"It's an atrocious, abominable4 morning!" grunted5 Gwen, peering disconsolately6 through the window into the damp garden. "It's sheer cruelty to be expected to turn out and tramp two miles through the mud. We oughtn't to have to go to school when it rains."
"Wet at seven, fine at eleven!" chirped7 Beatrice at the coffee pot.
"It's all very well for you to be cheerful and quote proverbs—you haven't to go out yourself, Madam Bee!" grumbled8 Gwen. "I wonder how you'd like it if—"
"Oh, Gwen, don't whine9! Come and get breakfast," interrupted Winnie. "It's five-and-twenty to eight, and I've a strong suspicion the clock's late."
"It is," remarked Lesbia calmly, pausing with her
[30]
porridge spoon suspended midway between plate and mouth. "Stumps10 put it back ten minutes last night when Father wasn't looking. I saw him."
A chorus of united indignation followed her information, each member of the family trying to bolt breakfast and scold the offender11 at the same time.
"We've only five minutes. Oh, you naughty boy!" shrieked12 Winnie.
"I didn't want to go to bed—I meant to put it on again this morning first thing—I did, honest," protested Giles, otherwise known as "Stumps".
"Lesbia, why couldn't you say sooner?" fretted13 Gwen.
"Only just remembered."
"And the porridge is so hot I've burned my mouth!" wailed14 Basil.
"You haven't a moment to waste!" urged Beatrice. "Have you all got your boots on? I shall tell Father what you've done, Giles, as soon as he comes downstairs."
Even the loss of ten minutes was a serious consideration to those members of the Gascoyne family who were bound for school. Skelwick was such an out-of-the-way place that they had quite a journey to get to Stedburgh, the seaside town where Rodenhurst was situated15. First they had to walk two miles along a very exposed country road to the village of North Ditton, where they could catch the motor omnibus that would take them the remaining four miles into Stedburgh, and then there was a further walk of at least ten minutes before they reached the school. The bus always started with the utmost promptitude, so it
[31]
was a daily anxiety to leave home punctually and not be obliged to run the last half mile. On this particular morning there was more than the usual scramble16 to get off. At the last moment Gwen could not find her galoshes, and remembered that she had broken the rib17 of her umbrella some days before, and had forgotten to mention the fact and ask Beatrice to have it mended.
"You're the most tiresome18 girl!" scolded the harassed19 elder sister. "Why couldn't you tell me and I'd have sent it to Johnson's last night? Now I suppose I shall have to lend you mine, and very likely you'll go and break that too!"
"I don't want yours!" snapped Gwen, tucking her hair inside her mackintosh and putting on her "stormy-weather" cap. "I wouldn't risk smashing it for a five-pound note. I'll go without!" and snatching her satchel20 of books she rushed after the others, who had already started.
The rain was driving furiously, and the road was full of little running rivers of yellow mud. The strong wind made Gwen's eyes smart and water, and she was obliged to hurry to make up for lost time; so when she arrived at North Ditton she was a breathless, rather pitiful object, and most decidedly cross. The omnibus was so full that she was compelled to take Lesbia on her knee and to sit wedged between a very fat wheezy old farmer and a market gardener, who nursed a parcel of plants.
"It's rather fun, isn't it?" laughed Lesbia, graciously accepting the rose that her neighbour offered her. (Somehow people always gave things to Lesbia.)
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"More fun for you than for me!" growled22 Gwen. "I wish you knew how heavy you are!"
A bad start does not make a good preparation for the rest of the day, and Gwen marched into the Fifth Form room that morning in no conciliatory frame of mind. She was quite prepared to be ill received, so she thought she would meet possible coldness by showing a defiant23 attitude. It was an extremely foolish move, for it brought about the very state of affairs she anticipated. Several of the nicer girls in the Form had half repented24 their wrath25 of yesterday, and were ready not only to treat her kindly26, but to influence the others in her favour. When they saw her enter, however, with a "don't care" scowling27 air and walk to her desk, without even looking in their direction, they decided21 that she was an ill-conditioned, disagreeable girl, and that they would not trouble their heads about her. Instead, therefore, of going and speaking to her as they had intended, they let her severely28 alone. As a rule, if we go through life expecting slights and dislike, we get what we look for: the self-made martyr29 can find stake and faggots waiting round every corner. Gwen raged inwardly at the neglect of her classmates, but she did not realize in the least that it was partly her own fault. She sat all the morning with a thundercloud on her face, hurrying out of the room at the interval30 and eating her lunch alone in a corner of the gymnasium.
"How are you getting on in the Fifth?" whispered Lesbia, who ran up for a moment to sympathize.
"Badly," groaned31 Gwen. "They're boycotting32 me. Of course the Fourth won't have anything to do with
[33]
me now; so I'm like Mahomet's coffin33, swung between heaven and earth! It's not pleasant, I assure you."
"I should think not. I wish I could do anything."
"You can't. Go back and play basket-ball."
It was not Rodenhurst etiquette34 for Seniors to talk to Juniors, so Gwen, mindful even in her forlorn state of her new dignity as a member of the Upper School, could not indulge in the luxury of a chat with Lesbia. She wandered down the corridor, read the time sheets and the announcements on the notice boards, peeped into several empty classrooms, and was glad for once when the bell rang. At one o'clock things were no better. She was given a new place at the dinner-table and had to sit between Rachel Hunter and Edith Arnold, both of whom behaved as if unaware35 of her presence, and talked to each other across her as though she were non-existent. When she asked for the salt (rather shortly, certainly) Edith only stared and did not pass it. By the end of the meal Gwen began to feel the situation was getting on her nerves. She had been fairly popular in the Upper Fourth, so the change was the more unpleasant.
"I'm not going to give in, though," she thought. "I believe what they want is to make me ask Miss Roscoe to move me down again. Well, they'll find themselves mistaken, that's all! I'll stay in the Upper School if nobody speaks to me till next midsummer, and if I have to stop up half the night slogging away at my work!"
"How cross that Gwen Gascoyne looks!" whispered Hilda Browne to Iris36 Watson.
"Yes, she doesn't seem to want to know us, does she?"
[34]
"She needn't, I'm sure. I think she's horrid37!"
It was still raining and impossible to go into the playground, so Gwen strolled into the empty classroom, and for lack of anything else to do began arranging and rearranging the contents of her desk. She had not been there more than five minutes when the door opened and Netta Goodwin, one of her new form-mates, entered, humming a tune38. She glanced at Gwen, went to her own desk, made a pretence39 of trying to find a book, sat whistling for a moment or two, then finally turned towards Gwen.
"Well, how do you like being a Senior?" she asked half mockingly.
"Too soon to tell yet," replied Gwen cautiously. "I shall know better at the end of a week."
"You've not had a very charming reception so far, have you? I saw how Rachel and Edith were behaving at dinner."
"I don't care!" snapped Gwen. "I don't want to talk to them, thanks! The Form can please itself whether it's friendly or leaves me alone as far as I'm concerned."
Netta whistled softly. There was a rather inscrutable expression on her face.
"All the same I suppose you don't always want to go on being a kind of leper and outlaw40? Not very interesting, I should say, to come to school every day and speak to nobody!"
Gwen was silent. She had no argument to advance.
"They're annoyed with you just at present for being moved into our Form, but they can't keep it up long. In a little while they'll feel accustomed to you and
[35]
you'll get on all right. Then the question is, are you going to belong to the Saints or the Sinners?"
"What do you mean?" asked Gwen.
"We're all one or other here. We call Hilda Browne and Iris Watson and Louise Mawson and Rachel Hunter and Edith Arnold and a few more 'the Saints'."
"Nothing very saintly about them that I can see!" sniffed41 Gwen.
"Well, it depends on your standards. Perhaps they thought they behaved like saints at dinner."
"More like Pharisees! Which are you?"
Netta's brown eyes twinkled.
"I leave you to guess!" she replied sagely42. "I'm not stiff and stand-off like some of them are, at any rate. If you'd care to take a walk down the corridor, I'll go with you."
A stroll with anyone was better than sitting alone in the classroom; it was still only two o'clock, and there was half an hour to get through before afternoon school began. Gwen was not averse43 to exploring the upper corridor, for as a Junior it had been forbidden ground to her. She and Netta went into the Sixth Form room, the Senior French and German room, and even looked inside the teachers' room, finding nobody there.
"Miss Roscoe's private sitting-room44 is at the end of the passage," said Netta. "She's down in the library, so if you like to take a peep, you can."
The spirit of curiosity strongly urged Gwen to see what a headmistress's private study was like, and thinking themselves perfectly45 safe, the two girls
[36]
entered, and began eagerly to scan the pictures, the ornaments46, the photographs, and the various objects which were spread about on desk and tables. It was a pretty, tasteful room, with choice prints from the old masters in carved oak frames, and pots of ferns and flowers, and handsomely bound books, and curios from foreign lands. The girls moved softly about, examining first one thing and then another with increasing interest.
"Oh, do look at this exquisite47 little case of butterflies! I never saw anything so perfect!" said Netta.
Gwen was standing48 absorbed in contemplation of a stained-wood blotter. She wheeled round, and as she did so her elbow knocked a parcel that had been placed on the corner of the desk, and sent it flying on to the floor. There was a smashing sound like the breaking of china, and at that exact moment somebody entered the room. Hopelessly caught, the two girls turned to face the newcomer. It was not Miss Roscoe—that was one thing to be thankful for—but it was Emma, the housemaid, which was quite bad enough. She looked at them as if she knew herself to be mistress of the situation, then waxed eloquent49.
"I should just like to know what you two's doing here?" she demanded. "You've no business in this room—none at all. And you've gone and smashed that parcel as is only come five minutes ago from the china shop. I could hear it break. My word! What will Miss Roscoe say to this?"
"She mustn't know!" gasped50 Netta. "Emma, you must promise us faithfully not to tell you've found us here."
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"Me not tell? And what for, please? Why should I screen you?"
"We shall get into such an awful scrape!" pleaded Gwen.
"You should have thought of that before you came!"
"Oh, Emma!" urged Netta. "We can't, we daren't let Miss Roscoe know. She'd be so fearfully angry. She might even expel us!"
"And what am I to say about this parcel you've broken? You don't suppose I'm going to take the blame of that on my shoulders! No, thank you!"
"The cat," murmured Netta.
"Cat, indeed!" repeated Emma scornfully. "That's too old a story to take in Miss Roscoe; besides which, there's not a cat in the house. She hates 'em. You'll just have to own up, and serve you both right for meddling51."
"Is it badly broken, I wonder?" sighed Gwen, feeling the unfortunate parcel carefully. "It seems to be a box."
"Yes, but what's inside the box is smashed. You can hear the bits rattle52 when you shake it," returned Emma smartly. "It's her new afternoon tea set, I'll be bound. She told me she was going to order one from Parker's."
"There's Parker's name on the label," agreed Gwen despondently53.
"Yes, and if you think—"
"Look here, I've got an idea," interrupted Netta. "You said the box only arrived about five minutes ago, so Miss Roscoe can't possibly know that it's
[38]
come yet. If we could get it taken back to the shop and ask Parker's to send some more, and we pay for it, she need never know."
"A pretty idea!" snorted Emma.
"Oh, it would be grand!" exclaimed Gwen, grasping at any way out of the dreadful predicament.
"You'll help us, Emma, won't you?" entreated54 Netta.
"Not I! It's none of my business."
"But suppose it were worth your while? Wouldn't half a crown buy you something nice?"
"Nothing I'd care for."
"Five shillings, then?"
Emma's face showed signs of yielding.
"I don't want to get you into trouble if I can help it," she replied more gently. "I dare say Parker's would replace the things if you was willing to pay for them, and nothing need be said. I'm not one for wanting scenes, and a scene there'd be if Miss Roscoe found her set broken. She's a sharp tongue, as I know to my cost."
"Then, Emma, will you take away the box now, and hide it somewhere, and we'll meet you in the pantry at four o'clock, and you can give it to us, and we'll take it ourselves to Parker's, and ask them to send some more china to-night. We'll bring you the five shillings to-morrow morning. It shall be a present from us both, and thank you so much for helping55 us! You promise you won't tell? Well, that's a weight off our minds! Come, Gwen, we'll scoot!"
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收听单词发音
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1
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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fickle
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| adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的 | |
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4
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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5
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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7
chirped
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| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 ) | |
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8
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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9
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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10
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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11
offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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12
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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14
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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16
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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18
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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19
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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20
satchel
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| n.(皮或帆布的)书包 | |
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21
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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22
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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23
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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24
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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25
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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26
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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27
scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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28
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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31
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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32
boycotting
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| 抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的现在分词 ) | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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iris
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| n.虹膜，彩虹 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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38
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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39
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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outlaw
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| n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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41
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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42
sagely
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| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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43
averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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44
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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45
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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46
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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48
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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49
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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50
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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51
meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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52
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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53
despondently
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| adv.沮丧地，意志消沉地 | |
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54
entreated
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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