ONE other short call in Harley Street, in which Elinor received her brother's congratulations on their travelling so far towards Barton without any expense, and on Colonel Brandon's being to follow them to Cleveland in a day or two, completed the intercourse1 of the brother and sisters in town; and a faint invitation from Fanny, to come to Norland whenever it should happen to be in their way, which of all things was the most unlikely to occur, with a more warm, though less public, assurance, from John to Elinor, of the promptitude with which he should come to see her at Delaford, was all that foretold2 any meeting in the country.
It amused her to observe that all her friends seemed determined3 to send her to Delaford; a place, in which, of all others, she would now least choose to visit, or wish to reside; for not only was it considered as her future home by her brother and Mrs. Jennings, but even Lucy, when they parted, gave her a pressing invitation to visit her there.
Very early in April and tolerably early in the day, the two parties from Hanover Square and Berkeley Street set out from their respective homes, to meet, by appointment, on the road. For the convenience of Charlotte and her child, they were to be more than two days on their journey; and Mr. Palmer, travelling more expeditiously4 with Colonel Brandon, was to join them at Cleveland soon after their arrival.
Marianne, few as had been her hours of comfort in London, and eager as she had long been to quit it, could not, when it came to the point, bid adieu to the house in which she had for the last time enjoyed those hopes, and that confidence, in Willoughby, which were now extinguished for ever, without great pain. Nor could she leave the place in which Willoughby remained, busy in new engagements, and new schemes, in which she could have no share, without shedding many tears.
Elinor's satisfaction, at the moment of removal, was more positive. She had no such object for her lingering thoughts to fix on; she left no creature behind, from whom it would give her a moment's regret to be divided for ever; she was pleased to be free herself from the persecution5 of Lucy's friendship; she was grateful for bringing her sister away unseen by Willoughby since his marriage; and she looked forward with hope to what a few months of tranquility at Barton might do towards restoring Marianne's peace of mind, and confirming her own.
Their journey was safely performed. The second day brought them into the cherished, or the prohibited, county of Somerset; for as such was it dwelt on by turns in Marianne's imagination; and in the forenoon of the third they drove up to Cleveland. Cleveland was a spacious6, modern-built house, situated7 on a sloping lawn. It had no park, but the pleasure-grounds were tolerably extensive; and, like every other place of the same degree of importance, it had its open shrubbery, and closer wood walk; a road of smooth gravel8, winding9 round a plantation10, led to the front; the lawn was dotted over with timber; the house itself was under the guardianship11 of the fir, the mountain-ash, and the acacia, and a thick screen of them altogether, interspersed12 with tall Lombardy poplars, shut out the offices.
Marianne entered the house with a heart swelling13 with emotion from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from Barton, and not thirty from Combe Magna; and before she had been five minutes within its walls, while the others were busily helping14 Charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper15, she quitted it again, stealing away through the winding shrubberies, now just beginning to be in beauty, to gain a distant eminence16; where, from its Grecian temple, her eye, wandering over a wide tract17 of country to the southeast, could fondly rest on the farthest ridge18 of hills in the horizon, and fancy that from their summits Combe Magna might be seen. In such moments of precious, of invaluable19 misery20, she rejoiced in tears of agony to be at Cleveland; and as she returned by a different circuit to the house, feeling all the happy privilege of country liberty, of wandering from place to place in free and luxurious21 solitude22, she resolved to spend almost every hour of every day, while she remained with the Palmers, in the indulgence of such solitary23 rambles24.
She returned just in time to join the others, as they quitted the house, on an excursion through its more immediate25 premises26; and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away in lounging round the kitchen garden, examining the bloom upon its walls, and listening to the gardener's lamentations upon blights,- in dawdling27 through the greenhouse, where the loss of her favourite plants, unwarily exposed, and nipped by the lingering frost, raised the laughter of Charlotte,- and in visiting her poultry-yard, where, in the disappointed hopes of her dairy-maid, by hens forsaking28 their nests, or being stolen by a fox, or in the rapid decrease of a promising29 young brood, she found fresh sources of merriment. The morning was fine and dry, and Marianne, in her plan of employment abroad, had not calculated for any change of weather during their stay at Cleveland. With great surprise, therefore, did she find herself prevented, by a settled rain, from going out again after dinner. She had depended on a twilight30 walk to the Grecian temple, and perhaps all over the grounds, and an evening merely cold or damp would not have deterred31 her from it; but a heavy and settled rain even she could not fancy dry or pleasant weather for walking. Their party was small, and the hours passed quietly away. Mrs. Palmer had her child, and Mrs. Jennings her carpet-work; they had talked of the friends they had left behind; arranged Lady Middleton's engagements, and wondered whether Mr. Palmer and Colonel Brandon would get farther than Reading that night. Elinor, however little concerned in it, joined in their discourse32; and Marianne, who had the knack33 of finding her way in every house to the library, however it might be avoided by the family in general, soon procured34 herself a book.
Nothing was wanting on Mrs. Palmer's side that constant and friendly good humour could do, to make them feel themselves welcome. The openness and heartiness35 of her manner more than atoned36 for that want of recollection and elegance37 which made her often deficient38 in the forms of politeness; her kindness, recommended by so pretty a face, was engaging; her folly39, though evident was not disgusting, because it was not conceited40; and Elinor could have forgiven every thing but her laugh.
The two gentlemen arrived the next day to a very late dinner, affording a pleasant enlargement of the party, and a very welcome variety to their conversation, which a long morning of the same continued rain had reduced very low.
Elinor had seen so little of Mr. Palmer, and in that little had seen so much variety in his address to her sister and herself, that she knew not what to expect to find him in his own family. She found him, however, perfectly42 the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors, and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother; she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion, and only prevented from being so always, by too great an aptitude43 to fancy himself as much superior to people in general, as he must feel himself to be to Mrs. Jennings and Charlotte. For the rest of his character and habits, they were marked, as far as Elinor could perceive, with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life. He was nice in his eating, uncertain in his hours; fond of his child, though affecting to slight it; and idled away the mornings at billiards44, which ought to have been devoted45 to business. She liked him, however, upon the whole, much better than she had expected, and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no more; not sorry to be driven by the observation of his epicurism46, his selfishness, and his conceit41, to rest with complacency on the remembrance of Edward's generous temper, simple taste, and diffident feelings. Of Edward, or at least of some of his concerns, she now received intelligence from Colonel Brandon, who had been into Dorsetshire lately; and who, treating her at once as the disinterested47 friend of Mr. Ferrars, and the kind of confidant of himself, talked to her a great deal of the parsonage at Delaford, described its deficiencies, and told her what he meant to do himself towards removing them. His behaviour to her in this, as well as in every other particular, his open pleasure in meeting her after an absence of only ten days, his readiness to converse48 with her, and his deference49 for her opinion, might very well justify50 Mrs. Jennings's persuasion51 of his attachment52, and would have been enough, perhaps, had not Elinor still, as from the first, believed Marianne his real favourit
e, to make her suspect it herself. But as it was, such a notion had scarcely ever entered her head, except by Mrs. Jennings's suggestion; and she could not help believing herself the nicest observer of the two: she watched his eyes, while Mrs. Jennings thought only of his behaviour; and while his looks of anxious solicitude53 on Marianne's feeling, in her head and throat, the beginning of a heavy cold, because unexpressed by words, entirely54 escaped the latter lady's observation,she could discover in them the quick feelings, and needless alarm of a lover.
Two delighted twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there, not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery, but all over the grounds, and especially in the most distant parts of them, where there was something more of wildness than in the rest, where the trees were the oldest, and the grass was the longest and wettest, had- assisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockings- given Marianne a cold so violent as, though for a day or two trifled with or denied, would force itself by increasing ailments55 on the concern of every body, and the notice of herself. Prescriptions56 poured in from all quarters, and as usual, were all declined. Though heavy and feverish57, with a pain in her limbs, and a cough, and a sore throat, a good night's rest was to cure her entirely; and it was with difficulty that Elinor prevailed on her, when she went to bed, to try one or two of the simplest of the remedies.
收听单词发音 |
1
intercourse
|
|
| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
foretold
|
|
| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
expeditiously
|
|
| adv.迅速地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
persecution
|
|
| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
spacious
|
|
| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
situated
|
|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
gravel
|
|
| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
winding
|
|
| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
plantation
|
|
| n.种植园，大农场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
guardianship
|
|
| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
interspersed
|
|
| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
swelling
|
|
| n.肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
housekeeper
|
|
| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
eminence
|
|
| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
tract
|
|
| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
ridge
|
|
| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
invaluable
|
|
| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
rambles
|
|
| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
dawdling
|
|
| adj.闲逛的，懒散的v.混（时间）( dawdle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
forsaking
|
|
| 放弃( forsake的现在分词 )； 弃绝； 抛弃； 摒弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
promising
|
|
| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
deterred
|
|
| v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
discourse
|
|
| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
knack
|
|
| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
procured
|
|
| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
heartiness
|
|
| 诚实，热心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
atoned
|
|
| v.补偿，赎（罪）( atone的过去式和过去分词 )；补偿，弥补，赎回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
elegance
|
|
| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
deficient
|
|
| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
folly
|
|
| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
conceited
|
|
| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
conceit
|
|
| n.自负，自高自大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
aptitude
|
|
| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
billiards
|
|
| n.台球 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
epicurism
|
|
| n.贪口福，美食主义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
47
disinterested
|
|
| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
converse
|
|
| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
deference
|
|
| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
persuasion
|
|
| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
attachment
|
|
| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
solicitude
|
|
| n.焦虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
ailments
|
|
| 疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
prescriptions
|
|
| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
feverish
|
|
| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |