The evening of the day that Jeffray rode to break his betrothal1 with Miss Hardacre, Isaac Grimshaw came limping across from his cottage to find Dan plastering new tiles on the roof of his small byre. Isaac stood at the foot of the ladder, squinting2 up at his son against the evening sunlight, his white hair shining under his hat.
Dan pressed a tile home upon its bed of plaster, and, laying his trowel on the roof, looked down at his father.
“What be ye a-wanting?” he asked, scratching his beard with a black thumb nail.
Isaac was frowning and looking fierce and out of humor.
Dan climbed down and stood with one hand on the ladder, staring inquisitively4 into his father’s face. It was not often that Isaac’s complacency was ruffled5 by a grievance6. His arbitrary nature found few foul7 winds to trouble him in Pevensel.
“What’s amiss, dad?”
“That damned old she-dog Ursula’s in a pet.”
“She be growing daft fast,” he said.
“So I say, lad, but the old fool has a tongue, and a meddlesome9 tongue, too, bad blood to her. She might be doing us a deal of harm unless we quiet her silly old soul.”
“Guineas, lad; she be as sweet on the gold dirt as Solomon on his liquor.”
Isaac leaned against the wall of the byre and explained the nature of the old woman’s grievance. The gist11 of it was that Isaac had never given her the eighty guineas that he had promised her on Bess’s marriage. Ursula Grimshaw was slipping into her dotage12, and, like many an old creature in that maudlin13 December of life, she had waxed querulous and testy15, jealous of her rights and greedy of her due. Her love of gold had increased with the waning16 of her intellect, and she was forever bemoaning17 Bess’s absence and grumbling18 at her brother for cheating her of her rights. Isaac, who was never eager to disburse19 gold, and had kept the real secret of their wealth from all save Ursula and Dan, his son, had met the old woman’s complaints with banter20, and chuckled21 at her demand for the guineas he had promised. Ursula, however, had flown at last into a fit of senile rage, spread her claws, and spluttered like a cat. She would have the money, or Isaac should repent22 of cheating her because she was old and feeble. Had not Dan given Bess the brooch of emeralds? The girl should hear the whole truth unless the money was forthcoming. With dramatic spite, Ursula had tottered23 up out of her chair, shaken her stick at Isaac, and cackled out threats that had made her brother change his tone.
“We must fetch another bag out of the chest, lad,” Isaac said, at the end of the recital24, “unless you are for giving up the guineas I gave ye.”
Dan scratched his head and frowned at the suggestion.
“Drat the old hussy,” he retorted, “I’ll give her none of my guineas. I be wanting a new wagon25 and new gear, and the girl’ll be wasting a powerful lot of money.”
Isaac’s face suggested the thought that a tap with an axe14 on the old lady’s crown would have solved the difficulty as clearly as possible. He suppressed the temptation towards violence, however, and bade Dan call at his cottage that night after it was dark. They would go to the Monk’s Grave and bring back the gold that should keep old Ursula quiet.
Bess had been vexing26 her ingenuity27 to discover how she might charm from Dan the secret of the brooch. This golden bauble28 starred with its emerald eyes seemed to her the one talisman29 that could break the silence of the past. She had tried to charm some confession30 from old Ursula, but the dame31 would tell Bess nothing, despite her grievance against Isaac. Thus when Dan, surly and morose32, came in to Bess at supper-time, and told her curtly33 that he would be out with his gun that night, the girl grew keen and alert as a deer that scents34 peril36 on the wind.
Had not Dan given her the brooch on the morning after his last night out with his gun in Pevensel? She remembered that he had brought no birds back with him in the morning, and the more Bess pondered it, the more suspicious she grew of her husband’s honesty. To be sure Dan would be out in the forest at night now and again, and she more than suspected that he was in league with the land smugglers who worked from the sea up through Pevensel. Thorney Chapel37 was notorious in the neighborhood, and it was whispered that the parson had once locked a hard-pressed cargo39 in the vestry. Bess assured herself that there was some secret to be discovered. She made up her mind to follow Dan, and to see where he went that night in Pevensel.
After supper, looking meek40 and innocent, she took her candle, bade Dan good-night, and went up to bed. Bolting the door after her, she sat down on the chest to listen, after throwing a gray cloak over her shoulders and buckling41 on her shoes ready for the adventure. Half an hour passed before she heard Dan stumping42 to and fro in the kitchen beneath. She heard him take his gun down from the beam, call to his black spaniel, and unlatch the door. Swift and sure-footed she was out of the bedroom, and down the creaking stairs into the kitchen. The wood fire was burning brightly on the irons, the light twinkling on the pewter, and playing with the shadows in the dark corners of the room. She tried the door softly—found that Dan had locked it and taken the key. With a feeling of tense excitement, Bess unlatched the casement43, climbed out on to the ledge44, and slipped down into the garden. She stood listening a moment, cowering45 under the shadow of the wall, and looking out into the dark. She could see a light twinkling behind the kitchen window of Isaac’s cottage and hear voices coming gruffly out of the gloom. Stooping, and gliding46 under cover of the rose-bushes and the pea-sticks to the garden gate, she slipped out and passed along under the shadows of the apple-trees.
The voices came from the direction of Isaac’s cottage. Bess recognized the old man’s impatient treble, Dan answering him curtly in his gruff bass47. The candle went out of a sudden, and she heard the yelp48 of a dog and the closing and locking of a door. Two dim figures showed in the murk before her. They moved away towards the woods. Bess, running forward on the edge of the orchard49, reached Isaac’s cottage and crouched50 under the window, listening. She caught the whimpering of a dog, and knew that Dan had left the spaniel locked in the cottage. It would be safer for her to follow them now that they were alone.
Brushing past the spreading bracken, halting, listening, peering from behind the great trunks, Bess followed the voices that led her through the forest. The scent35 of pines drifted through the warm darkness, while here and there a ghostly may-tree shed fragrance51 from its white dome52. Soon Bess saw a light gleam out and go jigging53 and waving through the darkness. Isaac had lit his lantern. Bess blessed him for it, knowing that it would help her in the chase. She walked warily54, her arched feet a-tingle with a sense of peril and adventure, her eyes watching the light that flashed and fled beyond the trees.
It was a mile before Isaac and his son came to the glade55 where a white-trunked fir grew on the Monk’s Knoll56. They set the lantern down on the grass. Dan handling the spade, while Isaac squatted57 on the trunk of a fallen tree.
Bess, seeing that the light had become stationary58 among the trees, drew near slowly, slipping from trunk to trunk. Fearful of treading on dead wood and hearing it snap in the deathly stillness of the forest, she felt the ground with her foot each time before putting her weight upon it. At the edge of the glade bracken and white chervil and goutweed were growing. Bess, going down on her hands and knees, crawled slowly to where a low bush stood, and, drawing her hood38 forward over her face, looked out over the glade.
The lantern threw a vague circle of light over the grass barred with the black shadows cast by its frame. Bess could see old Isaac sitting hunched59 on the dead tree. He had lit his pipe, and a faint glow showed above the brown bowl, the smoke wreathing upward into the dark. The light from the lantern fell upon Dan, who had thrown off his coat and was working in his shirt. The bull neck and the hairy chest were showing, though the level of the light hardly reached his face.
Bess, crouching60 under the bush, which was a thorn, and holding her breath, saw Dan thrust his spade into the pile of earth beside the hole, catch something that Isaac threw to him, and bend his broad shoulders over the pit. The light from the lantern fell on his black and frowsy head and the swelling61 curves of his hairy forearms. Bess heard the click of a shooting lock. Dan reached deep into the hole and swung something that jingled62 on to the grass. Then he stood up, wiping his forehead with his forearm, and staring round into the darkness of the woods.
Isaac had reached for the bag of money when Bess, who was drawing back into the deeper shadow, set her hand on a dead thorn-bough. The spikes63 stabbed her palm. With the sudden pain of it she drew her breath in through her teeth with a slight and sibilant sound. She crouched down behind the thorn-bush, but both Dan and Isaac had heard her. The elder man was peering right and left like an old hawk64, Dan stooping a little and staring straight to where Bess lay hid. He picked up the lantern and came striding round the edge of the glade, looking fiercely into the dark. Isaac had snatched up the gun and cocked it.
Bess, crouching behind the thorn-bush, trembled like a frightened hare. Dan was only twenty paces away, the lantern darting65 out arms of light into the forest. He would certainly see her if he passed the place, and with the swift instinct of the moment she chose the instant fortune of flight. Starting up like a wild thing from cover, she scurried66 back among the trees and took the winding67 path by which they had come.
Dan, giving a snort like a startled horse, dropped the lantern, flung up one arm, and plunged68 after her. He had seen the dark figure flit in among the trees, and could hear the crackling of twigs69 under her hurrying feet. With his mouth open and his hands clawing the air, he ran, rolling clumsily at the hips70 like a fat ketch in a heavy sea. Bess had twenty yards start of him and no more, and, quick and strong as she was, her skirts and cloak hindered her.
Bess heard him thudding in her wake, breathing hard like an angry bull. The trees sped by, solemn and untroubled, the winding path seemed to have no ending. Plod71, plod, plod, came the heavy foot-falls at her heels till she felt like a child chased by an ogre. Strain as she would she could not outpace the man, and she knew enough of Dan’s doggedness to guess the end.
After all, why should she run from her own husband? She had merely caught him uncovering money in the forest, and there was no reason why he should suspect her. Halting suddenly and struggling for her breath, with her hands to her bosom72, she stood in the middle of the path and laughed a shrill73, breathless laugh as the man came up with her.
“Ha, Dan, I have led you a dance, hey!”
Dan stopped dead with a great oath, then came close to her, panting, and glaring in her face.
“What be you doing in the forest, you she-dog?”
“I may follow my husband when he goes hunting.”
Dan, with a curse, lifted up his great fist, struck her in the face, and bent74 over her as she lay half-stunned by the blow.
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1
betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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2
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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3
bellow
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| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
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4
inquisitively
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| 过分好奇地； 好问地 | |
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5
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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6
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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7
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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8
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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9
meddlesome
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| adj.爱管闲事的 | |
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10
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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11
gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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12
dotage
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| n.年老体衰；年老昏聩 | |
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13
maudlin
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| adj.感情脆弱的，爱哭的 | |
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14
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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15
testy
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| adj.易怒的；暴躁的 | |
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16
waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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17
bemoaning
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| v.为（某人或某事）抱怨( bemoan的现在分词 )；悲悼；为…恸哭；哀叹 | |
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18
grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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19
disburse
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| v.支出，拨款 | |
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20
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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21
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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23
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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24
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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25
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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26
vexing
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| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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27
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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28
bauble
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| n.美观而无价值的饰物 | |
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29
talisman
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| n.避邪物，护身符 | |
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30
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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31
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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32
morose
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| adj.脾气坏的，不高兴的 | |
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33
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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34
scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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35
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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36
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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37
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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38
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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39
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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40
meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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41
buckling
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| 扣住 | |
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42
stumping
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的现在分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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43
casement
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| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
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44
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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45
cowering
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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46
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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47
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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48
yelp
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| vi.狗吠 | |
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49
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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50
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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52
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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53
jigging
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| n.跳汰选，簸选v.（使）上下急动( jig的现在分词 ) | |
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54
warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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55
glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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56
knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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57
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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58
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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59
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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60
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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61
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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62
jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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63
spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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64
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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65
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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66
scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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68
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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69
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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70
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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71
plod
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| v.沉重缓慢地走，孜孜地工作 | |
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72
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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73
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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74
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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