The Tragic1 Meeting of Two Old Friends
He in the meantime had aroused himself from sleep, sat up, and looked around. Eustacia was sitting in a chair hard by him, and though she held a book in her hand she had not looked into it for some time.
"Well, indeed!" said Clym, brushing his eyes with his hands. "How soundly I have slept! I have had such a tremendous dream, too--one I shall never forget."
"I thought you had been dreaming," said she.
"Yes. It was about my mother. I dreamt that I took you to her house to make up differences, and when we got there we couldn't get in, though she kept on crying to us for help. However, dreams are dreams. What o'clock is it, Eustacia?"
"Half-past two."
"So late, is it? I didn't mean to stay so long. By the time I have had something to eat it will be after three."
"Ann is not come back from the village, and I thought I would let you sleep on till she returned."
Clym went to the window and looked out. Presently he said, musingly2, "Week after week passes, and yet Mother does not come. I thought I should have heard something from her long before this."
Misgiving3, regret, fear, resolution, ran their swift course of expression in Eustacia's dark eyes. She was face to face with a monstrous4 difficulty, and she resolved to get free of it by postponement5.
"I must certainly go to Blooms-End soon," he continued, "and I think I had better go alone." He picked up his leggings and gloves, threw them down again, and added, "As dinner will be so late today I will not go back to the heath, but work in the garden till the evening, and then, when it will be cooler, I will walk to Blooms-End. I am quite sure that if I make a little advance Mother will be willing to forget all. It will be rather late before I can get home, as I shall not be able to do the distance either way in less than an hour and a half. But you will not mind for one evening, dear? What are you thinking of to make you look so abstracted?"
"I cannot tell you," she said heavily. "I wish we didn't live here, Clym. The world seems all wrong in this place."
"Well--if we make it so. I wonder if Thomasin has been to Blooms-End lately. I hope so. But probably not, as she is, I believe, expecting to be confined in a month or so. I wish I had thought of that before. Poor Mother must indeed be very lonely."
"I don't like you going tonight."
"Why not tonight?"
"Something may be said which will terribly injure me."
"My mother is not vindictive," said Clym, his colour faintly rising.
"But I wish you would not go," Eustacia repeated in a low tone. "If you agree not to go tonight I promise to go by myself to her house tomorrow, and make it up with her, and wait till you fetch me."
"Why do you want to do that at this particular time, when at every previous time that I have proposed it you have refused?"
"I cannot explain further than that I should like to see her alone before you go," she answered, with an impatient move of her head, and looking at him with an anxiety more frequently seen upon those of a sanguine6 temperament7 than upon such as herself.
"Well, it is very odd that just when I had decided8 to go myself you should want to do what I proposed long ago. If I wait for you to go tomorrow another day will be lost; and I know I shall be unable to rest another night without having been. I want to get this settled, and will. You must visit her afterwards--it will be all the same."
"I could even go with you now?"
"You could scarcely walk there and back without a longer rest than I shall take. No, not tonight, Eustacia."
"Let it be as you say, then," she replied in the quiet way of one who, though willing to ward9 off evil consequences by a mild effort, would let events fall out as they might sooner than wrestle10 hard to direct them.
Clym then went into the garden; and a thoughtful languor11 stole over Eustacia for the remainder of the afternoon, which her husband attributed to the heat of the weather.
In the evening he set out on the journey. Although the heat of summer was yet intense the days had considerably12 shortened, and before he had advanced a mile on his way all the heath purples, browns, and greens had merged13 in a uniform dress without airiness or graduation, and broken only by touches of white where the little heaps of clean quartz14 sand showed the entrance to a rabbit burrow15, or where the white flints of a footpath16 lay like a thread over the slopes. In almost every one of the isolated17 and stunted18 thorns which grew here and there a nighthawk revealed his presence by whirring like the clack of a mill as long as he could hold his breath, then stopping, flapping his wings, wheeling round the bush, alighting, and after a silent interval19 of listening beginning to whirr again. At each brushing of Clym's feet white millermoths flew into the air just high enough to catch upon their dusty wings the mellowed20 light from the west, which now shone across the depressions and levels of the ground without falling thereon to light them up.
Yeobright walked on amid this quiet scene with a hope that all would soon be well. Three miles on he came to a spot where a soft perfume was wafted21 across his path, and he stood still for a moment to inhale22 the familiar scent23. It was the place at which, four hours earlier, his mother had sat down exhausted24 on the knoll25 covered with shepherd's-thyme. While he stood a sound between a breathing and a moan suddenly reached his ears.
He looked to where the sound came from; but nothing appeared there save the verge26 of the hillock stretching against the sky in an unbroken line. He moved a few steps in that direction, and now he perceived a recumbent figure almost close to his feet.
Among the different possibilities as to the person's individuality there did not for a moment occur to Yeobright that it might be one of his own family. Sometimes furze-cutters had been known to sleep out of doors at these times, to save a long journey homeward and back again; but Clym remembered the moan and looked closer, and saw that the form was feminine; and a distress27 came over him like cold air from a cave. But he was not absolutely certain that the woman was his mother till he stooped and beheld28 her face, pallid29, and with closed eyes.
His breath went, as it were, out of his body and the cry of anguish30 which would have escaped him died upon his lips. During the momentary31 interval that elapsed before he became conscious that something must be done all sense of time and place left him, and it seemed as if he and his mother were as when he was a child with her many years ago on this heath at hours similar to the present. Then he awoke to activity; and bending yet lower he found that she still breathed, and that her breath though feeble was regular, except when disturbed by an occasional gasp32.
"O, what is it! Mother, are you very ill--you are not dying?" he cried, pressing his lips to her face. "I am your Clym. How did you come here? What does it all mean?"
At that moment the chasm33 in their lives which his love for Eustacia had caused was not remembered by Yeobright, and to him the present joined continuously with that friendly past that had been their experience before the division.
She moved her lips, appeared to know him, but could not speak; and then Clym strove to consider how best to move her, as it would be necessary to get her away from the spot before the dews were intense. He was able-bodied, and his mother was thin. He clasped his arms round her, lifted her a little, and said, "Does that hurt you?"
She shook her head, and he lifted her up; then, at a slow pace, went onward34 with his load. The air was now completely cool; but whenever he passed over a sandy patch of ground uncarpeted with vegetation there was reflected from its surface into his face the heat which it had imbibed35 during the day. At the beginning of his undertaking36 he had thought but little of the distance which yet would have to be traversed before Blooms-End could be reached; but though he had slept that afternoon he soon began to feel the weight of his burden. Thus he proceeded, like Aeneas with his father; the bats circling round his head, nightjars flapping their wings within a yard of his face, and not a human being within call.
While he was yet nearly a mile from the house his mother exhibited signs of restlessness under the constraint37 of being borne along, as if his arms were irksome to her. He lowered her upon his knees and looked around. The point they had now reached, though far from any road, was not more than a mile from the Blooms-End cottages occupied by Fairway, Sam, Humphrey, and the Cantles. Moreover, fifty yards off stood a hut, built of clods and covered with thin turves, but now entirely38 disused. The simple outline of the lonely shed was visible, and thither39 he determined40 to direct his steps. As soon as he arrived he laid her down carefully by the entrance, and then ran and cut with his pocketknife an armful of the dryest fern. Spreading this within the shed, which was entirely open on one side, he placed his mother thereon; then he ran with all his might towards the dwelling41 of Fairway.
Nearly a quarter of an hour had passed, disturbed only by the broken breathing of the sufferer, when moving figures began to animate42 the line between heath and sky. In a few moments Clym arrived with Fairway, Humphrey, and Susan Nunsuch; Olly Dowden, who had chanced to be at Fairway's, Christian43 and Grandfer Cantle following helter-skelter behind. They had brought a lantern and matches, water, a pillow, and a few other articles which had occurred to their minds in the hurry of the moment. Sam had been despatched back again for brandy, and a boy brought Fairway's pony44, upon which he rode off to the nearest medical man, with directions to call at Wildeve's on his way, and inform Thomasin that her aunt was unwell.
Sam and the brandy soon arrived, and it was administered by the light of the lantern; after which she became sufficiently45 conscious to signify by signs that something was wrong with her foot. Olly Dowden at length understood her meaning, and examined the foot indicated. It was swollen46 and red. Even as they watched the red began to assume a more livid colour, in the midst of which appeared a scarlet47 speck48, smaller than a pea, and it was found to consist of a drop of blood, which rose above the smooth flesh of her ankle in a hemisphere.
"I know what it is," cried Sam. "She has been stung by an adder49!"
"Yes," said Clym instantly. "I remember when I was a child seeing just such a bite. O, my poor mother!"
"It was my father who was bit," said Sam. "And there's only one way to cure it. You must rub the place with the fat of other adders50, and the only way to get that is by frying them. That's what they did for him."
"'Tis an old remedy," said Clym distrustfully, "and I have doubts about it. But we can do nothing else till the doctor comes."
"'Tis a sure cure," said Olly Dowden, with emphasis. "I've used it when I used to go out nursing."
"Then we must pray for daylight, to catch them," said Clym gloomily.
"I will see what I can do," said Sam.
He took a green hazel which he had used as a walking stick, split it at the end, inserted a small pebble51, and with the lantern in his hand went out into the heath. Clym had by this time lit a small fire, and despatched Susan Nunsuch for a frying pan. Before she had returned Sam came in with three adders, one briskly coiling and uncoiling in the cleft52 of the stick, and the other two hanging dead across it.
"I have only been able to get one alive and fresh as he ought to be," said Sam. "These limp ones are two I killed today at work; but as they don't die till the sun goes down they can't be very stale meat."
The live adder regarded the assembled group with a sinister53 look in its small black eye, and the beautiful brown and jet pattern on its back seemed to intensify54 with indignation. Mrs. Yeobright saw the creature, and the creature saw her--she quivered throughout, and averted55 her eyes.
"Look at that," murmured Christian Cantle. "Neighbours, how do we know but that something of the old serpent in God's garden, that gied the apple to the young woman with no clothes, lives on in adders and snakes still? Look at his eye--for all the world like a villainous sort of black currant. 'Tis to be hoped he can't ill-wish us! There's folks in heath who've been overlooked already. I will never kill another adder as long as I live."
"Well, 'tis right to be afeard of things, if folks can't help it," said Grandfer Cantle. "'Twould have saved me many a brave danger in my time."
"I fancy I heard something outside the shed," said Christian. "I wish troubles would come in the daytime, for then a man could show his courage, and hardly beg for mercy of the most broomstick old woman he should see, if he was a brave man, and able to run out of her sight!"
"Even such an ignorant fellow as I should know better than do that," said Sam.
"Well, there's calamities56 where we least expect it, whether or no. Neighbours, if Mrs. Yeobright were to die, d'ye think we should be took up and tried for the manslaughter of a woman?"
"No, they couldn't bring it in as that," said Sam, "unless they could prove we had been poachers at some time of our lives. But she'll fetch round."
"Now, if I had been stung by ten adders I should hardly have lost a day's work for't," said Grandfer Cantle. "Such is my spirit when I am on my mettle57. But perhaps 'tis natural in a man trained for war. Yes, I've gone through a good deal; but nothing ever came amiss to me after I joined the Locals in four." He shook his head and smiled at a mental picture of himself in uniform. "I was always first in the most galliantest scrapes in my younger days!"
"I suppose that was because they always used to put the biggest fool afore," said Fairway from the fire, beside which he knelt, blowing it with his breath.
"D'ye think so, Timothy?" said Grandfer Cantle, coming forward to Fairway's side with sudden depression in his face. "Then a man may feel for years that he is good solid company, and be wrong about himself after all?"
"Never mind that question, Grandfer. Stir your stumps58 and get some more sticks. 'Tis very nonsense of an old man to prattle59 so when life and death's in mangling60."
"Yes, yes," said Grandfer Cantle, with melancholy61 conviction. "Well, this is a bad night altogether for them that have done well in their time; and if I were ever such a dab62 at the hautboy or tenor63 viol, I shouldn't have the heart to play tunes64 upon 'em now."
Susan now arrived with the frying pan, when the live adder was killed and the heads of the three taken off. The remainders, being cut into lengths and split open, were tossed into the pan, which began hissing65 and crackling over the fire. Soon a rill of clear oil trickled66 from the carcases, whereupon Clym dipped the corner of his handkerchief into the liquid and anointed the wound.
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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postponement
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| n.推迟 | |
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sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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footpath
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| n.小路，人行道 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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mellowed
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| （使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香 | |
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wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inhale
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| v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟) | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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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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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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imbibed
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| v.吸收( imbibe的过去式和过去分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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adder
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| n.蝰蛇；小毒蛇 | |
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adders
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| n.加法器，（欧洲产）蝰蛇（小毒蛇），（北美产无毒的）猪鼻蛇( adder的名词复数 ) | |
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pebble
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| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
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cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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intensify
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| vt.加强；变强；加剧 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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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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prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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mangling
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| 重整 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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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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tunes
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| n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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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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trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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