SIR HUGH called upon his other nieces to join him; purposing to stroll to the end of a lane which led to the London road.
Camilla accompanied the party in the most mournful silence. The assuming letter she had received; the interview she should have to sustain; and her apparent dependance upon Sir Sedley, sinking her into complete despondence.
When they came to the high road, Sir Hugh made a stop, and bid every body look sharp.
A horseman was seen advancing full gallop1. By his figure he appeared to be young; by his pace, in uncommon2 speed.
‘That’s him,’ cried Sir Hugh, striking his stick upon the ground, and smiling most complacently3; ‘I said he would not mind the wind, my dear Eugenia! what’s the wind, or the waves either, to a lover? which is a thing, however, that I won’t talk about; so don’t be ashamed, my dear girl, nobody knowing what we mean.’
Eugenia looked down, deeply colouring, and much regretting the lameness4 that prevented her running back, to avoid so public and discountenancing a meeting.
The horseman now came up to them, and was preparing to turn down the lane; when, all at once, they perceived him to be Edgar Mandlebert.
He had left Tunbridge in a manner not more abrupt5 than comfortless. His disappointment in the failure of Camilla at the Rooms had been as bitter, as his expectations from the promised conference had been animated6. When Lionel appeared, he inquired if his sister were absent from illness.... No; she was only writing a letter. To take this moment for such a purpose, be the letter what it might, seemed sporting with his curiosity and warm interest in her affairs: and he went back, mortified7 and dejected, to his lodgings8; where, just arrived by the stage, he found a letter from Dr. Marchmont, acquainting him with his return to his rectory. In this suspensive state of mind, to cast himself upon his sagacious friend seemed a relief the most desirable: but, while considering whether first to claim from Camilla her promised communication, the voice of Lionel issuing from the room of Major Cerwood, struck his ears. He darted9 forth10, and accompanied the youth to his horse, who was setting out upon some expedition, in the dark; and then received information, under the pretence11 of great secrecy12, that Major Cerwood was going immediately to ask leave of absence, and proceed straight to Hampshire, with his final proposals of marriage with Camilla. He now concluded this was the subject upon which she had meant to consult with him; but delicacy13, pride, and hope all combated his interference. He determined14 even to avoid her, till the answer should be given. ‘I must owe her hand,’ cried he, ‘to her heart, not to a contest such as this: and, if impartially15 and unbiassed, the Major is refused, no farther cruel doubt, no torturing hesitation16, shall keep me another minute from her feet!’ With the dawn, therefore, he set out for Hampshire; but, fixed17 to avoid Cleves, till he could learn that the Major’s visit were over, he devoted18 his mornings to rides, and his evenings to Dr. Marchmont, till now, a mile or two from the Park, he had met the Major himself, and concluded the acceptance or the rejection19 decided20. They merely touched their hats as they passed each other; and he instantly took the route which the Major was quitting.
In the excess of his tribulation21, he was galloping22 past the whole group, without discerning one of its figures; when Sir Hugh called out, ‘Why it’s young Mr. Edgar! So now we’ve walked all this way for nothing! and Clermont may be still at Jericho, or at Rome, for anything we know to the contrary!’
Edgar stopt short. He felt himself shiver at sight of Camilla, but dismounted, gave his horse to his groom23, and joined the party.
Eugenia recovering, now fearlessly looked up; but Camilla, struck and affected24, shook in every limb, and was forced to hold by Lavinia.
Edgar called upon his utmost presence of mind to carry him through what he conceived to be a final trial. He spoke25 to Sir Hugh, and compelled himself to speak separately to every one else; but, when he addressed Camilla, to whom he said something not very distinctly, about Tunbridge, she curtsied to him slightly, and turned away, without making any answer. Her mind, taking suddenly a quick retrospection of all that had passed between them, presented him to her view as uncertain and delusive26; and, casting upon him, internally, the whole odium of her present distress27, and her feelings were so indignant, that, in her present desperate state, she deemed it beneath her to disguise them, either from himself or the world.
Edgar, to whose troubled imagination everything painted his rival, concluded the Major had been heard with favour; and his own adverse28 counsel was now recollected29 with resentment30.
Sir Hugh, far more fatigued31 by his disappointment than by his walk, said he should go no further, as he found it in vain to expect Clermont; and accepted the arm of Edgar to aid his stick in helping32 him home.
Camilla, still leaning upon Lavinia, mounted a little bank, which she knew Sir Hugh could not ascend33, that she might walk on where Edgar could not join her; involuntarily ejaculating, ‘Lavinia! if you would avoid deceit and treachery, look at a man as at a picture, which tells you only the present moment! Rely upon nothing of time to come! They are not like us, Lavinia. They think themselves free, if they have made no verbal profession; though they may have pledged themselves by looks, by actions, by attentions, and by manners, a thousand, and a thousand times!’
Edgar observed her avoidance with the keenest apprehension34; and, connecting it with her failure at the Rooms, imagined the Major had now influenced her to an utter aversion of him.
Sir Hugh meanwhile, though wholly unheard, related, in a low voice, to Edgar, the history of his preparations for Clermont; begging him, however, to take no notice of them to Eugenia: and, then, adding, ‘Very likely, Mr. Edgar, you are just come from Tunbridge? and, if so, you may have met with that young Captain that has been with us this morning; who, I understand to be a Major?’
Edgar was thrown into the utmost trepidation35; the artless openness of Sir Hugh gave him every reason to suppose he should immediately gather full intelligence, and all his peace and all his hopes might hang upon another word. He could only bow to the question; but before Sir Hugh could go on, a butcher’s boy, who was riding by, from a wanton love of mischief36, gave a signal to his attending bull-dog, to attack the old spaniel that accompanied Sir Hugh.
Sustained by his master many a year, the proud old favourite though unequal to the combat, disdained37 to fly; and the fierce bull-dog would presently have demolished38 him, had not Edgar, recovering all his vigour39 from his earnest desire to rescue an animal so dear to Sir Hugh, armed himself with the baronet’s stick, and thrust it dexterously40 across the jaws41 of this intended antagonist42.
Nothing, however, could withstand the fangs43 of the bull-dog; they soon severed44 it, and, again, he made at the spaniel; but Edgar rushed between them, with no other weapons than the broken fragments of the stick: and, while the baronet and Eugenia screamed out to old Rover to return to them, and Lavinia, with more readiness of common sense, exerted the fullest powers of which her gentle voice was capable, to conjure45 the wicked boy to call off his dog, Camilla, who was the last to look round at this scene, only turned about as the incensed46 and disappointed bull-dog, missing his object, aimed at Edgar himself. Roused at once from her, sullen47 calm to the most agonising sensibility, every thing and every body, herself most of all, were forgotten in the sight of his danger; and, with a piercing shriek48, she darted down the bank, and arrived at the tremendous spot, at the same instant that the more useful exhortations49 of Lavinia, had induced the boy to withdraw the fierce animal; who, with all his might, and all his fury, obeyed the weak whistle of a little urchin50 he had been bred to love and respect, for bringing him his daily food.
Camilla perceived not if the danger were impending51, or over; gasping52, pale, and agitated53, she caught Mandlebert by the arm, and, in broken accents, half pronounced, ‘O Edgar!... are you hurt?’
The revulsion that had operated in her mind took now its ample turn in that of Mandlebert; he could hardly trust his senses, hardly believe he existed; yet he felt the pressure of her hand upon his arm, and saw in her countenance54 terror the most undisguised, and tenderness that went straight to his soul. ‘Is it Camilla,’ he cried, ‘who thus speaks to me?... Is not my safety or my destruction alike indifferent to Camilla?’
‘O no! O no!’ cried she, scarce conscious she answered at all till called to recollection by his own changed looks; changed from incredulity and amazement55 to animation56 that lightened up every feature, to eyes that shot fire. Abashed57, astonished, ashamed, she precipitately58 drew away her hand, and sought quietly to retire.
But Edgar was no longer master of himself; he conceived he was on a pinnacle59, whence he could only, and without any gradation, turn to happiness or despair. He followed her, trembling and uncertain, his joy fading into alarm at her retreat, his hope transforming into apprehension at her resumed coldness of demeanor60. ‘Do you repent,’ he cried, ‘that you have shewn me a little humanity?... will the Major... the happy Major!.. be offended you do less than detest61 me?’
‘The Major!’ repeated she, looking back, surprised, ‘can you think the Major has any influence with me?’
‘Ah, Heaven!’ he cried, ‘what do you say!’
Enchanted62, affrighted, bewildered, yet silent, she hurried on; Edgar could not forget himself more than a moment; he forbore, therefore, to follow, and, though with a self-denial next to torture, returned to Sir Hugh, to whom his arm was doubly necessary, from the scene he had just witnessed, and the loss of his stick.
The butcher’s boy and his bull-dog were decamped; and the baronet and Eugenia were rivalling each other in fondling the rescued spaniel, and in pouring thanks and praise unlimited63 upon Edgar.
They then walked back as before; and, as soon as they re-entered the mansion64, the female party went upstairs, and Sir Hugh, warmly shaking Edgar by the hand, said: ‘My dear Mr. Edgar, this is one of the happiest days of my life, except just that of my nephew’s coming over, which it is but right to put before it. But here, first, my dear Camilla’s refused that young Captain, who would have carried her the Lord knows where, immediately, as I make no doubt; and next, I’ve saved the life of my poor old Rover, by the means of your good-nature.’
‘Refused?’ cried Edgar; ‘my dear Sir Hugh!-did you say refused?’
Sir Hugh innocently gratified him with the repetition of the word, but begged him not to mention it, ‘For fear,’ he said, ‘it should hurt the young man when he falls in love somewhere else; which I heartily65 hope he will do soon, poor gentleman! for the sake of its not fretting66 him.’
‘Miss Camilla, then, has refused him?’ again repeated Edgar, with a countenance that, to any man but the baronet, must have betrayed his whole soul.
‘Yes, poor gentleman! this very morning; for which I am thankful enough: for what do we know of those young officers, who may all be sent to the East Indies, or Jamaica, every day of their lives? Not but what I have the proper pity for him, which, I hope, is all that can be expected.’
Edgar walked about the room, in a perturbation of hope, fear, and joy, that disabled him from all further appearance of attention. He wished to relate this transaction to Dr. Marchmont, yet dreaded67 any retarding68 advice; he languished69 to make Camilla herself the sole mistress of his destiny: the interest she had shewn for his safety seemed to admit but one interpretation70; and, finally, he resolved to stay at Cleves till he could meet with her alone.
Camilla had not uttered a word after the adventure of the bull-dog. The smallest idea that she could excite the least emotion in, Edgar, brought a secret rapture71 to her heart, that, at any former period, would alone have sufficed to render her happy: but, at this instant of entanglement72 with another, she revolted from the indulgence of such pleasure; and instead of dwelling73, as she would have done before, on the look, the accent, the manner, that were susceptible74, by any construction, of partiality, she checked every idea that did not represent Edgar as unstable75 and consistent; and sought with all her power, to regard him as Mrs. Arlbery had painted him, and to believe him, except in a few casual moments of caprice, insensible and hard of heart.
Yet this entanglement, in which, scarce knowing how, she now seemed to be entwined with Sir Sedley, grew more and more terrific; and when she considered that her sisters themselves thought her independence gone, and her honour engaged, she was seized with so much wonderment, how it had all been brought about, that her understanding seemed to play her false, and she believed the whole a dream.
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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lameness
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| n. 跛, 瘸, 残废 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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tribulation
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| n.苦难，灾难 | |
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galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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spoke
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| 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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delusive
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| adj.欺骗的，妄想的 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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dexterously
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| adv.巧妙地，敏捷地 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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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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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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exhortations
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| n.敦促( exhortation的名词复数 )；极力推荐；（正式的）演讲；（宗教仪式中的）劝诫 | |
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urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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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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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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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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57
abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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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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retarding
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| 使减速( retard的现在分词 )； 妨碍； 阻止； 推迟 | |
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languished
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| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
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interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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entanglement
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| n.纠缠，牵累 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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