“My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the com-pany of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.”
“You are mistaken,” said he, gently, “that is not good company—that is the best. Good company re-quires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice.”
—jane Austen, Persuasion1
Visitors to Lyme in the nineteenth century, if they did not quite have to undergo the ordeal2 facing travelers to the ancient Greek colonies—Charles did not actually have to deliver a Periclean oration3 plus comprehensive world news summary from the steps of the Town Hall—were certainly expected to allow themselves to be examined and spoken to. Ernestina had already warned Charles of this; that he must regard himself as no more than a beast in a menagerie and take as amiably5 as he could the crude stares and the poking6 umbrellas. Thus it was that two or three times a week he had to go visiting with the ladies and suffer hours of excruciating boredom7, whose only consolation8 was the little scene that took place with a pleasing regularity9 when they had got back to Aunt Tranter’s house. Ernestina would anxiously search his eyes, glazed10 by clouds of platitudinous11 small talk, and say “Was it dreadful? Can you forgive me? Do you hate me?”; and when he smiled she would throw herself into his arms, as if he had miraculously12 survived a riot or an avalanche13.
It so happened that the avalanche for the morning after Charles’s discovery of the Undercliff was appointed to take place at Marlbo-rough House. There was nothing fortuitous or spontaneous about these visits. There could not be, since the identities of visitors and visited spread round the little town with incredible rapidity; and that both made and maintained a rigorous sense of protocol14. Mrs. Poulteney’s in-terest in Charles was probably no greater than Charles’s in her; but she would have been mortally offended if he had not been dragged in chains for her to place her fat little foot on—and pretty soon after his arrival, since the later the visit during a stay, the less the honor.
These “foreigners” were, of course, essentially15 counters in a game. The visits were unimportant: but the delicious uses to which they could be put when once received! “Dear Mrs. Tranter, she wanted me to be the first to meet ...” and “I am most surprised that Ernestina has not called on you yet— she has spoiled us—already two calls . . .” and “I am sure it is an oversight—Mrs. Tranter is an affectionate old soul, but so absent-minded ...” These, and similar mouthwatering op-portunities for twists of the social dagger16 depended on a sup-ply of “important” visitors like Charles. And he could no more have avoided his fate than a plump mouse dropping between the claws of a hungry cat—several dozen hungry cats, to be exact.
When Mrs. Tranter and her two young companions were announced on the morning following that woodland meeting, Sarah rose at once to leave the room. But Mrs. Poulteney, whom the thought of young happiness always made petulant17, and who had in any case reason enough—after an evening of Lady Cotton—to be a good deal more than petulant, bade her stay. Ernestina she considered a frivolous18 young woman, and she was sure her intended would be a frivolous young man; it was almost her duty to embarrass them. She knew, besides, that such social occasions were like a hair shirt to the sinner. All conspired19.
The visitors were ushered20 in. Mrs. Tranter rustled21 for-ward, effusive22 and kind. Sarah stood shyly, painfully out of place in the background; and Charles and Ernestina stood easily on the carpet behind the two elder ladies, who had known each other sufficient decades to make a sort of token embrace necessary. Then Ernestina was presented, giving the faintest suspicion of a curtsy before she took the reginal hand.
“How are you, Mrs. Poulteney? You look exceedingly well.”
“At my age, Miss Freeman, spiritual health is all that counts.”
“Then I have no fears for you.”
Mrs. Poulteney would have liked to pursue this interesting subject, but Ernestina turned to present Charles, who bent23 over the old lady’s hand.
“Great pleasure, ma’m. Charming house.”
“It is too large for me. I keep it on for my dear husband’s sake. I know he would have wished—he wishes it so.”
And she stared past Charles at the house’s chief icon24, an oil painting done of Frederick only two years before he died in 1851, in which it was clear that he was a wise, Christian25, dignified26, good-looking sort of man—above all, superior to most. He had certainly been a Christian, and dignified in the extreme, but the painter had drawn27 on imagination for the other qualities. The long-departed Mr. Poulteney had been a total, though very rich, nonentity28; and the only really signifi-cant act of his life had been his leaving it. Charles surveyed this skeleton at the feast with a suitable deference29.
“Ah. Indeed. I understand. Most natural.”
“Their wishes must be obeyed.”
“Just so.”
Mrs. Tranter, who had already smiled at Sarah, took her as an opportunity to break in upon this sepulchral30 Introit.
“My dear Miss Woodruff, it is a pleasure to see you.” And she went and pressed Sarah’s hand, and gave her a genuine-ly solicitous31 look, and said in a lower voice, “Will you come to see me—when dear Tina has gone?” For a second then, a rare look crossed Sarah’s face. That computer in her heart had long before assessed Mrs. Tranter and stored the resul-tant tape. That reserve, that independence so perilously32 close to defiance33 which had become her mask in Mrs. Poulteney’s presence, momentarily dropped. She smiled even, though sadly, and made an infinitesimal nod: if she could, she would.
Further introductions were then made. The two young ladies coolly inclined heads at one another, and Charles bowed. He watched closely to see if the girl would in any way betray their two meetings of the day before, but her eyes studiously avoided his. He was intrigued34 to see how the wild animal would behave in these barred surroundings; and was soon disappointed to see that it was with an apparent utter meekness35. Unless it was to ask her to fetch something, or to pull the bell when it was decided36 that the ladies would like hot chocolate, Mrs. Poulteney ignored Sarah absolutely. So also, Charles was not pleased to note, did Ernestina. Aunt Tranter did her best to draw the girl into the conversation; but she sat slightly apart, with a kind of blankness of face, a withdrawnness, that could very well be taken for conscious-ness of her inferior status. He himself once or twice turned politely to her for the confirmation37 of an opinion—but it was without success. She made the least response possible; and still avoided his eyes.
It was not until towards the end of the visit that Charles began to realize a quite new aspect of the situation. It became clear to him that the girl’s silent meekness ran contrary to her nature; that she was therefore playing a part; and that the part was one of complete disassociation from, and disap-probation of, her mistress. Mrs. Poulteney and Mrs. Tranter respectively gloomed and bubbled their way through the schedule of polite conversational38 subjects—short, perhaps, in number, but endlessly long in process ... servants; the weather; impending39 births, funerals and marriages; Mr. Dis-raeli and Mr. Gladstone (this seemingly for Charles’s benefit, though it allowed Mrs. Poulteney to condemn40 severely41 the personal principles of the first and the political ones of the second);* then on to last Sunday’s sermon, the deficiencies of the local tradesmen and thence naturally back to servants. As Charles smiled and raised eyebrows42 and nodded his way through this familiar purgatory43, he decided that the silent Miss Woodruff was laboring44 under a sense of injustice—and, very interestingly to a shrewd observer, doing singularly little to conceal45 it.
[* Perhaps, in fairness to the lady, it might be said that in that spring of 1867 her blanket disfavor was being shared by many others. Mr. Gladraeli and Mr. Dizzystone put up a vertiginous46 joint47 performance that year; we sometimes forget that the passing of the last great Reform Bill (it became law that coming August) was engineered by the Father of Modern Conservatism and bitterly opposed by the Great Liberal. Tories like Mrs. Poulteney therefore found themselves being defended from the horror of seeing their menials one step nearer the vote by the leader of the party they abhorred48 on practically every other ground. Marx remarked, in one of his New York Daily Tribune articles, that in reality the British Whigs “represent something quite different from their professed49 liberal and enlightened principles. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor, who de-clared that he represented the Temperance principle, but from some accident or other always got drunk on Sundays.” The type is not ex-tinct.]
This was perceptive50 of Charles, for he had noticed some-thing that had escaped almost everyone else in Lyme. But perhaps his deduction51 would have remained at the state of a mere52 suspicion, had not his hostess delivered herself of a characteristic Poulteneyism.
“That girl I dismissed—she has given you no further trou-ble?”
Mrs. Tranter smiled. “Mary? I would not part with her for the world.”
“Mrs. Fairley informs me that she saw her only this
morning talking with a person.” Mrs. Poulteney used “per-son” as two patriotic53 Frenchmen might have said “Nazi” during the occupation. “A young person. Mrs. Fairley did not know him.”
Ernestina gave Charles a sharp, reproachful glance; for a wild moment he thought he was being accused himself—then realized.
He smiled. “Then no doubt it was Sam. My servant, madam,” he added for Mrs. Poulteney’s benefit.
Ernestina avoided his eyes. “I meant to tell you. I too saw them talking together yesterday.”
“But surely ... we are not going to forbid them to speak together if they meet?”
“There is a world of difference between what may be accepted in London and what is proper here. I think you should speak to Sam. The girl is too easily led.”
Mrs. Tranter looked hurt. “Ernestina my dear ... she may be high-spirited. But I’ve never had the least cause to—“
“My dear, kind aunt, I am well aware how fond you are of her.”
Charles heard the dryness in her voice and came to the hurt Mrs. Tranter’s defense54.
“I wish that more mistresses were as fond. There is no surer sign of a happy house than a happy maidservant at its door.”
Ernestina looked down at that, with a telltale little tighten-ing of her lips. Good Mrs. Tranter blushed slightly at the compliment, and also looked down. Mrs. Poulteney had lis-tened to this crossfire55 with some pleasure; and she now decided that she disliked Charles sufficiently56 to be rude to him.
“Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters, Mr. Smithson. I know the girl in question. I had to dismiss her. If you were older you would know that one can-not be too strict in such matters.”
And she too looked down, her way of indicating that a subject had been pronounced on by her, and was therefore at a universal end.
“I bow to your far greater experience, madam.”
But his tone was unmistakably cold and sarcastic57.
The three ladies all sat with averted58 eyes: Mrs. Tranter out of embarrassment59, Ernestina out of irritation60 with herself—for she had not meant to bring such a snub on Charles’s head, and wished she had kept silent; and Mrs. Poulteney out of being who she was. It was thus that a look unseen by these ladies did at last pass between Sarah and Charles. It was very brief, but it spoke4 worlds; two strangers had recognized they shared a common enemy. For the first time she did not look through him, but at him; and Charles resolved that he would have his revenge on Mrs. Poulteney, and teach Ernestina an evidently needed lesson in common humanity.
He remembered, too, his recent passage of arms with Ernestina’s father on the subject of Charles Darwin. Bigotry61 was only too prevalent in the country; and he would not tolerate it in the girl he was to marry. He would speak to Sam; by heavens, yes, he would speak to Sam.
How he spoke, we shall see in a moment. But the general tenor62 of that conversation had, in fact, already been fore-stalled, since Mrs. Poulteney’s “person” was at that moment sitting in the downstairs kitchen at Mrs. Tranter’s.
Sam had met Mary in Coombe Street that morning; and innocently asked if the soot63 might be delivered in an hour’s time. He knew, of course, that the two ladies would be away at Marlborough House.
The conversation in that kitchen was surprisingly serious, really a good deal more so than that in Mrs. Poulteney’s drawing room. Mary leaned against the great dresser, with her pretty arms folded, and a strand64 of the corn-colored hair escaping from under her dusting cap. Now and then she asked questions, but Sam did most of the talking, though it was mainly to the scrubbed deal of the long table. Only very occasionally did their eyes meet, and then by mutual65 accord they looked shyly away from each other.
收听单词发音 |
1
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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oration
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| n.演说，致辞，叙述法 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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platitudinous
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| adj.平凡的，陈腐的 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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protocol
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| n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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conspired
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| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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effusive
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| adj.热情洋溢的；感情(过多)流露的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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icon
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| n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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sepulchral
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| adj.坟墓的，阴深的 | |
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solicitous
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| adj.热切的，挂念的 | |
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perilously
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| adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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intrigued
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| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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meekness
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| n.温顺，柔和 | |
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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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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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vertiginous
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| adj.回旋的；引起头晕的 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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perceptive
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| adj.知觉的，有洞察力的，感知的 | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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crossfire
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| n.被卷进争端 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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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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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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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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soot
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| n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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