HESTER always took charge of the three elder children and Fraülein of the baby during the six o’clock service, so that the nurse might go to church. On this particular Sunday afternoon Hester and the children were waiting in the little hall till the bell stopped, before which moment they were forbidden to leave the house. Mr. and Mrs. Gresley had just started for the church, Mr. Gresley looking worn and harassed1, for since luncheon2 he had received what he called “a perfectly3 unaccountable letter” from one of his principal parishioners, a Dissenter4, who had been present at the morning service, and who Mr. Gresley had confidently hoped might have been struck by the sermon. This hope had been justified6, but not in the manner Mr. Gresley had expected. Mr. Walsh opined in a large round hand that as worms (twice underdashed) did not usually pay voluntary church and school rates he no longer felt himself under an obligation to do so, &c. &c. The letter was a great, an unexpected blow. Who could have foreseen such a result of the morning’s eloquence7.
“The truth is,” said Mr. Gresley tremulously, “that they can’t and won’t hear reason. They can’t controvert8 what I say, so they take refuge in petty spite like this. I must own I am disappointed in Walsh. He is a man of some education, and liberal as regards money. I had thought he was better than most of them, and now he turns on me like this.”
“It’s a way worms have,” said Hester.
“Oh, don’t run a simile9 to death, Hester,” said Mr. Gresley impatiently. “If you had listened to what I tried to say this morning, you would have seen I only used the word worm figuratively. I never meant it literally10, as any one could see who was not determined11 to misunderstand me. Worms pay school rates! Such folly12 is positively13 sickening if it were not malicious14.”
Hester had remained silent. She had been deeply vexed15 for her brother at the incident.
As the church bell stopped the swing door opened and Boulou hurried in like a great personage, conscious that others have waited, and bearing with him an aroma16 of Irish stew17 and onions, which showed that he had been exchanging affabilities with the cook. For the truth must be owned. No spinster over forty could look unmoved on Boulou. Alas18! for the Vicarage cook, who “had kept herself to herself” for nearly fifty years, only to fall the victim of a “grande passion” for Boulou.
The little Lovelace bounded in, and the expedition started. It was Regie’s turn to choose where they should go, and he decided19 on the “shrubbery,” a little wood through which ran the private path to Wilderleigh. Doll Loftus had given the Gresleys leave to take the children there.
“Oh, Regie, we always go there,” said Mary plaintively20, who invariably chose the Pratts’ park, with its rustic21 bridges and chalets, which Mr. Pratt in a gracious moment had “thrown open” to, the Gresleys on Sundays, because, as he expressed it, “they must feel so cramped22 in their little garden.”
But Regie adhered to his determination, and to the “shrubberies” they went. Hester was too tired to play with them, too tired even to tell them a story; so she sat under a tree while they circled in the coppice near at hand.
As we grow older we realise that in the new gardens where life leads us we never learn the shrubs23 and trees by heart as we did as children in our old garden of Eden, round the little gabled house where we were born. We were so thorough as children. We knew the underneath24 of every laurel bush, the shape of its bunches of darkling branches, the green dust that our small restless bodies rubbed off from its under twigs25. We see now as strangers those little hanging horsetails of pink which sad-faced elders call ribes, but once long ago when the world was young we knew them eye to eye, and the compact little black insects on them, and the quaint26 taste of them, and the clean clean smell of them. Everything had a taste in those days and was submitted to that test, just as until it had been licked the real colour of any object of interest was not ascertained27. There was a certain scarlet28 berry, very red without and very white within, which we were warned was deadly poison. How well, after a quarter of a century, we remember the bitter taste of it, how much better than many other forbidden fruits duly essayed in later years. We ate those scarlet berries and lived though warned to the contrary.
Presently Boulou, who could do nothing simply, found a dead mouse, where any one else could have found it, in the middle of the path, and made it an occasion for a theatrical29 display of growlings and shakings. The children decided to bury it, and after a becoming silence their voices could be heard singing “Home, Sweet Home” as the body was being lowered into the grave previously30 dug by Boulou, who had to be forcibly restrained from going on digging it after the obsequies were over.
“He never knows when to stop,” said Regie, wearily, as Boulou, with a little plaister of earth on his nose, was carried coughing back to Hester.
As she took him Rachel and Sybell came slowly down the path towards them, and the latter greeted Hester with an effusion which suggested that when two is not company three may be.
“A most vexing31 thing has happened,” said Sybell in a gratified tone, sitting down under Hester’s tree. "I really don’t think I am to blame. You know Mr. Tristram, the charming artist who has been staying with us?”
“I know him,” said Hester.
“Well, he was set on making a sketch32 of me for one of his large pictures, and it was to have been finished to-day. I don’t see any harm myself in drawing on Sunday. I know the Gresleys do, and I love the Gresleys, he has such a powerful mind; but one must think for oneself, and it was only the upper lip, so I consented to sit to him at four o’clock. I noticed he seemed a little — well rather —”
“Just so,” said Hester.
“The last few days. But, of course, I took no notice of it. A married woman often has to deal with such things without making a fuss about them. Well, I overslept myself, and it was nearly half-past four before I awoke. And when I went into my sitting-room33 a servant brought me a note. It was from him, saying he had been obliged to leave Wilderleigh suddenly on urgent business, and asking that his baggage might be sent after him.”
Hester raised her eyes slightly as if words failed her. Sybell’s conversation always interested her.
“Perhaps the reason she is never told anything,” she said to herself, “is because the ground the confidence would cover is invariably built over already by a fiction of her own which it would not please her to see destroyed.”
“Who would have thought,” continued Sybell, “that he would have behaved in that way because I was one little half-hour late. And of course the pretext34 of urgent business is too transparent35, because there is no Sunday post, and the telegraph boy had not been up. I asked that. And he was so anxious to finish the sketch. He almost asked to stay over Sunday on purpose.”
Rachel and Hester looked on the ground.
“Rachel said he was all right in the garden just before, didn’t you, Rachel?”
“I said I thought he was a little nervous.”
“And what did he talk to you about?”
“He spoke36 about the low tone of the morals of the day, and about marriage.”
“Ah! I don’t wonder he talked to you, Rachel, you are so sympathetic. I expect lots of people confide5 in you about their troubles and love affairs. Morals of the day! Marriage! Poor, poor Mr. Tristram! I shall tell Doll quietly this evening. On the whole, it is just as well he is gone.”
“Just as well,” said Rachel and Hester with surprising unanimity37.
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1
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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2
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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3
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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dissenter
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| n.反对者 | |
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confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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8
controvert
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| v.否定；否认 | |
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simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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15
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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16
aroma
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| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
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17
stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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18
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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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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plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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21
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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29
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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30
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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31
vexing
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| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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32
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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33
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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34
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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35
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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36
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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37
unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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