Miss Muniment did not in the least repudiate32 the imputation33. “Oh yes, I dare say we seem very curious. I think we are generally thought so; especially me, being so miserable34 and yet so lively.” And she laughed till her bed creaked again.
“Perhaps it’s lucky you are ill; perhaps if you had your health you would be all over the place,” Hyacinth suggested. And he went on, candidly35, “I can’t make it out, your being so up in everything.”
“I don’t see why you need make it out! But you would, perhaps, if you had known my father and mother.”
“Were they such a rare lot?”
“I think you would say so if you had ever been in the mines. Yes, in the mines, where the filthy36 coal is dug out. That’s where my father came from – he was working in the pit when he was a child of ten. He never had a day’s schooling37 in his life; but he climbed up out of his black hole into daylight and air, and he invented a machine, and he married my mother, who came out of Durham, and (by her people) out of the pits and misery38 too. My father had no great figure, but she was magnificent – the finest woman in the country, and the bravest, and the best. She’s in her grave now, and I couldn’t go to look at it even if it were in the nearest churchyard. My father was as black as the coal he worked in: I know I’m just his pattern, barring that he did have his legs, when the liquor hadn’t got into them. But between him and my mother, for grand, high intelligence there wasn’t much to choose. But what’s the use of brains if you haven’t got a backbone39? My poor father had even less of that than I, for with me it’s only the body that can’t stand up, and with him it was the spirit. He discovered a kind of wheel, and he sold it, at Bradford, for fifteen pounds: I mean the whole right of it, and every hope and pride of his family. He was always straying, and my mother was always bringing him back. She had plenty to do, with me a puny40, ailing41 brat42 from the moment I opened my eyes. Well, one night he strayed so far that he never came back; or only came back a loose, bloody43 bundle of clothes. He had fallen into a gravel-pit; he didn’t know where he was going. That’s the reason my brother will never touch so much as you could wet your finger with, and that I only have a drop once a week or so, in the way of a strengthener. I take what her ladyship brings me, but I take no more. If she could have come to us before my mother went, that would have been a saving! I was only nine when my father died, and I’m three years older than Paul. My mother did for us with all her might, and she kept us decent – if such a useless little mess as me can be said to be decent. At any rate, she kept me alive, and that’s a proof she was handy. She went to the wash-tub, and she might have been a queen, as she stood there with her bare arms in the foul44 linen45 and her long hair braided on her head. She was terrible handsome, but he would have been a bold man that would have taken upon himself to tell her so. And it was from her we got our education – she was determined46 we should rise above the common. You might have thought, in her position, that she couldn’t go into such things; but she was a rare one for keeping you at your book. She could hold to her idea when my poor father couldn’t; and her idea, for us, was that Paul should get learning and should look after me. You can see for yourself that that’s what has come about. How he got it is more than I can say, as we never had a penny to pay for it; and of course my mother’s cleverness wouldn’t have been of much use if he hadn’t been clever himself. Well, it was all in the family. Paul was a boy that would learn more from a yellow placard pasted on a wall, or a time-table at a railway station, than many a young fellow from a year at college. That was his only college, poor lad – picking up what he could. Mother was taken when she was still needed, nearly five years ago. There was an epidemic47 of typhoid, and of course it must pass me over, the goose of a thing – only that I’d have made a poor feast – and just lay that gallant48 creature on her back. Well, she never again made it ache over her soapsuds, straight and broad as it was. Not having seen her, you wouldn’t believe,” said Rose Muniment, in conclusion; “but I just wanted you to understand that our parents had intellect, at least, to give us.”
Hyacinth listened to this recital49 with the deepest interest, and without being in the least moved to allow for filial exaggeration; inasmuch as his impression of the brother and sister was such as it would have taken a much more marvellous tale to account for. The very way Rose Muniment sounded the word ‘intellect’ made him feel this; she pronounced it as if she were distributing prizes for a high degree of it. No doubt the tipsy inventor and the regal laundress had been fine specimens50, but that didn’t diminish the merit of their highly original offspring. The girl’s insistence51 upon her mother’s virtues52 (even now that her age had become more definite to him he thought of her as a girl) touched in his heart a chord that was always ready to throb53 – the chord of melancholy54, bitter, aimless wonder as to the difference it would have made in his spirit if there had been some pure, honourable55 figure like that to shed her influence over it.
“Are you very fond of your brother?” he inquired, after a little.
The eyes of his hostess glittered at him for a moment. “If you ever quarrel with him, you’ll see whose side I’ll take.”
“Ah, before that I shall make you like me.”
“That’s very possible, and you’ll see how I’ll fling you over!”
“Why, then, do you object so to his views – his ideas about the way the people will come up?”
“Because I think he’ll get over them.”
“Never – never!” cried Hyacinth. “I have only known him an hour or two, but I deny that, with all my strength.”
“Is that the way you are going to make me like you – contradicting me so?” Miss Muniment inquired, with familiar archness.
“What’s the use, when you tell me I shall be sacrificed? One might as well perish for a lamb as for a sheep.”
“I don’t believe you’re a lamb at all. Certainly you are not, if you want all the great people pulled down, and the most dreadful scenes enacted56.”
“Don’t you believe in human equality? Don’t you want anything done for the groaning57, toiling58 millions – those who have been cheated and crushed and bamboozled59 from the beginning of time?”
Hyacinth asked this question with considerable heat, but the effect of it was to send his companion off into a new fit of laughter. “You say that just like a man that my brother described to me three days ago; a little man at some club, whose hair stood up – Paul imitated the way he glowered60 and screamed. I don’t mean that you scream, you know; but you use almost the same words that he did.” Hyacinth scarcely knew what to make of this allusion27, or of the picture offered to him of Paul Muniment casting ridicule61 upon those who spoke62 in the name of the down-trodden. But Rosy went on, before he had time to do more than reflect that there would evidently be a great deal more to learn about her brother: “I haven’t the least objection to seeing the people improved, but I don’t want to see the aristocracy lowered an inch. I like so much to look at it up there.”
“You ought to know my aunt Pinnie – she’s just such another benighted64 idolater!” Hyacinth exclaimed.
“Oh, you are making me like you very fast! And pray, who is your aunt Pinnie?”
“She’s a dressmaker, and a charming little woman. I should like her to come and see you.”
“I’m afraid I’m not in her line – I never had on a dress in my life. But, as a charming woman, I should be delighted to see her.”
“I will bring her some day,” said Hyacinth. And then he added, rather incongruously, for he was irritated by the girl’s optimism, thinking it a shame that her sharpness should be enlisted65 on the wrong side, “Don’t you want, for yourself, a better place to live in?”
She jerked herself up, and for a moment he thought she would jump out of her bed at him. “A better place than this? Pray, how could there be a better place? Every one thinks it’s lovely; you should see our view by daylight – you should see everything I’ve got. Perhaps you are used to something very fine, but Lady Aurora says that in all Belgrave Square there isn’t such a cosy66 little room. If you think I’m not perfectly67 content, you are very much mistaken!”
Such a sentiment as that could only exasperate68 Hyacinth, and his exasperation69 made him indifferent to the fact that he had appeared to cast discredit70 on Miss Muniment’s apartment. Pinnie herself, submissive as she was, had spared him that sort of displeasure; she groaned71 over the dinginess72 of Lomax Place sufficiently73 to remind him that she had not been absolutely stultified74 by misery. “Don’t you sometimes make your brother very angry?” he asked, smiling, of Rose Muniment.
“Angry? I don’t know what you take us for! I never saw him lose his temper in his life.”
“He must be a rum customer! Doesn’t he really care for – for what we were talking about?”
For a moment Rosy was silent; then she replied, “What my brother really cares for – well, one of these days, when you know, you’ll tell me.”
Hyacinth stared. “But isn’t he tremendously deep in —” He hesitated.
“Deep in what?”
“Well, in what’s going on, beneath the surface. Doesn’t he belong to things?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what he belongs to – you may ask him!” cried Rosy, laughing gaily75 again, as the opening door readmitted the subject of their conversation. “You must have crossed the water with her ladyship,” she went on. “I wonder who enjoyed their walk most.”
“She’s a handy old girl, and she has a goodish stride,” said the young man.
“I think she’s in love with you, simply, Mr Muniment.”
“Really, my dear, for an admirer of the aristocracy you allow yourself a license,” Paul murmured, smiling at Hyacinth.
Hyacinth got up, feeling that really he had paid a long visit; his curiosity was far from satisfied, but there was a limit to the time one should spend in a young lady’s sleeping apartment. “Perhaps she is; why not?” he remarked.
“Perhaps she is, then; she’s daft enough for anything.”
“There have been fine folks before who have patted the people on the back and pretended to enter into their life,” Hyacinth said. “Is she only playing with that idea, or is she in earnest?”
“In earnest – in terrible earnest, my dear fellow. I think she must be rather crowded out at home.”
“Crowded out of Inglefield? Why, there’s room for three hundred!” Rosy broke in.
“Well, if that’s the kind of mob that’s in possession, no wonder she prefers Camberwell. We must be kind to the poor lady,” Paul added, in a tone which Hyacinth noticed. He attributed a remarkable76 meaning to it; it seemed to say that people such as he were now so sure of their game that they could afford to be magnanimous; or else it expressed a prevision of the doom77 which hung over her ladyship’s head. Muniment asked if Hyacinth and Rosy had made friends, and the girl replied that Mr Robinson had made himself very agreeable. “Then you must tell me all about him after he goes, for you know I don’t know him much myself,” said her brother.
“Oh yes, I’ll tell you everything; you know how I like describing.”
Hyacinth was laughing to himself at the young lady’s account of his efforts to please her, the fact being that he had only listened to her own eager discourse78, without opening his mouth; but Paul, whether or no he guessed the truth, said to him very pertinently79, “It’s very wonderful: she can describe things she has never seen. And they are just like the reality.”
“There’s nothing I’ve never seen,” Rosy rejoined. “That’s the advantage of my lying here in such a manner. I see everything in the world.”
“You don’t seem to see your brother’s meetings – his secret societies and clubs. You put that aside when I asked you.”
“Oh, you mustn’t ask her that sort of thing,” said Paul, lowering at Hyacinth with a fierce frown – an expression which he perceived in a moment to be humorously assumed.
“What am I to do, then, since you won’t tell me anything definite yourself?”
“It will be definite enough when you get hanged for it!” Rosy exclaimed, mockingly.
“Why do you want to poke63 your head into black holes?” Muniment asked, laying his hand on Hyacinth’s shoulder, and shaking it gently.
“Don’t you belong to the party of action?” said Hyacinth, solemnly.
“Look at the way he has picked up all the silly bits of catchwords!” Paul cried, laughing, to his sister. “You must have got that precious phrase out of the newspapers, out of some drivelling leader. Is that the party you want to belong to?” he went on, with his clear eyes ranging over his diminutive80 friend.
“If you’ll show me the thing itself I shall have no more occasion to mind the newspapers,” Hyacinth pleaded. It was his view of himself, and it was not an unfair one, that his was a character that would never beg for a favour; but now he felt that in any relation he might have with Paul Muniment such a law would be suspended. This man he could entreat81, pray to, go on his knees to, without a sense of humiliation82.
“What thing do you mean, infatuated, deluded83 youth?” Paul went on, refusing to be serious.
“Well, you know you do go to places you had far better keep out of, and that often when I lie here and listen to steps on the stairs I’m sure they are coming in to make a search for your papers,” Miss Muniment lucidly84 interposed.
“The day they find my papers, my dear, will be the day you’ll get up and dance.”
“What did you ask me to come home with you for?” Hyacinth demanded, twirling his hat. It was an effort for him, for a moment, to keep the tears out of his eyes; he found himself forced to put such a different construction on his new friend’s hospitality. He had had a happy impression that Muniment perceived in him a possible associate, of a high type, in a subterranean85 crusade against the existing order of things, and now it came over him that the real use he had been put to was to beguile86 an hour for a pert invalid87. That was all very well, and he would sit by Miss Rosy’s bedside, were it a part of his service, every day in the week; only in such a case it should be his reward to enjoy the confidence of her brother. This young man, at the present juncture88, justified89 the high estimate that Lady Aurora Langrish had formed of his intelligence: whatever his natural reply to Hyacinth’s question would have been, he invented, at the moment, a better one, and said, at random90, smiling, and not knowing exactly what his visitor had meant –
“What did I ask you to come with me for? To see if you would be afraid.”
What there was to be afraid of was to Hyacinth a quantity equally vague; but he rejoined, quickly enough, “I think you have only to try me to see.”
“I’m sure if you introduce him to some of your low, wicked friends, he’ll be quite satisfied after he has looked round a bit,” Miss Muniment remarked, irrepressibly.
“Those are just the kind of people I want to know,” said Hyacinth, ingenuously91.
His ingenuousness92 appeared to touch Paul Muniment. “Well, I see you’re a good ’un. Just meet me some night.”
“Where, where?” asked Hyacinth, eagerly.
“Oh, I’ll tell you where when we get away from her,” said his friend, laughing, but leading him out of the room again.
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1
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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aurora
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| n.极光 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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conservatories
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| n.（培植植物的）温室，暖房( conservatory的名词复数 ) | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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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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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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trenchant
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| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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plebeian
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| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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morbidly
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| adv.病态地 | |
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eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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repudiate
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| v.拒绝，拒付，拒绝履行 | |
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imputation
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| n.归罪，责难 | |
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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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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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ailing
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| v.生病 | |
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brat
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| n.孩子；顽童 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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45
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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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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50
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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51
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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53
throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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54
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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55
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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56
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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groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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58
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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bamboozled
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| v.欺骗，使迷惑( bamboozle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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glowered
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| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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62
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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63
poke
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| n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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64
benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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exasperate
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| v.激怒，使（疾病）加剧，使恶化 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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70
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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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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dinginess
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| n.暗淡，肮脏 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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stultified
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| v.使成为徒劳，使变得无用( stultify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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pertinently
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| 适切地 | |
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diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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deluded
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| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lucidly
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| adv.清透地，透明地 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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beguile
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| vt.欺骗，消遣 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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ingenuously
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| adv.率直地，正直地 | |
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ingenuousness
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| n.率直；正直；老实 | |
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