His body's sinews.—Bryant.
On a rock, at the end of the promontory3 which forms the harbor of Beyrout, stood Vassall Morton; and at his side his friend Buckland, whom he had met in New York just after his return from Austria. They had encountered again in the East Indies, and had made together a long and varied4 journey, not without hardship and danger, among the tribes of Upper India and Central Asia. Buckland was greatly changed. His look and bearing betokened5 recovered health and spirit; while his companion, in the fulness of masculine vigor6, was swarthy as an Arab with the long burning of the Eastern sun.
"Our travels are over, Buckland. We have nothing to do, now, but to get on board ship, and lie still for a few weeks, and we shall be at home again. I hardly know why it is that I wish so much to shorten the space, unless from a cat-like propensity7 to haunt old places."
"And to see your friends again."
"Yes, that is something—a good deal. I have friends enough, unless they have died since I last heard from them. But for household gods, I have none; or, rather, my ancestral Lares have no better abode8 than an old clapboarded parsonage in an up-country Yankee village. You are much more fortunate in that respect. You go home again, besides, a new man, rejuvenated9 in mind and body."
"I gave you a shove off shore; but the refitting came afterwards, and was no doing of mine. I should hardly know you for the same man."
"That infatuation seems to me like a dream, as I remember you prophesied11 on the evening when we sat together on the Battery."
"Half of a woman's weakness springs from the sensitiveness of her bodily organization; and three fourths of your infatuation may be laid to the same account. One may say that, without any tendency to flounder into materialism12. You are a man again now; and even if you had not heard of your sorceress's death, you might go back, I think, without the least fear of her spells."
"I hope so; but I wish that, like you, I had some engrossing13 object to return to."
"I wish that, like you, I had a family, and a fixed14 home to return to. My travels are finished, though. I have roamed the world enough. My objects are accomplished15, as well as I could ever accomplish them. I have not wandered for nothing; and now I shall bend myself to make my journeyings bear what fruit I can. By the sun, and by my watch, it is time for the consul16 to have returned. Did not his servant say that he would come ashore17 from the frigate18 at about six?"
"Yes."
"If he does not, I will get a boat and go to find him. He must have letters for one or the other of us."
"I will ride to the town, and see if he has come."
"Very well; I will wait for you here."
Their horses were near at hand, in the keeping of an Arab servant. Buckland mounted his own, and rode off.
Morton seated himself on a jutting19 edge of the rock overhanging the bay, and gave himself up to his thoughts.
"Two years of wandering! Two years more, and I should grow like the man in Anastasius, never happy at rest, never content in motion. I have had my fill of adventure. I must learn repose20 before it is too late. Why is it that I look so longingly21 towards America? Except half a dozen near friends, I have no ties there that are worth the name. America is the paradise of the laboring22 class, the purgatory24 of those of educated tastes. What career is open to me there, that I could not better follow elsewhere? I have chosen my path. I have an object which fills and engrosses25 me, and would fill the lifetime of twenty men abler than I. America is not my best field of labor23; but where else should I plant myself? I could not live in England. I am of English race, but of an altered type; too like, and too unlike, to find harmony there. The continent is more cosmopolitan26; but it would be a dreary27 life. I should grow homesick, thinking of the old woods and rocks. I will go home, buckle28 to my work, and end my days where I began them.
"My life has been, in its small way, a varied one; very hard, at times, but perhaps none too much so. Blows are good for most men, and suffering, to the farthest limit of their endurance, what they most need. It is a child's part to complain under any fate; and what color of complaint have I, or any man sound in mind and body, and with the world free before him? And yet I turn girl-hearted when I think of that summer evening by the lake at Matherton. What is my fate to Edith Leslie's? How will a few years of suffering, with one deadening memory in their wake, compare with her life-long endurance? A woman's nature, it is said, will mould itself into conformity29 with her husband's. I will rather believe that Vinal's presence, instead of drawing her to itself, has repelled30 her upward into a higher atmosphere, and made her life as lofty as it must be sad. I wish to go back, and yet I shrink from this voyage. I have some cause, remembering my last welcome home. Heaven knows what I may learn of her this time. It was her marriage then; perhaps it will be her death now. And which of the two will have been the worse either for me to hear or for her to undergo? Perhaps these letters may bring some word of her; though that is not likely, for none of my friends, but one, know that I should have any special interest in hearing it. If they write of her, it will be some news of disaster."
These dismal31 forebodings weighed upon him, and his desire to have them resolved soon grew so importunate32, that mounting his horse, he followed Buckland's track towards the town. Threading the busy streets, he stopped before a door adorned33 with the effigy34 of a spread eagle wearing a striped shield about his neck, and clutching thunderbolts and olive boughs35 in his claws. He threw the rein36 to his servant, mounted the consular37 stair, and at the head met Buckland emerging.
"Is the consul come?"
"Yes; and letters for you. I am sorry for you, if you mean to answer them all."
And he gave Morton a formidable packet. Morton cut the string.
"These are all six or eight months old. They are postmarked from Calcutta."
"Yes, they came after we had gone up the country, and were sent back to this place to meet you. Wait a moment; here are more. These two have just come from England."
Morton took them; recognized on one the handwriting of Meredith; on the other, that of his friend Mrs. Ashland. His heart leaped to his throat; he tore open the seal, and glanced down the page.
"No bad news, I trust."
"I had an enemy, and he is dead. You shall know more of it to-morrow."
And hastening from the house, he mounted again, and through the midst of mules39, donkeys, dromedaries, men, children, and old women, rode at an unlawful speed towards his lodging40.
Here, with a beating heart, he explored his profuse41 correspondence from beginning to end. By the Calcutta packet, he learned how his native town had been thrown into commotion42 by the exposure and flight of Vinal, and how his friends were eager and impatient to hear his explanation of the affair. The more recent letters bore tidings still more startling. The bark Swallow had touched at Gibraltar, and a letter from her captain to her owners, forwarded by the Oriental steamer on her return voyage, told how his passenger, John White, had been lost overboard during a gale43, two of the crew having seen the accident; how, arriving at Gibraltar, his trunks had been opened in the consul's presence, to learn his address; and how, along with a large amount of money in gold, letters and papers had been found, showing that he was not John White, but Horace Vinal, of Boston.
* * * * *
On the next morning, Morton despatched a letter to Meredith. In it, he told his friend the whole course of his story; and these were the closing words:—
"One thing you may well believe—that, before you will have had this letter many days, I shall follow it. There will be no rest for me till I touch American soil. An old passion, only half stifled44 under a load of hopelessness, springs into fresh life again, and burns, less brightly, perhaps, but I can almost believe, more deeply and fervently45 than ever. I was consoling myself yesterday with trying to think that blows were my mind's best medicine; but I feel now, that after being broken with the plough and harrow, it will yield the better for the summer sunshine. Yet I am afraid to flatter myself with too bright a prospect46. Miss Leslie loved me, and the planets in their course are not more constant and unswerving; but I cannot tell what may have been the effect of so much suffering, or what determination, fatal to my hope, it may not have impelled47 her to embrace. She will soon know my mind. I have written to her, and begged her to send her reply to New York, where, if my reckoning does not fail, I shall arrive about the middle of June. By it I shall be able to judge to what fortune I am to look forward.
"You have so lately passed your own anxieties, that you will easily appreciate mine. I can wish for them nothing more than that they may find as happy an issue; and I will take it as an earnest of the intentions of destiny towards me that it has just brought together my two best friends."
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1
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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2
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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3
promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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7
propensity
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| n.倾向；习性 | |
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8
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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rejuvenated
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| 更生的 | |
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10
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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11
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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13
engrossing
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| adj.使人全神贯注的，引人入胜的v.使全神贯注( engross的现在分词 ) | |
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14
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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15
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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16
consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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18
frigate
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| n.护航舰，大型驱逐舰 | |
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19
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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20
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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21
longingly
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| adv. 渴望地 热望地 | |
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22
laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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23
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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24
purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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25
engrosses
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| v.使全神贯注( engross的第三人称单数 ) | |
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26
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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27
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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28
buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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29
conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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30
repelled
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| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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31
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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32
importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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33
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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34
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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35
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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36
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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37
consular
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| a.领事的 | |
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38
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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39
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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40
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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41
profuse
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| adj.很多的，大量的，极其丰富的 | |
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42
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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43
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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44
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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45
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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46
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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47
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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