Flora1 Guy peeped eagerly through the keyhole of her lady's chamber2 into the little apartment in which the two boon3 companions were seated. After reconnoitring for a very long time, she moved lightly to her mistress's side, and said, in a low but distinct tone,—
"Now, my lady, you must get up and rouse yourself—for God's sake, mistress dear, shake off the heaviness that's over you, and we have a chance left still."
"Are they not in the next room to us?" inquired Mary.
"Yes, my lady," replied the maid, "but the parson gentleman is drunk or asleep, and Mr. Chancey is there alone—and—and has the four keys beside him on the table; don't be frightened, my lady, do you stay quite quiet, and I'll go into the room."
Mary Ashwoode made no answer, but pressed the poor girl's hand in her cold fingers, and without moving, almost without breathing, awaited the result. Flora Guy, meanwhile, opened the door, and passed into the outer apartment, assuming, as she did so, an air of easy and careless indifference4. Chancey turned as she entered the room, fanning the smoke of his tobacco pipe aside with his hand, and eying her with a jealous glance.
"Well, my little girl," said he, "and what makes you leave your young lady, my dear?"
"An' is a body never to get an instant minute to themselves?" rejoined she, with an indignant toss of her head; "why then, I tell you what it is, Mr. Chancey, I'm tired to death, so I am, sitting in that little room the whole blessed day, and not a word, good or bad, will the young lady say—she's gone stupid like."
"Is the door locked?" said Chancey, suspiciously, and at the same time rising and approaching the young lady's chamber.
As he did so, Flora Guy, availing herself instantly of this averted5 position, snatched up, without waiting to choose, one of the four great keys which lay upon the table, and replaced it dexterously6 with that which she had but a short time before shown to her mistress; in doing so, however, spite of all her caution, a slight clank was audible.
"Well, is it locked?" inquired the damsel, hoping by the loud tone in which she uttered the question to drown the suspicious sounds which threatened her schemes with instant detection.
"Yes, it is locked," rejoined Chancey, glancing quickly at the keys; "but what do you want there? move off from my place, will you?" and shambling to the table he hastily gathered the four keys in his grasp, and thrust them into his deep coat pocket.
"You're in a mighty7 quare humour, so you are, Mr. Chancey," said the girl, affecting a saucy8 tone, through which, had his ear been listening for the sound, he might have detected the quaver of extreme agitation9, "you usedn't to be so cross by no means at the Columbkil, but mighty pleasant, so you used."
"Well, my little girl," said Chancey, whose suspicions were now effectually quieted, "I declare to God you're the first that ever said I was bad tempered, so you are—will you have something to drink?"
"What have you there, Mr. Chancey?" inquired she.
"This is brandy, my little girl, and this is sack, dear," rejoined Chancey, "both of them elegant; you must have whichever you like—which will you choose, dear?"
"Well, then, I'll have a little drop of the sack, mulled, I thank you, Mr. Chancey," replied she.
"There's nothing to mull it in here, my little girl," objected the barrister.
"Oh, but I'll get it in a minute though," replied she, "I'll run down for a saucepan."
"Well, dear, run away," replied he, "but don't be long, for Miss Ashwoode might want you, my little girl, and it wouldn't do if you were out of the way, you know."
Without waiting to hear the end of this charge, Flora Guy ran down the staircase, and speedily returned with the utensil10 required.
"Maybe I'd better go in for a minute first, and see if she wants me," suggested the girl.
"Very well, my dear," replied Chancey.
And accordingly, she turned the key in the chamber door, closed it again, and stood by the young lady's side; such was her agitation that for three or four seconds she could not speak.
"My lady," at length she said, "I have one of the keys—when I go in next I'll leave your room door unlocked, only closed just, and no more—the lobby door is ajar—I left it that way this very minute; and when you hear me saying 'the sack's upset!'—do you open your door, and cross the room as quick as light, and out on the lobby, and stop by the stairs, my lady, and I'll follow you as fast as I can. Here, my lady," continued the poor girl, bringing a small box from her mistress's toilet; "your rings, my lady—they'll be wanted—mind, your rings, my lady—there is the little case, keep it in your pocket; if we escape, my lady, they'll be wanted—mind, Mr. Chancey has ears like needle points. Keep up your heart, my lady, and in the name of God we'll try this chance."
"Into His hands I commit myself," said the young lady, with a tone and air of more firmness and energy than she had shown for days; "my heart is strengthened, my courage comes again—oh, thank God, I am equal to this dreadful hour."
Flora Guy made a gesture of silence, and then, opening the door briskly, and shutting it again with an ostentatious noise, and drawing the key from the lock, she crossed the room to where Chancey, who had watched her entrance, was sitting.
"Well, my dear," said he, "how is that delicate young lady in there?"
"Why, she's raythur bad, I'm afraid," rejoined the girl; "she's the whole day long in a sort of a heavy dulness like—she don't seem to mind anything."
"So much the better, my dear," said Chancey, "she'll be the less inclined to gad11, or to be troublesome—come, mix the spices and the sugar, dear, and settle the liquor in the saucepan—you want some refreshment12, so you do, for I declare to God, I never saw anyone so pale in all my life as you are this minute."
"I'll not be long so," said the girl, affecting a tone of briskness13, and proceeding14 to mingle15 the ingredients in the little saucepan, "for I think if I was dead itself, let alone a little bit tired, a cup of mulled sack would cheer me up again."
So saying, she placed the little saucepan on the bar.
"Is the parson asleep?" inquired she.
"Indeed, my dear, I'm very much afraid it's tipsy he is," drawled Chancey, demurely16, "take care of that clergyman, my dear, for indeed I'm afraid he has very loose conduct."
"Oh! no, my little girl," replied Chancey, with a tranquil18 chuckle19, and turning his sleepy grey eyes upon the apoplectic20 visage of the stupefied drunkard who sat bolt upright before him; "no, no, we don't know the minute he may be wanted; he'll have to perform the ceremony very soon, my dear; and Mr. Blarden, if he took the fancy, would think nothing of braining half a dozen of us. I declare to God he wouldn't."
"Well, Mr. Chancey, will you mind the little saucepan for one minute," said she, "while I'm putting a bit of turf or a few sticks under it."
"Indeed I will," said he, turning his eyes lazily upon the utensil, but doing nothing more to secure it. Flora Guy accordingly took some wood, and, pretending to arrange the fire, overturned the wine; the loud hiss21 of the boiling liquid, and the sudden cloud of whirling steam and ashes, ascending22 toward the ceiling, and puffing23 into his face, half confounded the barrister, and at the same instant, Flora Guy, clapping her hands, and exclaimed with a shrill24 cry,—
"The sack's upset! the sack's upset! lend a hand, Mr. Chancey—Mr. Chancey, do you hear?" and, while thus conjured25, the barrister, in obedience26 to her vociferous27 appeal, made some indistinct passes at the saucepan with the poker29, which he had grasped at the first alarm; the damsel, without daring to look directly where every feeling would have riveted30 her eyes, beheld31 a dark form glide32 noiselessly behind Chancey, and pass from the room. For the moment, so intense was her agony of anxiety, she felt upon the very point of fainting; in an instant more, however, she had recovered all her energies, and was bold and quick-witted as ever; one glance in the direction of the lady's chamber showed her the door slowly swinging open; fortunately the barrister was at the moment too much occupied with the extraction of the remainder of the saucepan from the fire, to have yet perceived the treacherous33 accident, one glance at which would have sealed their ruin, and Flora Guy, running noiselessly to the door, remedied the perilous34 disclosure by shutting it softly and quickly; and then, with much clattering35 of the key, and a good deal of pushing beside, forcing it open again, she passed into the room and spoke36 a little in a low tone, as if to her mistress; and then, returning, she locked the door of the then untenanted chamber in real earnest, and, crossing to Chancey, said:—"I wonder at you, so I do, Mr. Chancey; you frightened the young mistress half out of her wits; and I'm all over dust and ashes; I must run down and wash every inch of my face and hands, so I must; and here, Mr. Chancey, will you keep the key of the bed-room till I come back? afraid I might drop it; and don't let it out of your hands."
"I will indeed, dear; but don't be long away," rejoined the barrister, extending his hand to receive the key of the now vacant chamber.
So Flora Guy boldly walked forth37 upon the lobby, and closing the chamber door behind her, found herself in the vast old gallery, hung round with grim and antique portraits, and lighted only by the fitful beams of a clouded moon shining doubtfully through the stained glass of a solitary38 window.
Mary Ashwoode awaited her approach, concealed39 in a small recess40 or niche41 in the wall, shrined like an image in the narrow enclosure of carved oak, not daring to stir, and with a heart throbbing42 as though it would burst.
"My lady, are you there?" whispered the maid, scarce audibly; great nervous excitement renders the sense morbidly43 acute, and Mary Ashwoode heard the sound distinctly, faint though it was, and at some distance from her; she stepped falteringly44 from her place of concealment45, and took the hand of her conductress in a grasp cold as that of death itself, and side by side they proceeded down the broad staircase. They had descended46 about half-way when a loud and violent ringing from the bell of the chamber where Chancey was seated made their very hearts bound with terror; they stood fixed47 and breathless on the stair where the fearful peal28 had first reached their ears. Again the summons came louder still, and at the same moment the sounds of steps approached from below, and the gleam of a candle quickly followed; Mary Ashwoode felt her ears tingle48 and her head swim with terror; she was on the point of sinking upon the floor. In this dreadful extremity49 her presence of mind did not forsake50 Flora Guy: disengaging her hand from that of her terrified mistress, she tripped lightly down the stairs to meet the person who was approaching—a turn in the staircase confronted them, and she saw before her the serving man whose treachery had already defeated Mary Ashwoode's hopes of deliverance.
"What keeps you such a time answering the bell?" inquired she, saucily51, "you needn't go up now, for I've got your message; bring up clean cups and a clean saucepan, for everything's destroyed with the dust and dirt Mr. Chancey's after kicking up; what did he do, do you think, but upsets the sack into the fire. Now be quick with the things, will you? the bell won't be easy one minute till they're done."
"Give me a kiss, sweet lips," exclaimed the man, setting down his candle, "and I'll not be a brace52 of shakes about the message; come, you must," he continued, playfully struggling with the affrighted girl.
"Well, do the message first, at any rate," said she, forcing herself, with some difficulty, from his grasp, as the bell rang a third time; "it will be a nice piece of business, so it will, if Mr. Chancey comes down and catches you here, pulling me about, so it will, you'll look well, won't you, when he's telling it to Mr. Blarden?—don't be a fool."
The reiterated53 application to the bell had more effect upon the serving man than all her oratory54, and muttering a curse or two, he ran down, determined55, vindictively56, to bring up soiled cups, and a dirty saucepan. The man had hardly departed, when the maid exclaimed, in a hurried whisper, "Come—come—quick—quick, for your life!" and with scarcely the interval57 of three seconds, they found themselves in the hall.
"Here's the key, my lady; see which of the doors does it open," whispered she, exhibiting the key in the dusky and imperfect light.
"Here—here—this way," said Mary Ashwoode, moving with weak and stumbling steps through a tiled lobby which opened upon the great hall, and thence along a narrow passage upon which several doors opened. "Here, here," she exclaimed, "this door—this—I cannot open it—my strength is gone—this is it—for God's sake, quickly."
After two or three trials, Flora Guy succeeded in getting the key into the lock, and then exerting the whole strength of her two hands, with a hoarse58 jarring clang the bolt revolved59, the door opened, and they stood upon the fresh and dewy sward, beneath the shadow of the old ivy-mantled walls. The girl locked the door upon the outside, fearful that its lying open should excite suspicion, and flung the key away into the thick weeds and brushwood.
"Now, my lady, the shortest way to the high road?" inquired Flora in a hurried whisper, and supporting, as well as she could, the tottering60 steps of her mistress, "how do you feel, my lady? Don't lose heart now, a few minutes more and you will be safe—courage—courage, my lady."
"I am better now, Flora," said Mary faintly, "much better—the cool air refreshes me." As she thus spoke, her strength returned, her step grew fleeter and firmer, and she led the way round the irregular ivy-clothed masses of the dark old building and through the stately trees that stood gathered round it. Over the unequal sward they ran with the light steps of fear, and under the darksome canopy61 of the vast and ancient linden-trees, gliding62 upon the smooth grass like two ghosts among the chequered shade and dusky light. On, on they sped, scarcely feeling the ground beneath their feet as they pursued their terrified flight; they had now gained the midway distance in the ancient avenue between the mansion63 and great gate, and still ran noiselessly and fleetly along, when the quick ear of Mary Ashwoode caught the distant sounds of pursuit.
"Stop an instant, my lady," rejoined the maid, "let us listen for a second."
They did pause, and distinctly, between them and the old mansion, they heard, among the dry leaves with which in places the ground was strewn, the tread of steps pursuing at headlong speed.
"It is—it is, I hear them," said Mary distractedly.
"Now, my lady, we must run—run for our lives; if we but reach the road before them, we may yet be saved; now, my lady, for God's sake don't falter—don't give up."
And while the sounds of pursuit grew momentarily louder and more loud, they still held their onward65 way with throbbing hearts, and eyes almost sightless with fatigue66 and terror.
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收听单词发音
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1
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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2
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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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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5
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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dexterously
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| adv.巧妙地，敏捷地 | |
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7
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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8
saucy
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| adj.无礼的；俊俏的；活泼的 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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10
utensil
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| n.器皿，用具 | |
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gad
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| n.闲逛；v.闲逛 | |
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12
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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briskness
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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15
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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demurely
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| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
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17
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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18
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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19
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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20
apoplectic
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| adj.中风的；愤怒的；n.中风患者 | |
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21
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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23
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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24
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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26
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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vociferous
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| adj.喧哗的，大叫大嚷的 | |
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28
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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29
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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30
riveted
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| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
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31
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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32
glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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36
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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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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38
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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39
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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41
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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42
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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43
morbidly
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| adv.病态地 | |
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44
falteringly
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| 口吃地，支吾地 | |
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45
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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46
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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47
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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48
tingle
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| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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49
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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50
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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51
saucily
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| adv.傲慢地，莽撞地 | |
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52
brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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53
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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55
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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vindictively
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| adv.恶毒地；报复地 | |
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57
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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58
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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59
revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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61
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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62
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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63
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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64
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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