Johnny and Bessy were less enthusiastic. Bessy said nothing, but avoided Mr. Butson as much as possible, sitting in the shop when he was in the back parlour. Johnny went for walks in the evening, and grumbled4, wondering why his mother encouraged this stranger—“cadging suppers,” as he uncivilly put it. Nan May was hurt at the expression, and feared that the workshop was spoiling Johnny’s manners.
News came from Bob Smallpiece that his poor old mother was dead at last, and buried in the high p. 159churchyard where Johnny’s grandfather lay. Also that Bob would come to London now, for a visit, at the first opportunity. Now it was a fact that Bob Smallpiece, for a year or two, had been inclined to marry; though it was a thing he might never have thought of if he had seen less of Mrs. May. But he was a man of practical temperament5, making up in his commonsense6 for a great lack of agility7 of mind. There were certain obstacles, he saw—obstacles that must remove of themselves or not at all. First, his old mother. It would not seem fair to bring a wife to nurse a bedridden old woman—at anyrate it was scarce an attraction. More, the old woman herself had a dread8 of it. She feared the chance of being thought a burden by a newcomer, and would often beg Bob not to marry till she were gone; sometimes with the assurance that she would not be long now. Then—to say nothing of old Mr. May—there had been the children, who, familiar as he was with them, afflicted9 him, in this particular matter alone, with an odd shyness. Again, when the old man died, the May family must needs come to London, if only that Johnny might go to his trade; while Bob Smallpiece must stay at the forest. But he was ever patient and philosophical10.
Now that some difficulties were gone, another arose. Nan May, all unaware11 of his slow designs, was settled in London, with ties of business. But perhaps, after all, the business was not flourishing—might be a burden p. 160better laid down. And as to Johnny—he was earning wages of some sort now, and at most his apprenticeship12 would be out when he was twenty-one.
Bob Smallpiece had reserved one piece of news till he could deliver it in person. This was that at last he had let the cottage, at three-and-sixpence a week, to a decent woodman and his wife. And so, wearing a new neckcloth, and with three weeks’ rent in his pocket, Bob Smallpiece appeared in Harbour Lane one spring morning, a vast astonishment13 of leather and velveteen, such as had never before brought a Blackwall housewife to attention in the midst of her dusting and sweeping14. No name was painted over the shop, but no stranger could pass its red and blue and green without stopping to look; least of all Bob Smallpiece, in quest of the place itself. Nan May saw him, and ran to the door; and Bessy, with her crutch15 and her book, met him half-way to the back-parlour, gay and laughing.
Bob regarded the well-filled shop, the neat room, with some mixture of feelings. Prosperity was excellent in its own way, but it made the new obstacle more formidable. Further, Mrs. May, though she was pleased to hear that the cottage was let, and grateful enough for his trouble in letting it, was not so overjoyed as she might have been if the weekly three-and-sixpence had come at a time of pinching; more, she handled the half-sovereign almost as disrespectfully as the sixpence, and p. 161dropped it into a part of her purse where it fell among other gold. Poor Bob saw the obstacle not only bigger, but double. Not merely was Nan May tied to London by her trade and by Johnny’s apprenticeship, but she was a well-to-do tradeswoman, with whom a poor forest-keeper could expect no more than respectful acquaintance. He half feared she might even offer to pay him for his trouble with the cottage, and grew red and hot with the apprehension16. But this affliction was spared him though Nan did venture to ask if his care of her property had involved out-of-pocket expenses; a suggestion which Bob repudiated17 desperately18.
Neither Bessy nor her mother could understand why their visitor’s manner was so constrained19 and awkward, nor why he announced that he “must be going” after sitting for twenty minutes. But that, of course, was not to be allowed. Johnny would be home in half an hour, and there would be some dinner. So Bob Smallpiece, who wanted to get away somewhere by himself and think things over, remained, and made his part of the conversation as well as he could.
Johnny came, smudgy and hungry, surprised to find that his old friend, big man as he was, seemed to be scarcely so big as when he saw him last, eighteen months ago. For Johnny himself was grown surprisingly, and seemed like to stand as high as Bob Smallpiece’s shoulder by his seventeenth birthday. Bob found more p. 162to talk of now that Johnny had come, and he ate even better than Johnny himself, for nothing spoiled the keeper’s appetite. When could they all come to the forest again for a day? Nan May shook her head. She had no days free but Sundays—she might come some day, perhaps; some Sunday in the vague future. But Johnny might get a day off at a slack time, and he and Bessy would come. Bessy brimmed over with delight at the prospect20. Every day, since she had left it, the forest had seemed a more wonderful and a more distant dream; every day some forgotten circumstance, some moment of delight, some long-dead bunch of wildflowers, trifles all, and daily commonplaces once, had come back to lend one more touch to the fairy picture her memory made ever more radiant as the simple facts fell farther into the past. And Johnny, little burdened with pictures of fancy (for he put his imagination away from him now, as a childishness unworthy an engineer), nevertheless thought that as soon as a certain large job was completed at Maidment and Hurst’s the gaffer would doubtless let him lose a day. So it was settled. And when Johnny hurried off to his work, Bob Smallpiece took the opportunity to leave too; for he must go and see his sister, he said.
He went, and saw his sister, and took tea with her; and his sister found him even duller than Nan May had done. For in truth Bob Smallpiece was in a mire21 of p. 163doubt and hesitation22. In a frame of mind so foreign to his simple habit he grew fretful, and left things to chance and impulse. With no definite design in the world, he wandered back to Harbour Lane after tea, and there met, for the first time, Uncle Isaac and Mr. Butson. This company proved uncongenial; and indeed the distinguished23 Butson was indisposed to be cordial with an Essex bumpkin in a velveteen uniform. So, though Nan May was all kindness, Bob Smallpiece soon took himself off to the train, where his savage24 moodiness25 might not be seen. The whole thing was past hope now; though he might have found it hard to tell precisely26 what had occurred since midday to worsen the look of affairs.
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1
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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2
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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3
shamefully
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| 可耻地； 丢脸地； 不体面地； 羞耻地 | |
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4
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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5
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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6
commonsense
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| adj.有常识的；明白事理的；注重实际的 | |
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7
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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8
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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9
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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11
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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13
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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15
crutch
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| n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱 | |
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16
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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17
repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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23
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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24
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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25
moodiness
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| n.喜怒无常；喜怒无常，闷闷不乐；情绪 | |
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26
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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