“Hullo!” said Myddleton West.
“Excuse me interrupting, sir, in your writing work.”
“Doesn’t matter, Miss Langley.”
“As I often say to my sister,” persisted the thin lady at the doorway10, “no one can possibly write sense if they’re to be continually broken in on—if I may use the expression—and—”
“Somebody called to see me?” asked West, patiently.
“And badgered out of their life,” concluded the lady. “I’m sure writing must be quite sufficient a tax on the brains without—”
“Miss Langley.”
“Sir to you.”
“Do I understand that some one has called to see me?”
“Mr. West,” confessed Miss Langley, with a burst of frankness, “some one has called to see you.”
“Then,” said Myddleton West, definitely, “show them up.”
“It isn’t a them, sir, it’s only a bit of a lad.”
“Very well, show him up.”
West finished the sentence which he had commenced, and then, hearing a slipping footstep, swung round in his chair again. A boy in a long worn frock-coat, his bowler11 hat dented12, stood at the doorway, white of face, his under lip not quite under control.
“Wha’ cheer?” said the boy with an effort to appear at ease. “How goes it with you?”
“Wait a bit,” said Myddleton West, rising and standing13 in front of the fireplace. “Let me see now if I can remember you. Take off your hat.” West dropped his pince-nez and peered across the room at the boy. “I’ll have three shots,” he said presently. “Your name is Cumberland.”
“Not a bit like it.”
“I met you—let me see—at an inquest in Hoxton some years ago; I saw you later at the police station.”
“You’re getting warmer. Now try the letter L.”
“And your name is Lincoln.”
“Bit more to the left.”
“Lancaster!”
“A bull’s-eye!” said the white-faced boy approvingly. “What’ll you ’ave, cigar or a cokernut?” He staggered a little and caught the back of the chair.
p. 71“Hungry?” asked West sharply.
“You are a good guesser,” replied Bobbie, slipping to the chair. “I ’aven’t had a thing to eat for—for a day and a half.”
Myddleton West snatched a serviette from the drawer and spread it on the table in front of the boy. In another moment half a loaf of bread, a knuckle14 of ham, and cheese were on the serviette; in much less than another moment Bobbie had commenced.
“Excuse me wolfin’ me food,” said the boy with his mouth full. “Don’t suppose you know what it is to be famishing. I’ve had rather rough times the last few days.”
“But you went to the Poor Law schools surely. Did you run away?”
“Yes,” said Bobbie ruefully. “And I wish now I hadn’t. Can I trouble you for a glass of water, sir?”
“Like some lemonade?” asked Myddleton West.
“So long as it’s moist, sir, and there’s plenty of it, I don’t mind what it is.”
“And you’re not getting on well as an independent man?”
“I’m getting on,” said Bobbie, holding up the glass with a trembling hand, “pretty awful.” He drank and smacked15 his lips appreciatively, “Ah!” he said, “that’s something like!”
“Eat slowly.”
“Does it matter if I finish the bread, sir?”
“I shall be disappointed if you don’t.”
“Then rather’n cause you any annoyance16,” said Bobbie with reviving spirits, “I’ll undertake to clear it all up.”
The meal finished, the boy asked for a cigarette, and, smoking this with great enjoyment17, told Myddleton West his adventures. The journey back from Brenchley had not been without drawbacks. At Orpington, Bobbie had interfered on behalf of the gipsy’s wife, with the perfectly18 natural result that she had turned on him indignantly, and both man and wife had, in turns, thrashed him, and had then started him adrift without his cornet. From Orpington to London he had walked.
“And now,” said Bobbie—“and now my difficulty is how to get back to the ’omes without looking a silly fool. What would you advise, sir?”
“I should send a wire,” counselled Myddleton West promptly19. “Apologize for your absence, and say that you will be there in a few hours.”
“It’d pave the way a bit,” acknowledged the boy.
“Here’s a form. Write the address of the Superintendent20.”
“You must tell us what else to say.”
The telegram drawn21 up on the dictation of the newspaper man, seemed to Bobbie an admirable document; one calculated to remove difficulties. Miss Langley being summoned, the boy was conveyed to the kitchen downstairs, where, furnished with a cake of yellow soap, he remained under the tap for about ten minutes. This so much improved his appearance that when Myddleton West started with him to take train at Blackfriars, the two sisters forced upon his acceptance a triangular22 chunk23 of seed cake and a gay almanack with a portrait of the Princess of Wales, which Bobbie decided24 to take as a propitiatory25 offering to the mother of Collingwood Cottage. The telegram was despatched from an office in Fleet Street after Bobbie had read it through once more with increased satisfaction.
p. 72“It ain’t too humble,” he said approvingly, “and it ain’t too much the other way. Seems to me to hit the ’appy medium.”
The fares from Temple Station to Bishopsgate and from Liverpool Street to the destination being ascertained26 from a railway time book, Bobbie agreed to accept from Myddleton West the precise amount and no more. He showed gratitude27 with less reserve than he would have exhibited in the years before he entered the Homes, and, as he trotted28 beside the long-legged journalist, he endeavoured politely to find a subject for conversation that would be pleasing to his companion.
“How are you getting along with your young lady, sir?” he asked with interest.
“No progress,” replied West.
“You don’t go the right way to work,” said Bobbie knowingly. “Women folk can be managed if you only exercise a bit of what I call ingenuity29.”
“I am always willing, Master Lancaster, to listen to the voice of experience.”
“What you want to do,” said the young sage30, changing step as they went down Arundel Street, “is to be artful without lettin’ ’em see that you’re artful.”
“I know of no plan,” said West, “by which, under modern conditions, you can force a lady to marry you if she has decided not to do so.”
“Pretend there’s another lady,” suggested Bobbie;
“Always a risk that the announcement may be received with undisguised satisfaction.”
“Can but give it a trial,” urged Bobbie. “If she’s an ordinary sort of young lady, strikes me she’ll marry you like a shot. Is this my station?”
“This is the Temple Station,” said West. “Buy your ticket and be careful not to get out of the train before you get to Bishopsgate.”
“All right,” said Bobbie. “I’m old enough to take care of meself.”
“Let me know that you get down safely.”
“I shall be as right as rain now. I feel like twenty shillings in the pound since I saw you, sir.”
“Good-bye,” said Myddleton West, holding out his hand, “and good luck to you.”
“Good-bye,” said Bobbie, taking the hand awkwardly, “and good luck to you, sir. You know what I mean. And I’m—I’m very much obliged for all your—”
“There’s a train coming,” interrupted West. “Down you go.”
Bobbie, seated near the window of the impetuous underground train, held tightly the large card intender for the mother of Collingwood Cottage, and as he read advertisements in the compartment31 congratulated himself on the change of circumstances that had come to him within the last hour. He felt grateful for this, and decided that once safely back in the homes and enjoying the sunshine of favour again, he would comport32 himself in a manner that would be gratifying to those who wished him well. The bitter days of the journey up from Brenchley had proved to him that the world was full of unforeseen and highly inconvenient33 rocks for a boy who had no one to pilot him; he must wait until he became older before he courted the responsibility of taking charge of himself. In less than an hour he would be through the gates of the Homes; the delicate matter of his return would be all over, and the past few days could be sponged from p. 73memory. So far as concerned the underground railway there could be no complaint of delay, for the train seemed in a great hurry to get round the circle, stopping momentarily at one or two stations in a breathless, panting manner, as who should say, Oh, for goodness sake, don’t stop me, I’m behind-hand as it is, some other time I’ll come round and stay, but just now really—
Other passengers in the compartment went out at one of the stations, and Bobbie stood up at the open window as the train hurried through the black smoky tunnel. The train pulled up, gasping34, at another station, starting again immediately with a rough jerk that knocked the card out of Bobbie’s hand on to the platform. He jumped out, picked up the portrait and attempted to re-enter the compartment. The porters shouted,—
“Stan’ away from the train there!”
“Stan’ away, can’t you, stan’ away!”
“Whoa! Stop! You’ll break the door!”
The train pulled up suddenly in a great state of annoyance. At the end of the platform, where the black tunnel began, the boy had been flung and lay a mere35 bundle on the platform. The carriage door closed; the train went on into the tunnel ill-temperedly. The entire staff and a few stray passengers surrounded the senseless bundle on the platform.
“Here,” said the inspector36 to one of the porters, “you’re a ‘first aid’ man. See if you can tell what the damage is.”
“He’s ’urt,” said the “first aid” man, with a professional air.
“Yes, yes,” remarked the inspector, “we could have all guessed that.”
“It’s a case for the ’ospital,” said the “first aid” man cautiously. “I don’t feel justified37 in trying my ’and at it.”
“Then,” said the inspector, “fetch the ambulance cart, someone, for the poor little beggar, and let’s get him there as quick as possible. We can’t have passengers dying about here.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
fetter
|
|
| n./vt.脚镣，束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
chambers
|
|
| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
interfered
|
|
| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
inordinate
|
|
| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
ward
|
|
| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
aerated
|
|
| v.使暴露于空气中，使充满气体( aerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
quaint
|
|
| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
contentious
|
|
| adj.好辩的，善争吵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
enchanted
|
|
| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
bowler
|
|
| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
dented
|
|
| v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
knuckle
|
|
| n.指节；vi.开始努力工作；屈服，认输 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
smacked
|
|
| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
enjoyment
|
|
| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
promptly
|
|
| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
superintendent
|
|
| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
triangular
|
|
| adj.三角（形）的，三者间的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
chunk
|
|
| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
propitiatory
|
|
| adj.劝解的；抚慰的；谋求好感的；哄人息怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
ascertained
|
|
| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
trotted
|
|
| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
ingenuity
|
|
| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
sage
|
|
| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
compartment
|
|
| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
comport
|
|
| vi.相称，适合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
inconvenient
|
|
| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
gasping
|
|
| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |