“I declare I think you are very wicked,” I said when I gained my breath; “I do believe, Sara, you take a delight in vexing9 your friends. For all the world what good could it do to cut off your hair? Don’t speak to me, child! I declare I am so vexed10 and provoked and angry, I could cry!”
“Don’t cry, godmamma,” said Sara quite coolly, “or I’ll have it made up into a wig11; you can’t fancy how nice it is now. Besides, what was the good of such a lot of hair? Don’t you know that’s what gives people headaches? I thought I had better be wise in time.”
“You little storyteller!” cried I, “you never had a headache in your life.”
“Ah, but prevention is better than cure,” said the wicked little creature with her very demurest look.
“Dinner, Ma’am,” said Ellis at the door. It was just as well for Sara. But I had a great mind to pinch her, as Mr. Thackeray says the ladies do, when we went together to the dining-room. I am sure she deserved it. However, she did not escape a little pinch which touched her, brave as she was. Sarah, I suppose, had not taken the trouble to look at her till we were all seated at table. Then she looked up, quite ignorant of what had happened. Sarah did not start like me, nor scream out; but she looked at little Sara quite composedly, leaning forward to see her all round. When she had quite done, she folded her hands upon her napkin, and smiled. “What a shocking fright you have made of yourself, my dear child,” said Sarah with the most amiable12 look in the world. Little Sara coloured up in a moment, grew red and furious like a little vixen, and had something angry and wicked on the very tip of her tongue, which however, bold as she was, she dared not say. Mr. Cresswell ventured to give a little mutter and chuckle13 of a laugh, and how the little witch did look at him! But as for me, though I was glad to have her punished, I could not find in my heart to hear anything said against her without standing14 up in her defence.
“Well, of course, I am very angry,” said I; “but I can’t say I agree with your godmamma either—it’s pretty enough for that matter.”
“Oh, please, don’t take any trouble about my feelings. I never meant it to be pretty,” said little Sara, quite furious.
“Nice hair is very much in a dark person’s favour. It helps the complexion3 and harmonises,” said Sarah, who kept always looking at the child in her smiling aggravating15 way. “People will soon notice the want of it in you, my dear. They will say{21} you are very much gone off in your looks. It’s a pity you were so rash. It does make you a sad fright, whatever Milly says.”
Now, only imagine how little Sara was to bear all this, spoken just in Sarah’s whisper, which made everybody, even Ellis, who was waiting, listen close to hear what she said. It was very seldom she said so many words in one day, not to say at one speaking. She began to eat her soup when she had done her pleasant remarks. And surely I never did remark before how odd the s’s sounded in her poor lost voice. Somehow they seemed to go hissing17 round the table, as if every word had an s in it. It was a round table, and not very large. Sarah never would do any carving18, and I got tired of always doing it. So Ellis managed for us now on the sideboard, knowing foreign ways a little, and a small table suited us best.
“Ah, my dear lady, I wish you’d take her in hand,” said Mr. Cresswell (dear, dear! it is inconceivable how injudicious some people are!); “she’s too many for me.”
“My opinion is,” said I, breaking in as well as I could, seeing that poor little Sara must come to an explosion if they kept it up, “that when a gentleman comes to visit two single ladies, he should let us know what’s going on in the world. Have you never a new curate at St. John’s to tell us of, and are all the officers just exactly as they used to be? You may all be very superior, you wise people. But I do love gossip, I am free to acknowledge. I heard your rector preached in his surplice last Sunday. How did you Evangelicals take that, Mr. Cresswell, eh? For my part, I can’t see where’s the harm in a surplice as you Low Church people do.”
“You and I will never agree in that, Miss Milly,” said Mr. Cresswell; “though, indeed, if Dr. Roberts came into the pulpit in white, I’ve my own idea as to how you’d take it. However, not to speak of surplices, the red-coats are going, I hear. We’re to have a change. The Chestnuts19 are coming up from Scotland, and our men are ordered to the West Indies. The Colonel doesn’t like it a bit. It’s better for him in one way, but he’s getting to like a steady friendly little society, and not to care for moving. He’s getting up in years, like the rest of us, is the Colonel. This will tell on him, you’ll see.”
“Well, to be sure, when a man’s old, he ought to retire,” said I; “there are always plenty to take his place.”
“Ah, it’s easy to talk,” said Mr. Cresswell. “It’s all very well for us to retire that have made money; but a man that{22} has only his pay, what is he to do? He has got that poor little widow-daughter of his to keep, and Fred is very unsettled, I’m afraid, and little comfort to his father. There’s a deal of difference, Miss Milly, between full-pay and half-pay. He’d have to cut down his living one half if he retired20.”
“That’s just exactly what I quarrel with in these grand times of ours,” said I; “what’s the harm of cutting down one’s living one half? My own opinion is, I’d respect a man very much that did it. Great people can do it somehow. I wish you luxurious21 middle-class people would learn the way. But then you don’t stand by each other when you fall into poverty. You drop your friend when he can’t ask you to dinner. You are good to his children, and patronise them, and forget they were just the same as yours a little while ago. I don’t think we’ll ever come to any good in this country till we get back to knowing how to be poor.”
“My dear lady, England never was in such splendid condition,” said Mr. Cresswell, with a smile at my ignorance. “If we’ve forgotten how to save, we’ve learned how to grow rich.”
“I know all about England,” said I; “we read the Times; don’t you tell me. I’m anything but easy about England. Making money is no substitute in the world for saving it. I tell you, the world won’t be what I call right till a gentleman may be as poor as God pleases, without being ashamed of it; and have the heart to cut down his living one-half too.”
“Well, well Miss Milly, ladies are always optimists,” said Mr. Cresswell; “but I shouldn’t like to be poor myself, nor see Sara tried with economics. She don’t understand anything about them, that’s sure.”
“The more’s the pity. What if she should marry a poor man?” said I.
“She shan’t marry a poor man, my dear lady,” said Mr. Cresswell.
Upon which Sara lighted up. I knew she would. The dear child would do anything out of contradiction.
“Rather a poor one than a rich one, papa,” cried Sara, with a little start of opposition22. “Godmamma is always quite right. It’s shocking how everybody worships rich people. If we were to live in a little cottage, now, and make a dozen poor people comfortable! instead of always living in that dull old house, and having the same chairs and tables, and looking at exactly the same things every day. Godmamma! I do so want my room fresh papered. I know every tint23 of that{23} pattern, till it makes me quite ill to look at it. Wouldn’t it be a thousand times more reasonable and like a Christian24, if papa would stop giving stupid dinners, and taking me to stupid parties, and divide all his money with, say, a dozen poor families, and live in a sweet country cottage? It isn’t enough for us, you know, to make us great people. But it would be quite enough to give us all plenty to live upon, the dozen others and ourselves as well. Don’t you think it would be a great deal more like what a man should do, than keeping all one’s money to one’s self, like papa?”
Little Sara grew quite earnest, and her eyes sparkled as she spoke16. Her father laughed inwardly under his breath, and thought it just one of her vagaries25. She divide all her money with her neighbours, the extravagant26 little puss in velvet! But don’t suppose Sara was shamming27. She was as thoughtless and as prodigal28 as ever a child was who knew no better. But for all that, she could have done it. She could have found out how to do it. She meant what she said.
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1
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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2
saucy
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| adj.无礼的；俊俏的；活泼的 | |
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3
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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5
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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6
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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7
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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8
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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9
vexing
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| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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10
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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11
wig
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| n.假发 | |
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12
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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13
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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14
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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15
aggravating
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| adj.恼人的，讨厌的 | |
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16
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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17
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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18
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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19
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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20
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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21
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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22
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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23
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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24
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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25
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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26
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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27
shamming
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| 假装，冒充( sham的现在分词 ) | |
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28
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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