I sat up for a short time with my father on my return. When I went to bed, to my amazement2 Sweep was absent, and I could not find him anywhere. I did not like to return to the Rectory, for fear of disturbing Mr. Andrewes' rest, so I went to bed without my dog.
I was up early next morning, for I had resolved to go to the station to see Mr. Andrewes off, though his train was an early one, that I might disabuse3 him of his superstition4 by our meeting once more. It was with a secret sense of relief, for my own part, that I saw him arranging his luggage. Sweep, by-the-by, had turned up to breakfast, and was with me.
"I've come to see you off," I shouted, "and to break the charm of last times, and Sweep has come too."
"Strange to say, Sweep came back to me last night, after you left," said the Rector, laughing; "and he added omen5 to superstition by sitting under the window when I turned him out, and howling like a Banshee."
Sweep himself looked rather foolish as he wagged[197] his tail in answer to the Rector's greeting. He had the air of saying, "We were all a little excited last night. Let it pass."
For my own part I felt quite reassured6. The Rector was in his sunniest mood, and as he watched us from the window to the very last, his face was so bright with smiles, that he hardly looked ill.
For some days Sweep and I were absent, fishing.
When I returned, I found on my mantelpiece a black-edged letter in an unfamiliar7 hand. But for the black I should have fancied it was a bill. The writing was what is called "commercial." I opened it and read as follows:
"North Side Mills, Blackford,
Yorks. 4/8, 18—.
"Sir,
"I have to announce the lamented8 Decease of my Brother—Reverend Reginald Andrewes, M.A.—which took place on the 3rd inst. (3.35 a.m.), at Oak Mount, Blackford; where a rough Hospitality will be very much at your Service, should you purpose to attend the Funeral. Deceased expressed a wish that you should follow the remains9; and should your respected Father think of accompanying you, the Compliment will give much pleasure to Survivors10.
"Funeral party to leave Oak Mount at 4 p.m. on Thursday next (the 8th inst.), d.v.
"A line to say when you may be expected will enable me to meet you, and oblige,
"Yours respectfully,
"Jonathan Andrewes.
"Reginald Dacre, Esq., Jun."
It is useless to dwell upon the bitterness of this blow. My father felt it as much as I did, and[198] neither he nor I ever found this loss repaired. One loses some few friends in a lifetime whose places are never filled.
We went to the funeral. Had the cause of our journey been less sad, I should certainly have enjoyed it very much. The railway ran through some beautiful scenery, but it was the long coach journey at the end which won my admiration11 for the Rector's native county. I had never seen anything like these noble hills, these grand slopes of moorland stretching away on each side of us as we drove through a valley to which the river running with us gave its name. Not a quiet, sluggish12 river, keeping flat pastures green, reflecting straight lines of pollard willows13, and constantly flowing past gay villas14 and country cottages, but a pretty, brawling15 river with a stony16 bed, now yellow with iron, and now brown with peat, for long distances running its solitary17 race between the hills, but made useful here and there by ugly mills built upon the banks. Sometimes there was a hamlet as well as a mill. Tracts18 of the neighbouring moorland were enclosed and cultivated, the fields being divided by stone walls, which looked rude and strange enough to us. The cottages were also built of stone; but as we drove through a village I could see, through several open doors, that the rooms were very clean and most comfortably furnished, though without carpets, the floors, like everything else, being of stone.
It was dark before we reached Blackford. The latter part of our journey was through a coal and iron district, and the glare of the furnace fires among the hills was like nothing I had ever seen. At the coach office we were met by Mr. Jonathan Andrewes. He was a tall, well-made man, with[199] badly-fitting clothes, rather tumbled linen19, imperfectly brushed hair and hat, and some want of that fresh cleanliness and finish of general appearance which went to my idea of a gentleman's outside. I found him a warm-hearted, cold-mannered man, with a clear, strong head, and a shrewdness of observation which recalled the Rector to my mind more than once. The tones of his voice made me start sometimes, they were so like the voice that I could never hear again in this life. He spoke20 always in the broad dialect into which the Rector was only wont21 to relapse in moments of excitement.
A carriage, better appointed than the owner, and a man-servant rather less so, were waiting, and took us to Oak Mount. In the hall our host apologized for the absence of Mrs. Andrewes, who was at the sea-side, out of health.
"But Betty 'll do her best to make you comfortable, sir," he said to my father, and turning to a middle-aged22 woman with a hard-featured, sensible face, and very golden hair tightly braided to her head, who was already busy with our luggage, he added, "You've got something for us to eat, Betty, I suppose?"
"T' supper 'll be ready by you're ready for it," said Betty, when she had finished her orders to the man who was taking our things upstairs. "But when folks is come off on a journey, they'll be glad to wash their 'ands, and I've took hot water into both their rooms."
The maid's familiarity startled me. Moreover, I fancied that for some reason she was angry, judging by the form and manner of her reply; but I have since learned that the ordinary answers of Scotch23 and Yorkshire folk are apt to sound more like retorts than replies.[200]
In the end I became very friendly with this good woman. Her real name, I discovered, was not Betty. "They call me Alathea," she said, meaning that that was her name, "but I've allus gone by the name of Betty." From her I learnt all the particulars of my dear friend's last illness, which I never should have got from the brother.
"He talked a deal about you," she said. "But you see, you're just about t' age his son would have been if he'd lived."
"His son!" I cried: "was Mr. Andrewes married?"
"Ay," said she, "Master Reginald were married going i' two year. It were his wife's death made him that queer while he couldn't abide24 the business, and he'd allus been a great scholard, so he went for a parson."
Every detail that I could get from Alathea was interesting to me. Apart from the sadly interesting subject, she had admirable powers of narration25. Her language (when it did not become too local for my comprehension) was forcible and racy to a degree, and she was not checked by the reserve which clogged26 Mr. Jonathan's lips. The following morning she came to the door of the drawing-room (a large dreary27 room, which, like the rest of the house, was handsomely upholstered rather than furnished), and beckoned28 mysteriously to me from the door. I went out to her.
"You'd like to see the body afore they fastens it up?" she said.
"He makes a beautiful corpse30," she whispered, as we passed into the room. It was an incongruous remark, and stirred again an hysterical31 feeling that had been driving me to laugh when I felt most sad[201] amid all the grotesquely32 dreary preparations for the "burying." But, like some other sayings that offend ears polite, it had the merit of truth.
It was not the beauty of the Rector's face in death, however, noble as it was, that alone drew from me a cry of admiration when I stooped over his coffin33. From the feet to the breast, utterly34 hiding the grave clothes, and tastefully grouped about his last pillow, were the most beautiful exotic flowers I ever beheld35. Flowers lately introduced that I had never seen, flowers that I knew to be rare, almost priceless—flowers of gorgeous colours and delicate hothouse beauty, lay there in profusion36.
"Mr. Jonathan sent for 'em," Betty murmured in my ear. "There's pounds and pounds' worth lies there. He give orders accordingly. There warn't to be a flower 'at warn't worth its weight in gowd a'most. Mr. Reginald were that fond of flowers."
I made no answer. Bitterly ached my heart to think of that dear and noble face buried out of sight; the familiar countenance37 that should light up no more at the sight of me and Sweep. "He looks so happy," I muttered, almost jealously. Alathea laid her hand upon my arm.
"Them that sleeps in Jesus rests well, my dear. And, as I said to Master Jonathan this morning, it ain't fit to overbegrudge them 'ats gone Home."
I think it was the naming of that Name, in which alone we vanquish38 the bitter victories of death, that recalled the verse which had been floating in my head ever since that evening at the Rectory:
"Jesu, spes poenitentibus,
Quam pius es petentibus!
Quam bonus te quaerentibus!
Sed quid invenientibus!"[202]
The loneliness of my childhood had given me a habit of talking to myself. I did not know that I had quoted that verse of the old hymn39 aloud, till I discovered the fact from hearing afterwards, to my no small surprise, that Betty had reported that I "made a beautiful prayer over the corpse."
The grim and hideous40 pomp of the funeral was most oppressive, though in the abundance of plumes41 and mutes Mr. Jonathan had, as in the more graceful42 tribute of the flowers, honoured his brother nobly after his manner, which was a commercial one. It was a very expensive "burying." Alathea did tell me what "the gin and whiskey for the mourners alone come to," though I have forgotten. But we lost sight of the ignoble43 features of the occasion when the sublime44 office for the Burial of the Dead began. When it was ended I understood one of Betty's brusque remarks, which had puzzled me when it came out at breakfast-time.
"You'll 'ave to take what ye can get for your dinners, gentlemen," she had said; "for the singers is to meet at three, and I can't pretend to do more nor I can."
The women mourners at the funeral (there were a few) all wore large black silk hoods45, which completely disguised them; but at the end of the service one of them pushed hers back, and I recognized the golden hair of Alathea, as she joined a group rather formally collected on one side of the grave. She looked round as if to see that all were ready, and then in such a soprano voice as one seldom hears, she "started" the funeral hymn. It was the Old Psalm—
"O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come;[203]
Our shelter from life's stormy blast,
And our eternal home."
I had heard very little chorus-singing of any kind; and I did not then know that for the best I had heard—that of St. George's choir46 at Windsor—voices were systematically47 imported from this particular district. My experience of village singing was confined to the thin nasal unison48 psalmody of our school children, and an occasional rustic49 stave from a farmer at an agricultural dinner. Great, then, was my astonishment50 when the little group broke into the four-part harmony of a fine chorale. One rarely hears such voices. Betty had a grand soprano, and on the edge of the group stood a little lad singing like a bird, in an alto of such sweet pathos51 as would have made him famous in any cathedral choir.
Mr. Jonathan's head drooped52 lower and lower. Affecting as the hymn was in my ears, it had for him, no doubt, associations I could not share. My father moved near him, with an impulse of respectful sympathy.
To me that one rich voice of harmony spoke as the voice of my old teacher; and I longed to cry to him in return, "I have made up my mind. It is worth trying for! It is 'worth any effort, any struggle.' Our eternal home!"
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
alias
|
|
| n.化名；别名；adv.又名 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
amazement
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
disabuse
|
|
| v.解惑；矫正 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
superstition
|
|
| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
omen
|
|
| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
unfamiliar
|
|
| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
lamented
|
|
| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
survivors
|
|
| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
sluggish
|
|
| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
willows
|
|
| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
villas
|
|
| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
brawling
|
|
| n.争吵，喧嚷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
stony
|
|
| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tracts
|
|
| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
linen
|
|
| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
wont
|
|
| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
scotch
|
|
| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
abide
|
|
| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
narration
|
|
| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
clogged
|
|
| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
dreary
|
|
| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
beckoned
|
|
| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
corpse
|
|
| n.尸体，死尸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
hysterical
|
|
| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
grotesquely
|
|
| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
coffin
|
|
| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
beheld
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
profusion
|
|
| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
vanquish
|
|
| v.征服，战胜；克服；抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
hymn
|
|
| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
plumes
|
|
| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
ignoble
|
|
| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
sublime
|
|
| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
hoods
|
|
| n.兜帽( hood的名词复数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩v.兜帽( hood的第三人称单数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
choir
|
|
| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
systematically
|
|
| adv.有系统地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
unison
|
|
| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
rustic
|
|
| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
pathos
|
|
| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
drooped
|
|
| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |