“Well,” cried Creel, “you have sown your wild oats and reaped a whirlwind; and now at last is the calm; and you shall sit under your fig-tree and grow fat.”
“Never, my old friend. We shall come and go like the swallows, and build under the eaves of the world.”
“Aye, aye, and rear a brood at every visit, no doubt. Well, you have realized well on the famous stone, and can indulge a whimsey or so. And you can afford to waive1 title to the estate, and encumber2 me with a property I neither covet3 nor care for. But you are wise no doubt; and maybe you have that of the gambler’s instinct left you to know when the luck hath turned. And, if anything will convince me it has, Sir Robert, it is in the fact that that one rogue4 was spared for the gallows5 and to give evidence against himself in a near incredible story; which he did with so fine a tact6 of villainy as to startle virtuous7 truth out of conceit8 with itself.”
“A stale witticism10, Sir Robert, that has its origin in the unreasoning petulance11 of unsuccessful litigants12. Yet what man blames his broker13 that he takes his percentage equally in a good or bad speculation14?”
“Why, I spoke15 the common cant16 thoughtlessly, sir, and only aimed at a laugh. I would ennoble all lawyers for your sake.”
“Well, well. And so the man Whimple goes abroad with you?”
“I would not part with him for a fortune. Sir David Blythewood offered to take him into his service, but——”
“Ah! I hear that gentleman’s half-sister is pledged to a coronet?”
He rose, and the attorney with him. The old grey eyes of the latter looked kindlily over their glasses.
“And what are your plans?” said he.
“To travel for a year, maybe, while our garden is maturing.”
“The garden that is in the green hollow out of the world? God make it fruitful for you. And is Lady Linne pleased with her new-found title?”
“She is a woman of very women, sir; and all grace I offer her is but repayment18 of a loan of her own advancing.”
“Well, indeed; you are very much in love.”
By Way of Grace.
Miss Royston rose to meet her brother in the candle-light. A really superb collect of diamonds sparkled on her white bosom19.
“Are they not ravishing?” she said; “and is not Dunlone a princely suitor?”
“Why, he cannot do credit to his own selection with niggardliness20.”
“You are always grudging21 in your acknowledgment of his condescension22, brother—yes, condescension, sir, for all your little flippant nose. And simplicity23 in a smock may be a very engaging thing, but I vow24 I prefer it in a coronet.”
“Rank, madam, is but the guinea stamp.”
“Then I would be the guinea-hen, and you may go, if you will, to the barn-door for your partner.”
“Angel, the stones are very fine. What a storm in a tea-cup! Dunlone knows where to lay out his property to the best advantage, and I swear your white skin pays a pretty interest on his investment.”
“You may swear,” she said; “but not in my company. This last year is responsible for more than one change to a coarseness of sentiment in you; though, being the impressionable child you are, I do not wonder.”
She turned with an acid smile to a little table hard by.
“Here,” she said, “is the latest intelligence of a country neighbour of yours that you once studied to take your cue from.”
“You mean Tuke, of course. What about him?”
“Why, only that his hoyden27 hath presented him with an heir to his profligacy;”—and she read out from a current copy of the Lady’s Magazine the following announcement: “‘October 29. The lady of Sir Robt. Linne, Bart., of a son.’”
Miss Angela looked at him with a stare of infinite scorn.
“You were present at the wedding, I think?” said she.
“You know I was.”
“And you made quite an ingenious little speech to the May-day bride and her Jack-in-the-green, or clown—which was it? and I think you got tipsy, which was the best compliment you could have paid her.”
“I dare say—I dare say; and—well, what then?”
“What then, sir? Why, only that I think Sir Robert Linne should have kept his wife’s name out of an advertisement.”
“Pooh! She takes her husband’s status; and she is a noble wench, by George, and will never bring him to shame.”
“Or he, her, of course,” said Miss Angela—“and, Davy, ’tis time you put on your pinafore and went to play in the nursery.”
And here ends the story—so far as it relates to the personages of this history—of the wonderful ruby29 that went by the name of the Lake of Wine. And here—or there, set in a leafy swale of the lonely Hampshire downs—stood until somewhat recently the ruins of that fallen house that superstition30 must still be peopling with spectres. They are gone now, the ruins. When the historian last saw them, a profound silence reigned31 within the broken walls; a riot of “devil’s-rope” and ground-elder filled the deep hollows of the courts; the ivy32 stems were grown ancient; and flitting about the green melancholy33, a brimstone butterfly was blown aloft like a flake34 of the destroying fire that the spirit of romance had breathed into life again.
And now a model farm, rising from the wreck35, has disciplined the wild fields to a very pretty behaviour, and the ghosts are fled before the terror of the Psychical36 Society.
点击收听单词发音
1 waive | |
vt.放弃,不坚持(规定、要求、权力等) | |
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2 encumber | |
v.阻碍行动,妨碍,堆满 | |
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3 covet | |
vt.垂涎;贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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4 rogue | |
n.流氓;v.游手好闲 | |
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5 gallows | |
n.绞刑架,绞台 | |
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6 tact | |
n.机敏,圆滑,得体 | |
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7 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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8 conceit | |
n.自负,自高自大 | |
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9 vocation | |
n.职业,行业 | |
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10 witticism | |
n.谐语,妙语 | |
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11 petulance | |
n.发脾气,生气,易怒,暴躁,性急 | |
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12 litigants | |
n.诉讼当事人( litigant的名词复数 ) | |
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13 broker | |
n.中间人,经纪人;v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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14 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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15 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 | |
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16 cant | |
n.斜穿,黑话,猛扔 | |
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17 lustre | |
n.光亮,光泽;荣誉 | |
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18 repayment | |
n.偿还,偿还款;报酬 | |
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19 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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20 niggardliness | |
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21 grudging | |
adj.勉强的,吝啬的 | |
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22 condescension | |
n.自以为高人一等,贬低(别人) | |
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23 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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24 vow | |
n.誓(言),誓约;v.起誓,立誓 | |
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25 incensed | |
盛怒的 | |
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26 appeased | |
安抚,抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 ); 绥靖(满足另一国的要求以避免战争) | |
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27 hoyden | |
n.野丫头,淘气姑娘 | |
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28 fervently | |
adv.热烈地,热情地,强烈地 | |
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29 ruby | |
n.红宝石,红宝石色 | |
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30 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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31 reigned | |
vi.当政,统治(reign的过去式形式) | |
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32 ivy | |
n.常青藤,常春藤 | |
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33 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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34 flake | |
v.使成薄片;雪片般落下;n.薄片 | |
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35 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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36 psychical | |
adj.有关特异功能现象的;有关特异功能官能的;灵魂的;心灵的 | |
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