There was such an air of stir and secret purposefulness about him that Ruth followed him up to the bedroom. There she found him on his knees in a litter of things, packing a bundle frantically3.
A dish-cloth in her hand, she watched his efforts.
"Where away then?" she asked.
"Berlin this journey. Hand me them socks!"
Her eyes leapt. "Is it war?"
"That's it."
She sat down ghastly, wrapping her hands in her apron4 as if they had been mutilated and she wished to hide the stumps5.
Men abuse the Army when they are in it and take their discharge at the earliest possible moment; but when the call comes they down tools with avidity, and leaving the mill, the mine, the shunting yard, and the shop, they troop back to the colours with the lyrical enthusiasm of those who have re-discovered youth on the threshhold of middle-age.
Ern, you may be sure, was no exception to the rule.
Packing and unpacking6 his bundle on his knees, he was busy, happy, important. But there was no such desperate hurry after all: for he did not join the crowds which thronged7 the recruiting stations in those first days: he waited for the Colonel to arrange matters so that he could join his old battalion8 at Aldershot direct.
Ruth watched him with deep and jealously guarded eyes in which wistfulness and other disturbing emotions met and mingled9.
Once only she put to him the master question.
"What about us, Ern?"
He was standing10 at the time contemplating11 the patient and tormented12 bundle.
"Who?"
"Me and the children."
"There's one Above," said Ernie. "He'll see to you."
"He don't most in general not from what I've seen of it," answered Ruth. "What if He don't?"
There was a moment's pause. Then Ern dropped a word as a child may drop a stone in a well.
"Joe."
Ruth caught her breath.
In those days Ernie grew on her as a mountain looming13 out of the dawn-mist grows on the onlooker14. Joe did not even come to see her; and she was glad. For all his virility15 and bull-like quality, now that the day of battle had come, Ern was proving spiritually the bigger man.
And his very absorbtion in the new venture appealed to Ruth even while it wounded. Ern had been "called" as surely as Clem Woolgar, the bricklayer's labourer, her neighbour in the Moot16, who testified every Sunday afternoon in a scarlet17 jersey18 at the Star corner to the clash of cymbals19. Clem it was true, spoke20 of his call as Christ; to Ernie it went by the name of country. In Ruth's view the name might differ but the Thing was the same. A voice had come to Ern which had spoken to him as she had not, as the children had not. Because of it he was a new man—"converted," as Clem would say, prepared to forsake21 father and mother, and wife, and child, and follow, follow.
England was calling; and he seemed deaf to every other voice. She seemed to have gone clean out of his life; but the children had not—she noticed it with a pang22 of jealousy23 and a throb24 of hope. For each of the remaining nights after dark, he went round their cots. She was not to know anything about that, she could see, from the stealthy way in which he stole upstairs when her back was supposed to be turned. But the noises in the room overhead, the murmur25 of his voice, the shuffling26 of his feet as he got up from the bedsides betrayed his every action.
On the third night, as he rejoined her, she rose before him in the dusk, laying down her work.
"Anything for me too, Ern," she asked humbly—"the mother of em?"
"What d'you mean?" he asked almost fiercely.
"D'you want me, Ern?"
He turned his back on her with an indifference27 that hurt far more than any brutality28, because it signified so plainly that he did not care.
"You're all right," he said enigmatically, and went out.
He could ask anything of her now, and she would give him all, how gladly! But he asked nothing.
In another way, too, he was torturing her. It was clear to her that he meant to do his duty by her and the children—to the last ounce; and nothing more. He cared for their material wants as he had never done before. All his spare moments he spent handying about the house, hammer in hand, nails in mouth, doing little jobs he had long promised to do and had forgotten; putting little Ned's mail-cart to rights, screwing on a handle, setting a loose slate29. She followed him about with wistful eyes, holding the hammer, steadying the ladder, and receiving in return a few off-hand words of thanks. She did not want words: she wanted him—himself.
Then news came through, and he was straightway full of mystery and bustle30.
"Join at Aldershot to-morrow. Special train at two," he told Ruth in the confidential31 whisper beloved of working-men. "Don't say nothing to nobody." As though the news, if it reached the Kaiser, would profoundly affect the movements of the German armies.
That evening Ernie went up to the Manor-house to say good-bye.
Mrs. Trupp was far more to him than his god-mother: she was a friend known to him from babyhood, allied32 to him by a thousand intimate ties, and trusted as he trusted no one else on earth, not even his dad.
Now he unbosomed to her the one matter that was worrying him on his departure—that he should be leaving Ruth encumbered33 with debt.
Mrs. Trupp met him with steady eyes. It was her first duty, the first duty of every man, woman and child in the nation to see that the fighting-men went off in good heart.
"You needn't worry about Ruth," she said, quietly. "She'll have the country behind her. All the soldiers' wives will."
Ernie shook his head doubtfully.
"Ah, I don't hold much by the country," he said.
The lady's grave face, silver-crowned, twinkled into sudden mischievous34 life. She rippled35 off into the delicious laughter he loved so dearly.
"I know who's been talking to you!" she cried.
Ernie grinned sheepishly.
"Who then?"
"Mr. Burt."
Ernie admitted the charge.
"If you don't trust the country, will you trust Mr. Trupp and me?" the other continued.
Ernie rose with a sigh of relief.
"Thank you kindly36, 'm," he said. "That's what I come after."
Ernie went on to Rectory Walk, to find that his mother too had joined the crucified. In the maelstrom37 of emotion that in those tragic38 hours was tossing nations and individuals this way and that, the hard woman had been humbled39 at last. Stripped to the soul, she saw herself a twig40 hurled41 about in the sea of circumstance she could no more control than a toy-boat a-float on the Atlantic can order the tides. No longer an isolated42 atom hard and self-contained, she was one of a herd43 of bleating44 sheep being driven by a remorseless butcher to the slaughter-house. And the first question she put to him revealed the extent of the change that had been wrought45 in her.
"What about Ruth?" she asked.
It was the only occasion on which his mother had named his wife to Ern during his married life.
"She's all right, mother," Ernie replied. "She's plenty of friends."
"Mrs. Trupp," jealously. "Well, why don't ye say so? What about the children?"
"They'll just stay with their mother," answered Ernie.
"I could have em here if she was to want to go out to work," Anne said grudgingly46; and must add, instigated47 by the devil who dogged her all her life—"Your children, of course."
Ernie answered quite simply:
"No, thank-you, mother," and continued with unconscious dignity—"They're all my children."
A gleam of cruelty shone in his mother's eyes.
"She's behind with her rent. You know that? And Alf's short. He says he's dropped thousands over his Syndicate. Ruined in his country's cause, Alf says."
"If he's dropped thousands a few shillings more or less won't help him," said Ernie curtly48.
"And yet he'll want em," Anne pursued maliciously49. "He was sayin so only last night. Every penny, he said."
"He may want," retorted Ernie. "He won't get."
His mother made a little grimace50.
"If Alf wants a thing he usually gets it."
Ernie flashed white.
"Ah," he said. "We'll see what dad says."
It was a new move in the family game, and unexpected. Anne was completely taken a-back. She felt that Ernie was not playing fair. There had always been an unwritten family law, inscribed51 by the mother on the minds of the two boys in suggestible infancy52, that dad should be left outside all broils53 and controversies54; that dad should be spared unpleasantness, and protected at any cost.
She was shocked, almost to pleading.
"You'd never tell him!"
"He's the very one I would tell then!" retorted Ernie, rejoicing in his newly-discovered vein55 of brutality.
"Only worry him," she coaxed56.
"He ain't the only one," Ern answered. "I'm fairly up against it, too." Grinning quietly at his victory, he turned down the passage to the study.
His father was sitting in his favourite spot under the picture of his ancestor, watching the tree-tops blowing in the Rectory garden opposite. The familiar brown-paper-clad New Testament57 was on his knee.
Ernie marked at once that here was the one tranquil58 spirit he had met since the declaration of war. And this was not the calm of stagnation59. Rather it was the intense quiet of the wheel which revolves60 so swiftly that it appears to be still.
He drew his chair beside his father's.
"What d'you make of it all, dad?" he asked gently.
The old man took his thumb out of his New Testament, and laid his hand upon his son's.
"And behold61 there was a great earthquake," he quoted. "For the Angel of the Lord descended62 from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door of the Tomb."
Ernie nodded thoughtfully. For the first time perhaps the awful solemnity of the drama in which he was about to play his part came home to him in all its overwhelming power.
"Yes, dad," he said deeply. "Only I reck'n it took some rolling."
The old man gripped and kneaded the hand in his just as Ruth would do in moments of stress.
"True, Boy-lad," he answered. "But it had to be rolled away before the Lord could rise."
Ernie assented63.
Hand-in-hand they sat together for some while. Then Ernie rose to go. In the silence and dusk father and son stood together on the very spot where fourteen years before they had said good-bye on Ernie's departure for the Army. The Edward Caspar of those days was old now; and the boy of that date a matured man, scarred already by the wars of Time.
"It won't be easy rolling back the stone, Boy-lad," said the old man. "But they that are for us are more than they that are against us."
It was not often that Ernie misunderstood his father; but he did now.
"Yes," he said. "And they say the Italians are coming in too."
"The whole world must come in," replied the other, his cheeks rosying faintly with an enthusiasm which made him tremble. "And we must all push together." He made a motion with his hand—"English and Germans, Russians and Austrians, and roll it back, back, back! and topple it over into the abyss. And then the Dawn will break on the risen Lord."
Ernie went out into the passage. His mother in the kitchen was waiting for him. She looked almost forlorn, he noticed.
"Give me a kiss, Ern," she pleaded in sullen64 voice that quavered a little. "Don't let's part un-friends just now—you and me—After all, you're my first."
Ernie's eyes filled. He took her in his arms, this withered65 old woman, patted her on the back, kissed her white hair, her tired eyelids66.
"There!" he said. "I should knaw you arter all these years, Mum. Always making yourself twice the terror you are—and not meaning it."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
clattered
|
|
| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
trot
|
|
| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
frantically
|
|
| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
apron
|
|
| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
stumps
|
|
| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
unpacking
|
|
| n.取出货物，拆包[箱]v.从（包裹等）中取出（所装的东西），打开行李取出( unpack的现在分词 )；拆包；解除…的负担；吐露（心事等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
thronged
|
|
| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
battalion
|
|
| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
contemplating
|
|
| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
tormented
|
|
| 饱受折磨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
looming
|
|
| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
onlooker
|
|
| n.旁观者，观众 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
virility
|
|
| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
moot
|
|
| v.提出；adj.未决议的；n.大会；辩论会 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
jersey
|
|
| n.运动衫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
cymbals
|
|
| pl.铙钹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
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： |
|
|
|
|
21
forsake
|
|
| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
pang
|
|
| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
throb
|
|
| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
murmur
|
|
| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
shuffling
|
|
| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
brutality
|
|
| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
slate
|
|
| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
bustle
|
|
| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
confidential
|
|
| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
allied
|
|
| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
encumbered
|
|
| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
mischievous
|
|
| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
rippled
|
|
| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
maelstrom
|
|
| n.大乱动；大漩涡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
humbled
|
|
| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
twig
|
|
| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
hurled
|
|
| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
herd
|
|
| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
bleating
|
|
| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的现在分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
wrought
|
|
| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
grudgingly
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
instigated
|
|
| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
curtly
|
|
| adv.简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
maliciously
|
|
| adv.有敌意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
grimace
|
|
| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
inscribed
|
|
| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
infancy
|
|
| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
broils
|
|
| v.（用火）烤（焙、炙等）( broil的第三人称单数 )；使卷入争吵；使混乱；被烤（或炙） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
controversies
|
|
| 争论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
vein
|
|
| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
coaxed
|
|
| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
testament
|
|
| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
tranquil
|
|
| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
stagnation
|
|
| n. 停滞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
revolves
|
|
| v.（使）旋转( revolve的第三人称单数 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
assented
|
|
| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
sullen
|
|
| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
eyelids
|
|
| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |