"I am sorry to have disturbed you," he said, when she had set down the candle on a table without re-lighting the gas, "but I want to see Routh particularly. Is he in?"
"No," said Harriet, "he is not. Did you get his letter?"
"What letter? I have not heard from him. I have only just come up from Amherst. But you look ill, Mrs. Routh. Does anything ail8 you? Is anything wrong?"
"No," she said, hurriedly, "nothing, nothing. Routh has been worried, that's all, and I am very tired."
She pushed the candle further away as she spoke9, and, placing her elbow on the table, rested her head on her hand. George looked at her with concern. He had a kind heart and great tenderness for women and children, and he could forget, or, at all events, lay aside his own anxieties in a moment at the sight of suffering in a woman's face. His look of anxious sympathy irritated Harriet; she moved uneasily and impatiently, and said almost harshly:
"Never mind my looks, Mr. Dallas; they don't matter. Tell me how you have sped on your errand at Poynings. Has your mother kept her promise? Have you got the money? I hope so, for I am sorry to say Stewart wants it badly, and has been reckoning on it eagerly. I can't imagine how it happened you did not get his letter."
"I have succeeded," said George. "My mother has kept her word, God bless her, and I came at once to tell Routh he can have the money."
He stopped in the full tide of his animated10 speech, and looked curiously11 at Harriet. Something in her manner struck him as being unusual. She was evidently anxious about the money, glad to see him, and yet oddly absent. She did not look at him, and while he spoke she had turned her head sharply once or twice, while her upraised eyelids12 and parted lips gave her face a fleeting13 expression of intense listening. She instantly noticed his observation of her, and said sharply:
"I thought you were listening to something, you looked as if you heard something," said George.
"So I am listening--to you," Harriet replied, with an attempt at a smile. "So I do hear your adventures. There's nobody up in the house but myself. Pray go on."
So George went on, and told her all that had befallen him at Amherst, with one important reservation; he said nothing of Clare Carruthers or his two meetings with the heiress at the Sycamores; but he told her all about his interview with his mother, and the expedient15 to which she had resorted to supply his wants. Harriet Routh listened to his story intently; but when she heard that he had received from Mrs. Carruthers, not money, but jewels, she was evidently disconcerted.
"Here is the bracelet16," said George, as he took the little packet from the breast-pocket of his coat, and handed it to her. "I don't know much about such things, Mrs. Routh, but perhaps you do. Are the diamonds very valuable?"
Harriet had opened the morocco case containing the bracelet while he was speaking, and now she lifted the beautiful ornament17 from its satin bed, and held it on her open palm.
"I am not a very capable judge," she said; "but I think these are fine and valuable diamonds. They are extremely beautiful." And a gleam of colour came into her white face as she looked at the gems18 with a woman's irrepressible admiration19 of such things.
"I can't tell you how much I feel taking them from her," said George. "It's like a robbery, isn't it?" And he looked full and earnestly at Harriet.
She started, let the bracelet fall, stooped to pick it up, and as she raised her face again, it was whiter than before.
"How can you talk such nonsense?" she said, with a sudden resumption of her usual captivating manner. "Of course it isn't. Do you suppose your mother ever had as much pleasure in these gewgaws in her life as she had in giving them to you? Besides, you know you're going to reform and be steady, and take good advice, are you not?" She watched him very keenly, though her tone was gay and trifling20. George reddened, laughed awkwardly, and replied:
"Well, I hope so; and the first step, you know, is to pay my debts. So I must get Routh to put me in the way of selling this bracelet at once. I suppose there's no difficulty about it. I'm sure I have heard it said that diamonds are the same as ready money, and the sooner the tin is in Routh's pocket the better pleased I'll be. None the less obliged to him, though, Mrs. Routh; remember that, both for getting me out of the scrape, and for waiting so long and so good-humouredly for his money."
For all the cordiality of his tone, for all the gratitude21 he expressed, Harriet felt in her inmost heart, and told herself she felt that he was a changed man; that he felt his freedom, rejoiced in it, and did not mean again to relinquish22 or endanger it.
"The thing he feared has happened," she thought, while her small white fingers were busy with the jewels. "The very thing he feared. This man must be got away--how am I to do it?"
The solitary23 candle was burning dimly; the room was dull, cold, and gloomy. George looked round, and was apparently24 thinking of taking his leave, when Harriet said:
"I have not told you how opportune25 your getting this money--for I count it as money--is. Stay; let me light the gas. Sit down there opposite to me, and you shall hear how things have gone with us since you went away." She had thrown off the abstraction of her manner, and in a moment she lighted the gas, put the extinguished candle out of sight, set wine upon the table, and pulled a comfortable arm-chair forward, in which she begged George to seat himself. "Take off your coat," she said; and he obeyed her, telling her, with a laugh, as he flung it upon a chair, that there was a small parcel of soiled linen26 in the pocket.
"I did not expect to have to stay at Amherst, so I took no clothes with me," he explained, "and had to buy a shirt and a pair of stockings for Sunday, so as not to scandalize the natives. Rather an odd place to replenish27 one's wardrobe, by the by."
Harriet looked sharply at the coat, and, passing the chair on which it lay on her way to her own, felt its texture28 with a furtive29 touch. Then she sat down, gave Dallas wine, and once more fell to examining the bracelet. It might have occurred to any other man in George's position that it was rather an odd proceeding30 on the part of Mrs. Routh to keep him there at so late an hour with no apparent purpose, and without any expressed expectation of Routh's return; but George seldom troubled himself with reflections upon anybody's conduct, and invariably followed Harriet's lead without thinking about it at all. Recent events had shaken Routh's influence, and changed the young man's views and tastes, but Harriet still occupied her former place in his regard and in his habit of life, which in such cases as his signified much. With a confidential31 air she now talked to him, her busy fingers twisting the bracelet as she spoke, her pale face turned to him, but her eyes somewhat averted32. She told him that Routh had been surprised and annoyed at his (Dallas) being so long away from town, and had written to him, to tell him that he had been so pressed for money, so worried by duns, and so hampered33 by the slow proceeding of the company connected with the new speculation34, that he had been obliged to go away, and must keep away, until Dallas could let him have one hundred and forty pounds. George was concerned to hear all this, and found it hard to reconcile with the good spirits in which Routh had been when he had seen him last; but he really knew so little of the man's affairs beyond having a general notion that they were hopelessly complicated, and subject to volcanic35 action of an utterly36 disconcerting nature, that he regarded his own surprise as unreasonable37, and forbore to express it.
"It is of the utmost importance to Stewart to have the money at once," Harriet continued. "You see that, yourself; he told you all in his letter."
"Very extraordinary it should have been lost! Directed to P.O., Amherst, of course? I wish I had got it, Mrs. Routh; I'd have gone at once and sold the bracelet before I came to you at all, and brought the money. But I can do it early in the morning, can't I? I can take it to some good jeweller and get cash for it, and be here by twelve o'clock, so as not to keep Routh a moment longer than I need in suspense38. Will a hundred and forty square him for the present, Mrs. Routh? I'm sure to get more for the bracelet--don't you think so?--and of course he can have it all, if he wants it."
The young man spoke in an eager tone, and the woman listened with a swelling39 heart. Her full red lip trembled for a passing instant--consideration for--kindness to the only human creature she loved touched Harriet as nothing besides had power to touch her.
"I am sure the bracelet is worth more than that sum," she said; "it is worth more than two hundred pounds, I dare say. But you forget, Mr. Dallas, that you must not be too precipitate41 in this matter. It is of immense importance to Stewart to have this money, but there are precautions to be taken."
"Precautions, Mrs. Routh! what precautions? The bracelet's my own, isn't it, and principally valuable because there's no bother about selling a thing of the kind?"
She looked at him keenly; she was calculating to what extent she might manage him, how far he would implicitly42 believe her statements, and rely upon her judgment43. His countenance44 was eminently45 reassuring46, so she went on:
"Certainly the bracelet is your own, and it could be easily sold, were you only to consider yourself, but you have your mother to consider."
"My mother! How? when she has parted with the bracelet on purpose."
"True," said Harriet; "but perhaps you are not aware that diamonds, of anything like the value of these, are as well known, their owners, buyers, and whereabouts, as blood horses, their pedigrees, and purchasers. I think it would be unsafe for you to sell this bracelet in London; you may be sure the diamonds would be known by any jeweller on whose respectability you could sufficiently47 rely, to sell the jewels to him. It would be very unpleasant, and of course very dangerous to your mother, if the diamonds were known to be those purchased by Mr. Carruthers, and a cautious jeweller thought proper to ask him any questions."
George looked grave and troubled, as Harriet put these objections to his doing as he had proposed, for the immediate48 relief of Routh, clearly before him. He never for a moment doubted the accuracy of her information, and the soundness of her fears.
"I understand," he said; "but what can I do? I must sell the bracelet to got the money, and sooner or later will make no difference in the risk you speak of; but it may make all the difference to Routh. I can't, I won't delay in this matter; don't ask me, Mrs. Routh. It is very generous of you to think of my risk, but--"
"It is not your risk," she interrupted him by saying; "it is your mother's. If it were your own I might let you take it, for Stewart's sake,"--an indefinable compassion49 was in the woman's face, an unwonted softness in her blue eyes--"but your mother has done and suffered much for you, and she must be protected, even if Stewart has to lie hidden a day or two longer. You must not do anything rash. I think I know what would be the best thing for you to do."
"Tell me, Mrs. Routh," said George, who highly appreciated the delicate consideration for his mother which inspired Harriet's misgivings50. "Tell me, and whatever it is, I will do it."
"It is this," said Harriet; "I know there is a large trade in diamonds at Amsterdam, and that the merchants there, chiefly Jews, deal in the loose stones, and are not, in our sense, jewellers. You could dispose of the diamonds there without suspicion or difficulty; it is the common resort of people who have diamonds to sell--London is not. If you would go there at once you might sell the diamonds, and send the money to Stewart, or rather to me, to an address we would decide upon, without more than the delay of a couple of days. Is there anything to keep you in town?"
"No," said George, "nothing. I could start this minute, as far as any business I've got to do is concerned."
Harriet drew a long breath, and her colour rose.
"I wish you would, Mr. Dallas," she said, earnestly. "I hardly like to urge you, it seems so selfish; and Stewart, if he were here, would make so much lighter51 of the difficulty he is in than I can bring myself to do, but you don't know how grateful I should be to you if you would."
The pleading earnestness of her tone, the eager entreaty52 in her eyes, impressed George painfully; he hastened to assure her that he would accede53 to any request of hers.
"I am so wretched when he is away from me, Mr. Dallas," said Harriet; "I am so lonely and full of dread54. Anything not involving you or your mother in risk, which would shorten the time of his absence, would be an unspeakable boon55 to me."
"Then of course I will go at once, Mrs. Routh," said George. "I will go to-morrow. I am sure you are quite right, and Amsterdam's the place to do the trick at. I wish I could have seen Routh first, for a moment, but as I can't, I can't. Let me see. Amsterdam. There's a boat to Rotterdam by the river, and--Oh, by Jove! here's a Bradshaw; let's see when the next goes."
He walked to the little sideboard, and selected the above-named compendium56 of useful knowledge from a mass of periodicals, circulars, bills, and prospectuses57 of companies immediately to be brought out, and offering unheard-of advantages to the investors58.
The moment his eyes were turned away from her, a fierce impatience59 betrayed itself in Harriet's face, and as he sat slowly turning over the sibylline60 leaves, and consulting the incomprehensible and maddening index, she pressed her clasped hands against her knees, as though it were almost impossible to resist the impulse which prompted her to tear the book from his dilatory61 fingers.
"Here it is," said George, at length, "and uncommonly62 cheap, too. The Argus for Rotterdam, seven A.M. That's rather early, though, isn't it? To-morrow morning, too, or rather this morning, for it's close upon one now. Let's see when the Argus, or some other boat, goes next. H'm; not till Thursday at the same hour. That's rather far off."
Harriet was breathing quickly, and her face was quite white, but she sat still and controlled her agony of anxiety. "I have urged him as strongly as I dare," she thought; "fate must do the rest."
Fate did the rest.
"After all, I may as well go at seven in the morning, Mrs. Routh. All my things are packed up already, and it will give me a good start. I might get my business done before Wednesday night, almost, if I'm quick about it; at all events early the following day."
"You might, indeed," said Harriet, in a faint voice.
"There's one little drawback, though, to that scheme," said Dallas. "I haven't the money. They owe me a trifle at the Mercury, and I shall have to wait till to-morrow and get it, and go by Ostend, the swell40 route. I can't go without it, that's clear."
Harriet looked at him with a wan7 blank face, in which there was something of weariness, and under it something of menace, but her tone was quite amiable63 and obliging as she said:
"I think it is a pity to incur64 both delay and expense by waiting. I have always a little ready money by me, in case of our having to make a move suddenly, or of an illness, or one of the many contingencies65 which men never think of, and women never forget. You can have it with pleasure. You can return it to me," she said, with a forced smile, "when you send Routh the hundred and forty."
"Thank you," said Dallas. "I shan't mind taking it from you for a day or two, as it is to send help to Routh the sooner. Then I'll go, that's settled, and I had better leave you, for you were tired when I came in, and you must be still more tired now. I shall get back from Amsterdam as quickly as I can, tell Routh, but I see my way to making a few pounds out of the place. They want padding at the Mercury, and I shan't come back by return of post." He had risen now, and had extended his hand towards the bracelet, which lay in its open case on the table. A sudden thought struck Harriet.
"Stop," she said; "I don't think it would do to offer this bracelet in its present shape, anywhere. The form and the setting are too remarkable66. It would probably be re-sold entire, and it is impossible to say what harm might come of its being recognized. It must be taken to pieces, and you must offer the diamonds separately for sale. It will make no appreciable67 difference in the money you will receive, for such work as this is like bookbinding--dear to buy, but never counted in the price when you want to sell."
"What am I to do, then?" asked George, in a dismayed tone. "I could not to take out the diamonds, you know; they are firmly set--see here." He turned the gold band inside out, and showed her the plain flat surface at the back of the diamonds and turquoises68.
"Wait a moment," said Harriet. "I think I can assist you in this respect. Do you study the bracelet a bit until I come to you."
She left the room, and remained away for a little time. Dallas stood close by the table, having lowered the gas-burners, and by their light he closely inspected the rivets69, the fastenings, and the general form of the splendid ornament he was so anxious to get rid of, idly thinking how well it must have looked on his mother's still beautiful arm, and wondering whether she was likely soon to "be obliged to wear the counterfeit70. His back was turned to the door by which Harriet had left the room, so that, when she came softly to the aperture71 again, he did not perceive her. She carefully noted72 his attitude, and glided73 softly in, carrying several small implements75 in her right hand, and in her left held cautiously behind her back a coat, which she dexterously76 dropped upon the floor quite unperceived by Dallas, behind the chair on which he had thrown his. She then went up to the table, and showed him a small pair of nippers, a pair of scissors of peculiar form, and a little implement74, with which she told him workers in jewelry77 loosened stones in their setting, and punched them out. Dallas looked with some surprise at the collection, regarding them as unusual items of a lady's paraphernalia78, and said, gaily79:
"You are truly a woman of resources, Mrs. Routh. Who would ever have thought of your having all those things ready at a moment's notice?"
"If I have made a blunder in this," she thought, "it is a serious one, but I have more to do, and must not think yet."
She sat down, cleared a space on the table, placed the bracelet and the little tools before her, and set to work at once at her task of demolition81. It was a long one, and the sight was pitiful as she placed jewel after jewel carefully in a small box before her, and proceeded to loosen one after another. Sometimes George took the bracelet from her and aided her, but the greater part of the work was done by her. The face bent82 over the disfigured gold and maltreated gems was a remarkable one in its mingled83 expression of intentness and absence; her will was animating84 her fingers in their task, but her mind, her fancy, her memory, were away, and, to judge by the rigidity85 of the cheeks and lips, the unrelaxed tension of the low white brow, on no pleasing excursion. The pair worked on in silence, only broken occasionally by a word from George, expressive86 of admiration for her dexterity87 and the celerity with which she detached the jewels from the gold setting. At length all was done--the golden band, limp and scratched, was a mere88 commonplace piece of goldsmith's work--the diamonds lay in their box in a shining heap, the discarded turquoises on the table; and all was done.
"What shall we do with these things?" asked George. "They are not worth selling--at least, not now--but I think the blue things might make up prettily89 with the gold again. Will you keep them, Mrs. Routh? and some day, when I am better off, I'll have them set for you, in remembrance of this night in particular, and of all your goodness to me in general."
He was looking at the broken gold and the turquoises, thinking how trumpery90 they looked now--not at her. Fortunately not at her, for if he had seen her face he must have known--even he, unsuspicious as he was--that she was shaken by some inexplicably91 powerful feeling. The dark blood rushed into her face, dispersed92 itself over her fair throat in blotches93, and made a sudden dreadful tingling94 in her ears. For a minute she did not reply, and then Dallas did look at her, but the agony had passed over her.
"No--no," she said; "the gold is valuable, and the turquoises as much so as they can be for their size. You must keep them for a rainy day."
"I'm likely to see many," said George, with half a smile and half a sigh, "but I don't think I'll ever use these things to keep me from the pelting95 of the pitiless shower. If you won't keep them for yourself, Mrs. Routh, perhaps you'll keep them for me until I return."
"O yes," said Harriet, "I will keep them. I will lock them up in my desk; you will know where to find them."
She drew the desk towards her as she spoke, took out of it a piece of paper, without seeing that one side had some writing upon it, swept the scattered96 turquoises into the sheet, then folded the gold band in a second, placed both in a large blue envelope, with the device of Routh's last new company scheme upon it, and sealed the parcel over the wafer.
"Write your name on it," she said to George, who took up a pen and obeyed her. She opened a drawer at the side of the desk, and put away the little parcel quite at the back. Then she took from the same drawer seven sovereigns, which George said would be as much as he would require for the present, and which he carefully stowed away in his pocket-book. Then he sat down at the desk, and playfully wrote an IOU for the amount.
"That's business-like," said George, smiling, but the smile by which she replied was so wan and weary, that George again commented on her fatigue97, and began to take leave of her.
"I'm off, then," he said, "and you won't forget to tell Routh how much I wanted to see him. Among other things to tell him--However, I suppose he has seen Deane since I have been away?"
Harriet was occupied in turning down the gas-burner by which she had just lighted the candle again. She now said:
"How stupid I am! as if I couldn't have lighted you to the door first, and put the gas out afterwards! The truth is, I am so tired; I'm quite stupified. What did you say, Mr. Dallas? There, I've knocked your coat off the chair; here it is, however. You asked me something, I think?"
George took the coat she held from her, hung it over his arm, felt for his hat (the room being lighted only by the feeble candle), and repeated his words:
"Routh has seen Deane, of course, since I've been away?"
"No," Harriet replied with distinctness, "he has not--he has not."
"Indeed!" said George. "I am surprised at that. But Deane was huffed, I remember, on Tuesday, when Routh broke his engagement to dine with him, and said it must depend on whether he was in the humour to meet him the next day, as Routh asked him to do. So I suppose he wasn't in the humour, eh? And now he'll be huffed with me, but I can't help it."
"Why?" asked Harriet; and she spoke the single word with a strange effort, and a painful dryness of the throat.
"Because I promised to give him his revenge at billiards98. I won ten pounds from him that night, and uncommonly lucky it was for me; it enabled me to get away from my horrible old shrew of a landlady99, and, indeed, indirectly100 it enables me to start on this business to-morrow."
"How?" said Harriet. Again she spoke but one word, and again with difficulty and a dryness in the throat. She set down the candle, and leaned against the table, while George stood between her and the door, his coat over his arm.
"You didn't notice that I told you I was all packed up and ready to go. It happened luckily, didn't it?" And then George told his listener how he had paid his landlady, and removed his modest belongings101 on the previous Wednesday morning to a coffee-house, close to the river too. "By Jove! I'm in luck's way, it seems," he said; "so I shall merely go and sleep there, and take my traps on board the Argus. I have only such clothes as I shall want, no matter where I am," he said. "They'll keep the trunk with my books until I come back, and Deane must wait for his revenge with the balls and cues for the same auspicious102 occasion. Let's hope he'll be in a better temper, and have forgiven Routh. He was awfully103 riled at his note on Tuesday evening."
"Did--did you see it!" asked Harriet; and, as she spoke, she leaned still more heavily against the table.
"No," replied Dallas, "I did not; but Deane told me Routh asked him to meet him the next day. He didn't, it seems."
"No," said Harriet; "and Stewart is very much annoyed about it. Mr. Deane owed him money, and he asked him for some in that note."
"Indeed," said George; "he could have paid him then, I happen to know. He had a lot of gold and notes with him. The tenner he lost to me he paid in a note, and he changed a fiver to pay for our dinner, and he was bragging104 and bouncing the whole time about the money he had about him, and what he would, and would not, do with it. So it was sheer spite made him neglect to pay Routh, and I hope he'll dun him again. The idea of Routh being in the hole he's in, and a fellow like that owing him money. How much is it, Mrs. Routh?"
"I--I don't know," said Harriet.
"There, I'm keeping you talking still. I am the most thoughtless fellow." It never occurred to George that she had kept him until she had learned what she wanted to know. "Good-bye, Mrs. Routh, good-bye."
She had passed him, the candle in her hand, and this farewell was uttered in the hall. He held out his hand; she hesitated for a moment, and then gave him hers. He pressed it fervently105; it was deadly cold.
"Don't stay in the chill air," he said; "you are shivering now."
Then he went away with a light cheerful step.
Harriet Routh stood quite still, as he had left her, for one full minute; then she hurried into the sitting-room, shut the door, dropped on her knees before a chair, and ground her face fiercely against her arms. There she knelt, not sobbing106, not weeping, but shuddering--shuddering with the quick terrible iteration of mortal agony of spirit, acting107 on an exhausted108 frame. After a while she rose, and then her face was dreadful to look upon, in its white fixed109 despair.
"If I have saved him," she said, as she sat wearily down by the table again, and once more leaned her face upon her hands--"if I have saved him! It may be there is a chance; at all events, there is a chance. How wonderful, how inconceivably wonderful that he should not have heard of it! The very stones of the street seem to cry it out, and he has not heard of it; the very air is full of it, and he knows nothing. If anything should prevent his going? But no; nothing will, nothing can. This was the awful danger--this was the certain, the inevitable110 risk; if I have averted it; if I have saved him, for the time!"
The chill of coming dawn struck cold to her limbs, the sickness of long watching, of fear, and of sleeplessness111 was at her heart, but Harriet Routh did not lie down on her bed all that dreadful night. Terrible fatigue weighed down her eyelids, and made her flesh tremble and quiver over the aching bones.
"I must not sleep--I should not wake in time," she said, as she forced herself to rise from her chair, and paced the narrow room, when the sudden dumbness of sleep threatened to fall upon her. "I have something to do."
Dawn came, then sunrise, then the sounds, the stir of morning. Then Harriet bathed her face in cold water, and looked in her toilet-glass at her haggard features. The image was not reassuring; but she only smiled a bitter smile, and made a mocking gesture with her hand.
"Never any more," she murmured--"never any more." The morning was cold and raw, but Harriet heeded113 it not. She glanced out of the window of her bed-room before she left it, wearing her bonnet114 and shawl, and closely veiled. Then she closed the shutters115, locked the door, withdrew the key, and came into the sitting-room. She went to a chair and took up a coat which lay at the back of it; then she looked round for a moment as if in search of something. Her eye lighted on a small but heavy square of black marble which lay on the writing-table, and served as a paper-press. She then spread the coat on the table, placed the square of marble on it, and rolled it tightly round the heavy centre, folding and pressing the parcel into the smallest possible dimensions. This done, she tied it tightly with a strong cord, and, concealing116 it under her shawl, went swiftly out of the house. No one saw her issue from the grim, gloomy door--the neighbouring housemaids had not commenced their matutinal task of door-step cleaning, alleviated117 by gossip--and she went away down the street, completely unobserved. Went away, with her head down, her face hidden, with a quick, steady step and an unfaltering purpose. There were not many wayfarers118 abroad in the street, and of those she saw none, and was remarked by only one.
Harriet Routh took her way towards the river, and reached Westminster-bridge as the clock in the great tower of the new palace marked half-past six. All was quiet. A few of the laggards119 of the working classes were straggling across the bridge to their daily toil112, a few barges120 were moving sluggishly122 upon the muddy water; but there was no stir, no business yet. Harriet lingered when she reached the centre of the bridge; a figure was just vanishing at the southern end, the northern was clear of people. She leaned over the parapet, and looked down--no boat, no barge121 was near. Then she dropped the parcel she had carried into the river, and the water closed over it. Without the delay of an instant, she turned and retraced123 her steps toward home. As she neared South Morton-street, she found several of the shops open, and entering one, she purchased a black marble letter-press. It was not precisely124 similar to that with which she had weighted the parcel, which now lay in the bed of the river; but the difference was trifling, and not to be perceived by the eye of a stranger.
Near the house in which the Rouths occupied apartments there was an archway which formed the entrance to some mews. As she passed this open space, Harriet's glance fell upon the inquisitive125 countenance of a keen-looking, ragged126 street-boy, who was lying contentedly127 on his back under the archway, with his arms under his head, and propped128 upon the kerbstone. A sudden impulse arrested her steps. "Have you no other place to lie than here?" she asked the boy, who jumped up with great alacrity129, and stood before her in an attitude almost respectful.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, "I have, but I'm here, waiting for an early job."
She gave him a shilling and a smile--not such a smile as she once had to give, but the best that was left her--and went on to the door of the house she lived in. She opened it with a key, and went in.
The boy remained where she had left him, apparently ruminating130, and wagging his tousled head sagely131.
"Whatever is she up to?" he asked of himself, in perplexity, "It's a rum start, as far as I knows on it, and I means to know more. But how is she in it? I shan't say nothing till I knows more about it." And then Mr. Jim Swain went his way to a more likely quarter for early jobs.
Fortune favoured Mrs. Routh on that morning. She gained her bed-room unseen and unheard, and having hastily undressed, lay down to rest, if rest would come to her--at least to await in quiet the ordinary hour at which the servant was accustomed to call her. It came, and passed; but Harriet did not rise.
She slept a little when all the world was up and busy--slept until the second delivery of letters brought one for her, which the servant took at once to her room.
The letter was from George Dallas, and contained merely a few lines, written when he was on the point of starting, and posted at the river-side. He apologized to Harriet for a mistake which he had made on the previous night. He had taken up Routh's coat instead of his own, and had not discovered the error until he was on his way to the steamer, and it was too late to repair it. He hoped it would not matter, as he had left his own coat at South Molton-street, and no doubt Routh could wear it, on an occasion. When Harriet had read this note, she lay back upon her pillow, and fell into a deep sleep, which was broken by Routh's coming into her room early in the afternoon. He looked pale and haggard, and he stood by the bedside in silence. But she--she sat up, and flung her arms round him with a wonderfully good imitation of her former manner; and when she told him all that had passed, her husband caught her to his breast with passionate132 fondness and gratitude, and declared over and over again that her ready wit and wonderful fortitude133 had saved him. Saved him? How, and from what?
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1
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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2
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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3
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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4
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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5
defer
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| vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从 | |
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6
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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7
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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8
ail
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| v.生病，折磨，苦恼 | |
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9
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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10
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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11
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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12
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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13
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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14
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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15
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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16
bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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17
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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18
gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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19
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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20
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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21
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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22
relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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23
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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24
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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opportune
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| adj.合适的，适当的 | |
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26
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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27
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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28
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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29
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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31
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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32
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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36
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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37
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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38
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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39
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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40
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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41
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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42
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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43
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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44
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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45
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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46
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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47
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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48
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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49
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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50
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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51
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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52
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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53
accede
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| v.应允，同意 | |
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54
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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55
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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56
compendium
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| n.简要，概略 | |
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57
prospectuses
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| n.章程，简章，简介( prospectus的名词复数 ) | |
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58
investors
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| n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
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59
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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60
sibylline
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| adj.预言的；神巫的 | |
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61
dilatory
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| adj.迟缓的，不慌不忙的 | |
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62
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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63
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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64
incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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65
contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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66
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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67
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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68
turquoises
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| n.绿松石( turquoise的名词复数 )；青绿色 | |
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rivets
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| 铆钉( rivet的名词复数 ) | |
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70
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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71
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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72
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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73
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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74
implement
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| n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行 | |
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75
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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76
dexterously
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| adv.巧妙地，敏捷地 | |
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77
jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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78
paraphernalia
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| n.装备；随身用品 | |
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79
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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80
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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81
demolition
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| n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹 | |
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82
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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83
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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84
animating
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| v.使有生气( animate的现在分词 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命 | |
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85
rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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86
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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87
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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88
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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89
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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90
trumpery
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| n.无价值的杂物；adj.（物品）中看不中用的 | |
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91
inexplicably
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| adv.无法说明地，难以理解地，令人难以理解的是 | |
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92
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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93
blotches
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| n.（皮肤上的）红斑，疹块( blotch的名词复数 )；大滴 [大片]（墨水或颜色的）污渍 | |
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94
tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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pelting
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| 微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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98
billiards
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| n.台球 | |
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99
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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100
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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101
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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102
auspicious
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| adj.吉利的；幸运的，吉兆的 | |
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103
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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104
bragging
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话 | |
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105
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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106
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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107
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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108
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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109
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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110
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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111
sleeplessness
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| n.失眠，警觉 | |
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112
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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113
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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115
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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116
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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117
alleviated
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| 减轻，缓解，缓和( alleviate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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119
laggards
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| n.落后者( laggard的名词复数 ) | |
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120
barges
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| 驳船( barge的名词复数 ) | |
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121
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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122
sluggishly
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| adv.懒惰地；缓慢地 | |
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123
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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124
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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125
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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126
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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127
contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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128
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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129
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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130
ruminating
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| v.沉思( ruminate的现在分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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131
sagely
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| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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132
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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133
fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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