“Too late,” you will say if I offer you a Messenger now. But it was not thus that Mrs. Batch5 and Katie greeted Clarence when, lamentably6 soaked with rain, that Messenger appeared on the threshold of the kitchen. Katie was laying the table-cloth for seven o’clock supper. Neither she nor her mother was clairvoyante. Neither of them knew what had been happening. But, as Clarence had not come home since afternoon-school, they had assumed that he was at the river; and they now assumed from the look of him that something very unusual had been happening there. As to what this was, they were not quickly enlightened. Our old Greek friend, after a run of twenty miles, would always reel off a round hundred of graphic7 verses unimpeachable8 in scansion. Clarence was of degenerate9 mould. He collapsed10 on to a chair, and sat there gasping11; and his recovery was rather delayed than hastened by his mother, who, in her solicitude12, patted him vigorously between the shoulders.
Blank verse, yes, so far as it went; but delivered without the slightest regard for rhythm, and composed in stark15 defiance16 of those laws which should regulate the breaking of bad news. You, please remember, were carefully prepared by me against the shock of the Duke’s death; and yet I hear you still mumbling17 that I didn’t let the actual fact be told you by a Messenger. Come, do you really think your grievance18 against me is for a moment comparable with that of Mrs. and Miss Batch against Clarence? Did you feel faint at any moment in the foregoing chapter? No. But Katie, at Clarence’s first words, fainted outright19. Think a little more about this poor girl senseless on the floor, and a little less about your own paltry20 discomfort21.
Mrs. Batch herself did not faint, but she was too much overwhelmed to notice that her daughter had done so.
“No! Mercy on us! Speak, boy, can’t you?”
“The river,” gasped Clarence. “Threw himself in. On purpose. I was on the towing-path. Saw him do it.”
Mrs. Batch gave a low moan.
“Katie’s fainted,” added the Messenger, not without a touch of personal pride.
“Saw him do it,” Mrs. Batch repeated dully. “Katie,” she said, in the same voice, “get up this instant.” But Katie did not hear her.
The mother was loth to have been outdone in sensibility by the daughter, and it was with some temper that she hastened to make the necessary ministrations.
“Where am I?” asked Katie, at length, echoing the words used in this very house, at a similar juncture22, on this very day, by another lover of the Duke.
“Ah, you may well ask that,” said Mrs. Batch, with more force than reason. “A mother’s support indeed! Well! And as for you,” she cried, turning on Clarence, “sending her off like that with your—” She was face to face again with the tragic23 news. Katie, remembering it simultaneously24, uttered a loud sob25. Mrs. Batch capped this with a much louder one. Clarence stood before the fire, slowly revolving26 on one heel. His clothes steamed briskly.
“It isn’t true,” said Katie. She rose and came uncertainly towards her brother, half threatening, half imploring27.
“All right,” said he, strong in his advantage. “Then I shan’t tell either of you anything more.”
Mrs. Batch through her tears called Katie a bad girl, and Clarence a bad boy.
“Where did you get THEM?” asked Clarence, pointing to the ear-rings worn by his sister.
“HE gave me them,” said Katie. Clarence curbed28 the brotherly intention of telling her she looked “a sight” in them.
She stood staring into vacancy29. “He didn’t love HER,” she murmured. “That was all over. I’ll vow30 he didn’t love HER.”
“Who d’you mean by her?” asked Clarence.
“That Miss Dobson that’s been here.”
“What’s her other name?”
“Well, then, he jolly well did love her. That’s the name he called out just before he threw himself in. ‘Zuleika!’—like that,” added the boy, with a most infelicitous33 attempt to reproduce the Duke’s manner.
“He hated her. He told me so,” she said.
“I was always a mother to him,” sobbed35 Mrs. Batch, rocking to and fro on a chair in a corner. “Why didn’t he come to me in his trouble?”
“He kissed me,” said Katie, as in a trance. “No other man shall ever do that.”
“He did?” exclaimed Clarence. “And you let him?”
“You wretched little whipper-snapper!” flashed Katie.
“Oh, I am, am I?” shouted Clarence, squaring up to his sister. “Say that again, will you?”
There is no doubt that Katie would have said it again, had not her mother closed the scene with a prolonged wail36 of censure37.
“You ought to be thinking of ME, you wicked girl,” said Mrs. Batch. Katie went across, and laid a gentle hand on her mother’s shoulder. This, however, did but evoke38 a fresh flood of tears. Mrs. Batch had a keen sense of the deportment owed to tragedy. Katie, by bickering39 with Clarence, had thrown away the advantage she had gained by fainting. Mrs. Batch was not going to let her retrieve40 it by shining as a consoler. I hasten to add that this resolve was only sub-conscious in the good woman. Her grief was perfectly41 sincere. And it was not the less so because with it was mingled42 a certain joy in the greatness of the calamity43. She came of good sound peasant stock. Abiding44 in her was the spirit of those old songs and ballads45 in which daisies and daffodillies and lovers’ vows46 and smiles are so strangely inwoven with tombs and ghosts, with murders and all manner of grim things. She had not had education enough to spoil her nerve. She was able to take the rough with the smooth. She was able to take all life for her province, and death too.
The Duke was dead. This was the stupendous outline she had grasped: now let it be filled in. She had been stricken: now let her be racked. Soon after her daughter had moved away, Mrs. Batch dried her eyes, and bade Clarence tell just what had happened. She did not flinch47. Modern Katie did.
Such had ever been the Duke’s magic in the household that Clarence had at first forgotten to mention that any one else was dead. Of this omission48 he was glad. It promised him a new lease of importance. Meanwhile, he described in greater detail the Duke’s plunge49. Mrs. Batch’s mind, while she listened, ran ahead, dog-like, into the immediate50 future, ranging around: “the family” would all be here to-morrow, the Duke’s own room must be “put straight” to-night, “I was of speaking”...
Katie’s mind harked back to the immediate past—to the tone of that voice, to that hand which she had kissed, to the touch of those lips on her brow, to the door-step she had made so white for him, day by day...
“Then in went a lot of others,” Clarence was saying. “And they all shouted out ‘Zuleika!’ just like he did. Then a lot more went in. First I thought it was some sort of fun. Not it!” And he told how, by inquiries52 further down the river, he had learned the extent of the disaster. “Hundreds and hundreds of them—ALL of them,” he summed up. “And all for the love of HER,” he added, as with a sulky salute53 to Romance.
Mrs. Batch had risen from her chair, the better to cope with such magnitude. She stood with wide-spread arms, silent, gaping54. She seemed, by sheer force of sympathy, to be expanding to the dimensions of a crowd.
Intensive Katie recked little of all these other deaths. “I only know,” she said, “that he hated her.”
“Hundreds and hundreds—ALL,” intoned Mrs. Batch, then gave a sudden start, as having remembered something. Mr. Noaks! He, too! She staggered to the door, leaving her actual offspring to their own devices, and went heavily up the stairs, her mind scampering55 again before her.... If he was safe and sound, dear young gentleman, heaven be praised! and she would break the awful news to him, very gradually. If not, there was another “family” to be solaced56; “I’m a mother myself, Mrs. Noaks”...
The sitting-room57 door was closed. Twice did Mrs. Batch tap on the panel, receiving no answer. She went in, gazed around in the dimness, sighed deeply, and struck a match. Conspicuous58 on the table lay a piece of paper. She bent59 to examine it. A piece of lined paper, torn from an exercise book, it was neatly60 inscribed61 with the words “What is Life without Love?” The final word and the note of interrogation were somewhat blurred62, as by a tear. The match had burnt itself out. The landlady63 lit another, and read the legend a second time, that she might take in the full pathos64 of it. Then she sat down in the arm-chair. For some minutes she wept there. Then, having no more, tears, she went out on tip-toe, closing the door very quietly.
As she descended65 the last flight of stairs, her daughter had just shut the front-door, and was coming along the hall.
“Poor Mr. Noaks—he’s gone,” said the mother.
“Has he?” said Katie listlessly.
“Yes he has, you heartless girl. What’s that you’ve got in your hand? Why, if it isn’t the black-leading! And what have you been doing with that?”
“Let me alone, mother, do,” said poor Katie. She had done her lowly task. She had expressed her mourning, as best she could, there where she had been wont66 to express her love.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
Oxford
|
|
| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
incorporeity
|
|
| n.无实体，无形体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
3
withheld
|
|
| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
narration
|
|
| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
batch
|
|
| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
lamentably
|
|
| adv.哀伤地，拙劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
graphic
|
|
| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
unimpeachable
|
|
| adj.无可指责的；adv.无可怀疑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
degenerate
|
|
| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
collapsed
|
|
| adj.倒塌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
gasping
|
|
| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
solicitude
|
|
| n.焦虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
wringing
|
|
| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
stark
|
|
| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
defiance
|
|
| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
mumbling
|
|
| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
grievance
|
|
| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
outright
|
|
| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
paltry
|
|
| adj.无价值的，微不足道的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
discomfort
|
|
| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
juncture
|
|
| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
simultaneously
|
|
| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
sob
|
|
| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
revolving
|
|
| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
imploring
|
|
| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
curbed
|
|
| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
vacancy
|
|
| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
vow
|
|
| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
enunciated
|
|
| v.（清晰地）发音( enunciate的过去式和过去分词 )；确切地说明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
abhorrence
|
|
| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
infelicitous
|
|
| adj.不适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
clenched
|
|
| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
sobbed
|
|
| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
wail
|
|
| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
censure
|
|
| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
evoke
|
|
| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
bickering
|
|
| v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 )；口角；（水等）作潺潺声；闪烁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
retrieve
|
|
| vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
calamity
|
|
| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
abiding
|
|
| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
ballads
|
|
| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
vows
|
|
| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
flinch
|
|
| v.畏缩，退缩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
omission
|
|
| n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
plunge
|
|
| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
inquiries
|
|
| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
gaping
|
|
| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
scampering
|
|
| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
solaced
|
|
| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
sitting-room
|
|
| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
neatly
|
|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
inscribed
|
|
| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
blurred
|
|
| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
landlady
|
|
| n.女房东，女地主 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
pathos
|
|
| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
wont
|
|
| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |