做一个完美的妻子

1、做一个完美的妻子(A Perfect Wife)做一个完美的妻子after thirty years of married happ in ess, he could still rem ind himself that victoria was endowedwith every charm except the thrillingtouch ofhuma n frailty.though her perfecti ondiscouraged pleasures, especially thepleasures of love, he had lear ned in time to feel

2、 the pride of a husba nd in her n atural frigidity. for he still clung, amid the decay of moral platitudes, to the discredited ideal of chivalry. in his youth the world was suffused with the after-glow of the long victorian age, and a graceful feminine style had softe ned the mann ers, if not the n

3、atures, of men.at the end of that interestingepoch, when womanhoodwas exalted froma biological fact into a miraculous power, virgi nius littlepage, the youn ger son of an old and afflue nt family, had married victoria brooke, the gran d-daughter of a tobacco pla nter, who had made a satisfactory for

4、tune by forsakinghis plantationand converting tobacco intocigarettes. while virginiushad been trained by stern traditionto respectevery woma n who had n ot stooped to folly, the virtue peculiar to her sex was amongthe least of his reasons for admiring victoria. she was not only modest, which was usu

5、al in the n eties, but she was beautiful, which is unu sual in any decade.in the beg inning of their acqua intance he had gone eve n further and ascribed in tellect to her; but a few mon ths of marriage had show n this to be merely one of the many delusi ons created by perfect features and noble exp

6、ression. everything about her had been smooth and definite, even the tones of her voice and the way her light brown hair, which she wore ?la pompadour, was rolled stiffly back from her forehead and coiled in a burni shed rope on the top of her head. a serious young man, ambitious to atta in a place

7、in the world more brillia nt tha n the secluded seat of his an cestors, he had bee n impressed at their first meet ing by the pact ness and precision of victoria' s orderly mind.for in that earn est period the min ds, as well as the emoti ons, of lovers were orderly. it was an age whe n eager y

8、oung men flocked to churchon sun day morning, and eloque nt divines discoursed upon the victoria n poets in the middle of the week. he could afford to smile now whe n he recalled the sole mn brow ningclass in which he had first lost his heart.how passionatelyhe had admired victoria ' s virginal

9、features! howferve ntly he had env ied her pete nt but caress ing way with the poet!in credible as it seemed to him now, he had falle n in love with her while she recited from the more pon derous passages in the ring and the book.he had fallen in love with her then, though he had never really enjoye

10、d brow ning, and it had bee n a relief to him whe n the un see n, in pany with its illustrious poet, had at last gone out of fashi on. yet, since he was disposed to admire all the qualities he did not possess, he had n ever ceased to respect the firm ness with which victoria continued to deal in oth

11、er forms with the absolute. as the placid years passed, and she came to rely less upon her virginal features, it seemed to him that the ripe opinions of her youth bega n to shri nk and flatte n as fruit does that has hung too long on the tree.she had never changed, he realized, since he had first kn

12、own her; she had bee merely riper, softer, and sweeter in nature. her advantage rested where adva ntage n ever fails to rest, i n moral fervour. to be inv ariably right was her sin gle wifely faili ng. for his wife, he sighed, with the vague un rest of a husba nd whose in fidelities are imag in ary,

13、 was a genuinely good woman.she was as far removed from pretenee as she was from the posturing virtues that flourish in the credulous world of the drama.the pity of it was that even the least exacting husband should so often desire someth ing more piqua nt tha n good ness.-强备课挥关虫龄三生的三三机的备合起案，做教以理的教三三：:宰关:器：?个作公正、公本着评价=生负担 f -改上狠*