There is a hush1 upon Chesney Wold in these altered days, as thereis upon a portion of the family history. The story goes that SirLeicester paid some who could have spoken out to hold their peace;but it is a lame2 story, feebly whispering and creeping about, andany brighter spark of life it shows soon dies away. It is knownfor certain that the handsome Lady Dedlock lies in the mausoleum inthe park, where the trees arch darkly overhead, and the owl3 isheard at night making the woods ring; but whence she was broughthome to be laid among the echoes of that solitary4 place, or how shedied, is all mystery. Some of her old friends, principally to befound among the peachy-cheeked charmers with the skeleton throats,did once occasionally say, as they toyed in a ghastly manner withlarge fans--like charmers reduced to flirting5 with grim death,after losing all their other beaux--did once occasionally say, whenthe world assembled together, that they wondered the ashes of theDedlocks, entombed in the mausoleum, never rose against theprofanation of her company. But the dead-and-gone Dedlocks take itvery calmly and have never been known to object.
Up from among the fern in the hollow, and winding6 by the bridle-road among the trees, comes sometimes to this lonely spot the soundof horses' hoofs7. Then may be seen Sir Leicester--invalided, bent,and almost blind, but of worthy8 presence yet--riding with astalwart man beside him, constant to his bridle-rein. When theycome to a certain spot before the mausoleum-door, Sir Leicester'saccustomed horse stops of his own accord, and Sir Leicester,pulling off his hat, is still for a few moments before they rideaway.
War rages yet with the audacious Boythorn, though at uncertainintervals, and now hotly, and now coolly, flickering9 like anunsteady fire. The truth is said to be that when Sir Leicestercame down to Lincolnshire for good, Mr. Boythorn showed a manifestdesire to abandon his right of way and do whatever Sir Leicesterwould, which Sir Leicester, conceiving to be a condescension10 to hisillness or misfortune, took in such high dudgeon, and was somagnificently aggrieved11 by, that Mr. Boythorn found himself underthe necessity of committing a flagrant trespass12 to restore hisneighbour to himself. Similarly, Mr. Boythorn continues to posttremendous placards on the disputed thoroughfare and (with his birdupon his head) to hold forth13 vehemently14 against Sir Leicester inthe sanctuary15 of his own home; similarly, also, he defies him as ofold in the little church by testifying a bland16 unconsciousness ofhis existence. But it is whispered that when he is most ferocioustowards his old foe17, he is really most considerate, and that SirLeicester, in the dignity of being implacable, little supposes howmuch he is humoured. As little does he think how near together heand his antagonist18 have suffered in the fortunes of two sisters,and his antagonist, who knows it now, is not the man to tell him.
So the quarrel goes on to the satisfaction of both.
In one of the lodges19 of the park--that lodge20 within sight of thehouse where, once upon a time, when the waters were out down inLincolnshire, my Lady used to see the keeper's child--the stalwartman, the trooper formerly21, is housed. Some relics22 of his oldcalling hang upon the walls, and these it is the chosen recreationof a little lame man about the stable-yard to keep gleaming bright.
A busy little man he always is, in the polishing at harness-housedoors, of stirrup-irons, bits, curb-chains, harness bosses,anything in the way of a stable-yard that will take a polish,leading a life of friction23. A shaggy little damaged man, withal,not unlike an old dog of some mongrel breed, who has beenconsiderably knocked about. He answers to the name of Phil.
A goodly sight it is to see the grand old housekeeper24 (harder ofhearing now) going to church on the arm of her son and to observe--which few do, for the house is scant25 of company in these times--therelations of both towards Sir Leicester, and his towards them.
They have visitors in the high summer weather, when a grey cloakand umbrella, unknown to Chesney Wold at other periods, are seenamong the leaves; when two young ladies are occasionally foundgambolling in sequestered26 saw-pits and such nooks of the park; andwhen the smoke of two pipes wreathes away into the fragrant27 eveningair from the trooper's door. Then is a fife heard trolling withinthe lodge on the inspiring topic of the "British Grenadiers"; andas the evening closes in, a gruff inflexible28 voice is heard to say,while two men pace together up and down, "But I never own to itbefore the old girl. Discipline must be maintained."The greater part of the house is shut up, and it is a show-house nolonger; yet Sir Leicester holds his shrunken state in the longdrawing-room for all that, and reposes30 in his old place before myLady's picture. Closed in by night with broad screens, andillumined only in that part, the light of the drawing-room seemsgradually contracting and dwindling31 until it shall be no more. Alittle more, in truth, and it will be all extinguished for SirLeicester; and the damp door in the mausoleum which shuts so tight,and looks so obdurate32, will have opened and received him.
Volumnia, growing with the flight of time pinker as to the red inher face, and yellower as to the white, reads to Sir Leicester inthe long evenings and is driven to various artifices33 to conceal34 heryawns, of which the chief and most efficacious is the insertion ofthe pearl necklace between her rosy35 lips. Long-winded treatises36 onthe Buffy and Boodle question, showing how Buffy is immaculate andBoodle villainous, and how the country is lost by being all Boodleand no Buffy, or saved by being all Buffy and no Boodle (it must beone of the two, and cannot be anything else), are the staple37 of herreading. Sir Leicester is not particular what it is and does notappear to follow it very closely, further than that he always comesbroad awake the moment Volumnia ventures to leave off, andsonorously repeating her last words, begs with some displeasure toknow if she finds herself fatigued38. However, Volumnia, in thecourse of her bird-like hopping39 about and pecking at papers, hasalighted on a memorandum40 concerning herself in the event of"anything happening" to her kinsman41, which is handsome compensationfor an extensive course of reading and holds even the dragonBoredom at bay.
The cousins generally are rather shy of Chesney Wold in itsdullness, but take to it a little in the shooting season, when gunsare heard in the plantations42, and a few scattered43 beaters andkeepers wait at the old places of appointment for low-spirited twosand threes of cousins. The debilitated44 cousin, more debilitated bythe dreariness45 of the place, gets into a fearful state ofdepression, groaning46 under penitential sofa-pillows in his gunlesshours and protesting that such fernal old jail's--nough t'sew flerup--frever.
The only great occasions for Volumnia in this changed aspect of theplace in Lincolnshire are those occasions, rare and widelyseparated, when something is to be done for the county or thecountry in the way of gracing a public ball. Then, indeed, doesthe tuckered sylph come out in fairy form and proceed with joyunder cousinly escort to the exhausted47 old assembly-room, fourteenheavy miles off, which, during three hundred and sixty-four daysand nights of every ordinary year, is a kind of antipodean lumber-room full of old chairs and tables upside down. Then, indeed, doesshe captivate all hearts by her condescension, by her girlishvivacity, and by her skipping about as in the days when the hideousold general with the mouth too full of teeth had not cut one ofthem at two guineas each. Then does she twirl and twine48, apastoral nymph of good family, through the mazes49 of the dance.
Then do the swains appear with tea, with lemonade, with sandwiches,with homage50. Then is she kind and cruel, stately and unassuming,various, beautifully wilful51. Then is there a singular kind ofparallel between her and the little glass chandeliers of anotherage embellishing52 that assembly-room, which, with their meagrestems, their spare little drops, their disappointing knobs where nodrops are, their bare little stalks from which knobs and drops haveboth departed, and their little feeble prismatic twinkling, allseem Volumnias.
For the rest, Lincolnshire life to Volumnia is a vast blank ofovergrown house looking out upon trees, sighing, wringing53 theirhands, bowing their heads, and casting their tears upon the window-panes in monotonous54 depressions. A labyrinth55 of grandeur56, less theproperty of an old family of human beings and their ghostlylikenesses than of an old family of echoings and thunderings whichstart out of their hundred graves at every sound and go resoundingthrough the building. A waste of unused passages and staircases inwhich to drop a comb upon a bedroom floor at night is to send astealthy footfall on an errand through the house. A place wherefew people care to go about alone, where a maid screams if an ashdrops from the fire, takes to crying at all times and seasons,becomes the victim of a low disorder57 of the spirits, and giveswarning and departs.
Thus Chesney Wold. With so much of itself abandoned to darknessand vacancy58; with so little change under the summer shining or thewintry lowering; so sombre and motionless always--no flag flyingnow by day, no rows of lights sparkling by night; with no family tocome and go, no visitors to be the souls of pale cold shapes ofrooms, no stir of life about it--passion and pride, even to thestranger's eye, have died away from the place in Lincolnshire andyielded it to dull repose29.
1 hush | |
int.嘘,别出声;n.沉默,静寂;v.使安静 | |
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2 lame | |
adj.跛的,(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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3 owl | |
n.猫头鹰,枭 | |
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4 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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5 flirting | |
v.调情,打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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6 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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7 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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8 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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9 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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10 condescension | |
n.自以为高人一等,贬低(别人) | |
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11 aggrieved | |
adj.愤愤不平的,受委屈的;悲痛的;(在合法权利方面)受侵害的v.令委屈,令苦恼,侵害( aggrieve的过去式);令委屈,令苦恼,侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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12 trespass | |
n./v.侵犯,闯入私人领地 | |
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13 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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14 vehemently | |
adv. 热烈地 | |
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15 sanctuary | |
n.圣所,圣堂,寺庙;禁猎区,保护区 | |
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16 bland | |
adj.淡而无味的,温和的,无刺激性的 | |
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17 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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18 antagonist | |
n.敌人,对抗者,对手 | |
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19 lodges | |
v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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20 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
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21 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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22 relics | |
[pl.]n.遗物,遗迹,遗产;遗体,尸骸 | |
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23 friction | |
n.摩擦,摩擦力 | |
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24 housekeeper | |
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家 | |
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25 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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26 sequestered | |
adj.扣押的;隐退的;幽静的;偏僻的v.使隔绝,使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 );扣押 | |
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27 fragrant | |
adj.芬香的,馥郁的,愉快的 | |
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28 inflexible | |
adj.不可改变的,不受影响的,不屈服的 | |
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29 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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30 reposes | |
v.将(手臂等)靠在某人(某物)上( repose的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31 dwindling | |
adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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32 obdurate | |
adj.固执的,顽固的 | |
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33 artifices | |
n.灵巧( artifice的名词复数 );诡计;巧妙办法;虚伪行为 | |
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34 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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35 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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36 treatises | |
n.专题著作,专题论文,专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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37 staple | |
n.主要产物,常用品,主要要素,原料,订书钉,钩环;adj.主要的,重要的;vt.分类 | |
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38 fatigued | |
adj. 疲乏的 | |
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39 hopping | |
n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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40 memorandum | |
n.备忘录,便笺 | |
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41 kinsman | |
n.男亲属 | |
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42 plantations | |
n.种植园,大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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43 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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44 debilitated | |
adj.疲惫不堪的,操劳过度的v.使(人或人的身体)非常虚弱( debilitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 dreariness | |
沉寂,可怕,凄凉 | |
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46 groaning | |
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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47 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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48 twine | |
v.搓,织,编饰;(使)缠绕 | |
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49 mazes | |
迷宫( maze的名词复数 ); 纷繁复杂的规则; 复杂难懂的细节; 迷宫图 | |
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50 homage | |
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
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51 wilful | |
adj.任性的,故意的 | |
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52 embellishing | |
v.美化( embellish的现在分词 );装饰;修饰;润色 | |
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53 wringing | |
淋湿的,湿透的 | |
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54 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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55 labyrinth | |
n.迷宫;难解的事物;迷路 | |
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56 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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57 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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58 vacancy | |
n.(旅馆的)空位,空房,(职务的)空缺 | |
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