原文
With a sigh of rapture she relapsed into silence. Matthew stirred
uneasily. He felt glad that it would be Marilla and not he who would
have to tell this waif of the world that the home she longed for was
not to be hers after all. They drove over Lynde's Hollow, where it was
already quite dark, but not so dark that Mrs. Rachel could not see them
from her window vantage, and up the hill and into the long lane of Green
Gables. By the time they arrived at the house Matthew was shrinking from
the approaching revelation with an energy he did not understand. It was
not of Marilla or himself he was thinking of the trouble this mistake
was probably going to make for them, but of the child's disappointment.
When he thought of that rapt light being quenched in her eyes he had
an uncomfortable feeling that he was going to assist at murdering
something--much the same feeling that came over him when he had to kill
a lamb or calf or any other innocent little creature.
語彙など
- rapture:歓喜
- relapse into silence:再び黙り込んでしまう
- stir:動く
- uneasily:不安気に
- waif:浮浪児
- long for:〜を待ち焦がれる
- vantage:見晴らしのよい地点
- shrink from:〜から後ずさりする,〜を嫌がる
- revelation:暴露
- disappointment:落胆
- rapt:心を奪われた
- quench:火を消す
- lamb:子羊
- calf:子牛