Jason stood looking stupidly down on the prostrate1 form, while I ran to it and struggled to turn it over and up into a sitting posture2.
“Father!” I cried, “I’m here—don’t you know me?”—then I turned fiercely to my brother and bade him shift his position out of the range of the staring eyes.
“What’s the matter?” he muttered, sullenly3. “I’ve done no harm. Can’t he see me, even, without going off into a fit?”
“Get further away; do you hear?”
He shambled aside, murmuring to himself. A little tremulous sigh issued from the throat of the poor stricken figure. I leaned over, seized the bottle of brandy from the bed, and moistened his lips with a few drops from it.
“Does that do you good, dad?”
“I saw somebody.”
“I know—I know. Never mind that now. Leave it all to me.”
“You’re my good son. You won’t let him rob me, Renny?”
“In an hour or two he shall be packed off. You needn’t even see him again.”
“Is he back in England?”
“In London, yes.”
“What does he want?”
“To see us—that’s all.”
“Not money?”
“No, no. He isn’t in need of that just now. Can you move back to your bed, do you think, if I help you?”
“You won’t let him come near me?”
“He shall go straight from this room out of the house.”
“Come,” he said, presently; “I’ll try.”
I almost lifted him to his feet, and he clung to my arm, stumbling beside me down the passage to his room.
When he was lying settled on his bed, and at ease once more, I returned to my brother.
He was sitting in a maudlin6 attitude by the window, and I saw that he had been at the bottle again.
“Now,” I said, sternly, “let’s settle the last of this with a final question: What is it you want?”
“Wand? What everybody’s always wanding, and I most of all.”
“You mean more money, I suppose?”
“More? Yes, mush more—mush more than you gave me last time, too.”
“Not so much, probably. But lest Zyp should starve I’ll send you what I can in the course of a few days.”
He rose with a feebly menacing look.
“I’m not going till I get what I wand. I wand my part of the treasure. I know where it’s hid, you fool, and I’m wound up for a try at it. Ge’ out of my way! I’ll go and help myself.”
He made a stumbling rush across the room and when I interposed myself between the door and him he struck out at me with a blow as aimless and unharmful as a baby’s.
“If you don’t knock under at once,” I said, “I swear I’ll tie you up and keep you here for Duke’s next coming.”
He stood swaying before me a moment; then suddenly threw himself on the bed, yelping10 and sobbing11 like a hysterical12 school-girl.
“It’s too cruel!” he moaned. “You take advantage of your strength to bully13 me beyond all bearing. Why shouldn’t I have my share as well as you?”
“Never mind all that. Give me your address if you want anything at all.”
He lay some time longer yet; then fetched out a pencil and scrap14 of paper and sulkily scrawled15 what I asked for.
“Now”—I looked at my watch—“there’s a train back to town in half an hour. You’d best be starting.”
“Nice hospitality, upon my word. Supposing I stop the night?”
“You’re not going to stop the night, unless you wish to do so in the street.”
“I’ve a good mind to, you beast, and bring a crowd about the place.”
“And Duke with it, perhaps—eh?”
“Renny,” he said, “you can’t mean to treat me, your own brother, like this? Let’s have confidence in one another and combine.” He gave a little embarrassed laugh. “I know where the treasure’s hid, I tell you. S’posing we share it and——”
He stopped abruptly18, with an alarmed look. Something in my face must have forewarned him, for he walked unsteadily to the door, glancing fearfully at me. Passing the brandy bottle on his way, he seized it with sudden defiance19.
“I’ll have this, anyhow,” he murmured. “You won’t object to my taking that much away.”
Hugging it to his breast under his coat, he went from the room. I followed him down the stairs; saw him out of the house; shut the door on him. Then I listened for his shuffling20 footstep going up the yard and away before I would acknowledge to myself that he had been got rid of at a price small under the circumstances.
I remained at my post for full assurance of his departure for many minutes after he had left, and when at last I stole up to my father’s room I found the old man fallen into a doze21. Seen through the wan5 twilight22 how broken and decaying and feeble he seemed!
I sat by him till he stirred and woke. His eyes opened upon me with a pleased look at finding me beside him, and he put out a thin rugged23 hand and took mine into it.
“I’ve been asleep,” he said. “I dreamed a bad son of mine came back and terrified the old man. It was a dream, wasn’t it, Renny?”
“Only a dream, dad. Jason isn’t here.”
“I thought it was. It didn’t trouble me much, for all that. I learned confidence in the presence of this strong good fellow here.”
“Dad, we’ve £30 left of the fifty I raised two months ago on that Julian medallion. May I have ten of them?”
“I want it for a particular purpose. You can trust me not to ask you if it were to be avoided.”
He gave a deep sigh.
“Take it, then. It isn’t in you to misapply a trust.”
He turned his face away with a slight groan26. Poor old man! My soul cried out with remorse27 to so trouble his confidence in me. Yet what I proposed seemed to me best.
He would not rise and come down to supper when I suggested it.
“Let me lie here,” he said. “Sometimes it seems to me, Renalt, I’m breaking up—that the wheel down there crows and sings for a victim again.”
It was the first time I had ever heard him directly refer to this stormy heart of the old place, that had throbbed28 out so incessantly29 its evil influence over the lives shut within range of it. It was plunging30 and murmuring now in the depths below us, so insistent31 even at that distance that the soft whining32 of the stones in our more immediate33 neighborhood was scarcely audible.
“It’s a bewildering discovery,” he went on, “that of finding oneself approaching the wonderful bourne one has struggled toward so long. I don’t think I’m afraid, Renalt, lying here in peace and watching my soul walk on. Yet now, though I know I have done two great and wicked deeds in my lifetime, I wouldn’t put off the moment of that coming revelation by an hour.”
I stroked his hand, listening and wondering, but I made no answer.
“It’s like being a little child,” he said; “fascinated and compelled toward a pleasant fright. When you were a toddling34 baby, if one came at you menacing and growling35 in fun, you’d open your eyes in doubt with fear and laughter; and then, instead of flying the danger, would run at it half-way and be caught up in daddy’s arms and kissed. That seems to illustrate36 death to me now. The heart of that grim, time-worn playfellow may be very soft, after all. It’s best not to cry out, but to run to him and be caught up and kissed into forgetfulness.”
Oh, my father! How in my soul did I echo your words!
He wandered on by such strange sidewalks till speech itself seemed to intermingle with the inarticulate language of dream. Is there truth after all in the senile visions of age that can penetrate37 the veil of the supernal38, though the worn and ancient eyes are dim with cataracts39?
As I sat alone with my thoughts that night many emotions, significant or pathetic, wrought40 changing phantoms41 of the shadows in the dimly lighted room. Sometimes, shapeless and full of heavy omen9, they revolved42 blindly about that dark past life of my father, a little corner of the curtain over which had that evening been lifted for my behoof. Sometimes they thrilled with spasms43 of pain at the prospect44 of that utter loneliness that must fall upon me were the old man’s quiet foretelling45 of his doom46 to justify47 itself. Sometimes they took a red tinge48 of gloom in memory of his words of self-denunciation.
What had been a worser evil in him than that long degrading of his senses? Yet, of the “wicked deeds” he had referred to, that which could hardly be called a “deed” was surely not one. Perhaps, after all, they were nothing but the baseless product of a fancy that had indulged morbidity49 until, as with Frankenstein, the monster it had created mastered it.
Might this not be the explanation of all? Even of that eerily50 expressed fear of his, that had puzzled me in its passing, that the wheel was calling for a victim again?
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
prostrate
|
|
| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
posture
|
|
| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
sullenly
|
|
| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
wan
|
|
| (wide area network)广域网 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
maudlin
|
|
| adj.感情脆弱的，爱哭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
idiotic
|
|
| adj.白痴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
chuckle
|
|
| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
omen
|
|
| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
yelping
|
|
| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
sobbing
|
|
| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
hysterical
|
|
| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
bully
|
|
| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
scrap
|
|
| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
scrawled
|
|
| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
fulsomely
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
fawning
|
|
| adj.乞怜的，奉承的v.（尤指狗等）跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的现在分词 )；巴结；讨好 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
defiance
|
|
| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
shuffling
|
|
| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
doze
|
|
| v.打瞌睡；n.打盹，假寐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
hoard
|
|
| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
groan
|
|
| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
remorse
|
|
| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
throbbed
|
|
| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
incessantly
|
|
| ad.不停地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
plunging
|
|
| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
insistent
|
|
| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
whining
|
|
| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
toddling
|
|
| v.（幼儿等）东倒西歪地走( toddle的现在分词 )；蹒跚行走；溜达；散步 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
growling
|
|
| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
illustrate
|
|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
penetrate
|
|
| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
supernal
|
|
| adj.天堂的，天上的；崇高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
cataracts
|
|
| n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
wrought
|
|
| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
phantoms
|
|
| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
revolved
|
|
| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
spasms
|
|
| n.痉挛( spasm的名词复数 )；抽搐；（能量、行为等的）突发；发作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
prospect
|
|
| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
foretelling
|
|
| v.预言，预示( foretell的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
doom
|
|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
tinge
|
|
| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
morbidity
|
|
| n.病态；不健全；发病；发病率 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
eerily
|
|
| adv.引起神秘感或害怕地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |