Looking merely at the coloured liquids, the miniature statue of a horse, the corn plasters, the oil-skin bags, the pots of cosmetics7, and the cut-glass saucers full of lozenges in the shop window, you might at first imagine that Dunball and Dark were only chemists. Looking carefully through the entrance, towards an inner apartment, an inscription8; a large, upright, mahogany receptacle, or box, with a hole in it; brass9 rails protecting the hole; a green curtain ready to draw over the hole; and a man with a copper10 money shovel11 in his hand, partially12 visible behind the hole; would be sufficient to inform you that Dunball and Dark were not chemists only, but ‘Branch Bankers’ as well.
It is a rough squally morning at the end of November. Mr Dunball (in the absence of Mr Dark, who has gone to make a speech at the vestry meeting) has got into the mahogany box, and has assumed the whole business and direction of the branch bank. He is a very fat man, and looks absurdly over-large for his sphere of action. Not a single customer has, as yet, applied13 for money — nobody has come even to gossip with the branch banker through the brass rails of his commercial prison house. There he sits, staring calmly through the chemical part of the shop into the street — his gold in one drawer, his notes in another, his elbows on his ledgers14, his copper shovel under his thumb; the picture of monied loneliness; the hermit15 of British finance.
In the outer shop is the young assistant, ready to drug the public at a moment’s notice. But Tidbury-on-the-Marsh is an unprofitably healthy place; and no public appears. By the time the young assistant has ascertained16 from the shop clock that it is a quarter past ten, and from the weather-cock opposite that the wind is ‘Sou’-sou’-west’, he has exhausted17 all external sources of amusement, and is reduced to occupying himself by first sharpening his penknife, and then cutting his nails. He has completed his left hand, and has just begun on the right hand thumb, when a customer actually darkens the shop door at last!
Mr Dunball starts, and grasps the copper shovel: the young assistant shuts up his penknife in a hurry, and makes a bow. The customer is a young girl, and she has come for a pot of lip salve.
She is very neatly18 and quietly dressed; looks about eighteen or nineteen years of age; and has something in her face which I can only characterize by the epithet19 — lovable. There is a beauty of innocence20 and purity about her forehead, brow, and eyes — a calm, kind, happy expression as she looks as you — and a curious home-sound in her clear utterance21 when she speaks, which, altogether, make you fancy, stranger as you are, that you must have known her and loved her long ago, and somehow or other ungratefully forgotten her in the lapse22 of time. Mixed up, however, with the girlish gentleness and innocence which form her more prominent charm, there is a look of firmness — especially noticeable about the expression of her lips — that gives a certain character and originality23 to her face. Her figure —
I stop at her figure. Not by any means for want of phrases to describe it; but from a disheartening conviction of the powerlessness of any description of her at all to produce the right effect on the minds of others. If I were asked in what particular efforts of literature the poverty of literary material most remarkably24 appears, I should answer, in personal descriptions of heroines. We have all read these by the hundred — some of them so carefully and finely finished, that we are not only informed about the lady’s eyes, eyebrows25, nose, cheeks, complexion26, mouth, teeth, neck, ears, head, hair, and the way it was dressed; but are also made acquainted with the particular manner in which the sentiments below made the bosom27 above heave or swell28; besides the exact position of head in which her eyelashes were just long enough to cast a shadow on her cheeks. We have read all this attentively29 and admiringly, as it deserves; and have yet risen from the reading, without the remotest approach to a realization30 in our own minds of what sort of a woman the heroine really was. We vaguely31 knew she was beautiful, at the beginning of the description; and we know just as much — just as vaguely — at the end.
Penetrated32 with the conviction above-mentioned, I prefer leaving the reader to form his own realization of the personal appearance of the customer at Messrs Dunball and Dark’s. Eschewing33 the magnificent beauties of his acquaintance, let him imagine her to be like any pretty intelligent girl whom he knows — any of those pleasant little fire-side angels, who can charm us even in a merino morning gown, darning an old pair of socks. Let this be the sort of female reality in the reader’s mind; and neither author, nor heroine, need have any reason to complain.
Well; our young lady came to the counter, and asked for lip salve. The assistant, vanquished34 at once by the potent35 charm of her presence, paid her the first little tribute of politeness in his power, by asking permission to send the gallipot home for her.
‘I beg your pardon, miss,’ said he; ‘but I think you live lower down, at No. 12. I was passing; and I think I saw you going in there, yesterday, with an old gentleman, and another gentleman — I think I did, miss?’
‘Yes: we lodge36 at No. 12,’ said the young girl; ‘but I will take the lip salve home with me, if you please. I have a favour, however, to ask of you before I go,’ she continued very modestly, but without the slightest appearance of embarrassment37; ‘if you have room to hang this up in your window, my grandfather, Mr Wray, would feel much obliged by your kindness.’
And here, to the utter astonishment38 of the young assistant, she handed him a piece of cardboard, with a string to hang it up by, on which appeared the following inscription, neatly written:—
Mr Reuben Wray, pupil of the late celebrated John Kemble, Esquire, begs respectfully to inform his friends and the public that he gives lessons in elocution, delivery, and reading aloud, price two-and-sixpence the lesson of an hour. Pupils prepared for the stage, or private theatricals39, on a principle combining intelligent interpretation40 of the text, with the action of the arms and legs adopted by the late illustrious Roscius of the English stage, J. Kemble, Esquire; and attentively studied from close observation of Mr J.K. by Mr R.W. Orators41 and clergymen improved (with the strictest secrecy), at three-and-sixpence the lesson of an hour. Impediments and hesitation42 of utterance combated and removed. Young ladies taught the graces of delivery, and young gentlemen the proprieties43 of diction. A discount allowed to schools and large classes. Please to address, Mr Reuben Wray (late of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), 12, High Street, Tidbury-on-the-Marsh.
No Babylonian inscription that ever was cut, no manuscript on papyrus44 that ever was penned, could possibly have puzzled the young assistant more than this remarkable45 advertisement. He read it all through in a state of stupefaction; and then observed, with a bewildered look at the young girl on the other side of the counter:—
‘Very nicely written, miss; and very nicely composed indeed! I suppose — in fact, I’m sure Mr Dunball’— Here a creaking was heard, as of some strong wooden construction being gradually rent asunder46. It was Mr Dunball himself, squeezing his way out of the branch bank box, and coming to examine the advertisement.
He read it all through very attentively, following each line with his forefinger47; and then cautiously and gently laid the cardboard down on the counter. When I state that neither Mr Dunball nor his assistant were quite certain what a ‘Roscius of the English stage’ meant, or what precise branch of human attainment48 Mr Wray designed to teach in teaching ‘Elocution’, I do no injustice49 either to master or man.
‘So you want this hung up in the window, my — in the window, miss?’ asked Mr Dunball. He was about to say, ‘my dear’; but something in the girl’s look and manner stopped him.
‘If you could hang it up without inconvenience, sir.’
‘May I ask what’s your name? and where you come from?’
‘My name is Annie Wray; and the last place we came from was Stratford-upon-Avon.’
‘Ah! indeed — and Mr Wray teaches, does he? — elocution for half-a-crown — eh?’
‘My grandfather only desires to let the inhabitants of this place know that he can teach those who wish it, to speak or read with a good delivery and a proper pronunciation.’
Mr Dunball felt rather puzzled by the straightforward50, self-possessed manner in which he — a branch banker, a chemist, and a municipal authority — was answered by little Annie Wray. He took up the advertisement again; and walked away to read it a second time in the solemn monetary51 seclusion52 of the back shop.
The young assistant followed. ‘I think they’re respectable people, sir,’ said he, in a whisper; ‘I was passing when the old gentleman went into No. 12, yesterday. The wind blew his cloak on one side, and I saw him carrying a large cash box under it — I did indeed, sir; and it seemed a heavy one.’
‘Cash box!’ cried Mr Dunball. ‘What does a man with a cash box want with elocution, and two-and-sixpence an hour? Suppose he should be a swindler!’
‘He can’t be, sir: look at the young lady! Besides, the people at No. 12 told me he gave a reference, and paid a week’s rent in advance.’
‘He did — did he? I say, are you sure it was a cash box?’
‘Certain, sir. I suppose it had money in it, of course?’
‘What’s the use of a cash box, without cash?’ said the branch banker, contemptuously. ‘It looks rather odd, though! Stop! maybe it’s a wager53. I’ve heard of gentlemen doing queer things for wagers54. Or, maybe, he’s cracked! Well, she’s a nice girl; and hanging up this thing can’t do any harm. I’ll make enquiries about them, though, for all that.’
Frowning portentously55 as he uttered this last cautious resolve, Mr Dunball leisurely56 returned into the chemist’s shop. He was, however, nothing like so ill-natured a man as he imagined himself to be; and, in spite of his dignity and his suspicions, he smiled far more cordially than he at all intended, as he now addressed little Annie Wray.
‘It’s out of our line, miss,’ said he; ‘but we’ll hang the thing up to oblige you. Of course, if I want a reference, you can give it? Yes, yes! of course. There! there’s the card in the window for you — a nice prominent place (look at it as you go out)— just between the string of corn plasters and the dried poppy-heads! I wish Mr Wray success; though I rather think Tidbury is not quite the sort of place to come to for what you call elocution — eh?’
‘Thank you, sir; and good morning,’ said little Annie. And she left the shop just as composedly as she had entered it.
‘Cool little girl, that!’ said Mr Dunball, watching her progress down the street to No. 12.
‘Pretty little girl, too!’ thought the assistant, trying to watch, like his master, from the window.
‘I should like to know who Mr Wray is,’ said Mr Dunball, turning back into the shop, as Annie disappeared. ‘And I’d give something to find out what Mr Wray keeps in his cash box,’ continued the banker-chemist, as he thoughtfully re-entered the mahogany money chest in the back premises57.
You are a wise man, Mr Dunball; but you won’t solve those two mysteries in a hurry, sitting alone in that branch bank sentry-box of yours! — Can anybody solve them? I can.
Who is Mr Wray? and what has he got in his cash box? — Come to No. 12, and see!
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收听单词发音
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1
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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cosmetics
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| n.化妆品 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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12
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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ledgers
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| n.分类账( ledger的名词复数 ) | |
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hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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16
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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23
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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30
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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32
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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33
eschewing
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| v.（尤指为道德或实际理由而）习惯性避开，回避( eschew的现在分词 ) | |
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vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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theatricals
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| n.（业余性的）戏剧演出，舞台表演艺术；职业演员；戏剧的( theatrical的名词复数 )；剧场的；炫耀的；戏剧性的 | |
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40
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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42
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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proprieties
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| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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44
papyrus
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| n.古以纸草制成之纸 | |
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45
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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46
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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47
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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48
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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49
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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50
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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51
monetary
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| adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的 | |
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52
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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53
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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54
wagers
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| n.赌注，用钱打赌( wager的名词复数 )v.在（某物）上赌钱，打赌( wager的第三人称单数 )；保证，担保 | |
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55
portentously
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56
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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57
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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