"Hello, Johnnie! What's the matter with Marielihou?" asked Graeme. And Marielihou turned her malevolent4 yellow-green eyes on him and looked curses.
"Goderabetin! She've got hurt."
"Oh! How was that?"
"I d'n know. Wisht I knowed who done it;" and just then, as luck would have it, old Tom Hamon came sauntering along in the gloaming, smoking a contemplative pipe with long slow puffs5.
And at sight of him Marielihou ruffled6 and swelled7 to twice her size, and raked up most horrible and blood-curdling oaths from away down in her inside into her black throat, and spat8 them out at him, as he came up, in a fusillade that sounded like ripraps, and her eyes flamed baleful fires.
"Cuss away, y'ould witch!" said old Tom, with a grin through his pipe-stem. "How's the leg?" and Marielihou with a final volley disappeared among the bushes, and Johnnie crawled after her.
"What on earth does he mean?" whispered Meg.
"Mr. Hamon has an idea that Marielihou and old Mme. Vautrin have something in common. In fact I believe he goes so far as to say that they are one and the same. Black magic, you know,—witchcraft, and all that kind of thing."
"How horrid9!"
"B'en!" chuckled10 old Tom again. "You find out how 'tis with th' old witch. We know how 'tis with Marrlyou. 'Twere the silver bullet did it. If sh' 'adn't jumped 'twould ha' gone through 'er 'ead," and he went off chuckling11 through his pipe-stem.
And the next evening, as they were sauntering slowly through the darkening lanes to the windmill, to see the life-lights flash out all round the horizon, it happened that they met the doctor just turning out of his gate.
"Hello, doctor! How's old Mme. Vautrin to-day?" asked Graeme.
"She's going on all right," said the doctor, with a touch of surprise. "There seems a quite unusual amount of interest in that old lady all of a sudden. How is it?"
"What is it's wrong with her?"
And the doctor eyed him curiously12 for a moment, and then said, "Well, she says she hurt her leg ormering, slipped on a rock and got the hook in it. But—Well, it's a bad leg anyway, and she won't go ormering or anything else for a good long time to come."
Which matter, in the light of old Tom Hamon's silver bullets and evident knowledge of Marielihou's injury, left them all very much puzzled, though, as Graeme acknowledged, there might be nothing in it after all.
点击收听单词发音
1 ramble | |
v.漫步,漫谈,漫游;n.漫步,闲谈,蔓延 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 hind | |
adj.后面的,后部的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 malevolent | |
adj.有恶意的,恶毒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 puffs | |
n.吸( puff的名词复数 );(烟斗或香烟的)一吸;一缕(烟、蒸汽等);(呼吸或风的)呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 ruffled | |
adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 spat | |
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 chuckled | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 chuckling | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |