原文
"Oh, thank you. I meant to ask you to if you would. And on little Hester
Gray's too? Please don't forget hers. Do you know, I've thought and
dreamed so much about little Hester Gray that she has become strangely
real to me. I think of her, back there in her little garden in that
cool, still, green corner; and I have a fancy that if I could steal back
there some spring evening, just at the magic time 'twixt light and
dark, and tiptoe so softly up the beech hill that my footsteps could not
frighten her, I would find the garden just as it used to be, all sweet
with June lilies and early roses, with the tiny house beyond it all hung
with vines; and little Hester Gray would be there, with her soft eyes,
and the wind ruffling her dark hair, wandering about, putting her
fingertips under the chins of the lilies and whispering secrets with the
roses; and I would go forward, oh, so softly, and hold out my hands and
say to her, 'Little Hester Gray, won't you let me be your playmate, for
I love the roses too?' And we would sit down on the old bench and talk
a little and dream a little, or just be beautifully silent together. And
then the moon would rise and I would look around me . . . and there would
be no Hester Gray and no little vine-hung house, and no roses . . . only
an old waste garden starred with June lilies amid the grasses, and the
wind sighing, oh, so sorrowfully in the cherry trees. And I would not
know whether it had been real or if I had just imagined it all." Diana
crawled up and got her back against the headboard of the bed. When your
companion of twilight hour said such spooky things it was just as well
not to be able to fancy there was anything behind you.
語彙など
- real:現実の
- have a fancy that:(that 以下)という気がする
- steal:こっそり〜の方へ移動する
- 'twixt:= between
- tiptoe:静かに歩く
- beech:ブナ
- footstep:足音
- vine:つる
- ruffle:波立たせる
- wander about:徘徊する
- fingertip:指先
- chin:あご
- whisper:耳打ちする
- playmate:遊び友達
- waste:荒れた
- starred:星をちりばめた
- amid:〜の真っただ中に
- sigh:ため息をつく
- crawl up to bed:(はうように)ベッドに入る
- headboard:ヘッドボード,頭板
- twilight hour:たそがれ時
- spooky:薄気味の悪い
- just as well:〜とは幸運だ
- fancy:想像する