I am inclined, on reflection, to suspect that she is quite clever enough to have discovered that I hate her—and that many of the aggravating1 things she says and does are assumed, out of retaliation2, for the purpose of making me angry. That ugly face is a double face, or I am much mistaken.
To return to the dinner-table, Miss Jillgall addressed herself, with an air of playful penitence3, to my father.
“Dear cousin, I hope I have not done wrong. Helena left me all by myself. When I had finished darning the curtain, I really didn’t know what to do. So I opened all the bedroom doors upstairs and looked into the rooms. In the big room with two beds—oh, I am so ashamed—I found this book. Please look at the first page.”
My father looked at the title-page: “Doctor Watts’s Hymns4. Well, Selina, what is there to be ashamed of in this?”
“Oh, no! no! It’s the wrong page. Do look at the other page—the one that comes first before that one.”
My patient father turned to the blank page.
“Ah,” he said quietly, “my other daughter’s name is written in it—the daughter whom you have not seen. Well?”
Miss Jillgall clasped her hands distractedly. “It’s my ignorance I’m so ashamed of. Dear cousin, forgive me, enlighten me. I don’t know how to pronounce your other daughter’s name. Do you call her Euneece?”
The dinner was getting cold. I was provoked into saying: “No, we don’t.”
She had evidently not forgiven me for leaving her by herself. “Pardon me, Helena, when I want information I don’t apply to you: I sit, as it were, at the feet of your learned father. Dear cousin, is it—”
Even my father declined to wait for his dinner any longer. “Pronounce it as you like, Selina. Here we say Euni’ce—with the accent on the ‘i’ and with the final ‘e’ sounded: Eu-ni’-see. Let me give you some soup.”
Miss Jillgall groaned5. “Oh, how difficult it seems to be! Quite beyond my poor brains! I shall ask the dear girl’s leave to call her Euneece. What very strong soup! Isn’t it rather a waste of meat? Give me a little more, please.”
I discovered another of Miss Jillgall’s peculiarities6. Her appetite was enormous, and her ways were greedy. You heard her eat her soup. She devoured7 the food on her plate with her eyes before she put it into her mouth; and she criticised our English cookery in the most impudent8 manner, under pretense9 of asking humbly10 how it was done. There was, however, some temporary compensation for this. We had less of her talk while she was eating her dinner.
With the removal of the cloth, she recovered the use of her tongue; and she hit on the one subject of all others which proves to be the sorest trial to my father’s patience.
“And now, dear cousin, let us talk of your other daughter, our absent Euneece. I do so long to see her. When is she coming back?”
“In a few days more.”
“How glad I am! And do tell me—which is she? Your oldest girl or your youngest?”
“Neither the one nor the other, Selina.”
“Oh, my head! my head! This is even worse than the accent on the ‘i’ and the final ‘e.’ Stop! I am cleverer than I thought I was. You mean that the girls are twins. Are they both so exactly like each other that I shan’t know which is which? What fun!”
When the subject of our ages was unluckily started at Mrs. Staveley’s, I had slipped out of the difficulty easily by assuming the character of the eldest11 sister—an example of ready tact12 which my dear stupid Eunice doesn’t understand. In my father’s presence, it is needless to say that I kept silence, and left it to him. I was sorry to be obliged to do this. Owing to his sad state of health, he is easily irritated—especially by inquisitive13 strangers.
“I must leave you,” he answered, without taking the slightest notice of what Miss Jillgall had said to him. “My work is waiting for me.”
She stopped him on his way to the door. “Oh, tell me—can’t I help you?”
“Thank you; no.”
“Well—but tell me one thing. Am I right about the twins?”
“You are wrong.”
Miss Jillgall’s demonstrative hands flew up into the air again, and expressed the climax14 of astonishment15 by quivering over her head. “This is positively16 maddening,” she declared. “What does it mean?”
“Take my advice, cousin. Don’t attempt to find out what it means.”
He left the room. Miss Jillgall appealed to me. I imitated my father’s wise brevity of expression: “Sorry to disappoint you, Selina; I know no more about it than you do. Come upstairs.”
Every step of the way up to the drawing-room was marked by a protest or an inquiry17. Did I expect her to believe that I couldn’t say which of us was the elder of the two? that I didn’t really know what my father’s motive18 was for this extraordinary mystification? that my sister and I had submitted to be robbed, as it were, of our own ages, and had not insisted on discovering which of us had come into the world first? that our friends had not put an end to this sort of thing by comparing us personally, and discovering which was the elder sister by investigation19 of our faces? To all this I replied: First, that I did certainly expect her to believe whatever I might say: Secondly20, that what she was pleased to call the “mystification” had begun when we were both children; that habit had made it familiar to us in the course of years; and above all, that we were too fond of our good father to ask for explanations which we knew by experience would distress21 him: Thirdly, that friends did try to discover, by personal examination, which was the elder sister, and differed perpetually in their conclusions; also that we had amused ourselves by trying the same experiment before our looking-glasses, and that Eunice thought Helena was the oldest, and Helena thought Eunice was the oldest: Fourthly (and finally), that the Reverend Mr. Gracedieu’s cousin had better drop the subject, unless she was bent22 on making her presence in the house unendurable to the Reverend Mr. Gracedieu himself.
I write it with a sense of humiliation23; Miss Jillgall listened attentively24 to all I had to say—and then took me completely by surprise. This inquisitive, meddlesome25, restless, impudent woman suddenly transformed herself into a perfect model of amiability26 and decorum. She actually said she agreed with me, and was much obliged for my good advice!
A stupid young woman, in my place, would have discovered that this was not natural, and that Miss Jillgall was presenting herself to me in disguise, to reach some secret end of her own. I am not a stupid young woman; I ought to have had at my service penetration27 enough to see through and through Cousin Selina. Well! Cousin Selina was an impenetrable mystery to me.
The one thing to be done was to watch her. I was at least sly enough to take up a book, and pretend to be reading it. How contemptible28!
She looked round the room, and discovered our pretty writing-table; a present to my father from his congregation. After a little consideration, she sat down to write a letter.
“When does the post go out?” she asked.
I mentioned the hour; and she began her letter. Before she could have written more than the first two or three lines, she turned round on her seat, and began talking to me.
“Do you like writing letters, my dear?”
“Yes—but then I have not many letters to write.”
“Only a few friends, Helena, but those few worthy29 to be loved? My own case exactly. Has your father told you of my troubles? Ah, I am glad of that. It spares me the sad necessity of confessing what I have suffered. Oh, how good my friends, my new friends, were to me in that dull little Belgian town! One of them was generosity30 personified—ah, she had suffered, too! A vile31 husband who had deceived and deserted32 her. Oh, the men! When she heard of the loss of my little fortune, that noble creature got up a subscription33 for me, and went round herself to collect. Think of what I owe to her! Ought I to let another day pass without writing to my benefactress? Am I not bound in gratitude34 to make her happy in the knowledge of my happiness—I mean the refuge opened to me in this hospitable35 house?”
She twisted herself back again to the writing-table, and went on with her letter.
I have not attempted to conceal36 my stupidity. Let me now record a partial recovery of my intelligence.
It was not to be denied that Miss Jillgall had discovered a good reason for writing to her friend; but I was at a loss to understand why she should have been so anxious to mention the reason. Was it possible—after the talk which had passed between us—that she had something mischievous37 to say in her letter, relating to my father or to me? Was she afraid I might suspect this? And had she been so communicative for the purpose of leading my suspicions astray? These were vague guesses; but, try as I might, I could arrive at no clearer view of what was passing in Miss Jillgall’s mind. What would I not have given to be able to look over her shoulder, without discovery!
She finished her letter, and put the address, and closed the envelope. Then she turned round toward me again.
“Have you got a foreign postage stamp, dear?”
If I could look at nothing else, I was resolved to look at her envelope. It was only necessary to go to the study, and to apply to my father. I returned with the foreign stamp, and I stuck it on the envelope with my own hand.
There was nothing to interest me in the address, as I ought to have foreseen, if I had not been too much excited for the exercise of a little common sense. Miss Jillgall’s wonderful friend was only remarkable38 by her ugly foreign name—MRS. TENBRUGGEN.
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1
aggravating
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| adj.恼人的，讨厌的 | |
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retaliation
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| n.报复，反击 | |
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3
penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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4
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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7
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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8
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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13
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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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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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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meddlesome
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| adj.爱管闲事的 | |
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amiability
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| n.和蔼可亲的，亲切的，友善的 | |
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penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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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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subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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34
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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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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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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