When Mrs. Moreen bethought herself of this pretext11 for getting rid of their companion Pemberton supposed it was precisely12 to approach the delicate subject of his remuneration. But it had been only to say some things about her son that it was better a boy of eleven shouldn’t catch. They were extravagantly13 to his advantage save when she lowered her voice to sigh, tapping her left side familiarly, “And all overclouded by this, you know; all at the mercy of a weakness —!” Pemberton gathered that the weakness was in the region of the heart. He had known the poor child was not robust15: this was the basis on which he had been invited to treat, through an English lady, an Oxford16 acquaintance, then at Nice, who happened to know both his needs and those of the amiable18 American family looking out for something really superior in the way of a resident tutor.
The young man’s impression of his prospective19 pupil, who had come into the room as if to see for himself the moment Pemberton was admitted, was not quite the soft solicitation20 the visitor had taken for granted. Morgan Moreen was somehow sickly without being “delicate,” and that he looked intelligent — it is true Pemberton wouldn’t have enjoyed his being stupid — only added to the suggestion that, as with his big mouth and big ears he really couldn’t be called pretty, he might too utterly21 fail to please. Pemberton was modest, was even timid; and the chance that his small scholar might prove cleverer than himself had quite figured, to his anxiety, among the dangers of an untried experiment. He reflected, however, that these were risks one had to run when one accepted a position, as it was called, in a private family; when as yet one’s university honours had, pecuniarily22 speaking, remained barren. At any rate when Mrs. Moreen got up as to intimate that, since it was understood he would enter upon his duties within the week she would let him off now, he succeeded, in spite of the presence of the child, in squeezing out a phrase about the rate of payment. It was not the fault of the conscious smile which seemed a reference to the lady’s expensive identity, it was not the fault of this demonstration23, which had, in a sort, both vagueness and point, if the allusion24 didn’t sound rather vulgar. This was exactly because she became still more gracious to reply: “Oh I can assure you that all that will be quite regular.”
Pemberton only wondered, while he took up his hat, what “all that” was to amount to — people had such different ideas. Mrs. Moreen’s words, however, seemed to commit the family to a pledge definite enough to elicit25 from the child a strange little comment in the shape of the mocking foreign ejaculation “Oh la-la!”
Pemberton, in some confusion, glanced at him as he walked slowly to the window with his back turned, his hands in his pockets and the air in his elderly shoulders of a boy who didn’t play. The young man wondered if he should be able to teach him to play, though his mother had said it would never do and that this was why school was impossible. Mrs. Moreen exhibited no discomfiture26; she only continued blandly27: “Mr. Moreen will be delighted to meet your wishes. As I told you, he has been called to London for a week. As soon as he comes back you shall have it out with him.”
This was so frank and friendly that the young man could only reply, laughing as his hostess laughed: “Oh I don’t imagine we shall have much of a battle.”
“They’ll give you anything you like,” the boy remarked unexpectedly, returning from the window. “We don’t mind what anything costs — we live awfully28 well.”
“My darling, you’re too quaint17!” his mother exclaimed, putting out to caress29 him a practised but ineffectual hand. He slipped out of it, but looked with intelligent innocent eyes at Pemberton, who had already had time to notice that from one moment to the other his small satiric30 face seemed to change its time of life. At this moment it was infantine, yet it appeared also to be under the influence of curious intuitions and knowledges. Pemberton rather disliked precocity31 and was disappointed to find gleams of it in a disciple32 not yet in his teens. Nevertheless he divined on the spot that Morgan wouldn’t prove a bore. He would prove on the contrary a source of agitation33. This idea held the young man, in spite of a certain repulsion.
“You pompous34 little person! We’re not extravagant14!” Mrs. Moreen gaily35 protested, making another unsuccessful attempt to draw the boy to her side. “You must know what to expect,” she went on to Pemberton.
“The less you expect the better!” her companion interposed. “But we are people of fashion.”
“Only so far as you make us so!” Mrs. Moreen tenderly mocked. “Well then, on Friday — don’t tell me you’re superstitious36 — and mind you don’t fail us. Then you’ll see us all. I’m so sorry the girls are out. I guess you’ll like the girls. And, you know, I’ve another son, quite different from this one.”
“He tries to imitate me,” Morgan said to their friend.
“He tries? Why he’s twenty years old!” cried Mrs. Moreen.
“You’re very witty37,” Pemberton remarked to the child — a proposition his mother echoed with enthusiasm, declaring Morgan’s sallies to be the delight of the house.
The boy paid no heed38 to this; he only enquired39 abruptly40 of the visitor, who was surprised afterwards that he hadn’t struck him as offensively forward: “Do you want very much to come?”
“Can you doubt it after such a description of what I shall hear?” Pemberton replied. Yet he didn’t want to come at all; he was coming because he had to go somewhere, thanks to the collapse41 of his fortune at the end of a year abroad spent on the system of putting his scant42 patrimony43 into a single full wave of experience. He had had his full wave but couldn’t pay the score at his inn. Moreover he had caught in the boy’s eyes the glimpse of a far-off appeal.
“Well, I’ll do the best I can for you,” said Morgan; with which he turned away again. He passed out of one of the long windows; Pemberton saw him go and lean on the parapet of the terrace. He remained there while the young man took leave of his mother, who, on Pemberton’s looking as if he expected a farewell from him, interposed with: “Leave him, leave him; he’s so strange!” Pemberton supposed her to fear something he might say. “He’s a genius — you’ll love him,” she added. “He’s much the most interesting person in the family.” And before he could invent some civility to oppose to this she wound up with: “But we’re all good, you know!”
“He’s a genius — you’ll love him!” were words that recurred44 to our aspirant45 before the Friday, suggesting among many things that geniuses were not invariably loveable. However, it was all the better if there was an element that would make tutorship absorbing: he had perhaps taken too much for granted it would only disgust him. As he left the villa46 after his interview he looked up at the balcony and saw the child leaning over it. “We shall have great larks47!” he called up.
Morgan hung fire a moment and then gaily returned: “By the time you come back I shall have thought of something witty!”
This made Pemberton say to himself “After all he’s rather nice.”
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1
procrastinated
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| 拖延，耽搁( procrastinate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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broach
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| v.开瓶，提出(题目) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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4
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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suede
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| n.表面粗糙的软皮革 | |
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6
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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7
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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8
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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9
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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10
improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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11
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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12
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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13
extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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14
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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15
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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16
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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17
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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18
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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19
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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20
solicitation
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| n.诱惑；揽货；恳切地要求；游说 | |
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21
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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22
pecuniarily
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| adv.在金钱上，在金钱方面 | |
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23
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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24
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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25
elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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26
discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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28
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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29
caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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30
satiric
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| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
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31
precocity
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| n.早熟，早成 | |
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32
disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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33
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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34
pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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35
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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36
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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37
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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38
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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39
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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40
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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41
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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42
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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43
patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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44
recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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45
aspirant
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| n.热望者；adj.渴望的 | |
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46
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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47
larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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