小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » Paul Kelver » CHAPTER V.
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER V.
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
 Old Waterhouse thought that here at last was reformation. “Come, Brian,” he cried, rubbing his long thin hands together with delight, “after all, you're not such a fool as you pretend.”
 
“Never said I was,” muttered Dan to himself, with a backward glance of regret towards his lost seclusion1; and before the day was out he had worked his way back to it again.
 
As we were going out together, old Waterhouse passed us on the stairs: “Haven't you any sense of shame, my boy?” he asked sorrowfully, laying his hand kindly2 on Dan's shoulder.
 
“Yes, sir,” answered Dan, with his frank smile; “plenty. It isn't yours, that's all.”
 
He was an excellent fighter. In the whole school of over two hundred boys, not half a dozen, and those only Upper Sixth boys—fellows who came in top hats with umbrellas, and who wouldn't out of regard to their own dignity—could have challenged him with any chance of success. Yet he fought very seldom, and then always in a bored, lazy fashion, as though he were doing it purely3 to oblige the other fellow.
 
One afternoon, just as we were about to enter Regent's Park by the wicket opposite Hanover Gate, a biggish boy, an errand boy carrying an empty basket, and supported by two smaller boys, barred our way.
 
“Can't come in here,” said the boy with the basket.
 
“Why not?” inquired Dan.
 
“'Cos if you do I shall kick you,” was the simple explanation.
 
Without a word Dan turned away, prepared to walk on to the next opening. The boy with the basket, evidently encouraged, followed us: “Now, I'm going to give you your coward's blow,” he said, stepping in front of us; “will you take it quietly?” It is a lonely way, the Outer Circle, on a winter's afternoon.
 
“I'll tell you afterwards,” said Dan, stopping short.
 
The boy gave him a slight slap on the cheek. It could not have hurt, but the indignity4, of course, was great. No boy of honour, according to our code, could have accepted it without retaliating5.
 
“Is that all?” asked Dan.
 
“That's all—for the present,” replied the boy with the basket.
 
“Good-bye,” said Dan, and walked on.
 
“Glad he didn't insist on fighting,” remarked Dan, cheerfully, as we proceeded; “I'm going to a party tonight.”
 
Yet on another occasion, in a street off Lisson Grove6, he insisted on fighting a young rough half again his own weight, who, brushing up against him, had knocked his hat off into the mud.
 
“I wouldn't have said anything about his knocking it off,” explained Dan afterwards, tenderly brushing the poor bruised7 thing with his coat sleeve, “if he hadn't kicked it.”
 
On another occasion I remember, three or four of us, Dan among the number, were on our way one broiling8 summer's afternoon to Hadley Woods. As we turned off from the highroad just beyond Barnet and struck into the fields, Dan drew from his pocket an enormous juicy-looking pear.
 
“Where did you get that from?” inquired one, Dudley.
 
“From that big greengrocer's opposite Barnet Church,” answered Dan. “Have a bit?”
 
“You told me you hadn't any more money,” retorted Dudley, in reproachful tones.
 
“No more I had,” replied Dan, holding out a tempting9 slice at the end of his pocket-knife.
 
“You must have had some, or you couldn't have bought that pear,” argued Dudley, accepting.
 
“Didn't buy it.”
 
“Do you mean to say you stole it?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“You're a thief,” denounced Dudley, wiping his mouth and throwing away a pip.
 
“I know it. So are you.”
 
“No, I'm not.”
 
“What's the good of talking nonsense. You robbed an orchard10 only last Wednesday at Mill Hill, and gave yourself the stomach-ache.”
 
“That isn't stealing.”
 
“What is it?”
 
“It isn't the same thing.”
 
“What's the difference?”
 
And nothing could make Dan comprehend the difference. “Stealing is stealing,” he would have it, “whether you take it off a tree or out of a basket. You're a thief, Dudley; so am I. Anybody else say a piece?”
 
The thermometer was at that point where morals become slack. We all had a piece; but we were all of us shocked at Dan, and told him so. It did not agitate11 him in the least.
 
To Dan I could speak my inmost thoughts, knowing he would understand me, and sometimes from him I received assistance and sometimes confusion. The yearly examination was approaching. My father and mother said nothing, but I knew how anxiously each of them awaited the result; my father, to see how much I had accomplished12; my mother, how much I had endeavoured. I had worked hard, but was doubtful, knowing that prizes depend less upon what you know than upon what you can make others believe you know; which applies to prizes beyond those of school.
 
“Are you going in for anything, Dan?” I asked him. We were discussing the subject, crossing Primrose13 Hill, one bright June morning.
 
I knew the question absurd. I asked it of him because I wanted him to ask it of me.
 
“They're not giving away anything I particularly want,” murmured Dan, in his lazy drawl: looked at from that point of view, school prizes are, it must be confessed, not worth their cost.
 
“You're sweating yourself, young 'un, of course?” he asked next, as I expected.
 
“I mean to have a shot at the History,” I admitted. “Wish I was better at dates.”
 
“It's always two-thirds dates,” Dan assured me, to my discouragement. “Old Florret thinks you can't eat a potato until you know the date that chap Raleigh was born.”
 
“I've prayed so hard that I may win the History prize,” I explained to him. I never felt shy with Dan. He never laughed at me.
 
“You oughtn't to have done that,” he said. I stared. “It isn't fair to the other fellows. That won't be your winning the prize; that will be your getting it through favouritism.”
 
“But they can pray, too,” I reminded him.
 
“If you all pray for it,” answered Dan, “then it will go, not to the fellow that knows most history, but to the fellow that's prayed the hardest. That isn't old Florret's idea, I'm sure.”
 
“But we are told to pray for things we want,” I insisted.
 
“Beastly mean way of getting 'em,” retorted Dan. And no argument that came to me, neither then nor at any future time, brought him to right thinking on this point.
 
He would judge all matters for himself. In his opinion Achilles was a coward, not a hero.
 
“He ought to have told the Trojans that they couldn't hurt any part of him except his heel, and let them have a shot at that,” he argued; “King Arthur and all the rest of them with their magic swords, it wasn't playing the game. There's no pluck in fighting if you know you're bound to win. Beastly cads, I call them all.”
 
I won no prize that year. Oddly enough, Dan did, for arithmetic; the only subject studied in the Lower Fourth that interested him. He liked to see things coming right, he explained.
 
My father shut himself up with me for half an hour and examined me himself.
 
“It's very curious, Paul,” he said, “you seem to know a good deal.”
 
“They asked me all the things I didn't know. They seemed to do it on purpose,” I blurted14 out, and laid my head upon my arm. My father crossed the room and sat down beside me.
 
“Spud!” he said—it was a long time since he had called me by that childish nickname—“perhaps you are going to be with me, one of the unlucky ones.”
 
“Are you unlucky?” I asked.
 
“Invariably,” answered my father, rumpling15 his hair. “I don't know why. I try hard—I do the right thing, but it turns out wrong. It always does.”
 
“But I thought Mr. Hasluck was bringing us such good fortune,” I said, looking up in surprise. “We're getting on, aren't we?”
 
“I have thought so before, so often,” said my father, “and it has always ended in a—in a collapse16.”
 
I put my arms round his neck, for I always felt to my father as to another boy; bigger than myself and older, but not so very much.
 
“You see, when I married your mother,” he went on, “I was a rich man. She had everything she wanted.”
 
“But you will get it all back,” I cried.
 
“I try to think so,” he answered. “I do think so—generally speaking. But there are times—you would not understand—they come to you.”
 
“But she is happy,” I persisted; “we are all happy.”
 
He shook his head.
 
“I watch her,” he said. “Women suffer more than we do. They live more in the present. I see my hopes, but she—she sees only me, and I have always been a failure. She has lost faith in me.”
 
I could say nothing. I understood but dimly.
 
“That is why I want you to be an educated man, Paul,” he continued after a silence. “You can't think what a help education is to a man. I don't mean it helps you to get on in the world; I think for that it rather hampers17 you. But it helps you to bear adversity. To a man with a well-stored mind, life is interesting on a piece of bread and a cup of tea. I know. If it were not for you and your mother I should not trouble.”
 
And yet at that time our fortunes were at their brightest, so far as I remember them; and when they were dark again he was full of fresh hope, planning, scheming, dreaming again. It was never acting18. A worse actor never trod this stage on which we fret19. His occasional attempts at a cheerfulness he did not feel inevitably20 resulted in our all three crying in one another's arms. No; it was only when things were going well that experience came to his injury. Child of misfortune, he ever rose, Antaeus-like, renewed in strength from contact with his mother.
 
Nor must it be understood that his despondent21 moods, even in time of prosperity, were oft recurring22. Generally speaking, as he himself said, he was full of confidence. Already had he fixed23 upon our new house in Guilford Street, then still a good residential24 quarter; while at the same time, as he would explain to my mother, sufficiently25 central for office purposes, close as it was to Lincoln and Grey's Inn and Bedford Row, pavements long worn with the weary footsteps of the Law's sad courtiers.
 
“Poplar,” said my father, “has disappointed me. It seemed a good idea—a rapidly rising district, singularly destitute26 of solicitors28. It ought to have turned out well, and yet somehow it hasn't.”
 
“There have been a few come,” my mother reminded him.
 
“Of a sort,” admitted my father; “a criminal lawyer might gather something of a practice here, I have no doubt. But for general work, of course, you must be in a central position. Now, in Guilford Street people will come to me.”
 
“It should certainly be a pleasanter neighbourhood to live in,” agreed my mother.
 
“Later on,” said my father, “in case I want the whole house for offices, we could live ourselves in Regent's Park. It is quite near to the Park.”
 
“Of course you have consulted Mr. Hasluck?” asked my mother, who of the two was by far the more practical.
 
“For Hasluck,” replied my father, “it will be much more convenient. He grumbles29 every time at the distance.”
 
“I have never been quite able to understand,” said my mother, “why Mr. Hasluck should have come so far out of his way. There must surely be plenty of solicitors in the City.”
 
“He had heard of me,” explained my father. “A curious old fellow—likes his own way of doing things. It's not everyone who would care for him as a client. But I seem able to manage him.”
 
Often we would go together, my father and I, to Guilford Street. It was a large corner house that had taken his fancy, half creeper covered, with a balcony, and pleasantly situated30, overlooking the gardens of the Foundling Hospital. The wizened31 old caretaker knew us well, and having opened the door, would leave us to wander through the empty, echoing rooms at our own will. We furnished them handsomely in later Queen Anne style, of which my father was a connoisseur32, sparing no necessary expense; for, as my father observed, good furniture is always worth its price, while to buy cheap is pure waste of money.
 
“This,” said my father, on the second floor, stepping from the bedroom into the smaller room adjoining, “I shall make your mother's boudoir. We will have the walls in lavender and maple33 green—she is fond of soft tones—and the window looks out upon the gardens. There we will put her writing-table.”
 
My own bedroom was on the third floor, a sunny little room.
 
“You will be quiet here,” said my father, “and we can shut out the bed and the washstand with a screen.”
 
Later, I came to occupy it; though its rent—eight and sixpence a week, including attendance—was somewhat more than at the time I ought to have afforded. Nevertheless, I adventured it, taking the opportunity of being an inmate34 of the house to refurnish it, unknown to my stout35 landlady36, in later Queen Anne style, putting a neat brass37 plate with my father's name upon the door. “Luke Kelver, Solicitor27. Office hours, 10 till 4.” A medical student thought he occupied my mother's boudoir. He was a dull dog, full of tiresome38 talk. But I made acquaintanceship with him; and often of an evening would smoke my pipe there in silence while pretending to be listening to his monotonous39 brag40.
 
The poor thing! he had no idea that he was only a foolish ghost; that his walls, seemingly covered with coarse-coloured prints of wooden-looking horses, simpering ballet girls and petrified41 prize-fighters, were in reality a delicate tone of lavender and maple green; that at her writing-table in the sunlit window sat my mother, her soft curls curtaining her quiet face.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 seclusion 5DIzE     
n.隐遁,隔离
参考例句:
  • She liked to sunbathe in the seclusion of her own garden.她喜欢在自己僻静的花园里晒日光浴。
  • I live very much in seclusion these days.这些天我过着几乎与世隔绝的生活。
2 kindly tpUzhQ     
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地
参考例句:
  • Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
  • A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。
3 purely 8Sqxf     
adv.纯粹地,完全地
参考例句:
  • I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
  • This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。
4 indignity 6bkzp     
n.侮辱,伤害尊严,轻蔑
参考例句:
  • For more than a year we have suffered the indignity.在一年多的时间里,我们丢尽了丑。
  • She was subjected to indignity and humiliation.她受到侮辱和羞辱。
5 retaliating c6cf6ecd71cb9abcbf0d6c8291aa3525     
v.报复,反击( retaliate的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The administration will begin retaliating in six weeks if EC policies remain unchanged. 凯特先生说,如果欧共体一意孤行,美国政府将于六周后开始报复。 来自互联网
6 grove v5wyy     
n.林子,小树林,园林
参考例句:
  • On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
  • The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。
7 bruised 5xKz2P     
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的
参考例句:
  • his bruised and bloodied nose 他沾满血的青肿的鼻子
  • She had slipped and badly bruised her face. 她滑了一跤,摔得鼻青脸肿。
8 broiling 267fee918d109c7efe5cf783cbe078f8     
adj.酷热的,炽热的,似烧的v.(用火)烤(焙、炙等)( broil的现在分词 );使卷入争吵;使混乱;被烤(或炙)
参考例句:
  • They lay broiling in the sun. 他们躺在太阳底下几乎要晒熟了。
  • I'm broiling in this hot sun. 在太阳底下,我感到热极了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 tempting wgAzd4     
a.诱人的, 吸引人的
参考例句:
  • It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
  • It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。
10 orchard UJzxu     
n.果园,果园里的全部果树,(美俚)棒球场
参考例句:
  • My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
  • Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。
11 agitate aNtzi     
vi.(for,against)煽动,鼓动;vt.搅动
参考例句:
  • They sent agents to agitate the local people.他们派遣情报人员煽动当地的民众。
  • All you need to do is gently agitate the water with a finger or paintbrush.你只需要用手指或刷子轻轻地搅动水。
12 accomplished UzwztZ     
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的
参考例句:
  • Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
  • Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。
13 primrose ctxyr     
n.樱草,最佳部分,
参考例句:
  • She is in the primrose of her life.她正处在她一生的最盛期。
  • The primrose is set off by its nest of green.一窝绿叶衬托着一朵樱草花。
14 blurted fa8352b3313c0b88e537aab1fcd30988     
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止,她已脱口而出。
  • He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相,说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 rumpling 1444bedba386aa87ba8b75dcd4c8c2d8     
v.弄皱,使凌乱( rumple的现在分词 )
参考例句:
16 collapse aWvyE     
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷
参考例句:
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
17 hampers aedee0b9211933f51c82c37a6b8cd413     
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • Prejudice sometimes hampers a person from doing the right thing. 有时候,偏见会妨碍人正确行事。
  • This behavior is the opposite of modeless feedback, and it hampers flow. 这个行为有悖于非模态的反馈,它阻碍了流。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
18 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
19 fret wftzl     
v.(使)烦恼;(使)焦急;(使)腐蚀,(使)磨损
参考例句:
  • Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急,我们能准时到那里。
  • She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.
20 inevitably x7axc     
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地
参考例句:
  • In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去,毫无疑问是会散伙的。
  • Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。
21 despondent 4Pwzw     
adj.失望的,沮丧的,泄气的
参考例句:
  • He was up for a time and then,without warning,despondent again.他一度兴高采烈,但忽然又情绪低落下来。
  • I feel despondent when my work is rejected.作品被拒后我感到很沮丧。
22 recurring 8kLzK8     
adj.往复的,再次发生的
参考例句:
  • This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
  • For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言,它经过了一个反复考验的时期。
23 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
24 residential kkrzY3     
adj.提供住宿的;居住的;住宅的
参考例句:
  • The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
  • The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。
25 sufficiently 0htzMB     
adv.足够地,充分地
参考例句:
  • It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
  • The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。
26 destitute 4vOxu     
adj.缺乏的;穷困的
参考例句:
  • They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
  • They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。
27 solicitor vFBzb     
n.初级律师,事务律师
参考例句:
  • The solicitor's advice gave me food for thought.律师的指点值得我深思。
  • The solicitor moved for an adjournment of the case.律师请求将这个案件的诉讼延期。
28 solicitors 53ed50f93b0d64a6b74a2e21c5841f88     
初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Most solicitors in England and Wales are in private practice . 英格兰和威尔士的大多数律师都是私人执业者。
  • The family has instructed solicitors to sue Thomson for compensation. 那家人已经指示律师起诉汤姆森,要求赔偿。
29 grumbles a99c97d620c517b5490044953d545cb1     
抱怨( grumble的第三人称单数 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声
参考例句:
  • He grumbles at his lot instead of resolutely facing his difficulties. 他不是果敢地去面对困难,而是抱怨自己运气不佳。
  • I'm sick of your unending grumbles. 我对你的不断埋怨感到厌烦。
30 situated JiYzBH     
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的
参考例句:
  • The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
  • She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。
31 wizened TeszDu     
adj.凋谢的;枯槁的
参考例句:
  • That wizened and grotesque little old man is a notorious miser.那个干瘪难看的小老头是个臭名远扬的吝啬鬼。
  • Mr solomon was a wizened little man with frizzy gray hair.所罗门先生是一个干瘪矮小的人,头发鬈曲灰白。
32 connoisseur spEz3     
n.鉴赏家,行家,内行
参考例句:
  • Only the real connoisseur could tell the difference between these two wines.只有真正的内行才能指出这两种酒的区别。
  • We are looking for a connoisseur of French champagne.我们想找一位法国香槟酒品酒专家。
33 maple BBpxj     
n.槭树,枫树,槭木
参考例句:
  • Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
  • The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。
34 inmate l4cyN     
n.被收容者;(房屋等的)居住人;住院人
参考例句:
  • I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
  • The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。
36 landlady t2ZxE     
n.女房东,女地主
参考例句:
  • I heard my landlady creeping stealthily up to my door.我听到我的女房东偷偷地来到我的门前。
  • The landlady came over to serve me.女店主过来接待我。
37 brass DWbzI     
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器
参考例句:
  • Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
  • Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
38 tiresome Kgty9     
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的
参考例句:
  • His doubts and hesitations were tiresome.他的疑惑和犹豫令人厌烦。
  • He was tiresome in contending for the value of his own labors.他老为他自己劳动的价值而争强斗胜,令人生厌。
39 monotonous FwQyJ     
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的
参考例句:
  • She thought life in the small town was monotonous.她觉得小镇上的生活单调而乏味。
  • His articles are fixed in form and monotonous in content.他的文章千篇一律,一个调调儿。
40 brag brag     
v./n.吹牛,自夸;adj.第一流的
参考例句:
  • He made brag of his skill.他夸耀自己技术高明。
  • His wealth is his brag.他夸张他的财富。
41 petrified 2e51222789ae4ecee6134eb89ed9998d     
adj.惊呆的;目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆,使惊呆;变僵硬;使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • I'm petrified of snakes. 我特别怕蛇。
  • The poor child was petrified with fear. 这可怜的孩子被吓呆了。 来自《简明英汉词典》


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533