-
森博国际英语
沙坪坝校区地址：重庆沙坪坝三
峡广场立海大厦
25
楼
A2A3
电话：
；
英语阅读：
Miss Brill
Katherine Mansfield
Although
it was so brilliantly fine - the blue sky powdered
with gold and great spots
of light like
white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques -
Miss Brill was glad that
she had
decided on her fur. The air was motionless, but
when you opened your mouth
there was
just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of
iced water before you sip, and
now and
again a leaf came drifting - from nowhere, from
the sky. Miss Brill put up
her hand and
touched her fur. Dear little thing! It was nice to
feel it again. She had
taken it out of
its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth-
powder, given it a good
brush, and
rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes.
me?
the red eiderdown! ...
But the nose, which was of some black composition,
wasn't at
all firm. It must have had a
knock, somehow. Never mind - a little dab of black
sealing-wax when the time came - when
it was absolutely necessary ... Little rogue!
Yes, she really felt like that about
it. Little rogue biting its tail just by her left
ear. She
could have taken it off and
laid it on her lap and stroked it. She felt a
tingling in her
hands and arms, but
that came from walking, she supposed. And when she
breathed,
something light and sad - no,
not sad, exactly - something gentle seemed to move
in
her bosom.
There were a number of people out this
afternoon, far more than last Sunday. And the
band sounded louder and gayer. That was
because the Season had begun. For
although the band played all the year
round on Sundays, out of season it was never the
same. It was like some one playing with
only the family to listen; it didn't care how it
played if there weren't any strangers
present. Wasn't the conductor wearing a new coat,
too? She was sure it was new. He
scraped with his foot and flapped his arms like a
rooster about to crow, and the bandsmen
sitting in the green rotunda blew out their
cheeks and glared at the music. Now
there came a little
little chain of
bright drops. She was sure it would be repeated.
It was; she lifted her
head and smiled.
Only two people shared her
clasped over a huge carved walking-
stick, and a big old woman, sitting upright, with
a
roll of knitting on her embroidered
apron. They did not speak. This was disappointing,
for Miss Brill always looked forward to
the conversation. She had become really quite
expert, she thought, at listening as
though she didn't listen, at sitting in other
people's
lives just for a minute while
they talked round her.
森博国际英语
沙坪坝校区地址：重庆
沙坪坝三峡广场立海大厦
25
楼
A2A
3
电话：
；
She glanced,
sideways, at the old couple. Perhaps they would go
soon. Last Sunday,
too, hadn't been as
interesting as usual. An Englishman and his wife,
he wearing a
dreadful Panama hat and
she button boots. And she'd gone on the whole time
about
how she ought to wear spectacles;
she knew she needed them; but that it was no good
getting any; they'd be sure to break
and they'd never keep on. And he'd been so
patient.
He'd suggested everything -
gold rims, the kind that curved round your ears,
little
pads inside the bridge. No,
nothing would please her.
my
nose!
The old people sat on
the bench, still as statues. Never mind, there was
always the
crowd to watch. To and fro,
in front of the flower-beds and the band rotunda,
the
couples and groups paraded, stopped
to talk, to greet, to buy a handful of flowers
from
the old beggar who had his tray
fixed to the railings. Little children ran among
them,
swooping and laughing; little
boys with big white silk bows under their chins,
little
girls, little French dolls,
dressed up in velvet and lace. And sometimes a
tiny staggerer
came suddenly rocking
into the open from under the trees, stopped,
stared, as
suddenly sat down
rushed scolding to its rescue. Other
people sat on the benches and green chairs, but
they were nearly always the same,
Sunday after Sunday, and - Miss Brill had often
noticed - there was something funny
about nearly all of them. They were odd, silent,
nearly all old, and from the way they
stared they looked as though they'd just come
from dark little rooms or even - even
cupboards!
Behind the
rotunda the slender trees with yellow leaves down
drooping, and through
them just a line
of sea, and beyond the blue sky with gold-veined
clouds.
森博国际英语
沙坪坝校区地址：重庆沙坪坝三峡广场立海大厦
25
楼
A2A3
电话：
；
Tum-tum-tum
tiddle-um! tiddle-um! tum tiddley-um tum ta! blew
the band.
Two young girls
in red came by and two young soldiers in blue met
them, and they
laughed and paired and
went off arm-in-arm. Two peasant women with funny
straw
hats passed, gravely, leading
beautiful smoke-coloured donkeys. A cold, pale nun
hurried by. A beautiful woman came
along and dropped her bunch of violets, and a
little boy ran after to hand them to
her, and she took them and threw them away as if
they'd been poisoned. Dear me! Miss
Brill didn't know whether to admire that or not!
And now an ermine toque and a gentleman
in grey met just in front of her. He was tall,
stiff, dignified, and she was wearing
the ermine toque she'd bought when her hair was
yellow. Now everything, her hair, her
face, even her eyes, was the same colour as the
shabby ermine, and her hand, in its
cleaned glove, lifted to dab her lips, was a tiny
yellowish paw. Oh, she was so pleased
to see him - delighted! She rather thought they
were going to meet that afternoon. She
described where she'd been - everywhere, here,
there, along by the sea. The day was so
charming - didn't he agree? And wouldn't he,
perhaps? ... But he shook his head,
lighted a cigarette, slowly breathed a great deep
puff into her face, and even while she
was still talking and laughing, flicked the match
away and walked on. The ermine toque
was alone; she smiled more brightly than ever.
But even the band seemed to know what
she was feeling and played more softly,
played tenderly, and the drum beat,
would she do? What was going to happen
now? But as Miss Brill wondered, the
ermine toque turned, raised her hand as
though she'd seen some one else, much nicer,
just over there, and pattered away. And
the band changed again and played more
quickly, more gayly than ever, and the
old couple on Miss Brill's seat got up and
marched away, and such a funny old man
with long whiskers hobbled along in time to
the music and was nearly knocked over
by four girls walking abreast.
Oh, how
fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! How she
loved sitting here, watching
it all! It
was like a play. It was exactly like a play. Who
could believe the sky at the
back
wasn't painted? But it wasn't till a little brown
dog trotted on solemn and then
slowly
trotted off, like a little
Miss Brill
discovered what it was that made it so exciting.
They were all on the stage.
They
weren't only the audience, not only looking on;
they were acting. Even she had a
part
and came every Sunday. No doubt somebody would
have noticed if she hadn't
been there;
she was part of the performance after all. How
strange she'd never thought
of it like
that before! And yet it explained why she made
such a point of starting from
home at
just the same time each week - so as not to be
late for the performance - and
it also
explained why she had quite a queer, shy feeling
at telling her English pupils
how she
spent her Sunday afternoons. No wonder! Miss Brill
nearly laughed out loud.
She was on the
stage. She thought of the old invalid gentleman to
whom she read the
newspaper four
afternoons a week while he slept in the garden.
She had got quite used
to the frail
head on the cotton pillow, the hollowed eyes, the
open mouth and the high