“H’m,” says he; “ye come a wee thing ahint-hand, Mr. Balfour. The bird’s flaen—we hae letten her out.”
“Miss Drummond is set free?” I cried.
“Achy!” said he. “What would we keep her for, ye ken6? To hae made a steer7 about the bairn would has pleased naebody.”
“And where’ll she be now?” says I.
“She’ll have gone home to Lady Allardyce, I’m thinking,” said I.
“That’ll be it,” said he.
“Then I’ll gang there straight,” says I.
“But ye’ll be for a bite or ye go?” said he.
“Neither bite nor sup,” said I. “I had a good wauch of milk in by Ratho.”
“Aweel, aweel,” says Doig. “But ye’ll can leave your horse here and your bags, for it seems we’re to have your up-put.”
“Na, na”, said I. “Tamson’s mear [17] would never be the thing for me this day of all days.”
Doig speaking somewhat broad, I had been led by imitation into an accent much more countrified than I was usually careful to affect a good deal broader, indeed, than I have written it down; and I was the more ashamed when another voice joined in behind me with a scrap10 of a ballad11:
“Gae saddle me the bonny black,
Gae saddle sune and mak’ him ready
For I will down the Gatehope-slack,
And a’ to see my bonny leddy.”
The young lady, when I turned to her, stood in a morning gown, and her hands muffled12 in the same, as if to hold me at a distance. Yet I could not but think there was kindness in the eye with which she saw me.
“My best respects to you, Mistress Grant,” said I, bowing.
“The like to yourself, Mr. David,” she replied with a deep courtesy. “And I beg to remind you of an old musty saw, that meat and mass never hindered man. The mass I cannot afford you, for we are all good Protestants. But the meat I press on your attention. And I would not wonder but I could find something for your private ear that would be worth the stopping for.”
“Mistress Grant,” said I, “I believe I am already your debtor13 for some merry words—and I think they were kind too—on a piece of unsigned paper.”
“Unsigned paper?” says she, and made a droll14 face, which was likewise wondrous15 beautiful, as of one trying to remember.
“Or else I am the more deceived,” I went on. “But to be sure, we shall have the time to speak of these, since your father is so good as to make me for a while your inmate16; and the gomeral begs you at this time only for the favour of his liberty.”
“You give yourself hard names,” said she.
“Mr. Doig and I would be blythe to take harder at your clever pen,” says I.
“Once more I have to admire the discretion17 of all men-folk,” she replied. “But if you will not eat, off with you at once; you will be back the sooner, for you go on a fool’s errand. Off with you, Mr. David,” she continued, opening the door.
“He has lowpen on his bonny grey,
He rade the richt gate and the ready
For he was seeking his bonny leddy.”
Old Lady Allardyce walked there alone in the garden, in her hat and mutch, and having a silver-mounted staff of some black wood to lean upon. As I alighted from my horse, and drew near to her with congees20, I could see the blood come in her face, and her head fling into the air like what I had conceived of empresses.
“What brings you to my poor door?” she cried, speaking high through her nose. “I cannot bar it. The males of my house are dead and buried; I have neither son nor husband to stand in the gate for me; any beggar can pluck me by the baird [18]—and a baird there is, and that’s the worst of it yet!” she added partly to herself.
I was extremely put out at this reception, and the last remark, which seemed like a daft wife’s, left me near hand speechless.
“I see I have fallen under your displeasure, ma’am,” said I. “Yet I will still be so bold as ask after Mistress Drummond.”
She considered me with a burning eye, her lips pressed close together into twenty creases21, her hand shaking on her staff. “This cows all!” she cried. “Ye come to me to speir for her? Would God I knew!”
“She is not here?” I cried.
She threw up her chin and made a step and a cry at me, so that I fell back incontinent.
“Out upon your leeing throat!” she cried. “What! ye come and speir at me! She’s in jyle, whaur ye took her to—that’s all there is to it. And of a’ the beings ever I beheld22 in breeks, to think it should be to you! Ye timmer scoun’rel, if I had a male left to my name I would have your jaicket dustit till ye raired.”
I thought it not good to delay longer in that place, because I remarked her passion to be rising. As I turned to the horse-post she even followed me; and I make no shame to confess that I rode away with the one stirrup on and scrambling23 for the other.
As I knew no other quarter where I could push my inquiries24, there was nothing left me but to return to the Advocate’s. I was well received by the four ladies, who were now in company together, and must give the news of Prestongrange and what word went in the west country, at the most inordinate25 length and with great weariness to myself; while all the time that young lady, with whom I so much desired to be alone again, observed me quizzically and seemed to find pleasure in the sight of my impatience26. At last, after I had endured a meal with them, and was come very near the point of appealing for an interview before her aunt, she went and stood by the music-case, and picking out a tune27, sang to it on a high key—“He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay28.” But this was the end of her rigours, and presently, after making some excuse of which I have no mind, she carried me away in private to her father’s library. I should not fail to say she was dressed to the nines, and appeared extraordinary handsome.
“Now, Mr. David, sit ye down here and let us have a two-handed crack,” said she. “For I have much to tell you, and it appears besides that I have been grossly unjust to your good taste.”
“In what manner, Mistress Grant?” I asked. “I trust I have never seemed to fail in due respect.”
“I will be your surety, Mr. David,” said she. “Your respect, whether to yourself or your poor neighbours, has been always and most fortunately beyond imitation. But that is by the question. You got a note from me?” she asked.
“It must have prodigiously30 surprised you,” said she. “But let us begin with the beginning. You have not perhaps forgot a day when you were so kind as to escort three very tedious misses to Hope Park? I have the less cause to forget it myself, because you was so particular obliging as to introduce me to some of the principles of the Latin grammar, a thing which wrote itself profoundly on my gratitude31.”
“I fear I was sadly pedantical,” said I, overcome with confusion at the memory. “You are only to consider I am quite unused with the society of ladies.”
“I will say the less about the grammar then,” she replied. “But how came you to desert your charge? ‘He has thrown her out, overboard, his ain dear Annie!’” she hummed; “and his ain dear Annie and her two sisters had to taigle home by theirselves like a string of green geese! It seems you returned to my papa’s, where you showed yourself excessively martial32, and then on to realms unknown, with an eye (it appears) to the Bass33 Rock; solan geese being perhaps more to your mind than bonny lasses.”
Through all this raillery there was something indulgent in the lady’s eye which made me suppose there might be better coming.
“You take a pleasure to torment34 me,” said I, “and I make a very feckless plaything; but let me ask you to be more merciful. At this time there is but the one thing that I care to hear of, and that will be news of Catriona.”
“Do you call her by that name to her face, Mr. Balfour?” she asked.
“I would not do so in any case to strangers,” said Miss Grant. “And why are you so much immersed in the affairs of this young lady?”
“I heard she was in prison,” said I.
“Well, and now you hear that she is out of it,” she replied, “and what more would you have? She has no need of any further champion.”
“I may have the greater need of her, ma’am,” said I.
“Come, this is better!” says Miss Grant. “But look me fairly in the face; am I not bonnier than she?”
“Well, here you have the pick of the two at your hand, and must needs speak of the other,” said she. “This is never the way to please the ladies, Mr. Balfour.”
“By which I am to understand that I am no better than I should be, perhaps?” she asked.
“By which you will please understand that I am like the cock in the midden in the fable38 book,” said I. “I see the braw jewel—and I like fine to see it too—but I have more need of the pickle39 corn.”
“Bravissimo!” she cried. “There is a word well said at last, and I will reward you for it with my story. That same night of your desertion I came late from a friend’s house—where I was excessively admired, whatever you may think of it—and what should I hear but that a lass in a tartan screen desired to speak with me? She had been there an hour or better, said the servant-lass, and she grat in to herself as she sat waiting. I went to her direct; she rose as I came in, and I knew her at a look. ‘Grey Eyes!’ says I to myself, but was more wise than to let on. You will be Miss Grant at last? she says, rising and looking at me hard and pitiful. Ay, it was true he said, you are bonny at all events.—The way God made me, my dear, I said, but I would be gey and obliged if you could tell me what brought you here at such a time of the night.—Lady, she said, we are kinsfolk, we are both come of the blood of the sons of Alpin.—My dear, I replied, I think no more of Alpin or his sons than what I do of a kalestock. You have a better argument in these tears upon your bonny face. And at that I was so weak-minded as to kiss her, which is what you would like to do dearly, and I wager40 will never find the courage of. I say it was weak-minded of me, for I knew no more of her than the outside; but it was the wisest stroke I could have hit upon. She is a very staunch, brave nature, but I think she has been little used with tenderness; and at that caress41 (though to say the truth, it was but lightly given) her heart went out to me. I will never betray the secrets of my sex, Mr. Davie; I will never tell you the way she turned me round her thumb, because it is the same she will use to twist yourself. Ay, it is a fine lass! She is as clean as hill well water.”
“She is e’en’t!” I cried.
“Well, then, she told me her concerns,” pursued Miss Grant, “and in what a swither she was in about her papa, and what a taking about yourself, with very little cause, and in what a perplexity she had found herself after you was gone away. And then I minded at long last, says she, that we were kinswomen, and that Mr. David should have given you the name of the bonniest of the bonny, and I was thinking to myself ‘If she is so bonny she will be good at all events’; and I took up my foot soles out of that. That was when I forgave yourself, Mr. Davie. When you was in my society, you seemed upon hot iron: by all marks, if ever I saw a young man that wanted to be gone, it was yourself, and I and my two sisters were the ladies you were so desirous to be gone from; and now it appeared you had given me some notice in the by-going, and was so kind as to comment on my attractions! From that hour you may date our friendship, and I began to think with tenderness upon the Latin grammar.”
“You will have many hours to rally me in,” said I; “and I think besides you do yourself injustice42. I think it was Catriona turned your heart in my direction. She is too simple to perceive as you do the stiffness of her friend.”
“I would not like to wager upon that, Mr. David,” said she. “The lasses have clear eyes. But at least she is your friend entirely43, as I was to see. I carried her in to his lordship my papa; and his Advocacy being in a favourable44 stage of claret, was so good as to receive the pair of us. Here is Grey Eyes that you have been deaved with these days past, said I, she is come to prove that we spoke45 true, and I lay the prettiest lass in the three Lothians at your feet—making a papistical reservation of myself. She suited her action to my words: down she went upon her knees to him—I would not like to swear but he saw two of her, which doubtless made her appeal the more irresistible46, for you are all a pack of Mahomedans—told him what had passed that night, and how she had withheld47 her father’s man from following of you, and what a case she was in about her father, and what a flutter for yourself; and begged with weeping for the lives of both of you (neither of which was in the slightest danger), till I vow48 I was proud of my sex because it was done so pretty, and ashamed for it because of the smallness of the occasion. She had not gone far, I assure you, before the Advocate was wholly sober, to see his inmost politics ravelled out by a young lass and discovered to the most unruly of his daughters. But we took him in hand, the pair of us, and brought that matter straight. Properly managed—and that means managed by me—there is no one to compare with my papa.”
“He has been a good man to me,” said I.
“Well, he was a good man to Katrine, and I was there to see to it,” said she.
“And she pled for me?” say I.
“She did that, and very movingly,” said Miss Grant. “I would not like to tell you what she said—I find you vain enough already.”
“God reward her for it!” cried I.
“With Mr. David Balfour, I suppose?” says she.
“You do me too much injustice at the last!” I cried. “I would tremble to think of her in such hard hands. Do you think I would presume, because she begged my life? She would do that for a new whelped puppy! I have had more than that to set me up, if you but ken’d. She kissed that hand of mine. Ay, but she did. And why? because she thought I was playing a brave part and might be going to my death. It was not for my sake—but I need not be telling that to you, that cannot look at me without laughter. It was for the love of what she thought was bravery. I believe there is none but me and poor Prince Charlie had that honour done them. Was this not to make a god of me? and do you not think my heart would quake when I remember it?”
“I do laugh at you a good deal, and a good deal more than is quite civil,” said she; “but I will tell you one thing: if you speak to her like that, you have some glimmerings of a chance.”
“Me?” I cried, “I would never dare. I can speak to you, Miss Grant, because it’s a matter of indifference49 what ye think of me. But her? no fear!” said I.
“I think you have the largest feet in all broad Scotland,” says she.
“Troth they are no very small,” said I, looking down.
“Ah, poor Catriona!” cries Miss Grant.
And I could but stare upon her; for though I now see very well what she was driving at (and perhaps some justification50 for the same), I was never swift at the uptake in such flimsy talk.
“Ah well, Mr. David,” she said, “it goes sore against my conscience, but I see I shall have to be your speaking board. She shall know you came to her straight upon the news of her imprisonment51; she shall know you would not pause to eat; and of our conversation she shall hear just so much as I think convenient for a maid of her age and inexperience. Believe me, you will be in that way much better served than you could serve yourself, for I will keep the big feet out of the platter.”
“You know where she is, then?” I exclaimed.
“That I do, Mr. David, and will never tell,” said she.
“Why that?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, “I am a good friend, as you will soon discover; and the chief of those that I am friend to is my papa. I assure you, you will never heat nor melt me out of that, so you may spare me your sheep’s eyes; and adieu to your David-Balfourship for the now.”
“But there is yet one thing more,” I cried. “There is one thing that must be stopped, being mere ruin to herself, and to me too.”
“Well,” she said, “be brief; I have spent half the day on you already.”
The colour came into Miss Grant’s face, so that at first I was quite abashed53 to find her ear so delicate, till I bethought me she was struggling rather with mirth, a notion in which I was altogether confirmed by the shaking of her voice as she replied—
“I will take up the defence of your reputation,” she said. “You may leave it in my hands.”
And with that she withdrew out of the library.
该作者的其它作品
《Treasure Island宝岛》
《内河航程 An Inland Voyage》
《化身博士》
该作者的其它作品
《Treasure Island宝岛》
《内河航程 An Inland Voyage》
《化身博士》
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1
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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kens
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| vt.知道（ken的第三人称单数形式） | |
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9
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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10
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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11
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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12
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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debtor
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| n.借方，债务人 | |
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droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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citation
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| n.引用，引证，引用文；传票 | |
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congees
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| v.告别，鞠躬( congee的第三人称单数 ) | |
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creases
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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inordinate
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| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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prodigiously
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| adv.异常地，惊人地，巨大地 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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pickle
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| n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡 | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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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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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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50
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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51
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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52
abducted
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| 劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展 | |
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abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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