原文
Matthew was having a bad ten minutes of it. He had come into the
kitchen, in the twilight of a cold, gray December evening, and had sat
down in the woodbox corner to take off his heavy boots, unconscious of
the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice
of "The Fairy Queen" in the sitting room. Presently they came trooping
through the hall and out into the kitchen, laughing and chattering
gaily. They did not see Matthew, who shrank bashfully back into the
shadows beyond the woodbox with a boot in one hand and a bootjack in the
other, and he watched them shyly for the aforesaid ten minutes as they
put on caps and jackets and talked about the dialogue and the concert.
Anne stood among them, bright eyed and animated as they; but Matthew
suddenly became conscious that there was something about her different
from her mates. And what worried Matthew was that the difference
impressed him as being something that should not exist. Anne had a
brighter face, and bigger, starrier eyes, and more delicate features
than the other; even shy, unobservant Matthew had learned to take note
of these things; but the difference that disturbed him did not consist
in any of these respects. Then in what did it consist?
語彙など
- twilight:黄昏どき,夕方
- unconscious:〜に気付かないで
- bevy:(少女などの)一団
- presently:やがて
- troop:ぞろぞろ集まる,ぞろぞろ歩く
- gaily:陽気に,愉快に
- shrink:小さくなる
- bashfully:はにかんで
- bootjack:ブートジャック,V 字形の長靴脱ぎ用器具
- aforesaid:前述の
- dialogue:対話劇
- animated:生き生きとした
- conscious:気付いて
- mate:友達
- impress:印象づける
- starry:星のように輝いた
- delicate:優美な
- feature:顔立ち
- take note of:〜に気付く
- disturb:心配させる
- consist in:〜にある
- respect:点,観点