Arthur had felt this at times acutely, but he had accepted the inevitable13 with such success that Lord Avesham had written him down indifferent as well as stupid, and what was in him only great sweetness of disposition14 was credited as insouciance15. This, too, he bore with equanimity16.
Harry17, his elder brother, his sister Jeannie, and himself had come down to Morton with their mother’s sister, Miss Fortescue, for the funeral of Lord Avesham, and were going[20] to stop there for the present. Family councils had to be held about the disposition of affairs, and one was in progress on a morning in July about a fortnight after Lord Avesham’s death. They were certainly a remarkably18 handsome family, and it was to be conjectured19 that their good looks were a heritage—perhaps the most valuable he had bequeathed them—from their father, for the most that could be said about Miss Fortescue was that she had a very intellectual expression. Harry was sitting at a desk with some papers before him, and Miss Fortescue was sitting opposite him. Jeannie lounged in the window-seat, and Arthur was resting in a chair so long and low that all that could be seen of him was one knee and a great length of shin. The position of his head was vaguely20 indicated by a series of smoke-rings which floated upward at regular intervals21. There had been silence for a few moments. Miss Fortescue’s baritone voice broke it.
“Well, what does the black sheep say?” she demanded.
There was a pause in the smoke-rings, and a voice asked:[21]
“Do you mean me, Aunt Em?”
“Yes, dear. Whom else?”
“I thought you must mean me, but it was best to ask,” said the voice. “I’m not a black sheep, though; I’m only a sheep.”
Harry looked up, half impatient, half amused.
“Oh, Arthur, don’t be so trying,” he said. “It really rests with you.”
“I’d much sooner somebody settled for me,” said Arthur.
“But they won’t; speak, sheep,” said Miss Fortescue.
The chair in which Arthur sat creaked, and he struggled to his feet.
“I’m not good at speaking,” he said; “but if you insist—well, it’s just this. Harry, you’re a brick to suggest that we should all live here, but I think you’re wrong about it. In the first place, we’re poor, and if you keep Morton open we shall be all tied here, and we sha’n’t be able to fill the house with people, and we shall not be able to keep up the shooting; and here we shall be with this great shell over our heads, like bluebottles or some other mean insect which lives in palaces. In[22] the second place, you will probably marry, and that will cramp22 you still further. In the third—this is from my own point of view, purely—if I live here, I know perfectly well that, with the best intentions in the world, on wet mornings when I don’t want to go out, and on fine ones when I do, I shall persuade myself that I am far from well, and not go to Wroxton and the brewery. Fourthly, you yourself will miss not being in London horribly. You’d bore yourself to death here. But you’re a brick for suggesting it. And—and that’s all.”
There was a moment’s silence.
“So the sheep has spoken,” said Jeannie. “Well done, sheep. But I thought you said you were wholly indifferent?”
“I know I did. But you drove me into a corner.”
Miss Fortescue looked at Arthur approvingly.
“For so stupid a boy, you have glimmerings of sense,” she said.
“Oh, I’m a sharp fellow,” said Arthur.
“Really, Arthur, I think you are,” said Harry. “Mind, my offer holds perfectly[23] good, but I do think there is something in what you say.”
Arthur stood looking from one to the other, with his head a little on one side, like a dog who has done its trick. Unlike Jeannie and his brother, he was fair, with blue eyes and an extraordinarily23 pleasant face.
“Well, them’s my sentiments,” he said. “Your turn, Jeannie.”
“I know it is,” said Jeannie. “And what’s to happen to me, Arthur?” she demanded.
Arthur groaned24 slightly.
“I’ve done all that can be expected of me,” he said. “My turn is over.”
Jeannie jumped up.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “I’ll come and keep house for you in Wroxton, Arthur, and Harry shall come down to stay with us from Saturday till Monday, and we’ll go up to stay with him from—from Monday till Saturday.”
“A lot of beer shall I brew,” remarked Arthur. “Why, you could swim in it.”
“I don’t much see you living at Wroxton, Jeannie,” said Harry.[24]
“Why not? I should enjoy it. I really should. And we’ll give high teas to the Canons.”
“I think you’d loathe25 it before a month was out,” repeated Harry.
“Indeed I shouldn’t.”
“We’re all so terribly unselfish, and that’s what is the matter with us,” said Arthur. “First Harry wants to let us all live with him, and then I want to live in that funny little town in order to attend to my work, and then Jeannie wants to live with me. Aunt Em, give us a contribution, and try, oh, try to be selfish; I’m sure you can.”
“Well, I think Jeannie is right,” said Miss Fortescue. “You would hate not living in London, Harry, and I think the best thing you can do is to have a flat there, quite small, so that one or two of us could very kindly26 come to stay with you, and let Jeannie and Arthur live in Wroxton. Then shut Morton up, or let it. You’d better let it, if possible. It’s only for a year or two, till you’ve paid these iniquitous27 Radical28 taxes. And then when you open it again you can order your beer from Arthur.[25]”
Arthur gave a sigh of relief.
“Well, that’s settled,” he said. “Jeannie, let’s go into Wroxton this afternoon and see the householders or the house-agents. Oh, Aunt Em, what is going to happen to you?”
“You are all so unselfish,” said Miss Fortescue, “that I thought one of you might have considered that. But I was wrong.”
A general shout went up of “Come and live with me,” and the meeting was adjourned29 for the time being.
Miss Fortescue, who has hitherto been distinguished30 from the Aveshams generally by the fact of her not being at all good-looking, had her compensations. She was, in the first place, exceedingly musical, and had about as much wits as two generations of Aveshams put together. She was a woman of very pronounced opinions, and though you might accidentally hit upon a subject on which she had neither opinion nor knowledge, she would be happy to pronounce an opinion on it offhand31 with such conviction as to lead you to suppose she knew something[26] about it. If you could induce her to argue about the said subject, though you might suspect that she knew nothing whatever of it, yet you would find it difficult to bring her ignorance home to her. She would glean32 facts from her opponent as she went along, and use them against him with telling effect. But it was next to impossible to make her argue; if you disagreed with her she would raise her eyes to the ceiling as if commending you and your benighted33 condition to the hands of Providence34. Like most clever people, she was sublimely35 inconsistent, and though she genuinely abhorred36 the idea of the death of any living creature, she would eat flesh meals without any qualms37 whatever. This may be partly accounted for by the fact that she hated fads38 as much as the death of innocent animals, and it was her dislike of vegetarians39 rather than of a vegetable diet which led to so sturdy an inconsistency. The same contradictions appeared in her views about horses and dogs, and she would rather walk to the station, though hating bodily exercise, than have out a horse which was bursting with condition and make it pull her. The same misplaced[27] tenderness applied40 to her treatment of dogs, and her own pug was an object-lesson of unwholesome overfeeding.
Miss Fortescue on this particular morning had been glad, by her last ungenerous speech, to shift the responsibility of her future on to other shoulders, or, at any rate, to delay her own decision. She wanted, in the main, to determine what she wanted to do, and she could not quite make up her mind. She had lived with the Aveshams since her sister’s death some eight years ago, and they all took it for granted (herself included) that she would continue to go on living with them. For herself, she would have much preferred to have gone on living at Morton, but she saw and admitted at once the reasonableness of Arthur’s view. Her own income, with the exception of a hundred a year for dress and travelling (she dressed with notable cheapness, and never travelled), she was prepared to give into the household coffers of whatever branch of the family she decided41 to live with, and as Jeannie and Arthur had only six hundred a year between them, the extra five hundred she could give constituted an addi[28]tional reason for joining them. As far as the advantages of town and country were to be considered, she had no great choice, for she felt no thrill in the stir and noise of streets, and the sweet silence of the country could not appreciably42 add to her habitual43 tranquility. She hardly ever went out unless she was obliged, and on those occasions she took short walks very slowly, and it was something of a mystery, even to those who knew her best, as to what she did with the hours. She would always disappear soon after breakfast, and if asked at lunch what she had been doing, she would say, “Working.” Then, if pressed further as to what her work had been, she would only raise her eyes to the ceiling, and the incident would close. This raising of the eyes had long been a danger-signal to the Aveshams. It implied that Miss Fortescue was unwilling44 to say more on this particular subject, and any further questions would only evoke45 severe remarks on their inquisitiveness46.
Jeannie and Arthur rode into Wroxton that afternoon and made the house-agent an[29] unhappy man. The house they required had to be near the brewery, and also at the top of the hill, which, to begin with, was impossible, as the brewery was at the very bottom of the town. Then it had to have a good smoking-room, two nice sitting-rooms—one for Jeannie and one for Miss Fortescue, in case she decided to join them—a drawing-room and a dining-room (the size of these was really important), and four excellent bed-rooms away from the street. To be away from the street implied a garden, which must be private, sunny, and extensive. That red brick should be the material of the house was desirable, but not absolutely essential. The offices, Miss Fortescue insisted, should be really good, for they made all the difference to servants, whom one was bound to consider before one’s self. A small stable only, but well-aired and dry, was required, and the rent of the whole must be exceedingly low.
The only point which presented no difficulty were the offices. Jeannie and Arthur were both quite vague as to what offices meant, but in the half dozen houses they saw that afternoon there was always some other[30] radical defect. In one they found that an apartment described as a sitting-room47 was more probably intended to be a house-maid’s cupboard; in another they disgraced themselves by thinking that the kitchen was the scullery. A third case was more complicated, for Jeannie remembered about a still-room, and had to explain to an antiquated48 caretaker what a still-room was. What made the afternoon more bewildering was that they both fell in love with every house they saw, and thought it would do excellently with a little alteration49. Then came the question of rents: they had hoped to find something for about a hundred and twenty pounds a year, and the only consolation50, as Arthur said, was that at corresponding prices, if Morton was let, it ought to bring to Harry an income of about fifty thousand a year, which certainly seemed a satisfactory sum.
“Why, if it would let for that,” he exclaimed, with a sudden splendid thought, “we should be rich enough to live in it ourselves, and not let it at all!” But the mention of Morton roused the house-agent to rather greater interest in his impracticable[31] clients. It appeared that there were other houses which might also be had, and, if the gentleman would give his card, he had no doubt that the owner of 8 Bolton Street would let them look at it. He had long been thinking of letting it, though it was not exactly in the market. It had a garden, it was built of red brick, and the offices, as usual, were quite palatial51.
“A different stamp of house, sir, quite a different stamp of house.”
“And a different stamp of rent?” asked Arthur.
“The gentleman is very anxious to get desirable tenants,” was the hopeful reply.
“Come, Jeannie,” said Arthur, “it will end in our taking Buckingham Palace, but no matter!”
The house in question was not exactly Buckingham Palace, but within a few days they had taken it. Miss Fortescue drove in to see it, after bargaining that the horses should not be used again the whole of the next day, and made up her mind to stay at any rate with Jeannie and Arthur for a week or two. As she also indicated which room[32] she would like, and chose a paper for it, it may be supposed that her “week or two” did not mean less than a week or two. The rent was not prohibitive, the garden was charming, and the house stood in a side street where traffic was scanty52, and looked out behind over the Cathedral, and Canons, as Jeannie said, really hung on their garden wall like ripe plums.
A day or two later rumours53 began to spread through Wroxton that the Aveshams were coming to live there, and discussion raged. The Colonel knew they were not.
“I should think, sir, if my cousins were coming, I should not be the last to be informed of it. Just gossip, sir, mere54 gossip—I wonder at you for paying any attention to it.”
He scarcely even believed the assurance of the owner of 8 Bolton Street that he had actually let it to them, for as soon as Mr. Hanby had left the room he burst out:
“A mere ruse55, sir, to send up the value of the house, by making people think that the aristocracy want to take it. Transparent56, transparent![33]”
But he did not feel quite easy about it in the depths of his gallant57 heart, and he thought again how awkward it would be if it were true.
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1
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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brewery
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| n.啤酒厂 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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insouciance
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| n.漠不关心 | |
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equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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cramp
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| n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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loathe
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| v.厌恶，嫌恶 | |
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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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iniquitous
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| adj.不公正的；邪恶的；高得出奇的 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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glean
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| v.收集(消息、资料、情报等) | |
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benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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sublimely
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| 高尚地，卓越地 | |
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abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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qualms
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| n.不安；内疚 | |
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fads
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| n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 ) | |
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vegetarians
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| n.吃素的人( vegetarian的名词复数 )；素食者；素食主义者；食草动物 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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appreciably
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| adv.相当大地 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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evoke
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| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
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inquisitiveness
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| 好奇，求知欲 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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48
antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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50
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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52
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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53
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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54
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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55
ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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56
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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