Next morning after breakfast, however, he made a vigorous effort to induce Walter Tyrrel to mount the cliff and look at the view from Penmorgan Point toward the Rill and Kynance. It was absurd, he said truly, for the proprietor2 of such an estate never to have seen the most beautiful spot in it. But Tyrrel was obdurate3. On the point of actually mounting the cliff itself he wouldn’t yield one jot4 or tittle. Only, after much persuasion5, he consented at last to cross the headland by the fields at the back and come out at the tor above St. Michael’s Crag, provided always Eustace would promise he’d neither go near the edge himself nor try to induce his friend to approach it.
Satisfied with this lame6 compromise—for he really wished his host to enjoy that glorious view—Eustace Le Neve turned up the valley behind the house, with Walter Tyrrel by his side, and after traversing several fields, through gaps in the stone walls, led out his companion at last to the tor on the headland.
As they approached it from behind, the engineer observed, not without a faint thrill of pleasure, that Trevennack’s stately figure stood upright as before upon the wind-swept pile of fissured7 rocks, and that Cleer sat reading under its shelter to leeward8. But by her side this morning sat also an elder lady, whom Eustace instinctively9 recognized as her mother—a graceful10, dignified11 lady, with silvery white hair and black Cornish eyes, and features not untinged by the mellowing12, hallowing air of a great sorrow.
Le Neve raised his hat as they drew near, with a pleased smile of welcome, and Trevennack and his daughter both bowed in return. “A glorious morning!” the engineer said, drinking in to the full the lovely golden haze13 that flooded and half-obscured the Land’s End district; and Trevennack assented14 gravely. “The crag stands up well in this sunshine against the dark water behind,” he said, waving one gracious hand toward the island at his foot, and poising16 lighter17 than ever.
“Oh, take care!” Walter Tyrrel cried, looking up at him, on tenterhooks18. “It’s so dangerous up there! You might tumble any minute.”
“I never tumble,” Trevennack made answer with solemn gravity, spreading one hand on either side as if to balance himself like an acrobat19. But he descended20 as he spoke21 and took his place beside them.
Tyrrel looked at the view and looked at the pretty girl. It was evident he was quite as much struck by the one as by the other. Indeed, of the two, Cleer seemed to attract the larger share of his attention. For some minutes they stood and talked, all five of them together, without further introduction than their common admiration22 for that exquisite23 bay, in which Trevennack appeared to take an almost proprietary24 interest. It gratified him, obviously, a Cornish man, that these strangers (as he thought them) should be so favorably impressed by his native county. But Tyrrel all the while looked ill at ease, though he sidled away as far as possible from the edge of the cliff, and sat down near Cleer at a safe distance from the precipice25. He was silent and preoccupied26. That mattered but little, however, as the rest did all the talking, especially Trevennack, who turned out to be indeed a perfect treasure-house of Cornish antiquities27 and Cornish folk-lore.
“I generally stand below, on top of Michael’s Crag,” he said to Eustace, pointing it out, “when the tide allows it; but when it’s high, as it is now, such a roaring and seething28 scour29 sets through the channel between the rock and the mainland that no swimmer could stem it; and then I come up here, and look down from above upon it. It’s the finest point on all our Cornish coast, this point we stand on. It has the widest view, the purest air, the hardest rock, the highest and most fantastic tor of any of them.”
“My husband’s quite an enthusiast30 for this particular place,” Mrs. Trevennack interposed, watching his face as she spoke with a certain anxious and ill-disguised wifely solicitude31.
“He’s come here for years. It has many associations for us.”
“Some painful and some happy,” Cleer added, half aloud; and Tyrrel, nodding assent15, looked at her as if expecting some marked recognition.
“You should see it in the pilchard season,” her father went on, turning suddenly to Eustace with much animation32 in his voice. “That’s the time for Cornwall—a month or so later than now—you should see it then, for picturesqueness33 and variety. ‘When the corn is in the shock,’ says our Cornish rhyme, ‘Then the fish are off the rock’—and the rock’s St. Michael’s. The HUER, as we call him, for he gives the hue34 and cry from the hill-top lookout35 when the fish are coming, he stands on Michael’s Crag just below there, as I stand myself so often, and when he sights the shoals by the ripple36 on the water, he motions to the boats which way to go for the pilchards. Then the rowers in the lurkers, as we call our seine-boats, surround the shoal with a tuck-net, or drag the seine into Mullion Cove37, all alive with a mass of shimmering38 silver. The jowsters come down with their carts on to the beach, and hawk39 them about round the neighborhood—I’ve seen them twelve a penny; while in the curing-houses they’re bulking them and pressing them as if for dear life, to send away to Genoa, Leghorn, and Naples. That’s where all our fish go—to the Catholic south. ‘The Pope and the Pilchards,’ says our Cornish toast; for it’s the Friday fast that makes our only market.”
“You can see them on St. George’s Island in Looe Harbor,” Cleer put in quite innocently. “They’re like a sea of silver there—on St. George’s Island.”
“My dear,” her father corrected with that grave, old-fashioned courtesy which the coast-guard had noted40 and described as at once so haughty41 and yet so condescending42, “how often I’ve begged of you NOT to call it St. George’s Island! It’s St. Nicholas’ and St. Michael’s—one may as well be correct—and till a very recent date a chapel43 to St. Michael actually stood there upon the rocky top; it was only destroyed, you remember, at the time of the Reformation.”
“Everybody CALLS it St. George’s now,” Cleer answered, with girlish persistence44. And her father looked round at her sharply, with an impatient snap of the fingers, while Mrs. Trevennack’s eye was fixed45 on him now more carefully and more earnestly, Tyrrel observed, than ever.
“I wonder why it is,” Eustace Le Neve interposed, to spare Cleer’s feelings, “that so many high places, tops of mountains and so forth46, seem always to be dedicated47 to St. Michael in particular? He seems to love such airy sites. There’s St. Michael’s Mount here, you know, and Mont St. Michel in Normandy; and at Le Puy, in Auvergne, there’s a St. Michael’s Rock, and at ever so many other places I can’t remember this minute.”
Trevennack was in his element. The question just suited him. He smiled a curious smile of superior knowledge. “You’ve come to the right place for information,” he said, blandly48, turning round to the engineer. “I’m a Companion of St. Michael and St. George myself, and my family, as I told you, once owned St. Michael’s Mount; so, for that and various other reasons, I’ve made a special study of St. Michael the Archangel, and all that pertains49 to him.” And then he went on to give a long and learned disquisition, which Le Neve and Walter Tyrrel only partially50 followed, about the connection between St. Michael and the Celtic race, as well as about the archangel’s peculiar51 love for high and airy situations. Most of the time, indeed, Le Neve was more concerned in watching Cleer Trevennack’s eyes, as her father spoke, than in listening to the civil servant’s profound dissertation52. He gathered, however, from the part he caught, that St. Michael the Archangel had been from early days a very important and powerful Cornish personage, and that he clung to high places on the tors and rocks because he had to fight and subdue53 the Prince of the Air, whom he always destroyed at last on some pointed54 pinnacle55. And now that he came to think of it, Eustace vaguely56 recollected57 he had always seen St. Michael, in pictures or stained glass windows, delineated just so—with drawn58 sword and warrior’s mien—in the act of triumphing over his dragon-like enemy on the airy summit of some tall jagged crag or rock-bound precipice.
As for Mrs. Trevennack, she watched her husband every moment he spoke with a close and watchful59 care, which Le Neve hardly noticed, but which didn’t for a minute escape Walter Tyrrel’s more piercing and observant scrutiny60.
At last, as the amateur lecturer was beginning to grow somewhat prolix61, a cormorant62 below created a slight diversion for awhile by settling in his flight on the very highest point of Michael’s Crag, and proceeding63 to preen64 his glittering feathers in the full golden flood of that bright August sunlight.
With irrepressible boyish instinct Le Neve took up a stone, and was just on the point of aiming it (quite without reason) at the bird on the pinnacle.
But before he could let it go, the two other men, moved as if by a single impulse, had sprung forward with a bound, and in the self-same tone and in the self-same words cried out with one accord, in a wildly excited voice, “For God’s sake, don’t throw! You don’t know how dangerous it is!”
Le Neve let his hand drop flat, and allowed the stone to fall from it. As he did so the two others stood back a pace, as if guarding him, but kept their hands still ready to seize the engineer’s arm if he made the slightest attempt at motion. Eustace felt they were watching him as one might watch a madman. For a moment they were silent. Trevennack was the first to speak. His voice had an earnest and solemn ring in it, like a reproving angel’s. “How can you tell what precious life may be passing below?” he said, with stern emphasis, fixing Le Neve with his reproachful eye. “The stone might fall short. It might drop out of sight. You might kill whomsoever it struck, unseen. And then”—he drank in a deep breath, gasping—“you would know you were a murderer.”
Walter Tyrrel drew himself up at the words like one stung. “No, no! not a murderer!” he cried; “not quite as bad as a murderer! It wouldn’t be murder, surely. It would be accidental homicide—unintentional, unwilled—a terrible result of most culpable65 carelessness, of course; but it wouldn’t be quite murder; don’t call it murder. I can’t allow that. Not that name by any means.... Though to the end of your life, Eustace, if you were to kill a man so, you’d never cease to regret it and mourn over it daily; you’d never cease to repent66 your guilty carelessness in sackcloth and ashes.”
He spoke so seriously, so earnestly, with such depth of personal feeling, that Trevennack, starting back, stood and gazed at him slowly with those terrible eyes, like one who awakens67 by degrees from a painful dream to some awful reality. Tyrrel winced68 before his scrutiny. For a moment the elder man just looked at him and stared. Then he took one step forward. “Sir,” he said, in a very low voice, half broken with emotion, “I had a dear son of my own once; a very dear, dear son. He was killed by such an ACCIDENT on this very spot. No wonder I remember it.”
Mrs. Trevennack and Cleer both gave a start of surprise. The man’s words astonished them; for never before, during fifteen long years, had that unhappy father alluded69 in any way in overt70 words to his son’s tragic71 end. He had brooded and mused72 over it in his crushed and wounded spirit; he had revisited the scene of his loss whenever opportunity permitted him; he had made of his sorrow a cherished and petted daily companion; but he had stored it up deep in his own inmost heart, never uttering a word of it even to his wife or daughter. The two women knew Michael Trevennack must be profoundly moved, indeed, so to tear open the half-healed wound in his tortured bosom73 before two casual strangers.
But Tyrrel, too, gave a start as he spoke, and looked hard at the careworn74 face of that unhappy man. “Then you’re Mr. Trevennack!” he exclaimed, all aghast. “Mr. Trevennack of the Admiralty!”
And the dignified stranger answered, bowing his head very low, “Yes, you’ve guessed me right. I’m Michael Trevennack.”
With scarcely a word of reply Walter Tyrrel turned and strode away from the spot. “I must go now,” he muttered faintly, looking at his watch with some feigned75 surprise, as a feeble excuse. “I’ve an appointment at home.” He hadn’t the courage to stay. His heart misgave76 him. Once fairly round the corner he fled like a wounded creature, too deeply hurt even to cry. Eustace Le Neve, raising his hat, hastened after him, all mute wonder. For several hundred yards they walked on side by side across the open heathy moor77. Then, as they passed the first wall, Tyrrel paused for a moment and spoke. “NOT a murderer!” he cried in his anguish78; “oh, no, not quite as bad as a murderer, surely, Eustace; but still, a culpable homicide. Oh, God, how terrible.”
And even as he disappeared across the moor to eastward79, Trevennack, far behind, seized his wife’s arm spasmodically, and clutching it tight in his iron grip, murmured low in a voice of supreme80 conviction, “Do you see what that means, Lucy? I can read it all now. It was HE who rolled down that cursed stone. It was HE who killed our boy. And I can guess who he is. He must be Tyrrel of Penmorgan.”
Cleer didn’t hear the words. She was below, gazing after them.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
lizard
|
|
| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
proprietor
|
|
| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
obdurate
|
|
| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
jot
|
|
| n.少量；vi.草草记下；vt.匆匆写下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
persuasion
|
|
| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
lame
|
|
| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
fissured
|
|
| adj.裂缝的v.裂开( fissure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
leeward
|
|
| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
instinctively
|
|
| adv.本能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
dignified
|
|
| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
mellowing
|
|
| 软化，醇化 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
haze
|
|
| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
assented
|
|
| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
assent
|
|
| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
poising
|
|
| 使平衡( poise的现在分词 )； 保持（某种姿势）； 抓紧； 使稳定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
lighter
|
|
| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tenterhooks
|
|
| n.坐立不安 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
acrobat
|
|
| n.特技演员，杂技演员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
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： |
|
|
|
|
22
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
exquisite
|
|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
proprietary
|
|
| n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
precipice
|
|
| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
preoccupied
|
|
| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
antiquities
|
|
| n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
seething
|
|
| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
scour
|
|
| v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
enthusiast
|
|
| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
solicitude
|
|
| n.焦虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
animation
|
|
| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
picturesqueness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
hue
|
|
| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
lookout
|
|
| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
ripple
|
|
| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
cove
|
|
| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
shimmering
|
|
| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
hawk
|
|
| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
haughty
|
|
| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
condescending
|
|
| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
persistence
|
|
| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
dedicated
|
|
| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
blandly
|
|
| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
pertains
|
|
| 关于( pertain的第三人称单数 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
partially
|
|
| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
dissertation
|
|
| n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
subdue
|
|
| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
pinnacle
|
|
| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
recollected
|
|
| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
scrutiny
|
|
| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
prolix
|
|
| adj.罗嗦的；冗长的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
cormorant
|
|
| n.鸬鹚，贪婪的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
proceeding
|
|
| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
preen
|
|
| v.（人）打扮修饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
culpable
|
|
| adj.有罪的，该受谴责的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
repent
|
|
| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
awakens
|
|
| v.（使）醒( awaken的第三人称单数 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
winced
|
|
| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
alluded
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
overt
|
|
| adj.公开的，明显的，公然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
careworn
|
|
| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
feigned
|
|
| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
misgave
|
|
| v.使（某人的情绪、精神等）疑虑，担忧，害怕( misgive的过去式 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
anguish
|
|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
eastward
|
|
| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |