The doctor looked at her, startled. It seemed to him that in some magic way she had vanquished2 the difficulties of a most formidable situation by merely accepting and facing them. She did not argue about them, complain about them, nor expatiate4 upon their enormity. She was ready to go on living and working without any fuss from one almost impossible moment to the next. During his career in Clerkenwell Dr. Raste had become a connoisseur5 of choice examples of practical philosophy, and none better than he could appreciate Elsie's attitude. That it should have startled him was a genuine tribute to her.
"Yes, that's about it," he said nonchalantly, with the cunning of an expert who has seen an undervalued unique piece in an antique shop. "Well, good morning, Elsie. Good morning."
He was in a hurry; he had half a hundred urgent matters on his professional conscience. What could he do but leave Elsie alone with her ordeal6? He could not help her, and she did not need help in this particular work, which was, after all, part of her job at twenty pounds a year and food given and stolen. She was beginning to see the top of his hat as he descended7 the stairs. The stupid, plump, practical philosopher wanted to call him back for an affair of the very highest importance, and could not open her mouth, because Mr. Earlforward's desperate plight8 somehow inhibited9 her from doing so.[Pg 271]
"Doctor!" she exclaimed with a strange shrillness10 as soon as he had passed from her sight into the shop.
"What now?" demanded Dr. Raste sharply, afraid that his connoisseurship11 should have been mistaken and she would stampede.
She ran down after him. His gaze indicated danger. He did not mean to have any nonsense.
"I suppose you couldn't just see Joe for a minute?" she stammered12, with a blush. This now faltering13 creature had a moment earlier been calmly ready to do the best she could in circumstances which would scarcely bear looking at.
"Joe? What Joe?"
"Your old Joe. He's here, sir. Upstairs. Came last night, sir. He's very ill. I'm looking after him too. Master doesn't know."
"What in God's name are you talking about, my girl?" said the doctor, moved out of his impassibility.
She told him the facts, as though confessing a mortal sin for which she could not expect absolution.
"I really haven't a minute to spare," said he, and went upstairs with her to the second-floor.
By the time they got there Elsie had resumed her self-possession.
The doctor, for all his detached and frigid14 poses, was on occasion capable, like nearly every man, of being as irrational15 as a woman. On this occasion he was guilty of a perfectly16 indefensible prejudice against both Elsie and Joe. He had a prejudice against Elsie because he was convinced that had it not been for her affair with Joe, Joe would still have been in his service. And he was prejudiced against Joe because he had suffered much from a whole series of Joe's successors. For the moment he was quite without a Joe. Also he resented Elsie having a secret sick man in the house—and that man Joe—and demanding so unexpectedly his attention when he was in a hurry and over-fatigued by the ills of the people of Clerkenwell. He would have justly contemned17 such prejudices in another, and especially in, for example, his[Pg 272] wife; and it must be admitted he was not the god-like little being he thought he was. Fortunately Joe was in a state which made all equal before him.
"Oh, dear! I do so ache, and I'm thirsty," the second patient groaned18 desperately19, showing no emotion—surprise, awe20 or shame—at sight of the doctor and employer whom he had so cruelly wronged by leaving him in the lurch21 for inadequate22 reasons originating in mere3 sentiment. He had been solitary23 for half an hour and could not bear it. He wanted, and wanted ravenously24, something from everybody he saw. The world existed solely25 to succour him. And certainly he looked very ill, forlorn, and wistfully savage26 in the miserable27 bed in the miserable bedroom of the ex-charwoman. He looked quite as ill as Mr. Earlforward, and to Elsie even worse.
"It's malaria28," said the doctor in a casual tone, after he had gone through the routine of examination. "Temperature, of course. He'll be better in a few days. I've no doubt he had it in France first, but he never told me. When they brought back troops to France from the East, malaria came with them. All the north of France is covered with mosquitoes, and they carry the disease. I'll send down some quinine. You must feed him on liquids—milk, barley-water, beef-tea, milk-and-soda. Hot water to drink, not cold. And you ought to sponge him down twice a day."
Elsie, listening intently to this mixture of advice and information, could not believe that Joe's case was not more serious than the doctor's manner implied. Well implanted in her lay the not groundless conviction that doctors were apt to be much more summary with the sick poor than with the sick rich. And she was revisited by her old sense of this doctor's harsh indifference29. He had not even greeted his former servant, had regarded him simply as he would regard any ordinary number in a panel.
"You won't have a great deal to do downstairs. In fact, scarcely anything," the doctor added, who apparently30 saw nothing excessive in leaving two patients in charge of[Pg 273] one unaided woman, she being also housekeeper31, shopkeeper, and domestic servant.
"Of course you can send him to the hospital if you care to," said the doctor lightly. "I dare say they'd take him in." He was, in fact, not anxious to insist on Joe's removal, thinking that he had already sufficiently32 worried the hospital authorities about the dwellers33 in Riceyman Steps.
To send Joe to the hospital would have relieved Elsie of the terrific responsibility which she had incurred34 by bringing him unpermitted into the house. But she did not want to surrender him. She hated to part with him. And privately35, when it came to the point, she shared Mr. Earlforward's objection to hospitals. Joe might be neglected, she feared, in the hospital; he might be victimized by some rule. She had no confidence in the nursing of anybody except herself. She was persuaded that if she could watch him she might save him.
"I think I can manage him here, sir," she smiled. But it was a reserved smile, which said: "I have my own ideas about this matter and I don't swallow all I hear."
Dr. Raste began to put on his gloves; in the servant's room he had not taken off his hat, much less his overcoat. She escorted him downstairs. At the shop-door he suddenly said:
"If he does want another doctor there's Mr. Adhams—other side of Myddelton Square." His features relaxed. This remark was his repentance36 to Elsie, induced in him by her cheerful and unshrinking attitude towards destiny.
"You mean for master, sir?"
"Yes. He may be able to do something with him. You never know."
"I'm sure I'm very much obliged, sir," said Elsie eagerly, her kindliness37 springing up afresh and rushing out to meet the doctor's spark of feeling. He nodded. He had not said whether or not he would call again to see Joe, and she had not dared to suggest it. She shut the door and locked herself in the house with the two men.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
benevolently
|
|
| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
vanquished
|
|
| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
expatiate
|
|
| v.细说，详述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
connoisseur
|
|
| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
ordeal
|
|
| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
plight
|
|
| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
inhibited
|
|
| a.拘谨的，拘束的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
shrillness
|
|
| 尖锐刺耳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
11
connoisseurship
|
|
| n.鉴赏家（或鉴定家、行家）身份，鉴赏（或鉴定）力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
stammered
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
faltering
|
|
| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
frigid
|
|
| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
irrational
|
|
| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
contemned
|
|
| v.侮辱，蔑视( contemn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
18
groaned
|
|
| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
awe
|
|
| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
lurch
|
|
| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
inadequate
|
|
| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
ravenously
|
|
| adv.大嚼地，饥饿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
solely
|
|
| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
malaria
|
|
| n.疟疾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
housekeeper
|
|
| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
dwellers
|
|
| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
incurred
|
|
| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
privately
|
|
| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
repentance
|
|
| n.懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
kindliness
|
|
| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |