The second time the white-waistcoated functionary17 arrived with “another of the same,” things wore a far different aspect. Everybody was talking at once on the same subject. Like a bag-fox before an unruly pack of hounds, the topic of steeple-chasing had been started for the general confusion, and each ran his own line and threw his tongue for his own especial encouragement; there seemed no doubt about the long-talked-of race coming off. Preliminaries were adjusted, weights discussed, and a country suggested. Even Struggles seemed to have got over his aversion to the mongrel sport. But on the stout18 Ganymede’s third and last appearance with “the landlord’s bottle,” the storm was at its loudest, Mr. Sawyer laying down the law with the best. Betting-books were out: even the Reverend had produced what he called “some memorandums;” and the only intelligible19 sounds, amidst the clamour, were the ominous20 words “five-to-two”—current odds21 which everybody seemed to lay, and nobody to take. The discreet22 servant then whispered to his master that a second edition of coffee was ready to go into the drawing-room, and ere long a glass of brown sherry all round screwed our friends’ courage up to face the ladies once more.
Each man accordingly composed his features into a vacant simper, pulled his neckcloth up, and his wristbands down, and straddled into the presence of those indulgent beings, with an abortive23 attempt to look as if he, individually, had been drinking little or no wine.
Cissy was at the pianoforte. If Mr. Sawyer had thought her charming before, what must have been his opinion of that sparkling young lady now, seen through the medium of a fair share of champagne24 at dinner, and the best part of two bottles of claret afterwards? Lights, dress, and a general atmosphere of luxury and refinement25, have a wonderful effect in enhancing the attractions of the fair. Alas26, that we should have lived to admit it! Though the poet may opine that “beauty unadorned is adorned27 the most,” our hackneyed taste cannot but confess that it prefers the French maid’s coiffure to the dishevelled tresses; the trim silk stocking, and neat satin shoe, to the slippers28 down at heel; and the shapely corsage, with its abundant crinoline, to the limp and unassuming dressing-gown. Mr. Sawyer was quite satisfied with Cissy as she was.
The musician was playing “The Swallows,” or “The Humming Bird,” or “The Spring Geese;” Sawyer had no ear for music, and neither knew nor cared which. She just glanced at him as he entered the room, but the encouragement was sufficient to lead him to the instrument.
“How long you have been!” said Miss Cissy in a low voice, without looking up, rattling29 away at the keys in the loudest of finales, with a vehemence30 that drowned her observations to all ears but her admirer’s. Then she closed the instrument, whispered papa to order the whist-table, and went and sat on the sofa by Mrs. Merrywether in such a position that Mr. Sawyer couldn’t possibly get at her.
They do not read Izaak Walton, these young women, and yet how well they know how to play their fish! Is it constant reflection and mutual31 discussion, I wonder, that makes the least experienced of them such skilful32 anglers? or is it not rather an intuitive sagacity, akin1 to that with which the kitten teases her ball of cotton as dexterously33 as the cat does a full-grown mouse? They suck it in, the science of man-taming, I am inclined to believe, with their mothers’ milk. Mamma was just the same, doubtless; and grandmamma too, whom she can just remember, with a cough and crutches34, and so on, up to Eve.
With the good-humoured Struggles for a partner and so much of his brains as the claret had left untouched, filled with the image of a dark-eyed young person in white muslin, it was Mr. Sawyer’s lot to do battle at the noble game of whist, against two no less formidable antagonists35 than Savage and Parson Dove, both first-rate performers even after dinner.
To be successful at this pastime, a man’s whole intellects should be engrossed36 by the cards, and this was by no means the case with our friend. In spite of his partner’s good-humoured entreaties37 to “pay attention,” he could not prevent his thoughts, and sometimes his eyes, from wandering to the sofa near the fire-place. He had never liked Brush quite as well as the rest of his companions, but on the present occasion he could not refrain from wishing him even in a hotter place than that which he had selected. The Major with devoted38 gallantry, having placed his back to a fire that would have roasted an ox, was holding forth39 in his most agreeable manner to Mrs. Merrywether and the laughing Cissy. Crasher, in the easiest of arm-chairs, was helping40 Mrs. Dove to make paper lights, and revolving41 in his own mind, while he listened amiably42 to the continuous discourse43 of his hostess, whether he wouldn’t pole up Marathon a little shorter going home, and try the more direct road against which the Reverend was in the habit of warning his guests. They would save a mile, in distance, he thought, and there was sure to be more light on their return. The Honourable had a sort of vague idea, that there was always a moon about one or two o’clock.
Suddenly an explosion of laughter from the window, under cover of which the unconscious Sawyer revoked44, and was immediately found out, startled the whole assembly. “How absurd you are!” exclaimed that noisy dame45, in answer to some proposition of the Major’s which appeared highly amusing to the ladies on the sofa. “Now I appeal to ‘Cissy’ whether she agrees with you. Girls are the best judges. Cissy! do you think the Major as invincible46 as he says he is?”
Mr. Sawyer, on thorns to hear the answer, trumped47 his partner’s best with considerable emphasis, and lost another trick.
“It’s not fair to ask me,” answered Miss Dove, laughing heartily48. “He knows I admire him immensely; I’ve always told him so!” and the three went on with their conversation, which, I am bound to say, was great nonsense, but amused them considerably49 all the same.
After this, Struggles thought the sooner they left off whist the better. There is scarcely a mistake, of which that intricate game admits, into which Mr. Sawyer did not rush, so to speak, as if with a suicidal purpose. “Hang the fellow!” thought Struggles, eyeing his partner with a kind of good-humoured astonishment50: “if he was drunk, one could understand it; never saw such a thing! never saw such cards so thrown away! and yet the man’s no fool. Oh! he must be drunk! must be! but carries his liquor with discretion51!” and thereupon Struggles found himself looking upon his partner’s features with a more indulgent eye, and contemplating52 his own losses with the resignation of a man who suffers in a good cause.
Three rubbers! one of them a bumper53! How many points, for the sake of my hero, I am ashamed to confess. It was indeed, as Struggles pathetically remarked, “about the worst night he’d ever had, since he left Westminster.”
Yet there was balm in Gilead, after all. The Honourable, resisting all entreaties to stay and have some supper, rang to order his phaeton round, and went fast asleep in his arm-chair after the exertion54. Their host, exhilarated by his winnings, and in high good-humour, began about the steeple-chase; and the ladies, who, I am convinced, patronise these exhibitions chiefly on account of the silk jackets, and connect them remotely in their own minds with a fancy dress ball, began to betray great curiosity on the subject of the “colours of the riders,” “gorge de pigeon,” the Major’s selected hue14, having decidedly the call. During the discussion which so favourite a topic was sure to engender55, it came out, somehow, that Mr. Sawyer was going to take part in the hazardous56 amusement—an announcement which he made darkly, and with a sidelong glance at Cissy, that seemed to say he would rather break his neck than not. The young lady having teased him enough, was quite ready to meet him halfway57. “Isn’t it very dangerous?” said she, with clasped hands and a look of affectionate interest. “Are you really going to ride, Mr. Sawyer? Oh! how I hope you’ll win!” And down went the eyelashes once more.
After that, what cared Mr. Sawyer for rubbers, bumpers58, points and losses? Everything was couleur de rose again. Whilst the others gathered round the wine-and-water tray, he sank down on the sofa by her side, and for a delicious five minutes had his enslaver all to himself. In that brief period, he managed to find out her favourite colour, and promised to adopt it in the coming steeple-chase. A few stars were twinkling dimly through the cloudy atmosphere when he lit his cigar and got into the phaeton by the Honourable’s side. Why couldn’t Mr. Sawyer look at them without thinking of Cissy Dove?
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1 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
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2 expatiating | |
v.详述,细说( expatiate的现在分词 ) | |
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3 honourable | |
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
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4 regularity | |
n.规律性,规则性;匀称,整齐 | |
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5 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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6 dabbled | |
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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7 perspicuity | |
n.(文体的)明晰 | |
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8 vibrations | |
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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9 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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10 imbibing | |
v.吸收( imbibe的现在分词 );喝;吸取;吸气 | |
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11 tinged | |
v.(使)发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 waned | |
v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 );(月)亏;变小;变暗淡 | |
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13 rosier | |
Rosieresite | |
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14 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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15 hues | |
色彩( hue的名词复数 ); 色调; 信仰; 观点 | |
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16 purveyor | |
n.承办商,伙食承办商 | |
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17 functionary | |
n.官员;公职人员 | |
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19 intelligible | |
adj.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的 | |
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20 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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21 odds | |
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别 | |
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22 discreet | |
adj.(言行)谨慎的;慎重的;有判断力的 | |
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23 abortive | |
adj.不成功的,发育不全的 | |
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24 champagne | |
n.香槟酒;微黄色 | |
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25 refinement | |
n.文雅;高尚;精美;精制;精炼 | |
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26 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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27 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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28 slippers | |
n. 拖鞋 | |
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29 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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30 vehemence | |
n.热切;激烈;愤怒 | |
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31 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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32 skilful | |
(=skillful)adj.灵巧的,熟练的 | |
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33 dexterously | |
adv.巧妙地,敏捷地 | |
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34 crutches | |
n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑 | |
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35 antagonists | |
对立[对抗] 者,对手,敌手( antagonist的名词复数 ); 对抗肌; 对抗药 | |
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36 engrossed | |
adj.全神贯注的 | |
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37 entreaties | |
n.恳求,乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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38 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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39 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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40 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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41 revolving | |
adj.旋转的,轮转式的;循环的v.(使)旋转( revolve的现在分词 );细想 | |
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42 amiably | |
adv.和蔼可亲地,亲切地 | |
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43 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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44 revoked | |
adj.[法]取消的v.撤销,取消,废除( revoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 dame | |
n.女士 | |
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46 invincible | |
adj.不可征服的,难以制服的 | |
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47 trumped | |
v.(牌戏)出王牌赢(一牌或一墩)( trump的过去分词 );吹号公告,吹号庆祝;吹喇叭;捏造 | |
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48 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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49 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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50 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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51 discretion | |
n.谨慎;随意处理 | |
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52 contemplating | |
深思,细想,仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 ); 注视,凝视; 考虑接受(发生某事的可能性); 深思熟虑,沉思,苦思冥想 | |
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53 bumper | |
n.(汽车上的)保险杠;adj.特大的,丰盛的 | |
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54 exertion | |
n.尽力,努力 | |
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55 engender | |
v.产生,引起 | |
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56 hazardous | |
adj.(有)危险的,冒险的;碰运气的 | |
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57 halfway | |
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途 | |
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58 bumpers | |
(汽车上的)保险杠,缓冲器( bumper的名词复数 ) | |
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