At the door of the first-class waiting-room, aloof8 and venerable, stood the Warden9 of Judas. An ebon pillar of tradition seemed he, in his garb10 of old-fashioned cleric. Aloft, between the wide brim of his silk hat and the white extent of his shirt-front, appeared those eyes which hawks11, that nose which eagles, had often envied. He supported his years on an ebon stick. He alone was worthy12 of the background.
Came a whistle from the distance. The breast of an engine was descried13, and a long train curving after it, under a flight of smoke. It grew and grew. Louder and louder, its noise foreran it. It became a furious, enormous monster, and, with an instinct for safety, all men receded14 from the platform’s margin. (Yet came there with it, unknown to them, a danger far more terrible than itself.) Into the station it came blustering15, with cloud and clangour. Ere it had yet stopped, the door of one carriage flew open, and from it, in a white travelling dress, in a toque a-twinkle with fine diamonds, a lithe17 and radiant creature slipped nimbly down to the platform.
A cynosure18 indeed! A hundred eyes were fixed19 on her, and half as many hearts lost to her. The Warden of Judas himself had mounted on his nose a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Him espying20, the nymph darted21 in his direction. The throng22 made way for her. She was at his side.
“Grandpapa!” she cried, and kissed the old man on either cheek. (Not a youth there but would have bartered23 fifty years of his future for that salute24.)
“My dear Zuleika,” he said, “welcome to Oxford! Have you no luggage?”
“Heaps!” she answered. “And a maid who will find it.”
“Then,” said the Warden, “let us drive straight to College.” He offered her his arm, and they proceeded slowly to the entrance. She chatted gaily25, blushing not in the long avenue of eyes she passed through. All the youths, under her spell, were now quite oblivious26 of the relatives they had come to meet. Parents, sisters, cousins, ran unclaimed about the platform. Undutiful, all the youths were forming a serried27 suite28 to their enchantress. In silence they followed her. They saw her leap into the Warden’s landau, they saw the Warden seat himself upon her left. Nor was it until the landau was lost to sight that they turned—how slowly, and with how bad a grace!—to look for their relatives.
Through those slums which connect Oxford with the world, the landau rolled on towards Judas. Not many youths occurred, for nearly all—it was the Monday of Eights Week—were down by the river, cheering the crews. There did, however, come spurring by, on a polo-pony, a very splendid youth. His straw hat was encircled with a riband of blue and white, and he raised it to the Warden.
“That,” said the Warden, “is the Duke of Dorset, a member of my College. He dines at my table to-night.”
Zuleika, turning to regard his Grace, saw that he had not reined29 in and was not even glancing back at her over his shoulder. She gave a little start of dismay, but scarcely had her lips pouted30 ere they curved to a smile—a smile with no malice31 in its corners.
As the landau rolled into “the Corn,” another youth—a pedestrian, and very different—saluted the Warden. He wore a black jacket, rusty32 and amorphous33. His trousers were too short, and he himself was too short: almost a dwarf34. His face was as plain as his gait was undistinguished. He squinted35 behind spectacles.
“And who is that?” asked Zuleika.
A deep flush overspread the cheek of the Warden. “That,” he said, “is also a member of Judas. His name, I believe, is Noaks.”
“Is he dining with us to-night?” asked Zuleika.
“Certainly not,” said the Warden. “Most decidedly not.”
Noaks, unlike the Duke, had stopped for an ardent36 retrospect37. He gazed till the landau was out of his short sight; then, sighing, resumed his solitary38 walk.
The landau was rolling into “the Broad,” over that ground which had once blackened under the fagots lit for Latimer and Ridley. It rolled past the portals of Balliol and of Trinity, past the Ashmolean. From those pedestals which intersperse39 the railing of the Sheldonian, the high grim busts40 of the Roman Emperors stared down at the fair stranger in the equipage. Zuleika returned their stare with but a casual glance. The inanimate had little charm for her.
A moment later, a certain old don emerged from Blackwell’s, where he had been buying books. Looking across the road, he saw, to his amazement41, great beads42 of perspiration43 glistening44 on the brows of those Emperors. He trembled, and hurried away. That evening, in Common Room, he told what he had seen; and no amount of polite scepticism would convince him that it was but the hallucination of one who had been reading too much Mommsen. He persisted that he had seen what he described. It was not until two days had elapsed that some credence45 was accorded him.
Yes, as the landau rolled by, sweat started from the brows of the Emperors. They, at least, foresaw the peril46 that was overhanging Oxford, and they gave such warning as they could. Let that be remembered to their credit. Let that incline us to think more gently of them. In their lives we know, they were infamous47, some of them—“nihil non commiserunt stupri, saevitiae, impietatis.” But are they too little punished, after all? Here in Oxford, exposed eternally and inexorably to heat and frost, to the four winds that lash48 them and the rains that wear them away, they are expiating49, in effigy50, the abominations of their pride and cruelty and lust16. Who were lechers, they are without bodies; who were tyrants51, they are crowned never but with crowns of snow; who made themselves even with the gods, they are by American visitors frequently mistaken for the Twelve Apostles. It is but a little way down the road that the two Bishops52 perished for their faith, and even now we do never pass the spot without a tear for them. Yet how quickly they died in the flames! To these Emperors, for whom none weeps, time will give no surcease. Surely, it is sign of some grace in them that they rejoiced not, this bright afternoon, in the evil that was to befall the city of their penance53.
点击收听单词发音
1 presage | |
n.预感,不祥感;v.预示 | |
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2 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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3 flannel | |
n.法兰绒;法兰绒衣服 | |
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4 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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5 incongruity | |
n.不协调,不一致 | |
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6 insignificant | |
adj.无关紧要的,可忽略的,无意义的 | |
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7 enchantments | |
n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 );迷人之处;施魔法;着魔 | |
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8 aloof | |
adj.远离的;冷淡的,漠不关心的 | |
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9 warden | |
n.监察员,监狱长,看守人,监护人 | |
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10 garb | |
n.服装,装束 | |
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11 hawks | |
鹰( hawk的名词复数 ); 鹰派人物,主战派人物 | |
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12 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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13 descried | |
adj.被注意到的,被发现的,被看到的 | |
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14 receded | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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15 blustering | |
adj.狂风大作的,狂暴的v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的现在分词 );咆哮;(风)呼啸;狂吹 | |
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16 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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17 lithe | |
adj.(指人、身体)柔软的,易弯的 | |
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18 cynosure | |
n.焦点 | |
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19 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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20 espying | |
v.看到( espy的现在分词 ) | |
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21 darted | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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22 throng | |
n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集 | |
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23 bartered | |
v.作物物交换,以货换货( barter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 salute | |
vi.行礼,致意,问候,放礼炮;vt.向…致意,迎接,赞扬;n.招呼,敬礼,礼炮 | |
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25 gaily | |
adv.欢乐地,高兴地 | |
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26 oblivious | |
adj.易忘的,遗忘的,忘却的,健忘的 | |
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27 serried | |
adj.拥挤的;密集的 | |
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28 suite | |
n.一套(家具);套房;随从人员 | |
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29 reined | |
勒缰绳使(马)停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 ); 驾驭; 严格控制; 加强管理 | |
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30 pouted | |
v.撅(嘴)( pout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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32 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
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33 amorphous | |
adj.无定形的 | |
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34 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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35 squinted | |
斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 ); 眯着眼睛; 瞟; 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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36 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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37 retrospect | |
n.回顾,追溯;v.回顾,回想,追溯 | |
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38 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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39 intersperse | |
vt.散布,散置,点缀 | |
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40 busts | |
半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 ); 妇女的胸部; 胸围; 突击搜捕 | |
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41 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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42 beads | |
n.(空心)小珠子( bead的名词复数 );水珠;珠子项链 | |
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43 perspiration | |
n.汗水;出汗 | |
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44 glistening | |
adj.闪耀的,反光的v.湿物闪耀,闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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45 credence | |
n.信用,祭器台,供桌,凭证 | |
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46 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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47 infamous | |
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
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48 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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49 expiating | |
v.为(所犯罪过)接受惩罚,赎(罪)( expiate的现在分词 ) | |
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50 effigy | |
n.肖像 | |
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51 tyrants | |
专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 ); 暴君似的人; (古希腊的)僭主; 严酷的事物 | |
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52 bishops | |
(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
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53 penance | |
n.(赎罪的)惩罪 | |
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