The young man had completed four-fifths of the ascent7 of Mount Gabriel, from the Dunmanus side, and sat now on a moss-capped boulder8, nominally9 meditating10 upon the splendors11 of the panorama12 spread out before him, but in truth thinking deeply of other things. He had not brought a gun, this time, but had in his hand a small, brand-new hammer, with which, from time to time, to point the shifting phases of his reverie, he idly tapped the upturned sole of the foot resting on his knee.
From this coign of vantage he could make out the white walls and thatches13 of at least a dozen hamlets, scattered14 over the space of thrice as many miles. Such of these as stood inland he did not observe a second time. There were others, more distant, which lay close to the bay, and these he studied intently as he mused15, his eyes roaming along the coast-line from one to another in baffled perplexity. There was nothing obscure, about them, so far as his vision went. Everything—the innumerable croft-walls dividing the wretched land below him into holdings; the dark umber patches where the bog16 had been cut; the serried17 layers of gray rock sloping transversely down the mountain-side, each with its crown of canary-blossomed furze; the wide stretches of desolate18 plain beyond, where no human habitation could be seen, yet where he knew thousands of poor creatures lived, all the same, in moss-hidden hovels in the nooks of the rocks; the pale sheen on the sea still further away, as it slept in the sunlight at the feet of the cliffs—everything was as sharp and distinct as the picture in a telescope.
But all this did not help him to guess where the young woman in the broad, black hat lived.
Bernard had thought a great deal about this young woman during the forty-eight hours which had elapsed since she stood up in the boat and waved her hand to him in farewell. In a guarded way he had made some inquiries19 at Goleen, where he was for the moment domiciled, but only to learn that people on the east side of the peninsula are conscious of no interest whatever in the people reputed to live on the west side. They are six or eight Irish miles apart, and there is high land between them. No one in Goleen could tell him anything about a beautiful dark young woman with a broad, black hat. He felt that they did not even properly imagine to themselves what he meant. In Goleen the young women are not beautiful, and they wear shawls on their heads, not hats.
Then he had conceived the idea of investigating the west shore for himself. On the map in his guide-book this seemed a simple enough undertaking20, but now, as he let his gaze wander again along the vast expanse of ragged22 and twisted coast-line, he saw that it would mean the work of many days.
And then—then he saw something else—a vision which fairly took his breath away.
Along the furze-hedge road which wound its way up the mountain-side from Dunmanus and the south, two human figures were moving toward him, slowly, and still at a considerable distance. One of these figures was that of a woman, and—yes, it was a woman!—and she wore, a hat—as like as could be to that broad-brimmed, black hat he had been dreaming of. Bernard permitted himself no doubts. He was of the age of miracles. Of course it was she!
Without a moment’s hesitation23 he slid down off his rocky perch24 and seated himself behind a clump25 of furze. It would be time enough to disclose his presence—if, indeed he did at all—when she had come up to him.
No such temptation to secrecy26 besets27 us. We may freely hasten down the mountain-side to where Kate, walking slowly and pausing from time to time to look back upon the broadening sweep of land and sea below her, was making the ascent of Mount Gabriel.
Poor old Murphy had been left behind, much against his will, to nurse and bemoan28 his swollen29 ankle. The companion this time was a younger brother of the missing Malachy, a lumpish, silent “boy” of twenty-five or six, who slouched along a few paces behind his mistress and bore the luncheon30 basket. This young man was known to all Muirisc as John Pat, which was by way of distinguishing him from the other Johns who were not also Patricks. As it was now well on toward nine centuries since the good Brian Boru ordained31 that every Irishman should have a surname, the presumption32 is that John Pat did possess such a thing, but feudal33 Muirisc never dreamed of suggesting its common use. This surname had been heard at his baptism; it might be mentioned again upon the occasion of his marriage, though his wife would certainly be spoken of as Mrs. John Pat, and in the end, if he died at Muirisc, the surname would be painted in white letters on the black wooden cross set over his grave. For all the rest he was just John Pat.
And mediaeval Muirisc, too, could never have dreamed that his age and sex might be thought by outsiders to render him an unsuitable companion for Miss Kate in her wanderings over the countryside. In their eyes, and in his own, he was a mere boy, whose mission was to run errands, carry bundles or do whatever else the people of the castle bade him do; in return for which they, in one way or another, looked to it that he continued to live, and even on occasion, gave him an odd shilling or two.
“Look, now, John Pat,” said Kate, halting once more to look back; “there’s Dunbeacon and Dun-manus and Muirisc beyant, and, may be if it wasn’t so far, we could see the Three Castles, too; and whin we’re at the top, we should be able to see Rosbrin and the White Castle and the Black Castle and the strand35 over which Ballydesmond stood, on the other side, as well. ’Tis my belafe no other family in the world can stand and look down on sevin of their castles at one view.”
John Pat looked dutifully along the coast-line as her gesture commanded, and changed his basket into the other hand, but offered no comment.
“And there, across the bay,” the girl went on, “is the land that’s marked on the Four Masters’ map for the O’Dalys. Ye were there many’ times, John Pat, after crabs36 and the like. Tell me, now, did ever you or anny one else hear of a castle built there be the O’Dalys?”
“Sorra a wan21, Miss Katie.”
“There you have it! My word, the impidince of thim O’Dalys—strolling beggars, and hedge teachers, and singers of ballads37 be the wayside! ’Tis in the books, John Pat, that wance there was a king of Ireland named Hugh Dubh—Hugh the Black—and these bards38 so perplexed39 and brothered the soul out of him wid claims for money and fine clothes and the best places at the table, and kept the land in such a turmoil40 by rayson of the scurrilous41 verses they wrote about thim that gave thim less than their demands—that Hugh, glory be to him, swore not a man of ’em should remain in all Ireland. ‘Out ye go,’ says he. But thin they raised such a cry, that a wake, kindly42 man—St. Columbkill that was to be—tuk pity on ’em, and interceded43 wid the king, and so, worse luck, they kept their place. Ah, thin, if Hugh Dugh had had his way wid ’em ’t would be a different kind of Ireland we’d see this day!”
“Well, this Hugh Dove, as you call him”—spoke34 up a clear, fresh-toned male voice, which was not John Pat’s—“even he couldn’t have wanted a prettier Ireland than this is, right here in front of us!”
Kate, in vast surprise, turned at the very first sound of this strange voice. A young man had risen to his feet from behind the furze hedge, close beside her, his rosy-cheeked face wreathed in amiable44 smiles. She recognized the wandering O’Ma-hony from Houghton County, Michigan, and softened45 the rigid46 lines into which her face had been startled, as a token of friendly recognition.
“Good morning,” the young man added, as a ceremonious afterthought. “Isn’t it a lovely day?”
“You seem to be viewing our country hereabouts wid great complateness,” commented Kate, with a half-smile, not wholly free from irony47. There really was no reason for suspecting the accidental character of the encounter, save the self-conscious and confident manner in which the young man had, on the instant, attached himself to her expedition. Even as she spoke, he was walking along at her side.
“Oh, yes,” he answered, cheerfully, “I’m mixing up business and pleasure, don’t you see, all the while I’m here—and really they get so tangled48 up together every once in a while, that I can’t tell which is which. But just at this moment—there’s no doubt about it whatever—pleasure is right bang-up on top.”
“It is a fine, grand day,” said Kate, with a shade of reserve. The frankly49 florid compliment of the Occident50 was novel to her.
“Yes, simply wonderful weather,” he pursued. “Only April, and here’s the skin all peeling off from my nose.”
Kate could not but in courtesy look at this afflicted51 feature. It was a short good-humored nose, with just the faintest and kindliest suggestion of an upward tilt52 at the end. One should not be too serious with the owner of such a nose.
“You have business here, thin?” she asked. “I thought you were looking at castles—and shooting herons.”
He gave a little laugh, and held up his hammer as a voucher53.
“I’m a mining engineer,” he explained: “I’ve been prospecting54 for a company all around Cappagh and the Mizzen Head, and now I’m waiting to hear from London what the assays55 are like. Oh, yes—that reminds me—I ought to have asked before—how is the old man—the chap we had to carry to the boat? I hope his ankle’s better.”
“It is, thank you,” she replied.
He chuckled56 aloud at the recollections which the subject suggested.
“He soured on me, right from the start, didn’t hee?” the young man went on. “I’ve laughed a hundred times since, at the way he chiseled57 me out of my place in the boat—that is to say, some of the time I’ve laughed—but—but then lots of other times I couldn’t see any fun in it at all. Do you know,” he continued, almost dolefully, “I’ve been hunting all over the place for you.”
“I’ve nothing to do wid the minerals on our lands,” Kate answered. “’T is a thrushtee attinds to all that.”
“Pshaw! I didn’t want to talk minerals to you.”
“And what thin?”
“Well—since you put it so straight—why—why, of course—I wanted to ask you more about our people, about the O’Mahonys. You seemed to be pretty well up on the thing. You see, my father died seven or eight years ago, so that I was too young to talk to him much about where he came from, and all that. And my mother, her people were from a different part of Ireland, and so, you see—”
“Ah, there’s not much to tell now,” said Kate, in a saddened tone. “They were a great family once, and now are nothing at all, wid poor me as the last of the lot.”
“I don’t call that ‘nothing at all,’ by a jugful,” protested Bernard, with conviction.
Kate permitted herself a brief cousinly smile.
“All the same, they end with me, and afther me comes in the O’Dalys.”
Lines of thought raised themselves on the young man’s forehead and ran down to the sunburnt nose.
“How do you mean?” he asked, dubiously58.
“Are you—don’t mind my asking—are you going to marry one of that name?”
She shrugged59 her shoulders, to express repugnance60 at the very thought.
“I’ll marry no one; laste of all an O’Daly,” she said, firmly. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she decided61 upon a further explanation. “I’m goin’ to take me vows62 at the convint within the month,” she added.
Bernard stared open-eyed at her.
“I-gad!” was all he said.
The girl’s face lightened at the sound of this exclamation63, bringing back as it did a flood of welcome memories.
“I know you by that word for a true O’Mahony,—‘an American O’Mahoney,” she said, with eager pleasure beaming in her deep-gray eyes. She turned to her retainer: “You remimber that same word, John Pat. Who was it used always to be saying ‘I-gad?’”
John Pat searched the landscape with a vacuous64 glance.
“W’u’d it be Father Harrington?” he asked.
“Huh!” sniffed65 Kate, in light contempt, and turned again to the young engineer, with a backward nod toward John Pat. “He’s an honest lad,” she said, apologetically, “but the Lord only knows what’s inside of his head. Ah, sir, there was an O’Mahony here—‘tis twelve years now since he sailed away; ah, the longest day Muirisc stands she ’ll not see such another man—bold and fine, wid a heart in him like a lion, and yit soft and tinder to thim he liked, and a janius for war and commence and government that made Muirisc blossom like a rose. Ah, a grand man was our O’Mahony!”
“So you live at Muirisc, eh?” asked the practical Bernard.
“’T was him used always to say ‘I-gad!’ whin things took him by surprise,” remarked Kate, turning to study the vast downward view attentively66.
“Well I said it because I was taken by surprise,” said the young man. “What else could a fellow say, with such a piece of news as that dumped down on him? But say, you don’t mean it, do you—you going to be a nun67?”
She looked at him through luminous68 eyes, and nodded a grave affirmative.
Bernard walked for a little way in silence, moodily69 eying the hammer in his hand. Once or twice he looked up at his companion as if to speak, then cast down his eyes again. At last, after he had helped her to cross a low, marshy70 stretch at the base of a ridge71 of gray rock, and to climb to the top of the boulder—for they had left the road now and were making their way obliquely72 up the barren crest—he found words to utter.
“You don’t mind my coming along with you,” he asked, “under the circumstances?”
“I don’t see how I’m to prevint you, especially wid you armed wid a hammer,” she said, in gentle banter73.
“And I can ask you a plain question without offending you?” he went on; and then, without waiting for an answer, put his question: “It’s just this—I’ve only seen you twice, it’s true, but I feel as if I’d known you for years, and, besides, we’re kind of relations—are you going to do this of your own free will?”
Kate, for answer, lifted her hand and pointed74 westward75 toward the pale-blue band along the distant coast-line.
“That castle you see yonder at the bridge—” she said, “’t was there that Finghin, son of Diarmid Mor O’Mahony, bate76 the MacCarthys wid great slaughter77, in Anno Domini 1319.”
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收听单词发音
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1
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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2
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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8
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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9
nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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splendors
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| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
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panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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13
thatches
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| n.（稻草、芦苇等盖的）茅草屋顶( thatch的名词复数 )；乱蓬蓬的头发，又脏又乱的头发 | |
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14
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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15
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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16
bog
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| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
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serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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18
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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19
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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besets
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| v.困扰( beset的第三人称单数 )；不断围攻；镶；嵌 | |
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bemoan
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| v.悲叹，哀泣，痛哭；惋惜，不满于 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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31
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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crabs
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| n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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37
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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38
bards
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| n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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39
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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40
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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41
scurrilous
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| adj.下流的，恶意诽谤的 | |
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42
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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43
interceded
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| v.斡旋，调解( intercede的过去式和过去分词 )；说情 | |
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44
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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45
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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46
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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47
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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48
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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49
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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50
occident
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| n.西方；欧美 | |
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51
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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53
voucher
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| n.收据；传票；凭单，凭证 | |
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54
prospecting
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| n.探矿 | |
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55
assays
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| n.化验( assay的名词复数 )；试验；尝试；试金 | |
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56
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
chiseled
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| adj.凿刻的，轮廓分明的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 ) | |
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58
dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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59
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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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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vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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63
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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64
vacuous
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| adj.空的，漫散的，无聊的，愚蠢的 | |
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65
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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66
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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67
nun
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| n.修女，尼姑 | |
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68
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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69
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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70
marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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71
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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72
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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73
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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74
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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75
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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76
bate
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| v.压制；减弱；n.（制革用的）软化剂 | |
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77
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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