It was broad day when we emerged from the inclosure, and sound was awakening1 along the wintry streets. London stood before me rosy2 and refreshed, so that she looked no longer formidably unapproachable as she had in her garb3 of black and many jewels. I might have entered her yesterday with the proverbial half-crown, so easily was my lot to fall in accommodating places.
Duke Straw, whom I was henceforth to call my friend, conducted me by a township of intricate streets to the shop of a law stationer, in a petty way of business, which stood close by Clare market and abutted4 on Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Here he had a little bedroom, furnished with a cheap, oil-cooking stove, whereon he heated his coffee and grilled5 his bacon.
Simon Cringle, the proprietor6 of the shop, was taking his shutters7 down as we walked up. He was a little, spare man, with a vanity of insignificance8. His iron-gray hair fell in short, well-greased ringlets and his thin beard in a couple more, that hung loose like dangled9 wood shavings; his coiled mustaches reminded one of watch springs; his very eyebrows10, like bees’ legs, were humped in the middle and twisted up into fine claws at the tips. Duke, in his search for lodging11 and experience, had no sooner seen this curiosity than he closed with him.
He gave my companion a grandiloquent12 “Good-morning.”
“Up with the lark13, Mr. Straw,” said he, “and I hope, sir, with success in the matter of getting the first worm?” Here he looked hard at me.
“He found me too much of a mouthful,” said I; “so he brought me home for breakfast.”
Duke laughed.
“Come and be grilled,” said he. “Anyhow they roast malt-worms in a place spoken of by Falstaff.”
We had a good, merry meal. I should not have thought it possible my heart could have lightened so. But there was a fascinating individuality about my companion that, I am afraid, I have but poorly suggested. He gave me glimmerings of life in a higher plane than that which had been habitual14 to me. No doubt his code of morals was eccentric and here and there faulty. His manner of looking at things was, however, so healthy, his breezy philosophy so infectious, that I could not help but catch some of his complaint—which was, like that of the nightingale, musical.
Perhaps, had I met him by chance six months ago, my undeveloped soul would have resented his easy familiarity with a cubbish snarl15 or two. Now my receptives were awakened16; my armor of self-sufficiency eaten to rags with rust17; my heart plaintive18 for communion with some larger influence that would recognize and not abhor19.
At 8:45 he haled me off to the office, which stood a brief distance away, in a thoroughfare called Great Queen street. Here he left me awhile, bidding me walk up and down and observe life until his chief should arrive, which he was due to do at the half-hour.
I thought it a dull street after some I had seen, but there were many old book and curiosity shops in it that aroused my interest. While I was looking into one of them I heard Duke call.
“Here,” he said, when I reached him; “answer out and I think Ripley will give you work. I’m rather a favorite with him—that’s the truth.”
He led me into a low-browed room, with a counter. Great bales of print and paper went up to the ceiling at the back, and the floor rumbled20 with the clank of subterranean21 machinery22. One or two clerks were about and wedged into a corner of the room was a sort of glazed23 and wooden crate25 of comfortable proportions, which was, in fact, the chapel26 of ease of the minister of the place.
Into this den24 Duke conducted me with ceremony, and, retreating himself, left me almost tumbling over a bald-headed man, with a matted black beard, on which a protruding27 red upper lip lay like a splash of blood, who sat at a desk writing.
“Shut the door,” he said, without looking up.
“It is shut, sir.”
He trailed a glance at me, as if in scrutiny28, but I soon saw he could only have been balancing some phrase, for he dived again and went on writing.
Presently he said, very politely, indeed, and still intent on his paper: “Are you a cadet of the noble family of Kinsale, sir?”
“No, sir,” I answered, in surprise.
“You haven’t the right to remain covered in the presence of the king?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, I’m king here. What the blazes do you mean by standing29 in a private room with your hat on?”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Mr. Straw brought me in so suddenly, I lost my head and my cap went with it, I suppose. But I see it’s not the only thing one may lose here, including tempers!” And with that I turned on my heel and was about to beat a retreat, fuming31.
“Come back!” shouted Mr. Ripley. “If you go now, you go for good!”
I hesitated; the memory of my late comrade restored my equilibrium32.
“I didn’t mean to be rude, sir,” I said. “I shall be grateful to you if you will give me work.”
He had condescended33 to turn now, and was looking full at me with frowning eyes, but with no sign of anger on his face.
“Well, you can speak out,” he said. “How do you come to know Straw?”
“I met him by chance and we got talking together.”
“How long have you been in London?”
“Since yesterday evening.”
“Why did you leave Winton?”
“To get work.”
“Have you brought a character with you?”
Here was a question to ask a Trender! But I answered, “No, I never thought of it,” with perfect truth.
“What can you do?”
“Anything I’m told, sir.”
“That’s a compromising statement, my friend. Can you read and write?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Anything else?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Don’t you know anything now about the habits of birds and beasts and fishes?”
“Oh, yes! I could tell you a heap about that.”
“Could you? Very well; I’ll give you a trial. I take you on Straw’s recommendation. His opinion, I tell you, I value more than a score of written characters in a case like this. You’ve to make yourself useful in fifty different ways.”
I assented35, with a light heart, and he took me at my word and the further bargain was completed. My wages were small at first, of course; but, with what I had in hand, they would keep me going no doubt till I could prove myself worth more to my employer.
In this manner I became one of Ripley’s hands and later on myself a pamphleteer in a small way. I wrote to my father that evening and briefly36 acquainted him of my good fortune.
For some months my work was of a heterogeneous37 description. Ripley was legitimately38 a job printer, on rather a large scale, and a bookbinder. To these, however, he added a little venturesomeness in publishing on his own account, as also a considerable itch39 for scribbling40. Becoming at a hint a virulent41 partisan42 in any extremist cause whatsoever43, it will be no matter for wonder that his private room was much the resort of levelers, progressives and abolitionists of every creed44 and complexion45. There furious malcontents against systems they were the first to profit by met to talk and never to listen. There fanatical propagandists, eager to fly on the rudimentary wing stumps46 of first principles, fluttered into print and came flapping to the ground at the third line. There, I verily believe, plots were laid that would presently have leveled powers and potentates47 to the ground at a nod, had any of the conspirators48 ever possessed49 the patience to sit on them till hatched. This, however, they never did. All their fiery50 periphrastics smoked off into the soot51 of print and in due course lumbered52 the office with piles of unmarketable drivel.
Mr. Ripley had, however, other strings53 to his bow, or he would not have prospered54. He did a good business in bookselling and was even now and again successful in the more conventional publishing line. In this connection I chanced to be of some service to him, to which circumstance I owed a considerable improvement in my position after I had been with him getting on a year. He had long contemplated55, and at length begun to work upon, a series of handbooks on British birds and insects, dealt with county by county. In the compilation56 of these much research was necessary, wherein I proved myself a useful and painstaking57 coadjutor. In addition, however, my own knowledge of the subject was fairly extensive as regarded Hampshire, which county, and especially that part of it about Winton, is rich in lepidoptera of a rare order. I may say I fairly earned the praise he bestowed58 upon me, which was tinged59, perhaps, with a trifle of jealousy60 on his part, due to the fact that the section I touched proved to be undoubtedly61 the most popular of the series, as judged subsequently by returns.
Not to push on too fast, however, I must hark back to the day of my engagement, which was marked by my introduction to one who eventually exercised a considerable influence over my destinies.
During the course of that first morning Mr. Ripley sent me for some copies of a pamphlet that were in order of sewing down below. By his direction I descended34 a spiral staircase of iron and found myself in the composing-room. At a heavy iron-sheeted table stood my new-found friend, who was, despite his youth, the valued foreman of this department. He hailed me with glee and asked: “What success?”
“All right, thanks to you,” I said; “and where may the bookbinding place be and Dolly Mellison?”
“Oh, you’re for there, are you?” he said, with I thought a rather curious look at me, and he pointed62 to a side door.
Passing through this I found myself in a long room, flanked to the left with many machines and to the right with a row of girls who were classifying, folding or sewing the sheets of print recent from the press.
“I’m to ask for Dolly Mellison,” I said, addressing the girl at my end of the row.
“Well, you won’t have far to go,” she said. “I’m her.”
She was a pretty, slim lily of a thing, lithe63 and pale, with large gray eyes and coiled hair like a rope of sun-burned barleystraw, and her fingers petted her task as if that were so much hat-trimming.
“I’m sent by Mr. Ripley for copies of a pamphlet on ‘The Supineness of Theologicians,’” I said.
“I’m at work on it,” she answered. “Wait a bit till I’ve finished the dozen.”
She glanced at me now and again without pausing in her work.
“You’re from the country, aren’t you?”
“Yes. How do you know?”
“A little bird told me. What gave you those red cheeks?”
“The sight of you,” I said. I was growing up.
“I’m nothing to be ashamed of, am I?” she asked, with a pert laugh.
“You ought to be of yourself,” I said, “for taking my heart by storm in that fashion.”
“Go along!” she cried, with a jerk of her elbow. “None of your gammon! I’m not to be caught by chaff64.”
“It wasn’t chaff, Dolly, though I may be a man of straw. Is that what you meant?”
“You’re pretty free, upon my word. Who told you you might call me by my name?”
“Why, you wouldn’t have me call you by any one else’s? It’s pretty enough, even for you.”
“Oh, go away with you!” she cried. “I won’t listen.”
At that moment Duke put his head in at the door.
“The governor’s calling for you,” he said. “Hurry up.”
“Well, they’re ready,” said the girl—“here,” and she thrust the packet into my hands, with a little blushing half-impudent look at me.
I forgot all about her in a few minutes. My heart was too full of one only other girlish figure to find room in itself for a rival. What was Zyp doing now?—the wonderful fairy child, whose phantom65 presence haunted all my dreams for good and evil.
As I walked from the office with Duke Straw that afternoon—for, as it was Saturday, we left early—a silence fell between us till we neared Cringle’s shop. Then, standing outside, he suddenly stayed me and looked in my face.
“Shall I hate or love you?” he said, with his mouth set grimly.
“No,” he said; “what must be, must. I’ll love you!”
There was a curious, defiant68 sadness in his tone, but it was gone directly. I could only stare at him in wonder.
“You’re to be my house-fellow and chum,” he said. “No, don’t protest; I’ve settled it. We’ll arrange the rest with Cringle.”
And so I slept in a bed in London for the first time.
But the noise of a water wheel roared in my ears all night.
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1
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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3
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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abutted
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| v.（与…）邻接( abut的过去式和过去分词 )；（与…）毗连；接触；倚靠 | |
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5
grilled
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| adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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10
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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11
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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12
grandiloquent
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| adj.夸张的 | |
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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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14
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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15
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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16
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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17
rust
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| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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abhor
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| v.憎恶；痛恨 | |
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rumbled
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| 发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋） | |
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21
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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23
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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24
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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25
crate
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| vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱 | |
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26
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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27
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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28
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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30
tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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31
fuming
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| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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37
heterogeneous
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| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
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38
legitimately
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| ad.合法地；正当地，合理地 | |
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39
itch
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| n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望 | |
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40
scribbling
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| n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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41
virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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42
partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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43
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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44
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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45
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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46
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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47
potentates
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| n.君主，统治者( potentate的名词复数 )；有权势的人 | |
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48
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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49
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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50
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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51
soot
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| n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟 | |
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52
lumbered
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| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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53
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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54
prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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56
compilation
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| n.编译，编辑 | |
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57
painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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58
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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61
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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62
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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63
lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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64
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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65
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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66
deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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67
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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