Odo, next morning, under the hunchback's guidance, continued hisexploration of the palace. His mother seemed glad to be rid of him, andVanna packing him off early, with the warning that he was not to fallinto the fishponds or get himself trampled1 by the horses, he guessed,with a thrill, that he had leave to visit the stables. Here in fact thetwo boys were soon making their way among the crowd of grooms2 andstrappers in the yard, seeing the Duke's carriage-horses groomed3, andthe Duchess's cream-coloured hackney saddled for her ride in the chase;and at length, after much lingering and gazing, going on to theharness-rooms and coach-house. The state-carriages, with their carvedand gilt4 wheels, their panels gay with flushed divinities and theirstupendous velvet5 hammer-cloths edged with bullion6, held Odo spellbound.
He had a born taste for splendour, and the thought that he might one daysit in one of these glittering vehicles puffed7 his breast with pride andmade him address the hunchback with sudden condescension8. "When I'm aman I shall ride in these carriages," he said; whereat the other laughedand returned good-humouredly: "Eh, that's not so much to boast of,cavaliere; I shall ride in a carriage one of these days myself." Odostared, not over-pleased, and the boy added: "When I'm carried to thechurchyard, I mean," with a chuckle9 of relish10 at the joke.
From the stables they passed to the riding-school, with its opengalleries supported on twisted columns, where the duke's gentlemenmanaged their horses and took their exercise in bad weather. Severalrode there that morning; and among them, on a fine Arab, Odo recognisedthe young man in black velvet who was so often in Donna Laura'sapartments.
"Who's that?" he whispered, pulling the hunchback's sleeve, as thegentleman, just below them, made his horse execute a brilliant balotade.
"That? Bless the innocent! Why, the Count Lelio Trescorre, yourillustrious mother's cavaliere servente."Odo was puzzled, but some instinct of reserve withheld12 him from furtherquestions. The hunchback, however, had no such scruples13. "They do say,though," he went on, "that her Highness has her eye on him, and in thatcase I'll wager14 your illustrious mamma has no more chance than a sparrowagainst a hawk15."The boy's words were incomprehensible, but the vague sense that somedanger might be threatening his mother's friend made Odo whisper: "Whatwould her Highness do to him?""Make him a prime-minister, cavaliere," the hunchback laughed.
Odo's guide, it appeared, was not privileged to conduct him through thestate apartments of the palace, and the little boy had now been fourdays under the ducal roof without catching16 so much as a glimpse of hissovereign and cousin. The very next morning, however, Vanna swept himfrom his trundle-bed with the announcement that he was to be received bythe Duke that day, and that the tailor was now waiting to try on hiscourt dress. He found his mother propped17 against her pillows, drinkingchocolate, feeding her pet monkey and giving agitated18 directions to themaidservants on their knees before the open carriage-trunks. Herexcellency informed Odo that she had that moment received an expressfrom his grandfather, the old Marquess di Donnaz; that they were tostart next morning for the castle of Donnaz, and that he was to bepresented to the Duke as soon as his Highness had risen from dinner. Aplump purse lay on the coverlet, and her countenance19 wore an air ofkindness and animation20 which, together with the prospect21 of wearing acourt dress and travelling to his grandfather's castle in the mountains,so worked on Odo's spirits that, forgetting the abate's instructions, hesprang to her with an eager caress22.
"Child, child," was her only rebuke23; and she added, with a tap on hischeek: "It is lucky I shall have a sword to protect me."Long before the hour Odo was buttoned into his embroidered24 coat andwaistcoat. He would have on the sword at once, and when they sat down todinner, though his mother pressed him to eat with more concern than shehad before shown, it went hard with him to put his weapon aside, and hecast longing25 eyes at the corner where it lay. At length a chamberlainsummoned them and they set out down the corridors, attended by twoservants. Odo held his head high, with one hand leading Donna Laura (forhe would not appear to be led by her) while the other fingered hissword. The deformed26 beggars who always lurked27 about the great staircasefawned on them as they passed, and on a landing they crossed thehumpbacked boy, who grinned mockingly at Odo; but the latter, with hischin up, would not so much as glance at him.
A master of ceremonies in short black cloak and gold chain received themin the antechamber of the Duchess's apartments, where the court playedlansquenet after dinner; the doors of her Highness's closet were thrownopen, and Odo, now glad enough to cling to his mother's hand, foundhimself in a tall room, with gods and goddesses in the clouds overheadand personages as supra-terrestrial seated in gilt armchairs about asmoking brazier. Before one of these, to whom Donna Laura sweptsuccessive curtsies in advancing, the frightened cavaliere found himselfdragged with his sword between his legs. He ducked his head like the olddrake diving for worms in the puddle28 at the farm, and when at last hedared look up, it was to see an odd sallow face, half-smothered in animmense wig29, bowing back at him with infinite ceremony--and Odo's heartsank to think that this was his sovereign.
The Duke was in fact a sickly narrow-faced young man with thickobstinate lips and a slight lameness30 that made his walk ungainly; butthough no way resembling the ermine-cloaked king of the chapel31 atPontesordo, he yet knew how to put on a certain majesty32 with his statewig and his orders. As for the newly married Duchess, who sat at theother end of the cabinet caressing33 a toy spaniel, she was scant34 fourteenand looked a mere35 child in her great hoop36 and jewelled stomacher. Herwonderful fair hair, drawn37 over a cushion and lightly powdered, wastwisted with pearls and roses, and her cheeks excessively rouged38, in theFrench fashion; so that as she arose on the approach of the visitors shelooked to Odo for all the world like the wooden Virgin39 hung with votiveofferings in the parish church at Pontesordo. Though they were but threemonths married the Duke, it was rumoured40, was never with her, preferringthe company of the young Marquess of Cerveno, his cousin andheir-presumptive, a pale boy scented41 with musk42 and painted like acomedian, whom his Highness would never suffer away from him and who nowleaned with an impertinent air against the back of the ducal armchair.
On the other side of the brazier sat the dowager Duchess, the Duke'sgrandmother, an old lady so high and forbidding of aspect that Odo castbut one look at her face, which was yellow and wrinkled as a medlar, andsurmounted, in the Spanish style, with black veils and a high coif. Whatthese alarming personages said and did, the child could never recall;nor were his own actions clear to him, except for a furtive43 caress thathe remembered giving the spaniel as he kissed the Duchess's hand;whereupon her Highness snatched up the pampered44 animal and walked awaywith a pout45 of anger. Odo noticed that her angry look followed him as heand Donna Laura withdrew; but the next moment he heard the Duke's voiceand saw his Highness limping after them.
"You must have a furred cloak for your journey, cousin," said heawkwardly, pressing something in the hand of Odo's mother, who brokeinto fresh compliments and curtsies, while the Duke, with a finger onhis thick lip, withdrew hastily into the closet.
The next morning early they set out on their journey. There had beenfrost in the night and a cold sun sparkled on the palace windows and onthe marble church-fronts as their carriage lumbered46 through the streets,now full of noise and animation. It was Odo's first glimpse of the townby daylight, and he clapped his hands with delight at sight of thepeople picking their way across the reeking47 gutters48, the asses49 ladenwith milk and vegetables, the servant-girls bargaining at theprovision-stalls, the shop-keepers' wives going to mass in pattens andhoods, with scaldini in their muffs, the dark recessed50 openings in thepalace basements, where fruit sellers, wine-merchants and coppersmithsdisplayed their wares51, the pedlars hawking52 books and toys, and here andthere a gentleman in a sedan chair returning flushed and disordered froma night at bassett or faro. The travelling-carriage was escorted byhalf-a-dozen of the Duke's troopers and Don Lelio rode at the doorfollowed by two grooms. He wore a furred coat and boots, and never, toOdo, had he appeared more proud and splendid; but Donna Laura had hardlya word for him, and he rode with the set air of a man who acquitshimself of a troublesome duty.
Outside the gates the spectacle seemed tame in comparison; for the roadbent toward Pontesordo, and Odo was familiar enough with the look of thebare fields, set here and there with oak-copses to which the leavesstill clung. As the carriage skirted the marsh54 his mother raised thewindows, exclaiming that they must not expose themselves to thepestilent air; and though Odo was not yet addicted55 to generalreflections, he could not but wonder that she should display such dreadof an atmosphere she had let him breathe since his birth. He knew ofcourse that the sunset vapours on the marsh were unhealthy: everybody onthe farm had a touch of the ague, and it was a saying in the villagethat no one lived at Pontesordo who could buy an ass11 to carry him away;but that Donna Laura, in skirting the place on a clear morning of frost,should show such fear of infection, gave a sinister56 emphasis to theill-repute of the region.
The thought, he knew not why, turned his mind to Momola, who often ondamp evenings sat shaking and burning in the kitchen corner. Hereflected with a pang57 that he might never see her again, and leaningforward he strained his eyes for a glimpse of Pontesordo. They werepassing through a patch of oaks; but where these ended the countryopened, and beyond a belt of osiers and the mottled faded stretches ofthe marsh the keep stood up like a beckoning58 finger. Odo cried out asthough in answer to its call; but that moment the road turned a knolland bent53 across rising ground toward an unfamiliar59 region.
"Thank God!" cried his mother, lowering the window, "we're rid of thatpoison and can breath the air."As the keep vanished Odo reproached himself for not having begged a pairof shoes for Momola. He had felt very sorry for her since the hunchbackhad spoken so strangely of life at the foundling hospital; and he had asudden vision of her bare feet, pinched with cold and cut with thepebbles of the yard, perpetually running across the damp stone floors,with Filomena crying after her : "Hasten then, child of iniquity60! Youare slower than a day without bread!" He had almost resolved to speak ofthe foundling to his mother, who still seemed in a condescending61 humour;but his attention was unexpectedly distracted by a troop of Egyptians,who came along the road leading a dancing bear; and hardly had thesepassed when the chariot of an itinerant62 dentist engaged him. The wholeway, indeed, was alive with such surprises; and at Valsecca, where theydined, they found the yard of the inn crowded with the sumpter-mules andservants of a cardinal63 travelling to Rome, who was to lie there thatnight and whose bedstead and saucepans had preceded him.
Here, after dinner, Don Lelio took leave of Odo's mother, with smallshow of regret on either side; the lady high and sarcastic64, thegentleman sullen65 and polite; and both, as it seemed, easier when thebusiness was despatched and the Count's foot in the stirrup. He had sofar taken little notice of Odo, but he now bent from the saddle andtapped the boy's cheek, saying in his cold way: "In a few years I shallsee you at court;" and with that rode away toward Pianura.
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trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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groomed
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| v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的过去式和过去分词 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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bullion
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| n.金条，银条 | |
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puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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puddle
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| n.(雨)水坑，泥潭 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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lameness
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| n. 跛, 瘸, 残废 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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hoop
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| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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rouged
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| 胭脂，口红( rouge的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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42
musk
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| n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫 | |
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43
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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pampered
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| adj.饮食过量的，饮食奢侈的v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
pout
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| v.撅嘴；绷脸；n.撅嘴；生气，不高兴 | |
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lumbered
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| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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47
reeking
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| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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48
gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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49
asses
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| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
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50
recessed
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| v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的过去式和过去分词 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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51
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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52
hawking
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| 利用鹰行猎 | |
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53
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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54
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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55
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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56
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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58
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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59
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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60
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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61
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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itinerant
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| adj.巡回的；流动的 | |
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cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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