"I done it, Ruth, old lass," he said.
She knew at once.
"Got the sack?" she asked.
He nodded.
"I've no one to blame only meself," he said, disarming1 her, as he disarmed2 everyone by his Christian3 quality.
Ruth did not reproach him: that was not her way. Nor did she sit down and cry: she had expected the catastrophe4 too long. She took the boy from the cradle and opened her bodice.
"You shan't suffer anyways," she said, half to herself, half to the child, and stared out of the window, babe at breast, rocking gently and with tapping foot.
Ern slouched out; and Ruth was left alone, to face as best she could the spectre that haunts through life the path of the immense majority of the human race. She had watched its slinking approach for years. Now with a patter of hushed feet, dreadful in the fury of its assault, it was on her. Remorseless in attack as in pursuit it was hounding her and hers slowly down a dreary6 slope to a lingering death, of body and spirit alike, in that hungry morass7, the name of which is Unemployment.
Two days later when Joe entered the cottage he found Ruth for once sitting, listless. All the children were in bed, even little Alice. He saw at once why. There was no fire, though it was January.
"Where's Ern, then?" he asked.
"Lookin for work," Ruth answered.
Joe stared, aghast.
"Is he out?" he asked.
Ruth rose and turned her shoulder to him.
"Yes. They've stood him off. And I don't blame em."
"What for?" Joe was genuinely concerned.
"He didn't say. Bad time, I reckon. Only don't tell anyone, Joe, for dear's sake, else they'll stop my credit at the shop—and I'll be done."
Her eyes filled and she bit her lip.
"Four of em," she said. "And nothing a week to do it on—let alone the rent" ...
She might hush5 it up; but the news spread.
Alf, with his ears of a lynx, was one of the first to hear. For a moment he hovered8 in a dreadful state of trepidation9. It was a year and a half since he had stalked his white heifer, bent10 on a kill, only to be scared away by the presence of that mysterious old man he had found at her side in the heart of the covert11. But his lust12 was by no means dead because it had been for the time suppressed. Ruth had baffled him; and Alf had not forgotten it. Ern possessed13 a beautiful woman he longed for; and Alf had not forgiven him.
Perhaps because he had beaten down his desire for so long, it now rushed out ravening14 from its lair15, and drove all else before it. Throwing caution to the winds, he came stealing along like a stoat upon the trail, licking his lips, wary16 yet swift. First he made sure that Ernie was out, looking for a job of work. Then he came down the street.
Ruth met her enemy blithely17 and with taunting18 eyes. In battle she found a certain relief from the burthen of her distress19. And here she knew was no question of pity or consideration.
"Monday's your morning, isn't it?" she said. "Come along then, will you, Alf? And you'll see what I got for you."
Alf shook a sorrowful head, studying his rent-book.
"It can't go on," he said in the highly moral tone he loved to adopt. "It ain't right." He raised a pained face and looked away. "Of course if you was to wish to wipe it off and start clean——"
Ruth was cold and smiling. She handled Alf always with the caressing20 contempt with which a cat handles a mouse.
"Little bit of accommodation," she said. "No thank you, Alf. I shouldn't feel that'd help me to start clean."
"See Ern's down and out," continued the tempter in his hushed and confidential21 voice. "Nobody won't give him a job."
Ruth trembled slightly, though she was smiling still and self-contained.
"You'll see to that now you're on high, won't you?" she said—"for my children's sake."
"It'd be doin Ern a good turn, too," Alf went on in the same low monotone.
"Brotherly," said Ruth. "But he mightn't see it that way."
"He wouldn't mind," continued Alf gently. "See he's all for Joe Burt and the classes now. Says you're keeping him back. Nothin but a burthen to him, he says. Her and her brats22, as he said last night at the Institute. Don't give a chap a chance." Alf wagged his head. "Course he shouldn't ha said it. I know that. Told him so at the time afore them all. Tain't right—I told him straight—your own wife and all."
"My Ern didn't say that, Alf," Ruth answered simply.
His eyes came seeking hers furtively23, and were gone instantly on meeting them.
"Then you won't do him a good turn?"
Ruth's fine eyes flashed and danced, irony24, laughter, scorn, all crossing swords in their brown deeps. There were aspects of Alf that genuinely amused her.
"Would you like to talk it over with him?" she asked.
"And supposing I have?"
"He'll be back in a moment," she said, sweet and bright. "I'll ask him."
Alf was silent, fumbling25 with his watch-chain. Then he began again in the same hushed voice, and with the same averted26 face.
"And there's another thing between us." His eyes were shut, and he was weaving to and fro like a snake in the love-dance. "Sorry you're trying to make bad blood between me and my old dad," he said. "Very sorry, Ruth."
"I aren't," Ruth answered swiftly. "You was always un-friends from the cradle, you and dad. See he don't think you're right." She added a little stab of her own—"No one does. That's why they keep you on as sidesman, Mr. Chislehurst says. Charity-like. They're sorry for you. So'm I."
The words touched Alf's vital spot—the conceit27 that was the most obvious symptom of his insanity28. His face changed, but his voice remained as before, stealthy and insinuating29. He came a little closer, and his eyes caressed30 her figure covetously31.
"You see I wouldn't annoy me, not too far, not if I was you, Ruth. You can go too far even with a saint upon the cross."
Ruth put out the tip of her tongue daintily.
"Crook32 upon the cross, don't you mean, Alf?"
He brushed the irrelevancy33 aside, shooting his head across to hers. His face was ugly now, and glistening34. With deliberate insolence35 he flicked36 a thumb and finger under her nose.
"And I do know what I do know, and what nobody else don't know only you and me and the Captin, my tuppenny tartlet37."
She was still and white, formidable in her very dumbness. He proceeded with quiet stealth.
"See that letter I wrote you used to hold over against me before you married—that's destroyed now. And a good job, too, for it might have meant trouble for Alfured. But it's gone! I know that then. Ern told me. He's a drunkard, old Ern is; but he's not a liar38. I will say that for my brother; I will stick up for him if it was ever so; I will fight old Ern's battles for him."
"As you're doin now," said Ruth.
Alf grinned.
"And the short of it all is just this, Ruthie," he continued, and reaching forth39 a hand, tapped her upon the shoulder—"I got you, and you ain't got me. And I can squeeze the heart out of that great bosom40 o yours"—he opened and clenched41 his hand in pantomine—"if I don't get my way any time I like. So just you think it over! Think o your children if you won't think of nothing else!"
Outside in the road he ran into Joe, who gripped him.
"What you come after?" asked the engineer ferociously42.
"After my rent," answered Alf, shouting from fear. Joe looked dangerous, but loosed his hold.
"How much?" he asked, taking a bag from his pocket.
"Sixteen shilling. You can see for yourself."
Obliging with the obligingness of the man who is scared to death, Alf produced his book. Joe, lowering still, examined it. Then he paid the money into the other's hand. That done he escorted Alf policemanwise to the bottom of Borough43 Lane.
"If A find you mouchin round here again A'll break your bloody44 little back across ma knee," he told the other, shouldering over him. "A mean it, sitha!"
Alf withdrew up the hill towards the Star. At a safe distance he paused and called back confidentially45, his face white and sneering46,
"Quite the yard-dog, eh? Bought her, ain't yer?"
Joe returned to the cottage and entered.
At the head of the stairs a lovely little figure in a white gown that enfolded her hugely like a cloud, making billows about the woolly red slippers47 which had been Bess Trupp's Christmas gift, smiled at him.
"Uncle Joe," little Alice chirped48, "please tell Mum I are ready."
He ran up the stairs, gathered her in his arms, and bore her back to bed in the room where Susie and Jenny already slept.
"Hush!" she whispered, laying a tiny finger on his lips—"The little ones!"
He tucked her up and kissed her.
"You're the proper little mother, aren't you?" he whispered.
In the kitchen he found Ruth, a row of tin-tacks studding her lips, soling Alice's boots. The glint of steel between her lips, and the inward curl of her lips, gave her a touch of unusual grimness.
"Always at it," he said.
"Yes," she answered between muffled49 lips. "Got to be. Snob50 this time. Only the soles are rotten. It's like puttin nails into wet brown paper."
She was suffering terribly—he felt it; and suppressed accordingly. But if her furnaces were damped down, he could hear the flames roaring behind closed doors; and her passion, which typified for him the sufferings of those innocent millions to the redemption of whom he had consecrated51 his life, moved him profoundly.
He flung the bag on the table before her almost savagely52. It jingled53 as it fell and squatted54 there, dowdy55, and lackadaisical56 as a dumpling in a swoon.
Ruth eyed it, her lips still steel-studded.
"How much?" she mumbled57.
"Ten pound," he answered.
"That's not what I mean."
"What do you mean, then?"
"What's the price?"
He glared at her; then thumped58 the table with a great fist.
"Nothin then!" he shouted. "What doest' take me for?"
She munched59 her tin-tacks sardonically60, regarding him.
How sturdy he was, with his close curly black hair, and on his face the set and resolute61 look of the man approaching middle-age, who knows that he wants and how to win it!
"A man, Joe."
He snorted sullenly64.
"Better'n a no-man any road," he sneered65.
The words stung her. All the immense and tender motherliness of her nature rose up like a wave that curls in roaring majesty66 to a fall. She swept the tin-tacks from her mouth and met him, flashing and glorious.
"See here, Joe!" she cried, deep-voiced as a bloodhound. "Ne'er a word against my Ern! I won't have it."
"Your Ern!"
She was white and heaving.
"Yes, my Ern! He's down and out, and you take advantage to come up here behind his back and insult him—and me. You're the one to call anudder man a no-man, aren't you?" Taking the bag of money she tossed it at him with a flinging scorn that was magnificent.
"Take your filth67 away—and yourself with it!"
He went, humbled68 and ashamed.
She watched him go—this sanguine69, well-conditioned man, with his good boots, his sensible clothes, his air of solid prosperity.
Then she sat down, spent. Her savagery70 had been largely defensive71. Like the brave soldier she was she had attacked to hide the weakness of her guard. She was sick at heart; worn out. These men ... first Alf, then Joe ... This champing boar, foam72 in the corner of his lips ... that red-eyed weasel squealing73 on the trail....
An hour later Ern came home.
She knew at once from the wan62 look of him that he had been tramping all day on an empty stomach. That, with all his faults, was Ern. So long as there was a crumb74 in the cupboard she and the children should share it: he would tighten75 his belt. Even now he just sat down, an obviously beaten man, and did not ask for a bite. What she had she put before him; and it was not much.
"Any luck, Ern?" she asked with a touch of tenderness.
Sullenly he shook his head.
"Walked my bloody legs off on an empty belly76, and got a mouthful of insults at the end of it," he muttered. "That's all I got. That's all they give the working man in Old England. Joe's right. Sink the country! Blast the bloody Empire! That's all it's good for!"
It was the first time he had ever used bad language in her presence. That gradual demoralisation which unemployment, however caused, and its consequences brings inevitably77 in its train was already showing its corrupt78 fruits. The tragedy of it moved her.
"Joe's been up," she said after a bit.
"I met him," he answered. He was warmer after his meal, less sullen63, and drew up his chair from habit before the fireless range. "He wants me to go North—to his folk. Says his brother-in-law can find me a job. Runs a motor-transport business in Oldham."
Her back was to him at the moment.
"Does he?" she asked quietly. "What about me and my children?"
"That's what I says to him."
"What did he say?"
"Said he'd look after you and them."
Ruth was still as a mouse awaiting the cat's pounce79.
"And what did you say to that?"
"Told him to go to hell."
Ruth stirred again and resumed her quiet busyness.
"Alf's been up again," she told him. "Messin round."
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收听单词发音
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1
disarming
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| adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒 | |
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disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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morass
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| n.沼泽，困境 | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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13
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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14
ravening
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| a.贪婪而饥饿的 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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16
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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17
blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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18
taunting
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| 嘲讽( taunt的现在分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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19
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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20
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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21
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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brats
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| n.调皮捣蛋的孩子( brat的名词复数 ) | |
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23
furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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24
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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26
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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29
insinuating
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| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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30
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
covetously
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| adv.妄想地，贪心地 | |
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32
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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33
irrelevancy
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| n.不恰当，离题，不相干的事物 | |
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34
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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35
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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36
flicked
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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37
tartlet
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| n.小形的果子馅饼 | |
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38
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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40
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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41
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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44
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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45
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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46
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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47
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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48
chirped
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| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 ) | |
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49
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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50
snob
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| n.势利小人，自以为高雅、有学问的人 | |
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51
consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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52
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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53
jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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54
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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55
dowdy
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| adj.不整洁的；过旧的 | |
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56
lackadaisical
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| adj.无精打采的，无兴趣的；adv.无精打采地，不决断地 | |
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57
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
munched
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
sardonically
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| adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地 | |
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61
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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62
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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63
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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64
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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65
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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67
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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68
humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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69
sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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70
savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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71
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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72
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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73
squealing
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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74
crumb
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| n.饼屑，面包屑，小量 | |
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75
tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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76
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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77
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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78
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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79
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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