It was, indeed, an interesting truth that the young man, during his convalescence7, without his own knowledge, acted as a species of magnet which drew together persons who might not easily otherwise have met. Mr. Penzance and Mount Dunstan rode over to see him every few days, and their visits naturally established relations with Stornham Court much more intimate than could have formed themselves in the same length of time under any of the ordinary circumstances of country life. Conventionalities lost their prominence8 in friendly intercourse9 with Selden. It was not, however, that he himself desired to dispense10 with convention. His intense wish to “do the right thing,” and avoid giving offence was the most ingenuous11 and touching12 feature of his broad cosmopolitan13 good nature.
“If I ever make a break, sir,” he had once said, with almost passionate14 fervour, in talking to Mr. Penzance, “please tell me, and set me on the right track. No fellow likes to look like a hoosier, but I don't mind that half as much as—as seeming not to APPRECIATE.”
He used the word “appreciate” frequently. It expressed for him many degrees of thanks.
“I tell you that's fine,” he said to Ughtred, who brought him a flower from the garden. “I appreciate that.”
To Betty he said more than once:
“You know how I appreciate all this, Miss Vanderpoel. You DO know I appreciate it, don't you?”
He had an immense admiration15 for Mount Dunstan, and talked to him a great deal about America, often about the sheep ranch16, and what it might have done and ought to have done. But his admiration for Mr. Penzance became affection. To him he talked oftener about England, and listened to the vicar's scholarly stories of its history, its past glories and its present ones, as he might have listened at fourteen to stories from the Arabian Nights.
These two being frequently absorbed in conversation, Mount Dunstan was rather thrown upon Betty's hands. When they strolled together about the place or sat under the deep shade of green trees, they talked not only of England and America, but of divers17 things which increased their knowledge of each other. It is points of view which reveal qualities, tendencies, and innate18 differences, or accordances of thought, and the points of view of each interested the other.
“Mr. Selden is asking Mr. Penzance questions about English history,” Betty said, on one of the afternoons in which they sat in the shade. “I need not ask you questions. You ARE English history.”
“And you are American history,” Mount Dunstan answered.
“I suppose I am.”
At one of their chance meetings Miss Vanderpoel had told Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt something of the story of G. Selden. The novelty of it had delighted and amused them. Lord Dunholm had, at points, been touched as Penzance had been. Westholt had felt that he must ride over to Stornham to see the convalescent. He wanted to learn some New York slang.
He would take lessons from Selden, and he would also buy a Delkoff—two Delkoffs, if that would be better. He knew a hard-working fellow who ought to have a typewriter.
“Heath ought to have one,” he had said to his father. Heath was the house-steward. “Think of the letters the poor chap has to write to trades-people to order things, and unorder them, and blackguard the shopkeepers when they are not satisfactory. Invest in one for Heath, father.”
“It is by no means a bad idea,” Lord Dunholm reflected. “Time would be saved by the use of it, I have no doubt.”
“It saves time in any department where it can be used,” Betty had answered. “Three are now in use at Stornham, and I am going to present one to Kedgers. This is a testimonial I am offering. Three weeks ago I began to use the Delkoff. Since then I have used no other. If YOU use them you will introduce them to the county.”
She understood the feeling of the junior assistant, when he found himself in the presence of possible purchasers. Her blood tingled19 slightly. She wished she had brought a catalogue.
“We will come to Stornham to see the catalogue,” Lord Dunholm promised.
“Perhaps you will read it aloud to us,” Westholt suggested gleefully.
“G. Selden knows it by heart, and will repeat it to you with running comments. Do you know I shall be very glad if you decide to buy one—or two—or three,” with an uplift of the Irish blue eyes to Lord Dunholm. “The blood of the first Reuben Vanderpoel stirs in my veins—also I have begun to be fond of G. Selden.”
Therefore it occurred that on the afternoon referred to Lady Anstruthers appeared crossing the sward with two male visitors in her wake.
“Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt,” said Betty, rising.
For this meeting between the men Selden was, without doubt, responsible. While his father talked to Mount Dunstan, Westholt explained that they had come athirst for the catalogue. Presently Betty took him to the sheltered corner of the lawn, where the convalescent sat with Mr. Penzance.
But, for a short time, Lord Dunholm remained to converse20 with Mount Dunstan. In a way the situation was delicate. To encounter by chance a neighbour whom one—for reasons—has not seen since his childhood, and to be equal to passing over and gracefully21 obliterating22 the intervening years, makes demand even upon finished tact23. Lord Dunholm's world had been a large one, and he had acquired experience tending to the development of the most perfect methods. If G. Selden had chanced to be the magnet which had decided24 his course this special afternoon, Miss Vanderpoel it was who had stirred in him sufficient interest in Mount Dunstan to cause him to use the best of these methods when he found himself face to face with him.
He beautifully eliminated the years, he eliminated all but the facts that the young man's father and himself had been acquaintances in youth, that he remembered Mount Dunstan himself as a child, that he had heard with interest of his visit to America. Whatsoever25 the young man felt, he made no sign which presented obstacles. He accepted the eliminations26 with outward composure. He was a powerful-looking fellow, with a fine way of carrying his shoulders, and an eye which might be able to light savagely27, but just now, at least, he showed nothing of the sulkiness he was accused of.
Lord Dunholm progressed admirably with him. He soon found that he need not be upon any strain with regard to the eliminations. The man himself could eliminate, which was an assistance.
They talked together when they turned to follow the others to the retreat of G. Selden.
“Have you bought a Delkoff?” Lord Dunholm inquired.
“If I could have afforded it, I should have bought one.”
“I think that we have come here with the intention of buying three. We did not know we required them until Miss Vanderpoel recited half a page of the catalogue to us.”
“Three will mean a 'rake off' of fifteen dollars to G. Selden,” said Mount Dunstan. It was, he saw, necessary that he should explain the meaning of a “rake off,” and he did so to his companion's entertainment.
The afternoon was a satisfactory one. They were all kind to G. Selden, and he on his part was an aid to them. In his innocence28 he steered29 three of them, at least, through narrow places into an open sea of easy intercourse. This was a good beginning. The junior assistant was recovering rapidly, and looked remarkably30 well. The doctor had told him that he might try to use his leg. The inside cabin of the cheap Liner and “little old New York” were looming31 up before him. But what luck he had had, and what a holiday! It had been enough to set a fellow up for ten years' work. It would set up the boys merely to be told about it. He didn't know what HE had ever done to deserve such luck as had happened to him. For the rest of his life he would he waving the union Jack32 alongside of the Stars and Stripes.
Mr. Penzance it was who suggested that he should try the strength of the leg now.
“Yes,” Mount Dunstan said. “Let me help you.”
As he rose to go to him, Westholt good-naturedly got up also. They took their places at either side of his invalid33 chair and assisted him to rise and stand on his feet.
“It's all right, gentlemen. It's all right,” he called out with a delighted flush, when he found himself upright. “I believe I could stand alone. Thank you. Thank you.”
He was able, leaning on Mount Dunstan's arm, to take a few steps. Evidently, in a short time, he would find himself no longer disabled.
Mr. Penzance had invited him to spend a week at the vicarage. He was to do this as soon as he could comfortably drive from the one place to the other. After receiving the invitation he had sent secretly to London for one of the Delkoffs he had brought with him from America as a specimen34. He cherished in private a plan of gently entertaining his host by teaching him to use the machine. The vicar would thus be prepared for that future in which surely a Delkoff must in some way fall into his hands. Indeed, Fortune having at length cast an eye on himself, might chance to favour him further, and in time he might be able to send a “high-class machine” as a grateful gift to the vicarage. Perhaps Mr. Penzance would accept it because he would understand what it meant of feeling and appreciation35.
During the afternoon Lord Dunholm managed to talk a good deal with Mount Dunstan. There was no air of intention in his manner, nevertheless intention was concealed36 beneath its courteous37 amiability38. He wanted to get at the man. Before they parted he felt he had, perhaps, learned things opening up new points of view.
. . . . .
In the smoking-room at Dunholm that night he and his son talked of their chance encounter. It seemed possible that mistakes had been made about Mount Dunstan. One did not form a definite idea of a man's character in the course of an afternoon, but he himself had been impressed by a conviction that there had been mistakes.
“We are rather a stiff-necked lot—in the country—when we allow ourselves to be taken possession of by an idea,” Westholt commented.
“I am not at all proud of the way in which we have taken things for granted,” was his father's summing up. “It is, perhaps, worth observing,” taking his cigar from his mouth and smiling at the end of it, as he removed the ash, “that, but for Miss Vanderpoel and G. Selden, we might never have had an opportunity of facing the fact that we may not have been giving fair play. And one has prided one's self on one's fair play.”
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1
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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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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decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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convalescence
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| n.病后康复期 | |
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prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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13
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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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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15
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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19
tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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obliterating
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| v.除去( obliterate的现在分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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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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whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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eliminations
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| n.排除( elimination的名词复数 )；除去；根除；淘汰 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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29
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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31
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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32
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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36
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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amiability
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| n.和蔼可亲的，亲切的，友善的 | |
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