One year exactly after the fatal day of the trial, Mrs. Westerfield (secluded in the sanctuary1 of her bedroom) celebrated2 her release from the obligation of wearing widow’s weeds.
The conventional graduations in the outward expression of grief, which lead from black clothing to gray, formed no part of this afflicted3 lady’s system of mourning. She laid her best blue walking dress and her new bonnet4 to match on the bed, and admired them to her heart’s content. Her discarded garments were left on the floor. “Thank Heaven, I’ve done with you!” she said — and kicked her rusty5 mourning out of the way as she advanced to the fireplace to ring the bell.
“Where is my little boy?” she asked, when the landlady6 entered the room.
“He’s down with me in the kitchen, ma’am; I’m teaching him to make a plum cake for himself. He’s so happy! I hope you don’t want him just now?”
“Not the least in the world. I want you to take care of him while I am away. By-the-by, where’s Syd?”
The elder child (the girl) had been christened Sydney, in compliment to one of her father’s female relatives. The name was not liked by her mother — who had shortened it to Syd, by way of leaving as little of it as possible. With a look at Mrs. Westerfield which expressed ill-concealed aversion, the landlady answered: “She’s up in the lumber7-room, poor child. She says you sent her there to be out of the way.”
“Ah, to be sure, I did.”
“There’s no fireplace in the garret, ma’am. I’m afraid the little girl must be cold and lonely.”
It was useless to plead for Syd — Mrs. Westerfield was not listening. Her attention was absorbed by her own plump and pretty hands. She took a tiny file from the dressing-table, and put a few finishing touches to her nails. “Send me some hot water,” she said; “I want to dress.”
The servant girl who carried the hot water upstairs was new to the ways of the house. After having waited on Mrs. Westerfield, she had been instructed by the kind-hearted landlady to go on to the top floor. “You will find a pretty little girl in the garret, all by herself. Say you are to bring her down to my room, as soon as her mamma has gone out.”
Mrs. Westerfield’s habitual8 neglect of her eldest9 child was known to every person in the house. Even the new servant had heard of it. Interested by what she saw, on opening the garret door, she stopped on the threshold and looked in.
The lumber in the room consisted of two rotten old trunks, a broken chair, and a dirty volume of sermons of the old-fashioned quarto size. The grimy ceiling, slanting10 downward to a cracked window, was stained with rain that had found its way through the roof. The faded wall-paper, loosened by damp, was torn away in some places, and bulged11 loose in others. There were holes in the skirting-board; and from one of them peeped the brightly timid eyes of the child’s only living companion in the garret — a mouse, feeding on crumbs12 which she had saved from her breakfast.
Syd looked up when the mouse darted13 back into its hole, on the opening of the door. “Lizzie! Lizzie!” she said, gravely, “you ought to have come in without making a noise. You have frightened away my youngest child.”
The good-natured servant burst out laughing. “Have you got a large family, miss?” she inquired, humoring the joke.
Syd failed to see the joke. “Only two more,” she answered as gravely as ever — and lifted up from the floor two miserable14 dolls, reduced to the last extremity15 of dirt and dilapidation16. “My two eldest,” this strange child resumed, setting up the dolls against one of the empty trunks. “The eldest is a girl, and her name is Syd. The other is a boy, untidy in his clothes, as you see. Their kind mamma forgives them when they are naughty, and buys ponies17 for them to ride on, and always has something nice for them to eat when they are hungry. Have you got a kind mamma, Lizzie? And are you very fond of her?”
Those innocent allusions18 to the neglect which was the one sad experience of Syd’s young life touched the servant’s heart. A bygone time was present to her memory, when she too had been left without a playfellow to keep her company or a fire to warm her, and she had not endured it patiently.
“Oh, my dear,” she said, “your poor little arms are red with cold. Come to me and let me rub them.”
But Syd’s bright imagination was a better protection against the cold than all the rubbing that the hands of a merciful woman could offer. “You are very kind, Lizzie,” she answered. “I don’t feel the cold when I am playing with my children. I am very careful to give them plenty of exercise, we are going to walk in the Park.”
She gave a hand to each of the dolls, and walked slowly round and round the miserable room, pointing out visionary persons of distinction and objects of interest. “Here’s the queen, my dears, in her gilt19 coach, drawn20 by six horses. Do you see her scepter poking21 out of the carriage window? She governs the nation with that. Bow to the queen. And now look at the beautiful bright water. There’s the island where the ducks live. Ducks are happy creatures. They have their own way in everything, and they’re good to eat when they’re dead. At least they used to be good, when we had nice dinners in papa’s time. I try to amuse the poor little things, Lizzie. Their papa is dead. I’m obliged to be papa and mamma to them, both in one. Do you feel the cold, my dears?” She shivered as she questioned her imaginary children. “Now we are at home again,” she said, and led the dolls to the empty fireplace. “Roaring fires always in my house,” cried the resolute22 little creature, rubbing her hands cheerfully before the bleak23 blank grate.
Warm-hearted Lizzie could control herself no longer.
“If the child would only make some complaint,” she burst out, “it wouldn’t be so dreadful! Oh, what a shame! what a shame!” she cried, to the astonishment24 of little Syd. “Come down, my dear, to the nice warm room where your brother is. Oh, your mother? I don’t care if your mother sees us; I should like to give your mother a piece of my mind. There! I don’t mean to frighten you; I’m one of your bad children — I fly into a passion. You carry the dolls and I’ll carry you. Oh, how she shivers! Give us a kiss.”
Sympathy which expressed itself in this way was new to Syd. Her eyes opened wide in childish wonder — and suddenly closed again in childish terror, when her good friend the servant passed Mrs. Westerfield’s door on the way downstairs. “If mamma bounces out on us,” she whispered, “pretend we don’t see her.” The nice warm room received them in safety. Under no stress of circumstances had Mrs. Westerfield ever been known to dress herself in a hurry. A good half-hour more had passed before the house door was heard to bang — and the pleasant landlady, peeping through the window, said: “There she goes. Now, we’ll enjoy ourselves!”
收听单词发音 |
1
sanctuary
|
|
| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
afflicted
|
|
| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bonnet
|
|
| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
rusty
|
|
| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
landlady
|
|
| n.女房东，女地主 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
lumber
|
|
| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
habitual
|
|
| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
eldest
|
|
| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
slanting
|
|
| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
bulged
|
|
| 凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 )； 充满； 塞满（某物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
crumbs
|
|
| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
extremity
|
|
| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
dilapidation
|
|
| n.倒塌；毁坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
ponies
|
|
| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
allusions
|
|
| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
gilt
|
|
| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
poking
|
|
| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
resolute
|
|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
bleak
|
|
| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |