"Work must be done anyhow," said Mr. Lewisham.
But never had the extraordinary advantages of open-air study presented themselves so vividly1. Before breakfast he took half an hour of open-air reading along the allotments lane near the Frobishers' house, after breakfast and before school he went through the avenue with a book, and returned from school to his lodgings3 circuitously4 through the avenue, and so back to the avenue for thirty minutes or so before afternoon school. When Mr. Lewisham was not looking over the top of his book during these periods of open-air study, then commonly he was glancing over his shoulder. And at last who should he see but--!
He saw her out of the corner of his eye, and he turned away at once, pretending not to have seen her. His whole being was suddenly irradiated with emotion. The hands holding his book gripped it very tightly. He did not glance back again, but walked slowly and steadfastly5, reading an ode that he could not have translated to save his life, and listening acutely for her approach. And after an interminable time, as it seemed, came a faint footfall and the swish of skirts behind him.
He felt as though his head was directed forward by a clutch of iron.
"Mr. Lewisham," she said close to him, and he turned with a quality of movement that was almost convulsive. He raised his cap clumsily.
He took her extended hand by an afterthought, and held it until she withdrew it. "I am so glad to have met you," she said.
"So am I," said Lewisham simply.
They stood facing one another for an expressive6 moment, and then by a movement she indicated her intention to walk along the avenue with him. "I wanted so much," she said, looking down at her feet, "to thank you for letting Teddy off, you know. That is why I wanted to see you." Lewisham took his first step beside her. "And it's odd, isn't it," she said, looking up into his face, "that I should meet you here in just the same place. I believe ... Yes. The very same place we met before."
Mr. Lewisham was tongue-tied.
"Do you often come here?" she said.
"Well," he considered--and his voice was most unreasonably7 hoarse8 when he spoke9--"no. No.... That is--At least not often. Now and then. In fact, I like it rather for reading and that sort of thing. It's so quiet."
"I suppose you read a great deal?"
"When one teaches one has to."
"But you ..."
"I'm rather fond of reading, certainly. Are you?"
"I _love_ it."
Mr. Lewisham was glad she loved reading. He would have been disappointed had she answered differently. But she spoke with real fervour. She _loved_ reading! It was pleasant. She would understand him a little perhaps. "Of course," she went on, "I'm not clever like some people are. And I have to read books as I get hold of them."
"So do I," said Mr. Lewisham, "for the matter of that.... Have you read ... Carlyle?"
The conversation was now fairly under way. They were walking side by side beneath the swaying boughs10. Mr. Lewisham's sensations were ecstatic, marred11 only by a dread12 of some casual boy coming upon them. She had not read _much_ Carlyle. She had always wanted to, even from quite a little girl--she had heard so much about him. She knew he was a Really Great Writer, a _very_ Great Writer indeed. All she _had_ read of him she liked. She could say that. As much as she liked anything. And she had seen his house in Chelsea.
Lewisham, whose knowledge of London had been obtained by excursion trips on six or seven isolated13 days, was much impressed by this. It seemed to put her at once on a footing of intimacy14 with this imposing15 Personality. It had never occurred to him at all vividly that these Great Writers had real abiding16 places. She gave him a few descriptive touches that made the house suddenly real and distinctive17 to him. She lived quite near, she said, at least within walking distance, in Clapham. He instantly forgot the vague design of lending her his "_Sartor Resartus_" in his curiosity to learn more about her home. "Clapham--that's almost in London, isn't it?" he said.
"Quite," she said, but she volunteered no further information about her domestic circumstances, "I like London," she generalised, "and especially in winter." And she proceeded to praise London, its public libraries, its shops, the multitudes of people, the facilities for "doing what you like," the concerts one could go to, the theatres. (It seemed she moved in fairly good society.) "There's always something to see even if you only go out for a walk," she said, "and down here there's nothing to read but idle novels. And those not new."
Mr. Lewisham had regretfully to admit the lack of such culture and mental activity in Whortley. It made him feel terribly her inferior. He had only his bookishness and his certificates to set against it all--and she had seen Carlyle's house! "Down here," she said, "there's nothing to talk about but scandal." It was too true.
At the corner by the stile, beyond which the willows18 were splendid against the blue with silvery aments and golden pollen19, they turned by mutual20 impulse and retraced21 their steps. "I've simply had no one to talk to down here," she said. "Not what _I_ call talking."
"I hope," said Lewisham, making a resolute22 plunge23, "perhaps while you are staying at Whortley ..."
He paused perceptibly, and she, following his eyes, saw a voluminous black figure approaching. "We may," said Mr. Lewisham, resuming his remark, "chance to meet again, perhaps."
He had been about to challenge her to a deliberate meeting. A certain delightful24 tangle25 of paths that followed the bank of the river had been in his mind. But the apparition26 of Mr. George Bonover, headmaster of the Whortley Proprietary27 School, chilled him amazingly. Dame28 Nature no doubt had arranged the meeting of our young couple, but about Bonover she seems to have been culpably29 careless. She now receded30 inimitably, and Mr. Lewisham, with the most unpleasant feelings, found himself face to face with a typical representative of a social organisation31 which objects very strongly _inter alia_ to promiscuous32 conversation on the part of the young unmarried junior master.
"--chance to meet again, perhaps," said Mr. Lewisham, with a sudden lack of spirit.
"I hope so too," she said.
Pause. Mr. Bonover's features, and particularly a bushy pair of black eyebrows33, were now very near, those eyebrows already raised, apparently34 to express a refined astonishment35.
"Is this Mr. Bonover approaching?" she asked.
"Yes."
Prolonged pause.
Would he stop and accost36 them? At any rate this frightful37 silence must end. Mr. Lewisham sought in his mind for some remark wherewith to cover his employer's approach. He was surprised to find his mind a desert. He made a colossal38 effort. If they could only talk, if they could only seem at their ease! But this blank incapacity was eloquent39 of guilt40. Ah!
"It's a lovely day, though," said Mr. Lewisham. "Isn't it?"
She agreed with him. "Isn't it?" she said.
And then Mr. Bonover passed, forehead tight reefed so to speak, and lips impressively compressed. Mr. Lewisham raised his mortar-board, and to his astonishment Mr. Bonover responded with a markedly formal salute--mock clerical hat sweeping41 circuitously--and the regard of a searching, disapproving42 eye, and so passed. Lewisham was overcome with astonishment at this improvement on the nod of their ordinary commerce. And so this terrible incident terminated for the time.
He felt a momentary43 gust44 of indignation. After all, why should Bonover or anyone interfere45 with his talking to a girl if he chose? And for all he knew they might have been properly introduced. By young Frobisher, say. Nevertheless, Lewisham's spring-tide mood relapsed into winter. He was, he felt, singularly stupid for the rest of their conversation, and the delightful feeling of enterprise that had hitherto inspired and astonished him when talking to her had shrivelled beyond contempt. He was glad--positively glad--when things came to an end.
At the park gates she held out her hand. "I'm afraid I have interrupted your reading," she said.
"Not a bit," said Mr. Lewisham, warming slightly. "I don't know when I've enjoyed a conversation...."
"It was--a breach46 of etiquette47, I am afraid, my speaking to you, but I did so want to thank you...."
"Don't mention it," said Mr. Lewisham, secretly impressed by the etiquette.
"Good-bye." He stood hesitating by the lodge48, and then turned back up the avenue in order not to be seen to follow her too closely up the West Street.
And then, still walking away from her, he remembered that he had not lent her a book as he had planned, nor made any arrangement ever to meet her again. She might leave Whortley anywhen for the amenities49 of Clapham. He stopped and stood irresolute50. Should he run after her? Then he recalled Bonover's enigmatical expression of face. He decided51 that to pursue her would be altogether too conspicuous52. Yet ... So he stood in inglorious hesitation53, while the seconds passed.
He reached his lodging2 at last to find Mrs. Munday halfway54 through dinner.
"You get them books of yours," said Mrs. Munday, who took a motherly interest in him, "and you read and you read, and you take no account of time. And now you'll have to eat your dinner half cold, and no time for it to settle proper before you goes off to school. It's ruination to a stummik--such ways."
"Oh, never mind my stomach, Mrs. Munday," said Lewisham, roused from a tangled55 and apparently gloomy meditation56; "that's _my_ affair." Quite crossly he spoke for him.
"I'd rather have a good sensible actin' stummik than a full head," said Mrs. Monday, "any day."
"I'm different, you see," snapped Mr. Lewisham, and relapsed into silence and gloom.
("Hoity toity!" said Mrs. Monday under her breath.)
收听单词发音 |
1
vividly
|
|
| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
lodging
|
|
| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
lodgings
|
|
| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
circuitously
|
|
| 曲折地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
5
steadfastly
|
|
| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
expressive
|
|
| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
unreasonably
|
|
| adv. 不合理地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
hoarse
|
|
| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
boughs
|
|
| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
marred
|
|
| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
dread
|
|
| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
intimacy
|
|
| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
imposing
|
|
| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
abiding
|
|
| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
distinctive
|
|
| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
willows
|
|
| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
pollen
|
|
| n.[植]花粉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
mutual
|
|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
retraced
|
|
| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
resolute
|
|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
plunge
|
|
| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
delightful
|
|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
tangle
|
|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
apparition
|
|
| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
proprietary
|
|
| n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
dame
|
|
| n.女士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
culpably
|
|
| adv.该罚地，可恶地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
30
receded
|
|
| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
organisation
|
|
| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
promiscuous
|
|
| adj.杂乱的，随便的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
accost
|
|
| v.向人搭话，打招呼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
frightful
|
|
| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
colossal
|
|
| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
eloquent
|
|
| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
guilt
|
|
| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
disapproving
|
|
| adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
momentary
|
|
| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
gust
|
|
| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
breach
|
|
| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
etiquette
|
|
| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
lodge
|
|
| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
amenities
|
|
| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
irresolute
|
|
| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
halfway
|
|
| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
tangled
|
|
| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
meditation
|
|
| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |