The twilight1 of a winter’s evening, succeeding a short and stormy day, was fast fading into night, and old John Thornton sat dozing2 in his chair before the fire, waiting for candles to resume his reading. He was now but little over sixty, yet his hair was snowy white, and his face looked worn and aged3. Anyone who watched his countenance4 now in the light of the blazing wood, might see by the down-drawn brows and uneasy expression that the old man was unhappy and disquieted5.
The book that lay in his lap was a volume of Shakespeare, open at the “Merchant of Venice.” Something he had come across in that play had set him thinking. The book had fallen on his knees, and he sat pondering till he had fallen asleep. Yet even in his slumber6 the uneasy expression stayed upon his face, and now and then he moved uneasily in his chair.
What could there be to vex7 him? Not poverty at all events, for not a year ago a relation, whom he had seldom seen, and of late years entirely8 lost sight of, had left him 5000L. and a like sum to his daughter Mary. And his sister, Miss Thornton, a quiet good old maid, who had been a governess all her life, had come to live with him, so that he was now comfortably off, with the only two relations he cared about in the world staying with him to make his old age comfortable. Yet notwithstanding all this, John was unhappy.
His daughter Mary sat sewing in the window, ostensibly for the purpose of using the last of the daylight. But the piece of white muslin in her hand claimed but a small part of her attention. Sometimes she gave a stitch or two; but then followed a long gaze out of the window, across the damp gravel10 and plushy lawn, towards the white gate under the leafless larches11. Again with an impatient sigh she would address herself to her sewing, but once more her attention would wander to the darkening garden; so at length she rose, and leaning against the window, began to watch the white gate once more.
But now she starts, and her face brightens up, as the gate swings on its hinges, and a tall man comes with rapid eager step up the walk. John moves uneasily in his sleep, but unnoticed by her, for she stands back in the shadow of the curtain, and eagerly watches the new comer in his approach. Her father sits up in his chair, and after looking sadly at her for a moment, then sinks back with a sigh, as though he would wish to go to sleep again and wake no more.
The maid, bringing in candles, met the new comer at the door, and, carrying in the lights before him, announced —
“Mr. George Hawker.”
I remember his face indistinctly as it was then. I remember it far better as it was twenty years after. Yet I must try to recall it for you as well as I can, for we shall have much to do with this man before the end. As the light from the candles fell upon his figure while he stood in the doorway12, any man or woman who saw it would have exclaimed immediately, “What a handsome fellow!” and with justice; for if perfectly13 regular features, splendid red and brown complexion14, faultless white teeth, and the finest head of curling black hair I ever saw, could make him handsome, handsome he was without doubt. And yet the more you looked at him the less you liked him, and the more inclined you felt to pick a quarrel with him. The thin lips, the everlasting15 smile, the quick suspicious glance, so rapidly shot out from under the overhanging eyebrows16, and as quickly withdrawn17, were fearfully repulsive18, as well as a trick he had of always clearing his throat before he spoke19, as if to gain time to frame a lie. But, perhaps, the strangest thing about him was the shape of his head, which, I believe, a child would have observed. We young fellows in those times knew little enough about phrenology. I doubt, indeed, if I had ever heard the word, and yet among the village lads that man went by the name of “flat-headed George.” The forehead was both low and narrow, sloping a great way back, while the larger part of the skull20 lay low down behind the ears. All this was made the more visible by the short curling hair which covered his head.
He was the only son of a small farmer, in one of the distant outlying hamlets of Drumston, called Woodlands. His mother had died when he was very young, and he had had but little education, but had lived shut up with his father in the lonely old farm-house. And strange stories were in circulation among the villages about that house, not much to the credit of either father or son, which stories John Thornton must in his position as clergyman have heard somewhat of, so that one need hardly wonder at his uneasiness when he saw him enter.
For Mary adored him; the rest of the village disliked and distrusted him; but she, with a strange perversity21, loved him as it seldom falls to the lot of man to be loved — with her whole heart and soul.
“I have brought you some snipes, Mr. Thornton,” said he, in his most musical tones. “The white frost last night has sent them down off the moor22 as thick as bees, and this warm rain will soon send them all back again. I only went round through Fernworthy and Combe, and I have killed five couple.”
“Thank you, Mr. George, thank you,” said John, “they are not so plentiful23 as they were in old times, and I don’t shoot so well either as I used to do. My sight’s going, and I can’t walk far. It is nearly time for me to go, I think.”
“Not yet, sir, I hope; not yet for a long time,” said George Hawker, in an offhand24 sort of way. But Mary slipped round, kissed his forehead, and took his hand quietly in hers.
John looked from her to George, and dropped her hand with a sigh, and soon the lovers were whispering together again in the darkness of the window.
But now there is a fresh footfall on the garden walk, a quick, rapid, decided25 one. Somebody burst open the hall-door, and, without shutting it, dashes into the parlour, accompanied by a tornado26 of damp air, and announces in a loud though not unpleasant voice, with a foreign accent —
“I have got the new Scolopax.”
He was a broad, massive built man, about the middle height, with a square determined28 set of features, brightened up by a pair of merry blue eyes. His forehead was, I think, the finest I ever saw; so high, so broad, and so upright; and, altogether, he was the sort of man that in a city one would turn round and look after, wondering who he was.
He stood in the doorway, dripping, and without “Good-even,” or salutation of any sort, exclaimed —
“I have got the new Scolopax!”
“No!” cried old John, starting up all alive, “Have you though? How did you get him? Are you sure it is not a young Jack29? Come in and tell us all about it. Only think.”
“The obstinacy30 and incredulity of you English,” replied the new comer, totally disregarding John’s exclamations31, and remaining dripping in the doorway, “far exceeds anything I could have conceived, if I had not witnessed it. If I told you once, I told you twenty times, that I had seen the bird on three distinct occasions in the meadow below Reel’s mill; and you each time threw your jacksnipe theory in my face. To-day I marked him down in the bare ground outside Haveldon wood, then ran at full speed up to the jager, and offered him five shillings if he would come down and shoot the bird I showed him. He came, killed the bird in a style that I would give a year’s tobacco to be master of, and remarked as I paid him his money, that he would like to get five shillings for every one of those birds he could shoot in summer time. The jolter-head thought it was a sandpiper, but he wasn’t much further out than you with your jacksnipes. Bah!”
“My dear Doctor Mulhaus,” said John mildly, “I confess myself to have been foolishly incredulous, as to our little place being honoured by such a distinguished32 stranger as the new snipe. But come in to the fire, and smoke your pipe, while you show me your treasure. Mary, you know, likes tobacco, and Mr. George, I am sure,” he added, in a slightly altered tone, “will excuse it.”
Mr. George would be charmed. But the Doctor, standing9 staring at him open-eyed for a moment, demanded in an audible whisper —
“Who the deuce is that?”
“Mr. George Hawker, Doctor, from the Woodlands. I should have thought you had met him before.”
“Never,” replied the Doctor. “And I don’t — and I mean I have had the honour of hearing of him from Stockbridge. Excuse me, sir, a moment. I am going to take a liberty. I am a phrenologist.” He advanced across the room to where George sat, laid his hand on his forehead, and drawing it lightly and slowly back through his black curls, till he reached the nape of his neck, ejaculated a “Hah!” which might mean anything, and retired33 to the fire.
He then began filling his pipe, but before it was filled set it suddenly on the table, and drawing from his coat pocket a cardboard box, exhibited to the delighted eyes of the vicar that beautiful little brown-mottled snipe, which now bears the name of Colonel Sabine, and having lit his pipe, set to work with a tiny penknife and a pot of arsenical soap, all of which were disinterred from the vast coat-pocket before mentioned, to reduce the plump little bird to a loose mass of skin and feathers, fit to begin again his new life in death in a glass-case in some collector’s museum.
George Hawker had sat very uneasy since the Doctor’s phrenological examination, and every now and then cast fierce angry glances at him from under his lowered eyebrows, talking but little to Mary. But now he grows more uneasy still, for the gate goes again, and still another footfall is heard approaching through the darkness.
“That is James Stockbridge. I should know that step among a thousand. Whether brushing through the long grass of an English meadow in May time, or quietly pacing up and down the orange alley34 in the New World, between the crimson35 snow and the blazing west; or treading lightly across the wet ground at black midnight, when the cattle are restless, or the blacks are abroad; or even, I should think, staggering on the slippery deck, when the big grey seas are booming past, and the good ship seems plunging36 down to destruction.”
He had loved Mary dearly since she was almost a child; but she, poor pretty fool, used to turn him to ridicule37, and make him fetch and carry for her like a dog. He was handsomer, cleverer, stronger, and better tempered than George Hawker, and yet she had no eyes for him, or his good qualities. She liked him in a sort of way; nay38, it might even be said that she was fond of him. But what she liked better than him was to gratify her vanity, by showing her power over the finest young fellow in the village, and to use him as a foil to aggravate39 George Hawker. My aunt Betsy (spinster), used to say, that if she were a man, sooner than stand that hussy’s airs (meaning Mary’s), in the way young Stockbridge did, she’d cut, and run to America, which, in the old lady’s estimation, was the last resource left to an unfortunate human creature, before suicide.
As he entered the parlour, John’s face grew bright, and he held out his hand to him. The Doctor, too, shoving his spectacles on his forehead, greeted him with a royal salute40, of about twenty-one short words; but he got rather a cool reception from the lovers in the window. Mary gave him a quiet good evening, and George hoped with a sneer41 that he was quite well, but directly the pair were whispering together once more in the shadow of the curtain.
So he sat down between the Doctor and the Vicar. James, like all the rest of us, had a profound respect for the Doctor’s learning, and old John and he were as father and son; so a better matched trio could hardly be found in the parish, as they sat there before the cheerful blaze, smoking their pipes.
“A good rain, Jim; a good, warm, kindly42 rain after the frost,” began the Vicar.
“A very good rain, sir,” replied Jim.
“Some idiots,” said the Doctor, “take the wing bones out first. Now, my method of beginning at the legs and working forward, is infinitely43 superior. Yet that ass27 at Crediton, after I had condescended44 to show him, persisted his own way was the best.” All this time he was busy skinning his bird.
“How are your Southdowns looking, Jim?” says the Vicar. “Foot-rot, eh?”
“Well, yes, sir,” says James, “they always will, you know, in these wet clays. But I prefer ’em to the Leicesters, for all that.”
“How is scapegrace Hamlyn?” asked the Vicar.
“He is very well, sir. He and I have been out with the harriers today.”
“Ah! taking you out with the harriers instead of minding his business; just like him. He’ll be leading you astray, James, my boy. Young men like you and he, who have come to be their own masters so young, ought to be more careful than others. Besides, you see, both you and Hamlyn being ‘squires, have got an example to set to the poorer folks.”
“We are neither of us so rich as some of the farmers, sir.”
“No; but you are both gentlemen born, you see, and, therefore, ought to be in some way models for those who are not.”
“Bosh,” said the Doctor. “All this about Hamlyn’s going out hare-hunting.”
“I don’t mind it once a-week,” said the Vicar, ignoring the Doctor’s interruption; “but FOUR TIMES is rather too much. And Hamlyn has been out four days this week. Twice with Wrefords, and twice with Holes. He can’t deny it.”
Jim couldn’t, so he laughed. “You must catch him, sir,” he said, “and give him a real good wigging45. He’ll mind you. But catch him soon, sir, or you won’t get the chance. Doctor, do you know anything about New South Wales?”
“Botany Bay,” said the Vicar abstractedly, “convict settlement in South Seas. Jerry Shaw begged the judge to hang him instead of sending him there. Judge wouldn’t do it though; Jerry was too bad for that.”
“Hamlyn and I are thinking of selling up and going there,” said Jim. “Do you know anything about it, Doctor?”
“What!” said the Doctor; “the mysterious hidden land of the great South Sea. Tasman’s land, Nuyt’s land, Leuwin’s land, De Witt’s land, any fool’s land who could sail round it, and never have the sense to land and make use of it — the new country of Australasia. The land with millions of acres of fertile soil, under a splendid climate, calling aloud for some one to come and cultivate them. The land of the Eucalypti46 and the Marsupials, the land of deep forests and boundless47 pastures, which go rolling away westward48, plain beyond plain, to none knows where. Yes; I know something about it.”
The Vicar was “knocked all of a heap” at James’ announcement, and now, slightly recovering himself, said —
“You hear him. He is going to Botany Bay. He is going to sell his estate, 250 acres of the best land in Devon, and go and live among the convicts. And who is going with him? Why, Hamlyn, the wise. Oh dear me. And what is he going for?”
That was a question apparently49 hard to answer. If there was a reason, Jim was either unwilling50 or unable to give it. Yet I think that the real cause was standing there in the window, with a look of unbounded astonishment51 on her pretty face.
“Going to leave us, James!” she cried, coming quickly towards him. “Why, whatever shall I do without you?”
“Yes, Miss Mary,” said James somewhat huskily; “I think I may say that we have settled to go. Hamlyn has got a letter from a cousin of his who went from down Plymouth way, and who is making a fortune; and besides, I have got tired of the old place somehow, lately. I have nothing to keep me here now, and there will be a change, and a new life there. In short,” said he, in despair of giving a rational reason, “I have made up my mind.”
“Oh!” said Mary, while her eyes filled with tears, “I shall be so sorry to lose you.”
“I too,” said James, “shall be sorry to start away beyond seas and leave all the friends I care about save one behind me. But times are hard for the poor folks here now, and if I, as ‘squire, set the example of going, I know many will follow. The old country, Mr. Thornton,” he continued, “is getting too crowded for men to live in without a hard push, and depend on it, when poor men are afraid to marry for fear of having children which they can’t support, it is time to move somewhere. The hive is too hot, and the bees must swarm52, so those that go will both better themselves, and better those they leave behind them, by giving them more room to work and succeed. It’s hard to part with the old farm and the old faces now, but perhaps in a few years, one will get to like that country just as one does this, from being used to it, and then the old country will seem only like a pleasant dream after one has awoke.”
“Think twice about it, James, my boy,” said the Vicar.
“Don’t be such an ass as to hesitate,” said the Doctor impatiently. “It is the genius of your restless discontented nation to go blundering about the world like buffaloes53 in search of fresh pasture. You have founded already two or three grand new empires, and you are now going to form another; and men like you ought to have their fingers in the pie.”
“Well, God speed you, and Hamlyn too, wherever you go. Are you going home, Mr. Hawker?”
George, who hated James from the very bottom of his heart, was not ill-pleased to hear there would be a chance of soon getting rid of him. He had been always half jealous of him, though without the slightest cause, and to-night he was more so than ever, for Mary, since she had heard of James’ intended departure, had grown very grave and silent. He stood, hat in hand, ready to depart, and as usual, when he meant mischief54, spoke in his sweetest tones.
“I am afraid I must be saying good evening, Mr. Thornton. Why, James,” he added, “this is something quite new. So you are going to Botany without waiting to be sent there. Ha! ha! Well, I wish you every sort of good luck. My dear friend, Hamlyn, too. What a loss he’ll be to our little society, so sociable55 and affable as he always is to us poor farmers’ sons. You’ll find it lonely there though. You should get a wife to take with you. Oh, yes, I should certainly get married before I went. Good night.”
All this was meant to be as irritating as possible; but as he went out at the door he had the satisfaction to hear James’ clear honest laugh mingling56 with the Vicar’s, for, as George had closed the door, the Doctor had said, looking after him —
“Gott in Himmel, that young man has go a skull like a tom-cat.”
This complimentary57 observation was lost on Mary, who had left the room with George. The Vicar looked round for her, and sighed when he missed her.
“Ah!” said he; “I wish he was going instead of you.”
“So does the new colony, I’ll be bound,” added the Doctor.
Soon after this the party separated. When James and the Doctor stood outside the door, the latter demanded, “Where are you going?”
“To Sydney, I believe, Doctor.”
“Goose. I mean now.”
“Home.”
“No, you ain’t,” said the Doctor; “you are going to walk up to Hamlyn’s with me, and hear me discourse58.” Accordingly, about eleven o’clock, these two arrived at my house, and sat before the fire till half-past three in the morning; and in that time the Doctor had given us more information about New South Wales than we had been able to gather from ordinary sources in a month.
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1
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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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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disquieted
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| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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vex
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| vt.使烦恼，使苦恼 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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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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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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larches
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| n.落叶松（木材）( larch的名词复数 ) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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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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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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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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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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tornado
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| n.飓风，龙卷风 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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aggravate
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| vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火 | |
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salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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43
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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44
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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45
wigging
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| n.责备，骂，叱责 | |
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eucalypti
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| n.桉树 | |
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47
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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48
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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49
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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50
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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51
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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52
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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53
buffaloes
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| n.水牛（分非洲水牛和亚洲水牛两种）( buffalo的名词复数 )；（南非或北美的）野牛；威胁；恐吓 | |
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54
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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55
sociable
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| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
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56
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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57
complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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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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