EVERYONE remembers the severity of the Christmas of 187—. I will not designate the year more closely, lest I should enable those who are too curious to investigate the circumstances of this story, and inquire into details which I do not intend to make known. That winter, however, was especially severe, and the cold of the last ten days of December was more felt, I think, in Paris than in any part of England. It may, indeed, be doubted whether there is any town in any country in which thoroughly1 bad weather is more afflicting2 than in the French capital. Snow and hail seem to be colder there, and fires certainly are less warm, than in London. And then there is a feeling among visitors to Paris that Paris ought to be gay; that gaiety, prettiness, and liveliness are its aims, as money, commerce, and general business are the aims of London,—which with its outside sombre darkness does often seem to want an excuse for{202} its ugliness. But on this occasion, at this Christmas of 187—, Paris was neither gay nor pretty nor lively. You could not walk the streets without being ankle deep, not in snow, but in snow that had just become slush; and there was falling throughout the day and night of the 23rd of December a succession of damp half-frozen abominations from the sky which made it almost impossible for men and women to go about their business.
It was at ten o’clock on that evening that an English lady and gentleman arrived at the Grand Hotel on the Boulevard des Italiens. As I have reasons for concealing3 the names of this married couple I will call them Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Now I wish it to be understood that in all the general affairs of life this gentleman and this lady lived happily together, with all the amenities4 which should bind5 a husband and a wife. Mrs. Brown was one of a wealthy family, and Mr. Brown, when he married her, had been relieved from the necessity of earning his bread. Nevertheless she had at once yielded to him when he expressed a desire to spend the winters of their life in the south of France; and he, though he was by disposition6 somewhat idle, and but little prone7 to the energetic occupations of life, would generally allow himself, at other periods of the year, to be carried hither and thither8 by her, whose more robust9 nature delighted in the excitement of travelling. But on this occasion there had been a little difference between them.{203}
Early in December an intimation had reached Mrs. Brown at Pau that on the coming Christmas there was to be a great gathering11 of all the Thompsons in the Thompson family hall at Stratford-le-Bow, and that she who had been a Thompson was desired to join the party with her husband. On this occasion her only sister was desirous of introducing to the family generally a most excellent young man to whom she had recently become engaged. The Thompsons,—the real name, however, is in fact concealed,—were a numerous and a thriving people. There were uncles and cousins and brothers who had all done well in the world, and who were all likely to do better still. One had lately been returned to Parliament for the Essex Flats, and was at the time of which I am writing a conspicuous12 member of the gallant13 Conservative majority. It was partly in triumph at this success that the great Christmas gathering of the Thompsons was to be held, and an opinion had been expressed by the legislator himself that should Mrs. Brown, with her husband, fail to join the family on this happy occasion she and he would be regarded as being but fainéant Thompsons.
Since her marriage, which was an affair now nearly eight years old, Mrs. Brown had never passed a Christmas in England. The desirability of doing so had often been mooted14 by her. Her very soul craved15 the festivities of holly16 and mince-pies. There had ever been meetings of the Thompsons at Thompson Hall, though meetings not so significant, not so important{204} to the family, as this one which was now to be collected. More than once had she expressed a wish to see old Christmas again in the old house among the old faces. But her husband had always pleaded a certain weakness about his throat and chest as a reason for remaining among the delights of Pau. Year after year she had yielded, and now this loud summons had come.
It was not without considerable trouble that she had induced Mr. Brown to come as far as Paris. Most unwillingly17 had he left Pau; and then, twice on his journey,—both at Bordeaux and Tours,—he had made an attempt to return. From the first moment he had pleaded his throat, and when at last he had consented to make the journey he had stipulated18 for sleeping at those two towns and at Paris. Mrs. Brown, who, without the slightest feeling of fatigue19, could have made the journey from Pau to Stratford without stopping, had assented20 to everything,—so that they might be at Thompson Hall on Christmas Eve. When Mr. Brown uttered his unavailing complaints at the two first towns at which they stayed, she did not perhaps quite believe all that he said of his own condition. We know how prone the strong are to suspect the weakness of the weak,—as the weak are to be disgusted by the strength of the strong. There were perhaps a few words between them on the journey, but the result had hitherto been in favour of the lady. She had succeeded in bringing Mr. Brown as far as Paris.{205}
Had the occasion been less important, no doubt she would have yielded. The weather had been bad even when they left Pau, but as they had made their way northwards it had become worse and still worse. As they left Tours Mr. Brown, in a hoarse21 whisper, had declared his conviction that the journey would kill him. Mrs. Brown, however, had unfortunately noticed half an hour before that he had scolded the waiter on the score of an overcharged franc or two with a loud and clear voice. Had she really believed that there was danger, or even suffering, she would have yielded;—but no woman is satisfied in such a matter to be taken in by false pretences22. She observed that he ate a good dinner on his way to Paris, and that he took a small glass of cognac with complete relish,—which a man really suffering from bronchitis surely would not do. So she persevered23, and brought him into Paris, late in the evening, in the midst of all that slush and snow. Then, as they sat down to supper, she thought that he did speak hoarsely24, and her loving feminine heart began to misgive25 her.
But this now was at any rate clear to her,—that he could not be worse off by going on to London than he would be should he remain in Paris. If a man is to be ill he had better be ill in the bosom26 of his family than at an hotel. What comfort could he have, what relief, in that huge barrack? As for the cruelty of the weather, London could not be worse than Paris, and then she thought she had heard that sea air is good for a sore throat. In that bedroom which had been{206} allotted27 to them au quatrième, they could not even get a decent fire. It would in every way be wrong now to forego the great Christmas gathering when nothing could be gained by staying in Paris.
She had perceived that as her husband became really ill he became also more tractable28 and less disputatious. Immediately after that little glass of cognac he had declared that he would be—— if he would go beyond Paris, and she began to fear that, after all, everything would have been done in vain. But as they went down to supper between ten and eleven he was more subdued29, and merely remarked that this journey would, he was sure, be the death of him. It was half-past eleven when they got back to their bedroom, and then he seemed to speak with good sense,—and also with much real apprehension30. “If I can’t get something to relieve me I know I shall never make my way on,” he said. It was intended that they should leave the hotel at half-past five the next morning, so as to arrive at Stratford, travelling by the tidal train, at half-past seven on Christmas Eve. The early hour, the long journey, the infamous31 weather, the prospect32 of that horrid33 gulf34 between Boulogne and Folkestone, would have been as nothing to Mrs. Brown, had it not been for that settled look of anguish35 which had now pervaded36 her husband’s face. “If you don’t find something to relieve me I shall never live through it,” he said again, sinking back into the questionable37 comfort of a Parisian hotel arm-chair.
“But, my dear, what can I do?” she asked, almost{207} in tears, standing38 over him and caressing39 him. He was a thin, genteel-looking man, with a fine long, soft brown beard, a little bald at the top of the head, but certainly a genteel-looking man. She loved him dearly, and in her softer moods was apt to spoil him with her caresses40. “What can I do, my dearie? You know I would do anything if I could. Get into bed, my pet, and be warm, and then to-morrow morning you will be all right.” At this moment he was preparing himself for his bed, and she was assisting him. Then she tied a piece of flannel41 round his throat, and kissed him, and put him in beneath the bed-clothes.
“I’ll tell you what you can do,” he said very hoarsely. His voice was so bad now that she could hardly hear him. So she crept close to him, and bent42 over him. She would do anything if he would only say what. Then he told her what was his plan. Down in the salon43 he had seen a large jar of mustard standing on a sideboard. As he left the room he had observed that this had not been withdrawn44 with the other appurtenances of the meal. If she could manage to find her way down there, taking with her a handkerchief folded for the purpose, and if she could then appropriate a part of the contents of that jar, and, returning with her prize, apply it to his throat, he thought that he could get some relief, so that he might be able to leave his bed the next morning at five. “But I am afraid it will be very disagreeable for you to go down all alone at this time of night,” he croaked45 out in a piteous whisper.{208}
“Of course I’ll go,” said she. “I don’t mind going in the least. Nobody will bite me,” and she at once began to fold a clean handkerchief. “I won’t be two minutes, my darling, and if there is a grain of mustard in the house I’ll have it on your chest immediately.” She was a woman not easily cowed, and the journey down into the salon was nothing to her. Before she went she tucked the clothes carefully up to his ears, and then she started.
To run along the first corridor till she came to a flight of stairs was easy enough, and easy enough to descend46 them. Then there was another corridor, and another flight, and a third corridor, and a third flight, and she began to think that she was wrong. She found herself in a part of the hotel which she had not hitherto visited, and soon discovered by looking through an open door or two that she had found her way among a set of private sitting-rooms which she had not seen before. Then she tried to make her way back, up the same stairs and through the same passages, so that she might start again. She was beginning to think that she had lost herself altogether, and that she would be able to find neither the salon nor her bedroom, when she happily met the night-porter. She was dressed in a loose white dressing-gown, with a white net over her loose hair, and with white worsted slippers47. I ought perhaps to have described her personal appearance sooner. She was a large woman, with a commanding bust10, thought by some to be handsome, after the manner of Juno. But with strangers there was a certain{209} severity of manner about her,—a fortification, as it were, of her virtue48 against all possible attacks,—a declared determination to maintain, at all points, the beautiful character of a British matron, which, much as it had been appreciated at Thompson Hall, had met with some ill-natured criticism among French men and women. At Pau she had been called La Fière Anglaise. The name had reached her own ears and those of her husband. He had been much annoyed, but she had taken it in good part,—had, indeed, been somewhat proud of the title,—and had endeavoured to live up to it. With her husband she could, on occasion, be soft, but she was of opinion that with other men a British matron should be stern. She was now greatly in want of assistance; but, nevertheless, when she met the porter she remembered her character. “I have lost my way wandering through these horrid passages,” she said, in her severest tone. This was in answer to some question from him,—some question to which her reply was given very slowly. Then when he asked where Madame wished to go, she paused, again thinking what destination she would announce. No doubt the man could take her back to her bedroom, but if so, the mustard must be renounced49, and with the mustard, as she now feared, all hope of reaching Thompson Hall on Christmas Eve. But she, though she was in many respects a brave woman, did not dare to tell the man that she was prowling about the hotel in order that she might make a midnight raid upon the mustard pot. She paused, therefore, for a moment,{210} that she might collect her thoughts, erecting50 her head as she did so in her best Juno fashion, till the porter was lost in admiration51. Thus she gained time to fabricate a tale. She had, she said, dropped her handkerchief under the supper-table; would he show her the way to the salon, in order that she might pick it up? But the porter did more than that, and accompanied her to the room in which she had supped.
Here, of course, there was a prolonged, and, it need hardly be said, a vain search. The good-natured man insisted on emptying an enormous receptacle of soiled table-napkins, and on turning them over one by one, in order that the lady’s property might be found. The lady stood by unhappy, but still patient, and, as the man was stooping to his work, her eye was on the mustard pot. There it was, capable of containing enough to blister52 the throats of a score of sufferers. She edged off a little towards it while the man was busy, trying to persuade herself that he would surely forgive her if she took the mustard, and told him her whole story. But the descent from her Juno bearing would have been so great! She must have owned, not only to the quest for mustard, but also to a fib,—and she could not do it. The porter was at last of opinion that Madame must have made a mistake, and Madame acknowledged that she was afraid it was so.
With a longing53, lingering eye, with an eye turned back, oh! so sadly, to the great jar, she left the room, the porter leading the way. She assured him that she could find it by herself, but he would not leave her{211} till he had put her on to the proper passage. The journey seemed to be longer now even than before, but as she ascended54 the many stairs she swore to herself that she would not even yet be baulked of her object. Should her husband want comfort for his poor throat, and the comfort be there within her reach, and he not have it? She counted every stair as she went up, and marked every turn well. She was sure now that she would know the way, and that she could return to the room without fault. She would go back to the salon. Even though the man should encounter her again, she would go boldly forward and seize the remedy which her poor husband so grievously required.
“Ah, yes,” she said, when the porter told her that her room, No. 333, was in the corridor which they had then reached, “I know it all now. I am so much obliged. Do not come a step further.” He was anxious to accompany her up to the very door, but she stood in the passage and prevailed. He lingered awhile—naturally. Unluckily she had brought no money with her, and could not give him the two-franc piece which he had earned. Nor could she fetch it from her room, feeling that were she to return to her husband without the mustard no second attempt would be possible. The disappointed man turned on his heel at last, and made his way down the stairs and along the passage. It seemed to her to be almost an eternity55 while she listened to his still audible footsteps. She had gone on, creeping noiselessly up to the very door of her room, and there she stood, shading the candle in{212} her hand, till she thought that the man must have wandered away into some furthest corner of that endless building. Then she turned once more and retraced56 her steps.
There was no difficulty now as to the way. She knew it, every stair. At the head of each flight she stood and listened, but not a sound was to be heard, and then she went on again. Her heart beat high with anxious desire to achieve her object, and at the same time with fear. What might have been explained so easily at first would now be as difficult of explanation. At last she was in the great public vestibule, which she was now visiting for the third time, and of which, at her last visit, she had taken the bearings accurately57. The door was there—closed, indeed, but it opened easily to the hand. In the hall, and on the stairs, and along the passages, there had been gas, but here there was no light beyond that given by the little taper58 which she carried. When accompanied by the porter she had not feared the darkness, but now there was something in the obscurity which made her dread59 to walk the length of the room up to the mustard jar. She paused, and listened, and trembled. Then she thought of the glories of Thompson Hall, of the genial60 warmth of a British Christmas, of that proud legislator who was her first cousin, and with a rush she made good the distance, and laid her hand upon the copious61 delf. She looked round, but there was no one there; no sound was heard; not the distant creak of a shoe, not a rattle62 from one of those thousand doors. As she{213} paused with her fair hand upon the top of the jar, while the other held the white cloth on which the medicinal compound was to be placed, she looked like Lady Macbeth as she listened at Duncan’s chamber63 door.
There was no doubt as to the sufficiency of the contents. The jar was full nearly up to the lips. The mixture was, no doubt, very different from that good wholesome64 English mustard which your cook makes fresh for you, with a little water, in two minutes. It was impregnated with a sour odour, and was, to English eyes, unwholesome of colour. But still it was mustard. She seized the horn spoon, and without further delay spread an ample sufficiency on the folded square of the handkerchief. Then she commenced to hurry her return.
But still there was a difficulty, no thought of which had occurred to her before. The candle occupied one hand, so that she had but the other for the sustenance65 of her treasure. Had she brought a plate or saucer from the salon, it would have been all well. As it was she was obliged to keep her eye intent on her right hand, and to proceed very slowly on her return journey. She was surprised to find what an aptitude66 the thing had to slip from her grasp. But still she progressed slowly, and was careful not to miss a turning. At last she was safe at her chamber door. There it was, No. 333.
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1
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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afflicting
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| 痛苦的 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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amenities
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| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
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bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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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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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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mooted
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craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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holly
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| n.[植]冬青属灌木 | |
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unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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fatigue
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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pretences
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| n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称 | |
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persevered
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| v.坚忍，坚持( persevere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hoarsely
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misgive
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bosom
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allotted
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tractable
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subdued
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apprehension
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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prospect
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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gulf
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anguish
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pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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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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caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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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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salon
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| n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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slippers
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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erecting
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| v.使直立，竖起( erect的现在分词 )；建立 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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taper
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| n.小蜡烛，尖细，渐弱；adj.尖细的；v.逐渐变小 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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63
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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65
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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