Chapter 16

　　READING. - WE ARE TOWED BY STEAM LAUNCH. - IRRITATING BEHAVIOUR OF SMALLBOATS. - HOW THEY GET IN THE WAY OF STEAM LAUNCHES. - GEORGE AND HARRISAGAIN SHIRK THEIR WORK. - RATHER A HACKNEYED STORY. - STREATLEY ANDGORING.

　　WE came in sight of Reading about eleven. The river is dirty and dismalhere. One does not linger in the neighbourhood of Reading. The townitself is a famous old place, dating from the dim days of King Ethelred,when the Danes anchored their warships² in the Kennet, and started fromReading to ravage³ all the land of Wessex; and here Ethelred and hisbrother Alfred fought and defeated them, Ethelred doing the praying andAlfred the fighting.

　　In later years, Reading seems to have been regarded as a handy place torun down to, when matters were becoming unpleasant in London. Parliamentgenerally rushed off to Reading whenever there was a plague on atWestminster; and, in 1625, the Law followed suit, and all the courts wereheld at Reading. It must have been worth while having a mere⁴ ordinaryplague now and then in London to get rid of both the lawyers and theParliament.

　　During the Parliamentary struggle, Reading was besieged⁵ by the Earl ofEssex, and, a quarter of a century later, the Prince of Orange routedKing James's troops there.

　　Henry I. lies buried at Reading, in the Benedictine abbey founded by himthere, the ruins of which may still be seen; and, in this same abbey,great John of Gaunt was married to the Lady Blanche.

　　At Reading lock we came up with a steam launch, belonging to some friendsof mine, and they towed us up to within about a mile of Streatley. It isvery delightful⁶ being towed up by a launch. I prefer it myself torowing. The run would have been more delightful still, if it had notbeen for a lot of wretched small boats that were continually getting inthe way of our launch, and, to avoid running down which, we had to becontinually easing and stopping. It is really most annoying, the mannerin which these rowing boats get in the way of one's launch up the river;something ought to done to stop it.

　　And they are so confoundedly impertinent, too, over it. You can whistletill you nearly burst your boiler⁷ before they will trouble themselves tohurry. I would have one or two of them run down now and then, if I hadmy way, just to teach them all a lesson.

　　The river becomes very lovely from a little above Reading. The railwayrather spoils it near Tilehurst, but from Mapledurham up to Streatley itis glorious. A little above Mapledurham lock you pass Hardwick House,where Charles I. played bowls. The neighbourhood of Pangbourne, wherethe quaint⁸ little Swan Inn stands, must be as familiar to the HABITUES ofthe Art Exhibitions as it is to its own inhabitants.

　　My friends' launch cast us loose just below the grotto⁹, and then Harriswanted to make out that it was my turn to pull. This seemed to me mostunreasonable. It had been arranged in the morning that I should bringthe boat up to three miles above Reading. Well, here we were, ten milesabove Reading! Surely it was now their turn again.

　　I could not get either George or Harris to see the matter in its properlight, however; so, to save argument, I took the sculls. I had not beenpulling for more than a minute or so, when George noticed something blackfloating on the water, and we drew up to it. George leant over, as weneared it, and laid hold of it. And then he drew back with a cry, and ablanched face.

　　It was the dead body of a woman. It lay very lightly on the water, andthe face was sweet and calm. It was not a beautiful face; it was tooprematurely aged-looking, too thin and drawn¹⁰, to be that; but it was agentle, lovable face, in spite of its stamp of pinch and poverty, andupon it was that look of restful peace that comes to the faces of thesick sometimes when at last the pain has left them.

　　Fortunately for us - we having no desire to be kept hanging aboutcoroners' courts - some men on the bank had seen the body too, and nowtook charge of it from us.

　　We found out the woman's story afterwards. Of course it was the old, oldvulgar tragedy. She had loved and been deceived - or had deceivedherself. Anyhow, she had sinned - some of us do now and then - and herfamily and friends, naturally shocked and indignant, had closed theirdoors against her.

　　Left to fight the world alone, with the millstone of her shame around herneck, she had sunk ever lower and lower. For a while she had kept bothherself and the child on the twelve shillings a week that twelve hours'

　　drudgery a day procured¹¹ her, paying six shillings out of it for thechild, and keeping her own body and soul together on the remainder.

　　Six shillings a week does not keep body and soul together very unitedly.

　　They want to get away from each other when there is only such a veryslight bond as that between them; and one day, I suppose, the pain andthe dull monotony of it all had stood before her eyes plainer than usual,and the mocking spectre had frightened her. She had made one last appealto friends, but, against the chill wall of their respectability, thevoice of the erring¹² outcast fell unheeded; and then she had gone to seeher child - had held it in her arms and kissed it, in a weary, dull sortof way, and without betraying any particular emotion of any kind, and hadleft it, after putting into its hand a penny box of chocolate she hadbought it, and afterwards, with her last few shillings, had taken aticket and come down to Goring¹.

　　It seemed that the bitterest thoughts of her life must have centred aboutthe wooded reaches and the bright green meadows around Goring; but womenstrangely hug the knife that stabs them, and, perhaps, amidst the gall,there may have mingled¹³ also sunny memories of sweetest hours, spent uponthose shadowed deeps over which the great trees bend their branches downso low.

　　She had wandered about the woods by the river's brink¹⁴ all day, and then,when evening fell and the grey twilight¹⁵ spread its dusky robe upon thewaters, she stretched her arms out to the silent river that had known hersorrow and her joy. And the old river had taken her into its gentlearms, and had laid her weary head upon its bosom¹⁶, and had hushed away thepain.

　　Thus had she sinned in all things - sinned in living and in dying. Godhelp her! and all other sinners, if any more there be.

　　Goring on the left bank and Streatley on the right are both or eithercharming places to stay at for a few days. The reaches down toPangbourne woo one for a sunny sail or for a moonlight row, and thecountry round about is full of beauty. We had intended to push on toWallingford that day, but the sweet smiling face of the river here luredus to linger for a while; and so we left our boat at the bridge, and wentup into Streatley, and lunched at the "Bull," much to Montmorency'ssatisfaction.

　　They say that the hills on each ride of the stream here once joined andformed a barrier across what is now the Thames, and that then the riverended there above Goring in one vast lake. I am not in a position eitherto contradict or affirm this statement. I simply offer it.

　　It is an ancient place, Streatley, dating back, like most river-sidetowns and villages, to British and Saxon times. Goring is not nearly sopretty a little spot to stop at as Streatley, if you have your choice;but it is passing fair enough in its way, and is nearer the railway incase you want to slip off without paying your hotel bill.

1 goring   

v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• General Goring spoke for about two hours. 戈林将军的发言持续了大约两个小时。 来自英汉非文学 - 新闻报道
• Always do they talk that way with their arrogance before a goring. 他们挨牛角之前，总是这样吹大牛。 来自辞典例句

2 warships   

军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只

参考例句：

• The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后，敌舰退出了海战。
• The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。

3 ravage   

vt.使...荒废，破坏...；n.破坏，掠夺，荒废

参考例句：

• Just in time to watch a plague ravage his village.恰好目睹了瘟疫毁灭了他的村庄。
• For two decades the country has been ravaged by civil war and foreign intervention.20年来，这个国家一直被内战外侵所蹂躏。

4 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

5 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

6 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

7 boiler   

n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等)

参考例句：

• That boiler will not hold up under pressure.那种锅炉受不住压力。
• This new boiler generates more heat than the old one.这个新锅炉产生的热量比旧锅炉多。

8 quaint   

adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的

参考例句：

• There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里，有很多小巷。
• They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。

9 grotto   

n.洞穴

参考例句：

• We reached a beautiful grotto,whose entrance was almost hiden by the vine.我们到达了一个美丽的洞穴，洞的进口几乎被藤蔓遮掩著。
• Water trickles through an underground grotto.水沿着地下岩洞流淌。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 procured   

v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条

参考例句：

• These cars are to be procured through open tender. 这些汽车要用公开招标的办法购买。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A friend procured a position in the bank for my big brother. 一位朋友为我哥哥谋得了一个银行的职位。 来自《用法词典》

12 erring   

做错事的，错误的

参考例句：

• Instead of bludgeoning our erring comrades, we should help them with criticism. 对犯错误的同志， 要批评帮助，不能一棍子打死。
• She had too little faith in mankind not to know that they were erring. 她对男人们没有信心，知道他们总要犯错误的。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

13 mingled   

混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系]

参考例句：

• The sounds of laughter and singing mingled in the evening air. 笑声和歌声交织在夜空中。
• The man and the woman mingled as everyone started to relax. 当大家开始放松的时候，这一男一女就开始交往了。

14 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。

15 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

16 bosom   

n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的

参考例句：

• She drew a little book from her bosom.她从怀里取出一本小册子。
• A dark jealousy stirred in his bosom.他内心生出一阵恶毒的嫉妒。