And all round tie square.
“Let’s ask Balbus about it,” said Hugh.
“All right,” said Lambert.
“He can guess it,” said Hugh.
“Rather,” said Lambert.
No more words were needed: the two brothers understood each other perfectly2.
Balbus was waiting for them at the hotel: the journey down had tired him, he
said: so his two pupils had been the round of the place, in search of
lodgings3, without the old tutor who had been their inseparable companion from
their childhood. They had named him after the hero of their Latin exercise-
book, which overflowed5 with anecdotes7 of that versatile8 genius — anecdotes
whose vagueness in detail was more than compensated9 by their sensational10
brilliance11. “Balbus has overcome all his enemies” had been marked by their
tutor, in the margin12 of the book, “Successful Bravery.” In this way he had
tried to extract a moral from every anecdote6 about Balbus — sometimes one of
warning, as in, “Balbus had borrowed a healthy dragon,” against which he
had written, “Rashness in Speculation” — sometimes of encouragement, as in
the words, “Influence of Sympathy in United Action,” which stood opposite
to the anecdote, “Balbus was assisting his mother-in-law to convince the
dragon” — and sometimes it dwindled13 down to a single word, such as
“Prudence”, which was all he could extract from the touching14 record that “
Balbus, having scorched15 the tail of the dragon, went away”. His pupils liked
the short morals best, as it left them more room for marginal illustrations,
and in this instance they required all the space they could get to exhibit
the rapidity of the hero’s departure.
Their report of the state of things was discouraging. That most fashionable
of watering-places, Little Mendip, was “chock-full” (as the boys expressed
it) from end to end. But in one Square they had seen no less than four cards,
in different houses, all announcing in flaming capitals, “ELIGIBLE
APARTMENTS.” “So there’s plenty of choice, after all, you see,” said
spokesman Hugh in conclusion.
“That doesn’t follow from the data,” said Balbus, as he rose from the
easy-chair, where he had been dozing16 over The Little Mendip Gazette. “They
may be all single rooms. However, we may as well see them. I shall be glad to
stretch my legs a bit.”
An unprejudiced bystander might have objected that the operation was
needless, and that this long lank17 creature would have been all the better
with even shorter legs: but no such thought occurred to his loving pupils.
One on each side, they did their best to keep up with his gigantic strides,
while Hugh repeated the sentence in their father’s letter, just received
from abroad, over which he and Lambert had been puzzling. “He says a friend
of his, the Governor of — what was that name again, Lambert?” (“Kgovjni,”
said Lambert.) “Well, yes. The Governor of — what-you-may-call-it-wants to
give a very small dinner-party, and he means to ask his father’s brother-in
-law, his brother’s father-in-law, his father-in-law’s brother, and his
brother-in-law’s father: and we’re to guess how many guests there will be.
”
There was an anxious pause. “How large did he say the pudding was to be!”
Balbus said at last. “Take its cubical contents, divide by the cubical
contents of what each man can eat, and the quotient — ”
“He didn’t say anything about pudding,” said Hugh, “ — and here’s the
Square,” as they turned a corner and came into sight of the “eligible
apartments”.
“It is a Square!” was Balbus’s first cry of delight, as he gazed around
him. “Beautiful! Beau-ti-ful Equilateral! And rectangular!”
The boys looked round with less enthusiasm. “Number Nine is the first with a
card,” said prosaic18 Lambert; but Balbus would not so soon awake from his
dream of beauty.
“See, boys!” he cried. “Twenty doors on a side! What symmetry! Each side
divided into twenty-one equal parts! It’s delicious!”
“Shall I knock, or ring?” said Hugh, looking in some perplexity at a square
brass19 plate which bore the simple inscription20, “RING ALSO.”
“Both,” said Balbus. “That’s an Ellipsis21, my boy. Did you never see an
Ellipsis before?”
“I couldn’t hardly read it,” said Hugh evasively. “Its no good having an
Ellipsis, if they don’t keep it clean.”
“Which there is one room, gentlemen,” said the smiling landlady22. “And a
sweet room too! As snug23 a little back room — ”
“We will see it,” said Balbus gloomily, as they followed her in. “I knew
how it would be! One room in each house! No view, I suppose?”
“Which indeed there is, gentlemen!” the landlady indignantly protested, as
she drew up the blind, and indicated the back-garden.
“Cabbages, I perceive,” said Balbus. “Well, they’re green, at any rate.”
“Which the greens at the shops”, their hostess explained, “are by no means
dependable upon. Here you has them on the premises24, and of the best.”
“Does the window open!” was always Balbus’s first question in testing a
lodging4: and, “Does the chimney smoke?” his second. Satisfied on all
points, he secured the refusal of the room, and they moved on to Number
Twenty-five.
This landlady was grave and stern. “I’ve nobbut one room left,” she told
them: “and it gives on the back-gyarden.”
“But there are cabbages?” Balbus suggested.
The landlady visibly relented. “There is, sir,” she said: “and good ones,
though I say it as shouldn’t. We can’t rely on the shops for greens. So we
grows them ourselves.”
“A singular advantage,” said Balbus; and, after the usual questions, they
went on to Fifty-two.
“And I’d gladly accommodate you all, if I could,” was the greeting that
met them. “We are but mortal” (“Irrelevant!”) muttered Balbus), “and I’
ve let all my rooms but one.”
“Which one is a back-room and looking out on — on cabbages, I presume?”
“Yes, indeed, sir,” said their hostess. “Whatever other folks may do, we
grows our own. For the shops — ”
“An excellent arrangement,” Balbus interrupted. “Then one can really
depend on their being good. Does the window open?”
The usual questions were answered satisfactorily: but this time Hugh added
one of his own invention — “Does the cat scratch?”
The landlady looked round suspiciously, as if to make sure the cat was not
listening. “I will not deceive you, gentlemen,” she said. “It do scratch,
but not without you pulls its whiskers! It’ll never do it”, she repeated
slowly, with a visible effort to recall the exact words of some written
agreement between herself and the cat, “without you pulls its whiskers!”
“Much may be excused in a cat so treated,” said Balbus, as they left the
house and crossed to Number Seventy-three, leaving the landlady curtseying on
the doorstep, and still murmuring to herself her parting words, as if they
were a form of blessing25, “ — not without you pulls its whiskers”
At Number Seventy-three they found only a small shy girl to show the house,
who said “yes’m” in answer to all questions .
“The usual room,” said Balbus, as they marched in “the usual back-garden,
the usual cabbages. I suppose you can’t get them good at the shops?”
“Yes’m,” said the girl.
“Well, you may tell your mistress we will take the room, and that her plan
of growing her own cabbages is simply admirable!”
“Yes’m,” said the girl, as she showed them out.
“One day-room and three bedrooms,” said Balbus, as they returned to the
hotel. “We will take as our day-room the one that gives us the least walking
to do to get to it.”
“Must we walk from door to door, and count the steps?” said Lambert.
“No, no Figure it out, my boys, figure it out,” Balbus gayly exclaimed, as
he put pens, ink, and paper before his hapless pupils, and left the room.
“I say! It’ll be a job!’ said Hugh.
“Rather!” said Lambert.
点击
收听单词发音
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1
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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2
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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3
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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4
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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5
overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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6
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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7
anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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8
versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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9
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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10
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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11
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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12
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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13
dwindled
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| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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15
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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16
dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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17
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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18
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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19
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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20
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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21
ellipsis
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| n.省略符号，省略(语法结构上的) | |
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22
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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23
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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24
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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25
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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