In the swale of the day, towards Easter-time, the Reverend Mr. Sumption was walking along the North Road from Dallington to Woods Corner. Dallington is the mother-parish of the country bounded by the Four Roads, though there is also a church at Brownbread Street, in charge of a curate. Mr. Sumption had no truck with either Rector or curate, for he was a minister of the Particular Baptists, who had a Bethel in Sunday Street, as the lane was called which linked the East Road with one that trailed in and out of farms and woods to the throws at Bucksteep Manor7. Not that the sect8 of the Particular Baptists flourished in the parish of Dallington, but the Bethel being midway between the church and the chapel9, a fair congregation could be raked in on wet Sundays from the middle district, where doctrine10, like most things in that land of farms, was swung by the weather.
The Reverend Mr. Sumption was a big, handsome man of forty-five, and wore a semi-clerical suit of greenish-black, with a shabby hat and a dirty collar. His face was brown, darkening round the jaw11 with a beard that wanted the razor twice a day, but did not get it. His eyes were dark and sunk deep in his head, gleaming like deep ditch-water under eyebrows12 as smooth and black as broom-pods. His teeth were very white, and his hair was grey and curly like a fleece.
As he walked he muttered to himself, and from time to time cracked the joints13 of his fingers with a loud rapping sound. These two habits helped form the local opinion that he was “queer,” an opinion bolstered14 by [11] more evidence than is usual in such cases. Women standing15 in their cottage doors noticed him twice halt and stoop—once to pick up a beetle16 which was laboriously17 crawling from ditch to ditch, another time to pick up a swede dropped from some farm-cart. He carefully put the beetle on the opposite bank—“Near squashed you, my dear, I did. But He Who created the creeping things upon the earth has preserved you from the boot of man.” The swede he dusted and crammed18 in his pocket. It was known throughout the hamlets—the “Streets” and “Greens”—of Dallington Parish that the minister was as poor as he was unblushing about his poverty.
The evening was very still. Eddies19 and swells20 of golden, watery21 light drifted over the hills round Dallington. In the north the sharp, wooded hill where Brightling stood was like a golden cone22, and the kiln-shaped obelisk23 by Lobden’s House which marked the highest point of South-east Sussex was also burnished24 to rare metal. The scent25 of water, stagnant26 on fallen leaves, crept from the little woods where the primroses27 and windflowers smothered28 old stumps29 in their pale froth, or spattered with milky30 stars the young moss31 of the year. At Woods Corner the smoke of a turf fire was rising from the inn, and there was a smell of beer, too, as the minister passed the door, and turned down the East Road towards Slivericks. The fire and the beer both tempted32 him, for there was neither at the Horselunges, the tumble-down old cottage where he lodged33 in Sunday Street. But the former he looked on as an unmanly weakness, the latter as a snare34 of the devil, so he swung on, humming a metrical psalm35.
About a hundred yards below Woods Corner, just where the road, washed stony36 by the rains, runs under the webbing of Slivericks oaks, he turned into a field, [12] across which a footpath37 led a pale stripe towards Sunday Street. From the top of the field he could look down over the whole sweep of country within the Four Roads, to the marshes and the sea, or rather the saffron and purple mists where the marshes and the sea lay together in enchantment38. The yellow light wavered up to him from the sunset, over the woods of Forges and Harebeating; there was a sob39 of wind from Stilliands Tower, and a gleam of half-hidden ponds in the spinneys by Puddledock. Mr. Sumption stood still and listened.
The air was full of sunset sounds—the lowing of cows came up with a mingled40 cuckoo’s cry, there was a tinkle41 of water behind him in the ditch, and the soft swish of wind in the trees and in the hedge, nodding ashes and sallows and oaks to and fro against the light-filled sky. On the wind was a mutter and pulse, a throb42 which seemed to be in it yet not of it, like the beating of a great heart, strangely remote from all the gleam and softness of spring sunset, pale fluttering cuckoo-flowers, and leaf-sweet pools of rain. A blackbird called from the copse by Cowlease Farm, and his song was as the voice of sunset and April and pooled rain ... still the great distant heart throbbed43 on, its dim beats pulsing on the wind, aching on the sunset, over the fields of peaceful England dropping asleep in April.
The Reverend Mr. Sumption cracked his fingers loudly once or twice:
“You hear ’em pretty plain to-night ... the guns in France.”

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1
marsh
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n.沼泽,湿地 | |
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2
marshes
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n.沼泽,湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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3
streak
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n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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4
overflow
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v.(使)外溢,(使)溢出;溢出,流出,漫出 | |
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5
haven
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n.安全的地方,避难所,庇护所 | |
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6
foul
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adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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7
manor
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n.庄园,领地 | |
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sect
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n.派别,宗教,学派,派系 | |
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9
chapel
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n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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10
doctrine
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n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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11
jaw
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n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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12
eyebrows
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眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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13
joints
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接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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14
bolstered
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v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 );支撑;给予必要的支持;援助 | |
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15
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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16
beetle
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n.甲虫,近视眼的人 | |
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17
laboriously
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adv.艰苦地;费力地;辛勤地;(文体等)佶屈聱牙地 | |
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18
crammed
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adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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19
eddies
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(水、烟等的)漩涡,涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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20
swells
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增强( swell的第三人称单数 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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21
watery
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adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
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22
cone
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n.圆锥体,圆锥形东西,球果 | |
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23
obelisk
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n.方尖塔 | |
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24
burnished
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adj.抛光的,光亮的v.擦亮(金属等),磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 );被擦亮,磨光 | |
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25
scent
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n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉 | |
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26
stagnant
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adj.不流动的,停滞的,不景气的 | |
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27
primroses
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n.报春花( primrose的名词复数 );淡黄色;追求享乐(招至恶果) | |
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28
smothered
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(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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29
stumps
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(被砍下的树的)树桩( stump的名词复数 ); 残肢; (板球三柱门的)柱; 残余部分 | |
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30
milky
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adj.牛奶的,多奶的;乳白色的 | |
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31
moss
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n.苔,藓,地衣 | |
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32
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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33
lodged
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v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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34
snare
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n.陷阱,诱惑,圈套;(去除息肉或者肿瘤的)勒除器;响弦,小军鼓;vt.以陷阱捕获,诱惑 | |
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35
psalm
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n.赞美诗,圣诗 | |
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36
stony
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adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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37
footpath
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n.小路,人行道 | |
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38
enchantment
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n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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39
sob
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n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
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40
mingled
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混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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41
tinkle
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vi.叮当作响;n.叮当声 | |
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42
throb
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v.震颤,颤动;(急速强烈地)跳动,搏动 | |
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43
throbbed
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抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 ); (心脏、脉搏等)跳动 | |
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