When the artist’s hand is potting it;
There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay,
When the poet’s pad is blotting1 it;
There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line
At the Royal Acade-my;
But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheese,
When it comes to a well-made Lie
To a quite unwreckable Lie,
To a most impeccable Lie,
To a water-tight, fireproof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock,
steel-faced Lie!
Not a private hansom Lie,
But a pair and brougham Lie,
Not a little place at Tooting, but a country-house with shooting,
And a ring-fence, deer-park Lie.
— Op. 3.
A common rest-house in the desert is not overstocked with furniture or carpets. One table, two chairs, a rack on the door for clothing, and a list of charges, are sufficient for each room; and the traveller brings his own bedding. Tarvin read the tariff2 with deep interest before falling asleep that night, and discovered that this was only in a distant sense a hotel, and that he was open to the danger of being turned out at twelve hours’ notice, after he had inhabited his unhomely apartment for a day and a night.
Before he went to bed he called for pen and ink, and wrote a letter to Mrs. Mutrie on the notepaper of his land and improvement company. Under the map of Colorado, at the top, which confidently showed the railroad system of the State converging5 at Topaz, was the legend, ‘N. Tarvin, Real Estate and Insurance Agent.’ The tone of his letter was even more assured than the map.
He dreamed that night that the Maharajah was swapping6 the Naulahka with him for town lots. His Majesty7 backed out just as they were concluding the deal, and demanded that Tarvin should throw in his own favourite mine, the ‘Lingering Lode,’ to boot. In his dream Tarvin had kicked at this, and the Maharajah had responded, ‘All right, my boy; no Three C.‘s then,’ and Tarvin had yielded the point, had hung the Naulahka about Mrs. Mutrie’s neck, and in the same breath had heard the Speaker of the Colorado legislature declaring that since the coming of the Three C.‘s he officially recognised Topaz as the metropolis8 of the West. Then, perceiving that he himself was the Speaker, Tarvin began to doubt the genuineness of these remarks, and awoke, with aloes in his mouth, to find the dawn spreading over Rhatore, and beckoning9 him out to the conquests of reality.
He was confronted in the verandah by a grizzled, bearded, booted native soldier on a camel, who handed down to him a greasy10 little brown book, bearing the legend, Please write ‘seen.’
Tarvin looked at this new development from the heated landscape with interest, but not with an outward effect of surprise. He had already learned one secret of the East — never to be surprised at anything He took the book and read, on a thumbed page, the announcement, ‘Divine services conducted on Sundays in the drawing-room of the residency at 7.30 A.M. Strangers are cordially invited to attend. (Signed) L. R. Estes, American Presbyterian Mission.’
‘They don’t get up early for nothing in this country,’ mused11 Tarvin. ‘Church “at 7.30 A.M.” When do they have dinner? Well, what do I do about this?’ he asked the man aloud. The trooper and camel looked at him together, and grunted12 as they went away. It was no concern of theirs.
Tarvin addressed a remark of confused purport13 to the retreating figures. This was plainly not a country in which business could be done at red heat. He hungered for the moment when, with the necklace in his pocket and Kate by his side, he should again set his face westward14.
The shortest way to that was to go over to call on the missionary15. He was an American, and could tell him about the Naulahka if anybody could; Tarvin had also a shrewd suspicion that he could tell him something about Kate.
The missionary’s home, which was just without the city walls, was also of red sandstone, one storey high, and as bare of vines or any living thing as the station at Rawut Junction16. But he presently found that there were living beings inside the house, with warm hearts and a welcome for him. Mrs. Estes turned out to be that motherly and kindly17 woman, with the instinct for housekeeping, who would make a home of a cave. She had a round, smooth face, a. soft skin, and quiet, happy eyes. She may have been forty. Her still untinged brown hair was brushed smoothly18 back; her effect was sedate19 and restful.
Their visitor had learned that they came from Bangor, Maine, had founded a tie of brotherhood20 on the fact that his father had been born on a farm down Portland way, and had been invited to breakfast before he had been ten minutes in the house. Tarvin’s gift of sympathy was irresistible21. He was the kind of man to whom men confide4 their heart-secrets, and the cankers of their inmost lives, in hotel smoking-rooms. He was the repository of scores of tales of misery22 and error which he could do nothing to help, and of a few which he could help, and had helped. Before breakfast was ready he had from Estes and his wife the whole picture of their situation at Rhatore. They told him of their troubles with the Maharajah and with the Maharajah’s wives, and of the exceeding unfruitfulness of their work; and then of their children, living in the exile of Indian children, at home. They explained that they meant Bangor; they were there with an aunt, receiving their education at the hands of a public school.
‘It’s five years since we saw them,’ said Mrs. Estes, as they sat down to breakfast. ‘Fred was only six when he went, and Laura was eight. They are eleven and thirteen now — only think! We hope they haven’t forgotten us; but how can they remember? They are only children.’
And then she told him stories of the renewal23 of filial ties in India, after such absences, that made his blood run cold.
The breakfast woke a violent home-sickness in Tarvin. After a month at sea, two days of the chance railroad meals between Calcutta and Rawut Junction, and a night at the rest-house, he was prepared to value the homely3 family meal, and the abundance of an American breakfast. They began with a water-melon, which did not help him to feel at home, because water-melons were next to an unknown luxury at Topaz, and when known, did not ripen24 in grocers’ windows in the month of April. But the oatmeal brought him home again, and the steak and fried potatoes, the coffee and the hot brown pop-overs, with their beguiling25 yellow interiors, were reminders26 far too deep for tears. Mrs. Estes, enjoying his enjoyment27, said they must have out the can of maple28 syrup29, which had been sent them all the way from Bangor; and when the white-robed, silent-moving servant in the red turban came in with the waffles, she sent him for it. They were all very happy together over this, and said pleasant things about the American republic, while the punkah sang its droning song over their heads.
Tarvin had a map of Colorado in his pocket, of course, and when the talk, swinging to one part of the United States and another, worked westward, he spread it out on the breakfast-table, between the waffles and the steak, and showed them the position of Topaz. He explained to Estes how a new railroad, running north and south, would make the town, and then he had to say affectionately what a wonderful town it really was, and to tell them about the buildings they had put up in the last twelve months, and how they had picked themselves up after the fire and gone to building the next morning. The fire had brought $100,000 into the town in insurance, he said. He exaggerated his exaggerations in unconscious defiance30 of the hugeness of the empty landscape lying outside the window. He did not mean to let the East engulf31 him or Topaz.
‘We’ve got a young lady coming to us, I think, from your State,’ interrupted Mrs. Estes, to whom all Western towns were alike. ‘Wasn’t it Topaz, Lucien? I’m almost sure it was.’
She rose and went to her work-basket for a letter, from which he confirmed her statement. ‘Yes; Topaz. A Miss Sheriff. She comes to us from the Zenana Mission. Perhaps you know her?’
Tarvin’s head bent32 over the map, which he was refolding. He answered shortly, ‘Yes; I know her. When is she likely to be here?’
‘Most any day now,’ said Mrs. Estes.
‘It seems a pity,’ said Tarvin, ‘to bring a young girl out here all alone, away from her friends — though I’m sure you’ll be friends to her,’ he added quickly, seeking Mrs. Estes’ eyes.
‘We shall try to keep her from getting homesick,’ said Mrs. Estes, with the motherly note in her voice. ‘There’s Fred and Laura home in Bangor, you know,’ she added after a pause.
‘That will be good of you,’ said Tarvin, with more feeling than the interests of the Zenana Mission demanded.
‘May I ask what your business is here?’ inquired the missionary, as he passed his cup to his wife to be refilled. He had a rather formal habit of speech, and his words came muffled33 from the depths of a dense34 jungle of beard — iron-grey and unusually long. He had a benevolently35 grim face, a precise but friendly manner, and a good way of looking one in the eye which Tarvin liked. He was a man of decided36 opinions, particularly about the native races of India.
‘Well, I’m prospecting,’ Tarvin said, in a leisurely37 tone, glancing out of the window as if he expected to see Kate start up out of the desert.
‘Ah! For gold?’
‘W-e-l-l, yes as much that as anything.’
Estes invited him out upon the verandah to smoke a cigar with him; his wife brought her sewing and sat with them; and as they smoked Tarvin asked him his questions about the Naulahka. Where was it? What was it? he inquired boldly. But he found that the missionary, though an American, was no wiser about it than the lazy commercial travellers at the rest-house. He knew that it existed, but knew no man who had seen it save the Maharajah. Tarvin got at this through much talk about other things which interested him less; but he began to see an idea in the gold-mining to which the missionary persistently38 returned. Estes said he meant to engage in placer-mining, of course?
‘Of course,’ assented39 Tarvin.
‘But you won’t find much gold in the Amet River, I fancy. The natives have washed it spasmodically for hundreds of years. There is nothing to be found but what little silt40 washes down from the quartz41 rocks of the Gungra Hills. But you will be undertaking42 work on a large scale, I judge?’ said the missionary, looking at him curiously43.
‘Oh, on a large scale, of course.’
Estes added that he supposed he had thought of the political difficulties in his way. He would have to get the consent of Colonel Nolan, and through him the consent of the British Government, if he meant to do anything serious in the State. In fact, he would have to get Colonel Nolan’s consent to stay in Rhatore at all.
‘Do you mean that I shall have to make it worth the British Government’s while to let me alone?’
‘Yes.’
‘All right; I’ll do that too.’
Mrs. Estes looked up quickly at her husband from under her eyebrows44. Woman-like, she was thinking.
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收听单词发音
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1
blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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2
tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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3
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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4
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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5
converging
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| adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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6
swapping
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| 交换，交换技术 | |
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7
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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8
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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9
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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10
greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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11
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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12
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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13
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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14
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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15
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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16
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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17
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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18
smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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19
sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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20
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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21
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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22
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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23
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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24
ripen
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| vt.使成熟；vi.成熟 | |
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25
beguiling
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| adj.欺骗的，诱人的v.欺骗( beguile的现在分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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26
reminders
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| n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信 | |
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27
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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28
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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29
syrup
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| n.糖浆，糖水 | |
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30
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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31
engulf
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| vt.吞没，吞食 | |
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32
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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33
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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34
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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benevolently
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| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
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36
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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37
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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38
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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39
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
silt
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| n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞 | |
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41
quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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42
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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43
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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44
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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