“Here is our pleasant meeting come to pass,” said the aged19 crone, “according as thou hast desired. Say quickly what thou wouldst have of me, for there is but a short hour that we may tarry here.”
As the old withered woman spoke20, a smile glimmered21 on her countenance22, like lamplight on the wall of a sepulchre. The lady trembled, and cast her eyes upward to the verge of the basin, as if meditating23 to return with her purpose unaccomplished. But it was not so ordained24.
“I am a stranger in this land, as you know,” said she at length. “Whence I come it matters not; but I have left those behind me with whom my fate was intimately bound, and from whom I am cut off forever. There is a weight in my bosom25 that I cannot away with, and I have come hither to inquire of their welfare.”
“And who is there by this green pool that can bring thee news from the ends of the earth?” cried the old woman, peering into the lady’s face. “Not from my lips mayst thou hear these tidings; yet, be thou bold, and the daylight shall not pass away from yonder hill-top before thy wish be granted.”
“I will do your bidding though I die,” replied the lady desperately26.
The old woman seated herself on the trunk of the fallen tree, threw aside the hood27 that shrouded28 her gray locks, and beckoned29 her companion to draw near.
“Kneel down,” she said, “and lay your forehead on my knees.”
She hesitated a moment, but the anxiety that had long been kindling30 burned fiercely up within her. As she knelt down, the border of her garment was dipped into the pool; she laid her forehead on the old woman’s knees, and the latter drew a cloak about the lady’s face, so that she was in darkness. Then she heard the muttered words of prayer, in the midst of which she started, and would have arisen.
“Let me flee — let me flee and hide myself, that they may not look upon me!” she cried. But, with returning recollection, she hushed herself, and was still as death.
For it seemed as if other voices — familiar in infancy31, and unforgotten through many wanderings, and in all the vicissitudes32 of her heart and fortune — were mingling33 with the accents of the prayer. At first the words were faint and indistinct, not rendered so by distance, but rather resembling the dim pages of a book which we strive to read by an imperfect and gradually brightening light. In such a manner, as the prayer proceeded, did those voices strengthen upon the ear; till at length the petition ended, and the conversation of an aged man, and of a woman broken and decayed like himself, became distinctly audible to the lady as she knelt. But those strangers appeared not to stand in the hollow depth between the three hills. Their voices were encompassed34 and reechoed by the walls of a chamber35, the windows of which were rattling36 in the breeze; the regular vibration37 of a clock, the crackling of a fire, and the tinkling38 of the embers as they fell among the ashes, rendered the scene almost as vivid as if painted to the eye. By a melancholy39 hearth40 sat these two old people, the man calmly despondent41, the woman querulous and tearful, and their words were all of sorrow. They spoke of a daughter, a wanderer they knew not where, bearing dishonor along with her, and leaving shame and affliction to bring their gray heads to the grave. They alluded42 also to other and more recent woe43, but in the midst of their talk their voices seemed to melt into the sound of the wind sweeping44 mournfully among the autumn leaves; and when the lady lifted her eyes, there was she kneeling in the hollow between three hills.
“A weary and lonesome time yonder old couple have of it,” remarked the old woman, smiling in the lady’s face.
“And did you also hear them?” exclaimed she, a sense of intolerable humiliation45 triumphing over her agony and fear.
“Yea; and we have yet more to hear,” replied the old woman. “Wherefore, cover thy face quickly.”
Again the withered hag poured forth46 the monotonous47 words of a prayer that was not meant to be acceptable in heaven; and soon, in the pauses of her breath, strange murmurings began to thicken, gradually increasing so as to drown and overpower the charm by which they grew. Shrieks49 pierced through the obscurity of sound, and were succeeded by the singing of sweet female voices, which, in their turn, gave way to a wild roar of laughter, broken suddenly by groanings and sobs51, forming altogether a ghastly confusion of terror and mourning and mirth. Chains were rattling, fierce and stern voices uttered threats, and the scourge52 resounded53 at their command. All these noises deepened and became substantial to the listener’s ear, till she could distinguish every soft and dreamy accent of the love songs that died causelessly into funeral hymns54. She shuddered55 at the unprovoked wrath56 which blazed up like the spontaneous kindling of flames and she grew faint at the fearful merriment raging miserably57 around her. In the midst of this wild scene, where unbound passions jostled each other in a drunken career, there was one solemn voice of a man, and a manly58 and melodious59 voice it might once have been. He went to and fro continually, and his feet sounded upon the floor. In each member of that frenzied60 company, whose own burning thoughts had become their exclusive world, he sought an auditor61 for the story of his individual wrong, and interpreted their laughter and tears as his reward of scorn or pity. He spoke of woman’s perfidy62, of a wife who had broken her holiest vows63, of a home and heart made desolate64. Even as he went on, the shout, the laugh, the shriek48 the sob50, rose up in unison65, till they changed into the hollow, fitful, and uneven66 sound of the wind, as it fought among the pine-trees on those three lonely hills. The lady looked up, and there was the withered woman smiling in her face.
“Couldst thou have thought there were such merry times in a madhouse?” inquired the latter.
“True, true,” said the lady to herself; “there is mirth within its walls, but misery67, misery without.”
“Wouldst thou hear more?” demanded the old woman.
“There is one other voice I would fain listen to again,” replied the lady, faintly.
“Then, lay down thy head speedily upon my knees, that thou mayst get thee hence before the hour be past.”
The golden skirts of day were yet lingering upon the hills, but deep shades obscured the hollow and the pool, as if sombre night were rising thence to overspread the world. Again that evil woman began to weave her spell. Long did it proceed unanswered, till the knolling of a bell stole in among the intervals68 of her words, like a clang that had travelled far over valley and rising ground, and was just ready to die in the air. The lady shook upon her companion’s knees as she heard that boding69 sound. Stronger it grew and sadder, and deepened into the tone of a death bell, knolling dolefully from some ivy-mantled tower, and bearing tidings of mortality and woe to the cottage, to the hall, and to the solitary70 wayfarer71 that all might weep for the doom72 appointed in turn to them. Then came a measured tread, passing slowly, slowly on, as of mourners with a coffin73, their garments trailing on the ground, so that the ear could measure the length of their melancholy array. Before them went the priest, reading the burial service, while the leaves of his book were rustling74 in the breeze. And though no voice but his was heard to speak aloud, still there were revilings and anathemas75, whispered but distinct, from women and from men, breathed against the daughter who had wrung76 the aged hearts of her parents — the wife who had betrayed the trusting fondness of her husband — the mother who had sinned against natural affection, and left her child to die. The sweeping sound of the funeral train faded away like a thin vapor77, and the wind, that just before had seemed to shake the coffin pall78, moaned sadly round the verge of the Hollow between three Hills. But when the old woman stirred the kneeling lady, she lifted not her head.
“Here has been a sweet hour’s sport!” said the withered crone, chuckling79 to herself.
点击收听单词发音
1 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 smitten | |
猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 blight | |
n.枯萎病;造成破坏的因素;vt.破坏,摧残 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 decrepit | |
adj.衰老的,破旧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 cedar | |
n.雪松,香柏(木) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 mouldering | |
v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 );腐烂,崩塌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 plighted | |
vt.保证,约定(plight的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 mantling | |
覆巾 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 putrid | |
adj.腐臭的;有毒的;已腐烂的;卑劣的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 rite | |
n.典礼,惯例,习俗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 gilding | |
n.贴金箔,镀金 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 spoke | |
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 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 glimmered | |
v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 meditating | |
a.沉思的,冥想的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 ordained | |
v.任命(某人)为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 );授予(某人)圣职;(上帝、法律等)命令;判定 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 desperately | |
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 hood | |
n.头巾,兜帽,覆盖;v.罩上,以头巾覆盖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 shrouded | |
v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 );保密 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 beckoned | |
v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 kindling | |
n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 infancy | |
n.婴儿期;幼年期;初期 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 vicissitudes | |
n.变迁,世事变化;变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 );盛衰兴废 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 mingling | |
adj.混合的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 encompassed | |
v.围绕( encompass的过去式和过去分词 );包围;包含;包括 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 vibration | |
n.颤动,振动;摆动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 tinkling | |
n.丁当作响声 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 despondent | |
adj.失望的,沮丧的,泄气的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 alluded | |
提及,暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 humiliation | |
n.羞辱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 shriek | |
v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 shrieks | |
n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 sob | |
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 sobs | |
啜泣(声),呜咽(声)( sob的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 resounded | |
v.(指声音等)回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 );产生回响;(指某处)回荡着声音 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 hymns | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 shuddered | |
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 melodious | |
adj.旋律美妙的,调子优美的,音乐性的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 frenzied | |
a.激怒的;疯狂的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 auditor | |
n.审计员,旁听着 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 perfidy | |
n.背信弃义,不忠贞 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 vows | |
誓言( vow的名词复数 ); 郑重宣布,许愿 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 unison | |
n.步调一致,行动一致 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 uneven | |
adj.不平坦的,不规则的,不均匀的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 boding | |
adj.凶兆的,先兆的n.凶兆,前兆,预感v.预示,预告,预言( bode的现在分词 );等待,停留( bide的过去分词 );居住;(过去式用bided)等待 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 wayfarer | |
n.旅人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 rustling | |
n. 瑟瑟声,沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 anathemas | |
n.(天主教的)革出教门( anathema的名词复数 );诅咒;令人极其讨厌的事;被基督教诅咒的人或事 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 wrung | |
绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 ); 握紧(尤指别人的手); 把(湿衣服)拧干; 绞掉(水) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 vapor | |
n.蒸汽,雾气 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78 pall | |
v.覆盖,使平淡无味;n.柩衣,棺罩;棺材;帷幕 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79 chuckling | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |