of
A Plot in Private Life.
Chapter i.
THE first place I got when I began going out to service was not a very profitable one. I certainly gained the advantage of learning my business thoroughly1, but I never had my due in the matter of wages. My master was made a bankrupt, and his servants suffered with the rest of his creditors2.
My second situation, however, amply compensated3 me for my want of luck in the first. I had the good fortune to enter the service of Mr. and Mrs. Norcross. My master was a very rich gentleman. He had the Darrock house and lands in Cumberland, an estate also in Yorkshire, and a very large property in Jamaica, which produced, at that time and for some years afterward4, a great income. Out in the West Indies he met with a pretty young lady, a governess in an English family, and, taking a violent fancy to her, married her, though she was a good five-and-twenty years younger than himself. After the wedding they came to England, and it was at this time that I was lucky enough to be engaged by them as a servant.
I lived with my new master and mistress three years. They had no children. At the end of that period Mr. Norcross died. He was sharp enough to foresee that his young widow would marry again, and he bequeathed his property so that it all went to Mrs. Norcross first, and then to any children she might have by a second marriage, and, failing that, to relations and friends of his own. I did not suffer by my master’s death, for his widow kept me in her service. I had attended on Mr. Norcross all through his last illness, and had made myself useful enough to win my mistress’s favor and gratitude5. Besides me she also retained her maid in her service — a quadroon woman named Josephine, whom she brought with her from the West Indies. Even at that time I disliked the half-breed’s wheedling6 manners, and her cruel, tawny7 face, and wondered how my mistress could be so fond of her as she was. Time showed that I was right in distrusting this woman. I shall have much more to say about her when I get further advanced with my story.
Meanwhile I have next to relate that my mistress broke up the rest of her establishment, and, taking me and the lady’s maid with her, went to travel on the Continent.
Among other wonderful places we visited Paris, Genoa, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, staying in some of those cities for months together. The fame of my mistress’s riches followed her wherever she went; and there were plenty of gentlemen, foreigners as well as Englishmen, who were anxious enough to get into her good graces and to prevail on her to marry them. Nobody succeeded, however, in producing any very strong or lasting8 impression on her; and when we came back to England, after more than two years of absence, Mrs. Norcross was still a widow, and showed no signs of wanting to change her condition.
We went to the house on the Yorkshire estate first; but my mistress did not fancy some of the company round about, so we moved again to Darrock Hall, and made excursions from time to time in the lake district, some miles off. On one of these trips Mrs. Norcross met with some old friends, who introduced her to a gentleman of their party bearing the very common and very uninteresting name of Mr. James Smith.
He was a tall, fine young man enough, with black hair, which grew very long, and the biggest, bushiest pair of black whiskers I ever saw. Altogether he had a rakish, unsettled look, and a bounceable way of talking which made him the prominent person in company. He was poor enough himself, as I heard from his servant, but well connected — a gentleman by birth and education, though his manners were so free. What my mistress saw to like in him I don’t know; but when she asked her friends to stay with her at Darrock, she included Mr. James Smith in the invitation. We had a fine, gay, noisy time of it at the Hall, the strange gentleman, in particular, making himself as much at home as if the place belonged to him. I was surprised at Mrs. Norcross putting up with him as she did, but I was fairly thunderstruck some months afterward when I heard that she and her free-and-easy visitor were actually going to be married! She had refused offers by dozens abroad, from higher, and richer, and better-behaved men. It seemed next to impossible that she could seriously think of throwing herself away upon such a hare-brained, headlong, penniless young gentleman as Mr. James Smith.
Married, nevertheless, they were, in due course of time; and, after spending the honeymoon9 abroad, they came back to Darrock Hall.
I soon found that my new master had a very variable temper. There were some days when he was as easy, and familiar, and pleasant with his servants as any gentleman need be. At other times some devil within him seemed to get possession of his whole nature. He flew into violent passions, and took wrong ideas into his head, which no reasoning or remonstrance10 could remove. It rather amazed me, considering how gay he was in his tastes, and how restless his habits were, that he should consent to live at such a quiet, dull place as Darrock. The reason for this, however, soon came out. Mr. James Smith was not much of a sportsman; he cared nothing for indoor amusements, such as reading, music, and so forth11; and he had no ambition for representing the county in parliament. The one pursuit that he was really fond of was yachting. Darrock was within sixteen miles of a sea-port town, with an excellent harbor, and to this accident of position the Hall was entirely12 indebted for recommending itself as a place of residence to Mr. James Smith.
He had such an untiring enjoyment13 and delight in cruising about at sea, and all his ideas of pleasure seemed to be so closely connected with his remembrance of the sailing trips he had taken on board different yachts belonging to his friends, that I verily believe his chief object in marrying my mistress was to get the command of money enough to keep a vessel14 for himself. Be that as it may, it is certain that he prevailed on her, some time after their marriage, to make him a present of a fine schooner15 yacht, which was brought round from Cowes to our coast-town, and kept always waiting ready for him in the harbor.
His wife required some little persuasion16 before she could make up her mind to let him have the vessel. She suffered so much from sea-sickness that pleasure-sailing was out of the question for her; and, being very fond of her husband, she was naturally unwilling17 that he should engage in an amusement which took him away from her. However, Mr. James Smith used his influence over her cleverly, promising18 that he would never go away without first asking her leave, and engaging that his terms of absence at sea should never last for more than a week or ten days at a time. Accordingly, my mistress, who was the kindest and most unselfish woman in the world, put her own feelings aside, and made her husband happy in the possession of a vessel of his own.
While my master was away cruising, my mistress had a dull time of it at the Hall. The few gentlefolks there were in our part of the county lived at a distance, and could only come to Darrock when they were asked to stay there for some days together. As for the village near us, there was but one person living in it whom my mistress could think of asking to the Hall, and that person was the clergyman who did duty at the church.
This gentleman’s name was Mr. Meeke. He was a single man, very young, and very lonely in his position. He had a mild, melancholy19, pasty-looking face, and was as shy and soft-spoken as a little girl — altogether, what one may call, without being unjust or severe, a poor, weak creature, and, out of all sight, the very worst preacher I ever sat under in my life. The one thing he did, which, as I heard, he could really do well, was playing on the fiddle21. He was uncommonly22 fond of music — so much so that he often took his instrument out with him when he went for a walk. This taste of his was his great recommendation to my mistress, who was a wonderfully fine player on the piano, and who was delighted to get such a performer as Mr. Meeke to play duets with her. Besides liking23 his society for this reason, she felt for him in his lonely position; naturally enough, I think, considering how often she was left in solitude24 herself. Mr. Meeke, on his side, when he got over his first shyness, was only too glad to leave his lonesome little parsonage for the fine music-room at the Hall, and for the company of a handsome, kind-hearted lady, who made much of him, and admired his fiddle-playing with all her heart. Thus it happened that, whenever my master was away at sea, my mistress and Mr. Meeke were always together, playing duets as if they had their living to get by it. A more harmless connection than the connection between those two never existed in this world; and yet, innocent as it was, it turned out to be the first cause of all the misfortunes that afterward happened.
My master’s treatment of Mr. Meeke was, from the first, the very opposite of my mistress’s. The restless, rackety, bounceable Mr. James Smith felt a contempt for the weak, womanish, fiddling25 little parson, and, what was more, did not care to conceal26 it. For this reason, Mr. Meeke (who was dreadfully frightened by my master’s violent language and rough ways) very seldom visited at the Hall except when my mistress was alone there. Meaning no wrong, and therefore stooping to no concealment27, she never thought of taking any measures to keep Mr. Meeke out of the way when he happened to be with her at the time of her husband’s coming home, whether it was only from a riding excursion in the neighborhood or from a cruise in the schooner. In this way it so turned out that whenever my master came home, after a long or short absence, in nine cases out of ten he found the parson at the Hall.
At first he used to laugh at this circumstance, and to amuse himself with some coarse jokes at the expense of his wife and her companion. But, after a while, his variable temper changed, as usual. He grew sulky, rude, angry, and, at last, downright jealous of Mr. Meeke. Though too proud to confess it in so many words, he still showed the state of his mind clearly enough to my mistress to excite her indignation. She was a woman who could be led anywhere by any one for whom she had a regard, but there was a firm spirit within her that rose at the slightest show of injustice28 or oppression, and that resented tyrannical usage of any sort perhaps a little too warmly. The bare suspicion that her husband could feel any distrust of her set her all in a flame, and she took the most unfortunate, and yet, at the same time, the most natural way for a woman, of resenting it. The ruder her husband was to Mr. Meeke the more kindly29 she behaved to him. This led to serious disputes and dissensions, and thence, in time, to a violent quarrel. I could not avoid hearing the last part of the altercation30 between them, for it took place in the garden-walk, outside the dining-room window, while I was occupied in laying the table for lunch.
Without repeating their words — which I have no right to do, having heard by accident what I had no business to hear — I may say generally, to show how serious the quarrel was, that my mistress charged my master with having married from mercenary motives31, with keeping out of her company as much as he could, and with insulting her by a suspicion which it would be hard ever to forgive, and impossible ever to forget. He replied by violent language directed against herself, and by commanding her never to open the doors again to Mr. Meeke; she, on her side, declaring that she would never consent to insult a clergyman and a gentleman in order to satisfy the whim32 of a tyrannical husband. Upon that, he called out, with a great oath, to have his horse saddled directly, declaring that he would not stop another instant under the same roof with a woman who had set him at defiance33, and warning his wife that he would come back, if Mr. Meeke entered the house again, and horsewhip him, in spite of his black coat, all through the village.
With those words he left her, and rode away to the sea-port where his yacht was lying. My mistress kept up her spirit till he was out of sight, and then burst into a dreadful screaming passion of tears, which ended by leaving her so weak that she had to be carried to her bed like a woman who was at the point of death.
The same evening my master’s horse was ridden back by a messenger, who brought a scrap34 of notepaper with him addressed to me. It only contained these lines:
“Pack up my clothes and deliver them immediately to the bearer. You may tell your mistress that I sail to-night at eleven o’clock for a cruise to Sweden. Forward my letters to the post-office, Stockholm.”
I obeyed the orders given to me except that relating to my mistress. The doctor had been sent for, and was still in the house. I consulted him upon the propriety35 of my delivering the message. He positively36 forbade me to do so that night, and told me to give him the slip of paper, and leave it to his discretion37 to show it to her or not the next morning.
The messenger had hardly been gone an hour when Mr. Meeke’s housekeeper38 came to the Hall with a roll of music for my mistress. I told the woman of my master’s sudden departure, and of the doctor being in the house. This news brought Mr. Meeke himself to the Hall in a great flutter.
I felt so angry with him for being the cause — innocent as he might be — of the shocking scene which had taken place, that I exceeded the bounds of my duty, and told him the whole truth. The poor, weak, wavering, childish creature flushed up red in the face, then turned as pale as ashes, and dropped into one of the hall chairs crying — literally39 crying fit to break his heart. “Oh, William,” says he, wringing40 his little frail41, trembling white hands as helpless as a baby, “oh, William, what am I to do?”
“As you ask me that question, sir,” says I, “you will excuse me, I hope, if, being a servant, I plainly speak my mind notwithstanding. I know my station well enough to be aware that, strictly43 speaking, I have done wrong, and far exceeded my duty, in telling you as much as I have told you already; but I would go through fire and water, sir,” says I, feeling my own eyes getting moist, “for my mistress’s sake. She has no relation here who can speak to you; and it is even better that a servant like me should risk being guilty of an impertinence, than that dreadful and lasting mischief44 should arise from the right remedy not being applied45 at the right time. This is what I should do, sir, in your place. Saving your presence, I should leave off crying; and go back home and write to Mr. James Smith, saying that I would not, as a clergyman, give him railing for railing, but would prove how unworthily he had suspected me by ceasing to visit at the Hall from this time forth, rather than be a cause of dissension between man and wife. If you will put that into proper language, sir, and will have the letter ready for me in half an hour’s time, I will call for it on the fastest horse in our stables, and, at my own risk, will give it to my master before he sails to-night. I have nothing more to say, sir, except to ask your pardon for forgetting my proper place, and for making bold to speak on a very serious matter as equal to equal, and as man to man.”
To do Mr. Meeke justice, he had a heart, though it was a very small one. He shook hands with me, and said he accepted my advice as the advice of a friend, and so went back to his parsonage to write the letter. In half an hour I called for it on horseback, but it was not ready for me. Mr. Meeke was ridiculously nice about how he should express himself when he got a pen into his hand. I found him with his desk littered with rough copies, in a perfect agony about how to turn his phrases delicately enough in referring to my mistress. Every minute being precious, I hurried him as much as I could, without standing42 on any ceremony. It took half an hour more, with all my efforts, before he could make up his mind that the letter would do. I started off with it at a gallop46, and never drew rein47 till I got to the sea-port town.
The harbor-clock chimed the quarter past eleven as I rode by it, and when I got down to the jetty there was no yacht to be seen. She had been cast off from her moorings ten minutes before eleven, and as the clock struck she had sailed out of the harbor. I would have followed in a boat, but it was a fine starlight night, with a fresh wind blowing, and the sailors on the pier48 laughed at me when I spoke20 of rowing after a schooner yacht which had got a quarter of an hour’s start of us, with the wind abeam49 and the tide in her favor.
I rode back with a heavy heart. All I could do now was to send the letter to the post-office, Stockholm.
The next day the doctor showed my mistress the scrap of paper with the message on it from my master, and an hour or two after that, a letter was sent to her in Mr. Meeke’s handwriting, explaining the reason why she must not expect to see him at the Hall, and referring to me in terms of high praise as a sensible and faithful man who had spoken the right word at the right time. I am able to repeat the substance of the letter, because I heard all about it from my mistress, under very unpleasant circumstances so far as I was concerned.
The news of my master’s departure did not affect her as the doctor had supposed it would. Instead of distressing50 her, it roused her spirit and made her angry; her pride, as I imagine, being wounded by the contemptuous manner in which her husband had notified his intention of sailing to Sweden at the end of a message to a servant about packing his clothes. Finding her in that temper of mind, the letter from Mr. Meeke only irritated her the more. She insisted on getting up, and as soon as she was dressed and downstairs, she vented51 her violent humor on me, reproaching me for impertinent interference in the affairs of my betters, and declaring that she had almost made up her mind to turn me out of my place for it. I did not defend myself, because I respected her sorrows and the irritation52 that came from them; also, because I knew the natural kindness of her nature well enough to be assured that she would make amends53 to me for her harshness the moment her mind was composed again. The result showed that I was right. That same evening she sent for me and begged me to forgive and forget the hasty words she had spoken in the morning with a grace and sweetness that would have won the heart of any man who listened to her.
Weeks passed after this, till it was more than a month since the day of my master’s departure, and no letter in his handwriting came to Darrock Hall.
My mistress, taking this treatment more angrily than sorrowfully, went to London to consult her nearest relations, who lived there. On leaving home she stopped the carriage at the parsonage, and went in (as I thought, rather defiantly) to say good-by to Mr. Meeke. She had answered his letter, and received others from him, and had answered them likewise. She had also, of course, seen him every Sunday at church, and had always stopped to speak to him after the service; but this was the first occasion on which she had visited him at his house. As the carriage stopped, the little parson came out, in great hurry and agitation54, to meet her at the garden gate.
“Don’t look alarmed, Mr. Meeke,” says my mistress, getting out. “Though you have engaged not to come near the Hall, I have made no promise to keep away from the parsonage.” With those words she went into the house.
The quadroon maid, Josephine, was sitting with me in the rumble55 of the carriage, and I saw a smile on her tawny face as the parson and his visitor went into the house together. Harmless as Mr. Meeke was, and innocent of all wrong as I knew my mistress to be, I regretted that she should be so rash as to despise appearances, considering the situation she was placed in. She had already exposed herself to be thought of disrespectfully by her own maid, and it was hard to say what worse consequences might not happen after that.
Half an hour later we were away on our journey. My mistress stayed in London two months. Throughout all that long time no letter from my master was forwarded to her from the country house.
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1
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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compensated
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| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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wheedling
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
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tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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8
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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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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fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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fiddling
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| 微小的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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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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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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altercation
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| n.争吵，争论 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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41
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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44
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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47
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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48
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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49
abeam
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| adj.正横着(的) | |
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50
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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51
vented
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| 表达，发泄（感情，尤指愤怒）( vent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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53
amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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54
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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55
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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