CHAPTER VII.

'The fact is, Jobson,' said Mr. Brimble, 'there's a skeleton cupboard in every man's house, and mine hasn't escaped that ugly piece of furniture.'
The squire¹ was at his dinner-table, which the ladies had not long left, and at which the stranger had that day been a guest.
'I married to please myself, and not my father, and he took an effectual way of showing me that he had that view of it, by disinheriting me. It did not happen to be of any consequence, as far as the money went, for Mrs. Brimble had more than we wanted. I was obliged to part with my name, and take hers, before I could lay hold of her property; but as I have no sons, that is a trifle. When a man gets to grey hairs, he knows what a name is worth; though I believe the girls would rather be poor De la Marks than rich Brimbles—at least they fancy so now; but money is a vastly comfortable thing, Jobson, and glory without it is very hungry work.'
'You had another brother?' said the stranger, moving aside the wine which the squire pushed towards him.
'I had,' said the squire sorrowfully; 'did you ever hear of him?'
'Yes; I knew one who was intimate with him abroad; he was strongly attached to you.'
'Attached!' said the squire, with an agitated² voice; 'we had but one heart. He ought now to be at Parker's Dew; instead of that—there,' said the squire, emptying his glass; 'I won't say any more, and I give myself great credit. Come,' he continued cheerfully, 'who was it that knew Eustace?'
'A stranger to you,' was the reply; 'but, Mr. Brimble, I knew your brother myself.'
'Hah!' said the squire starting; 'knew him, and you never told me.'
'No,' said the stranger; 'the truth is, I loved him, and you reminded me of him so much, when first I saw you, that I should have found it difficult to speak of him.'
'They always thought us alike,' said the squire gently, leaning his head down to hide the tears that filled his eyes. 'Well'—stretching out his hand—'we have now indeed a bond of union. Tell me all you remember about him.'
'All I remember of him?' said the stranger, with a smile, grasping the proffered³ hand; 'I cannot do that to-night; it is now'—
A violent ringing and the sudden entrance of a servant put a stop to the conversation, 'Dr. Cruden, sir, has just come from Parker's Dew, and wishes to see you alone. I have shown him into your room.'
'I am alone,' said the squire; 'tell him I've only a particular friend with me, and the wine's on the table. He's one of the best little fellows in the world, the doctor is,' he said, as the door closed; 'but he's continually croaking⁴ at me about a reconciliation⁵ with that fellow that turned poor Eustace out of his place to get into it. Every time he starves himself into a low fever, he comes here telling me he is going to die. I won't see him alone.'
The servant re-entered, 'Dr. Cruden, sir, cannot see you in the presence of anybody; his compliments, and he will not detain you.' And, having received no answer, the man respectfully closed the door.
'Don't you go to the ladies yet, Jobson,' said the squire, as he reluctantly followed the servant. 'I shall soon dispose of the doctor's confab, and send him into the drawing-room for some music, and then you and I can finish our wine and our talk together.'
'My dear sir,' said Dr. Cruden, as soon as he saw him, 'I've something most important to communicate.'
'I'm very sorry for it; people should never talk of important things at this time of night—it's the way to get nightmare, and you ought to know that. Come now, put it off till to-morrow; they are all in fine order for music in the drawing-room; and there's your sister, that you haven't seen for this fortnight, and your bed is ready always. Come now,' laying his hand upon his shoulder, with a heartiness⁶ that shook the doctor's frame, but not his purpose.
'My good friend,' he said solemnly, 'I do assure you what I have to say cannot be put off; your brother is ill, seriously ill.'
'So he has been once a fortnight, regularly, for the last three years, according to your account.'
'I beg you to be serious,' said the doctor, shaking his head; 'I question if he will recover this attack.'
'Oh, you are a capital hand at questioning; but what do you want me to do?'
'I want you'—said the doctor slowly; 'but you will promise me to be calm?' he said, laying his hand on the squire's arm, for he could not reach his shoulder.
'Now, don't be impressive,' said the squire, 'but out with it. I'll forgive him, send him anything, do anything for him but go there.'
'The very thing I wish you to do,' said the doctor.
'Pshaw, nonsense! What! turn out at this time of night, to see a man that you kill regularly with every full moon—not I. Now, doctor, you know I've no illwill towards him, old screw as he is—and that is not saying the worst of him. And as to poor little Marjory, I would do for her as for my own child; but I haven't forgotten how you served me before. I said then that while he lived I'd never darken the doors of Parker's Dew.'
'My dear squire,' said the doctor, 'I can assure you he was entirely⁷ innocent of that; I believe Bloodworth was at the bottom of it.'
'I wish he were at the bottom of the sea.'
'We can't spare him just yet, to go so far,' said the doctor drily; 'but now let me tell you, we have made a little progress into an important discovery. All Sir Valary's strange conduct, I think, may be accounted for. There is a mystery which we are beginning to unravel⁸, and I hope with your help'—
'Come and have some wine,' said the squire. 'I unravel a mystery! cut it up, that's my advice.'
'Dear, dear,' said the doctor, much vexed⁹, 'you will spoil everything by your impetuosity. I tell you the truth; I think Sir Valary will die unless his mind is relieved. Bloodworth must be discharged from the stewardship¹⁰, and we have no means of getting rid of him.'
'Shoot him!' said the squire angrily.
'Shoot him, and send him to the bottom of the sea! That would be a severe dismissal.'
'No more than he deserves,' muttered the squire.
'Let us keep to common sense,' said the doctor. 'I feel sure that if you would come to see him, Sir Valary would hold out to you the right hand of brotherly fellowship. I do assure you he is a poor, shattered creature; and if you would but befriend that poor girl now, by helping¹¹ him to get rid of Bloodworth, you would be thankful for having done it all the days of your life. Come now,' he continued, seeing that the squire was relenting, 'I have scarcely been at home for these three days; I have come in my own chaise now, thinking to save time, to take you back at once. Every hour is of consequence,' he said quickly, in answer to the squire's unpromising look and shrug¹².
'Come and have a glass of wine, and we'll talk about it, and I'll introduce you to Jobson; he was an intimate friend of poor Eustace. We were just talking about him when you came.'
The doctor made a faint protestation that he wanted neither wine nor Mr. Jobson; but when once Mr. Brimble had entered upon action it was not a little that could stop him; so, with a sigh of regret, he followed the squire to the dining-room. What occurred there shall appear in the next chapter.

1 squire   

n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅

参考例句：

• I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.我告诉他乡绅是世界上最宽宏大量的人。
• The squire was hard at work at Bristol.乡绅在布里斯托尔热衷于他的工作。

2 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

3 proffered   

v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She proffered her cheek to kiss. 她伸过自己的面颊让人亲吻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He rose and proffered a silver box full of cigarettes. 他站起身，伸手递过一个装满香烟的银盒子。 来自辞典例句

4 croaking   

v.呱呱地叫( croak的现在分词 )；用粗的声音说

参考例句：

• the croaking of frogs 蛙鸣
• I could hear croaking of the frogs. 我能听到青蛙呱呱的叫声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

6 heartiness   

诚实，热心

参考例句：

• However, he realized the air of empty-headed heartiness might also mask a shrewd mind. 但他知道，盲目的热情可能使伶俐的头脑发昏。
• There was in him the heartiness and intolerant joviality of the prosperous farmer. 在他身上有种生意昌隆的农场主常常表现出的春风得意欢天喜地的劲头，叫人消受不了。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。

9 vexed   

adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• The conference spent days discussing the vexed question of border controls. 会议花了几天的时间讨论边境关卡这个难题。
• He was vexed at his failure. 他因失败而懊恼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 stewardship   

n. n. 管理工作；管事人的职位及职责

参考例句：

• The organization certainly prospered under his stewardship. 不可否认，这个组织在他的管理下兴旺了起来。
• Last, but certainly not least, are the issues of stewardship and ethics. 最后，但当然不是微不足道的，是工作和道德规范的问题。

11 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

12 shrug   

v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)

参考例句：

• With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩，走出了房间。
• I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。