By this time your humble1 servant, the chronicler of these Gylingden annals, had taken his leave of magnificent old Brandon, and of its strangely interesting young mistress and was carrying away with him, as he flew along the London rails, the broken imagery of that grand and shivered dream. He was destined2, however, before very long, to revisit these scenes; and in the meantime heard, in rude outline, the tenor3 of what was happening — the minute incidents and colouring of which were afterwards faithfully communicated.
I can, therefore, without break or blur4, continue my description; and to say truth, at this distance of time, I have some difficulty — so well acquainted was I with the actors and the scenery — in determining, without consulting my diary, what portions of the narrative5 I relate from hearsay6, and what as a spectator. But that I am so far from understanding myself, I should often be amazed at the sayings and doings of other people. As it is, I behold8 in myself an abyss, I gaze down and listen, and discover neither light nor harmony, but thunderings and lightnings, and voices and laughter, and a medley9 that dismays me. There rage the elements which God only can control. Forgive us our trespasses10; lead us not into temptation; deliver us from the Evil One! How helpless and appalled11 we shut our eyes over that awful chasm12.
I have long ceased, then, to wonder why any living soul does anything that is incongruous and unanticipated. And therefore I cannot say how Miss Brandon persuaded her handsome Cousin Rachel to go with her party, under the wing of Old Lady Chelford, to the Hunt Ball of Gylingden. And knowing now all that then hung heavy at the heart of the fair tenant13 of Redman’s Farm, I should, indeed, wonder inexpressibly, were it not, as I have just said, that I have long ceased to wonder at any vagaries14 of myself or my fellow creatures.
The Hunt Ball is the great annual event of Gylingden. The critical process of ‘coming out’ is here consummated15 by the young ladies of that town and vicinage. It is looked back upon for one-half of the year, and forward to for the other. People date by it. The battle of Inkerman was fought immediately before the Hunt Ball. It was so many weeks after the Hunt Ball that the Czar Nicholas died. The Carnival16 of Venice was nothing like so grand an event. Its solemn and universal importance in Gylingden and the country round, gave me, I fancied, some notion of what the feast of unleavened bread must have been to the Hebrews and Jerusalem.
The connubial17 capabilities18 of Gylingden are positively19 wretched. When I knew it, there were but three single men, according even to the modest measure of Gylingden housekeeping, capable of supporting wives, and these were difficult to please, set a high price on themselves — looked the country round at long ranges, and were only wistfully and meekly20 glanced after by the frugal21 vestals of Gylingden, as they strutted22 round the corners, or smoked the pipe of apathy23 at the reading-room windows.
Old Major Jackson kept the young ladies in practice between whiles, with his barren gallantries and graces, and was, just so far, better than nothing. But, as it had been for years well ascertained24 that he either could not or would not afford to marry, and that his love passages, like the passages in Gothic piles that ‘lead to nothing,’ were not designed to terminate advantageously, he had long ceased to excite, even in that desolate25 region, the smallest interest.
Think, then, what it was, when Mr. Pummice, of Copal and Pummice, the splendid house-painters at Dollington, arrived with his artists and charwomen to give the Assembly Room its annual touching-up and bedizenment, preparatory to the Hunt Ball. The Gylingden young ladies used to peep in, and from the lobby observe the wenches dry-rubbing and waxing the floor, and the great Mr. Pummice, with his myrmidons, in aprons26 and paper caps, retouching the gilding27.
It was a tremendous crisis for honest Mrs. Page, the confectioner, over the way, who, in legal phrase, had ‘the carriage’ of the supper and refreshments28, though largely assisted by Mr. Battersby, of Dollington. During the few days’ agony of preparation that immediately preceded this notable orgie, the good lady’s countenance29 bespoke30 the magnitude of her cares. Though the weather was usually cold, I don’t think she ever was cool during that period — I am sure she never slept — I don’t think she ate — and I am afraid her religious exercises were neglected.
Equally distracting, emaciating32, and godless, was the condition to which the mere33 advent34 of this festival reduced worthy35 Miss Williams, the dressmaker, who had more white muslin and young ladies on her hands than she and her choir36 of needle-women knew what to do with. During this tremendous period Miss Williams hardly resembled herself — her eyes dilated37, her lips were pale, and her brow corrugated38 with deep and inflexible39 lines of fear and perplexity. She lived on bad tea — sat up all night — and every now and then burst into helpless floods of tears. But somehow, generally things came pretty right in the end. One way or another, the gay belles40 and elderly spinsters, and fat village chaperones, were invested in suitable costume by the appointed hour, and in a few weeks Miss Williams’ mind recovered its wonted tone, and her countenance its natural expression.
The great night had now arrived. Gylingden was quite in an uproar41. Rural families of eminence42 came in. Some in old-fashioned coaches; others, the wealthier, more in London style. The stables of the ‘Brandon Arms,’ of the ‘George Inn,’ of the ‘Silver Lion,’ even of the ‘White House,’ though a good way off, and generally every vacant standing7 for horses in or about the town were crowded; and the places of entertainment we have named, and minor43 houses of refection, were vocal44 with the talk of flunkeys, patrician45 with powdered heads, and splendent in variegated46 liveries.
The front of the Town Hall resounded47 with the ring of horse-hoofs, the crack of whips, the bawling48 of coachmen, the clank of carriage steps and clang of coach doors. A promiscuous50 mob of the plebs and profanum vulgus of Gylingden beset51 the door, to see the ladies — the slim and the young in white muslins and artificial flowers, and their stout52 guardian53 angels, of maturer years, in satins and velvets, and jewels — some real, and some, just as good, of paste. In the cloak-room such a fuss, unfurling of fans, and last looks and hurried adjustments.
When the Crutchleighs, of Clay Manor54, a good, old, formal family, were mounting the stairs in solemn procession — they were always among the early arrivals — they heard a piano and a tenor performing in the supper-room.
Now, old Lady Chelford chose to patronise Mr. Page, the Dollington professor, and partly, I fancy, to show that she could turn things topsy-turvy in this town of Gylingden, had made a point, with the rulers of the feast, that her client should sing half-a-dozen songs in the supper-room before dancing commenced.
Mrs. Crutchleigh stayed her step upon the stairs abruptly55, and turned, with a look of fierce surprise upon her lean, white-headed lord, arresting thereby56 the upward march of Corfe Crutchleigh, Esq., the hope of his house, who was pulling on his gloves, with his eldest57 spinster sister on his lank49 arm.
‘There appears to be a concert going on; we came here to a ball. Had you not better enquire58, Mr. Crutchleigh; it would seem we have made a mistake?’
Mrs. Crutchleigh was sensitive about the dignity of the family of Clay Manor; and her cheeks flushed above the rouge59, and her eyes flashed severely60.
‘That’s singing — particularly loud singing. Either we have mistaken the night, or somebody has taken upon him to upset all the arrangements. You’ll be good enough to enquire whether there will be dancing to-night; I and Anastasia will remain in the cloak-room; and we’ll all leave if you please, Mr. Crutchleigh, if this goes on.’
The fact is, Mrs. Crutchleigh had got an inkling of this performance, and had affected61 to believe it impossible; and, detesting62 old Lady Chelford for sundry63 slights and small impertinences, and envying Brandon and its belongings64, was resolved not to be put down by presumption65 in that quarter.
Old Lady Chelford sat in an arm-chair in the supper-room, where a considerable audience was collected. She had a splendid shawl or two about her, and a certain air of demi-toilette, which gave the Gylingden people to understand that her ladyship did not look on this gala in the light of a real ball, but only as a sort of rustic66 imitation — curious, possibly amusing, and, like other rural sports, deserving of encouragement, for the sake of the people who made innocent holiday there.
Mr. Page, the performer, was a plump young man, with black whiskers, and his hair in oily ringlets, such as may be seen in the model wigs67 presented on smiling, waxen dandies, in Mr. Rose’s front window at Dollington. He bowed and smiled in the most unexceptionable of white chokers and the dapperest of dress coats, and drew off the whitest imaginable pair of kid gloves, when he sat down to the piano, subsiding68 in a sort of bow upon the music-stool, and striking those few, brisk and noisy chords with which such artists proclaim silence and reassure69 themselves.
Stanley Lake, that eminent70 London swell71, had attached himself as gentleman-in-waiting to Lady Chelford’s household, and was perpetually gliding72 with little messages between her ladyship and the dapper vocalist of Dollington, who varied73 his programme and submitted to an occasional encore on the private order thus communicated.
‘I told you Chelford would be here,’ said Miss Brandon to Rachel, in a low tone, glancing at the young peer.
‘I thought he had returned to Brighton. I fancied he might be — you know the Dulhamptons are at Brighton; and Lady Constance, of course, has a claim on his time and thoughts.’
Rachel smiled as she spoke31, and was adjusting her bouquet74, as Dorcas made answer —
‘Lady Constance, my dear Radie! That, you know, was never more than a mere whisper; it was only Lady Chelford and the marchioness who talked it over — they would have liked it very well. But Chelford won’t be managed or scolded into anything of the kind; and will choose, I think, for himself, and I fancy not altogether according to their ideas, when the time comes. And I assure you, dear Radie, there is not the least truth in that story about Lady Constance.’
Why should Dorcas be so earnest to convince her handsome cousin that there was nothing in this rumour75? Rachel made no remark, and there was a little silence.
‘I’m so glad I succeeded in bringing you here,’ said Dorcas; ‘Chelford made such a point of it; and he thinks you are losing your spirits among the great trees and shadows of Redman’s Dell; and he made it quite a little cousinly duty that I should succeed.’
At this moment Mr. Page interposed with the energetic prelude76 of his concluding ditty. It was one of Tom Moore’s melodies.
Rachel leaned back, and seemed to enjoy it very much. But when it was over, I think she would have found it difficult to say what the song was about.
Mr. Page had now completed his programme, and warned by the disrespectful violins from the gallery of the ball-room, whence a considerable caterwauling was already announcing the approach of the dance, he made his farewell flourish, and bow and, smiling, withdrew.
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1
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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4
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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hearsay
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| n.谣传，风闻 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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8
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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9
medley
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| n.混合 | |
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10
trespasses
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| 罪过( trespass的名词复数 )； 非法进入 | |
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11
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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12
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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13
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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14
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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15
consummated
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| v.使结束( consummate的过去式和过去分词 )；使完美；完婚；（婚礼后的）圆房 | |
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16
carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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17
connubial
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| adj.婚姻的，夫妇的 | |
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18
capabilities
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| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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19
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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20
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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21
frugal
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| adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的 | |
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22
strutted
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| 趾高气扬地走，高视阔步( strut的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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24
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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26
aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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27
gilding
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| n.贴金箔，镀金 | |
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28
refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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29
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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30
bespoke
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| adj.（产品）订做的；专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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31
spoke
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| 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 | |
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32
emaciating
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| v.使消瘦，使衰弱( emaciate的现在分词 ) | |
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33
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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34
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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35
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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36
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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37
dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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39
inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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40
belles
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| n.美女( belle的名词复数 )；最美的美女 | |
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41
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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42
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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43
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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44
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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45
patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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46
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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47
resounded
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| 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 | |
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48
bawling
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的现在分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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49
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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50
promiscuous
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| adj.杂乱的，随便的 | |
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51
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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53
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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54
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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55
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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56
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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57
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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58
enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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59
rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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60
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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61
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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62
detesting
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的现在分词 ) | |
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63
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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64
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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65
presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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wigs
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| n.假发，法官帽( wig的名词复数 ) | |
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68
subsiding
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的现在分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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69
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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71
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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72
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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73
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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74
bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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75
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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prelude
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| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
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