Shaking from head to foot, the man whose scattered13 consciousness has thus fantastically pieced itself together, at length rises, supports his trembling frame upon his arms, and looks around. He is in the meanest and closest of small rooms. Through the ragged14 window-curtain, the light of early day steals in from a miserable15 court. He lies, dressed, across a large unseemly bed, upon a bedstead that has indeed given way under the weight upon it. Lying, also dressed and also across the bed, not longwise, are a Chinaman, a Lascar, and a haggard woman. The two first are in a sleep or stupor16; the last is blowing at a kind of pipe, to kindle17 it. And as she blows, and shading it with her lean hand, concentrates its red spark of light, it serves in the dim morning as a lamp to show him what he sees of her.
‘Another?’ says this woman, in a querulous, rattling18 whisper. ‘Have another?’
He looks about him, with his hand to his forehead.
‘Ye’ve smoked as many as five since ye come in at midnight,’ the woman goes on, as she chronically19 complains. ‘Poor me, poor me, my head is so bad. Them two come in after ye. Ah, poor me, the business is slack, is slack! Few Chinamen about the Docks, and fewer Lascars, and no ships coming in, these say! Here’s another ready for ye, deary. Ye’ll remember like a good soul, won’t ye, that the market price is dreffle high just now? More nor three shillings and sixpence for a thimbleful! And ye’ll remember that nobody but me (and Jack20 Chinaman t’other side the court; but he can’t do it as well as me) has the true secret of mixing it? Ye’ll pay up accordingly, deary, won’t ye?’
She blows at the pipe as she speaks, and, occasionally bubbling at it, inhales21 much of its contents.
‘O me, O me, my lungs is weak, my lungs is bad! It’s nearly ready for ye, deary. Ah, poor me, poor me, my poor hand shakes like to drop off! I see ye coming-to, and I ses to my poor self, “I’ll have another ready for him, and he’ll bear in mind the market price of opium22, and pay according.” O my poor head! I makes my pipes of old penny ink-bottles, ye see, deary — this is one — and I fits-in a mouthpiece, this way, and I takes my mixter out of this thimble with this little horn spoon; and so I fills, deary. Ah, my poor nerves! I got Heavens-hard drunk for sixteen year afore I took to this; but this don’t hurt me, not to speak of. And it takes away the hunger as well as wittles, deary.’
She hands him the nearly-emptied pipe, and sinks back, turning over on her face.
He rises unsteadily from the bed, lays the pipe upon the hearth23-stone, draws back the ragged curtain, and looks with repugnance24 at his three companions. He notices that the woman has opium-smoked herself into a strange likeness25 of the Chinaman. His form of cheek, eye, and temple, and his colour, are repeated in her. Said Chinaman convulsively wrestles26 with one of his many Gods or Devils, perhaps, and snarls27 horribly. The Lascar laughs and dribbles28 at the mouth. The hostess is still.
In the Court
‘What visions can she have?’ the waking man muses29, as he turns her face towards him, and stands looking down at it. ‘Visions of many butchers’ shops, and public-houses, and much credit? Of an increase of hideous30 customers, and this horrible bedstead set upright again, and this horrible court swept clean? What can she rise to, under any quantity of opium, higher than that! — Eh?’
He bends down his ear, to listen to her mutterings.
‘Unintelligible!’
As he watches the spasmodic shoots and darts31 that break out of her face and limbs, like fitful lightning out of a dark sky, some contagion32 in them seizes upon him: insomuch that he has to withdraw himself to a lean arm-chair by the hearth — placed there, perhaps, for such emergencies — and to sit in it, holding tight, until he has got the better of this unclean spirit of imitation.
Then he comes back, pounces33 on the Chinaman, and seizing him with both hands by the throat, turns him violently on the bed. The Chinaman clutches the aggressive hands, resists, gasps34, and protests.
‘What do you say?’
A watchful35 pause.
‘Unintelligible!’
Slowly loosening his grasp as he listens to the incoherent jargon36 with an attentive37 frown, he turns to the Lascar and fairly drags him forth38 upon the floor. As he falls, the Lascar starts into a half-risen attitude, glares with his eyes, lashes39 about him fiercely with his arms, and draws a phantom40 knife. It then becomes apparent that the woman has taken possession of this knife, for safety’s sake; for, she too starting up, and restraining and expostulating with him, the knife is visible in her dress, not in his, when they drowsily41 drop back, side by side.
There has been chattering42 and clattering43 enough between them, but to no purpose. When any distinct word has been flung into the air, it has had no sense or sequence. Wherefore ‘unintelligible!’ is again the comment of the watcher, made with some reassured44 nodding of his head, and a gloomy smile. He then lays certain silver money on the table, finds his hat, gropes his way down the broken stairs, gives a good morning to some rat-ridden doorkeeper, in bed in a black hutch beneath the stairs, and passes out.
That same afternoon, the massive gray square tower of an old Cathedral rises before the sight of a jaded45 traveller. The bells are going for daily vesper service, and he must needs attend it, one would say, from his haste to reach the open Cathedral door. The choir46 are getting on their sullied white robes, in a hurry, when he arrives among them, gets on his own robe, and falls into the procession filing in to service. Then, the Sacristan locks the iron-barred gates that divide the sanctuary47 from the chancel, and all of the procession having scuttled48 into their places, hide their faces; and then the intoned words, ‘WHEN THE WICKED MAN—’ rise among groins of arches and beams of roof, awakening49 muttered thunder.
点击收听单词发音
1 spike | |
n.长钉,钉鞋;v.以大钉钉牢,使...失效 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 impaling | |
钉在尖桩上( impale的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 horde | |
n.群众,一大群 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 cymbals | |
pl.铙钹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 strew | |
vt.撒;使散落;撒在…上,散布于 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 awry | |
adj.扭曲的,错的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 drowsy | |
adj.昏昏欲睡的,令人发困的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 stupor | |
v.昏迷;不省人事 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 kindle | |
v.点燃,着火 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 chronically | |
ad.长期地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 inhales | |
v.吸入( inhale的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 opium | |
n.鸦片;adj.鸦片的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 repugnance | |
n.嫌恶 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 wrestles | |
v.(与某人)搏斗( wrestle的第三人称单数 );扭成一团;扭打;(与…)摔跤 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 snarls | |
n.(动物的)龇牙低吼( snarl的名词复数 );愤怒叫嚷(声);咆哮(声);疼痛叫声v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的第三人称单数 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 dribbles | |
n.涓滴( dribble的名词复数 );细滴;少量(液体)v.流口水( dribble的第三人称单数 );(使液体)滴下或作细流;运球,带球 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 muses | |
v.沉思,冥想( muse的第三人称单数 );沉思自语说(某事) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 darts | |
n.掷飞镖游戏;飞镖( dart的名词复数 );急驰,飞奔v.投掷,投射( dart的第三人称单数 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 contagion | |
n.(通过接触的疾病)传染;蔓延 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 pounces | |
v.突然袭击( pounce的第三人称单数 );猛扑;一眼看出;抓住机会(进行抨击) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 gasps | |
v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 watchful | |
adj.注意的,警惕的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 jargon | |
n.术语,行话 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 attentive | |
adj.注意的,专心的;关心(别人)的,殷勤的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 lashes | |
n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 );鞭子;突然猛烈的一击;急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 drowsily | |
adv.睡地,懒洋洋地,昏昏欲睡地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 chattering | |
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 clattering | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的现在分词形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 reassured | |
adj.使消除疑虑的;使放心的v.再保证,恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 jaded | |
adj.精疲力竭的;厌倦的;(因过饱或过多而)腻烦的;迟钝的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 sanctuary | |
n.圣所,圣堂,寺庙;禁猎区,保护区 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 scuttled | |
v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 );快跑,急走 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 awakening | |
n.觉醒,醒悟 adj.觉醒中的;唤醒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |