“And why does not Madame make your dresses, my dear? I wager1 a guinea the woman’s a milliner. Did not she engage to make your dresses?”
“I— I really don’t know; I rather think not. She is my governess — a finishing governess, Mrs. Rusk says.”
“Finishing fiddle2! Hoity-toity! and my lady’s too grand to cut out your dresses and help to sew them? And what does she do? I venture to say she’s fit to teach nothing but devilment — not that she has taught you much, my dear — yet at least. I’ll see her, my dear; where is she? Come, let us visit Madame. I should so like to talk to her a little.”
“But she is ill,” I answered, and all this time I was ready to cry for vexation, thinking of my dress, which must be very absurd to elicit3 so much unaffected laughter from my experienced relative, and I was only longing5 to get away and hide myself before that handsome Captain returned.
“Ill! is she? what’s the matter?”
“A cold — feverish6 and rheumatic, she says.”
“Oh, a cold; is she up, or in bed?”
“In her room, but not in bed.”
“I should so like to see her, my dear. It is not mere7 curiosity, I assure you. In fact, curiosity has nothing on earth to do with it. A governess may be a very useful or a very useless person; but she may also be about the most pernicious inmate8 imaginable. She may teach you a bad accent, and worse manners, and heaven knows what beside. Send the housekeeper9, my dear, to tell her that I am going to see her.”
“I had better go myself, perhaps,” I said, fearing a collision between Mrs. Rusk and the bitter Frenchwoman.
“Very well, dear.”
And away I ran, not sorry somehow to escape before Captain Oakley returned.
As I went along the passage, I was thinking whether my dress could be so very ridiculous as my old cousin thought it, and trying in vain to recollect10 any evidence of a similar contemptuous estimate on the part of that beautiful and garrulous11 dandy. I could not — quite the reverse, indeed. Still I was uncomfortable and feverish — girls of my then age will easily conceive how miserable12, under similar circumstances, such a misgiving13 would make them.
It was a long way to Madame’s room. I met Mrs. Rusk bustling14 along the passage with a housemaid.
“How is Madame?” I asked.
“Quite well, I believe,” answered the housekeeper, drily. “Nothing the matter that I know of. She eat enough for two to-day. I wish I could sit in my room doing nothing.”
Madame was sitting, or rather reclining, in a low arm-chair, when I entered the room, close to the fire, as was her wont15, her feet extended near to the bars, and a little coffee equipage beside her. She stuffed a book hastily between her dress and the chair, and received me in a state of languor16 which, had it not been for Mrs. Rusk’s comfortable assurances, would have frightened me.
“I hope you are better, Madame,” I said, approaching.
“Better than I deserved, my dear cheaile, sufficiently17 well. The people are all so good, trying me with every little thing, like a bird; here is café— Mrs. Rusk-a, poor woman, I try to swallow a little to please her.”
“And your cold, is it better?”
She shook her head languidly, her elbow resting on the chair and three finger-tips supporting her forehead, and then she made a little sigh, looking down from the corners of her eyes, in an interesting dejection.
“Je sens des lassitudes in all the members — but I am quaite ‘appy, and though I suffer I am console and oblige de bontés, ma chère, que vous avez tous pour moi;” and with these words she turned a languid glance of gratitude18 on me which dropped on the ground.
“Lady Knollys wishes very much to see you, only for a few minutes, if you could admit her.”
“Vous savez les malades see never visitors,” she replied with a startled sort of tartness19, and a momentary20 energy. “Besides, I cannot converse21; je sens de temps des douleurs de tête — of head, and of the ear, the right ear, it is parfois agony absolutely, and now it is here.”
And she winced22 and moaned, with her eyes closed and her hand pressed to the organ affected4.
Simple as I was, I felt instinctively23 that Madame was shamming25. She was over-acting; her transitions were too violent, and beside she forgot that I knew how well she could speak English, and must perceive that she was heightening the interest of her helplessness by that pretty tessellation of foreign idiom. I therefore said with a kind of courage which sometimes helped me suddenly —
“Oh, Madame, don’t you really think you might, without much inconvenience, see Lady Knollys for a very few minutes?”
“Cruel cheaile! you know I have a pain of the ear which makes me ‘orribly suffer at this moment, and you demand me whether I will not converse with strangers. I did not think you would be so unkain, Maud; but it is impossible, you must see — quaite impossible. I never, you know, refuse us to take trouble when I am able — never — never.”
And Madame shed some tears, which always came at call, and with her hand pressed to her ear, said very faintly,
“Be so good to tell your friend how you see me, and how I suffer, and leave me, Maud, for I wish to lie down a little, since the pain will not allow me to remain longer.”
So with a few words of comfort which could not well be refused, but I dare say betraying my suspicion that more was made of her sufferings than need be, I returned to the drawing-room.
“Captain Oakley has been here, my dear, and fancying, I suppose that you had left us for the evening, has gone to the billiard-room, I think,” said Lady Knollys, as I entered.
That, then, accounted for the rumble26 and smack27 of balls which I had heard as I passed the door.
“I have been telling Maud how detestably she is got up.”
“Very thoughtful of you, Monica!” said my father.
“Yes, and really, Austin, it is quite clear you ought to marry; you want some one to take this girl out, and look after her, and who’s to do it? She’s a dowdy28 — don’t you see? Such a dust! and it is really such a pity; for she’s a very pretty creature, and a clever woman could make her quite charming.”
My father took Cousin Monica’s sallies with the most wonderful good-humour. She had always, I fancy, been a privileged person, and my father, whom we all feared, received her jolly attacks, as I fancy the grim Front-de-Boeufs of old accepted the humours and personalities29 of their jesters.
“Am I to accept this as an overture30?” said my father to his voluble cousin.
“Yes, you may, but not for myself, Austin — I’m not worthy31. Do you remember little Kitty Wealdon that I wanted you to marry eight-and-twenty years ago, or more, with a hundred and twenty thousand pounds? Well, you know, she has got ever so much now, and she is really a most amiable32 old thing, and though you would not have her then, she has had her second husband since, I can tell you.”
“I’m glad I was not the first,” said my father.
“Well, they really say her wealth is absolutely immense. Her last husband, the Russian merchant, left her everything. She has not a human relation, and she is in the best set.”
“You were always a match-maker, Monica,” said my father, stopping, and putting his hand kindly33 on hers. “But it won’t do. No, no, Monica; we must take care of little Maud some other way.”
I was relieved. We women have all an instinctive24 dread34 of second marriages, and I think that no widower35 is quite above or below that danger; and I remember, whenever my father, which indeed was but seldom, made a visit to town or anywhere else, it was a saying of Mrs. Rusk —
“I shan’t wonder, neither need you, my dear, if he brings home a young wife with him.”
So my father, with a kind look at her, and a very tender one on me, went silently to the library, as he often did about that hour.
I could not help resenting my Cousin Knollys’ officious recommendation of matrimony. Nothing I dreaded36 more than a stepmother. Good Mrs. Rusk and Mary Quince, in their several ways, used to enhance, by occasional anecdotes37 and frequent reflections, the terrors of such an intrusion. I suppose they did not wish a revolution and all its consequences at Knowl, and thought it no harm to excite my vigilance.
But it was impossible long to be vexed38 with Cousin Monica.
“You know, my dear, your father is an oddity,” she said. “I don’t mind him — I never did. You must not. Cracky, my dear, cracky — decidedly cracky!”
And she tapped the corner of her forehead, with a look so sly and comical, that I think I should have laughed, if the sentiment had not been so awfully39 irreverent.
“Well, dear,how is our friend the milliner?”
“Madame is suffering so much from pain in her ear, that she says it would be quite impossible to have the honour ——”
“Honour — fiddle! I want to see what the woman’s like. Pain in her ear, you say? Poor thing! Well, dear, I think I can cure that in five minutes. I have it myself, now and then. Come to my room, and we’ll get the bottles.”
So she lighted her candle in the lobby, and with a light and agile40 step she scaled the stairs, I following; and having found the remedies, we approached Madame’s room together.
I think, while we were still at the end of the gallery, Madame heard and divined our approach, for her door suddenly shut, and there was a fumbling41 at the handle. But the bolt was out of order.
Lady Knollys tapped at the door, saying —“we’ll come in, please, and see you. I’ve some remedies, which I’m sure will do you good.”
There was no answer; so she opened the door, and we both entered. Madame had rolled herself in the blue coverlet, and was lying on the bed, with her face buried in the pillow, and enveloped42 in the covering.
“Perhaps she’s asleep?” said Lady Knollys, getting round to the side of the bed, and stooping over her.
Madame lay still as a mouse. Cousin Monica set down her two little vials on the table, and, stooping again over the bed, began very gently with her fingers to lift the coverlet that covered her face. Madame uttered a slumbering43 moan, and turned more upon her face, clasping the coverlet faster about her.
“Madame, it is Maud and Lady Knollys. We have come to relieve your ear. Pray let me see it. She can’t be asleep, she’s holding the clothes so fast. Do, pray, allow me to see it.”
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收听单词发音
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1
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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9
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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garrulous
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| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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tartness
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| n.酸，锋利 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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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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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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shamming
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| 假装，冒充( sham的现在分词 ) | |
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rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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dowdy
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| adj.不整洁的；过旧的 | |
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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overture
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| n.前奏曲、序曲，提议，提案，初步交涉 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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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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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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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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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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41
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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42
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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