‘Fetch a doctor,’ quoth Miss Abbey. And then, ‘Fetch his daughter.’ On both of which errands, quick messengers depart.
The doctor-seeking messenger meets the doctor halfway8, coming under convoy9 of police. Doctor examines the dank carcase, and pronounces, not hopefully, that it is worth while trying to reanimate the same. All the best means are at once in action, and everybody present lends a hand, and a heart and soul. No one has the least regard for the man; with them all, he has been an object of avoidance, suspicion, and aversion; but the spark of life within him is curiously10 separable from himself now, and they have a deep interest in it, probably because it IS life, and they are living and must die.
In answer to the doctor’s inquiry11 how did it happen, and was anyone to blame, Tom Tootle gives in his verdict, unavoidable accident and no one to blame but the sufferer. ‘He was slinking about in his boat,’ says Tom, ‘which slinking were, not to speak ill of the dead, the manner of the man, when he come right athwart the steamer’s bows and she cut him in two.’ Mr Tootle is so far figurative, touching12 the dismemberment, as that he means the boat, and not the man. For, the man lies whole before them.
Captain Joey, the bottle-nosed regular customer in the glazed13 hat, is a pupil of the much-respected old school, and (having insinuated14 himself into the chamber15, in the execution of the impontant service of carrying the drowned man’s neck-kerchief) favours the doctor with a sagacious old-scholastic suggestion that the body should be hung up by the heels, ‘sim’lar’, says Captain Joey, ‘to mutton in a butcher’s shop,’ and should then, as a particularly choice manoeuvre16 for promoting easy respiration17, be rolled upon casks. These scraps18 of the wisdom of the captain’s ancestors are received with such speechless indignation by Miss Abbey, that she instantly seizes the Captain by the collar, and without a single word ejects him, not presuming to remonstrate19, from the scene.
There then remain, to assist the doctor and Tom, only those three other regular customers, Bob Glamour20, William Williams, and Jonathan (family name of the latter, if any, unknown to man-kind), who are quite enough. Miss Abbey having looked in to make sure that nothing is wanted, descends21 to the bar, and there awaits the result, with the gentle Jew and Miss Jenny Wren22.
If you are not gone for good, Mr Riderhood, it would be something to know where you are hiding at present. This flabby lump of mortality that we work so hard at with such patient perseverance23, yields no sign of you. If you are gone for good, Rogue, it is very solemn, and if you are coming back, it is hardly less so. Nay24, in the suspense25 and mystery of the latter question, involving that of where you may be now, there is a solemnity even added to that of death, making us who are in attendance alike afraid to look on you and to look off you, and making those below start at the least sound of a creaking plank26 in the floor.
Stay! Did that eyelid27 tremble? So the doctor, breathing low, and closely watching, asks himself.
No.
Did that nostril28 twitch29?
No.
This artificial respiration ceasing, do I feel any faint flutter under my hand upon the chest?
No.
Over and over again No. No. But try over and over again, nevertheless.
See! A token of life! An indubitable token of life! The spark may smoulder and go out, or it may glow and expand, but see! The four rough fellows, seeing, shed tears. Neither Riderhood in this world, nor Riderhood in the other, could draw tears from them; but a striving human soul between the two can do it easily.
He is struggling to come back. Now, he is almost here, now he is far away again. Now he is struggling harder to get back. And yet-like us all, when we swoon — like us all, every day of our lives when we wake — he is instinctively30 unwilling31 to be restored to the consciousness of this existence, and would be left dormant32, if he could.
Bob Gliddery returns with Pleasant Riderhood, who was out when sought for, and hard to find. She has a shawl over her head, and her first action, when she takes it off weeping, and curtseys to Miss Abbey, is to wind her hair up.
‘Thank you, Miss Abbey, for having father here.’
‘I am bound to say, girl, I didn’t know who it was,’ returns Miss Abbey; ‘but I hope it would have been pretty much the same if I had known.’
Poor Pleasant, fortified33 with a sip34 of brandy, is ushered35 into the first-floor chamber. She could not express much sentiment about her father if she were called upon to pronounce his funeral oration36, but she has a greater tenderness for him than he ever had for her, and crying bitterly when she sees him stretched unconscious, asks the doctor, with clasped hands: ‘Is there no hope, sir? O poor father! Is poor father dead?’
To which the doctor, on one knee beside the body, busy and watchful37, only rejoins without looking round: ‘Now, my girl, unless you have the self-command to be perfectly38 quiet, I cannot allow you to remain in the room.’
Pleasant, consequently, wipes her eyes with her back-hair, which is in fresh need of being wound up, and having got it out of the way, watches with terrified interest all that goes on. Her natural woman’s aptitude39 soon renders her able to give a little help. Anticipating the doctor’s want of this or that, she quietly has it ready for him, and so by degrees is intrusted with the charge of supporting her father’s head upon her arm.
It is something so new to Pleasant to see her father an object of sympathy and interest, to find any one very willing to tolerate his society in this world, not to say pressingly and soothingly40 entreating41 him to belong to it, that it gives her a sensation she never experienced before. Some hazy42 idea that if affairs could remain thus for a long time it would be a respectable change, floats in her mind. Also some vague idea that the old evil is drowned out of him, and that if he should happily come back to resume his occupation of the empty form that lies upon the bed, his spirit will be altered. In which state of mind she kisses the stony43 lips, and quite believes that the impassive hand she chafes44 will revive a tender hand, if it revive ever.
Sweet delusion45 for Pleasant Riderhood. But they minister to him with such extraordinary interest, their anxiety is so keen, their vigilance is so great, their excited joy grows so intense as the signs of life strengthen, that how can she resist it, poor thing! And now he begins to breathe naturally, and he stirs, and the doctor declares him to have come back from that inexplicable46 journey where he stopped on the dark road, and to be here.
Tom Tootle, who is nearest to the doctor when he says this, grasps the doctor fervently47 by the hand. Bob Glamour, William Williams, and Jonathan of the no surname, all shake hands with one another round, and with the doctor too. Bob Glamour blows his nose, and Jonathan of the no surname is moved to do likewise, but lacking a pocket handkerchief abandons that outlet48 for his emotion. Pleasant sheds tears deserving her own name, and her sweet delusion is at its height.
There is intelligence in his eyes. He wants to ask a question. He wonders where he is. Tell him.
‘Father, you were run down on the river, and are at Miss Abbey Potterson’s.’
He stares at his daughter, stares all around him, closes his eyes, and lies slumbering49 on her arm.
The short-lived delusion begins to fade. The low, bad, unimpressible face is coming up from the depths of the river, or what other depths, to the surface again. As he grows warm, the doctor and the four men cool. As his lineaments soften50 with life, their faces and their hearts harden to him.
‘He will do now,’ says the doctor, washing his hands, and looking at the patient with growing disfavour.
‘Many a better man,’ moralizes Tom Tootle with a gloomy shake of the head, ‘ain’t had his luck.’
‘It’s to be hoped he’ll make a better use of his life,’ says Bob Glamour, ‘than I expect he will.’
‘Or than he done afore,’ adds William Williams.
‘But no, not he!’ says Jonathan of the no surname, clinching51 the quartette.
They speak in a low tone because of his daughter, but she sees that they have all drawn52 off, and that they stand in a group at the other end of the room, shunning53 him. It would be too much to suspect them of being sorry that he didn’t die when he had done so much towards it, but they clearly wish that they had had a better subject to bestow54 their pains on. Intelligence is conveyed to Miss Abbey in the bar, who reappears on the scene, and contemplates55 from a distance, holding whispered discourse56 with the doctor. The spark of life was deeply interesting while it was in abeyance57, but now that it has got established in Mr Riderhood, there appears to be a general desire that circumstances had admitted of its being developed in anybody else, rather than that gentleman.
‘However,’ says Miss Abbey, cheering them up, ‘you have done your duty like good and true men, and you had better come down and take something at the expense of the Porters.’
This they all do, leaving the daughter watching the father. To whom, in their absence, Bob Gliddery presents himself.
‘His gills looks rum; don’t they?’ says Bob, after inspecting the patient.
Pleasant faintly nods.
‘His gills’ll look rummer when he wakes; won’t they?’ says Bob.
Pleasant hopes not. Why?
‘When he finds himself here, you know,’ Bob explains. ‘Cause Miss Abbey forbid him the house and ordered him out of it. But what you may call the Fates ordered him into it again. Which is rumness; ain’t it?’
‘He wouldn’t have come here of his own accord,’ returns poor Pleasant, with an effort at a little pride.
‘No,’ retorts Bob. ‘Nor he wouldn’t have been let in, if he had.’
The short delusion is quite dispelled58 now. As plainly as she sees on her arm the old father, unimproved, Pleasant sees that everybody there will cut him when he recovers consciousness. ‘I’ll take him away ever so soon as I can,’ thinks Pleasant with a sigh; ‘he’s best at home.’
Presently they all return, and wait for him to become conscious that they will all be glad to get rid of him. Some clothes are got together for him to wear, his own being saturated59 with water, and his present dress being composed of blankets.
Becoming more and more uncomfortable, as though the prevalent dislike were finding him out somewhere in his sleep and expressing itself to him, the patient at last opens his eyes wide, and is assisted by his daughter to sit up in bed.
‘Well, Riderhood,’ says the doctor, ‘how do you feel?’
He replies gruffly, ‘Nothing to boast on.’ Having, in fact, returned to life in an uncommonly60 sulky state.
‘I don’t mean to preach; but I hope,’ says the doctor, gravely shaking his head, ‘that this escape may have a good effect upon you, Riderhood.’
The patient’s discontented growl61 of a reply is not intelligible62; his daughter, however, could interpret, if she would, that what he says is, he ‘don’t want no Poll-Parroting’.
Mr Riderhood next demands his shirt; and draws it on over his head (with his daughter’s help) exactly as if he had just had a Fight.
‘Warn’t it a steamer?’ he pauses to ask her.
‘Yes, father.’
‘I’ll have the law on her, bust63 her! and make her pay for it.’
He then buttons his linen64 very moodily65, twice or thrice stopping to examine his arms and hands, as if to see what punishment he has received in the Fight. He then doggedly66 demands his other garments, and slowly gets them on, with an appearance of great malevolence67 towards his late opponent and all the spectators. He has an impression that his nose is bleeding, and several times draws the back of his hand across it, and looks for the result, in a pugilistic manner, greatly strengthening that incongruous resemblance.
‘Where’s my fur cap?’ he asks in a surly voice, when he has shuffled68 his clothes on.
‘In the river,’ somebody rejoins.
‘And warn’t there no honest man to pick it up? O’ course there was though, and to cut off with it arterwards. You are a rare lot, all on you!’
Thus, Mr Riderhood: taking from the hands of his daughter, with special ill-will, a lent cap, and grumbling69 as he pulls it down over his ears. Then, getting on his unsteady legs, leaning heavily upon her, and growling70, ‘Hold still, can’t you? What! You must be a staggering next, must you?’ he takes his departure out of the ring in which he has had that little turn-up with Death.
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1
supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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2
rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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3
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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6
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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7
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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8
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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9
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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10
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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11
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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12
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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13
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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14
insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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15
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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16
manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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17
respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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18
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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19
remonstrate
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| v.抗议，规劝 | |
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20
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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21
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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22
wren
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| n.鹪鹩；英国皇家海军女子服务队成员 | |
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23
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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24
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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25
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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26
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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27
eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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28
nostril
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| n.鼻孔 | |
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29
twitch
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| v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛 | |
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30
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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31
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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32
dormant
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| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
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33
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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34
sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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35
ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
oration
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| n.演说，致辞，叙述法 | |
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37
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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38
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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40
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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41
entreating
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的现在分词 ) | |
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42
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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43
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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44
chafes
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的第三人称单数 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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45
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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46
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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47
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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48
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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49
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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50
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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51
clinching
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的现在分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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52
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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53
shunning
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 ) | |
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54
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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55
contemplates
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的第三人称单数 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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56
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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57
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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58
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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60
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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61
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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62
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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63
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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64
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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65
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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66
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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67
malevolence
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| n.恶意，狠毒 | |
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68
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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69
grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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70
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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