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1、Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who had died nearly a year ago.Book I - ROSEMARYWhat can I do to drive away remembrances from mine eyes? Chapter 1IRIS MARLEIris Marle was thinking about her sister, Rosemary.For nearly a year she had deliberately tried to put the thought of Rosemary away
2、from her. She hadnt wanted to remember. The blue cyanosed face, the convulsed clutching fingers.The contrast between that and the gay lovely Rosemary of the day before. Well, perhaps not exactly gay. She had had flu - she had been depressed, run down. All that had been brought out at the inquest. Ir
3、is herself had laid stress on it. It accounted, didnt it, for Rosemarys suicide?Once the inquest was over, Iris had deliberately tried to put the whole thing out of her mind. Of what good was remembrance? Forget it all! Forget the whole horrible business.But now, she realised, she had got to remembe
4、r. She had got to think back into the past. To remember carefully every slight unimportant seeming incident.That extraordinary interview with George last night necessitated remembrance. It had been so unexpected, so frightening. Wait - Had it been so unexpected? Hadnt there been indications beforeha
5、nd? Georges growing absorption, his absentmindedness, his unaccountable actions - his - well, queerness was the only word for it! All leading up to that moment last night when he had called her into the study and taken the letters from the drawer of the desk.So now there was no help for it. She had
6、got to think about Rosemary - to remember.Rosemary - her sister.With a shock Iris realised suddenly that it was the first time in her life she had ever thought about Rosemary. Thought about her, that is, objectively, as a person.She had always accepted Rosemary without thinking about her. You didnt
7、think about your mother or your father or your sister or your aunt. They just existed, unquestioned, in those relationships. You didnt think about them as people. You didnt ask yourself, even, what they were like.What had Rosemary been like? That might be very important now. A lot might depend upon
8、it. Iris cast her mind back. Herself and Rosemary as children. Rosemary had been the elder by six years.Glimpses of the past came back - brief flashes - short scenes. Herself as a small child eating bread and milk, and Rosemary, important in pig tails, doing lessons at a table.The seaside one summer
9、 - Iris envying Rosemary who was a big girl and could swim!Rosemary going to boarding school - coming home for the holidays. Then she herself at school, and Rosemary being finished in Paris. Schoolgirl Rosemary; clumsy, all arms and legs. Finished Rosemary coming back from Paris with a strange new f
10、rightening elegance, soft voiced, graceful, with a swaying undulating figure, with red gold chestnut hair and big black fringed dark blue eyes. A disturbing beautiful creature - grown up - in a different world!From then on they had seen very little of each other, the six-year gap had been at its wid
11、est.Iris had been still at school. Rosemary in the full swing of a season. Even when Iris came home, the gap remained. Rosemarys life was one of late mornings in bed, fork luncheons with other debutantes, dances most evenings of the week. Iris had been in the schoolroom with Mademoiselle, had gone f
12、or walks in the Park, had had supper at nine oclock and gone to bed at ten. The intercourse between the sisters had been limited to such brief interchanges as:Hello, Iris, telephone for a taxi for me, theres a lamb, Im going to be devastatingly late, or I dont like that new frock, Rosemary. It doesn
13、t suit you. Its all bunch and fuss.Then had come Rosemarys engagement to George Barton. Excitement, shopping, streams of parcels, bridesmaids dresses. The wedding. Walking up the aisles behind Rosemary, hearing whispers:What a beautiful bride she makes.Why had Rosemary married George? Even at the ti
14、me Iris had been vaguely surprised. There had been so many exciting young men, ringing Rosemary up, taking her out. Why choose George, fifteen years older than herself, kindly, pleasant, but definitely dull?George was well off, but it wasnt money. Rosemary had her own money, a great deal of it.Uncle
15、 Pauls money.Iris searched her mind carefully, seeking to differentiate between what she knew now and what she had known then: Uncle Paul, for instance?He wasnt really an uncle, she had always known that. Without ever having been definitely told them she knew certain facts. Paul Bennett had been in
16、love with their mother. She had preferred another and a poorer man. Paul Bennett had taken his defeat in a romantic spirit. He had remained the family friend, adopted an attitude of romantic platonic devotion. He had become Uncle Paul, had stood godfather to the first-born child, Rosemary. When he d
17、ied, it was found that he had left his entire fortune to his little god-daughter, then a child of thirteen. Rosemary, besides her beauty, had been an heiress. And she had married nice dull George Barton.Why? Iris had wondered then. She wondered now. Iris didnt believe that Rosemary had ever been in
18、love with him.But she had seemed very happy with him and she had been fond of him - yes, definitely fond of him. Iris had good opportunities for knowing, for a year after the marriage, their mother, lovely delicate Viola Marle, had died, and Iris, a girl of seventeen, had gone to live with Rosemary
19、Barton and her husband.A girl of seventeen. Iris pondered over the picture of herself. What had she been like? What had she felt, thought, seen?She came to the conclusion that that young Iris Marle had been slow of development - unthinking, acquiescing in things as they were. Had she resented, for i
20、nstance, her mothers earlier absorption in Rosemary? On the whole she thought not. She had accepted, unhesitatingly, the fact that Rosemary was the very important one. Rosemary was out - naturally her mother was occupied as far as her health permitted with her elder daughter. That had been natural e
21、nough. Her own turn would come some day. Viola Marle had always been a somewhat remote mother, preoccupied mainly with her own health, relegating her children to nurses, governesses, schools, but invariably charming to them in those brief moments when she came across them. Hector Marle had died when
22、 Iris was five years old. The knowledge that he drank more than was good for him had permeated so subtly that she had not the least idea how it had actually come to her.Seventeen-year-old Iris Marle had accepted life as it came, had duly mourned for her mother, had worn black clothes, had gone to li
23、ve with her sister and her sisters husband at their house in Elvaston Square.Sometimes it had been rather dull in that house. Iris wasnt to come out, officially, until the following year. In the meantime she took French and German lessons three times a week, and also attended domestic science classe
24、s. There were times when she had nothing much to do and nobody to talk to.George was kind, invariably affectionate and brotherly. His attitude had never varied. He was the same now.And Rosemary? Iris had seen very little of Rosemary. Rosemary had been out a good deal. Dressmakers, cocktail parties,
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