原文
Mrs. Rachel Lynde said emphatically after the funeral that Ruby Gillis
was the handsomest corpse she ever laid eyes on. Her loveliness, as she
lay, white-clad, among the delicate flowers that Anne had placed about
her, was remembered and talked of for years in Avonlea. Ruby had always
been beautiful; but her beauty had been of the earth, earthy; it had
had a certain insolent quality in it, as if it flaunted itself in the
beholder's eye; spirit had never shone through it, intellect had never
refined it. But death had touched it and consecrated it, bringing out
delicate modelings and purity of outline never seen before--doing what
life and love and great sorrow and deep womanhood joys might have
done for Ruby. Anne, looking down through a mist of tears, at her old
playfellow, thought she saw the face God had meant Ruby to have, and
remembered it so always.
語彙など
- emphatically:力強く,きっぱりと
- corpse:死体
- lay eyes on:〜に会う
- earthy:世俗的な
- insolent:傲慢な
- flaunt:誇示する
- beholder:見る人
- refine:〜を純化する,洗練する
- consecrate:清める
- bring out:引き出す
- delicate:優美な
- modeling:造形
- outline:外形
- womanhood:成人した女であること
- mist:霧