He was ruddy and of a fair countenance3, bright-eyed, and slight in build. He might possibly have passed by without stopping at all, or at most for half a minute to glance in at the scene, had not his advent4 coincided with the discussion on corn and bread, in which event this history had never been enacted5. But the subject seemed to arrest him, and he whispered some inquiries6 of the other bystanders, and remained listening.
When he heard Henchard's closing words, "It can't be done," he smiled impulsively7, drew out his pocketbook, and wrote down a few words by the aid of the light in the window. He tore out the leaf, folded and directed it, and seemed about to throw it in through the open sash upon the dining-table; but, on second thoughts, edged himself through the loiterers, till he reached the door of the hotel, where one of the waiters who had been serving inside was now idly leaning against the doorpost.
"Give this to the Mayor at once," he said, handing in his hasty note.
Elizabeth-Jane had seen his movements and heard the words, which attracted her both by their subject and by their accent--a strange one for those parts. It was quaint8 and northerly.
The waiter took the note, while the young stranger continued-
"And can ye tell me of a respectable hotel that's a little more moderate than this?"
The waiter glanced indifferently up and down the street.
"They say the Three Mariners9, just below here, is a very good place," he languidly answered; "but I have never stayed there myself."
The Scotchman, as he seemed to be, thanked him, and strolled on in the direction of the Three Mariners aforesaid, apparently10 more concerned about the question of an inn than about the fate of his note, now that the momentary11 impulse of writing it was over. While he was disappearing slowly down the street the waiter left the door, and Elizabeth-Jane saw with some interest the note brought into the dining-room and handed to the Mayor.
Henchard looked at it carelessly, unfolded it with one hand, and glanced it through. Thereupon it was curious to note an unexpected effect. The nettled12, clouded aspect which had held possession of his face since the subject of his corndealings had been broached13, changed itself into one of arrested attention. He read the note slowly, and fell into thought, not moody14, but fitfully intense, as that of a man who has been captured by an idea.
By this time toasts and speeches had given place to songs, the wheat subject being quite forgotten. Men were putting their heads together in twos and threes, telling good stories, with pantomimic laughter which reached convulsive grimace15. Some were beginning to look as if they did not know how they had come there, what they had come for, or how they were going to get home again; and provisionally sat on with a dazed smile. Square-built men showed a tendency to become hunchbacks; men with a dignified16 presence lost it in a curious obliquity17 of figure, in which their features grew disarranged and one-sided, whilst the heads of a few who had dined with extreme thoroughness were somehow sinking into their shoulders, the corners of their mouth and eyes being bent18 upwards19 by the subsidence. Only Henchard did not conform to these flexuous changes; he remained stately and vertical20, silently thinking.
The clock struck nine. Elizabeth-Jane turned to her companion. "The evening is drawing on, mother," she said. "What do you propose to do?"
She was surprised to find how irresolute21 her mother had become. "We must get a place to lie down in," she murmured. "I have seen--Mr. Henchard; and that's all I wanted to do."
"That's enough for to-night, at any rate," Elizabeth-Jane replied soothingly22. "We can think to-morrow what is best to do about him. The question now is--is it not?--how shall we find a lodging23?"
As her mother did not reply Elizabeth-Jane's mind reverted24 to the words of the waiter, that the Three Mariners was an inn of moderate charges. A recommendation good for one person was probably good for another. "Let's go where the young man has gone to," she said. "He is respectable. What do you say?"
Her mother assented25, and down the street they went.
In the meantime the Mayor's thoughtfulness, engendered26 by the note as stated, continued to hold him in abstraction; till, whispering to his neighbour to take his place, he found opportunity to leave the chair. This was just after the departure of his wife and Elizabeth.
Outside the door of the assembly-room he saw the waiter, and beckoning27 to him asked who had brought the note which had been handed in a quarter of an hour before.
"A young man, sir--a sort of traveller. He was a Scotchman seemingly."
"Did he say how he had got it?"
"He wrote it himself, sir, as he stood outside the window."
"Oh--wrote it himself....Is the young man in the hotel?"
"No, sir. He went to the Three Mariners, I believe."
The mayor walked up and down the vestibule of the hotel with his hands under his coat tails, as if he were merely seeking a cooler atmosphere than that of the room he had quitted. But there could be no doubt that he was in reality still possessed28 to the full by the new idea, whatever that might be. At length he went back to the door of the dining-room, paused, and found that the songs, toasts, and conversation were proceeding29 quite satisfactorily without his presence. The Corporation, private residents, and major and minor30 tradesmen had, in fact, gone in for comforting beverages31 to such an extent that they had quite forgotten, not only the Mayor, but all those vast, political, religious, and social differences which they felt necessary to maintain in the daytime, and which separated them like iron grills32. Seeing this the Mayor took his hat, and when the waiter had helped him on with a thin holland overcoat, went out and stood under the portico33.
Very few persons were now in the street; and his eyes, by a sort of attraction, turned and dwelt upon a spot about a hundred yards further down. It was the house to which the writer of the note had gone--the Three Mariners--whose two prominent Elizabethan gables, bow-window, and passage-light could be seen from where he stood. Having kept his eyes on it for a while he strolled in that direction.
This ancient house of accommodation for man and beast, now, unfortunately, pulled down, was built of mellow34 sandstone, with mullioned windows of the same material, markedly out of perpendicular35 from the settlement of foundations. The bay window projecting into the street, whose interior was so popular among the frequenters of the inn, was closed with shutters, in each of which appeared a heart-shaped aperture36, somewhat more attenuated37 in the right and left ventricles than is seen in Nature. Inside these illuminated38 holes, at a distance of about three inches, were ranged at this hour, as every passer knew, the ruddy polls of Billy Wills the glazier, Smart the shoemaker, Buzzford the general dealer39, and others of a secondary set of worthies40, of a grade somewhat below that of the diners at the King's Arms, each with his yard of clay.
A four-centred Tudor arch was over the entrance, and over the arch the signboard, now visible in the rays of an opposite lamp. Hereon the Mariners, who had been represented by the artist as persons of two dimensions only-in other words, flat as a shadow--were standing41 in a row in paralyzed attitudes. Being on the sunny side of the street the three comrades had suffered largely from warping42, splitting, fading, and shrinkage, so that they were but a half-invisible film upon the reality of the grain, and knots, and nails, which composed the signboard. As a matter of fact, this state of things was not so much owing to Stannidge the landlord's neglect, as from the lack of a painter in Casterbridge who would undertake to reproduce the features of men so traditional.
A long, narrow, dimly-lit passage gave access to the inn, within which passage the horses going to their stalls at the back, and the coming and departing human guests, rubbed shoulders indiscriminately, the latter running no slight risk of having their toes trodden upon by the animals. The good stabling and the good ale of the Mariners, though somewhat difficult to reach on account of there being but this narrow way to both, were nevertheless perseveringly43 sought out by the sagacious old heads who knew what was what in Casterbridge.
Henchard stood without the inn for a few instants; then lowering the dignity of his presence as much as possible by buttoning the brown holland coat over his shirt-front, and in other ways toning himself down to his ordinary everyday appearance, he entered the inn door.
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1
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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7
impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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10
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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12
nettled
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| v.拿荨麻打，拿荨麻刺（nettle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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13
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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14
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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15
grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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16
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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obliquity
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| n.倾斜度 | |
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18
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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19
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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20
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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21
irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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22
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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24
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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25
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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28
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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30
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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31
beverages
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| n.饮料( beverage的名词复数 ) | |
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32
grills
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| n.烤架( grill的名词复数 )；（一盘）烤肉；格板；烧烤餐馆v.烧烤( grill的第三人称单数 )；拷问，盘问 | |
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33
portico
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| n.柱廊，门廊 | |
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34
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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35
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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36
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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37
attenuated
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| v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱 | |
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38
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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39
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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40
worthies
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| 应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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41
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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42
warping
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| n.翘面，扭曲，变形v.弄弯，变歪( warp的现在分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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43
perseveringly
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| 坚定地 | |
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