In the front room of the first floor of a house in such a street, South Molton-street, connecting Oxford14-street the plebeian15 with Brook-street the superb, just as the feeble glimmer16 of daylight which had vouchsafed17 itself during the day was beginning to wax even feebler, previous to its sudden departure, a man sat astride a chair, sunk in thought. He had apparently18 just entered, for he still wore his hat and overcoat, though the former was pushed to the back of his head, and the latter thrown negligently19 open. He was a tall handsome man, with keen black eyes glancing sharply, with thick black brows, a long straight nose, thin tight lips unshrouded by moustache or beard, and a small round chin. He had full flowing black whiskers, and the blue line round his mouth showed that the beard was naturally strong; had he suffered it to grow he might have passed for an Italian. As it was, there was no mistaking him for anything but an Englishman--darker, harder-looking than most of his race, but an Englishman. His face, especially round the eyes, was flushed and marked and lined, telling of reckless dissipation. There was a something not exactly fast, but yet slangy, in the cut of his clothes and in the manner in which he wore them; his attitude as he sat at the window with his hands clasped in front of him over the back rail of his chair, his knees straight out and his feet drawn20 back, as a man sits a horse at a hunt, was in its best aspect suggestive of the mess-room: in its worst, of the billiard-room. And yet there was an indescribable something in the general aspect of the man, in the very ease of his position, in the shape of the hands clasped in front of him, in the manner, slight as it was, in which now and again he would turn on his chair and peer back into the darkness behind him, by which you would have known that he had had a refined education, and had been conversant21 with the manners of society.
Nor would you have been wrong. In Burke's Landed Gentry22, the Rouths of Carr Abbey take up their full quota23 of pages, and when the county election for Herefordshire comes off, the liberal agent is forced to bring to bear all the science he can boast of, to counteract24 the influence which the never-failing adhesion of the old family throws into the Tory scale. Never having risen, never for an instant having dreamed of demeaning themselves by rising, above the squirearchy, owners of the largest and best herds26 in all that splendid cattle-breeding county, high-sheriffs and chairmen of quarter-sessions as though by prescriptive right, perpetual presidents of agricultural societies, and in reality taking precedence immediately after the lord-lieutenant, the Rouths of Carr Abbey, from time immemorial, have sent their sons to Oxford and their daughters to court, and have never, save in one instance, had to blush for their children.
Save in one instance. The last entry in the old family Bible of Carr Abbey is erased28 by a thick black line. The old squire25 speaks habitually29 of "My only son, William;" and should a stranger, dining at the Abbey, casually31 refer to the picture, by Lawrence, of two little boys, one riding a pony32, the younger decking a dog's neck with ribbon, he is, if the squire had not heard his question, motioned in dumb show to silence, or is replied to by the squire himself that "that boy is--lost, sir."
That boy, Stewart Routh, the man looking out of the window in South Molton-street, was captain of the boat at Eton, and first favourite, for a time, both with the dons and undergraduates at Oxford. Rumours33 of high play at cards developing into fact of perpetually sported "oak," non-attendance at chapel34, and frequent shirking of classes, lessened35 the esteem36 in which Mr. Routh was held by the authorities; and a written confession37 handed to the dean, after being obtained by parental38 pressure, from Mr. Albert Grüntz, of Christ Church, son of and heir to Mr. Jacob Grüntz, sugar-baker, of St Mary Axe39, in the city of London, and Balmoral-gardens, Hyde-park, a confession to the effect that he, Mr. A. Grüntz, had lost the sum of two thousand pounds to Mr. S. Routh, at a game played with dice40, and known as French hazard, procured41 the dismissal of Mr. S. Routh from the seat of learning. At Carr Abbey, whither he retired42, his stay was shortened by the arrival of another document from Oxford, this time signed by Lord Hawkhurst, gentleman commoner of Christ Church, and Arthur Wardroper, of Balliol, setting forth43 that Mr. S. Routh, while playing hazard in Mr. Grüntz's rooms, had been caught there in flagrante delicto in the act of cheating by "securing," i.e. retaining in his fingers, one of the dice which he should have shaken from the box. It was the receipt of this letter that caused the squire to make the erasure44 in the family Bible, and to look upon his youngest son as dead.
Driven from the paternal45 roof, Mr. Stewart Routh descended46 upon the pleasant town of Boulogne, whence, after a short stay not unmarked by many victories over the old and young gentlemen who frequent the card-tables at the Etablissement des Bains, from whom he carried off desirable trophies47, he proceeded to the baths and gambling-houses of Ems, Homburg, and Baden-Baden. It was at the last-mentioned place, and when in the very noon and full tide of success, that he was struck down by a fever, so virulent48 that the affrighted servants of the hotel refused to wait upon him. No nurse could be prevailed upon to undertake to attend him; and he would have been left to die for want of proper care, had not a young Englishwoman, named Harriet Creswick, travelling in the capacity of nursery-governess to Lord de Mauleverer's family (then passing through Baden on their way to winter in Rome), come to the rescue. Declaring that her countryman should not perish like a dog, she there and then devoted49 herself to attendance on the sick man. It need scarcely be told that Lady de Mauleverer, protesting against "such extraordinary conduct," intimated to Miss Creswick that her connection with her noble charges must cease at once and for ever. But it is noteworthy that in such a man as Stewart Routh had hitherto proved himself, a spirit of gratitude51 should have been so strongly aroused, that when his sense and speech returned to him, in weak and faltering52 accents he implored53 the woman who had so tenderly nursed him through his illness, to become his wife. It is quite needless to say that his friends, on hearing of it, averred54, some that he thought he was going to die, and that it did not matter to him what he did, while it might have pleased the young lady; others, that he was a particularly knowing card, whose brains had never deserted55 him, even when he was at his worst, and that he had discovered in Harriet Creswick a woman exactly fitted, by physical and mental qualification, efficiently56 to help him as his partner in playing the great game of life. Be it as it may--and people will talk, especially in such circles--the fact remains57 that on his sick couch at the Hollandischer Hof, Baden-Baden, Stewart Routh proposed to Harriet Creswick and was accepted; that so soon as he could safely be left she departed for England; and that within a month they were married in London.
Of that one event at least in all his eventful life, Stewart Routh had never repented58. Through all his vicissitudes59 of fortune his wife had been by his side, and as, in the long run, chance had been against him, taking the heaviest portion of his burden on herself. Harriet Routh's was an untiring, undying, unquestioning love or worship of her husband. The revelation of his--to say the least of it--loose mode of life, the shifts and expedients60 to which he resorted for getting money, the questionable61 company in which he habitually lived, would have told with fatal effect on a devotion less thorough, a passion more transient. Harriet herself, who had been brought up staidly at an Institution, which she had only quitted to join the family with whom she was travelling when she arrived at Baden--Harriet herself at first shrunk back stunned62 and stupefied by the revelation of an unknown life which burst upon her a few days after her marriage. But her love bore her through it. As the dyer's hand assimilates to that it works in, so gradually did Harriet Routh endue63 herself with her husband's tone, temper, and train of thought, until, having become almost his second self, she was his most trusted ally, his safest counsellor in all the strange schemes by which he made out life. In the early days after their marriage she had talked to him once, only once, and then but for a few minutes, of reformation, of something better and more reputable, of doing with less money, to be obtained by the exercise of his talents in some legitimate64 manner. And her husband, with the nearest approach to harshness that before or since he had ever assumed, told her that his time for that kind of thing was passed and gone for ever, that she must forget all the childish romance that they had taught her at the Institution, that she must sink or swim with him, and be prepared to cast in her lot with that kind of existence which had become his second nature, and out of which he could never hope to move. Even if he could move from it, he added, he did not think that he would wish to do so, and there must be an end to the matter.
There was an end to the matter. From that time forth, Harriet Routh buried her past, buried her former self, and devoted herself, soul and body, to her husband. Her influence over him strengthened with each year that they lived together, and was traceable in many ways. The fact once faced, that their precarious65 livelihood66 was to be earned by the exercise of sharpness superior to that enjoyed by those with whom they were brought into contact, Harriet laid herself out at once for the fulfilment of her new duties, and in a very short time compelled her husband's surprised laudation of the ease and coolness with which she discharged them. There were no other women in that strange society; but if there had been, Harriet would have queened it over them, not merely by her beauty, but by her bright spirit, her quick appreciation69, her thorough readiness to enter exactly into the fancy of the moment. The men who lost their money to Routh and his companion treated her not merely with a punctilio which forbade the smallest verbal excess, but bore their losses with comparative good humour so long as Mrs. Routh was present. The men who looked up to Routh as the arch-concocter of and prime mover in all their dark deeds, had a blind faith in her, and their first question, on the suggestion of any scheme, would be "what Mrs. Routh thought of it." Ah, the change, the change! The favourite pupil of the Institution, who used to take such close notes of the sermon on Sunday mornings, and illustrate70 the chaplain's meaning with such apposite texts from other portions of Scripture71, as quite to astonish the chaplain himself, which perhaps was not to be wondered at, as the chaplain (a bibulous72 old gentleman, who had been appointed on the strength of his social qualities by the committee, who valued him as "a parson, you know, without any nonsense about him") was in the habit of purchasing his discourses73 ready made, and only just ran them through, on Saturday nights. The show pupil of the Institution, who did all kinds of arithmetical problems "in her head," by which the worthy50 instructors74 meant without the aid of paper and pencil--the staid and decorous pupil of the Institution, who, when after her last examination she was quitting the table loaded with prizes--books--was called back by the bishop75 of the diocese, who with feeble hands pinned a silver medal on to her dress, and said, in a trembling voice, "I had nearly forgotten the best of all. This is in testimony76 of your excellent conduct, my dear." What was become of this model miss? She was utilizing77 her talents in a different way. That was all. The memory which had enabled her to summarize and annotate78 the chaplain's sermons now served as her husband's note-book, and was stored with all kinds of odd information, "good things" to "come off," trials of horses, names and fortunes of heirs who had just succeeded to their estates, lists of their most pressing debts, names of the men who were supposed to be doubtful in money matters, and with whom it was thought inexpedient to bet or play--all these matters dwelt in Harriet Routh's brain, and her husband had only to turn his head and ask, "What is it, Harry79?" to have the information at once. The arithmetical quickness stood her in good stead, in the calculation of odds80 on all kinds of sporting events, on the clear knowledge of which the success of most of Routh's business depended; and as for the good conduct--well, the worthy bishop would have held up his hands in pious81 horror at the life led by the favourite pupil of the Institution, and at her surroundings; but against Mrs. Routh, as Mrs. Routh, as the devoted, affectionate, self-denying, spotless wife, the veriest ribald in all that loose crew had never ventured to breathe a doubt.
Devoted and affectionate! See her now as she comes quietly into the room--a small compact partridge of a woman with deep blue eyes in a very pale face, with smooth shining light brown hair falling on either side in two long curls, and gathered into a clump82 at the back of her head, with an impertinent nose only just redeemed83 from being a snub, with a small mouth, and a very provoking pattable chin. See how she steals behind her husband, her dark linsey dress draping her closely and easily, and not making the slightest rustle84; her round arm showing its symmetry in her tight sleeve twining round his neck; her plump shapely hand resting on his head; her pale cheek laid against his face. Devoted and affectionate! No simulation here.
"Anything gone wrong, Stewart?" she asked, in a very sweet voice.
"No, dear. Why?" said Routh, who was now sitting at a table strewn with papers, a pen in his right hand, and his left supporting his handsome worn face.
"You looked gloomy, I thought; but, if you say so, it's all right," returned his wife, cheerfully, leaving his side as she spoke85, and proceeding86 to sweep up the hearth87, put on fresh coals, and make the whole room look comfortable, with a few rapid indefinable touches. Then she sat down in a low chair by the fire, perfectly88 still, and turned her calm pale face to her husband with a business-like air. He made some idle scratches with his pen in silence, then threw it down, and, suddenly pushing away his chair, began to walk up and down the room with long light strides.
"What do you make of Deane, Harriet?" he said, at length, stopping for a moment opposite his wife, and looking closely at her.
"How do you mean? In character or in probabilities? As regards himself, or as regards us?"
"Well, both. I cannot make him out; he is so confoundedly cool, and so infernally sharp. He might be a shrewd man of business, bent89 on making a fortune, and a good way on the road to his object; and yet he's nothing but a man of pleasure, of what your good people would call a wretched low kind of pleasure too, and is spending the fortune instead."
"I don't think so, Stewart," his wife said, quietly and impressively. "I don't think Mr. Deane is spending any very considerable portion of his fortune, whatever it may be."
Stewart had resumed his walking up and down, but listened to her attentively90.
"I regard him as a curious combination of the man of business with the man of pleasure. I don't know that we have ever met exactly the kind of person before. He is as calculating in his pleasures as other men are in their business."
"That's dangerous, Stewart," said Harriet. "You should not allow yourself either to hate or to like any one in whom you are speculating. If you do the one, it will make you incautious; if you do the other, scrupulous92. Both are unwise. I do not hate Mr. Deane."
"Fortunately for him, Harry. I think a man would be a great deal safer with my hatred93 than with yours."
"Possibly," she said, simply, and the slightest smile just parted her crimson94 lips, and showed a momentary95 gleam of her white, small, even teeth. "But I do not hate him. I think about him, though; because it is necessary that I should, and I fancy I have found out what he really is."
"Have you, by Jove?" interrupted Routh. "Then you've done a clever thing, Harriet--clever even for you; for of all the close and impenetrable men I ever met, Deane's the closest and the hardest. When I'm with him, I always feel as if he were trying to do me somehow, and as if he would succeed too, though that's not easy. He's as mean as a Scotch96 shopkeeper, as covetous97 as a Jew, as wide awake as a Yankee. There's a coolness and a constant air of avowed98 suspicion about him that drives me mad."
"And yet you ought to have been done with temper and with squeamishness long ago," said Harriet, in a tone of quiet conviction. "How often have you told me, Stewart, that to us, in our way of life, every man must be a puppet, prized in proportion to the readiness with which he dances to our pulling? What should we care? I am rendered anxious and uneasy by what you say."
She kept silence for a few moments, and then asked him, in a changed tone,
"How does your account with him stand?"
"My account!---ah, there's the rub! He's so uncommonly99 sharp, that there's little to be done with him. The fellow's a blackguard--more of a blackguard than I am, I'll swear, and as much of a swindler, at least, in his capacity for swindling. Only I dare say he has never had occasion to reduce it to practice. And yet there's a hardly veiled insolence101 in his manner to me, at times, for which I'd like to blow his brains out. He tells me, as plainly as if he said it in words, that he pays me a commission on his pleasures, such as are of my procuring102, but that he knows to a penny what he intends to pay, and is not to be drawn into paying a penny more."
Harriet sat thoughtful, and the faintest flush just flickered103 on her cheek. "Who are his associates, when he is not with you?"
"He keeps that as close as he keeps everything else," replied Routh; "but I have no doubt he makes them come cheap, if indeed he does not get a profit out of them."
"You are taking my view of him, Stewart," said Harriet; then she added, "He has some motive104 for acting105 with such caution, no doubt; but a flaw may be found in his armour106, when we think fit to look for it. In the mean time, tell me what has set you thinking of him?"
"Dallas's affair, Harriet. I am sorry the poor fellow lost his money to him. Hang it, I'm such a bad fellow myself, so utterly107 gone a'coon" (his wife winced108, and her pale face turned paler), "that it comes ill from me to say so, and I wouldn't, except to you. But I am devilish sorry Deane got the chance of cleaning Dallas out. I like the boy; he's a stupid fool, but not half bad, and he didn't deserve such an ill turn of fortune."
"Well," said Harriet, "take comfort in remembering that you helped him."
She spoke very coldly, and evidently was a stranger to the feelings which actuated Routh.
"You don't care about it, that's clear," he remarked.
"No, Stewart," she said, in her calm sweet voice, which rose a little as she went on, "I do not. I care for nothing on earth (and I never look beyond this earth) but you. I have no interest, no solicitude110, for any other creature. I cannot feel any, and it is well. Nothing but this would do in my case."
She stood and looked at him with her deep blue eyes, with her hands folded before her, and with a sober seriousness in her face confirmatory of the words she had spoken. He looked at her until she turned away, and a keen observer might have seen in his face the very slightest expression of impatience111.
"Shall we go into those accounts now?" said Harriet; "we shall just have time for it, before you go to Flinders'."
She sat down, as she spoke, before a well-appointed writing table, and, drawing a japan box towards her, opened it, and took out a number of papers. Routh took a seat beside her, and they were soon deep in calculations which would have had little interest or meaning for a third person, had there been one present. By degrees, Routh's face darkened, and many times he uttered angry oaths; but though Harriet watched him narrowly, and felt in every nerve the annoyance112 under which he was labouring, she preserved her calm manner, and went steadily113 on with her task; condensing the contents of several papers into brief memoranda114, carefully tearing up the originals, and placing the little heaps methodically beside her for consignment115 to the fire. At length Routh again stood up, and lounged against the mantelpiece.
"All these must be paid, then, Harry?" he asked, as he lighted a cigar, and began to smoke sullenly116.
"Yes," she answered, cheerfully. "You know, dear, it has always been our rule, as it has hitherto constituted our safety, to stand well with our tradespeople, and pay them, at least, punctually. We have never been so much behindhand; and as you are about to take a bolder flight than usual, it is doubly necessary that we should be untrammelled. Fancy Flinders getting snubbed by the landlady117, or your being arrested for your tailor's bills, at the time when the new Company is coming out!"
It would have been difficult to induce an unseen witness to believe how utterly unscrupulous, remorseless, conscienceless a woman Harriet Routh had become, if he had seen the smile with which she answered her husband's half-admiring, half-querulous question.
"You know, dear, I don't need much. I have not to keep up appearances as you have. You are in the celebrated119 category of those who cannot afford to be anything but well-dressed. It's no matter for me, but it's a matter of business for you."
"Ah! I might have known you'd have some self-denying, sensible reason ready; but the puzzle to me is, that you always are well dressed. By Jove, you're the neatest woman I know, and the prettiest!"
The smile upon her face brightened, but she only shook her head, and went on:
"If Dallas does not get the money, or at least some of it, what do you propose to do? I don't know."
"Do you think he will get the money, Harry? He told you all about it. What are the odds?"
"I cannot even guess. All depends on his mother. If she is courageous120, and fond of him, she will get it for him, even supposing her immediate27 control as small as she believes it to be. If she is not courageous, her being fond of him will do very little good, and women are mostly cowards," said Harriet composedly.
"I never calculated much on the chance," said Routh, "and indeed it would be foolish to take the money if he got it--in that way, at least; for though I am sorry Deane profited by the young fellow, that's because I hate Deane. It's all right, for my purpose, that Dallas should be indebted as largely as may be to me. He's useful in more ways than one; his connection with the press serves our turn, Harry, doesn't it? Especially when you work it so well, and give him such judicious121 hints, such precious confidences."
(Even such praise as this, the woman's perverted122 nature craved123 and prized.) "You won't need to take the money from him in formal payment," she said, "if that's what you want to avoid. If he returns with that sum in his pocket, he will not be long before he--"
A knock at the door interrupted her, and George Dallas entered the room.
He looked weary and dispirited, and, before the customary greetings had been exchanged, Routh and Harriet saw that failure had been the result of experiment. Harriet's eyes sought her husband's face, and read in it the extent of his discomfiture124; and the furtive125 glance she turned on Dallas was full of resentment126. But it found no expression in her voice as she asked him commonplace questions about his journey, and busied herself in setting a chair for him by the fire, putting his hat aside, and begging him to take off his overcoat. He complied. As he threw the coat on a chair, he said, with a very moderately successful attempt at pleasantry:
"I have come back richer than I went, Mrs. Routh, by that elegant garment, and no more."
"Bowled out, eh?" asked Routh, taking the cigar from his mouth, and laying it on the mantel-piece.
Harriet said nothing.
"That's bad, Dallas."
"Very bad, my dear fellow, but very true. Look here," the young man continued, with earnestness, "I don't know what to do. I don't, upon my soul! I saw my mother--"
"Yes?" said Harriet going up to his side. "Well?
"I saw her and--and she is unable to help me; she is, indeed, Mrs. Routh," for a bitter smile was on Harriet's face, turned full upon his. "She hasn't the means. I never understood her position until last night, but I understood it then. She is--" he stopped. All his better nature forbad his speaking of his mother's position to these people. Her influence, the gentler, better influence, was over him still. However transitory it might prove, it had not passed yet. Harriet Routh knew as well as he did what the impulse was that arrested his speech.
"You will tell me all about it yet," she thought, and not a sign of impatience appeared in her face.
"I--I need not bore you with details," he went on. "She could not give me the money. She made me understand that. But she promised to get it for me, in some way or other, if the thing is within the reach of possibility, before a month expires. I know she will do it, but I must give her time, if it's to be forthcoming, and you must give me time."
"It's unfortunate, Dallas," Routh began, in a cold voice, "and, of course, it's all very well your talking to me about giving you time, but how am I to get it? It's no good going over the old story, you know it as well as I do. There, there," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "I must try and get old Shadrach to renew. I suppose we may as well go at once, Dallas." He left the room, followed by Harriet.
George Dallas sat over the fire in an attitude of deep dejection. He was sick at heart, and the revulsion of feeling that had begun at Poynings had not yet ceased. "If I could but be done with it all!" he thought. "But I'm in the groove128, I'm in the groove."
"Come along, George," said Routh, who seemed more good-humoured than before, as he re-entered the room, soberly attired129, as became a man going to do business in the City. "Don't be down-hearted; the old lady will keep her word. Don't be afraid; and in the mean time, we'll pull through. Put your coat on, and come along. You'll give us some dinner, Harriet, won't you? And if Deane calls, ask him to join us. He won't," he continued, with a laugh, "because he believes in tavern130 dinners, and puts no faith in ours. We're snobs131 who live in lodgings132, George, you know; but he'll drop in in the evening fast enough."
The application to Mr. Shadrach proved successful, and George Dallas returned with Stewart Routh to his lodgings, more firmly tied to him than ever, by the strong bond of an increased money-obligation.
"Pretty tidy terms, weren't they?" Routh asked Dallas, when he had told Harriet, in answer to her anxious questioning, that the "renewal133" had been arranged.
"Very tidy indeed," said poor George, ruefully: "but, Routh, suppose when I do get the money, it's not enough. What's to be done then?"
"Never mind about then," said Routh, "now is the important matter. Remember that every then is made of nows, and keep your mind easy. That's philosophy, as Mr. Squeers says. Your present business is to eat your dinner."
Stewart Routh had thrown off his low spirits, and had all but succeeded in rousing George Dallas from his. Kindly134, convivial135, only occasionally coarse, he was a dangerously pleasant man at all times, and especially so to George Dallas when Harriet was present; for then his coarseness was entirely136 laid aside, and her tact67, humour, intelligence never failed to please, to animate137, and to amuse him. The dinner was a very pleasant one, and, before it had come to a conclusion, George Dallas began to yield as completely as ever to the influence of the man whose enviable knowledge of "life" had been the first medium through which he had attained138 it. George had forgotten the renewed bill and his late failure for a while, when the mention of Deane's name recalled it to his memory.
"Has Deane been here, Harry?" asked Routh.
"No, Stewart, I have been at home all day, but he has not called."
"Ah--didn't happen to want me, no doubt."
"Have you seen much of him lately, Routh?" inquired George Dallas. "I mean, within the last week or two? While I--while I've been keeping out of the way?" he said, with a nervous laugh.
"Poor boy, you have been down on your luck," said Routh. "Seen much of Deane? Oh, yes; he's always about--he's here most days, some time in the forenoon."
"In the forenoon, is he? Considering the hours he keeps at night, that surprises me."
"It doesn't surprise me. He's very strong--has a splendid constitution, confound him, and has not given it a shake yet. Drink doesn't seem to 'trouble' him in the least."
"He's an odd fellow," said George, thoughtfully. "How coolly he won my money, and what a greenhorn I was, to be sure!! wonder if he would have lost his own so coolly."
"Not a doubt of it," said Routh; "he'd have been satisfied he would make it up out of something else. He is an odd fellow, and a deuced unpleasant fellow to my mind."
Harriet looked at her husband with a glance of caution. It was unlike Routh to dwell on a mere68 personal feeling, or to let so much of his mind be known unnecessarily. He caught the glance and understood it, but it only angered, without otherwise influencing him.
"A low-lived loafer, if ever there was one," he went on, "but useful in his way, Dallas. Every man has a weakness; his is to think himself a first-rate billiard player, while he is only a fourth-rate. A man under such a delusion139 is sure to lose his money to any one who plays better than he does, and I may as well be that man, don't you see?"
"I see perfectly," said George; "but I wish he had been equally mistaken in his notions of his card-playing science; it would have made a serious difference to me."
"Never mind, old fellow," answered Routh; "you shall have your revenge some day. Finish your wine, and Harriet shall give us some music."
She did so. She gave them some music, such as very few can give--music which combines perfection of art with true natural feeling. This woman was a strange anomaly, full of "treasons, stratagems140, and spoils," and yet with music in her soul.
Rather early, George Dallas left the pair, but they sat up late, talking earnestly. Things were going ill with Stewart Routh. Some of his choicest and most promising141 combinations had failed. He had once or twice experienced a not uncommon100 misfortune in the lot of such men as he;--he had encountered men in his own profession who were as clever as himself, and who, favoured by circumstances and opportunity, had employed their talents at his expense. The swindler had been swindled once or twice, the biter had been bitten, and his temper had not been improved in the process. He was about, as Harriet had said, to take a new flight this time, in the direction of operations on the general public, and he had formed designs on Mr. Deane, which did not, in the increased knowledge he had obtained of that gentleman's character, and in the present aspect of affairs, look quite so promising as in the early stage of their acquaintance, six weeks before. The operations of gentlemen of the Routh fraternity are planned and executed with a celerity which seems extraordinary to pursuers of the more legitimate branches of industry. Routh had not passed many hours in Mr. Deane's society (they had met at a low place of amusement, the honours of which Routh was doing to a young Oxonian, full of cash and devoid142 of brains, whom he had in hand just then), before he had built an elaborate scheme upon the slender foundation of that gentleman's boasted wealth and assumed greenness. His subsequent experience had convinced him of the reality of the first, but had shown him his mistake as to the last, and gradually his mind, usually cool and undaunted, became haunted by an ever-burning desire to possess himself of the money for ever flaunted143 before his eyes--became haunted, too, by an unreasonable144 and blind animosity to the stranger, who combined profligacy145 with calculation, unscrupulous vice146 with well-regulated economy, and the unbridled indulgence of his passions with complete coldness of heart and coolness of temper. Routh had no knowledge of Deane's real position in life, but he had a conviction that had it been, like his own, that of a professional swindler, he would have been a dangerous rival, quite capable of reducing his own occupation and his own profits very considerably147. Therefore Routh hated him.
When the conference between Routh and Harriet came to a conclusion, it left the woman visibly troubled. When Routh had been for some time asleep, she still sat by the table, on which her elbows rested, her head on her hands, and the light shining on her fair brown hair. There she sat, until the fire died out, and the late wintry dawn came. She was not unused to such watches; wakefulness was habitual30 to her, and care had often kept her company. But no vigil had ever tired her so much. Her mind was at work, and suffering. When at length she rose from her chair with an impatient shiver, dark circles were round her blue eyes, and her pure waxen complexion148 looked thick and yellow. She lighted a candle, turned the gas out, and went for a moment to the window. The cold grey light was beginning to steal through the shutter149, which she opened wide, and then looked out. She set the candle down, and leaned idly against the window. Weariness and restlessness were upon her. The street was quite empty, and the houses opposite looked inexpressibly gloomy. "One would think all the people in them were dead instead of asleep," she said, half aloud, as she pulled the blind down with a jerk, and turned away. She went slowly upstairs to her bed-room, and as she went, she murmured:
"Where will it end? How will it end? It is an awful risk!"
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1
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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drizzling
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| 下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 ) | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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footpath
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| n.小路，人行道 | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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13
tacking
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| （帆船）抢风行驶，定位焊[铆]紧钉 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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15
plebeian
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| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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17
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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18
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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negligently
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20
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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21
conversant
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| adj.亲近的，有交情的，熟悉的 | |
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22
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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23
quota
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| n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额 | |
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counteract
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| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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26
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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27
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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28
erased
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| v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除 | |
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29
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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32
pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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33
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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34
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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35
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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36
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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38
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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39
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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40
dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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41
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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42
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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43
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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44
erasure
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| n.擦掉，删去；删掉的词；消音；抹音 | |
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45
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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46
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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47
trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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48
virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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49
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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50
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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51
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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52
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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53
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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55
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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56
efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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57
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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58
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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60
expedients
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| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
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61
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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62
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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63
endue
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| v.赋予 | |
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64
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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65
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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66
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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67
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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68
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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69
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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70
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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71
scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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72
bibulous
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| adj.高度吸收的，酗酒的 | |
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73
discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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74
instructors
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| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
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75
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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76
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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77
utilizing
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的现在分词 ) | |
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78
annotate
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| v.注解 | |
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79
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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80
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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81
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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82
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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83
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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84
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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85
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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86
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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87
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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88
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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89
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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90
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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91
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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92
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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93
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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94
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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95
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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96
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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97
covetous
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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98
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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99
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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100
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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101
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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102
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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103
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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105
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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106
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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107
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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108
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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109
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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110
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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111
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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112
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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113
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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114
memoranda
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| n. 备忘录, 便条 名词memorandum的复数形式 | |
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115
consignment
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| n.寄售；发货；委托；交运货物 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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perverted
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| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
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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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discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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127
stumped
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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snobs
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| （谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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convivial
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| adj.狂欢的，欢乐的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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stratagems
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| n.诡计，计谋( stratagem的名词复数 )；花招 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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flaunted
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| v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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profligacy
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| n.放荡，不检点，肆意挥霍 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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148
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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