新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 4t01ab

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[00:-1.00]Mrs.Baroda was a little annoyed to learn that her husband expected his friend,
[00:-2.00]Gouvernail,up to spend a week or two on the plantation.
[00:-3.00]Gouvernail's quiet personality puzzled Mrs.Baroda.
[00:-4.00]After a few days with him,she could understand him no better than at first.
[00:-5.00]She left her husband and his guest,for the most part,alone together,
[00:-6.00]only to find that Gouvernail hardly noticed her absence.
[00:-7.00]Then she imposed her company upon him,
[00:-8.00]accompanying him in his idle walks to the mill
[00:-9.00]to press her attempt to penetrate the silence
[00:10.00]in which he had unconsciously covered himself.But it hardly worked.
[00:11.00]"When is he going — your friend?"she one day asked her husband.
[00:12.00]"For my part,I find him a terrible nuisance."
[00:13.00]"Not for a week yet,dear.I can't understand;he gives you no trouble."
[00:14.00]"No.I should like him better if he did
[00:15.00]— if he were more like others,
[00:16.00]and I had to plan somewhat for his comfort and enjoyment."
[00:17.00]Gaston pulled the sleeve of his wife's dress,
[00:18.00]gathered his arms around her waist and looked merrily into her troubled eyes.
[00:19.00]"You are full of surprises," he said to her.
[00:20.00]"Even I can never count upon how you are going to act under given conditions.
[00:21.00]Here you are," he went on,
[00:22.00]"taking poor Gouvernail seriously and making a fuss about him,
[00:23.00]the last thing he would desire or expect."
[00:24.00]"Fuss!"she hotly replied."Nonsense! How can you say such a thing!
[00:25.00]Fuss,indeed! But,you know,you said he was clever."
[00:26.00]"So he is.But the poor fellow is run down by too much work now.
[00:27.00]That's why I asked him here to take a rest."
[00:28.00]"You used to say he was a man of wit,"she said,still annoyed.
[00:29.00]"I expected him to be interesting,at least.
[00:30.00]I'm going to the city in the morning to have my spring dresses fitted.
[00:31.00]Let me know when Mr.Gouvernail is gone;
[00:32.00]until that time I shall be at my aunt's house."
[00:33.00]That night she went and sat alone upon a bench
[00:34.00]that stood beneath an oak tree at the edge of the walk.
[00:35.00]She had never known her thoughts to be so confused;
[00:36.00]like the bats now above her,
[00:37.00]her thoughts quickly flew this way and that.
[00:38.00]She could gather nothing from them but the feeling of a distinct necessity
[00:39.00]to leave her home in the next morning.
[00:40.00]Mrs.Baroda heard footsteps coming from the direction of the barn;
[00:41.00]she knew it was Gouvernail.She hoped to remain unnoticed,
[00:42.00]but her white gown revealed her to him.
[00:43.00]He seated himself upon the bench beside her,
[00:44.00]without a suspicion that she might object to his presence.
[00:45.00]"Your husband told me to bring this to you,Mrs.Baroda," he said,
[00:46.00]handing her a length of sheer white fabric
[00:47.00]with which she sometimes covered her head and shoulders.
[00:48.00]She accepted it from him and let it lie in her lap.
[00:49.00]He made some routine observations upon the unhealthy effect
[00:50.00]of the night breeze at that season.
[00:51.00]Then as his gaze reached out into the darkness,he began to talk.
[00:52.00]Gouvernail was in no sense a shy man.
[00:53.00]His periods of silence were not his basic nature,but the result of moods.
[00:54.00]When he was sitting there beside Mrs.Baroda,
[00:55.00]his silence melted for the time.
[00:56.00]He talked freely and intimately in a low,hesitating voice that was not unpleasant to hear.
[00:57.00]He talked of the old college days when he and Gaston had been best friends,
[00:58.00]of the days of keen ambitions and large intentions.
[00:59.00]Now,all there was left with him was a desire to be permitted to exist,
[-1:00.00]with now and then a little breath of genuine life,
[-1:-1.00]such as he was breathing now.
[-1:-2.00]Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying.