I suspect there are very few mere1 hypocrites on earth. Of course, I do not reckon those who are under compulsion to affect purity of manners and a holy integrity of heart — and there are such — but those who volunteer an extraordinary profession of holiness, being all the while conscious villains2. The Pharisees, even while devouring3 widows’ houses, believed honestly in their own supreme4 righteousness.
I am afraid our friend Jos. Larkin wore a mask. I am sure he often wore it when he was quite alone. I don’t know indeed, that he ever took it off. He was, perhaps, content to see it, even when he looked in the glass, and had not a very distinct idea what the underlying5 features might be. It answers with the world; it almost answers with himself. Pity it won’t do everywhere! ‘When Moses went to speak with God,’ says the admirable Hall, ‘he pulled off his veil. It was good reason he should present to God that face which he had made. There had been more need of his veil to hide the glorious face of God from him than to hide his from God. Hypocrites are contrary to Moses. He showed his worst to men, his best to God; they show their best to men, their worst to God; but God sees both their veil and their face, and I know not whether He more hates their veil of dissimulation6 or their face of wickedness.’
Captain Lake wanted rest — sleep — quiet thoughts at all events. When he was alone he was at once in a state of fever and gloom, and seemed always watching for something. His strange eyes glanced now this way, now that, with a fierce restlessness — now to the window — now to the door — and you would have said he was listening intently to some indistinct and too distant conversation affecting him vitally, there was such a look of fear and conjecture7 always in his face.
He bolted his door and unlocked his dressing8 case, and from a little silver box in that glittering repository he took, one after the other, two or three little wafers of a dark hue9, and placed them successively on his tongue, and suffered them to melt, and so swallowed them. They were not liquorice. I am afraid Captain Lake dabbled10 a little in opium11. He was not a great adept12 — yet, at least — like those gentlemen who can swallow five hundred drops of laudanum at a sitting. But he knew the virtues13 of the drug, and cultivated its acquaintance, and was oftener under its influence than perhaps any mortal, except himself, suspected.
The greater part of mankind are, upon the whole, happier and more cheerful than they are always willing to allow. Nature subserves the majority. She smiled very brightly next morning. There was a twittering of small birds among the brown leaves and ivy14, and a thousand other pleasant sounds and sights stirring in the sharp, sunny air. This sort of inflexible15 merry-making in nature seems marvellously selfish in the eyes of anxious Captain Lake. Fear hath torment16 — and fear is the worst ingredient in mental pain. This is the reason why suspense17 is so intolerable, and the retrospect18 even of the worst less terrible.
Stanley Lake would have given more than he could well afford that it were that day week, and he no worse off. Why did time limp so tediously away with him, prolonging his anguish19 gratuitously20? He felt truculently21, and would have murdered that week, if he could, in the midst of its loitering sunshine and gaiety.
There was a strange pain at his heart, and the pain of intense and fruitless calculation in his brain; and, as the Mahometan prays towards Mecca, and the Jew towards Jerusalem, so Captain Lake’s morning orisons, whatsoever22 they were, were offered at the window of his bed-room toward London, from whence he looked for his salvation23, or it might be the other thing — with a dreadful yearning24.
He hated the fresh glitter of that morning scene. Why should the world be cheerful? It was a repast spread of which he could not partake, and it spited him. Yes; it was selfish — and hating selfishness — he would have struck the sun out of the sky that morning with his walking-cane25, if he could, and draped the world in black.
He saw from his window the good vicar walk smiling by, in white choker and seedy black, his little boy holding by his fingers, and capering26 and wheeling in front, and smiling up in his face. They were very busy talking.
Little ‘Fairy’ used to walk, when parochial visits were not very distant, with his ‘Wapsie;’ how that name came about no one remembered, but the vicar answered to it more cheerily than to any other. The little man was solitary27, and these rambles28 were a delight. A beautiful smiling little fellow, very exacting29 of attention — troublesome, perhaps; he was so sociable30, and needed sympathy and companionship, and repaid it with a boundless31, sensitive love. The vicar told him the stories of David and Goliath, and Joseph and his brethren, and of the wondrous32 birth in Bethlehem of Judea, the star that led the Wise Men, and the celestial33 song heard by the shepherds keeping their flocks by night, and snatches of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’; and sometimes, when they made a feast and eat their pennyworth of cherries, sitting on the style, he treated him, I am afraid, to the profane34 histories of Jack35 the Giant-killer and the Yellow Dwarf36; the vicar had theories about imagination, and fancied it was an important faculty37, and that the Creator had not given children their unextinguishable love of stories to no purpose.
I don’t envy the man who is superior to the society of children. What can he gain from children’s talk? Is it witty38, or wise, or learned? Be frank. Is it not, honestly, a mere noise and interruption — a musical cackling of geese, and silvery braying39 of tiny asses40? Well, say I, out of my large acquaintance, there are not many men to whom I would go for wisdom; learning is better found in books, and, as for wit, is it always pleasant? The most companionable men are not always the greatest intellects. They laugh, and though they don’t converse41, they make a cheerful noise, and show a cheerful countenance42.
There was not a great deal in Will Honeycomb, for instance; but our dear Mr. Spectator tells us somewhere that ‘he laughed easily,’ which I think quite accounts for his acceptance with the club. He was kindly43 and enjoying. What is it that makes your dog so charming a companion in your walks? Simply that he thoroughly44 likes you and enjoys himself. He appeals imperceptibly to your affections, which cannot be stirred — such is God’s will — ever so lightly, without some little thrillings of happiness; and through the subtle absorbents of your sympathy he infuses into you something of his own hilarious45 and exulting46 spirit.
When Stanley Lake saw the vicar, the lines of his pale face contracted strangely, and his wild gaze followed him, and I don’t think he breathed once until the thin smiling man in black, with the little gambolling47 bright boy holding by his hand, had passed by. He was thinking, you may be sure, of his Brother Mark.
When Lake had ended his toilet and stared in the glass, he still looked so haggard, that on greeting Mr. Larkin in the parlour, he thought it necessary to mention that he had taken cold in that confounded billiard-room last night, which spoiled his sleep, and made him awfully48 seedy that morning. Of course, his host was properly afflicted49 and sympathetic.
‘By-the-bye, I had a letter this morning from that party — our common friend, Mr. W., you know,’ said Larkin, gracefully51.
‘Well, what is he doing, and when does he come back? You mean Wylder, of course?’
‘Yes; my good client, Mr. Mark Wylder. Permit me to assist you to some honey, you’ll find it remarkably52 good, I venture to say; it comes from the gardens of Queen’s Audley. The late marquis, you know, prided himself on his honey — and my friend, Thornbury, cousin to Sir Frederick Thornbury — I suppose you know him — an East Indian judge, you know — very kindly left it at Dollington for me, on his way to the Earl of Epsom’s.’
‘Thank you — delicious, I’m sure, it has been in such good company. May I see Wylder’s note — that is, if there’s no private business?’
‘Oh, certainly.’
And, with Wylder’s great red seal on the back of the envelope, the letter ran thus:—
‘DEAR LARKIN — I write in haste to save post, to say I shall be detained in town a few days longer than I thought. Don’t wait for me about the parchments; I am satisfied. If anything crosses your mind, a word with Mr. De C. at the Hall, will clear all up. Have all ready to sign and seal when I come back — certainly, within a week.
‘Yours sincerely,
‘M. WYLDER,
‘London.’
It was evidently written in great haste, with the broad-nibbed pen he liked; but notwithstanding the sort of swagger with which the writing marched across the page, Lake might have seen here and there a little quaver — indicative of something different from haste — the vibrations53 of another sort of flurry.
‘“Certainly within a week,” he writes. Does he mean he’ll be here in a week or only to have the papers ready in a week?’ asked Lake.
‘The question, certainly, does arise. It struck me on the first perusal,’ answered the attorney. ‘His address is rather a wide one, too — London! Do you know his club, Captain Lake?’
‘The Wanderers. He has left the United Service. Nothing for me, by-the-way?’
‘No letter. No.’
‘Tant mieux, I hate them,’ said the captain. ‘I wonder how my sister is this morning.’
‘Would you like a messenger? I’ll send down with pleasure to enquire54.’
‘Thank you, no; I’ll walk down and see her.’
And Lake yawned at the window, and then took his hat and stick and sauntered toward Gylingden. At the post-office window he tapped with the silver tip of his cane, and told Miss Driver with a sleepy smile —
‘I’m going down to Redman’s Farm, and any letters for my sister, Miss Lake, I may as well take with me.’
Everybody ‘in business’ in the town of Gylingden, by this time, knew Captain Lake and his belongings55 — a most respectable party — a high man; and, of course, there was no difficulty. There was only one letter — the address was written —‘Miss Lake, Redman’s Farm, near Brandon Park, Gylingden,’ in a stiff hand, rather slanting56 backwards57.
Captain Lake put it in his paletot pocket, looked in her face gently, and smiled, and thanked her in his graceful50 way — and, in fact, left an enduring impression upon that impressible nature.
Turning up the dark road at Redman’s Dell, the gallant58 captain passed the old mill, and, all being quiet up and down the road, he halted under the lordly shadow of a clump59 of chestnuts60, and opened and read the letter he had just taken charge of. It contained only these words:—
‘Wednesday.
‘On Friday night, next, at half-past twelve.’
This he read twice or thrice, pausing between whiles. The envelope bore the London postmark. Then he took out his cigar case, selected a promising61 weed, and wrapping the laconic62 note prettily63 round one of his scented64 matches, lighted it, and the note flamed pale in the daylight, and dropped still blazing, at the root of the old tree he stood by, and sent up a little curl of blue smoke — an incense65 to the demon66 of the wood — and turned in a minute more into a black film, overrun by a hundred creeping sparkles; and having completed his mysterious incremation, he, with his yellow eyes, made a stolen glance around, and lighting67 his cigar, glided68 gracefully up the steep road, under the solemn canopy69 of old timber, to the sound of the moaning stream below, and the rustle70 of withered71 leaves about him, toward Redman’s Farm.
As he entered the flower-garden, the jaundiced face of old Tamar, with its thousand small wrinkles and its ominous72 gleam of suspicion, was looking out from the darkened porch. The white cap, kerchief, and drapery, courtesied to him as he drew near, and the dismal73 face changed not.
‘Well, Tamar, how do you do? — how are all? Where is that girl Margery?’
‘In the kitchen, Master Stanley,’ said she, courtesying again.
‘Are you sure?’ said Captain Lake, peeping toward that apartment over the old woman’s shoulder.
‘Certain sure, Master Stanley.’
‘Well, come up stairs to your mistress’s room,’ said Lake, mounting the stairs, with his hat in his hand, and on tip-toe, like a man approaching a sick chamber74.
There was something I think grim and spectral75 in this ceremonious ascent76 to the empty chamber. Children had once occupied that silent floor for there was a little balustraded gate across the top of the staircase.
‘I keep this closed,’ said old Tamar, ‘and forbid her to cross it, lest she should disturb the mistress. Heaven forgive me!’
‘Very good,’ he whispered, and he peeped over the banister, and then entered Rachel’s silent room, darkened with closed shutters77, the white curtains and white coverlet so like ‘the dark chamber of white death.’
He had intended speaking to Tamar there, but changed his mind, or rather could not make up his mind; and he loitered silently, and stood with the curtain in his gloved hand, looking upon the cold coverlet, as if Rachel lay dead there.
‘That will do,’ he said, awaking from his wandering thought. ‘We’ll go down now, Tamar.’
And in the same stealthy way, walking lightly and slowly, down the stairs they went, and Stanley entered the kitchen.
‘How do you do, Margery? You’ll be glad to hear your mistress is better. You must run down to the town, though, and buy some jelly, and you are to bring her back change of this.’
And he placed half-a-crown in her hand.
‘Put on your bonnet78 and my old shawl, child; and take the basket, and come back by the side door,’ croaked79 old Tamar.
So the girl dried her hands — she was washing the teacups — and in a twinkling was equipped and on her way to Gylingden.
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1
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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dissimulation
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| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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dabbled
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| v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资 | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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gratuitously
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| 平白 | |
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truculently
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22
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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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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capering
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| v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的现在分词 )；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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rambles
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| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
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exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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sociable
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| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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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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dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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braying
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| v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的现在分词 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击 | |
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asses
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| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
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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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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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43
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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44
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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45
hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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46
exulting
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| vi. 欢欣鼓舞，狂喜 | |
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47
gambolling
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的现在分词 ) | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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49
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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51
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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52
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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53
vibrations
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| n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 )；震动；感受；（偏离平衡位置的）一次性往复振动 | |
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54
enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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56
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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laconic
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| adj.简洁的；精练的 | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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64
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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68
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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71
withered
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| 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 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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74
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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76
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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77
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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78
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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79
croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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