“What an experience yours must have been!” she went on. “I suppose you can’t even count the number of people whose lives you have saved?”
“I never tried—er—and excuse me, Miss Brandon, but—you didn’t bring me up here to make me brag4, did you?”
“To make you brag?” she repeated. “That would be a feat—one that I don’t believe any one ever accomplished5 yet.”
“I hope not. I’m only a plain man, Miss Brandon. I don’t know that I ever had much education, but I’ve always held a theory of my own that every one is put into the world to be of some use, and I’ve always tried to act up to it.”
“Haven’t you just, and succeeded too? I suppose all South Africa knows that.”
The soft-voiced flattery, the glance that accompanied it, were calculated to stir the pulses of even so strong a man as Harley Greenoak, and this he himself realised while striving to neutralise their effect.
“When I was young,” he went on, “people used to look on me as a sort of ne’er-do-well, something not far short of a scamp, because I elected for a wandering life instead of what they called ‘settling down to something.’ Perhaps they were right, perhaps not.”
“They were idiots,” broke forth Hazel, impulsively6.
“I don’t know,” went on the other, with a smile at the interruption. “Anyhow, I believe in a man taking to what he’s most fitted for, and I’ve lived to know that this is the life I’m the most fitted for. Some might call it an idle life, but if I may say so without bragging7, I believe it has been of more service to other people than if I had launched out in the ‘settling down’ line of business.”
“I should think so indeed,” said the girl, her beautiful eyes aglow9 with sympathy and admiration10. Secretly she was delighted. She had made Harley Greenoak talk—and not merely talk, but talk about himself—a thing which, if popular report spoke11 truly, no one had ever succeeded in doing yet.
“Once I tried farming, but it was no manner of use. The wandering instinct was in my blood, I suppose. Even transport riding—and I was pretty lucky at that while it lasted—was too slow for me. Too much sticking to the road, you see. I’ve been a little of everything, but,”—with a whimsical laugh—“I certainly never expected to turn bear-leader in my old age.”
“Uncommonly lucky for the ‘bear,’” pronounced Hazel.
“Well, the said ‘bear’ is apt to get into hot water rather easily. Otherwise he hasn’t got any vice8.”
“And you are apt to get him out of hot water rather easily. Oh, I’ve heard all about it.”
“That was part of my charge. It was all in the day’s work. Over and about that, I’ve grown quite fond of the boy. He’s as taking a lad as I’ve ever known.”
Hazel agreed, and promptly12 turned the subject from the belauded Dick Selmes to other matters. The while, she was thinking; and if her companion could have read her thoughts—and even his penetration13 couldn’t do that—why, it is possible that he would have run up against the biggest surprise he had ever experienced in his life.
Even so Harley Greenoak was conscious of some modicum14 of surprise; and that was evoked15 by the way in which his companion was making him talk—drawing him, so to say—and, somehow, the experience was a pleasant one. Not until afterwards did it occur to him that he had come near being thrown a trifle off his balance by the soft insidious16 flatteries of this beautiful girl, reclining there in an attitude of easy grace. The warm, sunlit air, the height of space, looking down, as it were, upon two worlds, the free openness of it all was Greenoak’s natural heritage, and under no other surroundings could he be so thoroughly17 at his best. So she led him on to talk, and he had a dry, quaint18, philosophical19 way of handling things which amused and appealed to her immensely. Suddenly the report of a gun, just beneath, together with the cry of dogs hot-foot on a quarry20.
“That’s Dick. He’s worked round to this side of the farm,” said Greenoak. “Shall we go down and see what he’s been doing, for it strikes me we’ve been sitting here rather a long time?”
“Oh, you have found it long, then?” with mock offended air, then colouring slightly as she realised what an utter banality21 she had fired off for the benefit of a man of Harley Greenoak’s calibre.
“No, I haven’t,” he answered quite evenly. “I’ve enjoyed the lounge and the talk very much.” And then Hazel felt more disgusted with herself still.
“Let’s go back to the house,” she said. “I believe it’s getting rather hot.”
She chatted as they wound their way downwards22 along the bush-path, but not so brightly as when they had come up it. Somewhat wonderingly, Greenoak noted23 that she displayed no interest in the absent Dick. The latter arrived not long after themselves.
“There you are, Miss Brandon, I’ve redeemed24 my pledge,” he cried. “Got a whacking25 big bush-buck ram26. Do come and look at it.”
“Got him just under Bromvogel Nek—eh, Dick?” said Greenoak.
“Yes. But—how did you know?”
“Heard your shot, and the dogs on to something wounded. We took a walk up there, Miss Brandon and I.”
“Oh—” And Dick Selmes stopped short, and then thought what an ass27 he was making of himself. So that was why Hazel had been so anxious for him to go out and hunt! Old Greenoak was coming out of his shell—coming out with a vengeance28.
As they went outside Kleinbooi, the Fingo, was in the act of offloading the quarry. It certainly was a fine ram, but Dick noticed with inward disgust and heart-searching that Hazel seemed to show but little interest in it, or in his own doings. And by this time it had become of very great importance to him that she should feel interest in his own doings.
“What would you say to moving on, Dick?” said Greenoak that afternoon. “We’ve been here a good while, you know.”
The other’s face fell.
“Yes, I’m afraid we have,” he said. “But where shall we go next?”
Greenoak gave him some inkling of the bearing of the Commandant’s letter, and the idea caught on, but with half the alacrity29 wherewith it would have been received had a certain entrancing young person not been a fellow-guest at Haakdoornfontein.
“When shall we start?” asked Dick, somewhat ruefully.
“How about to-morrow?”
“Couldn’t we make it the day after? Come now, Greenoak. A day more or less can’t make any difference.”
“Well, no more it can—at this stage,” was the enigmatical answer. As a matter of fact, in the speaker’s inner mind it was an ambiguous one, “We’ll break away the day after.”
“Going on, are you?” said old Hesketh, when the announcement was made to him. “Well, I’m sorry. But I suppose our young buffalo30 hunter’s spoiling to get on to bigger game. Where are you trekking31 for now, Greenoak?”
“The Transkei.”
“Ho-ho-ho! You may get on to bigger game there,” chuckled32 the old man, significantly. “Yes, bigger game than ever Slaang Kloof can find you. Think there’s anything in these reports, Greenoak?”
“Never can tell. I happen to know there is a simmer stirring all the border tribes. It’ll depend on how the thing’s handled.”
“If Mr Greenoak has the handling of it, things won’t go very wrong, Uncle Eph,” interrupted Hazel.
“Now, Miss Brandon, you are either chaffing me or giving me credit for powers of magic which I don’t possess,” protested the object of this exordium.
“I’m doing neither,” replied the girl, confidently.
Dick Selmes restrained an impulse to look quickly up—they were at table. Of late Hazel seemed never tired of booming Greenoak, he told himself, and now all her talks with himself came up. These, somehow, always led round to Greenoak.
He looked with renewed interest at his guide and mentor33. The latter was a splendid fellow, as the girl had more than once declared, but—elderly; easily old enough to be her father. Now he, Dick Selmes, had been coming to the conclusion that life apart from Hazel Brandon was going to be a very poor affair.
The propinquity had done it—that, and the bright, sweet charms of the girl herself. He had been realising that the time must come when they would have to part, and now that it had come, why, he would put his fortune to the test. Surely it could have but one issue. They had been so much together, long rides, long rambles34, or wandering about among the bush solitudes35, and they had always agreed so well. She had always shown such pleasure in his company, surely she would accept it for life. And then came the discomforting thought that just of late they had not been so much together. That morning, for instance, she had insisted on him going away from her for half the day, while she rambled36 off with Greenoak. What did it mean? Poor Dick began to feel very sore, and partly so with Greenoak. Well, he would put matters to the test, and that at once.
But this was not so easy, for the simple reason that he found no opportunity, and did not know how to make one. Hazel was as bright and cordial as ever, but affected2 to be busy, and there was no means of getting her alone to himself. All the good understanding between them seemed to have evaporated. She was avoiding him—deliberately avoiding him—there could be no doubt about that.
In his soreness and disgust he seized his gun, and started off on foot. He had not gone far when he heard Greenoak’s voice behind him.
“Going alone, Dick? Better not. You seem hipped37; man, and I don’t think your own company’s good for you.”
Dick’s first impulse was to make an ungracious reply, but he conquered it.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “Every one’s tired of me now, so I didn’t want to bore anybody.”
“Well, we’ll go and lay up at the draai for anything that’s moving. But it’s early yet.”
It was afternoon, and their departure was fixed38 for the following morning. Dick felt desperate.
“Hang it, Greenoak,” he burst forth at last. “You don’t know how I hate leaving this place. Had such jolly times here.”
“How you hate leaving somebody on this place, was what you should have said. Eh, Dick?”
“Well, yes, if you put it quite so plainly. The worst of it is, I can’t get an opportunity of speaking to her alone. Couldn’t you manage to make one for me, Greenoak? You can do about everything,”—eagerly.
“Not that. Even if I could I wouldn’t. My dear Dick, I’m responsible to your father; and I won’t help in that sort of thing. You’ve fallen a victim to propinquity, as many another has done before you, and the best thing for you is to go away—as we are going—and see how this—er—fancy stands the test of time and different surroundings. It is evident that the other party to the difficulty is not in a hurry to clench39 matters, which shows her sterling40 sense. No. Try my prescription41.”
This and other wise doctrines42 did Greenoak preach, and at last his charge became in some measure reconciled to the plan. Anyway, he was not going to make an ass of himself, he declared.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
brag
|
|
| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
impulsively
|
|
| adv.冲动地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
bragging
|
|
| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
aglow
|
|
| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
promptly
|
|
| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
penetration
|
|
| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
modicum
|
|
| n.少量，一小份 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
evoked
|
|
| [医]诱发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
insidious
|
|
| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
quaint
|
|
| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
philosophical
|
|
| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
quarry
|
|
| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
banality
|
|
| n.陈腐；平庸；陈词滥调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
downwards
|
|
| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
redeemed
|
|
| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
whacking
|
|
| adj.（用于强调）巨大的v.重击，使劲打( whack的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
ram
|
|
| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
ass
|
|
| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
vengeance
|
|
| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
alacrity
|
|
| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
buffalo
|
|
| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
trekking
|
|
| v.艰苦跋涉，徒步旅行( trek的现在分词 )；（尤指在山中）远足，徒步旅行，游山玩水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
mentor
|
|
| n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
rambles
|
|
| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
solitudes
|
|
| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
rambled
|
|
| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的过去式和过去分词 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
hipped
|
|
| adj.着迷的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
clench
|
|
| vt.捏紧（拳头等），咬紧（牙齿等），紧紧握住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
sterling
|
|
| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
prescription
|
|
| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
doctrines
|
|
| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |