“Are the family at home?” asked the Marshal.
“No, sir. The mistress and the children are gone out paying visits, while the master and mademoiselle are catching3 fish. Fishing all the morning, sir.”
Otsov stood a little, thought a little, and then went to the river to look for Gryabov. Going down to the river he found him a mile and a half from the house. Looking down from the steep bank and catching sight of Gryabov, Otsov gushed4 with laughter. . . . Gryabov, a large stout5 man, with a very big head, was sitting on the sand, angling, with his legs tucked under him like a Turk. His hat was on the back of his head and his cravat6 had slipped on one side. Beside him stood a tall thin Englishwoman, with prominent eyes like a crab’s, and a big bird-like nose more like a hook than a nose. She was dressed in a white muslin gown through which her scraggy yellow shoulders were very distinctly apparent. On her gold belt hung a little gold watch. She too was angling. The stillness of the grave reigned7 about them both. Both were motionless, as the river upon which their floats were swimming.
“A desperate passion, but deadly dull!” laughed Otsov. “Good-day, Ivan Kuzmitch.”
“Ah . . . is that you?” asked Gryabov, not taking his eyes off the water. “Have you come?”
“As you see . . . . And you are still taken up with your crazy nonsense! Not given it up yet?”
“The devil’s in it. . . . I begin in the morning and fish all day . . . . The fishing is not up to much to-day. I’ve caught nothing and this dummy8 hasn’t either. We sit on and on and not a devil of a fish! I could scream!”
“Well, chuck it up then. Let’s go and have some vodka!”
“Wait a little, maybe we shall catch something. Towards evening the fish bite better . . . . I’ve been sitting here, my boy, ever since the morning! I can’t tell you how fearfully boring it is. It was the devil drove me to take to this fishing! I know that it is rotten idiocy9 for me to sit here. I sit here like some scoundrel, like a convict, and I stare at the water like a fool. I ought to go to the haymaking, but here I sit catching fish. Yesterday His Holiness held a service at Haponyevo, but I didn’t go. I spent the day here with this . . . with this she-devil.”
“But . . . have you taken leave of your senses?” asked Otsov, glancing in embarrassment10 at the Englishwoman. “Using such language before a lady and she . . . .”
“Oh, confound her, it doesn’t matter, she doesn’t understand a syllable11 of Russian, whether you praise her or blame her, it is all the same to her! Just look at her nose! Her nose alone is enough to make one faint. We sit here for whole days together and not a single word! She stands like a stuffed image and rolls the whites of her eyes at the water.”
The Englishwoman gave a yawn, put a new worm on, and dropped the hook into the water.
“I wonder at her not a little,” Gryabov went on, “the great stupid has been living in Russia for ten years and not a word of Russian! . . . Any little aristocrat12 among us goes to them and learns to babble13 away in their lingo14, while they . . . there’s no making them out. Just look at her nose, do look at her nose!”
“Come, drop it . . . it’s uncomfortable. Why attack a woman?”
“She’s not a woman, but a maiden15 lady. . . . I bet she’s dreaming of suitors. The ugly doll. And she smells of something decaying . . . . I’ve got a loathing16 for her, my boy! I can’t look at her with indifference17. When she turns her ugly eyes on me it sends a twinge all through me as though I had knocked my elbow on the parapet. She likes fishing too. Watch her: she fishes as though it were a holy rite18! She looks upon everything with disdain19 . . . . She stands there, the wretch20, and is conscious that she is a human being, and that therefore she is the monarch21 of nature. And do you know what her name is? Wilka Charlesovna Fyce! Tfoo! There is no getting it out!”
The Englishwoman, hearing her name, deliberately22 turned her nose in Gryabov’s direction and scanned him with a disdainful glance; she raised her eyes from Gryabov to Otsov and steeped him in disdain. And all this in silence, with dignity and deliberation.
“Did you see?” said Gryabov chuckling23. “As though to say ‘take that.’ Ah, you monster! It’s only for the children’s sake that I keep that triton. If it weren’t for the children, I wouldn’t let her come within ten miles of my estate. . . . She has got a nose like a hawk’s . . . and her figure! That doll makes me think of a long nail, so I could take her, and knock her into the ground, you know. Stay, I believe I have got a bite. . . .”
Gryabov jumped up and raised his rod. The line drew taut24. . . . Gryabov tugged25 again, but could not pull out the hook.
“It has caught,” he said, frowning, “on a stone I expect . . . damnation take it . . . .”
There was a look of distress26 on Gryabov’s face. Sighing, moving uneasily, and muttering oaths, he began tugging27 at the line.
“What a pity; I shall have to go into the water.”
“Oh, chuck it!”
“I can’t. . . . There’s always good fishing in the evening. . . . What a nuisance. Lord, forgive us, I shall have to wade28 into the water, I must! And if only you knew, I have no inclination29 to undress. I shall have to get rid of the Englishwoman. . . . It’s awkward to undress before her. After all, she is a lady, you know!”
Gryabov flung off his hat, and his cravat.
“Meess . . . er, er . . .” he said, addressing the Englishwoman, “Meess Fyce, je voo pree . . . ? Well, what am I to say to her? How am I to tell you so that you can understand? I say . . . over there! Go away over there! Do you hear?”
Miss Fyce enveloped30 Gryabov in disdain, and uttered a nasal sound.
“What? Don’t you understand? Go away from here, I tell you! I must undress, you devil’s doll! Go over there! Over there!”
Gryabov pulled the lady by her sleeve, pointed31 her towards the bushes, and made as though he would sit down, as much as to say: Go behind the bushes and hide yourself there. . . . The Englishwoman, moving her eyebrows32 vigorously, uttered rapidly a long sentence in English. The gentlemen gushed with laughter.
“It’s the first time in my life I’ve heard her voice. There’s no denying, it is a voice! She does not understand! Well, what am I to do with her?”
“Chuck it, let’s go and have a drink of vodka!”
“I can’t. Now’s the time to fish, the evening. . . . It’s evening . . . . Come, what would you have me do? It is a nuisance! I shall have to undress before her. . . .”
Gryabov flung off his coat and his waistcoat and sat on the sand to take off his boots.
“I say, Ivan Kuzmitch,” said the marshal, chuckling behind his hand. “It’s really outrageous33, an insult.”
“Nobody asks her not to understand! It’s a lesson for these foreigners!”
Gryabov took off his boots and his trousers, flung off his undergarments and remained in the costume of Adam. Otsov held his sides, he turned crimson34 both from laughter and embarrassment. The Englishwoman twitched35 her brows and bKlinked . . . . A haughty36, disdainful smile passed over her yellow face.
“I must cool off,” said Gryabov, slapping himself on the ribs37. “Tell me if you please, Fyodor Andreitch, why I have a rash on my chest every summer.”
“Oh, do get into the water quickly or cover yourself with something, you beast.”
“And if only she were confused, the nasty thing,” said Gryabov, crossing himself as he waded38 into the water. “Brrrr . . . the water’s cold. . . . Look how she moves her eyebrows! She doesn’t go away . . . she is far above the crowd! He, he, he . . . . and she doesn’t reckon us as human beings.”
Wading39 knee deep in the water and drawing his huge figure up to its full height, he gave a wink40 and said:
“This isn’t England, you see!”
Miss Fyce coolly put on another worm, gave a yawn, and dropped the hook in. Otsov turned away, Gryabov released his hook, ducked into the water and, spluttering, waded out. Two minutes later he was sitting on the sand and angling as before.
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收听单词发音
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1
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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2
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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3
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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4
gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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6
cravat
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| n.领巾，领结；v.使穿有领结的服装，使结领结 | |
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7
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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8
dummy
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| n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头 | |
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9
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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10
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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11
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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12
aristocrat
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| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
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13
babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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14
lingo
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| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
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15
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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16
loathing
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| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
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17
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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18
rite
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| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
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19
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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20
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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21
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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22
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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23
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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24
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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25
tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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27
tugging
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| n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
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28
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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29
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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30
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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32
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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33
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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34
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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35
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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36
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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37
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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38
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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40
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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