CHAPTER VIII. A SCENE IN MRS. MACK'S ROOM.

 Fifteen minutes before a stout¹, ill-dressed man of perhaps forty years of age knocked at the door of Mrs. Mack's room.

 

"Come in!" called the old lady in quavering accents.

 

The visitor opened the door and entered.

 

"Who are you?" asked the old lady in alarm.

 

"Don't you know me, Aunt Jane?" replied the intruder. "I'm Jack² Minton, your nephew."

 

"I don't want to see you—go away!" cried Mrs. Mack.

 

"That's a pretty way to receive your own sister's son, whom you haven't seen for five years."

 

"I haven't seen you because you've been in jail," retorted his aunt in a shrill³ voice.

 

"Yes, I was took for another man," said Jack. "He stole and laid it off on to me."

 

"I don't care how it was, but I don't want to see you. Go away!"

 

"Look here, Aunt Jane, you're treating me awful mean. I'm your own orphan⁴ nephew, and you ought to make much of me."

 

"An orphan—yes. You hurried your poor mother to the grave by your bad conduct," said Mrs. Mack with some emotion. "You won't find me so soft as she was."

 

"Soft? No, you're as hard as flint, but all the same you're my aunt, and you're rich, while I haven't a dollar to bless myself with."

 

"Rich! Me rich!" repeated the old lady shrilly⁵. "You see how I live. Does it look as if I was rich?"

 

"Oh, you can't humbug⁶ me that way. You could live better if you wanted to."

 

"I'm poor—miserably poor!" returned the old woman.

 

"I'd like to be as poor as you are!" said Jack Minton grimly. "You're a miser⁷, that's all there is about it. You half starve yourself and live without fire, when you might be comfortable, and all to save money. You're a fool! Do you know where all your money will go when you're dead?"

 

"There won't be any left."

 

"Won't there? I'll take the risk of that, for I shall be your heir. It'll all go to me!" said Jack, chuckling⁸.

 

"Go away! Go away!" cried the terrified old woman wildly.

 

"I want to have a little talk with you first, aunt," said Jack, drawing the only other chair in the room in front of Mrs. Mack and sitting down on it. "You're my only relation, and we ought to have an understanding. Why, you can't live more than a year or two—at your age."

 

"What do you mean?" said Mrs Mack angrily. "I'm good for ten years. I'm only seventy-seven."

 

"You're living on borrowed time, Aunt Jane, you know that yourself. You've lived seven years beyond the regular term, and you can't live much longer."

 

"Go away! Go away!" said the terrified old woman, really alarmed at her nephew's prediction. "I don't want to have anything to do with you."

 

"Don't forget that I'm your heir."

 

"I can leave my money as I please—not that I've got much to leave."

 

"You mean you'll make a will? Well, go ahead and do it. There was a man I know made a will and he died the next day."

 

This shot struck home, for the old woman really had a superstitious⁹ dread¹⁰ of making a will.

 

"You're a terrible man!" she moaned. "You scare me."

 

"Come, aunt, be reasonable. You can leave part of your money away from me if you like, but I want you to help me now. I'm hard up. Do you see this nickel?" and he drew one from his vest pocket.

 

"Yes."

 

"Well, it's all the money I've got. Why, I haven't eaten anything to-day, and I have no money to pay for a bed."

 

"I—I haven't any supper for you."

 

"I don't want any here. I wouldn't care to board with you, Aunt Jane. Why, I should soon become a bag of bones like yourself. I don't believe you've got five cents' worth of provisions in the room."

 

"There's half a loaf of bread in the closet."

 

"Let me take a look at it."

 

He strode to the closet and opened the door. On a shelf he saw half a loaf of bread, dry and stale. He took it in his hand, laughing.

 

"Why, that bread is three days' old," he said. "Where's your butter?"

 

"I—I don't eat butter. It's too high!"

 

"And you don't care to live high!" said Jack, laughing at his own joke. "I don't care to rob you of this bread, Aunt Jane. It's too rich for my blood. Don't you ever eat anything else?"

 

"Sometimes," she answered, hesitating.

 

"I'd rather take my supper at the cheapest restaurant on the Bowery. What I want is money."

 

Mrs. Mack uttered a little cry of alarm.

 

"Oh, don't go into a fit, aunt! I only want a little, just to get along till I can find work. Give me twenty-five dollars, and I won't come near you again for a month. I swear it."

 

"Twenty-five dollars!" ejaculated Mrs. Mack in dismay. "Do you think I am made of money?"

 

"I don't take you for an Astor or a Vanderbilt, Aunt Jane, but you've got a tidy lot of money somewhere—that I am sure of. I shouldn't wonder if you had five thousand dollars. Now where do you keep it?"

 

"Have you taken leave of your senses?" asked the old woman sharply. "No, I haven't, but it looks to me as if you had. But I can't waste my time here all night. I'm your only relative, and it's your duty to help me. Will you let me have twenty-five dollars or not?"

 

"No, I won't," answered Mrs. Mack angrily.

 

"Then I'll take the liberty of helping¹¹ myself if I can find where you keep your hoards¹²."

 

Jack Minton jumped up from his chair and went at once to a cheap bureau, which, however, was probably the most valuable article in the room, and pulling out the top drawer, began to rummage¹³ about among the contents. Then it was that Mrs. Mack uttered the piercing shriek¹⁴ referred to at the end of the last chapter, and her nephew, tramping across the floor, seized her roughly by the shoulder.

 

"What do you mean by this noise, you old fool?" he demanded roughly.

 

"Help! Murder! Thieves!" screamed the old woman.

 

Then the door opened, and Mark Mason burst into the room, followed by Tom Trotter.

 

"What's the matter, Mrs. Mack?" asked Mark.

 

"This man is going to rob me," answered the old woman. "Oh, save me!"

 

"It's a lie!" said Jack Minton. "Just ask this woman who I am. She knows."

 

"Who is he, Mrs. Mack?"

 

"It is my nephew, Jack Minton. He——"

 

"Do you hear that? I'm her nephew, come in to make her a call after a long time."

 

"What are you doing to her?" demanded Mark suspiciously.

 

"Trying to stop her infernal racket. You'd think I was murdering her by the way she goes on."

 

"What made you scream, Mrs. Mack?"

 

"Because he—he was going to rob me."

 

"How is that?" demanded Mark sternly.

 

"None of your business, kid! You ain't no call to interfere¹⁵ between me and my aunt."

 

"I have if she asks me to."

 

"He was at my bureau drawers. He told me I must give him twenty-five dollars."

 

"Supposing I did? It's the least you can do for your own nephew that hasn't a cent to bless himself with."

 

"Oh, take him away, Mark! He'll rob me first and murder me afterwards, and I'm his mother's only sister."

 

"You see she admits it. She's rolling in money——"

 

"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Mack, throwing up her hands. "You know I'm poor, Mark Mason."

 

"No, I don't, Mrs. Mack. I think you've got all the money you need, but you have a right to keep it if you want to. Mr. Minton, you had better leave the room. Your aunt is evidently afraid of you, and, old as she is, your staying here may make her sick."

 

"It ain't much use living, the way she is. Aunt Jane, I ask you again will you lend me twenty-five dollars?"

 

"No, no!"

 

"Will you lend me five dollars?"

 

"No."

 

"Are you going to turn your own nephew out into the street without a cent to buy food or pay for a bed?"

 

He glowered¹⁶ at his aunt so fiercely as he said this that Mark was afraid he might strangle her.

 

"Mrs. Mack," he said, "you had better give him something if he is in so much need. Since he is really your nephew, you might give him a dollar on condition that he won't trouble you again."

 

After long persuasion¹⁷ the old woman was induced to do this, though she declared that it would leave her destitute¹⁸, and send her to the poor-house.

 

"Now, Mr. Minton," said Mark, "I advise you not to come here again, or I may have to call in a policeman."

 

"I've a great mind to throw you down-stairs," growled¹⁹ Jack.

 

"You'd have to throw me too!" put in Tom Trotter.

 

"I'd do it with pleasure."

 

Jack left the room and steered²⁰ his way to the nearest saloon, while Mark and Tom returned to the room beneath.

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

4 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

5 shrilly   

尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的

参考例句：

• The librarian threw back his head and laughed shrilly. 图书管理员把头往后面一仰，尖着嗓子哈哈大笑。
• He half rose in his seat, whistling shrilly between his teeth, waving his hand. 他从车座上半欠起身子，低声打了一个尖锐的唿哨，一面挥挥手。

6 humbug   

n.花招，谎话，欺骗

参考例句：

• I know my words can seem to him nothing but utter humbug.我知道，我说的话在他看来不过是彻头彻尾的慌言。
• All their fine words are nothing but humbug.他们的一切花言巧语都是骗人的。

7 miser   

n.守财奴，吝啬鬼 (adj.miserly)

参考例句：

• The miser doesn't like to part with his money.守财奴舍不得花他的钱。
• The demon of greed ruined the miser's happiness.贪得无厌的恶习毁掉了那个守财奴的幸福。

8 chuckling   

轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I could hear him chuckling to himself as he read his book. 他看书时，我能听见他的轻声发笑。
• He couldn't help chuckling aloud. 他忍不住的笑了出来。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

9 superstitious   

adj.迷信的

参考例句：

• They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。
• These superstitious practices should be abolished as soon as possible.这些迷信做法应尽早取消。

10 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

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 hoards   

n.（钱财、食物或其他珍贵物品的）储藏，积存( hoard的名词复数 )v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She hoards her money - she never spends it. 她积蓄钱，但从来不花钱。 来自辞典例句
• A squirrel hoards nuts for the winter. 松鼠为过冬贮藏坚果。 来自辞典例句

13 rummage   

v./n.翻寻，仔细检查

参考例句：

• He had a good rummage inside the sofa.他把沙发内部彻底搜寻了一翻。
• The old lady began to rummage in her pocket for her spectacles.老太太开始在口袋里摸索，找她的眼镜。

14 shriek   

v./n.尖叫，叫喊

参考例句：

• Suddenly he began to shriek loudly.突然他开始大声尖叫起来。
• People sometimes shriek because of terror,anger,or pain.人们有时会因为恐惧，气愤或疼痛而尖叫。

15 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

16 glowered   

v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He just glowered without speaking. 他一言不发地皱眉怒视我。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He glowered at me but said nothing. 他怒视着我，却一言不发。 来自辞典例句

17 persuasion   

n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派

参考例句：

• He decided to leave only after much persuasion.经过多方劝说，他才决定离开。
• After a lot of persuasion,she agreed to go.经过多次劝说后，她同意去了。

18 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

19 growled   

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

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 steered   

v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
• The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》