What had been simple force in the youth’s face was energized4 judgment5 in the man’s. His character was gradually writing itself out in his countenance6. That he was watching his own career with deeper and deeper interest, that he continually ‘heard his days before him,’ and cared to hear little else, might have been hazarded from what was seen there. His ambitions were, in truth, passionate7, yet controlled; so that the germs of many more plans than ever blossomed to maturity8 had place in him; and forward visions were kept purposely in twilight9, to avoid distraction10.
Events so far had been encouraging. Shortly after assuming the mastership of his first school he had obtained an introduction to the Bishop11 of a diocese far from his native county, who had looked upon him as a promising12 young man and taken him in hand. He was now in the second year of his residence at the theological college of the cathedral-town, and would soon be presented for ordination13.
He entered the town, turned into a back street, and then into a yard, keeping his book before him till he set foot under the arch of the latter place. Round the arch was written ‘National School,’ and the stonework of the jambs was worn away as nothing but boys and the waves of ocean will wear it. He was soon amid the sing-song accents of the scholars.
His brother Cornelius, who was the schoolmaster here, laid down the pointer with which he was directing attention to the Capes14 of Europe, and came forward.
‘That’s his brother Jos!’ whispered one of the sixth standard boys. ‘He’s going to be a pa’son, he’s now at college.’
‘Corney is going to be one too, when he’s saved enough money,’ said another.
After greeting his brother, whom he had not seen for several months, the junior began to explain his system of teaching geography.
But Halborough the elder took no interest in the subject. ‘How about your own studies?’ he asked. ‘Did you get the books I sent?’
Cornelius had received them, and he related what he was doing.
‘Mind you work in the morning. What time do you get up?’
The younger replied: ‘Half-past five.’
‘Half-past four is not a minute too soon this time of the year. There is no time like the morning for construing15. I don’t know why, but when I feel even too dreary16 to read a novel I can translate—there is something mechanical about it I suppose. Now, Cornelius, you are rather behindhand, and have some heavy reading before you if you mean to get out of this next Christmas.’
‘I am afraid I have.’
‘We must soon sound the Bishop. I am sure you will get a title without difficulty when he has heard all. The sub-dean, the principal of my college, says that the best plan will be for you to come there when his lordship is present at an examination, and he’ll get you a personal interview with him. Mind you make a good impression upon him. I found in my case that that was everything and doctrine17 almost nothing. You’ll do for a deacon, Corney, if not for a priest.’
The younger remained thoughtful. ‘Have you heard from Rosa lately?’ he asked; ‘I had a letter this morning.’
‘Yes. The little minx writes rather too often. She is homesick—though Brussels must be an attractive place enough. But she must make the most of her time over there. I thought a year would be enough for her, after that high-class school at Sandbourne, but I have decided18 to give her two, and make a good job of it, expensive as the establishment is.’
Their two rather harsh faces had softened19 directly they began to speak of their sister, whom they loved more ambitiously than they loved themselves.
‘But where is the money to come from, Joshua?’
‘I have already got it.’ He looked round, and finding that some boys were near withdrew a few steps. ‘I have borrowed it at five per cent. from the farmer who used to occupy the farm next our field. You remember him.’
‘But about paying him?’
‘I shall pay him by degrees out of my stipend20. No, Cornelius, it was no use to do the thing by halves. She promises to be a most attractive, not to say beautiful, girl. I have seen that for years; and if her face is not her fortune, her face and her brains together will be, if I observe and contrive21 aright. That she should be, every inch of her, an accomplished22 and refined woman, was indispensable for the fulfilment of her destiny, and for moving onwards and upwards23 with us; and she’ll do it, you will see. I’d half starve myself rather than take her away from that school now.’
They looked round the school they were in. To Cornelius it was natural and familiar enough, but to Joshua, with his limited human sympathies, who had just dropped in from a superior sort of place, the sight jarred unpleasantly, as being that of something he had left behind. ‘I shall be glad when you are out of this,’ he said, ‘and in your pulpit, and well through your first sermon.’
‘You may as well say inducted into my fat living, while you are about it.’
‘Ah, well—don’t think lightly of the Church. There’s a fine work for any man of energy in the Church, as you’ll find,’ he said fervidly24. ‘Torrents of infidelity to be stemmed, new views of old subjects to be expounded25, truths in spirit to be substituted for truths in the letter . . . ’ He lapsed26 into reverie with the vision of his career, persuading himself that it was ardour for Christianity which spurred him on, and not pride of place. He had shouldered a body of doctrine, and was prepared to defend it tooth and nail, solely27 for the honour and glory that warriors28 win.
‘If the Church is elastic29, and stretches to the shape of the time, she’ll last, I suppose,’ said Cornelius. ‘If not—. Only think, I bought a copy of Paley’s Evidences, best edition, broad margins30, excellent preservation31, at a bookstall the other day for—ninepence; and I thought that at this rate Christianity must be in rather a bad way.’
‘No, no!’ said the other almost, angrily. ‘It only shows that such defences are no longer necessary. Men’s eyes can see the truth without extraneous32 assistance. Besides, we are in for Christianity, and must stick to her whether or no. I am just now going right through Pusey’s Library of the Fathers.’
‘You’ll be a bishop, Joshua, before you have done!’
‘Ah!’ said the other bitterly, shaking his head. ‘Perhaps I might have been—I might have been! But where is my D.D. or LL.D.; and how be a bishop without that kind of appendage33? Archbishop Tillotson was the son of a Sowerby clothier, but he was sent to Clare College. To hail Oxford34 or Cambridge as alma mater is not for me—for us! My God! when I think of what we should have been—what fair promise has been blighted35 by that cursed, worthless—’
‘Hush36, hush! . . . But I feel it, too, as much as you. I have seen it more forcibly lately. You would have obtained your degree long before this time—possibly fellowship—and I should have been on my way to mine.’
‘Don’t talk of it,’ said the other. ‘We must do the best we can.’
They looked out of the window sadly, through the dusty panes37, so high up that only the sky was visible. By degrees the haunting trouble loomed38 again, and Cornelius broke the silence with a whisper: ‘He has called on me!’
The living pulses died on Joshua’s face, which grew arid39 as a clinker. ‘When was that?’ he asked quickly.
‘Last week.’
‘How did he get here—so many miles?’
‘Came by railway. He came to ask for money.’
‘Ah!’
‘He says he will call on you.’
Joshua replied resignedly. The theme of their conversation spoilt his buoyancy for that afternoon. He returned in the evening, Cornelius accompanying him to the station; but he did not read in the train which took him back to the Fountall Theological College, as he had done on the way out. That ineradicable trouble still remained as a squalid spot in the expanse of his life. He sat with the other students in the cathedral choir40 next day; and the recollection of the trouble obscured the purple splendour thrown by the panes upon the floor.
It was afternoon. All was as still in the Close as a cathedral-green can be between the Sunday services, and the incessant41 cawing of the rooks was the only sound. Joshua Halborough had finished his ascetic42 lunch, and had gone into the library, where he stood for a few moments looking out of the large window facing the green. He saw walking slowly across it a man in a fustian43 coat and a battered44 white hat with a much-ruffled nap, having upon his arm a tall gipsy-woman wearing long brass45 earrings46. The man was staring quizzically at the west front of the cathedral, and Halborough recognized in him the form and features of his father. Who the woman was he knew not. Almost as soon as Joshua became conscious of these things, the sub-dean, who was also the principal of the college, and of whom the young man stood in more awe47 than of the Bishop himself, emerged from the gate and entered a path across the Close. The pair met the dignitary, and to Joshua’s horror his father turned and addressed the sub-dean.
What passed between them he could not tell. But as he stood in a cold sweat he saw his father place his hand familiarly on the sub-dean’s shoulder; the shrinking response of the latter, and his quick withdrawal48, told his feeling. The woman seemed to say nothing, but when the sub-dean had passed by they came on towards the college gate.
Halborough flew along the corridor and out at a side door, so as to intercept49 them before they could reach the front entrance, for which they were making. He caught them behind a clump50 of laurel.
‘By Jerry, here’s the very chap! Well, you’re a fine fellow, Jos, never to send your father as much as a twist o’ baccy on such an occasion, and to leave him to travel all these miles to find ye out!’
‘First, who is this?’ said Joshua Halborough with pale dignity, waving his hand towards the buxom51 woman with the great earrings.
‘Dammy, the mis’ess! Your step-mother! Didn’t you know I’d married? She helped me home from market one night, and we came to terms, and struck the bargain. Didn’t we, Selinar?’
‘Oi, by the great Lord an’ we did!’ simpered the lady.
‘Well, what sort of a place is this you are living in?’ asked the millwright. ‘A kind of house-of-correction, apparently52?’
Joshua listened abstractedly, his features set to resignation. Sick at heart he was going to ask them if they were in want of any necessary, any meal, when his father cut him short by saying, ‘Why, we’ve called to ask ye to come round and take pot-luck with us at the Cock-and-Bottle, where we’ve put up for the day, on our way to see mis’ess’s friends at Binegar Fair, where they’ll be lying under canvas for a night or two. As for the victuals53 at the Cock I can’t testify to ’em at all; but for the drink, they’ve the rarest drop of Old Tom that I’ve tasted for many a year.’
‘Thanks; but I am a teetotaller; and I have lunched,’ said Joshua, who could fully54 believe his father’s testimony55 to the gin, from the odour of his breath. ‘You see we have to observe regular habits here; and I couldn’t be seen at the Cock-and-Bottle just now.’
‘O dammy, then don’t come, your reverence56. Perhaps you won’t mind standing57 treat for those who can be seen there?’
‘Not a penny,’ said the younger firmly. ‘You’ve had enough already.’
‘Thank you for nothing. By the bye, who was that spindle-legged, shoe-buckled parson feller we met by now? He seemed to think we should poison him!’
Joshua remarked coldly that it was the principal of his college, guardedly inquiring, ‘Did you tell him whom you were come to see?’
His father did not reply. He and his strapping58 gipsy wife—if she were his wife—stayed no longer, and disappeared in the direction of the High Street. Joshua Halborough went back to the library. Determined59 as was his nature, he wept hot tears upon the books, and was immeasurably more wretched that afternoon than the unwelcome millwright. In the evening he sat down and wrote a letter to his brother, in which, after stating what had happened, and expatiating60 upon this new disgrace in the gipsy wife, he propounded61 a plan for raising money sufficient to induce the couple to emigrate to Canada. ‘It is our only chance,’ he said. ‘The case as it stands is maddening. For a successful painter, sculptor62, musician, author, who takes society by storm, it is no drawback, it is sometimes even a romantic recommendation, to hail from outcasts and profligates. But for a clergyman of the Church of England! Cornelius, it is fatal! To succeed in the Church, people must believe in you, first of all, as a gentleman, secondly63 as a man of means, thirdly as a scholar, fourthly as a preacher, fifthly, perhaps, as a Christian,—but always first as a gentleman, with all their heart and soul and strength. I would have faced the fact of being a small machinist’s son, and have taken my chance, if he’d been in any sense respectable and decent. The essence of Christianity is humility64, and by the help of God I would have brazened it out. But this terrible vagabondage and disreputable connection! If he does not accept my terms and leave the country, it will extinguish us and kill me. For how can we live, and relinquish65 our high aim, and bring down our dear sister Rosa to the level of a gipsy’s step-daughter?’
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1
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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peripatetic
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| adj.漫游的，逍遥派的，巡回的 | |
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energized
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| v.给予…精力，能量( energize的过去式和过去分词 )；使通电 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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ordination
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| n.授任圣职 | |
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capes
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| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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15
construing
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的现在分词 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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16
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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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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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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stipend
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| n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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fervidly
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| adv.热情地，激情地 | |
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expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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29
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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30
margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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extraneous
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| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
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appendage
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| n.附加物 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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38
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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fustian
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| n.浮夸的；厚粗棉布 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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46
earrings
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| n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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48
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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49
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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50
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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51
buxom
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| adj.（妇女）丰满的，有健康美的 | |
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52
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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53
victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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54
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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55
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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56
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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57
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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58
strapping
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| adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式 | |
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59
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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expatiating
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| v.详述，细说( expatiate的现在分词 ) | |
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61
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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63
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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64
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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65
relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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