“Foul fall the hand that bends the steel
Around the courser’s thundering heel,
Never afterwards did he do anything that fell short of the name Roland, to which the noble war-song, at that moment, fixed6 its character for ever. Jack and he had been to a famous school until they were sixteen, and did no good there. Indoors they learnt very little more than a manner extremely well suited to hours of idleness. Out of doors they excelled at the more selfish sports, at athletics7, boxing, sculling, shooting. So they had come home and, as Mr Morgan had nothing to suggest, they had done what suggested itself.
You could see Mr Morgan thinking as he watched the two, undecided whether it was best to think with or without the cigar, which he might remove for a few seconds, perhaps without advantage, for it was replaced with evident satisfaction. But he was thinking as he stood there, pale, rigid8, and abstracted. Then perhaps Roland would do or say something accompanied by a characteristic free, bold, easy gesture, turning on his heel; and the father gave up thinking, to laugh heartily9, and as likely as[256] not step forward to enter the conversation, or ask Roland about the dogs, or what he had been doing in the past week. “Had a good time? ... suits you?... Ha, ha, ... Well, this will never do, I must be going. Good-bye, good-bye. Don’t forget to look in and see how mother is.”
He had only gone upstairs to the Library to open one of the new reviews which, except where they caught the sunshine, remained so new. He and his two elder sons always parted with a laugh. Either he manœuvred for it, or as soon as the good laugh arrived he slipped away lest worse might befall. He saw clearly enough that “they had no more place in London than Bengal tigers,” as he said one day to Mr Stodham: “They ought to have been in the cavalry10. But they aren’t—curse it—what is to be done? Why could I not breed clerks?” The immediate11 thing to be done was to light the suspended cigar. It was lucky if the weather just at that time took a fine turn; if Harry12 and Lewis, for a wonder, were persuaded to spend all day and every day at school; if Mrs Morgan was away in Wales; if Jessie’s voice was perfect, singing
“The cuckoo is a merry bird ...”
I recall such a time. The wall-flower had[257] turned out to be just the mixture of blood colour and lemon that Mr Morgan liked best. The water-lilies were out on the pond. The pigeons lay all along under the roof ridge13, too idle to coo except by mistake or in a dream. Jack and Roland were working hard at some machinery14 in the yard. The right horse, it seems, had won the Derby.
On the evenings in such a season Philip and I had to bring to light the fishing-tackle, bind15 hooks on gut16 and gimp, varnish17 the binding18, mix new varnish, fit the rods together, practise casting in the Wilderness19, with a view to our next visit, which would be in August, to my aunt Rachel’s at Lydiard Constantine. There would be no eggs to be found so late, except a few woodpigeons’, linnets’, and swallows’, but these late finds in the intervals20 of fishing—when it was too hot, for example—had a special charm. The nuts would be ripe before we left.... On these evenings we saw only the fishing things, the Wilderness, and Lydiard Constantine.
This weather was but a temporary cure for Mr Morgan’s curiosity as to what Jack and Roland were to do. You could tell that he was glad to see Roland’s face again, home from Canada with some wolf skins after a six months’[258] absence; but it was not enough. The fellow had been in an office once for a much shorter period. The one thing to draw him early from bed was hunting. Well, but he was a fine fellow. How should all the good in him be employed? It could not be left to the gods; and yet assuredly the gods would have their way.
Everybody else did something. Aurelius earned a living, though his hands proclaimed him one who was born neither to toil21 nor spin. Higgs, too, did no one knew what, but something that kept him in tobacco and bowler22 hats, in the times when he was not fishing in the Wilderness or looking after his pigeons in the yard. For it so happened—and caused nobody surprise—that all the pigeons at Abercorran House were his. Mr Morgan looked with puzzled disapproval23 from Higgs to Roland and Jack, and back again to Higgs. Higgs had arrived and stayed under their shadow. It was a little mysterious, but so it was, and Mr Morgan could not help seeing and wondering why the two should afflict24 themselves with patronising one like fat Higgs. Once when Roland struck him, half in play, he bellowed25 distractedly, not for pain but for pure rabid terror. He went about whistling; for he had[259] a little, hard mouth made on purpose. I thought him cruel, because one day when he saw that, owing to some misapprehension, I was expecting two young pigeons for the price of one, he put the head of one into his mouth and closed his teeth.... Whilst I was still silly with disgust and horror he gave me the other bird. But he understood dogs. I have seen Roland listen seriously while Higgs was giving an opinion on some matter concerning Ladas, Bully26, Spot, or Granfer; yet Roland was reputed to know all about dogs, and almost all about bitches.
That did not console Mr Morgan. Wherever he looked he saw someone who was perfectly27 content with Roland and everything else, just as they were, at Abercorran House. Mr Stodham, for example, was all admiration28, with a little surprise. Aurelius, again, said that if such a family, house, and backyard, had not existed, they would have to be invented, as other things less pleasant and necessary had been. When rumours were afloat that perhaps Mr Morgan would be compelled to give up the house Aurelius exclaimed: “It is impossible, it is disgraceful. Let the National Gallery go, let the British Museum go, but preserve the Morgans and Abercorran House.” Mr Torrance,[260] of course, agreed with Aurelius. He wrote a poem about the house, but, said Aurelius, “It was written with tears for ink, which is barbarous. He has not enough gall29 to translate tears into good ink.” Higgs naturally favoured things as they were, since the yard at Abercorran House was the best possible place for his birds. As for me, I was too young, but Abercorran House made London tolerable and often faultless.
Ann’s opinion was expressed in one word: “Wales.” She thought that the family ought to go back to Wales, that all would be well there. In fact, she regarded Abercorran House as only a halt, though she admitted that there were unfriendly circumstances. The return to Wales was for her the foundation or the coping stone always. She would not have been greatly put out if there had been a public subscription30 or grant from the Civil list to make Abercorran House and Mr Morgan, Jessie, Ann herself, Jack, Roland, Philip, Harry, Lewis, Ladas, Bully, Spot, Granfer, the pigeons, the yard, the Wilderness and the jackdaws, the pond and the water-lilies, as far as possible immortal31, and a possession for ever, without interference from Board of Works, School Board inspectors32, Rate Collectors, surveyors of taxes, bailiffs and re[261]coverers of debts, moreover without any right on the part of the public to touch this possession except by invitation, with explicit33 approval by Roland and the rest. It should have been done. A branch of the British Museum might have been especially created to protect this stronghold, as doubtless it would have been protected had it included a dolmen, tumulus, or British camp, or other relic34 of familiar type. As it was not done, a bailiff did once share the kitchen with Ann, a short man completely enveloped35 in what had been, at about the time of Albert the Good, a fur-lined overcoat, and a silk hat suitable for a red Indian. Most of his face was nose, and his eyes and nose both together looked everlastingly36 over the edge of the turned-up coat-collar at the ground. His hands must have been in his coat-pockets. I speak of his appearance when he took the air; for I did not see him at Abercorran House. There he may have produced his hands and removed his hat from his head and lifted up his eyes from the ground—a thing impossible to his nose. He may even have spoken—in a voice of ashes. But at least on the day after his visit all was well at Abercorran House with man and bird and beast. The jackdaws riding a south-west[262] wind in the sun said “Jack” over and over again, both singly and in volley. Only Higgs was disturbed. He, it seems, knew the visitor, and from that day dated his belief in the perishableness of mortal things, and a moderated opinion of everything about the Morgans except the pigeon-house and Roland. Mr Morgan perhaps did not, but everybody else soon forgot the bailiff. On the day after his visit, nevertheless, Philip was still indignant. He was telling me about the battle of Hastings. All I knew and had cared to know was summed up in the four figures—1066. But Philip, armed with a long-handled mallet37, had constituted himself the English host on the hill brow, battering38 the Normans downhill with yells of “Out, out,” and “God Almighty,” and also “Out Jew.” For his enemy was William of Normandy and the Jew bailiff in one. With growls39 of “Out, out” through foaming40 set lips, he swung the mallet repeatedly, broke a Windsor chair all to pieces, and made the past live again.
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收听单词发音
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1
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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2
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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sable
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| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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7
athletics
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| n.运动，体育，田径运动 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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10
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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12
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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13
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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14
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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16
gut
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| n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏 | |
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varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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19
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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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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21
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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22
bowler
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| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
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23
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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24
afflict
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| vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨 | |
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25
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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26
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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27
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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29
gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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30
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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31
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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32
inspectors
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| n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官 | |
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explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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35
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
everlastingly
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| 永久地，持久地 | |
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37
mallet
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| n.槌棒 | |
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38
battering
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| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
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39
growls
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的第三人称单数 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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40
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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