“We have always been neighbours,” said John Rossiter.
“Neighbours ten miles off!” said Mrs Dugdale.{334}
“I dare say the Good Samaritan lived thirty miles off,” said Alice.
“I don’t think distance has much to do with it,” said the Major.
“I like my neighbours to be neighbourly. I like Beetham neighbours,” said Mrs. Dugdale. There was a reproach in every word of it. Mrs. Dugdale had heard of Miss Georgiana Wanless, and Major Rossiter knew that she had done so. After her fashion the lady was accusing him for deserting Alice.
Alice understood it also, and yet it behoved her to hold herself well up and be cheerful. “I like Beetham people best myself,” she said, “but then it is because I don’t know any other. I remember going to Brook Park once, when there was a party of children, a hundred years ago, and I thought it quite a paradise. There was a profusion7 of strawberries by which my imagination has been troubled ever since. You’ll just be in time for the strawberries, Major Rossiter.” He had always been John till quite lately,—John with the memories of childhood; but now he had become Major Rossiter.
She went out into the garden with him for a moment as he took his leave,—not quite alone, as a little boy of two years old was clinging to her hand. “If I had my way,” she said, “I’d have my neighbours everywhere,—at any distance. I envy a man chiefly for that.”
“Those one loves best should be very near, I think.{335}”
“Those one loves best of all? Oh yes, so that one may do something. It wouldn’t do not to have you every day, would it, Bobby?” Then she allowed the willing little urchin8 to struggle up into her arms and to kiss her, all smeared9 as was his face with bread-and-butter.
“Your mother meant to say that I was running away from my old friends.”
“Of course she did. You see, you loom10 so very large to us here. You are—such a swell11, as Dick says, that we are a little sore when you pass us by. Everybody likes to be bowed to by royalty12. Don’t you know that? Brook Park is, of course, the proper place for you; but you don’t expect but what we are going to express our little disgusts and little prides when we find ourselves left behind!” No words could have less declared her own feelings on the matter than those she was uttering; but she found herself compelled to laugh at him, lest, in the other direction, something of tenderness might escape her, whereby he might be injured worse than by her raillery. In nothing that she might say could there be less of real reproach to him than in this.
“I hate that word ‘swell,’” he said.
“So do I.”
“Then why do you use it?”
“To show you how much better Brook Park is than Beetham. I am sure they don’t talk about swells13 at Brook Park.”
“Why do you throw Brook Park in my teeth?{336}”
“I feel an inclination14 to make myself disagreeable to-day. Are you never like that?”
“I hope not.”
“And then I am bound to follow up what poor dear mamma began. But I won’t throw Brook Park in your teeth. The ladies I know are very nice. Sir Walter Wanless is a little grand;—isn’t he?”
“You know,” said he, “that I should be much happier here than there.”
“Because Sir Walter is so grand?”
“Because my friends here are dearer friends. But still it is right that I should go. One cannot always be where one would be happiest.”
“I am happiest with Bobby,” said she; “and I can always have Bobby.” Then she gave him her hand at the gate, and he went down to the parsonage.
That night Mrs. Rossiter was closeted for awhile with her son before they both went to bed. She was supposed, in Beetham, to be of a higher order of intellect,—of a higher stamp generally,—than her husband or daughter, and to be in that respect nearly on a par2 with her son. She had not travelled as he had done, but she was of an ambitious mind and had thoughts beyond Beetham. The poor dear parson cared for little outside the bounds of his parish. “I am so glad you are going to stay for awhile over at Brook Park,” she said.
“Only for three days.”
“In the intimacy15 of a house three days is a lifetime. Of course I do not like to interfere16.” When this was{337} said the Major frowned, knowing well that his mother was going to interfere. “But I cannot help thinking how much a connection with the Wanlesses would do for you.”
“I don’t want anything from any connection.”
“That is all very well, John, for a man to say; but in truth we all depend on connections one with another. You are beginning the world.”
“I don’t know about that, mother.”
“To my eyes you are. Of course, you look upwards17.”
“I take all that as it comes.”
“No doubt; but still you must have it in your mind to rise. A man is assisted very much by the kind of wife he marries. Much would be done for a son-in-law of Sir Walter Wanless.”
“Nothing, I hope, ever for me on that score. To succeed by favour is odious18.”
“But even to rise by merit, so much outside assistance is often necessary! Though you will assuredly deserve all that you will ever get, yet you may be more likely to get it as a son-in-law to Sir Walter Wanless than if you were married to some obscure girl. Men who make the most of themselves in the world do think of these things. I am the last woman in the world to recommend my boy to look after money in marriage.”
“The Miss Wanlesses will have none.”
“And therefore I can speak the more freely. They will have very little,—as coming from such a family. But he has great influence. He has contested the{338} county five times. And then—where is there a handsomer girl than Georgiana Wanless?” The Major thought that he knew one, but did not answer the question. “And she is all that such a girl ought to be. Her manners are perfect,—and her conduct. A constant performance of domestic duties is of course admirable. If it comes to one to have to wash linen19, she who washes her linen well is a good woman. But among mean things high spirits are not to be found.”
“I am not so sure of that.”
“It must be so. How can the employment of every hour in the day on menial work leave time for the mind to fill itself? Making children’s frocks may be a duty, but it must also be an impediment.”
“You are speaking of Alice.”
“Of course I am speaking of Alice.”
“I would wager20 my head that she has read twice more in the last two years than Georgiana Wanless. But, mother, I am not disposed to discuss either the one young lady or the other. I am not going to Brook Park to look for a wife; and if ever I take one, it will be simply because I like her best, and not because I wish to use her as a rung of a ladder by which to climb upwards into the world.” That all this and just this would be said to her Mrs. Rossiter had been aware; but still she had thought that a word in season might have its effect.
And it did have its effect. John Rossiter, as he was driven over to Brook Park on the following morning, was unconsciously mindful of that allusion21 to the{339} washerwoman. He had seen that Alice’s cheek had been smirched by the greasy22 crumbs23 from her little brother’s mouth, he had seen that the tips of her fingers showed the mark of the needle; he had seen fragments of thread about her dress, and the mud even from the children’s boots on her skirts. He had seen this, and had been aware that Georgiana Wanless was free from all such soil on her outward raiment. He liked the perfect grace of unspotted feminine apparel, and he had, too, thought of the hours in which Alice might probably be employed amidst the multifarious needs of a nursery, and had argued to himself much as his mother had argued. It was good and homely,—worthy of a thousand praises; but was it exactly that which he wanted in a wife? He had repudiated24 with scorn his mother’s cold, worldly doctrine25; but yet he had felt that it would be a pleasant thing to have it known in London that his wife was the daughter of Sir Walter Wanless. It was true that she was wonderfully handsome,—a complexion26 perfectly27 clear, a nose cut as out of marble, a mouth delicate as of a goddess, with a waist quite to match it. Her shoulders were white as alabaster28. Her dress was at all times perfect. Her fingers were without mark or stain. There might perhaps be a want of expression; but faces so symmetrical are seldom expressive29. And then, to crown all this, he was justified30 in believing that she was attached to himself. Almost as much had been said to him by Lady Wanless herself,—a word which would amount to as much, coupled as it was with an immediate31 invitation to Brook{340} Park. Of this he had given no hint to any human being; but he had been at Brook Park once before, and some rumour32 of something between him and Miss Georgiana Wanless had reached the people at Beetham,—had reached, as we have seen, not only Mrs. Rossiter, but also Alice Dugdale.
There had been moments up in London when his mind had veered33 round towards Miss Wanless. But there was one little trifle which opposed the action of his mind, and that was his heart. He had begun to think that it might be his duty to marry Georgiana;—but the more he thought so the more clearly would the figure of Alice stand before him, so that no veil could be thrown over it. When he tried to summon to his imagination the statuesque beauty of the one girl, the bright eyes of the other would look at him, and the words from her speaking mouth would be in his ears. He had once kissed Alice, immediately on his return, in the presence of her father, and the memory of the halcyon34 moment was always present to him. When he thought most of Miss Wanless he did not think much of her kisses. How grand she would be at his dining-table, how glorious in his drawing-room! But with Alice how sweet would it be to sit by some brook side and listen to the waters!
And now since he had been at Beetham, from the nature of things which sometimes make events to come from exactly contrary causes, a new charm had been added to Alice, simply by the little effort she had made to annoy him. She had talked to him of “swells,” and{341} had pretended to be jealous of the Wanlesses, just because she had known that he would hate to hear such a word from her lips, and that he would be vexed35 by exhibition of such a feeling on her part! He was quite sure that she had not committed these sins because they belonged to her as a matter of course. Nothing could be more simple than her natural language or her natural feelings. But she had chosen to show him that she was ready to run into little faults which might offend him. The reverse of her ideas came upon him. She had said, as it were,—“See how little anxious I must be to dress myself in your mirror when I put myself in the same category with my poor stepmother.” Then he said to himself that he could see her as he was fain to see her, in her own mirror, and he loved her the better because she had dared to run the risk of offending him.
As he was driven up to the house at Brook Park he knew that it was his destiny to marry either the one girl or the other; and he was afraid of himself,—that before he left the house he might be engaged to the one he did not love. There was a moment in which he thought he would turn round and go back. “Major Rossiter,” Lady Wanless had said, “you know how glad we are to see you here. There is no young man of the day of whom Sir Walter thinks so much.” Then he had thanked her. “But—may I say a word in warning?”
“Certainly.”
“And I may trust to your honour?”
“I think so, Lady Wanless.{342}”
“Do not be much with that sweet darling of mine,—unless indeed—” And then she had stopped. Major Rossiter, though he was a major and had served some years in India, blushed up to his eyebrows36 and was unable to answer a word. But he knew that Georgiana Wanless had been offered to him, and was entitled to believe that the young lady was prone37 to fall in love with him. Lady Wanless, had she been asked for an excuse for such conduct, would have said that the young men of the present day were slow in managing their own affairs, unless a little help were given to them.
When the Major was almost immediately invited to return to Brook Park, he could not but feel that, if he were so to make his choice, he would be received there as a son-in-law. It may be that unless he intended so to be received, he should not have gone. This he felt as he was driven across the park, and was almost minded to return to Beetham.
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1
surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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3
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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4
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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5
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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6
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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7
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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8
urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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9
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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10
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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11
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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12
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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13
swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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14
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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15
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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16
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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17
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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18
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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19
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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20
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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21
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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22
greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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23
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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24
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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25
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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26
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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27
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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28
alabaster
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| adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石 | |
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29
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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30
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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31
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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32
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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33
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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34
halcyon
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| n.平静的，愉快的 | |
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35
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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36
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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37
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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