His place of abode2 was in Staffordshire, on a morsel3 of freehold land of his own—appropriately called Salt Patch. Without being absolutely a miser4, he lived in the humblest manner, saw very little company; skillfully invested his money; and persisted in remaining a single man.
Toward eighteen hundred and forty he first felt the approach of the chronic5 malady6 which ultimately terminated his life. After trying what the medical men of his own locality could do for him, with very poor success, he met by accident with a doctor living in the western suburbs of London, who thoroughly7 understood his complaint. After some journeying backward and forward to consult this gentleman, he decided8 on retiring from business, and on taking up his abode within an easy distance of his medical man.
Finding a piece of freehold land to be sold in the neighborhood of Fulham, he bought it, and had a cottage residence built on it, under his own directions. He surrounded the whole—being a man singularly jealous of any intrusion on his retirement9, or of any chance observation of his ways and habits—with a high wall, which cost a large sum of money, and which was rightly considered a dismal10 and hideous11 object by the neighbors. When the new residence was completed, he called it after the name of the place in Staffordshire where he had made his money, and where he had lived during the happiest period of his life. His relatives, failing to understand that a question of sentiment was involved in this proceeding12, appealed to hard facts, and reminded him that there were no salt mines in the neighborhood. Reuben Limbrick answered, “So much the worse for the neighborhood”—and persisted in calling his property, “Salt Patch.”
The cottage was so small that it looked quite lost in the large garden all round it. There was a ground-floor and a floor above it—and that was all.
On either side of the passage, on the lower floor, were two rooms. At the right-hand side, on entering by the front-door, there was a kitchen, with its outhouses attached. The room next to the kitchen looked into the garden. In Reuben Limbrick’s time it was called the study and contained a small collection of books and a large store of fishing-tackle. On the left-hand side of the passage there was a drawing-room situated13 at the back of the house, and communicating with a dining-room in the front. On the upper floor there were five bedrooms—two on one side of the passage, corresponding in size with the dining-room and the drawing-room below, but not opening into each other; three on the other side of the passage, consisting of one larger room in front, and of two small rooms at the back. All these were solidly and completely furnished. Money had not been spared, and workmanship had not been stinted14. It was all substantial—and, up stairs and down stairs, it was all ugly.
The situation of Salt Patch was lonely. The lands of the market-gardeners separated it from other houses. Jealously surrounded by its own high walls, the cottage suggested, even to the most unimaginative persons, the idea of an asylum15 or a prison. Reuben Limbrick’s relatives, occasionally coming to stay with him, found the place prey16 on their spirits, and rejoiced when the time came for going home again. They were never pressed to stay against their will. Reuben Limbrick was not a hospitable17 or a sociable18 man. He set very little value on human sympathy, in his attacks of illness; and he bore congratulations impatiently, in his intervals19 of health. “I care about nothing but fishing,” he used to say. “I find my dog very good company. And I am quite happy as long as I am free from pain.”
On his death-bed, he divided his money justly enough among his relations. The only part of his Will which exposed itself to unfavorable criticism, was a clause conferring a legacy20 on one of his sisters (then a widow) who had estranged21 herself from her family by marrying beneath her. The family agreed in considering this unhappy person as undeserving of notice or benefit. Her name was Hester Dethridge. It proved to be a great aggravation22 of Hester’s offenses23, in the eyes of Hester’s relatives, when it was discovered that she possessed24 a life-interest in Salt Patch, and an income of two hundred a year.
Not visited by the surviving members of her family, living, literally25, by herself in the world, Hester decided, in spite of her comfortable little income, on letting lodgings26. The explanation of this strange conduct which she had written on her slate27, in reply to an inquiry28 from Anne, was the true one. “I have not got a friend in the world: I dare not live alone.” In that desolate29 situation, and with that melancholy30 motive31, she put the house into an agent’s hands. The first person in want of lodgings whom the agent sent to see the place was Perry the trainer; and Hester’s first tenant32 was Geoffrey Delamayn.
The rooms which the landlady33 reserved for herself were the kitchen, the room next to it, which had once been her brother’s “study,” and the two small back bedrooms up stairs—one for herself, the other for the servant-girl whom she employed to help her. The whole of the rest of the cottage was to let. It was more than the trainer wanted; but Hester Dethridge refused to dispose of her lodgings—either as to the rooms occupied, or as to the period for which they were to be taken—on other than her own terms. Perry had no alternative but to lose the advantage of the garden as a private training-ground, or to submit.
Being only two in number, the lodgers34 had three bedrooms to choose from. Geoffrey established himself in the back-room, over the drawing-room. Perry chose the front-room, placed on the other side of the cottage, next to the two smaller apartments occupied by Hester and her maid. Under this arrangement, the front bedroom, on the opposite side of the passage—next to the room in which Geoffrey slept—was left empty, and was called, for the time being, the spare room. As for the lower floor, the athlete and his trainer ate their meals in the dining-room; and left the drawing-room, as a needless luxury, to take care of itself.
The Foot-Race once over, Perry’s business at the cottage was at an end. His empty bedroom became a second spare room. The term for which the lodgings had been taken was then still unexpired. On the day after the race Geoffrey had to choose between sacrificing the money, or remaining in the lodgings by himself, with two spare bedrooms on his hands, and with a drawing-room for the reception of his visitors—who called with pipes in their mouths, and whose idea of hospitality was a pot of beer in the garden.
To use his own phrase, he was “out of sorts.” A sluggish35 reluctance36 to face change of any kind possessed him. He decided on staying at Salt Patch until his marriage to Mrs. Glenarm (which he then looked upon as a certainty) obliged him to alter his habits completely, once for all. From Fulham he had gone, the next day, to attend the inquiry in Portland Place. And to Fulham he returned, when he brought the wife who had been forced upon him to her “home.”
Such was the position of the tenant, and such were the arrangements of the interior of the cottage, on the memorable37 evening when Anne Silvester entered it as Geoffrey’s wife.
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1
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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miser
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| n.守财奴，吝啬鬼 (adj.miserly) | |
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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7
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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8
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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stinted
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| v.限制，节省（stint的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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sociable
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| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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aggravation
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| n.烦恼，恼火 | |
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offenses
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| n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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slate
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| 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 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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lodgers
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| n.房客，租住者( lodger的名词复数 ) | |
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sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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