It took Miss Blake by surprise. She had remarked a difference in their behaviour to one another, in the past day or two. Lucy scarcely left Sir Karl alone a minute: she was with him in his parlour; she clung to his arm in unmistakable fondness in the garden; her eyes were for ever seeking his with a look of pleading, deprecating love. "They could not have been two greater simpletons in their honeymoon," severely1 thought Miss Blake.
Something else had rather surprised her. Walking past the Maze2 on this same morning, she saw the gate propped3 open, and a notice, that the house was to let, erected4 on a board. The place was empty; the late tenants5 of it, the lady and her maid, had departed. Turning to ask Mr. Smith the meaning of this, she saw a similar board at his house: Mr. Smith was packing up, and Clematis Cottage was in the market.
"Good gracious! Are you going to leave us, Mr. Smith?" she asked, she asked, as that gentleman showed himself for a moment at the open window, with an armful of books and papers.
"Sorry to say that I am, madam. Business is calling me to London."
"I hear that Mrs. Grey has left, too. What can have taken her away?"
"Don't know," said Mr. Smith. "Does not care to stop in the house, perhaps, after a death has taken place in it. Servants must die as well as other people, though."
Without another word to her, he went to the back of the room with his load, and began stuffing it into a trunk with his one arm. Miss Blake summed up the conclusion in her mind.
"Sir Karl must have summarily dismissed him."
Little did she foresee that Sir Karl was about, so to say, summarily to dismiss herself. On this same day it was that he sought the interview. When the past was touched upon by Karl, and her part in it, Miss Blake, for once in her life, showed signs that she had a temper, and her face turned white.
"You might have done me incalculable mischief6, Miss Blake: mischief that could never be repaired in this world," he said, standing7 to face her. "I do not allude8 to the estrangement9 that might have been caused between myself and my wife, but evil of a different nature. What could possibly have induced you to take up so outrageous10 a notion in regard to me?"
Miss Blake, in rather a shrill11 tone--for she was one of those unfortunate individuals whose voices grow harsh with annoyance--ventured upon a disparaging12 word of Mrs. Grey, but evaded13 the true question. Karl did not allow her to go on.
"That lady, madam," he said, raising his hand with a kind of solemnity, "was good and pure, and honourable14 as is my own wife; and my dear wife knows it now. She was sacred to me as a sister. Her husband was my dear and long-tried friend; and he was for some months in great trouble and distress15. I wished to do what I could to alleviate16 it: my visits there were paid to him."
"But he was not living there," rejoined Miss Blake, partly in hardy17 contest, partly in surprise.
"Indeed he was living there. He had his reasons for not wishing to make any acquaintance in the place, and so kept himself in retirement18; reasons in which I fully19 acquiesced20. However, his troubles are at an end now; and--and the family have ceased to be my tenants."
Whether Miss Blake felt more angry or more vexed21, she was not collected enough at the moment to know. It was a very annoying termination to her long and seemingly well-grounded suspicions. She always wished to do right, and had the grace to feel somewhat ashamed of the past.
"What I said to Lucy I believed I had perfectly22 good grounds for, Sir Karl. I had the interests of religion at heart when I spoke23."
"Religion!" repeated Sir Karl, his lips involuntarily curling. "Religion is as religion does, Miss Blake."
"After all, she did not heed24 me; so, if it did no good, it did no harm. Lucy is so very weak-minded--"
"Weak-minded!" interposed Sir Karl. "If to act as she did--to bear patiently and make no stir under extreme provocation25, trusting to the future to right the wrong--if this is to be weak-minded, why I thank God that she is so. Had she been strong-minded as you, Miss Blake, the result might have been terribly different."
Miss Blake was nettled26. Her manner froze.
"I see what it is, Sir Karl; you and your wife are so displeased27 with me that I feel my presence in your house is no longer welcome. As soon as I can make arrangements I will quit it--thanking you both for your hospitality."
She paused. Sir Karl paused too. Perhaps she had a faint expectation that he would hasten to refute the decision, and request her to stay on. But he did nothing of the kind. On the contrary, he, in a word or two of politeness, acquiesced in the proposal of departure, as though it admitted of no question.
"I should not have trespassed28 on you so long--in fact, I should not have stayed at all after your first return here with Lady Andinnian, but for St. Jerome's," she rejoined, her temper getting up again, while there ran in her mind an undercurrent of thought, as to whether she could find suitable lodgings29 in Foxwood.
"You will not have to regret that, in leaving," he observed. "I am about to do away with St. Jerome's."
"To do away with St. Jerome's!"
"In a week's time from this it will be shut up, and all the nonsense within its walls cleared away."
"The nonsense!" shrieked30 Miss Blake.
"Why you cannot call it sense--or religion either. To tell you the truth, Miss Blake, the place has been an offence to me for some time. It has caused a scandal--"
"For shame, Sir Karl Andinnian! Scandal, indeed!"
"And this little bit of fresh scandal that has arisen now, people don't like at all," quietly persisted Sir Karl. "Neither do I. So, to prevent the bishop31 coming down upon us here, Miss Blake, I close the place."
Miss Blake compressed her lips. She could have struck him as he stood.
"What do you mean by a 'fresh' scandal, pray?"
"Well, the story runs that Mr. Cattacomb was seen to kiss one of the young ladies in the vestry."
Miss Blake started, Miss Blake shrieked, Miss Blake wondered that the very ceiling did not drop down upon the bold false tongue. To do her justice, she believed St. Jerome's pastor32 was by far too holy a man for any wickedness of the sort. Not to speak of restraining prudence33.
"Sir Karl, may you be forgiven! Where do you expect to go to when you die?"
"To the heaven, I hope, that our merciful God has provided for us," he answered, meeting the query34 solemnly and with some emotion. "Some of those dearer to me than life have gone on thither35 to wait for me."
At which Miss Blake drew up her pious36 head, and intimated that she feared it might be another kind of place, unless he should mend his manners. And Sir Karl closed the interview, leaving her to understand that she had received her congé.
The circumstance to which he alluded37 was this. A day or two before, some prying38 boys, comrades of Tom Pepp's, were about St. Jerome's as usual. For, ever since its establishment, the place had been quite a point of attraction to these young reptiles39; and keep off they would not. On the morning in question, hovering40 around the vestry window and the walls generally, a slight inlet of view was discovered, in consequence of the blinds being accidentally drawn41 somewhat aside. Of course as many eyes were applied42 to the chink as could find space; and they had the pleasure of seeing the parson steal a kiss or two from the blushing cheek of Miss Jemima Moore. Rare nuts for the boys to crack! Before the day had closed, it was being talked of in Foxwood, and reached the ears of Miss Diana. She handed the case over to the doctor.
Down he went to St. Jerome's on the following morning, and caught Mr. Cattacomb alone in the vestry, just getting into his sheep-skin. Mr. Moore wasted no time in circumlocution43 or superfluous44 greeting.
"You were seen to kiss my daughter, yesterday, young man."
To be pounced45 upon in this unprepared manner is enough to try the nerves of almost any hero; what must it have been then for a modest young clergyman, with a character for holiness, like Guy Cattacomb? He stammered46 and stuttered, and blushed to the very roots of his scanty47 hair. The tippet itself turned of a rosy48 hue49.
"No equivocation50, sir. Do you acknowledge it, or do you not?"
Gathering51 up his scared wits, and a modicum52 of courage, in the best way he could, the Reverend Guy virtually acknowledged it to be true. He added that he and Miss Jemima were seriously attached to each other; that he hoped sometime to win her for his wife; and that a sense of his utter want of means had alone prevented his speaking to the doctor.
"Now, look here," said the surgeon, after a pause of consideration, perceiving from the young man's earnest manner that this was the actual state of the case, "I say No to you at present. It lies with yourself whether I ever say yes. If you and she care for one another, I should be the last to stand in your way, once you have proved yourself worthy53 of her. Get rid of all the rubbish that's filling up your foolish brain;"--and he gave his hand a sweep around--"become a faithful, honest clergyman of the Church of England, serving your Master to the best of your power; and then you may ask for her. A daughter of mine shall never tie herself to a vain fop. No; though I had to banish54 her to the wilds of Kamschatka."
"I'll do my best, sir, to become what you will approve of," returned the parson humbly55, "if you will only give me hope of Miss Jemima."
"It is because I think you have some good in you, that I do give you hope, Mr. Cattacomb. The issue lies with you."
Now, this was what Sir Karl alluded to. When it fell to Miss Blake's lot to find it was true and to hear the particulars, she thought, in her mortification56, that the world must be drawing to an end: at least, it was signally degenerating57. That adored saint to have turned out to be only a man after all--with all a man's frail58 nature! All Miss Blake's esteemed59 admirers seemed to be slipping from her one by one.
She and the congregation generally were alike incensed60. Mr. Cattacomb, lost to any future hopes, fell in their estimation from fever-heat down to zero: and they really did not much care, after this, whether St. Jerome's was shut up or not. So Sir Karl and Farmer Truefit found their way was made plain before them.
"What a heap of silk we have wasted on cushions and things for him?" cried Charlotte St. Henry, in a passion. "And all through that sly little cat, Jemima Moore!"
CONCLUSION.
A sweet calm day in early spring, Sir Karl and his wife stood on the steps of their house, hand in hand, ready to welcome Colonel and Mrs. Cleeve, who were driving up to pay a long visit. Lucy had recovered all her good looks; Karl's face had lost its sadness.
Things had been getting themselves straight after the dark time of trouble. Some pleasant neighbours were at the Maze now; Clematis Cottage was occupied by Margaret Sumnor. There was a new vicar of Foxwood. Mr. Sumnor, who had not been without his trials in life, had died in the winter. His widow and second family went to reside in London; Margaret, who had her own mother's fortune now--which was just enough to live upon quietly--removed to Clematis Cottage, to the extreme delight of Lady Andinnian. St. Jerome's had been converted into a schoolroom again: its former clergyman had retired61 into private life for a season, and no more omnibus-loads of young ladies came over from Basham. Sir Karl was earning popularity everywhere. Caring earnestly for those about him, actively62 promoting the welfare of all unceasingly and untiringly, generous in aiding, chary63 of fault-finding, Sir Karl Andinnian was esteemed and beloved even more than Sir Joseph had been. Nothing educates and softens64 the human heart like the sharp school of adversity.
"Lucy, you are a puzzle to me," said Mrs. Cleeve, when she had her daughter to herself up stairs. "In the autumn you were so ill and so sad; now you are looking so well and so radiantly happy."
"I am quite well, mamma, and happy."
"But what was the cause of your looking so ill then?"
Lucy did not answer, evading65 the question in the best way she could. That past time would be ever sacred between herself and her husband.
"Well, I cannot understand it," concluded Mrs. Cleeve. "I only hope you will continue as you are now. Sir Karl looks well, also; almost as he did when we first knew him at Winchester, before his brother brought that trouble on himself and all connected with him. To tell you the truth, Lucy, I thought when I was last here that you were both on the high road to consumption. Now you both look as though you were on the road to--to----"
"A fine old age," put in Lucy, as her mother broke down for want of a simile66. "Well, mamma, I hope we are--if God shall so will it."
"And--why you have made this into a dressing-room again!" cried Mrs. Cleeve, as Lucy took down her hair, and rang for Aglaé.
"Yes; I wanted it as one when I went back to my own room."
"What do you do with the other room--the one you slept in?" questioned Mrs. Cleeve, throwing open the door as she spoke--for she had a great love of seeing into house arrangements. "You have had the bed taken away!"
"The room is not being used at present," replied Lucy. "Karl--Karl----"
"Karl--what?" asked Mrs. Cleeve, wondering at the sudden timidity, and looking round. Lucy's sweet face was blushing.
"Karl thinks I shall like to make it the day nursery."
"Oh, my dear! I am glad to hear that."
Lucy burst into tears of emotion. A very slight occurrence served still to bring back the past and its repentance67.
"Mamma, you do not know, you can never know, how good God has been to me in all ways; and how little I deserved it."
And so we leave all things at peace. The dark storms had rolled away and given place to sunshine.
END.
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1
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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disparaging
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| adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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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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alleviate
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| v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等) | |
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hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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nettled
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| v.拿荨麻打，拿荨麻刺（nettle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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trespassed
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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shrieked
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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circumlocution
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| n. 绕圈子的话，迂回累赘的陈述 | |
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superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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equivocation
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| n.模棱两可的话，含糊话 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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modicum
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| n.少量，一小份 | |
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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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banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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degenerating
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的现在分词 ) | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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chary
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| adj.谨慎的，细心的 | |
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softens
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| （使）变软( soften的第三人称单数 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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evading
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| 逃避( evade的现在分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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