We loitered on the river till the short day was threatening dusk, and then we were still no further on our homeward way than a half-mile short of Kingston. A little cold wind, moreover, was beginning to whine1 and scratch over the surface of the water, and Dolly pulled her tippet closer about her bosom2, feeling chilled and inclined to silence.
“Come,” said Duke, “we must put our shoulders to it or we shan’t get into the lock before dark.”
“Oh!” cried the girl, with a half-whimper, “I had forgotten that horrible lock with its hideous3 weedy doors. Must we go through it?”
“I’m afraid so,” said Duke; “but,” he added cheerily, “don’t you be nervous. We’ll run you down and through before you have time to count a hundred—if you count slowly.”
She sunk back in her seat with a frightened look and grasped the rudder lines, as if by them only could she hold on to safety. The dusk dropped about us as we pulled on, strain as we might, and presently we both started upon hearing a strangled sob4 break from the girl.
“Oh,” said Duke, pausing for a moment, “this will never do, Dolly. Why, you can’t be afraid with two such knights5 to protect you?”
“I can’t help it,” said the poor child, fairly crying now. “You don’t know anything about the river, either of you; and—and mayn’t I get out and walk?”
“Very well. One of us will go with you, while the other pulls the boat down. Only we must get across first. Steady, now, Renny; and cheer up, Doll, and put her nose to the shore opposite.”
We had drifted some little distance since we first easy’d, and a dull booming, that was in our ears at the time, had increased to a considerable roar.
“Give way!” cried Duke; “turn her, Dolly!”
The girl tugged7 at the right line, gave a gasp8, dropped everything, scrambled9 to her feet, and screamed in a dreadful voice: “We are going over the weir10!”
“Sit down!” shouted Duke. “Pull, Renny, like a madman!”
He shipped his oar6, forced the girl into a sitting posture11 and clutched the inner line all in a moment. His promptitude saved us. I fought at the water with my teeth set; the boat’s nose plunged12 into the bank with a shock that sent us two sprawling13, and the boat’s stern swung round dizzily. But before she could cast adrift again I was on my knees and had seized at a projecting root with a grasp like Quasimodo’s.
“Hold on!” cried Duke, “till I come to you. It’s all right, Dolly; you’re quite safe now.”
He crawled to me and grasped the root in his more powerful hands.
“Now,” he said, “you take the painter and get out and drag us higher, out of the pull of the water. I’ll help you the best I can.”
I complied, and presently the boat was drawn14 to a point so far above as to leave a wide margin15 for safety.
We took our seats to pull across, with a look at one another of conscious guilt16. Dolly sat quite silent and pale, though she shivered a little.
“We didn’t know the river, and that’s a fact,” whispered Duke to me. “Of course we ought to have remembered the lock’s the other side.”
We pulled straight across; then Duke said:
“Here’s the shore, Dolly. Now, you and Trender get out, and I’ll take the boat on.”
“By yourself? No, I won’t. I feel safe with you.”
“Very well,” he answered, gently. “We’ll all go on together. There’s really no danger now we know what we’re about.”
She cried, “No, Duke,” in a poor little quaking voice.
We pulled into the lock cutting without further mishap17, though the girl shrunk and blenched18 as we slid past, at a safe distance, the oblique19 comb of the weir.
It was some minutes before the lock-keeper answered to our ringing calls, and then the sluices20 had to be raised and the lock filled from our side. The clash and thunder of the hidden water as it fell into the pit below sounded dismal21 enough in the darkness, and must, I knew, be dinning22 fresh terror into the heart of our already stricken naiad. But the hollow noise died off in due course, the creaking gate lumbered23 open and we floated with a sigh of relief into the weltering pool beyond.
The sluices rattled24 down behind us, the keeper walked round to the further gate, and his figure appeared standing25 out against the sky, toiling26 with bent27 back at the levers. Suddenly I, who had been pulling bow, felt myself tilting28 over in a curious manner.
“Hullo!” I cried. “What’s up with the boat?”
In one moment I heard a loud shout come from the man at the gates, and saw Dolly, despite her warning, stand hurriedly up and Duke make a wild clutch at her; the next, the skiff reeled under me and I was spun29, kicking and struggling, into the water.
An accident, common enough and bad enough to those who know little of Thames craft, had befallen us. We had got the boat’s stern jammed upon a side beam of the lock, so that her nose only dropped with the sinking water.
I rose at once in a black swirl30. The skiff, jerked free by our unceremonious exit, floated unharmed in the lock, but she floated empty. Risen to the surface, however, almost with me, Duke’s dark head emerged close by her, so that with one frantic31 leap upward he was able to reach her thwarts32, to which he clung.
I had seen her before he could cry out again, had seized and was struggling with her.
“Don’t hold me!” I cried; “let me go, Dolly, and I’ll save you.”
She was quite beyond reason, deaf to anything but the despairing call of life. In another instant, I knew, we should both go under and be dragged into the rush of the sluices. Seeing the uselessness of trying to unclasp her hands, I fought to throw myself and her toward the side of the lock nearest. The water was bubbling in my mouth, when I felt a great iron hook whipped into the collar of my coat and we were both hauled to the side.
“Hold on there, mate!” cried the lock-keeper, “while I get your boat under.”
I had caught at a dangling34 loop of chain; but even so the weight of my almost senseless burden threatened to drag me down.
“Be quick!” I gasped, “I’m pretty near spent.”
With the same grapnel he caught and towed the boat, Duke still hanging to it, to where I clung, and leaped down himself into it.
“Now,” he said, “get a leg over and you’re right.”
It was a struggle even then, for Dolly would not let me out of her agonized35 clutch—not till we could lay her, white as a storm-beaten lily, on the bottom boards. Then we turned and seized Duke over the thwarts and he tumbled in and lay in a heap, quite exhausted36.
His mind relieved, our preserver took off his cap, scratched his forehead and spat37 into the water.
“I’ve known a many wanting your luck,” he said, gruffly. “What made you do it, now?”
Judging our ignorance to be by no means common property, I said, “Ah, what?” in the tone that suggests acquiescence38, or wonder, and asked him if he had a fire handy.
“There’s a bright one burning inside,” he said. “You’re welcome to it.”
He punted the boat to a shallow flight of steps, oozy39 with slime, that led to the bank above, where his cottage was.
I bent down over the prostrate41 figure. It looked curiously42 youthful and slender in its soaked and clinging garments.
“Dolly,” I whispered, “there’s a fire above. Will you let me carry you to it?”
I thought my voice might not penetrate43 to her dulled senses, but to my wonder she put her arms round my neck immediately.
“Yes,” she moaned, “I’m so cold. Take me to the warmth or I shall die.”
We lifted her out between us and carried her into the house kitchen. There a goodly blaze went coiling up the chimney, and the sight was reviving in itself.
“Shall we leave you here alone a bit?” said I, “to rest and recover? There’s to be no more of the river for us. We’ll walk the distance that remains44.”
She gave me a quick glance, full of a pathetic gratitude45, and whispered, “Yes; I’d better be alone.”
“And if you take my advice,” said our host, “you’ll strip off them drownded petticuts and wrap yourself in a blanket I’ll bring you while they’re a-drying; wait, while I fetch it.”
“I heard you tell me to leave go,” she said, hurriedly, in a low voice; “but I couldn’t—Renny, I couldn’t; and you saved my life.”
Her lips were trembling and her eyes full of tears. She clasped her hands and held them entreatingly47 toward me.
A gust48 of some strange feeling—some yearning49 sense of protection toward this pretty, lovable child—flooded my heart.
“You poor little thing,” I whispered, in a pitying voice, and taking her two hands in one of mine I passed my other arm around her.
Then she lifted her face eagerly and I bent and softly dropped a kiss on her warm, wet lips.
The moment I had done it I felt the shame of my action.
“There, dear, forgive me,” I said. “Like you, Dolly, I couldn’t let go at once,” and our friend returning just then with the blanket, we left the girl to herself and stepped outside.
A queer exultant50 feeling was on me—a sense as of the lightening of some overburdening oppression. “A life for a life.” Why should the words ring stilly, triumphantly51 in my brain? I might earn for my breast a cuirass of medals such as Dolly had desired, and what would their weight be as set in the scale against the one existence I had terminated?
Perhaps it was not that. Perhaps it was that I felt myself for the first time in close touch with a yearning human sympathy; that its tender neighborhood taught me at a breath to respect and stand by what was noble in myself. The shadow that must, of course, remain with me always, I would not have away, but would only that it ceased to dominate my soul’s birthright of independence.
There was in my heart no love for Dolly—no passion of that affinity52 that draws atom to atom in the destiny that is human. There was only the pitying protective sense that came to man through the angels, and, in its sensual surrender, marked their fall from divinity. For to the end, without one thought of wavering, Zyp must shine the mirage53 of my barren waste of love.
Suddenly I remembered, with a remorseful54 pang55, that all this time I had forgotten Duke. I hurried down to the steps, calling him. He was sitting in the boat, his elbows on his knees, his face buried in his hands.
“Duke!” I cried, “come out and let’s see what we can do for a dry. You’ll get the frost in your lungs sitting there.”
He rose at once, staggering a little. I had to run down the steps to help him ashore56, where he stood shaken all through with violent shiverings.
“Whisky,” said our host, laconically57, watchful58 of the poor fellow, “and enough of it to make your hair curl.”
Between us we got him into the house, where he was made to swallow at a gulp59 three finger-breadths in a tumbler of the raw spirit. Then after a time the color came back to his cheeks, the restored nerves to his limbs.
At that our kindly60 host made us strip, and providing us with what coverings he could produce, set us and our soaked belongings61 before a second fire in his little parlor62, and only left us when summoned outside to his business. As the door closed behind him Duke turned to me. A sort of patient sorrow was on his face—an expression as of renunciation of some favored child of his fancy—I cannot express it better.
“You carried her in?” he said, quietly.
“Dolly? Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“Baking before the kitchen fire. She’ll be ready before we are.”
“Well—I had no right. What a chapter of mishaps63.” Then he turned upon me with a sudden clap of fierceness. “Why did you ever propose this trip? I tried to dissuade64 you, and you might have known I was an idiot on the water.”
“My good Duke,” I answered, with a coolness that covered a fine glow of heat, “that don’t sound very gracious. I meant it for a pleasure party, of course. Accidents aren’t matters under human control, you know.”
“No,” he muttered, “or I shouldn’t have these.”
Then in a moment the sweetness came back to his face, and he cried with a smile, half-humorous and all pathetic:
“Here’s the value of my philosophy. I’m no more consistent than a Ripley pamphlet and not a quarter so amusing. But—oh, if I had only learned to swim!”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
whine
|
|
| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
sob
|
|
| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
knights
|
|
| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
oar
|
|
| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
tugged
|
|
| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
gasp
|
|
| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
scrambled
|
|
| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
weir
|
|
| n.堰堤，拦河坝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
posture
|
|
| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
plunged
|
|
| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
sprawling
|
|
| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
margin
|
|
| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
guilt
|
|
| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
mishap
|
|
| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
blenched
|
|
| v.（因惊吓而）退缩，惊悸( blench的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变白，（使）变苍白 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
oblique
|
|
| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sluices
|
|
| n.水闸( sluice的名词复数 )；（用水闸控制的）水；有闸人工水道；漂洗处v.冲洗( sluice的第三人称单数 )；（指水）喷涌而出；漂净；给…安装水闸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dismal
|
|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
dinning
|
|
| vt.喧闹（din的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
lumbered
|
|
| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
rattled
|
|
| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
toiling
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
tilting
|
|
| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
spun
|
|
| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
swirl
|
|
| v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
frantic
|
|
| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
thwarts
|
|
| 阻挠( thwart的第三人称单数 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
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： |
|
|
|
|
34
dangling
|
|
| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
agonized
|
|
| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
spat
|
|
| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
acquiescence
|
|
| n.默许；顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
oozy
|
|
| adj.软泥的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
gal
|
|
| n.姑娘，少女 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
prostrate
|
|
| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
penetrate
|
|
| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
beckoned
|
|
| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
entreatingly
|
|
| 哀求地，乞求地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
gust
|
|
| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
yearning
|
|
| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
exultant
|
|
| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
triumphantly
|
|
| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
affinity
|
|
| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
mirage
|
|
| n.海市蜃楼，幻景 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
remorseful
|
|
| adj.悔恨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
pang
|
|
| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
ashore
|
|
| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
laconically
|
|
| adv.简短地，简洁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
gulp
|
|
| vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
belongings
|
|
| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
parlor
|
|
| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
mishaps
|
|
| n.轻微的事故，小的意外( mishap的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
dissuade
|
|
| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
savagely
|
|
| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |