贵妇人画像The Portrait of a Lady-7

attentively. I had no objection to her giving a report of my conversation, if she liked but I didn'tlike the idea that she hadn't taken the trouble to listen to it. Of course I talk like an American--Ican't talk like a Hottentot. However I talk, I've made them understand me pretty well over here.But I don't talk like the old gentleman in that lady's novel. He wasn't an American; we wouldn'thave him over there at any price. I just mention that fact to show you that they're not alwaysaccurate. Of course, as I've no daughters, and as Mrs. Touchett resides in Florence, I haven't hadmuch chance to notice about the young ladies. It sometimes appears as if the young women in thelower class were not very well treated; but I guess their position is better in the upper and even tosome extent in the middle.""Gracious," Isabel exclaimed; "how many classes have they? About fifty, I suppose.""Well, I don't know that I ever counted them. I never took much notice of the classes. That's theadvantage of being an American here; you don't belong to any class.""I hope so," said Isabel. "Imagine one's belonging to an English class!""Well, I guess some of them are pretty comfortable--especially towards the top. But for me thereare only two classes: the people I trust and the people I don't. Of those two, my dear Isabel, youbelong to the first.""I'm much obliged to you," said the girl quickly. Her way of taking compliments seemedsometimes rather dry; she got rid of them as rapidly as possible. But as regards this she was第 44 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网sometimes misjudged; she was thought insensible to them, whereas in fact she was simplyunwilling to show how infinitely they pleased her. To show that was to show too much. "I'm surethe English are very conventional," she added."They've got everything pretty well fixed," Mr. Touchett admitted. "It's all settled beforehand-theydon't leave it to the last moment.""I don't like to have everything settled beforehand," said the girl. "I like more unexpectedness."Her uncle seemed amused at her distinctness of preference. "Well, it's settled beforehand thatyou'll have great success," he rejoined. "I suppose you'll like that.""I shall not have success if they're too stupidly conventional. I'm not in the least stupidlyconventional. I'm just the contrary. That's what they won't like.""No, no, you're all wrong," said the old man. "You can't tell what they'll like. They're veryinconsistent; that's their principal interest.""Ah well," said Isabel, standing before her uncle with her hands clasped about the belt of her blackdress and looking up and down the lawn--"that will suit me perfectly!"CHAPTER VIIThe two amused themselves, time and again, with talking of the attitude of the British public as ifthe young lady had been in a position to appeal to it; but in fact the British public remained for thepresent profoundly indifferent to Miss Isabel Archer, whose fortune had dropped her, as her cousinsaid, into the dullest house in England. Her gouty uncle received very little company, and Mrs.Touchett, not having cultivated relations with her husband's neighbours, was not warranted inexpecting visits from them. She had, however, a peculiar taste; she liked to receive cards. For whatis usually called social intercourse she had very little relish; but nothing pleased her more than tofind her hall-table whitened with oblong morsels of symbolic pasteboard. She flattered herself thatshe was a very just woman, and had mastered the sovereign truth that nothing in this world is gotfor nothing. She had played no social part as mistress of Gardencourt, and it was not to besupposed that, in the surrounding country, a minute account should be kept of her comings andgoings. But it is by no means certain that she did not feel it to be wrong that so little notice wastaken of them and that her failure (really very gratuitous) to make herself important in theneighbourhood had not much to do with the acrimony of her allusions to her husband's adoptedcountry. Isabel presently found herself in the singular situation of defending the Britishconstitution against her aunt; Mrs. Touchett having formed the habit of sticking pins into thisvenerable instrument. Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she imagined theyinflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her her aunt mightmake better use of her sharpness. She was very critical herself-- it was incidental to her age, hersex and her nationality; but she was very sentimental as well, and there was something in Mrs.Touchett's dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing."Now what's your point of view?" she asked of her aunt. "When you criticise everything here youshould have a point of view. Yours doesn't seem to be American--you thought everything overthere so disagreeable. When I criticise I have mine; it's thoroughly American!"第 45 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网"My dear young lady," said Mrs. Touchett, "there are as many points of view in the world as thereare people of sense to take them. You may say that doesn't make them very numerous! American?Never in the world; that's shockingly narrow. My point of view, thank God, is personal!"Isabel thought this a better answer than she admitted; it was a tolerable description of her ownmanner of judging, but it would not have sounded well for her to say so. On the lips of a personless advanced in life and less enlightened by experience than Mrs. Touchett such a declarationwould savour of immodesty, even of arrogance. She risked it nevertheless in talking with Ralph,with whom she talked a great deal and with whom her conversation was of a sort that gave a largelicence to extravagance. Her cousin used, as the phrase is, to chaff her; he very soon establishedwith her a reputation for treating everything as a joke, and he was not a man to neglect theprivileges such a reputation conferred. She accused him of an odious want of seriousness, oflaughing at all things, beginning with himself. Such slender faculty of reverence as he possessedcentred wholly upon his father; for the rest, he exercised his wit indifferently upon his father's son,this gentleman's weak lungs, his useless life, his fantastic mother, his friends (Lord Warburton inespecial), his adopted, and his native country, his charming new-found cousin. "I keep a band ofmusic in my ante-room," he said once to her. "It has orders to play without stopping; it renders metwo excellent services. It keeps the sounds of the world from reaching the private apartments, andit makes the world think that dancing's going on within." It was dance-music indeed that youusually heard when you came within ear-shot of Ralph's band; the liveliest waltzes seemed to floatupon the air. Isabel often found herself irritated by this perpetual fiddling; she would have liked topass through the ante-room, as her cousin called it, and enter the private apartments. It matteredlittle that he had assured her they were a very dismal place; she would have been glad to undertaketo sweep them and set them in order. It was but half-hospitality to let her remain outside; to punishhim for which Isabel administered innumerable taps with the ferule of her straight young wit. Itmust be said that her wit was exercised to a large extent in self-defence, for her cousin amusedhimself with calling her "Columbia" and accusing her of a patriotism so heated that it scorched. Hedrew a caricature of her in which she was represented as a very pretty young woman dressed, onthe lines of the prevailing fashion, in the folds of the national banner. Isabel's chief dread in life atthis period of her development was that she should appear narrow-minded; what she feared nextafterwards was that she should really be so. But she nevertheless made no scruple of abounding inher cousin's sense and pretending to sigh for the charms of her native land. She would be asAmerican as it pleased him to regard her, and if he chose to laugh at her she would give him plentyof occupation. She defended England against his mother, but when Ralph sang its praises onpurpose, as she said, to work her up, she found herself able to differ from him on a variety ofpoints. In fact, the quality of this small ripe country seemed as sweet to her as the taste of anOctober pear; and her satisfaction was at the root of the good spirits which enabled her to take hercousin's chaff and return it in kind. If her good-humour flagged at moments it was not because shethought herself ill-used, but because she suddenly felt sorry for Ralph. It seemed to her he wastalking as a blind and had little heart in what he said. "I don't know what's the matter with you,"she observed to him once; "but I suspect you're a great humbug.""That's your privilege," Ralph answered, who had not been used to being so crudely addressed.第 46 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网"I don't know what you care for; I don't think you care for anything. You don't really care forEngland when you praise it; you don't care for America even when you pretend to abuse it.""I care for nothing but you, dear cousin," said Ralph."If I could believe even that, I should be very glad.""Ah well, I should hope so!" the young man exclaimed.Isabel might have believed it and not have been far from the truth. He thought a great deal abouther; she was constantly present to his mind. At a time when his thoughts had been a good deal of aburden to him her sudden arrival, which promised nothing and was an open-handed gift of fate,had refreshed and quickened them, given them wings and something to fly for. Poor Ralph hadbeen for many weeks steeped in melancholy; his outlook, habitually sombre, lay under the shadowof a deeper cloud. He had grown anxious about his father, whose gout, hitherto confined to hislegs, had begun to ascend into regions more vital. The old man had been gravely ill in the spring,and the doctors had whispered to Ralph that another attack would be less easy to deal with. Justnow he appeared disburdened of pain, but Ralph could not rid himself of a suspicion that this was asubterfuge of the enemy, who was waiting to take him off his guard. If the manoeuvre shouldsucceed there would be little hope of any great resistance. Ralph had always taken for granted thathis father would survive him--that his own name would be the first grimly called. The father andson had been close companions, and the idea of being left alone with the remnant of a tasteless lifeon his hands was not gratifying to the young man, who had always and tacitly counted upon hiselder's help in making the best of a poor business. At the prospect of losing his great motive Ralphlost indeed his one inspiration. If they might die at the same time it would be all very well; butwithout the encouragement of his father's society he should barely have patience to await his ownturn. He had not the incentive of feeling that he was indispensable to his mother; it was a rule withhis mother to have no regrets. He bethought himself of course that it had been a small kindness tohis father to wish that, of the two, the active rather than the passive party should know the feltwound; he remembered that the old man had always treated his own forecast of an early end as aclever fallacy, which he should be delighted to discredit so far as he might by dying first. But ofthe two triumphs, that of refuting a sophistical son and that of holding on a while longer to a stateof being which, with all abatements, he enjoyed, Ralph deemed it no sin to hope the latter might bevouchsafed to Mr. Touchett.These were nice questions, but Isabel's arrival put a stop to his puzzling over them. It evensuggested there might be a compensation for the intolerable ennui of surviving his genial sire. Hewondered whether he were harbouring "love" for this spontaneous young woman from Albany; buthe judged that on the whole he was not. After he had known her for a week he quite made up hismind to this, and every day he felt a little more sure. Lord Warburton had been right about her; shewas a really interesting little figure. Ralph wondered how their neighbour had found it out so soon;and then he said it was only another proof of his friend's high abilities, which he had alwaysgreatly admired. If his cousin were to be nothing more than an entertainment to him, Ralph wasconscious she was an entertainment of a high order. "A character like that," he said to himself-- "areal little passionate force to see at play is the finest thing in nature. It's finer than the finest workof art--than a Greek bas-relief, than a great Titian, than a Gothic cathedral. It's very pleasant to be第 47 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网so well treated where one had least looked for it. I had never been more blue, more bored, than fora week before she came; I had never expected less that anything pleasant would happen. SuddenlyI receive a Titian, by the post, to hang on my wall--a Greek bas-relief to stick over my chimney-piece. The key of a beautiful edifice is thrust into my hand, and I'm told to walk in and admire. Mypoor boy, you've been sadly ungrateful, and now you had better keep very quiet and never grumbleagain." The sentiment of these reflexions was very just; but it was not exactly true that RalphTouchett had had a key put into his hand. His cousin was a very brilliant girl, who would take, ashe said, a good deal of knowing; but she needed the knowing, and his attitude with regard to her,though it was contemplative and critical, was not judicial. He surveyed the edifice from the outsideand admired it greatly; he looked in at the windows and received an impression of proportionsequally fair. But he felt that he saw it only by glimpses and that he had not yet stood under theroof. The door was fastened, and though he had keys in his pocket he had a conviction that none ofthem would fit. She was intelligent and generous; it was a fine free nature; but what was she goingto do with herself? This question was irregular, for with most women one had no occasion to askit. Most women did with themselves nothing at all; they waited, in attitudes more or less gracefullypassive, for a man to come that way and furnish them with a destiny. Isabel's originality was thatshe gave one an impression of having intentions of her own. "Whenever she executes them," saidRalph, "may I be there to see!"It devolved upon him of course to do the honours of the place. Mr. Touchett was confined to hischair, and his wife's position was that of rather a grim visitor; so that in the line of conduct thatopened itself to Ralph duty and inclination were harmoniously mixed. He was not a great walker,but he strolled about the grounds with his cousin--a pastime for which the weather remainedfavourable with a persistency not allowed for in Isabel's somewhat lugubrious prevision of theclimate; and in the long afternoons, of which the length was but the measure of her gratifiedeagerness, they took a boat on the river, the dear little river, as Isabel called it, where the oppositeshore seemed still a part of the foreground of the landscape; or drove over the country in aphaeton--a low, capacious, thick-wheeled phaeton formerly much used by Mr. Touchett, but whichhe had now ceased to enjoy. Isabel enjoyed it largely and, handling the reins in a manner whichapproved itself to the groom as "knowing," was never weary of driving her uncle's capital horsesthrough winding lanes and byways full of the rural incidents she had confidently expected to find;past cottages thatched and timbered, past ale-houses latticed and sanded, past patches of ancientcommon and glimpses of empty parks, between hedgerows made thick by midsummer. When theyreached home they usually found tea had been served on the lawn and that Mrs. Touchett had notshrunk from the extremity of handing her husband his cup. But the two for the most part sat silent;the old man with his head back and his eyes closed, his wife occupied with her knitting andwearing that appearance of rare profundity with which some ladies consider the movement of theirneedles.One day, however, a visitor had arrived. The two young persons, after spending an hour on theriver, strolled back to the house and perceived Lord Warburton sitting under the trees and engagedin conversation, of which even at a distance the desultory character was appreciable, with Mrs.Touchett. He had driven over from his own place with a portmanteau and had asked, as the fatherand son often invited him to do, for a dinner and a lodging. Isabel, seeing him for half an hour on第 48 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网the day of her arrival, had discovered in this brief space that she liked him; he had indeed rathersharply registered himself on her fine sense and she had thought of him several times. She hadhoped she should see him again--hoped too that she should see a few others. Gardencourt was notdull; the place itself was sovereign, her uncle was more and more a sort of golden grandfather, andRalph was unlike any cousin she had ever encountered--her idea of cousins having tended togloom. Then her impressions were still so fresh and so quickly renewed that there was as yethardly a hint of vacancy in the view. But Isabel had need to remind herself that she was interestedin human nature and that her foremost hope in coming abroad had been that she should see a greatmany people. When Ralph said to her, as he had done several times, "I wonder you find thisendurable; you ought to see some of the neighbours and some of our friends, because we havereally got a few, though you would never suppose it"--when he offered to invite what he called a"lot of people" and make her acquainted with English society, she encouraged the hospitableimpulse and promised in advance to hurl herself into the fray. Little, however, for the present, hadcome of his offers, and it may be confided to the reader that if the young man delayed to carrythem out it was because he found the labour of providing for his companion by no means so severeas to require extraneous help. Isabel had spoken to him very often about "specimens;" it was aword that played a considerable part in her vocabulary; she had given him to understand that shewished to see English society illustrated by eminent cases."Well now, there's a specimen," he said to her as they walked up from the riverside and herecognised Lord Warburton."A specimen of what?" asked the girl."A specimen of an English gentleman.""Do you mean they're all like him?""Oh no; they're not all like him.""He's a favourable specimen then," said Isabel; "because I'm sure he's nice.""Yes, he's very nice. And he's very fortunate."The fortunate Lord Warburton exchanged a handshake with our heroine and hoped she was verywell. "But I needn't ask that," he said, "since you've been handling the oars.""I've been rowing a little," Isabel answered; "but how should you know it?""Oh, I know he doesn't row; he's too lazy," said his lordship, indicating Ralph Touchett with alaugh."He has a good excuse for his laziness," Isabel rejoined, lowering her voice a little."Ah, he has a good excuse for everything!" cried Lord Warburton, still with his sonorous mirth."My excuse for not rowing is that my cousin rows so well," said Ralph. "She does everything well.She touches nothing that she doesn't adorn!""It makes one want to be touched, Miss Archer," Lord Warburton declared."Be touched in the right sense and you'll never look the worse for it," said Isabel, who, if it pleasedher to hear it said that her accomplishments were numerous, was happily able to reflect that suchcomplacency was not the indication of a feeble mind, inasmuch as there were several things in第 49 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网which she excelled. Her desire to think well of herself had at least the element of humility that italways needed to be supported by proof.Lord Warburton not only spent the night at Gardencourt, but he was persuaded to remain over thesecond day; and when the second day was ended he determined to postpone his departure till themorrow. During this period he addressed many of his remarks to Isabel, who accepted thisevidence of his esteem with a very good grace. She found herself liking him extremely; the firstimpression he had made on her had had weight, but at the end of an evening spent in his societyshe scarce fell short of seeing him--though quite without luridity--as a hero of romance. She retiredto rest with a sense of good fortune, with a quickened consciousness of possible felicities. "It's verynice to know two such charming people as those," she said, meaning by "those" her cousin and hercousin's friend. It must be added moreover that an incident had occurred which might have seemedto put her good-humour to the test. Mr. Touchett went to bed at half-past nine o'clock, but his wiferemained in the drawing-room with the other members of the party. She prolonged her vigil forsomething less than an hour, and then, rising, observed to Isabel that it was time they should bidthe gentlemen good-night. Isabel had as yet no desire to go to bed; the occasion wore, to her sense,a festive character, and feasts were not in the habit of terminating so early. So, without furtherthought, she replied, very simply-"Need I go, dear aunt? I'll come up in half an hour.""It's impossible I should wait for you," Mrs. Touchett answered."Ah, you needn't wait! Ralph will light my candle," Isabel gaily engaged."I'll light your candle; do let me light your candle, Miss Archer!" Lord Warburton exclaimed."Only I beg it shall not be before midnight."Mrs. Touchett fixed her bright little eyes upon him a moment and transferred them coldly to herniece. "You can't stay alone with the gentlemen. You're not--you're not at your blest Albany, mydear."Isabel rose, blushing. "I wish I were," she said."Oh, I say, mother!" Ralph broke out."My dear Mrs. Touchett!" Lord Warburton murmured."I didn't make your country, my lord," Mrs. Touchett said majestically. "I must take it as I find it.""Can't I stay with my own cousin?" Isabel enquired."I'm not aware that Lord Warburton is your cousin.""Perhaps I had better go to bed!" the visitor suggested. "That will arrange it."Mrs. Touchett gave a little look of despair and sat down again. "Oh, if it's necessary I'll stay up tillmidnight."Ralph meanwhile handed Isabel her candlestick. He had been watching her; it had seemed to himher temper was involved--an accident that might be interesting. But if he had expected anything ofa flare he was disappointed, for the girl simply laughed a little, nodded good-night and withdrewaccompanied by her aunt. For himself he was annoyed at his mother, though he thought she was第 50 页 共 391 页原版英语阅读网right. Above-stairs the two ladies separated at Mrs. Touchett's door. Isabel had said nothing on herway up."Of course you're vexed at my interfering with you," said Mrs. Touchett.Isabel considered. "I'm not vexed, but I'm surprised--and a good deal mystified. Wasn't it proper Ishould remain in the drawing-room?""Not in the least. Young girls here--in decent houses--don't sit alone with the gentlemen late atnight.""You were very right to tell me then," said Isabel. "I don't understand it, but I'm very glad to knowit."I shall always tell you," her aunt answered, "whenever I see you taking what seems to me toomuch liberty.""Pray do; but I don't say I shall always think your remonstrance just.""Very likely not. You're too fond of your own ways.""Yes, I think I'm very fond of them. But I always want to know the things one shouldn't do.""So as to do them?" asked her aunt."So as to choose," said Isabel.CHAPTER VIIIAs she was devoted to romantic effects Lord Warburton ventured to express a hope that she wouldcome some day and see his house, a very curious old place. He extracted from Mrs. Touchett apromise that she would bring her niece to Lockleigh, and Ralph signified his willingness to attendthe ladies if his father should be able to spare him. Lord Warburton assured our heroine that in themean time his sisters would come and see her. She knew something about his sisters, havingsounded him, during the hours they spent together while he was at Gardencourt, on many pointsconnected with his family. When Isabel was interested she asked a great many questions, and asher companion was a copious talker she urged him on this occasion by no means in vain. He toldher he had four sisters and two brothers and had lost both his parents. The brothers and sisters werevery good people--"not particularly clever, you know," he said, "but very decent and pleasant;" andhe was so good as to hope Miss Archer might know them well. One of the brothers was in theChurch, settled in the family living, that of Lockleigh, which was a heavy, sprawling parish, andwas an excellent fellow in spite of his thinking differently from himself on every conceivabletopic. And then Lord Warburton mentioned some of the opinions held by his brother, which wereopinions Isabel had often heard expressed and that she supposed to be entertained by aconsiderable portion of the human family. Many of them indeed she supposed she had held herself,till he assured her she was quite mistaken, that it was really impossible, that she had doubtlessimagined she entertained them, but that she might depend that, if she thought them over a little, shewould find there was nothing in them. When she answered that she had already thought several of