquired.“Of course,” with a glance half coquettish, half humble.She took the card and allowed it to drop pendent from her fan without looking at it. He had written nothing on it. This was al

44、l a form. The dances that were his had been inscribed on the engagement-card long before by smaller fingers than his.She turned to take her attendant partners arm with a little flaunta little movement of the hips to bring her dress, and possibly herself, more prominently beneath Jack Merediths notic

45、e. His eyes followed her with that incomparably pleasant society smile which he had no doubt inherited from his father. Then he turned and mingled with the well-dressed throng, bowing where he ought to bowasking with fervour for dances in plain but influential quarters where dances were to be easily

46、 obtained.And all the while his father and Lady Cantourne watched.“Yes, I THINK,” the lady was saying, “that that is the favoured one.”“I fear so.”“I noticed,” observed Lady Cantourne, “that he asked for a dance.”“And apparently got oneor more.”“Apparently so, Sir John.”“Moreover”Lady Cantourne turn

47、ed on him with her usual vivacity.“Moreover?” she repeated.“He did not need to write it down on the card; it was written there already.”She closed her fan with a faint smile“I sometimes wonder,” she said, “whether, in our young days, you were so preternaturally observant as you are now.”“No,” he ans

48、wered, “I was not. I affected scales of the very opaquest description, like the rest of my kind.”In the meantime this mans son was going about his business with a leisurely savoir-faire which few could rival. Jack Meredith was the beau-ideal of the society man in the best acceptation of the word. On

49、e met him wherever the best people congregated, and he invariably seemed to know what to do and how to do it better than his compeers. If it was dancing in the season, Jack Meredith danced, and no man rivalled him. If it was grouse shooting, Jack Meredith held his gun as straight as any man. All the polite accomplishments in the