'We have met before, Mr. Angus,' said the colonel courteously1.
This was the Angus who had once been unable to salute4 anybody without wondering what on earth he ought to say next. This was the colonel whose hand had gaped5 five minutes before for Rob's throat. The frown on the face of Mary's father was only a protest against her lover's improved appearance. Rob was no longer the hobbledehoy of last Christmas. He was rather particular about the cut of his coat. He had forgotten that he was not a colonel's social equal. In short, when he entered a room now he knew what to do with his hat. Their host saw the two men measuring each other. Dick never smiled, but sometimes his mouth twitched6, as now.
'You had something special to tell me, had you not?' he asked Rob.
'Well,' Rob replied, with hesitation7, 'I have something for you in my rooms.'
'Suppose my father,' began Dick, meaning to invite the colonel upstairs, but pausing as he saw Rob's brows contract. The colonel saw too, and resented it. No man likes to be left on the outskirts8 of a secret.
'Run up yourself, Abinger,' Rob said, seating himself near Mary's father; 'and, stop, here are my keys. I locked it in.'
'No,' Rob said, 'it is very tame.'
Dick climbed the stair, after casting a quizzical look behind him, which meant that he wondered how long the colonel and Rob would last in a small room together. He unlocked the door of Rob's chambers10 more quickly than he opened it, for he had no notion of what might be caged up inside, and as soon as he had entered he stopped, amazed. All men of course are amazed once in their lives—when they can get a girl to look at them. This was Dick's second time.
It was the hour of the evening when another ten minutes can be stolen from the day by a readjustment of one's window curtains. Rob's blind, however, had given way in the cords, and instead of being pulled up was twisted into two triangles. Just sufficient light straggled through the window to let Dick see the man who was standing11 on the hearthrug looking sullenly12 at his boots. There was a smell of oil in the room.
Dowton!' Dick exclaimed; 'what masquerade is this?'
'Oh,' he said, 'it is you, is it?'
They stood looking at each other in silence.
'Just stand there, my fine fellow,' Dick said, 'until I light the gas. I must have a better look at you.'
'Not a single step in that direction,' said Dick, 'unless you want to go over the banisters.'
Abinger came closer to the man who was Sir Clement15 Dowton's double, and looked him over. He wore a white linen16 jacket, and an apron17 to match, and it would have been less easy to mistake him for a baronet aping the barber than it had been for the barber to ape the baronet.
'Your name?' asked Dick.
'You are a barber, I presume?'
'I follow the profession of hair-dressing,' replied Josephs, with his first show of spirit.
Had Dick not possessed19 an inscrutable face, Josephs would have known that his inquisitor was suffering from a sense of the ludicrous. Dick had just remembered that his father was downstairs.
'Well, Josephs, I shall have to hand you over to the police.'
'I think not,' said Josephs, in his gentlemanly voice.
'Why not?' asked Dick.
'Because then it would all come out.'
'What would all come out?'
'The way your father was deceived. The society papers would make a great deal of it, and he would not like that.'
'You read the society journals, Josephs?'
'Rather!' said Josephs.
'Perhaps you write for them?'
Josephs did not say.
'Well, how were you brought here?' Dick asked.
'Your friend,' said Josephs sulkily, 'came into our place of business in Southampton Row half an hour ago, and saw me. He insisted on bringing me here at once in a cab. I wanted to put on a black coat, but he would not hear of it.'
'Ah, then, I suppose you gave Mr. Angus the full confession21 of your roguery as you came along?'
'He would not let me speak,' said Josephs. 'He said it was no affair of his.'
'No? Then you will be so good as to favour me with the pretty story.'
'Certainly not,' said Dick; 'you can stand.'
Josephs told his tale demurely23, occasionally with a gleam of humour, and sometimes with a sigh. His ambition to be a gentleman, but with no desire to know the way, had come to him one day in his youth when another gentleman flung a sixpence at him. In a moment Josephs saw what it was to belong to the upper circles. He hurried to a street corner to get his boots blacked, tossed the menial the sixpence, telling him to keep the change, and returned home in an ecstasy24, penniless, but with an object in life. That object was to do it again.
At the age of eighteen Josephs slaved merrily during the week, but had never any money by Monday morning. He was a gentleman every Saturday evening. Then he lived; for the remainder of the week he was a barber. One of his delights at this period was to have his hair cut at Truefitt's and complain that it was badly done. Having reproved his attendant in a gentlemanly way, he tipped him handsomely and retired25 in a glory. It was about this time that he joined a Conservative association.
Soon afterwards Josephs was to be seen in Rotten Row, in elegant apparel, hanging over the railing. He bowed and raised his hat to the ladies who took his fancy, and, though they did not respond, glowed with the sensation of being practically a man of fashion. Then he returned to the shop.
The years glided26 by, and Josephs discovered that he was perfectly27 content to remain a hairdresser if he could be a gentleman now and again. Having supped once in a fashionable restaurant, he was satisfied for a fortnight or so with a sausage and onions at home. Then the craving28 came back. He saved up for two months on one occasion, and then took Saturday to Monday at Cookham, where he passed as Henry K. Talbot Devereux. He was known to the waiters and boatmen there as the gentleman who had quite a pleasure in tossing them half-crowns, and for a month afterwards he had sausage without onions. So far this holiday had been the memory of his life. He studied the manners and language of the gentlemen who came to the shop in which he was employed, and began to dream of a big thing annually29. He had learnt long ago that he was remarkably30 good-looking.
For a whole year Josephs abstained31 from being a gentleman except in the smallest way, for he was burning to have a handle to his name, and feared that it could not be done at less than twenty pounds. His week's holiday came, and found Josephs not ready for it. He had only twelve pounds. With a self-denial that was magnificent he crushed his aspirations32, took only two days of delight at Brighton, and continued to save up for the title. Next summer saw him at the Anglers' Retreat, near Dome Castle. 'Sir Clement Dowton' was the name on his Gladstone bag. A dozen times a day he looked at it till it frightened him, and then he tore the label off. Having done so, he put on a fresh one.
Josephs had selected his baronetcy with due care. Years previously33 he had been told that he looked like the twin-brother of Sir Clement Dowton, and on inquiry34 he had learned that the baronet was not in England. As for the Anglers' Retreat, he went there because he had heard that it was frequented by persons in the rank of life to which it was his intention to belong for the next week. He had never heard of Colonel Abinger until they met. The rest is known. Josephs dwelt on his residence at Dome Castle with his eyes shut, like a street-arab lingering lovingly over the grating of a bakery.
'Well, you are a very admirable rogue,' Dick said, when Josephs had brought his story to an end, 'and, though I shall never be proud again, your fluency35 excuses our blindness. Where did you pick it up?' The barber glowed with gratification.
'It came naturally to me,' he answered. 'I was intended for a gentleman. I dare say, now, I am about the only case on record of a man who took to pickles36 and French sauces the first time he tried them. Mushrooms were not an acquired taste with me, nor black coffee, nor caviare, nor liqueurs, and I enjoy celery with my cheese. What I liked best of all was the little round glasses you dip your fingers into when the dinner is finished. I dream of them still.'
'You are burst up for the present, Josephs, I presume?'
'Yes, but I shall be able to do something in a small way next Christmas. I should like to put it off till summer, but I can't.'
'There must be no more donning the name of Dowton,' said Dick, trying to be stern.
'I suppose I shall have to give that up,' the barber said with a sigh. 'I had to bolt, you see, last time, before I meant to go.'
'Ah, you have not told me yet the why and wherefore of those sudden disappearances37. Excuse my saying so, Josephs, but they were scarcely gentlemanly.'
'I know it,' said Josephs sadly, 'but however carefully one plans a thing, it may take a wrong turning. The first time I was at the castle I meant to leave in a carriage and pair, waving my handkerchief, but it could not be done at the money.'
'The colonel would have sent you to Silchester in his own trap.'
'Ah, I wanted a brougham. You see I had been a little extravagant38 at the inn, and I could not summon up courage to leave the castle without tipping the servants all round.'
'So you waited till you were penniless, and then stole away?'
'Not quite penniless,' said Josephs; 'I had three pounds left, but——'
He hesitated.
'You see,' he blurted39 out, blushing at last, 'my old mother is dependent on me, and I kept the three pounds for her.'
Dick took his cigar from his mouth.
'I am sorry to hear this, Josephs,' he said, 'because I meant to box your ears presently, and I don't know that I can do it now. How about the sudden termination to the visit you honoured the colonel with last Christmas?'
'I had to go,' said Josephs, 'because I read that Sir Clement Dowton had returned to England. Besides, I was due at the shop.'
'But you had an elegant time while your money held out?'
Josephs wiped a smile from his face.
'It was grand,' he said. 'I shall never know such days again.'
The barber sighed heavily.
'Ay, there was,' he said, 'hair oil.'
'Explain yourself, my gentle hairdresser.'
'Gentlemen,' said Josephs, 'don't use hair oil. I can't live without it. That is my only stumbling-block to being a gentleman.'
'I had several bottles of it with me,' Josephs continued, 'but I dared not use it.'
'This is interesting,' said Dick. 'I should like to know now, from you who have tried both professions, whether you prefer the gentleman to the barber.'
'I do and I don't,' answered Josephs. 'Hair-dressing suits me best as a business, but gentility for pleasure. A fortnight of the gentleman sets me up for the year. I should not like to be a gentleman all the year round.'
'The hair oil is an insurmountable obstacle.'
'Yes,' said the barber; 'besides, to be a gentleman is rather hard work.'
'I dare say it is,' said Dick, 'when you take a short cut to it. Well, I presume this interview is at an end. You may go.'
He jerked his foot in the direction of the door, but Josephs hesitated.
'Colonel Abinger well?' asked the barber.
'The door, Josephs,' replied Dick.
'And Miss Abinger?'
Dick gave the barber a look that hurried him out of the room and down the stairs. Abinger's mouth twitched every time he took the cigar out of it, until he started to his feet.
'I have forgotten that Angus and my father are together,' he murmured. 'I wonder,' he asked himself, as he returned to his own chambers, 'how the colonel will take this? Must he be told? I think so.'
Colonel Abinger was told, as soon as Rob had left, and it added so much fuel to his passion that it put the fire out.
'It is a safe secret,' Dick answered; 'the fellow would not dare to speak of it anywhere. He knows what that would mean for himself.'
'Angus knows of it. Was it like the chivalrous44 soul you make him to flout45 this matter before us?'
'You are hard up for an argument against Angus, father. I made him promise to let me know if he ever came on the track of the impostor, and you saw how anxious he was to keep the discovery from you. He asked me at the door when he was going out not to mention it to either you or Mary.'
'Confound him,' cried the colonel testily46; 'but he is right about Mary; we need not speak of it to her. She never liked the fellow.'
'That was fortunate,' said Dick, 'but you did, father. You thought that Josephs was a gentleman, and you say that Angus is not. Perhaps you have made a mistake in both cases.'
'I say nothing against Angus,' replied the colonel, 'except that I don't want him to marry my daughter.'
'Oh, you and he got on well together, then?'
'He can talk. The man has improved.'
'You did not talk about Mary?' asked Dick.
'We never mentioned her; how could I, when he supposes her engaged to Dowton? I shall talk about him to her, though.'
Two days afterwards Dick asked his father if he had talked to Mary about Angus yet.
'No, Richard,' the old man admitted feebly, 'I have not. The fact is that she is looking so proud and stately just now, that I feel nervous about broaching47 the subject.'
'That is exactly how I feel,' said Dick, 'but Nell told me to-day that, despite her hauteur48 before us, Mary is wearing her heart away.'
The colonel's fingers beat restlessly on the mantelpiece.
'I'm afraid she does care for Angus,' he said.
'As much as he cares for her, I believe,' replied Dick. 'Just think,' he added bitterly, 'that these two people love each other for the best that is in them, one of the rarest things in life, and are nevertheless to be kept apart. Look here.'
'That is Angus's light,' he said. 'On such a night as this, when he is not wanted at the Wire, you will see that light blazing into the morning. Watch that moving shadow; it is the reflection of his arm as he sits there writing, writing, writing with nothing to write for, and only despair to face him when he stops. Is it not too bad?'
'They will forget each other in time,' said the colonel. 'Let Dowton have another chance. He is to be at the Lodge50.'
'But if they don't forget each other; if Dowton fails again, and Mary continues to eat her heart in silence, what then?'
'We shall see.'
'Look here, father. I cannot play this pitiful part before Angus for ever. Let us make a bargain. Dowton gets a second chance; if he does not succeed, it is Angus's turn. Do you promise me so much?'
'I cannot say,' replied the colonel thoughtfully. 'It may come to that.'
Rob was as late in retiring to rest that night as Dick had predicted, but he wrote less than usual. He had something to think of as he paced his room, for, unlike her father and brother, he knew that when Mary was a romantic schoolgirl she had dressed the sham baronet, as a child may dress her doll, in the virtues51 of a hero. He shuddered52 to think of her humiliation53 should she ever hear the true story of Josephs—as she never did. Yet many a lady of high degree has given her heart to a baronet who was better fitted to be a barber.
点击收听单词发音
1 courteously | |
adv.有礼貌地,亲切地 | |
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2 tremor | |
n.震动,颤动,战栗,兴奋,地震 | |
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3 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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4 salute | |
vi.行礼,致意,问候,放礼炮;vt.向…致意,迎接,赞扬;n.招呼,敬礼,礼炮 | |
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5 gaped | |
v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 );张开,张大 | |
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6 twitched | |
vt.& vi.(使)抽动,(使)颤动(twitch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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7 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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8 outskirts | |
n.郊外,郊区 | |
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9 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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10 chambers | |
n.房间( chamber的名词复数 );(议会的)议院;卧室;会议厅 | |
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11 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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12 sullenly | |
不高兴地,绷着脸,忧郁地 | |
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13 ward | |
n.守卫,监护,病房,行政区,由监护人或法院保护的人(尤指儿童);vt.守护,躲开 | |
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14 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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15 clement | |
adj.仁慈的;温和的 | |
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16 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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17 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
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18 mumbled | |
含糊地说某事,叽咕,咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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20 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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21 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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22 sham | |
n./adj.假冒(的),虚伪(的) | |
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23 demurely | |
adv.装成端庄地,认真地 | |
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24 ecstasy | |
n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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25 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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26 glided | |
v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 );掠过;(鸟或飞机 ) 滑翔 | |
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27 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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28 craving | |
n.渴望,热望 | |
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29 annually | |
adv.一年一次,每年 | |
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30 remarkably | |
ad.不同寻常地,相当地 | |
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31 abstained | |
v.戒(尤指酒),戒除( abstain的过去式和过去分词 );弃权(不投票) | |
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32 aspirations | |
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音 | |
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33 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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34 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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35 fluency | |
n.流畅,雄辩,善辩 | |
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36 pickles | |
n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 );处于困境;遇到麻烦;菜酱 | |
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37 disappearances | |
n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 );丢失;失踪;失踪案 | |
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38 extravagant | |
adj.奢侈的;过分的;(言行等)放肆的 | |
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39 blurted | |
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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41 halcyon | |
n.平静的,愉快的 | |
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42 sniffed | |
v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说 | |
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43 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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44 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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45 flout | |
v./n.嘲弄,愚弄,轻视 | |
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46 testily | |
adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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47 broaching | |
n.拉削;推削;铰孔;扩孔v.谈起( broach的现在分词 );打开并开始用;用凿子扩大(或修光);(在桶上)钻孔取液体 | |
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48 hauteur | |
n.傲慢 | |
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49 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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50 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
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51 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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52 shuddered | |
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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53 humiliation | |
n.羞辱 | |
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