Not that Arthur saw them as beacons, for at no time was he much given to sentiment. His outlook on life was too direct and vivid for that, and to-day in particular his mind was teeming8 with more practical thoughts, with hopes and plans and calculations. But the lights meant that a dull ride over a rough road was at an end, and so far they gave him pleasure. He opened the gate and rode round to the stable, gave up the horse to Pugh, the man-of-all-work, and made his way into the house.
He entered upon a scene as cheerful as any lights shining on weary traveller could promise. In a fair-sized room a clear grate held a coal fire, the flames of which danced on the red-papered walls. A kettle bubbled on the hob, a tea-tray gleamed on the table, and between the two a lady and gentleman sat, eating crumpets; the lady with much elegance9 and a napkin spread over her lavender silk dress, the gentleman in a green cutaway coat with basket buttons--a coat that ill concealed10 the splashed gaiters for which he had more than once asked pardon.
But fair as things looked on the surface, all was not perfect even in this pleasant interior. The lady held herself stiffly, and her eyes rested rather more often than was courteous11 on the spatter-dashes. Secretly she thought her company not good enough for her, while the gentleman was frankly12 bored. Neither was finding the other as congenial as a first glance suggested, and it would have been hard to say which found Arthur's entrance the more welcome interruption.
"Hallo, mother!" he said, stooping carelessly to kiss her. "Hallo, Clement13."
"My dear Arthur!" the lady cried, the lappets of her cap shaking as she embraced him. "How late you are! That horrid15 bank! I am sure that some day you will be robbed and murdered on your way home!"
"I! No, mother. I don't bring the money, more's the pity! I am late, am I? The worse for Clement, who has to ride home. But I have been doing your work, my lad, so you mustn't grumble16. What did you get?"
"A brace14 and a wood-pigeon. Has my father come?"
"Yes, he has come, and I am afraid has a wigging17 in store for you. But--a brace and a wood-pigeon? Lord, man," with a little contempt in his tone, "what do you do with your gun all day? Why, Acherley told me that in that rough between the two fallows above the brook----"
"Oh, Arthur," Mrs. Bourdillon interposed, "never mind that!" She had condescended18 sufficiently19, she thought, and wished to hear no more of Clement Ovington's doings. "I've something more important to tell you, much more important. I've had a shock, a dreadful shock to-day."
She was a faded lady, rather foolish than wise, and very elegant: one who made the most of such troubles as she had, and the opening her son now heard was one which he had heard often before.
"What's the matter now, mother?" he asked, stooping to warm his hands.
"Your uncle has been here."
"Well, that's no new thing."
"But he has behaved dreadfully, perfectly20 dreadfully to me."
"I don't know that that is new, either."
"He began again about your refusal to take Orders, and your going into that dreadful bank instead."
Arthur shrugged21 his shoulders. "That's one for you, Clement."
"Oh, that wasn't the half," the lady continued, unbending. "He said, there was the living, three hundred and fifty a year, and old Mr. Trubshaw seventy-eight. And he'd have to sell it and put in a stranger and have quarrels about tithes22. He stood there with his great stick in his hand and his eyes glaring at me like an angry cat's, and scolded me till I didn't know whether I stood on my head or my heels. He wanted to know where you got your low tastes from."
"There you are again, Clement!"
"And your wish to go into trade, and I answered him quite sharp that you didn't get them from me; as for Mr. Bourdillon's grandfather, who had the plantations23 in Jamaica, it wasn't the same at all, as everybody knows and agrees that nothing is genteeler than the West Indies with black men to do the work!"
"You confounded him there, mother, I'm sure. But as we have heard something like this before, and Clement is not much interested, if that is all----"
"Oh, but it is not all! Very far from it!" Mrs. Bourdillon's head shook till the lappets swung again. "The worst is to come. He said that we had had the Cottage rent-free for four years--and I'm sure I don't know who has a better right to it--but that that was while he still hoped that you were going to live like a gentleman, like the Griffins before you--and I am sure the Bourdillons were gentry24, or I should have been the last to marry your father! But as you seemed to be set on going your own way and into the bank for good--and I must say I told him it wasn't any wish of mine and I'd said all I could against it, as you know, and Mr. Clement knows the same--why, it was but right that we should pay rent like other people! And it would be thirty pounds a year from Lady Day!"
"The d--d old hunks!" Arthur cried. He had listened unmoved to his mother's tirade25, but this touched him. "Well, he is a curmudgeon26! Thirty pounds a year? Well, I'm d--d! And all because I won't starve as a parson!"
But his mother rose in arms at that. "Starve as a parson!" she cried. "Why, I think you are as bad, one as the other. I'm sure your father never starved!"
"No, I know, mother. He was passing rich on four hundred pounds a year. But that is not going to do for me."
"Well, I don't know what you want!"
"My dear mother, I've told you before what I want." Arthur was fast regaining27 the good temper that he seldom lost. "If I were a bishop28's son and could look to be a bishop, or if I were an archdeacon's son with the prospect29 of a fat prebend and a rectory or two with it, I'd take Orders. But with no prospect except the Garthmyle living, and with tithes falling----"
"But haven't I told you over and over again that you have only to make-up to--but there, I haven't told you that Jos was with him, and I will say this for her, that she looked as ashamed for him as I am sure I was! I declare I was sorry for the girl and she not daring to put in a word--such an old bear as he is to her!"
"Poor Jos!" Arthur said. "She has not a very bright life of it. But this does not interest Clement, and we're keeping him."
The young man had indeed made more than one attempt to take leave, but every time he had moved Mrs. Bourdillon had either ignored him, or by a stately gesture had claimed his silence. He rose now.
"I dare say you know my cousin?" Arthur said.
"I've seen her," Clement answered; and his mind went back to the only occasion on which he had remarked Miss Griffin. It had been at the last Race Ball at Aldersbury that he had noticed her--a gentle, sweet-faced girl, plainly and even dowdily30 dressed, and so closely guarded by her proud old dragon of a father that, warned by the fate of others and aware that his name was not likely to find favor with the Squire31, he had shrunk from seeking an introduction. But he had noticed that she sat out more than she danced; sat, indeed, in a kind of isolation32, fenced in by the old man, and regarded with glances of half-scornful pity by girls more smartly dressed. He had had time to watch her, for he also, though for different reasons, had been a little without the pale, and he had found her face attractive. He had imagined how differently she would look were she suitably dressed. "Yes," he continued, recalling it, "she was at the last Race Ball, I think."
"And a mighty33 poor time she had of it," Arthur answered, half carelessly, half contemptuously. "Poor Jos! She hasn't at any time much of a life with my beauty of an uncle. Twopence to get and a penny to spend!"
Mrs. Bourdillon protested. "I do wish you would not talk of your cousin like that," she said. "You know that she's your uncle's heiress, and if you only----"
Arthur cut her short. "There! There! You don't remember, mother, that Clement has seven miles to ride before his supper. Let him go now! He'll be late enough."
That was the end, and the two young men went out together. When Arthur returned, the tea had been removed and his mother was seated at her tambour work. He took his stand before the fire. "Confounded old screw!" he fumed34. "Thirty pounds a year? And he's three thousand, if he's a penny! And more likely four!"
"Well, it may be yours some day," with a sniff35. "I'm sure Jos is ready enough."
"She'll have to do as he tells her."
"But Garth must be hers."
"And still she'll have to do as he tells her. Don't you know yet, mother, that Jos has no more will than a mouse? But never mind, we can afford his thirty pounds. Ovington is giving me a hundred and fifty, and I'm to have another hundred as secretary to this new Company--that's news for you. With your two hundred and fifty we shall be able to pay his rent and still be better off than before. I shall buy a nag--Packham has one to sell--and move to better rooms in town."
"But you'll still be in that dreadful bank," Mrs. Bourdillon sighed. "Really, Arthur, with so much money it seems a pity you should lower yourself to it."
He had some admirable qualities besides the gaiety, the alertness, the good looks that charmed all comers; ay, and besides the rather uncommon36 head for figures and for business which came, perhaps, of his Huguenot ancestry37, and had commended him to the banker. Of these qualities patience with his mother was one. So, instead of snubbing her, "Why dreadful?" he asked good-humoredly. "Because all our county fogies look down on it? Because having nothing but land, and drawing all their importance from land, they're jealous of the money that is shouldering them out and threatening their pride of place? Listen to me, mother. There is a change coming! Whether they see it or not, and I think they do see it, there is a change coming, and stiff as they hold themselves, they will have to give way to it. Three thousand a year? Four thousand? Why, if Ovington lives another ten years what do you think that he will be worth? Not three thousand a year, but ten, fifteen, twenty thousand!"
"Arthur!"
"It is true, mother. Ay, twenty, it is possible! And do you think that when he can buy up half a dozen of these thickheaded Squires38 who can just add two to two and make four--that he'll not count? Do you think that they'll be able to put him on one side? No! And they know it. They see that the big manufacturers and the big ironmasters and the big bankers who are putting together hundreds of thousands are going to push in among them and can't be kept out! And therefore trade, as they call it, stinks39 in their nostrils40!"
"Oh, Arthur, how horrid!" Mrs. Bourdillon protested, "you are growing as coarse as your uncle. And I'm sure we don't want a lot of vulgar purse-proud----"
"Purse-proud? And what is the Squire? Land-proud! But," growing more calm, "never mind that. You will take a different view when I tell you something that I heard to-day. Ovington let drop a word about a partnership41."
"La, Arthur, but----"
"A partnership! Nothing definite, nothing to bind42, and not yet, but in the future. It was but a hint. But think of it, mother! It is what I have been aiming at all along, but I didn't expect to hear of it yet. Not one or two hundred a year, but say, five hundred to begin with, and three, four, five thousand by and by! Five thousand!" His eyes sparkled and he threw back the hair from his forehead with a characteristic gesture. "Five thousand a year! Think of that and don't talk to me of Orders. Take Orders! Be a beggarly parson while I have that in my power, and in my power while I am still young! For trust me, with Ovington at the helm and the tide at flood we shall move. We shall move, mother! The money is there, lying there, lying everywhere to be picked up. And we shall pick it up."
"You take my breath away!" his mother protested, her faded, delicate face unusually flushed. "Five thousand a year! Gracious me! Why, it is more than your uncle has!" She raised her mittened43 hands in protest. "Oh, it is impossible!" The vision overcame her.
But "It is perfectly possible," he repeated. "Clement is of no use. He is for ever wanting to be out of doors--a farmer spoiled. Rodd's a mere44 mechanic. Ovington cannot do it all, and he sees it. He must have someone he can trust. And then it is not only that I suit him. I am what he is not--a gentleman."
"If you could have it without going to the bank!" Mrs. Bourdillon said. And she sighed, golden as was the vision. But before they parted his eloquence45 had almost persuaded her. She had heard such things, had listened to such hopes, had been dazzled by such sums that she was well-nigh reconciled even to that which the old Squire dubbed46 "the trade of usury47."
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1
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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3
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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4
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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5
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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6
limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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7
beacons
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| 灯塔( beacon的名词复数 )； 烽火； 指路明灯； 无线电台或发射台 | |
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8
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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9
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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10
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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11
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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12
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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13
clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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14
brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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15
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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16
grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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17
wigging
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| n.责备，骂，叱责 | |
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18
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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19
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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20
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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21
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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22
tithes
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| n.（宗教捐税）什一税，什一的教区税，小部分( tithe的名词复数 ) | |
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23
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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24
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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25
tirade
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| n.冗长的攻击性演说 | |
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26
curmudgeon
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| n. 脾气暴躁之人，守财奴，吝啬鬼 | |
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27
regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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28
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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29
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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30
dowdily
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| adv.懒散地，下流地 | |
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31
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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32
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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33
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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34
fumed
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| 愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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35
sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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36
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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37
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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38
squires
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| n.地主，乡绅( squire的名词复数 ) | |
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39
stinks
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| v.散发出恶臭( stink的第三人称单数 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
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40
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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41
partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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42
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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43
mittened
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| v.（使）变得潮湿，变得湿润( moisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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45
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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46
dubbed
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| v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制 | |
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47
usury
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| n.高利贷 | |
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