Blanche thenheld out her hand and bade me good-evening. I do not know why I had expectedher to be somehow changed; she wore the same gray dress that she wore so often,neat and becoming, and her brow was as candid, her eyes as untroubled, as whenI had been used to see her occupied with her household duties in the studio.

"Come andhave a game of chess, " said Strickland.

I do not knowwhy at the moment I could think of no excuse. I followed them rather sulkily tothe table at which Strickland always sat, and he called for the board and thechessmen. They both took the situation so much as a matter of course that Ifelt it absurd to do otherwise. Mrs. Stroeve watched the game with inscrutableface. She was silent, but she had always been silent. I looked at her mouth foran expression that could give me a clue to what she felt; I watched her eyesfor some tell-tale flash, some hint of dismay or bitterness; I scanned her browfor any passing line that might indicate a settling emotion. Her face was amask that told nothing. Her hands lay on her lap motionless, one in the otherloosely clasped. I knew from what I had heard that she was a woman of violent passions;and that injurious blow that she had given Dirk, the man who had loved her sodevotedly, betrayed a sudden temper and a horrid cruelty. She had abandoned thesafe shelter of her husband's protection and the comfortable ease of awell-provided establishment for what she could not but see was an extremehazard. It showed an eagerness for adventure, a readiness for thehand-to-mouth, which the care she took of her home and her love of goodhousewifery made not a little remarkable. She must be a woman of complicatedcharacter, and there was something dramatic in the contrast of that with herdemure appearance.

勃朗什这时伸出手来同我打招呼。不知道为什么我本来认为她的样子一定会发生一些变化，但是我现在看到她仍然是老样子：穿的是过去经常穿的一件灰衣服，前额光洁明净，眼睛里没有一丝忧虑和烦恼，正象我过去看到她在施特略夫画室里操持家务时一模一样。

“来下盘棋吧。”思特里克兰德说。

我不懂为什么当时我会没想出一个借口回绝了他。我怀着一肚子闷气跟在他们后面，走到思特里克兰德的老座位前边。他叫侍者取来了棋盘和棋子。他们两个人对这次不期而遇一点也没有大惊小怪，我自然也只能装出一副若无其事的样子，不然就显得我太不通人情了。施特略夫太太看着我们下棋，从她脸上的表情丝毫也猜不透她心里想的是什么。她什么话也没说，但她根本就不是爱说话的人。我看着她的嘴，希望看到一个能使我猜测出她真实感情的神态；我打量着她的眼睛，寻找某种泄露她内心隐秘的闪光，表示惶惑或者痛苦的眼神；我打量着她的前额，看那上面会不会偶然出现一个皱纹，告诉我她正在衰减的热情。但她的面孔宛如一副面具，我在那上面丝毫也看不出她的真实思想。她的双手一动不动地摆在膝头上，一只手松松地握着另一只。从我所听到的一些事，我知道她的性情很暴烈，戴尔克那么全心全意地爱着她，她却狠狠地打了他一巴掌，这说明了她翻脸无情，心肠非常冷酷。她抛弃了自己丈夫庇护下的安乐窝，抛弃了温饱舒适的优裕生活，甘愿承担她自己也看得非常分明的风险患难。这说明了她喜欢追求冒险，肯于忍饥耐劳；后一种性格从她过去辛勤操理家务、热心家庭主妇的职责看来倒也不足为奇。看来她一定是一个性格非常复杂的女人，这同她那端庄娴静的外表倒构成了极富于戏剧性的对比。