"The colder," she laughed. But she was thinking how well she remembered that trick of his–the trick of interrupting her–and of how it used to exasperate her six years ago. She used to feel then as though he, quite suddenly, in the middle of what she was saying, put his hand over her lips, turned from her, attended to something different, and then took his hand away, and with just the same slightly too broad smile, gave her his attention again. . . . Now we are ready. That is settled.

"The colder!" He echoed her words, laughing too. "Ah, ah. You still say the same things. And there is another thing about you that is not changed [Page 230] at all–your beautiful voice–your beautiful way of speaking." Now he was very grave; he leaned towards her, and she smelled the warm, stinging scent of the orange peel. "You have only to say one word and I would know your voice among all other voices. I don't know what it is–I've often wondered–that makes your voice such a–haunting memory. . . . Do you remember that first afternoon we spent together at Kew Gardens? You were so surprised because I did not know the names of any flowers. I am still just as ignorant for all your telling me. But whenever it is very fine and warm, and I see some bright colours–it's awfully strange–I hear your voice saying: 'Geranium, marigold, and verbena.' And I feel those three words are all I recall of some forgotten, heavenly language. . . . You remember that afternoon?" "Oh, yes, very well." She drew a long, soft breath, as though the paper daffodils between them were almost too sweet to bear. Yet, what had remained in her mind of that particular afternoon was an absurd scene over the tea table. A great many people taking tea in a Chinese pagoda, and he behaving like a maniac about the wasps–waving them away, flapping at them with his straw hat, serious and infuriated out of all proportion to the occasion. How delighted the sniggering tea

2

“冷酷的人，”她笑着说。然而，她对以前他所开的玩笑是那么记忆犹新——就是把她惹急了的那个玩笑——就是六年前曾让她恼怒的那个玩笑。

“冷酷的人！”他重复着她的话，同样笑了起来。“啊哈，你还提那些事。其实还有一件有关你的事，就是你那动人的嗓音——至今未变。不知怎么地——我总是在琢磨——是什么使你的声音如此地——萦绕在我的记忆中 你还记得我们在凯屋花园一起度过的第一个下午吗？因为当时我叫不出那些花的名字，你感到很吃惊。你告诉我的那些花名我至今还是不知道。尽管如此，每当天气晴朗，风和日丽，我看到那绚丽多彩的颜色时，耳边便回响起你的声音：天竺花、金盏花、还有美人樱 你还记得那天下午吗？”

“记得，记得很清楚。”她深深地，轻轻地吸了一口气。然而，留在她记忆中的那个特别的下午却是一个荒唐的景象。许多人在一座中国式的塔里饮茶，而他就像疯子般地轰赶着黄蜂——把它们轰跑，用草帽拍打它们。他既认真又恼火，在那种场合与他的身份极不相称。她当时是多么地难受啊。