CHAPTER II TOM

 In the attic¹ a child of seven years was sitting up in a cot placed by the side of his dear Aunt Annie's bed. He had an extremely intelligent, inquisitorial, and agnostical face, and a fair, curled head of hair, which he scratched with one hand as Aunt Annie entered the room and held the candle on high in order to survey him.

 

'Well?' inquired Aunt Annie firmly.

 

'Well?' said Tom Knight², determined³ not to commit himself, and waiting wanly⁴ for a chance, like a duellist⁵.

 

'What's all this noise for? I told you I specially⁶ wanted you to go to sleep at once to-night.'

 

'Yes,' said Tom, staring at the counterpane and picking imaginary bits off it. 'And you might have known I shouldn't go to sleep after that!'

 

'And here it's nearly midnight!' Aunt Annie proceeded. 'What do you want?'

 

'You—you've left the comb in my hair,' said Tom. He nearly cried.

 

Every night Aunt Annie curled Tom's hair.

 

'Is it such a tiny boy that it couldn't take it out itself?' Aunt Annie said kindly⁷, going to the cot and extracting the comb. 'Now try to sleep.' She kissed him.

 

'And I've heard burglars,' Tom continued, without moving.

 

'Oh no, you've not,' Aunt Annie pronounced sharply. 'You can't hear burglars every night, you know.'

 

'I heard running about, and doors shutting and things.'

 

'That was Uncle Henry and me. Will you promise to be a good boy if I tell you a secret?'

 

'I shan't promise,' Tom replied. 'But if it's a good secret I'll try—hard.'

 

'Well, you've got a cousin, a little boy, ever so little! There! What do you think of that?'

 

'I knew someone had got into the house!' was Tom's dispassionate remark. 'What's his name?'

 

'He hasn't any name yet, but he will have soon.'

 

'Did he come up the stairs?' Tom asked.

 

Aunt Annie laughed. 'No,' she said.

 

'Then, he must have come through the window or down the chimney; and he wouldn't come down the chimney 'cause of the soot⁸. So he came through the window. Whose little boy is he? Yours?'

 

'No. Aunt Susan's.'

 

'I suppose she knows he's come?'

 

'Oh yes. She knows. And she's very glad. Now go to sleep. And I'll tell Aunt Susan you'll be a good boy.'

 

'You'd better not,' Tom warned her. 'I don't feel sure. And I say, auntie, will there come any more little boys to-night?'

 

'I don't think so, dear.' Aunt Annie smiled. She was half way through the door, and spoke⁹ into the passage.

 

'But are you sure?' Tom persisted.

 

'Yes, I'm sure. Go to sleep.'

 

'Doesn't Aunt Susan want another one?'

 

'No, she doesn't. Go to sleep, I say.'

 

''Cause, when I came, another little boy came just afterwards, and he died, that little boy did. And mamma, too. Father told me.'

 

'Yes, yes,' said Aunt Annie, closing the door. 'Bee-by.'

 

'I didn't promise,' Tom murmured to his conscience. 'But it's a good secret,' he added brazenly¹⁰. He climbed over the edge of the cot, and let himself down gently till his feet touched the floor. He found his clothes, which Aunt Annie invariably placed on a chair in a certain changeless order, and he put some of them on, somehow. Then he softly opened the door and crept down the stairs to the second-floor. He was an adventurous¹¹ and incalculable child, and he desired to see the baby.

 

Persons who called on Mr. Henry Knight in his private capacity rang at the side-door to the right of the shop, and were instructed by the shop-caretaker to mount two flights of stairs, having mounted which they would perceive in front of them a door, where they were to ring again. This door was usually closed, but to-night Tom found it ajar. He peeped out and downwards¹², and thought of the vast showroom below and the wonderful regions of the street. Then he drew in his head, and concealed¹³ himself behind the plush portière. From his hiding-place he could watch the door of Uncle Henry's and Aunt Susan's bedroom, and he could also, whenever he felt inclined, glance down the stairway.

 

He waited, with the patience and the fatalism of infancy¹⁴, for something to happen.

 

After an interval¹⁵ of time not mathematically to be computed¹⁶, Tom heard a step on the stairs, and looked forth¹⁷. A tall gentleman wearing a high hat and carrying a black bag was ascending¹⁸. In a flash Tom recollected¹⁹ a talk with his dead father, in which that glorious and gay parent had explained to him that he, Tom, had been brought to his mother's room by the doctor in a black bag.

 

Tom pulled open the door at the head of the stairs, went outside, and drew the door to behind him.

 

'Are you the doctor?' he demanded, staring intently at the bag to see whether anything wriggled²⁰ within.

 

'Yes, my man,' said the doctor. It was Quain Short, wrenched²¹ from the Alhambra.

 

'Well, they don't want another one. They've got one,' Tom asserted, still observing the bag.

 

'You're sure?'

 

'Yes. Aunt Annie said particularly that they didn't want another one.'

 

'Who is it that has come? Do you know his name? Christopher—is that it?'

 

'I don't know his name. But he's come, and he's in the bedroom now, with Aunt Susan.'

 

'How annoying!' said Dr. Quain Short under his breath, and he went.

 

Tom re-entered, and took up his old position behind the portière.

 

Presently he heard another step on the stair, and issued out again to reconnoitre. And, lo! another tall gentleman wearing another high hat and carrying another black bag was ascending.

 

'This makes three,' Tom said.

 

'What's that, my little man?' asked the gentleman, smiling. It was Dr. Christopher.

 

'This makes three. And they only want one. The first one came ever such a long time ago. And I can tell you Aunt Susan was very glad when he did come.'

 

'Dear, dear!' exclaimed Dr. Christopher. 'Then I'm too late, my little man. I was afraid I might be. Everything all right, eh?'

 

Tom nodded, and Dr. Christopher departed.

 

And then, after a further pause, up came another tall gentleman, high hat, and black bag.

 

'This is four,' said Tom.

 

'What's that, Tommy?' asked Mr. Henry Knight's regular physician and surgeon. 'What are you doing there?'

 

'One came hours since,' Tom said. 'And they don't want any more.' Then he gazed at the bag, which was larger and glossier²² than its predecessors²³. 'Have you brought a very nice one?' he inquired. 'They don't really want another, but perhaps if it's very——'

 

It was this momentary²⁴ uncertainty²⁵ on Tom's part that possibly saved my hero's life. For the parents were quite inexperienced, and Mrs. Puddiphatt was an accoucheuse of the sixties, and the newborn child was near to dying in the bedroom without anybody being aware of the fact.

 

'A very nice what?' the doctor questioned gruffly.

 

'Baby. In that bag,' Tom stammered²⁶.

 

'Out of the way, my bold buccaneer,' said the doctor, striding across the mat into the corridor.

 

At two o'clock the next morning, Tom being asleep, and all going well with wife and child,Mr. Henry Knight returned at length to his sitting-room²⁷, and resumed the composition of the letter to the editor of the Standard. The work existed as an artistic²⁸ whole in his head, and he could not persuade himself to seek rest until he had got it down in black-and-white; for, though he wrote letters instead of sonnets²⁹, he was nevertheless a sort of a poet by temperament³⁰. You behold³¹ him calm now, master once more of his emotions, and not that agitated³², pompous³³, and slightly ridiculous person who lately stamped over Oxford³⁴ Street and stormed the Alhambra Theatre. And in order to help the excellent father of my hero back into your esteem³⁵, let me point out that the imminence³⁶ and the actuality of fatherhood constitute a somewhat disturbing experience, which does not occur to a man every day.

 

Mr. Knight dipped pen in ink, and continued:

 

' ... who I hold to be not only the greatest poet, but also the greatest moral teacher that England has ever produced,

 

'"To thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man."

'In conclusion, sir, I ask, without fear of contradiction, are we or are we not, in this matter of the National Debt, to be true to our national selves?

 

'Yours obediently,

 

'A Conscientious³⁷ Taxpayer³⁸.'

 

The signature troubled him. His pen hovered³⁹ threateningly over it, and finally he struck it out and wrote instead: 'Paterfamilias.' He felt that this pseudonym⁴⁰ was perhaps a little inapposite, but some impulse stronger than himself forced him to employ it.

1 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

2 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

3 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

4 wanly   

adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地

参考例句：

• She was smiling wanly. 她苍白无力地笑着。 来自互联网

5 duellist   

n.决斗者；[体]重剑运动员

参考例句：

6 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

7 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

8 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

9 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 brazenly   

adv.厚颜无耻地；厚脸皮地肆无忌惮地

参考例句：

• How dare he distort the facts so brazenly! 他怎么敢如此肆无忌惮地歪曲事实！ 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• "I don't know," he answered, looking her brazenly over. “我也不知道，"他厚颜无耻地打量着她。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

11 adventurous   

adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的　

参考例句：

• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
• He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。

12 downwards   

adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地）

参考例句：

• He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
• As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。

13 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

14 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。

15 interval   

n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息

参考例句：

• The interval between the two trees measures 40 feet.这两棵树的间隔是40英尺。
• There was a long interval before he anwsered the telephone.隔了好久他才回了电话。

16 computed   

adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He computed that the project would take seven years to complete. 他估计这项计划要花七年才能完成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。 来自辞典例句

17 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

18 ascending   

adj.上升的，向上的

参考例句：

• Now draw or trace ten dinosaurs in ascending order of size.现在按照体型由小到大的顺序画出或是临摹出10只恐龙。

19 recollected   

adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I recollected that she had red hair. 我记得她有一头红发。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His efforts, the Duke recollected many years later, were distinctly half-hearted. 据公爵许多年之后的回忆，他当时明显只是敷衍了事。 来自辞典例句

20 wriggled   

v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）

参考例句：

• He wriggled uncomfortably on the chair. 他坐在椅子上不舒服地扭动着身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A snake wriggled across the road. 一条蛇蜿蜒爬过道路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

21 wrenched   

v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛

参考例句：

• The bag was wrenched from her grasp. 那只包从她紧握的手里被夺了出来。
• He wrenched the book from her hands. 他从她的手中把书拧抢了过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 glossier   

光滑的( glossy的比较级 )； 虚有其表的； 浮华的

参考例句：

• This does not lead to stronger, glossier, faster growing hair. 这不会令头发更加坚韧、更有光泽、长得更快。

23 predecessors   

n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Will new plan be any more acceptable than its predecessors? 新计划比原先的计划更能令人满意吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

24 momentary   

adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的

参考例句：

• We are in momentary expectation of the arrival of you.我们无时无刻不在盼望你的到来。
• I caught a momentary glimpse of them.我瞥了他们一眼。

25 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

26 stammered   

v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He stammered most when he was nervous. 他一紧张往往口吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Barsad leaned back in his chair, and stammered, \"What do you mean?\" 巴萨往椅背上一靠，结结巴巴地说，“你是什么意思？” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

27 sitting-room   

n.（BrE）客厅，起居室

参考例句：

• The sitting-room is clean.起居室很清洁。
• Each villa has a separate sitting-room.每栋别墅都有一间独立的起居室。

28 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

29 sonnets   

n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Keats' reputation as a great poet rests largely upon the odes and the later sonnets. 作为一个伟大的诗人，济慈的声誉大部分建立在他写的长诗和后期的十四行诗上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He referred to the manuscript circulation of the sonnets. 他谈到了十四行诗手稿的流行情况。 来自辞典例句

30 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

31 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

32 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

33 pompous   

adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities.他有点自大，自视甚高。
• He is a good man underneath his pompous appearance. 他的外表虽傲慢，其实是个好人。

34 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

35 esteem   

n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• The veteran worker ranks high in public love and esteem.那位老工人深受大伙的爱戴。

36 imminence   

n.急迫，危急

参考例句：

• The imminence of their exams made them work harder.考试即将来临，迫使他们更用功了。
• He had doubt about the imminence of war.他不相信战争已迫在眉睫。

37 conscientious   

adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的

参考例句：

• He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责，也很懂行。
• He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。

38 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

39 hovered   

鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• A hawk hovered over the hill. 一只鹰在小山的上空翱翔。
• A hawk hovered in the blue sky. 一只老鹰在蓝色的天空中翱翔。

40 pseudonym   

n.假名，笔名

参考例句：

• Eric Blair wrote under the pseudonym of George Orwell.埃里克·布莱尔用乔治·奧威尔这个笔名写作。
• Both plays were published under the pseudonym of Philip Dayre.两个剧本都是以菲利普·戴尔的笔名出版的。