The network of dismal7 streets stretching over the surrounding neighborhood contains a population for the most part of the poorer order. In the thoroughfares where shops abound8, the sordid9 struggle with poverty shows itself unreservedly on the filthy10 pavement; gathers its forces through the week; and, strengthening to a tumult12 on Saturday night, sees the Sunday morning dawn in murky13 gaslight. Miserable14 women, whose faces never smile, haunt the butchers’ shops in such London localities as these, with relics15 of the men’s wages saved from the public-house clutched fast in their hands, with eyes that devour16 the meat they dare not buy, with eager fingers that touch it covetously17, as the fingers of their richer sisters touch a precious stone. In this district, as in other districts remote from the wealthy quarters of the metropolis18, the hideous19 London vagabond—with the filth11 of the street outmatched in his speech, with the mud of the street outdirtied in his clothes—lounges, lowering and brutal20, at the street corner and the gin-shop door; the public disgrace of his country, the unheeded warning of social troubles that are yet to come. Here, the loud self-assertion of Modern Progress—which has reformed so much in manners, and altered so little in men—meets the flat contradiction that scatters21 its pretensions22 to the winds. Here, while the national prosperity feasts, like another Belshazzar, on the spectacle of its own magnificence, is the Writing on the Wall, which warns the monarch23, Money, that his glory is weighed in the balance, and his power found wanting.
Situated24 in such a neighborhood as this, Vauxhall Walk gains by comparison, and establishes claims to respectability which no impartial25 observation can fail to recognize. A large proportion of the Walk is still composed of private houses. In the scattered26 situations where shops appear, those shops are not besieged27 by the crowds of more populous28 thoroughfares. Commerce is not turbulent, nor is the public consumer besieged by loud invitations to “buy.” Bird-fanciers have sought the congenial tranquillity29 of the scene; and pigeons coo, and canaries twitter, in Vauxhall Walk. Second-hand30 carts and cabs, bedsteads of a certain age, detached carriage-wheels for those who may want one to make up a set, are all to be found here in the same repository. One tributary31 stream, in the great flood of gas which illuminates32 London, tracks its parent source to Works established in this locality. Here the followers33 of John Wesley have set up a temple, built before the period of Methodist conversion34 to the principles of architectural religion. And here—most striking object of all—on the site where thousands of lights once sparkled; where sweet sounds of music made night tuneful till morning dawned; where the beauty and fashion of London feasted and danced through the summer seasons of a century—spreads, at this day, an awful wilderness35 of mud and rubbish; the deserted36 dead body of Vauxhall Gardens mouldering37 in the open air.
On the same day when Captain Wragge completed the last entry in his Chronicle of Events, a woman appeared at the window of one of the houses in Vauxhall Walk, and removed from the glass a printed paper which had been wafered to it announcing that Apartments were to be let. The apartments consisted of two rooms on the first floor. They had just been taken for a week certain by two ladies who had paid in advance—those two ladies being Magdalen and Mrs. Wragge.
As soon as the mistress of the house had left the room, Magdalen walked to the window, and cautiously looked out from it at the row of buildings opposite. They were of superior pretensions in size and appearance to the other houses in the Walk: the date at which they had been erected38 was inscribed39 on one of them, and was stated to be the year 1759. They stood back from the pavement, separated from it by little strips of garden-ground. This peculiarity40 of position, added to the breadth of the roadway interposing between them and the smaller houses opposite, made it impossible for Magdalen to see the numbers on the doors, or to observe more of any one who might come to the windows than the bare general outline of dress and figure. Nevertheless, there she stood, anxiously fixing her eyes on one house in the row, nearly opposite to her—the house she had looked for before entering the lodgings41; the house inhabited at that moment by Noel Vanstone and Mrs. Lecount.
After keeping watch at the window in silence for ten minutes or more, she suddenly looked back into the room, to observe the effect which her behavior might have produced on her traveling companion.
Not the slightest cause appeared for any apprehension42 in that quarter. Mrs. Wragge was seated at the table absorbed in the arrangement of a series of smart circulars and tempting43 price-lists, issued by advertising44 trades-people, and flung in at the cab-windows as they left the London terminus. “I’ve often heard tell of light reading,” said Mrs. Wragge, restlessly shifting the positions of the circulars as a child restlessly shifts the position of a new set of toys. “Here’s light reading, printed in pretty colors. Here’s all the Things I’m going to buy when I’m out shopping to-morrow. Lend us a pencil, please—you won’t be angry, will you? I do so want to mark ‘em off.” She looked up at Magdalen, chuckled45 joyfully46 over her own altered circumstances, and beat her great hands on the table in irrepressible delight. “No cookery-book!” cried Mrs. Wragge. “No Buzzing in my head! no captain to shave to-morrow! I’m all down at heel; my cap’s on one side; and nobody bawls48 at me. My heart alive, here is a holiday and no mistake!” Her hands began to drum on the table louder than ever, until Magdalen quieted them by presenting her with a pencil. Mrs. Wragge instantly recovered her dignity, squared her elbows on the table, and plunged49 into imaginary shopping for the rest of the evening.
Magdalen returned to the window. She took a chair, seated herself behind the curtain, and steadily50 fixed51 her eyes once more on the house opposite.
The blinds were down over the windows of the first floor and the second. The window of the room on the ground-floor was uncovered and partly open, but no living creature came near it. Doors opened, and people came and went, in the houses on either side; children by the dozen poured out on the pavement to play, and invaded the little strips of garden-ground to recover lost balls and shuttlecocks; streams of people passed backward and forward perpetually; heavy wagons52 piled high with goods lumbered53 along the road on their way to, or their way from, the railway station near; all the daily life of the district stirred with its ceaseless activity in every direction but one. The hours passed—and there was the house opposite still shut up, still void of any signs of human existence inside or out. The one object which had decided54 Magdalen on personally venturing herself in Vauxhall Walk—the object of studying the looks, manners and habits of Mrs. Lecount and her master from a post of observation known only to herself—was thus far utterly55 defeated. After three hours’ watching at the window, she had not even discovered enough to show her that the house was inhabited at all.
Shortly after six o’clock, the landlady56 disturbed Mrs. Wragge’s studies by spreading the cloth for dinner. Magdalen placed herself at the table in a position which still enabled her to command the view from the window. Nothing happened. The dinner came to an end; Mrs. Wragge (lulled by the narcotic57 influence of annotating58 circulars, and eating and drinking with an appetite sharpened by the captain’s absence) withdrew to an arm-chair, and fell asleep in an attitude which would have caused her husband the acutest mental suffering; seven o’clock struck; the shadows of the summer evening lengthened59 stealthily on the gray pavement and the brown house-walls—and still the closed door opposite remained shut; still the one window open showed nothing but the black blank of the room inside, lifeless and changeless as if that room had been a tomb.
Mrs. Wragge’s meek60 snoring deepened in tone; the evening wore on drearily61; it was close on eight o’clock—when an event happened at last. The street door opposite opened for the first time, and a woman appeared on the threshold.
Was the woman Mrs. Lecount? No. As she came nearer, her dress showed her to be a servant. She had a large door-key in her hand, and was evidently going out to perform an errand. Roused partly by curiosity, partly by the impulse of the moment, which urged her impetuous nature into action after the passive endurance of many hours past, Magdalen snatched up her bonnet62, and determined63 to follow the servant to her destination, wherever it might be.
The woman led her to the great thoroughfare of shops close at hand, called Lambeth Walk. After proceeding64 some little distance, and looking about her with the hesitation65 of a person not well acquainted with the neighborhood, the servant crossed the road and entered a stationer’s shop. Magdalen crossed the road after her and followed her in.
The inevitable66 delay in entering the shop under these circumstances made Magdalen too late to hear what the woman asked for. The first words spoken, however, by the man behind the counter reached her ears, and informed her that the servant’s object was to buy a railway guide.
“Do you mean a Guide for this month or a Guide for July?” asked the shopman, addressing his customer.
“Master didn’t tell me which,” answered the woman. “All I know is, he’s going into the country the day after to-morrow.”
“The day after to-morrow is the first of July,” said the shopman. “The Guide your master wants is the Guide for the new month. It won’t be published till to-morrow.”
Engaging to call again on the next day, the servant left the shop, and took the way that led back to Vauxhall Walk.
Magdalen purchased the first trifle she saw on the counter, and hastily returned in the same direction. The discovery she had just made was of very serious importance to her; and she felt the necessity of acting67 on it with as little delay as possible.
On entering the front room at the lodgings she found Mrs. Wragge just awake, lost in drowsy68 bewilderment, with her cap fallen off on her shoulders, and with one of her shoes missing altogether. Magdalen endeavored to persuade her that she was tired after her journey, and that her wisest proceeding would be to go to bed. Mrs. Wragge was perfectly69 willing to profit by this suggestion, provided she could find her shoe first. In looking for the shoe, she unfortunately discovered the circulars, put by on a side-table, and forthwith recovered her recollection of the earlier proceedings70 of the evening.
“Give us the pencil,” said Mrs. Wragge, shuffling71 the circulars in a violent hurry. “I can’t go to bed yet—I haven’t half done marking down the things I want. Let’s see; where did I leave off? Try Finch’s feeding-bottle for Infants. No! there’s a cross against that: the cross means I don’t want it. Comfort in the Field. Buckler’s Indestructible Hunting-breeches. Oh dear, dear! I’ve lost the place. No, I haven’t. Here it is; here’s my mark against it. Elegant Cashmere Robes; strictly72 Oriental, very grand; reduced to one pound nineteen-and-sixpence. Be in time. Only three left. Only three! Oh, do lend us the money, and let’s go and get one!”
“Not to-night,” said Magdalen. “Suppose you go to bed now, and finish the circulars tomorrow? I will put them by the bedside for you, and you can go on with them as soon as you wake the first thing in the morning.”
This suggestion met with Mrs. Wragge’s immediate73 approval. Magdalen took her into the next room and put her to bed like a child—with her toys by her side. The room was so narrow, and the bed was so small; and Mrs. Wragge, arrayed in the white apparel proper for the occasion, with her moon-face framed round by a spacious74 halo of night-cap, looked so hugely and disproportionately large, that Magdalen, anxious as she was, could not repress a smile on taking leave of her traveling companion for the night.
“Aha!” cried Mrs. Wragge, cheerfully; “we’ll have that Cashmere Robe to-morrow. Come here! I want to whisper something to you. Just you look at me—I’m going to sleep crooked75, and the captain’s not here to bawl47 at me!”
The front room at the lodgings contained a sofa-bedstead which the landlady arranged betimes for the night. This done, and the candles brought in, Magdalen was left alone to shape the future course as her own thoughts counseled her.
The questions and answers which had passed in her presence that evening at the stationer’s shop led plainly to the conclusion that one day more would bring Noel Vanstone’s present term of residence in Vauxhall Walk to an end. Her first cautious resolution to pass many days together in unsuspected observation of the house opposite before she ventured herself inside was entirely76 frustrated77 by the turn events had taken. She was placed in the dilemma78 of running all risks headlong on the next day, or of pausing for a future opportunity which might never occur. There was no middle course open to her. Until she had seen Noel Vanstone with her own eyes, and had discovered the worst there was to fear from Mrs. Lecount—until she had achieved this double object, with the needful precaution of keeping her own identity carefully in the dark—not a step could she advance toward the accomplishment79 of the purpose which had brought her to London.
One after another the minutes of the night passed away; one after another the thronging80 thoughts followed each other over her mind—and still she reached no conclusion; still she faltered81 and doubted, with a hesitation new to her in her experience of herself. At last she crossed the room impatiently to seek the trivial relief of unlocking her trunk and taking from it the few things that she wanted for the night. Captain Wragge’s suspicions had not misled him. There, hidden between two dresses, were the articles of costume which he had missed from her box at Birmingham. She turned them over one by one, to satisfy herself that nothing she wanted had been forgotten, and returned once more to her post of observation by the window.
The house opposite was dark down to the parlor82. There the blind, previously83 raised, was now drawn84 over the window: the light burning behind it showed her for the first time that the room was inhabited. Her eyes brightened, and her color rose as she looked at it.
“There he is!” she said to herself, in a low, angry whisper. “There he lives on our money, in the house that his father’s warning has closed against me!” She dropped the blind which she had raised to look out, returned to her trunk, and took from it the gray wig85 which was part of her dramatic costume in the character of the North-country lady. The wig had been crumpled86 in packing; she put it on and went to the toilet-table to comb it out. “His father has warned him against Magdalen Vanstone,” she said, repeating the passage in Mrs. Lecount’s letter, and laughing bitterly, as she looked at herself in the glass. “I wonder whether his father has warned him against Miss Garth? To-morrow is sooner than I bargained for. No matter: to-morrow shall show.”
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1
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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3
utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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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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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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14
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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covetously
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| adv.妄想地，贪心地 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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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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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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scatters
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| v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒 | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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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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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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tributary
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| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
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illuminates
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| v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 )；照亮；装饰；说明 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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mouldering
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| v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 )；腐烂，崩塌 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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45
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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bawl
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| v.大喊大叫，大声地喊，咆哮 | |
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bawls
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的第三人称单数 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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49
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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50
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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51
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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52
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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53
lumbered
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| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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narcotic
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| n.麻醉药，镇静剂；adj.麻醉的，催眠的 | |
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annotating
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| v.注解，注释( annotate的现在分词 ) | |
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59
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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drearily
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| 沉寂地，厌倦地，可怕地 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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66
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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67
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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69
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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71
shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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72
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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73
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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74
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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75
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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76
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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77
frustrated
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| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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thronging
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的现在分词 ) | |
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81
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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82
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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84
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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