Anne watched these romantic proceedings14 from her window with much interest, and when she saw how triumphantly15 other handsome girls of the neighbourhood walked by on the gorgeous arms of Lieutenant16 Knockheelmann, Cornet Flitzenhart, and Captain Klaspenkissen, of the thrilling York Hussars, who swore the most picturesque17 foreign oaths, and had a wonderful sort of estate or property called the Vaterland in their country across the sea, she was filled with a sense of her own loneliness. It made her think of things which she tried to forget, and to look into a little drawer at something soft and brown that lay in a curl there, wrapped in paper. At last she could bear it no longer, and went downstairs.
‘Where are you going?’ said Mrs. Garland.
‘To see the folks, because I am so gloomy!’
‘Certainly not at present, Anne.’
‘Why not, mother?’ said Anne, blushing with an indefinite sense of being very wicked.
‘Because you must not. I have been going to tell you several times not to go into the street at this time of day. Why not walk in the morning? There’s young Mr. Derriman would be glad to—’
‘Don’t mention him, mother, don’t!’
‘Well then, dear, walk in the garden.’
So poor Anne, who really had not the slightest wish to throw her heart away upon a soldier, but merely wanted to displace old thoughts by new, turned into the inner garden from day to day, and passed a good many hours there, the pleasant birds singing to her, and the delightful18 butterflies alighting on her hat, and the horrid19 ants running up her stockings.
This garden was undivided from Loveday’s, the two having originally been the single garden of the whole house. It was a quaint2 old place, enclosed by a thorn hedge so shapely and dense20 from incessant21 clipping that the mill-boy could walk along the top without sinking in—a feat22 which he often performed as a means of filling out his day’s work. The soil within was of that intense fat blackness which is only seen after a century of constant cultivation23. The paths were grassed over, so that people came and went upon them without being heard. The grass harboured slugs, and on this account the miller24 was going to replace it by gravel25 as soon as he had time; but as he had said this for thirty years without doing it, the grass and the slugs seemed likely to remain.
The miller’s man attended to Mrs. Garland’s piece of the garden as well as to the larger portion, digging, planting, and weeding indifferently in both, the miller observing with reason that it was not worth while for a helpless widow lady to hire a man for her little plot when his man, working alongside, could tend it without much addition to his labour. The two households were on this account even more closely united in the garden than within the mill. Out there they were almost one family, and they talked from plot to plot with a zest26 and animation27 which Mrs. Garland could never have anticipated when she first removed thither28 after her husband’s death.
The lower half of the garden, farthest from the road, was the most snug29 and sheltered part of this snug and sheltered enclosure, and it was well watered as the land of Lot. Three small brooks30, about a yard wide, ran with a tinkling31 sound from side to side between the plots, crossing the path under wood slabs32 laid as bridges, and passing out of the garden through little tunnels in the hedge. The brooks were so far overhung at their brinks by grass and garden produce that, had it not been for their perpetual babbling33, few would have noticed that they were there. This was where Anne liked best to linger when her excursions became restricted to her own premises; and in a spot of the garden not far removed the trumpet-major loved to linger also.
Having by virtue34 of his office no stable duty to perform, he came down from the camp to the mill almost every day; and Anne, finding that he adroitly35 walked and sat in his father’s portion of the garden whenever she did so in the other half, could not help smiling and speaking to him. So his epaulettes and blue jacket, and Anne’s yellow gipsy hat, were often seen in different parts of the garden at the same time; but he never intruded36 into her part of the enclosure, nor did she into Loveday’s. She always spoke37 to him when she saw him there, and he replied in deep, firm accents across the gooseberry bushes, or through the tall rows of flowering peas, as the case might be. He thus gave her accounts at fifteen paces of his experiences in camp, in quarters, in Flanders, and elsewhere; of the difference between line and column, of forced marches, billeting, and such-like, together with his hopes of promotion38. Anne listened at first indifferently; but knowing no one else so good-natured and experienced, she grew interested in him as in a brother. By degrees his gold lace, buckles39, and spurs lost all their strangeness and were as familiar to her as her own clothes.
At last Mrs. Garland noticed this growing friendship, and began to despair of her motherly scheme of uniting Anne to the moneyed Festus. Why she could not take prompt steps to check interference with her plans arose partly from her nature, which was the reverse of managing, and partly from a new emotional circumstance with which she found it difficult to reckon. The near neighbourhood that had produced the friendship of Anne for John Loveday was slowly effecting a warmer liking40 between her mother and his father.
Thus the month of July passed. The troop horses came with the regularity41 of clockwork twice a day down to drink under her window, and, as the weather grew hotter, kicked up their heels and shook their heads furiously under the maddening sting of the dun-fly. The green leaves in the garden became of a darker dye, the gooseberries ripened42, and the three brooks were reduced to half their winter volume.
At length the earnest trumpet-major obtained Mrs. Garland’s consent to take her and her daughter to the camp, which they had not yet viewed from any closer point than their own windows. So one afternoon they went, the miller being one of the party. The villagers were by this time driving a roaring trade with the soldiers, who purchased of them every description of garden produce, milk, butter, and eggs at liberal prices. The figures of these rural sutlers could be seen creeping up the slopes, laden43 like bees, to a spot in the rear of the camp, where there was a kind of market-place on the greensward.
Mrs. Garland, Anne, and the miller were conducted from one place to another, and on to the quarter where the soldiers’ wives lived who had not been able to get lodgings44 in the cottages near. The most sheltered place had been chosen for them, and snug huts had been built for their use by their husbands, of clods, hurdles45, a little thatch46, or whatever they could lay hands on. The trumpet-major conducted his friends thence to the large barn which had been appropriated as a hospital, and to the cottage with its windows bricked up, that was used as the magazine; then they inspected the lines of shining dark horses (each representing the then high figure of two-and-twenty guineas purchase money), standing patiently at the ropes which stretched from one picket-post to another, a bank being thrown up in front of them as a protection at night.
They passed on to the tents of the German Legion, a well-grown and rather dandy set of men, with a poetical47 look about their faces which rendered them interesting to feminine eyes. Hanoverians, Saxons, Prussians, Swedes, Hungarians, and other foreigners were numbered in their ranks. They were cleaning arms, which they leant carefully against a rail when the work was complete.
On their return they passed the mess-house, a temporary wooden building with a brick chimney. As Anne and her companions went by, a group of three or four of the hussars were standing at the door talking to a dashing young man, who was expatiating48 on the qualities of a horse that one was inclined to buy. Anne recognized Festus Derriman in the seller, and Cripplestraw was trotting49 the animal up and down. As soon as she caught the yeoman’s eye he came forward, making some friendly remark to the miller, and then turning to Miss Garland, who kept her eyes steadily50 fixed51 on the distant landscape till he got so near that it was impossible to do so longer. Festus looked from Anne to the trumpet-major, and from the trumpet-major back to Anne, with a dark expression of face, as if he suspected that there might be a tender understanding between them.
‘Are you offended with me?’ he said to her in a low voice of repressed resentment52.
‘No,’ said Anne.
‘When are you coming to the hall again?’
‘Never, perhaps.’
‘Nonsense, Anne,’ said Mrs. Garland, who had come near, and smiled pleasantly on Festus. ‘You can go at any time, as usual.’
‘Let her come with me now, Mrs. Garland; I should be pleased to walk along with her. My man can lead home the horse.’
‘Thank you, but I shall not come,’ said Miss Anne coldly.
The widow looked unhappily in her daughter’s face, distressed53 between her desire that Anne should encourage Festus, and her wish to consult Anne’s own feelings.
‘Leave her alone, leave her alone,’ said Festus, his gaze blackening. ‘Now I think of it I am glad she can’t come with me, for I am engaged;’ and he stalked away.
Anne moved on with her mother, young Loveday silently following, and they began to descend54 the hill.
‘Well, where’s Mr. Loveday?’ asked Mrs. Garland.
‘Father’s behind,’ said John.
Mrs. Garland looked behind her solicitously55; and the miller, who had been waiting for the event, beckoned56 to her.
‘I’ll overtake you in a minute,’ she said to the younger pair, and went back, her colour, for some unaccountable reason, rising as she did so. The miller and she then came on slowly together, conversing57 in very low tones, and when they got to the bottom they stood still. Loveday and Anne waited for them, saying but little to each other, for the rencounter with Festus had damped the spirits of both. At last the widow’s private talk with Miller Loveday came to an end, and she hastened onward58, the miller going in another direction to meet a man on business. When she reached the trumpet-major and Anne she was looking very bright and rather flurried, and seemed sorry when Loveday said that he must leave them and return to the camp. They parted in their usual friendly manner, and Anne and her mother were left to walk the few remaining yards alone.
‘There, I’ve settled it,’ said Mrs. Garland. ‘Anne, what are you thinking about? I have settled in my mind that it is all right.’
‘What’s all right?’ said Anne.
‘That you do not care for Derriman, and mean to encourage John Loveday. What’s all the world so long as folks are happy! Child, don’t take any notice of what I have said about Festus, and don’t meet him any more.’
‘What a weathercock you are, mother! Why should you say that just now?’
‘It is easy to call me a weathercock,’ said the matron, putting on the look of a good woman; ‘but I have reasoned it out, and at last, thank God, I have got over my ambition. The Lovedays are our true and only friends, and Mr. Festus Derriman, with all his money, is nothing to us at all.’
‘But,’ said Anne, ‘what has made you change all of a sudden from what you have said before?’
‘My feelings and my reason, which I am thankful for!’
Anne knew that her mother’s sentiments were naturally so versatile59 that they could not be depended on for two days together; but it did not occur to her for the moment that a change had been helped on in the present case by a romantic talk between Mrs. Garland and the miller. But Mrs. Garland could not keep the secret long. She chatted gaily60 as she walked, and before they had entered the house she said, ‘What do you think Mr Loveday has been saying to me, dear Anne?’
Anne did not know at all.
‘Why, he has asked me to marry him.’
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1
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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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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orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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belles
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| n.美女( belle的名词复数 )；最美的美女 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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12
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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13
outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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14
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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15
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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16
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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17
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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19
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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31
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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32
slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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36
intruded
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| n.侵入的，推进的v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 )；把…强加于 | |
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37
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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38
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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39
buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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40
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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41
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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42
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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44
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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45
hurdles
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| n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛 | |
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46
thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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47
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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48
expatiating
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| v.详述，细说( expatiate的现在分词 ) | |
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49
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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50
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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51
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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52
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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53
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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54
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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55
solicitously
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| adv.热心地，热切地 | |
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56
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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58
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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59
versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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