雙語·面紗 第七十三章

73

They went in to luncheon. Charlie, sitting at the head of his table, easily took charge of the conversation. After those first few words of sympathy he treated Kitty, not as though she had just suffered a devastating experience, but rather as though she had come in from Shanghai for a change after an operation for appendicitis. She needed cheering and he was prepared to cheer her. The best way of making her feel at home was to treat her as one of the family. He was a tactful man. He began talking of the autumn race meeting, and the polo--by Jove, he would have to give up playing polo if he couldn't get his weight down--and a chat he had had that morning with the Governor. He spoke of a party they had been to on the Admiral's flag-ship, the state of affairs in Canton, and of the links at Lushan. In a few minutes Kitty felt that she might have been away for no longer than a weekend. It was incredible that over there, up country, six hundred miles away only (the distance from London to Edinburgh, wasn't it?) men, women, and children had been dying like flies. Soon she found herself asking about so and so who had broken a collar bone at polo and if Mrs. This had gone home or Mrs. That was playing in the tennis tournament. Charlie made his little jokes and she smiled at them. Dorothy with her faint air of superiority (which now included Kitty and so was no longer slightly offensive, but a bond of union rather) was gently ironic about various persons in the colony. Kitty began to feel more alert.

“Why, she's looking better already,” said Charlie to his wife.“She was so pale before tiffin that I was quite startled; she's really got some color in her cheeks now.”

But while she took her part in the conversation, if not with gaiety (for she felt that neither Dorothy nor Charlie with his admirable sense of decorum would approve of that) at least with cheerfulness, Kitty observed her host. In all those weeks during which her fancy had been revengefully occupied with him she had built up in her mind a very vivid impression of him. His thick curling hair was a little too long and too carefully brushed, in order to hide the fact that it was graying, there was too much oil on it; his face was too red, with its network of mauve veins on the cheeks, and his jowl was too massive: when he did not hold his head up to hide it you saw that he had a double chin; and there was something apelike in those bushy, grizzled eyebrows of his that vaguely disgusted her. He was heavy in his movements, and all the care he took in his diet and all his exercise did not prevent him from being fat; his bones were much too well covered and his joints had a middle-aged stiffness. His smart clothes, were a little tight for him and a little too young.

But when he came into the drawing-room before luncheon Kitty received quite a shock (this perhaps was why her pallor had been so marked), for she discovered that her imagination had played an odd trick on her: he did not in the least look as she had pictured him. She could hardly help laughing at herself. His hair was not gray at all, oh, there were a few white hairs on the temple, but they were becoming; and his face was not red, but sunburned; his head was very well placed on his neck; and he wasn't stout and he wasn't old: in fact he was almost slim and his figure was admirable--could you blame him if he was a trifle vain of it?--he might have been a young man. And of course he did know how to wear his clothes; it was absurd to deny that: he looked neat and clean and trim. Whatever could have possessed her to think him this and that? He was a very handsome man. It was lucky that she knew how worthless he was. Of course she had always admitted that his voice had a winning quality, and his voice was exactly as she remembered it: it made the falseness of every word he said more exasperating; its richness of tone and its warmth rang now in her ears with insincerity and she wondered how she could ever have been taken in by it. His eyes were beautiful: that was where his charm lay, they had such a soft, blue brilliance and even when he was talking balderdash an expression which was so delightful; it was almost impossible not to be moved by them.

At last the coffee was brought in and Charlie lit his cheroot. He looked at his watch and rose from the table.

“Well, I must leave you two young women to your own devices. It's time for me to get back to the office.” He paused and then with his friendly, charming eyes on Kitty said to her: “I'm not going to bother you for a day or two till you're rested, but then I want to have a little business talk with you.”

“With me?”

“We must make arrangements about your house, you know, and then there's the furniture.”

“Oh, but I can go to a lawyer. There's no reason why I should bother you about that.”

“Don't think for a moment I'm going to let you waste your money on legal expenses. I'm going to see to everything. You know you're entitled to a pension: I'm going to talk to H.E. about it and see if by making representations in the proper quarter we can't get something extra for you. You put yourself in my hands. But don't bother about anything just yet. All we want you to do now is to get fit and well: isn't that right, Dorothy?”

“Of course.”

He gave Kitty a little nod and then passing by his wife's chair took her hand and kissed it. Most Englishmen look a little foolish when they kiss a woman's hand; he did it with a graceful ease.

第七十三章

他們一起進(jìn)餐廳去吃午餐，查理坐在桌子的一頭，輕松地掌握著聊天的方向。查理說了一些向凱蒂表示同情和慰問的話，好像她沒有受到災(zāi)難性的打擊，而是剛從上?；貋?，在一次闌尾炎手術(shù)后進(jìn)行休養(yǎng)。她需要開心，而他就準(zhǔn)備著讓她開心，讓她感覺就像住在自己家里的最佳方式就是像家人一樣對待她。他是一個很機(jī)敏的男人，他開始談?wù)撈鹎锾斓馁愸R會，還有馬球——哎呀，如果他不能減肥的話，可能就得放棄打馬球了——還有今天早晨他和總督的聊天內(nèi)容。他還談到了一場在海軍旗艦上的聚會，談到了廣州的局勢，以及在廬山的各種關(guān)系。過了幾分鐘，凱蒂覺得她好像不過是在周末離開了一下香港?？闪钊瞬豢伤甲h的是，在另一個國度，只有六百英里遠(yuǎn)（這距離也就是從倫敦到愛丁堡，不是嗎？），男人、女人還有孩子們，就像蒼蠅一樣紛紛死去。不一會兒，她發(fā)現(xiàn)自己開始問這問那了，比如誰在打馬球時摔斷了頸椎，是否某某夫人已經(jīng)回故鄉(xiāng)了，是否某某夫人正在參加網(wǎng)球錦標(biāo)賽。查理說著小笑話，而她也以微笑面對。多蘿西還是一種高高在上的態(tài)度（不過現(xiàn)在她已經(jīng)把凱蒂看作自己圈子里的人了，所以凱蒂也不再抵觸，而是有一種和她是一伙人的感覺），對殖民地的各色人等，有種溫和的諷刺。凱蒂開始覺得又有了活力。

“你瞧，她看上去已經(jīng)好多了?！辈槔韺λf道，“在午飯之前，我很吃驚她的臉色是那么蒼白，現(xiàn)在她臉上已經(jīng)有些紅潤了。”

然而，當(dāng)凱蒂加入談話，她注意觀察了一下男主人，如果不是顯得興高采烈（她覺得無論是多蘿西還是帶著令人欽佩的有禮有節(jié)的感覺的查理，都不太贊賞這種神情），至少也顯得興趣盎然。過去的這段日子里，在她的想象中他占據(jù)著重要位置，所以她腦海中的他的印象十分鮮明。她報復(fù)性地想象他濃密的鬈發(fā)有點(diǎn)兒太長了，過于精心地梳理過，為了掩蓋住頭發(fā)已經(jīng)灰白的事實(shí)，頭發(fā)上抹了太多的油。他的臉也太紅了，面頰上淡紫色的血管在充血，而且下頜也太大，當(dāng)他沒有略微抬頭來遮掩時，可以看見他的雙下巴，還有某種像猿猴似的東西在那些像刷子般的、花白的眉毛上，隱約讓她感到惡心。他的動作有些遲緩了，他小心翼翼地注意飲食，千方百計地鍛煉，也沒有阻止他發(fā)胖，他的骨頭他很留意掩飾，但關(guān)節(jié)已經(jīng)顯出了中年人的僵硬。他鮮亮的衣服穿在身上也顯得太緊，而且顯得太年輕了。

但是，午飯之前，當(dāng)他走進(jìn)客廳的時候，凱蒂十分震驚（這也可能就是她的臉色那么蒼白的原因之一），因為她發(fā)現(xiàn)，她的想象跟她開了一個奇怪的玩笑，他一點(diǎn)兒也不像她所描繪的那幅畫像，她幾乎忍不住要嘲笑自己了。他的頭發(fā)一點(diǎn)兒也沒有變得灰白，哦，在太陽穴旁邊是有幾根白發(fā)，但一點(diǎn)兒也不顯眼；他的臉也不紅，而是被太陽曬成了古銅色；頸上的腦袋顯得很精神，他既不顯胖也不顯老，事實(shí)上，他身材挺拔，令人艷羨——如果他有點(diǎn)兒虛榮，你能責(zé)怪他嗎？——他應(yīng)該還是個年輕人。而且，顯而易見他懂得如何穿衣，否認(rèn)這點(diǎn)是荒唐的，他看上去整潔、利索、衣冠楚楚。到底是什么原因才會讓她在心里把他想象成這樣或者那樣？但他依然是個很帥的男人。所幸的是，她知道他是金玉其外、敗絮其中的。當(dāng)然，她必須得承認(rèn)，他的聲音很迷人，他的聲音和她記憶中的一模一樣，同樣也能使他說的不實(shí)之詞更讓人生氣。他豐富的語調(diào)，溫暖的語氣，現(xiàn)在還在她的耳畔縈繞，但說的話卻是虛情假意，她很納悶當(dāng)初怎么把它當(dāng)成甜言蜜語聽進(jìn)去的。他的眼睛也很漂亮，是他最動人的地方，他的眸子溫柔、湛藍(lán)、閃亮，甚至他在胡說八道時，眼中的神情也讓人覺得愉快，你幾乎不太可能不被它們打動。

最后，咖啡被端了上來，查理點(diǎn)著了他的方頭雪茄，他看了看手表，從桌邊站了起來。

“好了，我必須留下你們兩個年輕的女人去聊你們自己感興趣的事了。我該回辦公室上班了?！彼D了一下，然后用他友好、迷人的眼睛看著凱蒂，對她說道，“我這兩天不會打擾你，等你歇過來了，我有點(diǎn)兒買賣上的事要跟你談?！?/p>

“和我談？”

“你知道，我們必須對你的房產(chǎn)做一下安排，然后還有家具?！?/p>

“哦，但是我可以去找律師，沒有理由因為這事麻煩你?！?/p>

“絕不要有這樣的想法，我難道會讓你把錢浪費(fèi)在請律師上？我會去料理一切的。你知道你有權(quán)利得到一筆撫恤金，我回去會和總督閣下談這個事的，看看是否可以和某個適當(dāng)?shù)牟块T交涉一下，為你多爭取些利益。你的事就是我的事，交給我好了，但你現(xiàn)在還不用操心，我們當(dāng)下想讓你做的事是好好休息，對不對，多蘿西？”

“當(dāng)然?！?/p>

他向凱蒂點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭，然后走過他太太的椅子，拿起她的手，親吻了一下。大多數(shù)的英國男人親吻一位婦女的手時，看上去都有一點(diǎn)兒笨拙，而他卻顯得優(yōu)雅自如。