“Ha, Deedle, you are there! an’ look so well. I am here, too, quite alon; but my friend, she wait outside the churchyard, byside the leetle river, for she must not think I know you — so I am come alon.”
“You’re a quarter late, and I lost a fight by you, old girl, this morning,” said the gay man, and spat7 on the ground; “and I wish you would not call me Diddle. I’ll call you Granny if you do.”
“Eh bien! Dud, then. She is vary nice — wat you like. Slim waist, wite teeth, vary nice eyes — dark — wat you say is best — and nice leetle foot and ankle.”
Madame smiled leeringly.
Dud smoked on.
“Go on,” said Dud, with a nod of command.
“I am teach her to sing and play — she has such sweet voice!”
There was another interval8 here.
“Well, that isn’t much good. I hate women’s screechin’ about fairies and flowers. Hang her! there’s a scarecrow as sings at Curl’s Divan9. Such a caterwauling upon a stage! I’d like to put my two barrels into her.”
By this time Dud’s pipe was out, and he could afford to converse10.
“You shall see her and decide. You will walk down the river, and pass her by.”
“That’s as may be; howsoever, it would not do, nohow, to buy a pig in a poke11, you know. And s’pose I shouldn’t like her, arter all?”
Madame sneered12, with a patois13 ejaculation of derision.
“Vary good! Then some one else will not be so ‘ard to please — as you will soon find.”
“Some one’s bin14 a-lookin’ arter her, you mean?” said the young man, with a shrewd uneasy glance on the cunning face of the French lady.
“I mean precisely15 — that which I mean,” replied the lady, with a teazing pause at the break I have marked.
“Come, old ’un, none of your d —— q old chaff16, if you want me to stay here listening to you. Speak out, can’t you? There’s any chap as has been a-lookin’ arter her — is there?”
“Eh bien! I suppose some.”
“Well, you suppose, and I suppose — we may all suppose, I guess; but that does not make a thing be, as wasn’t before; and you tell me as how the lass is kep’ private up there, and will be till you’re done educating her — a precious good ’un that is!” And he laughed a little lazily, with the ivory handle of his cane17 on his lip, and eyeing Madame with indolent derision.
Madame laughed, but looked rather dangerous.
“I’m only chaffin’, you know, old girl. You’ve bin chaffin’— w’y shouldn’t I? But I don’t see why she can’t wait a bit; and what’s all the d —— d hurry for? I’m in no hurry. I don’t want a wife on my back for a while. There’s no fellow marries till he’s took his bit o’ fun, and seen life — is there! And why should I be driving with her to fairs, or to church, or to meeting, by jingo! — for they say she’s a Quaker — with a babby on each knee, only to please them as will be dead and rotten when I’m only beginning?”
“Ah, you are such charming fellow; always the same — always sensible. So I and my friend we will walk home again, and you go see Maggie Hawkes. Good-a-by, Dud — good-a-by.”
“Quiet, you fool! — can’t ye?” said the young gentleman, with the sort of grin that made his face vicious when a horse vexed18 him. “Who ever said I wouldn’t go look at the girl? Why, you know that’s just what I come here for — don’t you? Only when I think a bit, and a notion comes across me, why shouldn’t I speak out? I’m not one o’ them shilly-shallies. If I like the girl, I’ll not be mug in and mug out about it. Only mind ye, I’ll judge for myself. Is that her a-coming?”
“No; it was a distant sound.”
Madame peeped round the corner. No one was approaching.
“Well, you go round that a-way, and you only look at her, you know, for she is such fool — so nairvous.”
“Oh, is that the way with her?” said Dud, knocking out the ashes of his pipe on a tombstone, and replacing the Turkish utensil19 in his pocket. “Well, then, old lass, good-bye,” and he shook her hand. “And, do ye see, don’t ye come up till I pass, for I’m no hand at play-acting; an’ if you called me ‘sir,’ or was coming it dignified20 and distant, you know, I’d be sure to laugh, a’most, and let all out. So good-bye, d’ye see, and if you want me again be sharp to time, mind.”
From habit he looked about for his dogs, but he had not brought one. He had come unostentatiously by rail, travelling in a third-class carriage, for the advantage of Jack21 Briderly’s company, and getting a world of useful wrinkles about the steeplechase that was coming off next week.
So he strode away, cutting off the heads of the nettles22 with his cane as he went; and Madame walked forth23 into the open space among the graves, where I might have seen her, had I stood up, looking with the absorbed gaze of an artist on the ruin.
In a little while, along the path, I heard the clank of a step, and the gentleman in the green cutaway coat, sucking his cane, and eyeing me with an offensive familiar sort of stare the while, passed me by, rather hesitating as he did so.
I was glad when he turned the corner in the little hollow close by, and disappeared. I stood up at once, and was reassured24 by a sight of Madame, not very many yards away, looking at the ruin, and apparently25 restored to her right mind. The last beams of the sun were by this time touching26 the uplands, and I was longing27 to recommence our walk home. I was hesitating about calling to Madame, because that lady had a certain spirit of opposition28 within her, and to disclose a small wish of any sort was generally, if it lay in her power, to prevent its accomplishment29.
At this moment the gentleman in the green coat returned, approaching me with a slow sort of swagger.
“I say, Miss, I dropped a glove close by here. May you have seen it?”
“No, sir,” I said, drawing back a little, and looking, I dare say, both frightened and offended.
“I do think I must ‘a dropped it close by your foot, Miss.”
“No, sir,” I repeated.
“No offence, Miss, but you’re sure you didn’t hide it?”
I was beginning to grow seriously uncomfortable.
“Don’t be frightened, Miss; it’s only a bit o’ chaff. I’m not going to search.”
I called aloud, “Madame, Madame!” and he whistled through his fingers, and shouted, “Madame, Madame,” and added, “She’s as deaf as a tombstone, or she’ll hear that. Gi’e her my compliments, and say I said you’re a beauty, Miss;” and with a laugh and a leer he strode off.
Altogether this had not been a very pleasant excursion. Madame gobbled up our sandwiches, commending them every now and then to me. But I had been too much excited to have any appetite left, and very tired I was when we reached home.
“So, thee is lady coming to-morrow?” said Madame, who knew everything. “Wat is her name? I forget.”
“Lady Knollys,” I answered.
“Lady Knollys — wat odd name! She is very young — is she not?”
“Past fifty, I think.”
“Hélas! She’s vary old, then. Is she rich?”
“I don’t know. She has a place in Derbyshire.”
“Derbyshire — that is one of your English counties, is it not?”
“Oh yes, Madame,” I answered, laughing. “I have said it to you twice since you came;” and I gabbled through the chief towns and rivers as catalogued in my geography.
“Bah! to be sure — of course, cheaile. And is she your relation?”
“Papa’s first cousin.”
“Won’t you present-a me, pray? — I would so like!”
Madame had fallen into the English way of liking30 people with titles, as perhaps foreigners would if titles implied the sort of power they do generally with us.
“Certainly, Madame.”
“You will not forget?”
“Oh no.”
Madame reminded me twice, in the course of the evening, of my promise. She was very eager on this point. But it is a world of disappointment, influenza31, and rheumatics; and next morning Madame was prostrate32 in her bed, and careless of all things but flannel33 and James’s powder.
Madame was désolée; but she could not raise her head. She only murmured a question.
“For ‘ow long time, dear, will Lady Knollys remain?”
“A very few days, I believe.”
“Hélas! ‘ow onlucky! maybe to-morrow I shall be better. Ouah! my ear. The laudanum, dear cheaile!”
And so our conversation for that time ended, and Madame buried her head in her old red cashmere shawl.
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收听单词发音
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1
narrate
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| v.讲，叙述 | |
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abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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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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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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7
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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8
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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11
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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12
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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patois
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| n.方言；混合语 | |
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14
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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16
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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18
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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utensil
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| n.器皿，用具 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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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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nettles
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| n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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27
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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30
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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31
influenza
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| n.流行性感冒，流感 | |
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32
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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