They were all so visibly at my feet, so glad to worship and admire, so eager to praise, so beset4 with wonder. I was to spend a week in their midst, a delightful5 week, as long as a story, as brief as a play, a puff6 of happiness blown across the bleak7 wind of solitude8, a prolonged and hilarious9 scamper10 through sensation as vivid and vital as morning light.
Mary Jane was there, with the unchanged oiled black ringlets, and in my honour she wore them bound with a bright blue ribbon. Louie[Pg 202] came out from town to behold11 me, and gazed in stupefied awe12. I had been in a ship across the sea. I had traversed half of England in a railway-carriage. Had I seen an elephant? Mary Jane wanted to know if I had seen the Queen.
No; but I had seen a naked lady, with beautiful golden hair down her back, ride through the town of Lysterby on a white pony13, while twelve lovely pages in silver and gold and satin rode before, and twelve lovely maidens14 with long velvet15 cloaks lined with white satin rode behind her. This sounded as grand as a royal procession, and I glided16 ingeniously over the ignominy of having been to England and not having seen the Queen.
Mary Jane's mamma gave me a bowl of milk and a plate of arrowroot biscuits, and as I devoured17 them, with what a splendid air I recognised the old and faded views of New York! I scorned my past ignorance, and off-handedly mentioned that "You know, the sea isn't a bit like the pond." And then the search for a brilliant and captivating comparison—arm extended to suggest immensity; heaving wave, rolling ship.
"Isn't she wonderful?" they cried; "and the fine language of her!"
From cottage to cottage, from shop to shop, I wandered, intoxicated18 by the incense19 of admiration20. I embroidered21 fact and invented fiction with the readiness of the fanciful traveller. Sister Esmeralda became an unimaginable fiend, who had persecuted22 me as if I had been the heroine of the fairy-tale I was acting23, till the entire village was fit to rise and shout for her blood.
"The likes of that did you ever hear?" a gaunt peasant in corduroy would ask his neighbour in dismay.
"Troth and 'tis thim English as is a quare lot. Beat a little lady as is fit to rule the lot of them, and lock her up in dungeons24 along with spirits and goblins, and starve the life and soul out of her! Sure 'tis worse they are than in the days of Cromwell."
Naturally, in the amazing record of my experiences, the hidden bones and marble hand of my old friend, the White Lady of the Ivies25, played a prominent and shuddering26 part.
Under the influence of such an audience I tasted the fascinating results of suffering. I was in that brief week repaid for all the previous slights of fortune. I reposed27 in the lap of adulation, and turned my woes28 into a dramatic [Pg 204]enjoyment. I had suffered; but the romantic activity of my imagination, with a natural mirthfulness of temperament29, preserved me from the self-centred and subjective30 misery31 of the visionary, and from the embittering32 anguish33 of rancour. Once I had excited the local mind against Sister Esmeralda and the wretched superioress of the ladies of Mercy, my anger against them vanished, and they simply remained in memory as picturesque34 instruments of misfortune. But for the moment I was too full of the joy of living for anything like morbid35 self-pity. I preferred to loll on the grass beside Bessy the applewoman, and treat all the children of the green to her darling trays of apples with uncle Lionel's bright crown-piece. Bessy never tired of assuring me that I was a wonderful creature, which I fully36 believed, and Louie made frequent mention of his thirst to be old enough to marry me. It soothed37 him to hear that he was much nicer than Frank, the horrid38 Lysterby boy. Louie had not made his first confession39, and he was thrillingly and fearfully interested in the tale of mine.
"You know," I dolefully remarked, "the priest won't let you confess any of the nice interesting-looking sins, with the lovely big names, like[Pg 205] a-dul-tery and for-ni-fi-ca-tion and de-fraud-ing. He makes you tell awful little sins, like talking in class and answering a nun40, and all that sort of thing."
"Oh, but I say," shouted Louie, wagging a remonstrative41 head, "the priest can't prevent you from saying you committed adultery."
"Yes, but he says you didn't; and then it seems you're telling a lie to the Holy Ghost, and you may be struck dead in the confessional-box."
This Louie regarded as an excessive risk to run for the simple pleasure of confessing a nice big sin. He thought the matter over in bed that night, and communicated to me next morning his intention to confess to having stolen two marbles from Johnnie Magrath, and having licked Tim Martin.
"You know, Angy, I really did lick him, he's such an awful beast, and made his nose bleed rivers, with a black dab42 under his eyes as big as my fist; and here are the two marbles I stole."
He went back to town that afternoon, with his little gray eyes moist over the brimming smiles of his lively comic mouth. His was a hilarious depression, a rowdy melancholy43, emblematic44 of the destiny in store for him. He[Pg 206] grimaced45 wonderfully, with screwed-up eyelids46 and twisted and bunched-out lips, and kept on muttering all the time we walked together to the coach-house where the mail-car started from: "It's an awful shame, so it is. A fellow can't do what he likes, but there's always somebody bothering him and ordering him about."
Dear, honest, little playmate! That was the last, last glimpse I had of him. We exchanged our last kiss at the top of the village street, and I wildly waved my handkerchief until a deep bend of the long white Kildare road hid the car, as it seemed to roll off the flat landscape.
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1
enchantments
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| n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 )；迷人之处；施魔法；着魔 | |
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2
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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7
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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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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hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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scamper
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| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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13
pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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14
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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15
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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16
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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17
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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18
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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19
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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20
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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21
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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22
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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23
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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24
dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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25
ivies
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| 常春藤( ivy的名词复数 ) | |
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26
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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29
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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32
embittering
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的现在分词 ) | |
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33
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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37
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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38
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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39
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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40
nun
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| n.修女，尼姑 | |
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41
remonstrative
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| adj.抗议的，忠告的 | |
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42
dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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43
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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44
emblematic
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| adj.象征的，可当标志的；象征性 | |
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45
grimaced
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| v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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