I ENTERTAIN a weak idea that the English people are as hard-worked as any people upon whom the sun shines. I acknowledge to this ridiculous idiosyncrasy, as a reason why I would give them a little more play.
In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel1, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing2 airs and gases were bricked in; at the heart of the labyrinth3 of narrow courts upon courts, and close streets upon streets, which had come into existence piecemeal4, every piece in a violent hurry for some one man's purpose, and the whole an unnatural5 family, shouldering, and trampling6, and pressing one another to death; in the last close nook of this great exhausted7 receiver, where the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught8, were built in an immense variety of stunted9 and crooked10 shapes, as though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who might be expected to be born in it; among the multitude of Coketown, generically11 called 'the Hands,' - a race who would have found more favour with some people, if Providence12 had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the seashore, only hands and stomachs - lived a certain Stephen Blackpool, forty years of age.
Stephen looked older, but he had had a hard life. It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen's case, whereby somebody else had become possessed13 of his roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody else's thorns in addition to his own. He had known, to use his words, a peck of trouble. He was usually called Old Stephen, in a kind of rough homage14 to the fact.
A rather stooping man, with a knitted brow, a pondering expression of face, and a hard-looking head sufficiently15 capacious, on which his iron-grey hair lay long and thin, Old Stephen might have passed for a particularly intelligent man in his condition. Yet he was not. He took no place among those remarkable16 'Hands,' who, piecing together their broken intervals17 of leisure through many years, had mastered difficult sciences, and acquired a knowledge of most unlikely things. He held no station among the Hands who could make speeches and carry on debates. Thousands of his compeers could talk much better than he, at any time. He was a good power-loom weaver18, and a man of perfect integrity. What more he was, or what else he had in him, if anything, let him show for himself.
The lights in the great factories, which looked, when they were illuminated19, like Fairy palaces - or the travellers by express- train said so - were all extinguished; and the bells had rung for knocking off for the night, and had ceased again; and the Hands, men and women, boy and girl, were clattering20 home. Old Stephen was standing21 in the street, with the old sensation upon him which the stoppage of the machinery22 always produced - the sensation of its having worked and stopped in his own head.
'Yet I don't see Rachael, still!' said he.
It was a wet night, and many groups of young women passed him, with their shawls drawn23 over their bare heads and held close under their chins to keep the rain out. He knew Rachael well, for a glance at any one of these groups was sufficient to show him that she was not there. At last, there were no more to come; and then he turned away, saying in a tone of disappointment, 'Why, then, ha' missed her!'
But, he had not gone the length of three streets, when he saw another of the shawled figures in advance of him, at which he looked so keenly that perhaps its mere24 shadow indistinctly reflected on the wet pavement - if he could have seen it without the figure itself moving along from lamp to lamp, brightening and fading as it went - would have been enough to tell him who was there. Making his pace at once much quicker and much softer, he darted25 on until he was very near this figure, then fell into his former walk, and called 'Rachael!'
She turned, being then in the brightness of a lamp; and raising her hood26 a little, showed a quiet oval face, dark and rather delicate, irradiated by a pair of very gentle eyes, and further set off by the perfect order of her shining black hair. It was not a face in its first bloom; she was a woman five and thirty years of age.
'Ah, lad! 'Tis thou?' When she had said this, with a smile which would have been quite expressed, though nothing of her had been seen but her pleasant eyes, she replaced her hood again, and they went on together.
'I thought thou wast ahind me, Rachael?'
'No.'
'Early t'night, lass?'
''Times I'm a little early, Stephen! 'times a little late. I'm never to be counted on, going home.'
'Nor going t'other way, neither, 't seems to me, Rachael?'
'No, Stephen.'
He looked at her with some disappointment in his face, but with a respectful and patient conviction that she must be right in whatever she did. The expression was not lost upon her; she laid her hand lightly on his arm a moment as if to thank him for it.
'We are such true friends, lad, and such old friends, and getting to be such old folk, now.'
'No, Rachael, thou'rt as young as ever thou wast.'
'One of us would be puzzled how to get old, Stephen, without 't other getting so too, both being alive,' she answered, laughing; 'but, anyways, we're such old friends, and t' hide a word of honest truth fro' one another would be a sin and a pity. 'Tis better not to walk too much together. 'Times, yes! 'Twould be hard, indeed, if 'twas not to be at all,' she said, with a cheerfulness she sought to communicate to him.
''Tis hard, anyways, Rachael.'
'Try to think not; and 'twill seem better.'
'I've tried a long time, and 'ta'nt got better. But thou'rt right; 't might mak fok talk, even of thee. Thou hast been that to me, Rachael, through so many year: thou hast done me so much good, and heartened of me in that cheering way, that thy word is a law to me. Ah, lass, and a bright good law! Better than some real ones.'
'Never fret27 about them, Stephen,' she answered quickly, and not without an anxious glance at his face. 'Let the laws be.'
'Yes,' he said, with a slow nod or two. 'Let 'em be. Let everything be. Let all sorts alone. 'Tis a muddle28, and that's aw.'
'Always a muddle?' said Rachael, with another gentle touch upon his arm, as if to recall him out of the thoughtfulness, in which he was biting the long ends of his loose neckerchief as he walked along. The touch had its instantaneous effect. He let them fall, turned a smiling face upon her, and said, as he broke into a good-humoured laugh, 'Ay, Rachael, lass, awlus a muddle. That's where I stick. I come to the muddle many times and agen, and I never get beyond it.'
They had walked some distance, and were near their own homes. The woman's was the first reached. It was in one of the many small streets for which the favourite undertaker (who turned a handsome sum out of the one poor ghastly pomp of the neighbourhood) kept a black ladder, in order that those who had done their daily groping up and down the narrow stairs might slide out of this working world by the windows. She stopped at the corner, and putting her hand in his, wished him good night.
'Good night, dear lass; good night!'
She went, with her neat figure and her sober womanly step, down the dark street, and he stood looking after her until she turned into one of the small houses. There was not a flutter of her coarse shawl, perhaps, but had its interest in this man's eyes; not a tone of her voice but had its echo in his innermost heart.
When she was lost to his view, he pursued his homeward way, glancing up sometimes at the sky, where the clouds were sailing fast and wildly. But, they were broken now, and the rain had ceased, and the moon shone, - looking down the high chimneys of Coketown on the deep furnaces below, and casting Titanic29 shadows of the steam-engines at rest, upon the walls where they were lodged30. The man seemed to have brightened with the night, as he went on.
His home, in such another street as the first, saving that it was narrower, was over a little shop. How it came to pass that any people found it worth their while to sell or buy the wretched little toys, mixed up in its window with cheap newspapers and pork (there was a leg to be raffled31 for to-morrow-night), matters not here. He took his end of candle from a shelf, lighted it at another end of candle on the counter, without disturbing the mistress of the shop who was asleep in her little room, and went upstairs into his lodging32.
It was a room, not unacquainted with the black ladder under various tenants33; but as neat, at present, as such a room could be. A few books and writings were on an old bureau in a corner, the furniture was decent and sufficient, and, though the atmosphere was tainted34, the room was clean.
Going to the hearth35 to set the candle down upon a round three- legged table standing there, he stumbled against something. As he recoiled36, looking down at it, it raised itself up into the form of a woman in a sitting attitude.
'Heaven's mercy, woman!' he cried, falling farther off from the figure. 'Hast thou come back again!'
Such a woman! A disabled, drunken creature, barely able to preserve her sitting posture37 by steadying herself with one begrimed hand on the floor, while the other was so purposeless in trying to push away her tangled38 hair from her face, that it only blinded her the more with the dirt upon it. A creature so foul39 to look at, in her tatters, stains and splashes, but so much fouler40 than that in her moral infamy41, that it was a shameful42 thing even to see her.
After an impatient oath or two, and some stupid clawing of herself with the hand not necessary to her support, she got her hair away from her eyes sufficiently to obtain a sight of him. Then she sat swaying her body to and fro, and making gestures with her unnerved arm, which seemed intended as the accompaniment to a fit of laughter, though her face was stolid43 and drowsy44.
'Eigh, lad? What, yo'r there?' Some hoarse45 sounds meant for this, came mockingly out of her at last; and her head dropped forward on her breast.
'Back agen?' she screeched46, after some minutes, as if he had that moment said it. 'Yes! And back agen. Back agen ever and ever so often. Back? Yes, back. Why not?'
Roused by the unmeaning violence with which she cried it out, she scrambled47 up, and stood supporting herself with her shoulders against the wall; dangling48 in one hand by the string, a dunghill- fragment of a bonnet49, and trying to look scornfully at him.
'I'll sell thee off again, and I'll sell thee off again, and I'll sell thee off a score of times!' she cried, with something between a furious menace and an effort at a defiant50 dance. 'Come awa' from th' bed!' He was sitting on the side of it, with his face hidden in his hands. 'Come awa! from 't. 'Tis mine, and I've a right to t'!'
As she staggered to it, he avoided her with a shudder51, and passed - his face still hidden - to the opposite end of the room. She threw herself upon the bed heavily, and soon was snoring hard. He sunk into a chair, and moved but once all that night. It was to throw a covering over her; as if his hands were not enough to hide her, even in the darkness.
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1
citadel
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| n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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4
piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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5
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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8
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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10
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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11
generically
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| adv.一般地 | |
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12
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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13
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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14
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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15
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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17
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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weaver
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| n.织布工；编织者 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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20
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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21
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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22
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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23
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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28
muddle
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| n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱 | |
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29
titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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30
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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raffled
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| v.以抽彩方式售（物）( raffle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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34
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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38
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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39
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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40
fouler
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| adj.恶劣的( foul的比较级 )；邪恶的；难闻的；下流的 | |
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41
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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42
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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43
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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44
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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45
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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46
screeched
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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47
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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48
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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49
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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50
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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51
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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