原文
Only one disagreeable incident marred that winter. Charlie Sloane,
sitting bolt upright on Miss Ada's most dearly beloved cushion, asked
Anne one night if she would promise "to become Mrs. Charlie Sloane some
day." Coming after Billy Andrews' proxy effort, this was not quite the
shock to Anne's romantic sensibilities that it would otherwise have
been; but it was certainly another heart-rending disillusion. She was
angry, too, for she felt that she had never given Charlie the slightest
encouragement to suppose such a thing possible. But what could you
expect of a Sloane, as Mrs. Rachel Lynde would ask scornfully? Charlie's
whole attitude, tone, air, words, fairly reeked with Sloanishness. "He
was conferring a great honor--no doubt whatever about that. And when
Anne, utterly insensible to the honor, refused him, as delicately and
considerately as she could--for even a Sloane had feelings which ought
not to be unduly lacerated--Sloanishness still further betrayed itself.
Charlie certainly did not take his dismissal as Anne's imaginary
rejected suitors did. Instead, he became angry, and showed it; he said
two or three quite nasty things; Anne's temper flashed up mutinously and
she retorted with a cutting little speech whose keenness pierced even
Charlie's protective Sloanishness and reached the quick; he caught up
his hat and flung himself out of the house with a very red face; Anne
rushed upstairs, falling twice over Miss Ada's cushions on the way,
and threw herself on her bed, in tears of humiliation and rage. Had
she actually stooped to quarrel with a Sloane? Was it possible anything
Charlie Sloane could say had power to make her angry? Oh, this was
degradation, indeed--worse even than being the rival of Nettie Blewett!
語彙など
- disagreeable:不愉快な
- mar:台無しにする
- sit bolt upright:硬直して座る
- beloved:最愛の
- proxy:代理人
- sensibility:感性
- rend:引き裂く
- disillusion:幻滅
- scornfully:さげすんで
- fairly:完全に
- reek with:〜で満ちる
- confer:授与する
- utterly:全く
- insensible:無感覚の
- unduly:過度に,必要以上に
- lacerated:深く傷つけられた
- betray oneself:馬脚を現す,本音を出す
- dismissal:棄却
- suitor:求婚者
- nasty:嫌な
- temper:気質
- flash:きらめく,メラメラと燃え上がる
- mutinous:反抗的な
- retort:鋭く言い返す
- keenness:鋭さ
- pierce:人の心を突き刺す
- protective:保護する
- quick:生身,感情の中枢
- fall over:〜につまずく
- humiliation:屈辱
- rage:激怒
- stoop to:〜するまでに落ちぶれる
- degradation:不名誉