The dusk was falling when he drew near this place of refuge; and the first thing that met his eyes was the figure of a man upon the step, alternately plucking at the bell-handle and pounding on the panels. The man had no hat, his clothes were hideous5 with filth6, he had the air of a hop-picker. Yet Morris knew him; it was John.
The first impulse of flight was succeeded, in the elder brother’s bosom7, by the empty quiescence8 of despair. ‘What does it matter now?’ he thought, and drawing forth9 his latchkey ascended10 the steps.
John turned about; his face was ghastly with weariness and dirt and fury; and as he recognized the head of his family, he drew in a long rasping breath, and his eyes glittered.
‘Open that door,’ he said, standing11 back.
‘I am going to,’ said Morris, and added mentally, ‘He looks like murder!’
The brothers passed into the hall, the door closed behind them; and suddenly John seized Morris by the shoulders and shook him as a terrier shakes a rat. ‘You mangy little cad,’ he said, ‘I’d serve you right to smash your skull12!’ And shook him again, so that his teeth rattled13 and his head smote14 upon the wall.
‘Don’t be violent, Johnny,’ said Morris. ‘It can’t do any good now.’
‘Shut your mouth,’ said John, ‘your time’s come to listen.’
He strode into the dining-room, fell into the easy-chair, and taking off one of his burst walking-shoes, nursed for a while his foot like one in agony. ‘I’m lame15 for life,’ he said. ‘What is there for dinner?’
‘Nothing, Johnny,’ said Morris.
‘Nothing? What do you mean by that?’ enquired17 the Great Vance. ‘Don’t set up your chat to me!’
‘I mean simply nothing,’ said his brother. ‘I have nothing to eat, and nothing to buy it with. I’ve only had a cup of tea and a sandwich all this day myself.’
‘Only a sandwich?’ sneered18 Vance. ‘I suppose you’re going to complain next. But you had better take care: I’ve had all I mean to take; and I can tell you what it is, I mean to dine and to dine well. Take your signets and sell them.’
‘I can’t today,’ objected Morris; ‘it’s Sunday.’
‘I tell you I’m going to dine!’ cried the younger brother.
‘But if it’s not possible, Johnny?’ pleaded the other.
‘You nincompoop!’ cried Vance. ‘Ain’t we householders? Don’t they know us at that hotel where Uncle Parker used to come. Be off with you; and if you ain’t back in half an hour, and if the dinner ain’t good, first I’ll lick you till you don’t want to breathe, and then I’ll go straight to the police and blow the gaff. Do you understand that, Morris Finsbury? Because if you do, you had better jump.’
The idea smiled even upon the wretched Morris, who was sick with famine. He sped upon his errand, and returned to find John still nursing his foot in the armchair.
‘What would you like to drink, Johnny?’ he enquired soothingly19.
‘Fizz,’ said John. ‘Some of the poppy stuff from the end bin20; a bottle of the old port that Michael liked, to follow; and see and don’t shake the port. And look here, light the fire — and the gas, and draw down the blinds; it’s cold and it’s getting dark. And then you can lay the cloth. And, I say — here, you! bring me down some clothes.’
The room looked comparatively habitable by the time the dinner came; and the dinner itself was good: strong gravy21 soup, fillets of sole, mutton chops and tomato sauce, roast beef done rare with roast potatoes, cabinet pudding, a piece of Chester cheese, and some early celery: a meal uncompromisingly British, but supporting.
‘Thank God!’ said John, his nostrils22 sniffing23 wide, surprised by joy into the unwonted formality of grace. ‘Now I’m going to take this chair with my back to the fire — there’s been a strong frost these two last nights, and I can’t get it out of my bones; the celery will be just the ticket — I’m going to sit here, and you are going to stand there, Morris Finsbury, and play butler.’
‘But, Johnny, I’m so hungry myself,’ pleaded Morris.
‘You can have what I leave,’ said Vance. ‘You’re just beginning to pay your score, my daisy; I owe you one-pound-ten; don’t you rouse the British lion!’ There was something indescribably menacing in the face and voice of the Great Vance as he uttered these words, at which the soul of Morris withered24. ‘There!’ resumed the feaster, ‘give us a glass of the fizz to start with. Gravy soup! And I thought I didn’t like gravy soup! Do you know how I got here?’ he asked, with another explosion of wrath25.
‘No, Johnny; how could I?’ said the obsequious26 Morris.
‘I walked on my ten toes!’ cried John; ‘tramped the whole way from Browndean; and begged! I would like to see you beg. It’s not so easy as you might suppose. I played it on being a shipwrecked mariner27 from Blyth; I don’t know where Blyth is, do you? but I thought it sounded natural. I begged from a little beast of a schoolboy, and he forked out a bit of twine28, and asked me to make a clove29 hitch30; I did, too, I know I did, but he said it wasn’t, he said it was a granny’s knot, and I was a what-d’ye-call-‘em, and he would give me in charge. Then I begged from a naval31 officer — he never bothered me with knots, but he only gave me a tract32; there’s a nice account of the British navy! — and then from a widow woman that sold lollipops33, and I got a hunch34 of bread from her. Another party I fell in with said you could generally always get bread; and the thing to do was to break a plateglass window and get into gaol35; seemed rather a brilliant scheme. Pass the beef.’
‘Why didn’t you stay at Browndean?’ Morris ventured to enquire16.
‘Skittles!’ said John. ‘On what? The Pink Un and a measly religious paper? I had to leave Browndean; I had to, I tell you. I got tick at a public, and set up to be the Great Vance; so would you, if you were leading such a beastly existence! And a card stood me a lot of ale and stuff, and we got swipey, talking about music-halls and the piles of tin I got for singing; and then they got me on to sing “Around her splendid form I weaved the magic circle,” and then he said I couldn’t be Vance, and I stuck to it like grim death I was. It was rot of me to sing, of course, but I thought I could brazen36 it out with a set of yokels37. It settled my hash at the public,’ said John, with a sigh. ‘And then the last thing was the carpenter —’
‘Our landlord?’ enquired Morris.
‘That’s the party,’ said John. ‘He came nosing about the place, and then wanted to know where the water-butt was, and the bedclothes. I told him to go to the devil; so would you too, when there was no possible thing to say! And then he said I had pawned38 them, and did I know it was felony? Then I made a pretty neat stroke. I remembered he was deaf, and talked a whole lot of rot, very politely, just so low he couldn’t hear a word. “I don’t hear you,” says he. “I know you don’t, my buck39, and I don’t mean you to,” says I, smiling away like a haberdasher. “I’m hard of hearing,’ he roars. “I’d be in a pretty hot corner if you weren’t,” says I, making signs as if I was explaining everything. It was tip-top as long as it lasted. “Well,” he said, “I’m deaf, worse luck, but I bet the constable40 can hear you.” And off he started one way, and I the other. They got a spirit-lamp and the Pink Un, and that old religious paper, and another periodical you sent me. I think you must have been drunk — it had a name like one of those spots that Uncle Joseph used to hold forth at, and it was all full of the most awful swipes about poetry and the use of the globes. It was the kind of thing that nobody could read out of a lunatic asylum41. The Athaeneum, that was the name! Golly, what a paper!’
‘Athenaeum, you mean,’ said Morris.
‘I don’t care what you call it,’ said John, ‘so as I don’t require to take it in! There, I feel better. Now I’m going to sit by the fire in the easy-chair; pass me the cheese, and the celery, and the bottle of port — no, a champagne42 glass, it holds more. And now you can pitch in; there’s some of the fish left and a chop, and some fizz. Ah,’ sighed the refreshed pedestrian, ‘Michael was right about that port; there’s old and vatted43 for you! Michael’s a man I like; he’s clever and reads books, and the Athaeneum, and all that; but he’s not dreary44 to meet, he don’t talk Athaeneum like the other parties; why, the most of them would throw a blight45 over a skittle alley46! Talking of Michael, I ain’t bored myself to put the question, because of course I knew it from the first. You’ve made a hash of it, eh?’
‘Michael made a hash of it,’ said Morris, flushing dark.
‘What have we got to do with that?’ enquired John.
‘He has lost the body, that’s what we have to do with it,’ cried Morris. ‘He has lost the body, and the death can’t be established.’
‘Hold on,’ said John. ‘I thought you didn’t want to?’
‘O, we’re far past that,’ said his brother. ‘It’s not the tontine now, it’s the leather business, Johnny; it’s the clothes upon our back.’
‘Stow the slow music,’ said John, ‘and tell your story from beginning to end.’ Morris did as he was bid.
‘Well, now, what did I tell you?’ cried the Great Vance, when the other had done. ‘But I know one thing: I’m not going to be humbugged out of my property.’
‘I should like to know what you mean to do,’ said Morris.
‘I’ll tell you that,’ responded John with extreme decision. ‘I’m going to put my interests in the hands of the smartest lawyer in London; and whether you go to quod or not is a matter of indifference47 to me.’
‘Why, Johnny, we’re in the same boat!’ expostulated Morris.
‘Are we?’ cried his brother. ‘I bet we’re not! Have I committed forgery48? have I lied about Uncle Joseph? have I put idiotic49 advertisements in the comic papers? have I smashed other people’s statues? I like your cheek, Morris Finsbury. No, I’ve let you run my affairs too long; now they shall go to Michael. I like Michael, anyway; and it’s time I understood my situation.’
At this moment the brethren were interrupted by a ring at the bell, and Morris, going timorously50 to the door, received from the hands of a commissionaire a letter addressed in the hand of Michael. Its contents ran as follows:
Morris Finsbury, if this should meet the eye of, he will hear of something to his advantage at my office, in Chancery Lane, at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Michael Finsbury
So utter was Morris’s subjection that he did not wait to be asked, but handed the note to John as soon as he had glanced at it himself
‘That’s the way to write a letter,’ cried John. ‘Nobody but Michael could have written that.’
And Morris did not even claim the credit of priority.
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收听单词发音
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1
legerdemain
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| n.戏法，诈术 | |
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2
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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3
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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4
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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7
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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8
quiescence
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| n.静止 | |
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9
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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10
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
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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12
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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13
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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14
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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15
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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16
enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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17
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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18
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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20
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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21
gravy
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| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
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22
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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23
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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24
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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25
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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26
obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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27
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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28
twine
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| v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕 | |
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29
clove
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| n.丁香味 | |
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30
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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31
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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32
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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33
lollipops
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| n.棒糖，棒棒糖( lollipop的名词复数 )；（用交通指挥牌让车辆暂停以便儿童安全通过马路的）交通纠察 | |
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hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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35
gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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36
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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37
yokels
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| n.乡下佬，土包子( yokel的名词复数 ) | |
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38
pawned
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| v.典当，抵押( pawn的过去式和过去分词 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
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39
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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40
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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41
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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42
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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43
vatted
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| 把…盛入大桶（vat的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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44
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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45
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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46
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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47
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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48
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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49
idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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50
timorously
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| adv.胆怯地，羞怯地 | |
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