“I come to you direct,” the baronet explained. “I tell you candidly18 in what way I discovered my son to be mixed up in this miserable19 affair. I promise you indemnity for your loss, and an apology that shall, I trust, satisfy your feelings, assuring you that to tamper with witnesses is not the province of a Feverel. All I ask of you in return is, not to press the prosecution20. At present it rests with you. I am bound to do all that lies in my power for this imprisoned21 man. How and wherefore my son was prompted to suggest, or assist in, such an act, I cannot explain, for I do not know.”
“Hum!” said the farmer. “I think I do.”
“You know the cause?” Sir Austin stared. “I beg you to confide22 it to me.”
“‘Least, I can pretty nigh neighbour it with a guess,” said the farmer. “We an’t good friends, Sir Austin, me and your son, just now — not to say cordial. I, ye see, Sir Austin, I’m a man as don’t like young gentlemen a-poachin’ on his grounds without his permission — in special when birds is plentiful23 on their own. It appear he do like it. Consequently I has to flick24 this whip — as them fellers at the races: All in this ’ere Ring’s mine! as much as to say; and who’s been hit, he’s had fair warnin’. I’m sorry for’t, but that’s just the case.”
Sir Austin retired25 to communicate with his son, when he should find him.
Algernon’s interview passed off in ale and promises. He also assured Farmer Blaize that no Feverel could be affected26 by his proviso.
No less did Austin Wentworth. The farmer was satisfied.
“Money’s safe, I know,” said he; “now for the ‘pology!” and Farmer Blaize thrust his legs further out, and his head further back.
The farmer naturally reflected that the three separate visits had been conspired27 together. Still the baronet’s frankness, and the baronet’s not having reserved himself for the third and final charge, puzzled him. He was considering whether they were a deep, or a shallow lot, when young Richard was announced.
A pretty little girl with the roses of thirteen springs in her cheeks, and abundant beautiful bright tresses, tripped before the boy, and loitered shyly by the farmer’s armchair to steal a look at the handsome new-comer. She was introduced to Richard as the farmer’s niece, Lucy Desborough, the daughter of a lieutenant28 in the Royal Navy, and, what was better, though the farmer did not pronounce it so loudly, a real good girl.
Neither the excellence29 of her character, nor her rank in life, tempted30 Richard to inspect the little lady. He made an awkward bow, and sat down.
The farmer’s eyes twinkled. “Her father,” he continued, “fought and fell for his coontry. A man as fights for’s coontry’s a right to hould up his head — ay! with any in the land. Desb’roughs o’ Dorset! d’ye know that family, Master Feverel?”
Richard did not know them, and, by his air, did not desire to become acquainted with any offshoot of that family.
“She can make puddens and pies,” the farmer went on, regardless of his auditor’s gloom. “She’s a lady, as good as the best of ’em. I don’t care about their being Catholics — the Desb’roughs o’ Dorset are gentlemen. And she’s good for the pianer, too! She strums to me of evenin’s. I’m for the old tunes31: she’s for the new. Gal-like! While she’s with me she shall be taught things use’l. She can parley-voo a good ’un and foot it, as it goes; been in France a couple of year. I prefer the singin’ of ’t to the talkin’ of ’t. Come, Luce! toon up — eh? — Ye wun’t? That song about the Viffendeer — a female”— Farmer Blaize volunteered the translation of the title —“who wears the — you guess what! and marches along with the French sojers: a pretty brazen32 bit o’ goods, I sh’d fancy.”
Mademoiselle Lucy corrected her uncle’s French, but objected to do more. The handsome cross boy had almost taken away her voice for speech, as it was, and sing in his company she could not; so she stood, a hand on her uncle’s chair to stay herself from falling, while she wriggled33 a dozen various shapes of refusal, and shook her head at the farmer with fixed34 eyes.
“Aha!” laughed the farmer, dismissing her, “they soon learn the difference ‘twixt the young ’un and the old ’un. Go along, Luce! and learn yer lessons for tomorrow.”
Reluctantly the daughter of the Royal Navy glided35 away. Her uncle’s head followed her to the door, where she dallied36 to catch a last impression of the young stranger’s lowering face, and darted37 through.
Farmer Blaize laughed and chuckled38. “She an’t so fond of her uncle as that, every day! Not that she an’t a good nurse — the kindest little soul you’d meet of a winter’s walk! She’ll read t’ ye, and make drinks, and sing, too, if ye likes it, and she won’t be tired. A obstinate39 good ’un, she be! Bless her!”
The farmer may have designed, by these eulogies40 of his niece, to give his visitor time to recover his composure, and establish a common topic. His diversion only irritated and confused our shame-eaten youth. Richard’s intention had been to come to the farmer’s threshold: to summon the farmer thither41, and in a loud and haughty42 tone then and there to take upon himself the whole burden of the charge against Tom Bakewell. He had strayed, during his passage to Belthorpe, somewhat back to his old nature; and his being compelled to enter the house of his enemy, sit in his chair, and endure an introduction to his family, was more than he bargained for. He commenced blinking hard in preparation for the horrible dose to which delay and the farmer’s cordiality added inconceivable bitters. Farmer Blaize was quite at his ease; nowise in a hurry. He spoke11 of the weather and the harvest: of recent doings up at the Abbey: glanced over that year’s cricketing; hoped that no future Feverel would lose a leg to the game. Richard saw and heard Arson43 in it all. He blinked harder as he neared the cup. In a moment of silence, he seized it with a gasp44.
“Mr. Blaize! I have come to tell you that I am the person who set fire to your rick the other night.”
An odd contraction45 formed about the farmer’s mouth. He changed his posture46, and said, “Ay? that’s what ye’re come to tell me, sir?”
“Yes!” said Richard, firmly.
“And that be all?”
“Yes!” Richard reiterated47.
The farmer again changed his posture. “Then, my lad, ye’ve come to tell me a lie!”
Farmer Blaize looked straight at the boy, undismayed by the dark flush of ire he had kindled48.
“You dare to call me a liar49!” cried Richard, starting up.
“I say,” the farmer renewed his first emphasis, and smacked50 his thigh51 thereto, “that’s a lie!”
Richard held out his clenched52 fist. “You have twice insulted me. You have struck me: you have dared to call me a liar. I would have apologized — I would have asked your pardon, to have got off that fellow in prison. Yes! I would have degraded myself that another man should not suffer for my deed”——
“Quite proper!” interposed the farmer.
“And you take this opportunity of insulting me afresh. You’re a coward, sir! nobody but a coward would have insulted me in his own house.”
“Sit ye down, sit ye down, young master,” said the farmer, indicating the chair and cooling the outburst with his hand. “Sit ye down. Don’t ye be hasty. If ye hadn’t been hasty t’other day, we sh’d a been friends yet. Sit ye down, sir. I sh’d be sorry to reckon you out a liar, Mr. Feverel, or anybody o’ your name. I respects yer father though we’re opp’site politics. I’m willin’ to think well o’ you. What I say is, that as you say an’t the trewth. Mind! I don’t like you none the worse for’t. But it an’t what is. That’s all! You knows it as well’s I!”
Richard, disdaining53 to show signs of being pacified54, angrily reseated himself. The farmer spoke sense, and the boy, after his late interview with Austin, had become capable of perceiving vaguely55 that a towering passion is hardly the justification56 for a wrong course of conduct.
“Come,” continued the farmer, not unkindly, “what else have you to say?”
Here was the same bitter cup he had already once drained brimming at Richard’s lips again! Alas57, poor human nature! that empties to the dregs a dozen of these evil drinks, to evade58 the single one which Destiny, less cruel, had insisted upon.
The boy blinked and tossed it off.
“I came to say that I regretted the revenge I had taken on you for your striking me.”
Farmer Blaize nodded.
“And now ye’ve done, young gentleman?”
Still another cupful!
“I should be very much obliged,” Richard formally began, but his stomach was turned; he could but sip59 and sip, and gather a distaste which threatened to make the penitential act impossible. “Very much obliged,” he repeated: “much obliged, if you would be so kind,” and it struck him that had he spoken this at first he would have given it a wording more persuasive60 with the farmer and more worthy61 of his own pride: more honest, in fact: for a sense of the dishonesty of what he was saying caused him to cringe and simulate humility62 to deceive the farmer, and the more he said the less he felt his words, and, feeling them less, he inflated63 them more. “So kind,” he stammered64, “so kind” (fancy a Feverel asking this big brute65 to be so kind!) “as to do me the favour” (me the favour!) “to exert yourself” (it’s all to please Austin) “to endeavour to — hem3! to” (there’s no saying it!)——
The cup was full as ever. Richard dashed at it again.
“What I came to ask is, whether you would have the kindness to try what you could do” (what an infamous66 shame to have to beg like this!) “do to save — do to ensure — whether you would have the kindness”—— It seemed out of all human power to gulp67 it down. The draught68 grew more and more abhorrent69. To proclaim one’s iniquity70, to apologize for one’s wrongdoing; thus much could be done; but to beg a favour of the offended party — that was beyond the self-abasement any Feverel could consent to. Pride, however, whose inevitable71 battle is against itself, drew aside the curtains of poor Tom’s prison, crying a second time, “Behold your Benefactor72!” and, with the words burning in his ears, Richard swallowed the dose:
“Well, then, I want you, Mr. Blaize — if you don’t mind — will you help me to get this man Bakewell off his punishment?”
To do Farmer Blaize justice, he waited very patiently for the boy, though he could not quite see why he did not take the gate at the first offer.
“Oh!” said he, when he heard and had pondered on the request. “Hum! ha! we’ll see about it t’morrow. But if he’s innocent, you know, we shan’t mak’n guilty.”
“It was I did it!” Richard declared.
The farmer’s half-amused expression sharpened a bit.
“So, young gentleman! and you’re sorry for the night’s work?”
“I shall see that you are paid the full extent of your losses.”
“Thank’ee,” said the farmer drily.
“And, if this poor man is released tomorrow, I don’t care what the amount is.”
Farmer Blaize deflected73 his head twice in silence. “Bribery,” one motion expressed: “Corruption,” the other.
“Now,” said he, leaning forward, and fixing his elbows on his knees, while he counted the case at his fingers’ ends, “excuse the liberty, but wishin’ to know where this ’ere money’s to come from, I sh’d like jest t’ask if so be Sir Austin know o’ this?”
“My father knows nothing of it,” replied Richard.
The farmer flung back in his chair. “Lie number Two,” said his shoulders, soured by the British aversion to being plotted at, and not dealt with openly.
“And ye’ve the money ready, young gentleman?”
“I shall ask my father for it.”
“And he’ll hand’t out?”
“Certainly he will!”
Richard had not the slightest intention of ever letting his father into his counsels.
“A good three hundred pounds, ye know?” the farmer suggested.
No consideration of the extent of damages, and the size of the sum, affected young Richard, who said boldly, “He will not object when I tell him I want that sum.”
It was natural Farmer Blaize should be a trifle suspicious that a youth’s guarantee would hardly be given for his father’s readiness to disburse74 such a thumping75 bill, unless he had previously76 received his father’s sanction and authority.
“Hum!” said he, “why not ‘a told him before?”
The farmer threw an objectionable shrewdness into his query77, that caused Richard to compress his mouth and glance high.
Farmer Blaize was positive ’twas a lie.
“Hum! Ye still hold to’t you fired the rick?” he asked.
“The blame is mine!” quoth Richard, with the loftiness of a patriot78 of old Rome.
“Na, na!” the straightforward79 Briton put him aside. “Ye did’t, or ye didn’t do’t. Did ye do’t, or no?”
Thrust in a corner, Richard said, “I did it.”
Farmer Blaize reached his hand to the bell. It was answered in an instant by little Lucy, who received orders to fetch in a dependent at Belthorpe going by the name of the Bantam, and made her exit as she had entered, with her eyes on the young stranger.
“Now,” said the farmer, “these be my principles. I’m a plain man, Mr. Feverel. Above board with me, and you’ll find me handsome. Try to circumvent80 me, and I’m a ugly customer. I’ll show you I’ve no animosity. Your father pays — you apologize. That’s enough for me! Let Tom Bakewell fight’t out with the Law, and I’ll look on. The Law wasn’t on the spot, I suppose? so the Law ain’t much witness. But I am. Leastwise the Bantam is. I tell you, young gentleman, the Bantam saw’t! It’s no moral use whatever your denyin’ that ev’dence. And where’s the good, sir, I ask? What comes of ’t? Whether it be you, or whether it be Tom Bakewell — ain’t all one? If I holds back, ain’t it sim’lar? It’s the trewth I want! And here’t comes,” added the farmer, as Miss Lucy ushered81 in the Bantam, who presented a curious figure for that rare divinity to enliven.
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收听单词发音
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1
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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4
hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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budged
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| v.（使）稍微移动( budge的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）改变主意，（使）让步 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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indemnity
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| n.赔偿，赔款，补偿金 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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tamper
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| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
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14
tampering
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| v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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15
accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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23
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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flick
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| n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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conspired
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| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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31
tunes
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| n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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32
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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36
dallied
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| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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38
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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eulogies
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| n.颂词，颂文( eulogy的名词复数 ) | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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42
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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arson
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| n.纵火，放火 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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45
contraction
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| n.缩略词，缩写式，害病 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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47
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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49
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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50
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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52
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
disdaining
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| 鄙视( disdain的现在分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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54
pacified
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| 使（某人）安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平 | |
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55
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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56
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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57
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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58
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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59
sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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60
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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61
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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62
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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63
inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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64
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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66
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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67
gulp
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| vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽 | |
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68
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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69
abhorrent
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| adj.可恶的，可恨的，讨厌的 | |
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70
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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71
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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72
benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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73
deflected
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| 偏离的 | |
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74
disburse
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| v.支出，拨款 | |
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75
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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76
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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77
query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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78
patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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79
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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80
circumvent
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| vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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