Was ever woman in this humor wooed?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I’ll have her.
Richard III.
TWELVE months had passed away since the Master of Ravenswood’s departure for the continent, and, although his return to Scotland had been expected in a much shorter space, yet the affairs of his mission, or, according to a prevailing1 report, others of a nature personal to himself, still detained him abroad. In the mean time, the altered state of affairs in Sir William Ashton’s family may be gathered from the following conversation which took place betwixt Bucklaw and his confidential2 bottle companion and dependant3, the noted4 Captain Craigengelt. They were seated on either side of the huge sepulchral-looking freestone chimney in the low hall at Girnington. A wood fire blazed merrily in the grate; a round oaken table, placed between them, supported a stoup of excellent claret, two rummer glasses, and other good cheer; and yet, with all these appliances and means to boot, the countenance5 of the patron was dubious6, doubtful, and unsatisfied, while the invention of his dependant was taxed to the utmost to parry what he most dreaded7, a fit, as he called it, of the sullens, on the part of his protector. After a long pause, only interrupted by the devil’s tattoo8, which Bucklaw kept beating against the hearth9 with the toe of his boot, Craigengelt at last ventured to break silence. “May I be double distanced,” said he, “if ever I saw a man in my life have less the air of a bridegroom! Cut me out of feather, if you have not more the look of a man condemned10 to be hanged!”
“My kind thanks for the compliment,” replied Bucklaw; “but I suppose you think upon the predicament in which you yourself are most likely to be placed; and pray, Captain Craigengelt, if it please your worship, why should I look merry, when I’m sad, and devilish sad too?”
“And that’s what vexes11 me,” said Craigengelt. “Here is this match, the best in the whole country, and which were so anxious about, is on the point of being concluded, and you are as sulky as a bear that has lost its whelps.”
“I do not know,” answered the Laird, doggedly12, “whether I should conclude or not, if it was not that I am too far forwards to leap back.”
“Leap back!” exclaimed Craigengelt, with a well-assumed air of astonishment13, “that would be playing the back-game with a witness! Leap back! Why, is not the girl’s fortune ——”
“The young lady’s, if you please,” said Hayston, interrupting him.
“Well — well, no disrespect meant. Will Miss Ashton’s tocher not weigh against any in Lothian?”
“Granted,” answered Bucklaw; “but I care not a penny for her tocher; I have enough of my own.”
“And the mother, that loves you like her own child?”
“Better than some of her children, I believe,” said Bucklaw, “or there would be little love wared on the matter.”
“And Colonel Sholto Douglas Ashton, who desires the marriage above all earthly things?”
“Because,” said Bucklaw, “he expects to carry the county of —— through my interest.”
“And the father, who is as keen to see the match concluded as ever I have been to win a main?”
“Ay,” said Bucklaw, in the same disparaging14 manner, “it lies with Sir William’s policy to secure the next best match, since he cannot barter15 his child to save the great Ravenswood estate, which the English House of Lords are about to wrench16 out of his clutches.”
“What say you to the young lady herself?” said Craigengelt; “the finest young woman in all Scotland, one that you used to be so fond of when she was cross, and now she consents to have you, and gives up her engagement with Ravenswood, you are for jibbing. I must say, the devil’s in ye, when ye neither know what you would have nor what you would want.”
“I’ll tell you my meaning in a word,” answered Bucklaw, getting up and walking through the room; “I want to know what the devil is the cause of Miss Ashton’s changing her mind so suddenly?”
“And what need you care,” said Craigengelt, “since the change is in your favour?”
“I’ll tell you what it is,” returned his patron, “I never knew much of that sort of fine ladies, and I believe they may be as capricious as the devil; but there is something in Miss Ashton’s change a devilish deal too sudden and too serious for a mere17 flisk of her own. I’ll be bound, Lady Ashton understands every machine for breaking in the human mind, and there are as many as there are cannon-bit, martingales, and cavessons for young colts.”
“And if that were not the case,” said Craigengelt, “how the devil should we ever get them into training at all?”
“And that’s true too,” said Bucklaw, suspending his march through the dining-room, and leaning upon the back of a chair. “And besides, here’s Ravenswood in the way still, do you think he’ll give up Lucy’s engagement?”
“To be sure he will,” answered Craigengelt; “what good can it do him to refuse, since he wishes to marry another woman and she another man?”
“And you believe seriously,” said Bucklaw, “that he is going to marry the foreign lady we heard of?”
“You heard yourself,” answered Craigengelt, “what Captain Westenho said about it, and the great preparation made for their blythesome bridal.”
“Captain Westenho,” replied Bucklaw, “has rather too much of your own cast about, Craigie, to make what Sir William would call a ‘famous witness.’ He drinks deep, plays deep, swears deep, and I suspect can lie and cheat a little into the bargain; useful qualities, Craigie, if kept in their proper sphere, but which have a little too much of the freebooter to make a figure in a court of evidence.”
“Well, then,” said Craigengelt, “will you believe Colonel Douglas Ashton, who heard the Marquis of A—— say in a public circle, but not aware that he was within ear-shot, that his kinsman18 had made a better arrangement for himself than to give his father’s land for the pale-cheeked daughter of a broken-down fanatic19, and that Bucklaw was welcome to the wearing of Ravenswood’s shaughled shoes.”
“Did he say so, by heavens!” cried Bucklaw, breaking out into one of those incontrollable fits of passion to which he was constitutionally subject; “if I had heard him, I would have torn the tongue out of his throat before all his peats and minions20, and Highland21 bullies22 into the bargain. Why did not Ashton run him through the body?”
“Capot me if I know,” said the Captain. “He deserved it sure enough; but he is an old man, and a minister of state, and there would be more risk than credit in meddling23 with him. You had more need to think of making up to Miss Lucy Ashton the disgrace that’s like to fall upon her than of interfering24 with a man too old to fight, and on too high a tool for your hand to reach him.”
“It SHALL reach him, though, one day,” said Bucklaw, “and his kinsman Ravenswood to boot. In the mean time, I’ll take care Miss Ashton receives no discredit25 for the slight they have put upon her. It’s an awkward job, however, and I wish it were ended; I scarce know how to talk to her,— but fill a bumper26, Craigie, and we’ll drink her health. It grows late, and a night-cowl of good claret is worth all the considering-caps in Europe.”
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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dependant
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| n.依靠的，依赖的，依赖他人生活者 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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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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dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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tattoo
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| n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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vexes
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| v.使烦恼( vex的第三人称单数 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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disparaging
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| adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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minions
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| n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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bumper
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| n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的 | |
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