An absolutely unexpected shock was given to Baptista’s listless mind about an hour after the wedding service. They had nearly finished the mid-day dinner when the now husband said to her father, ‘We think of starting about two. And the breeze being so fair we shall bring up inside Pen-zephyr new pier4 about six at least.’
‘What—are we going to Pen-zephyr?’ said Baptista. ‘I don’t know anything of it.’
‘Didn’t you tell her?’ asked her father of Heddegan.
It transpired5 that, owing to the delay in her arrival, this proposal too, among other things, had in the hurry not been mentioned to her, except some time ago as a general suggestion that they would go somewhere. Heddegan had imagined that any trip would be pleasant, and one to the mainland the pleasantest of all.
She looked so distressed6 at the announcement that her husband willingly offered to give it up, though he had not had a holiday off the island for a whole year. Then she pondered on the inconvenience of staying at Giant’s Town, where all the inhabitants were bonded7, by the circumstances of their situation, into a sort of family party, which permitted and encouraged on such occasions as these oral criticism that was apt to disturb the equanimity8 of newly married girls, and would especially worry Baptista in her strange situation. Hence, unexpectedly, she agreed not to disorganize her husband’s plans for the wedding jaunt9, and it was settled that, as originally intended, they should proceed in a neighbour’s sailing boat to the metropolis10 of the district.
In this way they arrived at Pen-zephyr without difficulty or mishap11. Bidding adieu to Jenkin and his man, who had sailed them over, they strolled arm in arm off the pier, Baptista silent, cold, and obedient. Heddegan had arranged to take her as far as Plymouth before their return, but to go no further than where they had landed that day. Their first business was to find an inn; and in this they had unexpected difficulty, since for some reason or other—possibly the fine weather—many of the nearest at hand were full of tourists and commercial travellers. He led her on till he reached a tavern12 which, though comparatively unpretending, stood in as attractive a spot as any in the town; and this, somewhat to their surprise after their previous experience, they found apparently13 empty. The considerate old man, thinking that Baptista was educated to artistic14 notions, though he himself was deficient15 in them, had decided16 that it was most desirable to have, on such an occasion as the present, an apartment with ‘a good view’ (the expression being one he had often heard in use among tourists); and he therefore asked for a favourite room on the first floor, from which a bow-window protruded17, for the express purpose of affording such an outlook.
The landlady18, after some hesitation19, said she was sorry that particular apartment was engaged; the next one, however, or any other in the house, was unoccupied.
‘The gentleman who has the best one will give it up to-morrow, and then you can change into it,’ she added, as Mr. Heddegan hesitated about taking the adjoining and less commanding one.
‘We shall be gone to-morrow, and shan’t want it,’ he said.
Wishing not to lose customers, the landlady earnestly continued that since he was bent21 on having the best room, perhaps the other gentleman would not object to move at once into the one they despised, since, though nothing could be seen from the window, the room was equally large.
‘Well, if he doesn’t care for a view,’ said Mr. Heddegan, with the air of a highly artistic man who did.
‘O no—I am sure he doesn’t,’ she said. ‘I can promise that you shall have the room you want. If you would not object to go for a walk for half an hour, I could have it ready, and your things in it, and a nice tea laid in the bow-window by the time you come back?’
This proposal was deemed satisfactory by the fussy22 old tradesman, and they went out. Baptista nervously23 conducted him in an opposite direction to her walk of the former day in other company, showing on her wan20 face, had he observed it, how much she was beginning to regret her sacrificial step for mending matters that morning.
She took advantage of a moment when her husband’s back was turned to inquire casually24 in a shop if anything had been heard of the gentleman who was sucked down in the eddy25 while bathing.
The shopman said, ‘Yes, his body has been washed ashore,’ and had just handed Baptista a newspaper on which she discerned the heading, ‘A Schoolmaster drowned while bathing,’ when her husband turned to join her. She might have pursued the subject without raising suspicion; but it was more than flesh and blood could do, and completing a small purchase almost ran out of the shop.
‘What is your terrible hurry, mee deer?’ said Heddegan, hastening after.
‘And we won’t,’ he said. ‘They are suffocating27 this weather. Let’s go back and have some tay!’
They found the much desired apartment awaiting their entry. It was a sort of combination bed and sitting-room28, and the table was prettily29 spread with high tea in the bow-window, a bunch of flowers in the midst, and a best-parlour chair on each side. Here they shared the meal by the ruddy light of the vanishing sun. But though the view had been engaged, regardless of expense, exclusively for Baptista’s pleasure, she did not direct any keen attention out of the window. Her gaze as often fell on the floor and walls of the room as elsewhere, and on the table as much as on either, beholding30 nothing at all.
But there was a change. Opposite her seat was the door, upon which her eyes presently became riveted31 like those of a little bird upon a snake. For, on a peg32 at the back of the door, there hung a hat; such a hat—surely, from its peculiar33 make, the actual hat—that had been worn by Charles. Conviction grew to certainty when she saw a railway ticket sticking up from the band. Charles had put the ticket there—she had noticed the act.
Her teeth almost chattered34; she murmured something incoherent. Her husband jumped up and said, ‘You are not well! What is it? What shall I get ’ee?’
‘Smelling salts!’ she said, quickly and desperately35; ‘at that chemist’s shop you were in just now.’
He jumped up like the anxious old man that he was, caught up his own hat from a back table, and without observing the other hastened out and downstairs.
Left alone she gazed and gazed at the back of the door, then spasmodically rang the bell. An honest-looking country maid-servant appeared in response.
‘A hat!’ murmured Baptista, pointing with her finger. ‘It does not belong to us.’
‘O yes, I’ll take it away,’ said the young woman with some hurry. ‘It belongs to the other gentleman.’
She spoke36 with a certain awkwardness, and took the hat out of the room. Baptista had recovered her outward composure. ‘The other gentleman?’ she said. ‘Where is the other gentleman?’
‘He’s in the next room, ma’am. He removed out of this to oblige ’ee.’
‘How can you say so? I should hear him if he were there,’ said Baptista, sufficiently37 recovered to argue down an apparent untruth.
‘Then it is strange that he makes no noise,’ said Mrs. Heddegan, convicting the girl of falsity by a look.
‘He makes no noise; but it is not strange,’ said the servant.
All at once a dread39 took possession of the bride’s heart, like a cold hand laid thereon; for it flashed upon her that there was a possibility of reconciling the girl’s statement with her own knowledge of facts.
‘Why does he make no noise?’ she weakly said.
The waiting-maid was silent, and looked at her questioner. ‘If I tell you, ma’am, you won’t tell missis?’ she whispered.
Baptista promised.
‘Because he’s a-lying dead!’ said the girl. ‘He’s the schoolmaster that was drownded yesterday.’
‘O!’ said the bride, covering her eyes. ‘Then he was in this room till just now?’
‘Yes,’ said the maid, thinking the young lady’s agitation40 natural enough. ‘And I told missis that I thought she oughtn’t to have done it, because I don’t hold it right to keep visitors so much in the dark where death’s concerned; but she said the gentleman didn’t die of anything infectious; she was a poor, honest, innkeeper’s wife, she says, who had to get her living by making hay while the sun sheened. And owing to the drownded gentleman being brought here, she said, it kept so many people away that we were empty, though all the other houses were full. So when your good man set his mind upon the room, and she would have lost good paying folk if he’d not had it, it wasn’t to be supposed, she said, that she’d let anything stand in the way. Ye won’t say that I’ve told ye, please, m’m? All the linen41 has been changed, and as the inquest won’t be till to-morrow, after you are gone, she thought you wouldn’t know a word of it, being strangers here.’
The returning footsteps of her husband broke off further narration42. Baptista waved her hand, for she could not speak. The waiting-maid quickly withdrew, and Mr. Heddegan entered with the smelling salts and other nostrums43.
‘Any better?’ he questioned.
‘I don’t like the hotel,’ she exclaimed, almost simultaneously44. ‘I can’t bear it—it doesn’t suit me!’
‘Is that all that’s the matter?’ he returned pettishly45 (this being the first time of his showing such a mood). ‘Upon my heart and life such trifling46 is trying to any man’s temper, Baptista! Sending me about from here to yond, and then when I come back saying ’ee don’t like the place that I have sunk so much money and words to get for ’ee. ‘Od dang it all, ’tis enough to—But I won’t say any more at present, mee deer, though it is just too much to expect to turn out of the house now. We shan’t get another quiet place at this time of the evening—every other inn in the town is bustling47 with rackety folk of one sort and t’other, while here ’tis as quiet as the grave—the country, I would say. So bide48 still, d’ye hear, and to-morrow we shall be out of the town altogether—as early as you like.’
The obstinacy49 of age had, in short, overmastered its complaisance50, and the young woman said no more. The simple course of telling him that in the adjoining room lay a corpse51 which had lately occupied their own might, it would have seemed, have been an effectual one without further disclosure, but to allude52 to that subject, however it was disguised, was more than Heddegan’s young wife had strength for. Horror broke her down. In the contingency53 one thing only presented itself to her paralyzed regard—that here she was doomed54 to abide55, in a hideous56 contiguity57 to the dead husband and the living, and her conjecture58 did, in fact, bear itself out. That night she lay between the two men she had married—Heddegan on the one hand, and on the other through the partition against which the bed stood, Charles Stow.
该作者的其它作品
《Tess of the D‘Urbervilles德伯家的苔丝》
《韦塞克斯的故事 Wessex Tales》
《远离尘嚣 Far from the madding crowd》
《绿茵树下 Under the Greenwood Tree》
该作者的其它作品
《Tess of the D‘Urbervilles德伯家的苔丝》
《韦塞克斯的故事 Wessex Tales》
《远离尘嚣 Far from the madding crowd》
《绿茵树下 Under the Greenwood Tree》
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1
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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acquiesce
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| vi.默许，顺从，同意 | |
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3
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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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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5
transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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6
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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7
bonded
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| n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的 | |
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8
equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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9
jaunt
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| v.短程旅游；n.游览 | |
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10
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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11
mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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12
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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13
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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14
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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15
deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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16
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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17
protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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19
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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20
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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21
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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22
fussy
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| adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的 | |
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23
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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24
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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25
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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26
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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27
suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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28
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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29
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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30
beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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31
riveted
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| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
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32
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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33
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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34
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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35
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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36
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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37
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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38
hardily
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| 耐劳地，大胆地，蛮勇地 | |
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39
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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40
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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41
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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42
narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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43
nostrums
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| n.骗人的疗法，有专利权的药品( nostrum的名词复数 )；妙策 | |
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44
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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45
pettishly
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46
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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47
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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48
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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49
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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50
complaisance
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| n.彬彬有礼，殷勤，柔顺 | |
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51
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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52
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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53
contingency
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| n.意外事件，可能性 | |
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54
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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55
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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56
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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57
contiguity
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| n.邻近，接壤 | |
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58
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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