The bell strikes one. We take no note of time
But from its loss. To give it then a tongue
Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke1,
I feel the solemn sound.
Young.
The moral which the poet has rather quaintly2 deduced from the necessary mode of measuring time may be well applied3 to our feelings respecting that portion of it which constitutes human life. We observe the aged4, the infirm, and those engaged in occupations of immediate5 hazard, trembling as it were upon the very brink6 of non-existence, but we derive7 no lesson from the precariousness8 of their tenure9 until it has altogether failed. Then, for a moment at least —
Our hopes and fears Start up alarm’d, and o’er life’s narrow verge10
Look down — on what? a fathomless11 abyss, A dark eternity12, how surely
ours!
The crowd of assembled gazers and idlers at Ellangowan had followed the views of amusement, or what they called business, which brought them there, with little regard to the feelings of those who were suffering upon that occasion. Few, indeed, knew anything of the family. The father, betwixt seclusion13, misfortune, and imbecility, had drifted, as it were, for many years out of the notice of his contemporaries; the daughter had never been known to them. But when the general murmur14 announced that the unfortunate Mr. Bertram had broken his heart in the effort to leave the mansion15 of his forefathers16, there poured forth17 a torrent18 of sympathy like the waters from the rock when stricken by the wand of the prophet. The ancient descent and unblemished integrity of the family were respectfully remembered; above all, the sacred veneration19 due to misfortune, which in Scotland seldom demands its tribute in vain, then claimed and received it.
Mr. Mac-Morlan hastily announced that he would suspend all farther proceedings20 in the sale of the estate and other property, and relinquish21 the possession of the premises22 to the young lady, until she could consult with her friends and provide for the burial of her father.
Glossin had cowered23 for a few minutes under the general expression of sympathy, till, hardened by observing that no appearance of popular indignation was directed his way, he had the audacity24 to require that the sale should proceed.
‘I will take it upon my own authority to adjourn25 it,’ said the Sheriff-substitute, ‘and will be responsible for the consequences. I will also give due notice when it is again to go forward. It is for the benefit of all concerned that the lands should bring the highest price the state of the market will admit, and this is surely no time to expect it. I will take the responsibility upon myself.’
Glossin left the room and the house too with secrecy26 and despatch27; and it was probably well for him that he did so, since our friend Jock Jabos was already haranguing28 a numerous tribe of bare-legged boys on the propriety29 of pelting30 him off the estate.
Some of the rooms were hastily put in order for the reception of the young lady, and of her father’s dead body. Mannering now found his farther interference would be unnecessary, and might be misconstrued. He observed, too, that several families connected with that of Ellangowan, and who indeed derived31 their principal claim of gentility from the alliance, were now disposed to pay to their trees of genealogy32 a tribute which the adversity of their supposed relatives had been inadequate33 to call forth; and that the honour of superintending the funeral rites34 of the dead Godfrey Bertram (as in the memorable35 case of Homer’s birthplace) was likely to be debated by seven gentlemen of rank and fortune, none of whom had offered him an asylum36 while living. He therefore resolved, as his presence was altogether useless, to make a short tour of a fortnight, at the end of which period the adjourned37 sale of the estate of Ellangowan was to proceed.
But before he departed he solicited38 an interview with the Dominie. The poor man appeared, on being informed a gentleman wanted to speak to him, with some expression of surprise in his gaunt features, to which recent sorrow had given an expression yet more grisly. He made two or three profound reverences39 to Mannering, and then, standing40 erect41, patiently waited an explanation of his commands.
‘You are probably at a loss to guess, Mr. Sampson,’ said Mannering, ‘what a stranger may have to say to you?’
‘Unless it were to request that I would undertake to train up some youth in polite letters and humane42 learning; but I cannot — I cannot; I have yet a task to perform.’
‘No, Mr. Sampson, my wishes are not so ambitious. I have no son, and my only daughter, I presume, you would not consider as a fit pupil.’
‘Of a surety no,’ replied the simple-minded Sampson. ‘Nathless, it was I who did educate Miss Lucy in all useful learning, albeit43 it was the housekeeper44 who did teach her those unprofitable exercises of hemming45 and shaping.’
‘Well, sir,’ replied Mannering, ‘it is of Miss Lucy I meant to speak. You have, I presume, no recollection of me?’
Sampson, always sufficiently46 absent in mind, neither remembered the astrologer of past years, nor even the stranger who had taken his patron’s part against Glossin, so much had his friend’s sudden death embroiled47 his ideas.
‘Well, that does not signify,’ pursued the Colonel; ‘I am an old acquaintance of the late Mr. Bertram, able and willing to assist his daughter in her present circumstances. Besides, I have thoughts of making this purchase, and I should wish things kept in order about the place; will you have the goodness to apply this small sum in the usual family expenses?’ He put into the Dominie’s hand a purse containing some gold.
‘Pro-di-gi-ous!’ exclaimed Dominie Sampson. ‘But if your honour would tarry — ’
‘Impossible, sir, impossible,’ said Mannering, making his escape from him.
‘Pro-di-gi-ous!’ again exclaimed Sampson, following to the head of the stairs, still holding out the purse. ‘But as touching48 this coined money — ’
Mannering escaped downstairs as fast as possible.
‘Pro-di-gi-ous!’ exclaimed Dominie Sampson, yet the third time, now standing at the front door. ‘But as touching this specie — ’
But Mannering was now on horseback, and out of hearing. The Dominie, who had never, either in his own right or as trustee for another, been possessed49 of a quarter part of this sum, though it was not above twenty guineas, ‘took counsel,’ as he expressed himself, ‘how he should demean himself with respect unto the fine gold’ thus left in his charge. Fortunately he found a disinterested50 adviser51 in Mac-Morlan, who pointed52 out the most proper means of disposing of it for contributing to Miss Bertram’s convenience, being no doubt the purpose to which it was destined53 by the bestower.
Many of the neighbouring gentry54 were now sincerely eager in pressing offers of hospitality and kindness upon Miss Bertram. But she felt a natural reluctance55 to enter any family for the first time as an object rather of benevolence56 than hospitality, and determined57 to wait the opinion and advice of her father’s nearest female relation, Mrs. Margaret Bertram of Singleside, an old unmarried lady, to whom she wrote an account of her present distressful58 situation.
The funeral of the late Mr. Bertram was performed with decent privacy, and the unfortunate young lady was now to consider herself as but the temporary tenant59 of the house in which she had been born, and where her patience and soothing60 attentions had so long ‘rocked the cradle of declining age.’ Her communication with Mr. Mac-Morlan encouraged her to hope that she would not be suddenly or unkindly deprived of this asylum; but fortune had ordered otherwise.
For two days before the appointed day for the sale of the lands and estate of Ellangowan, Mac-Morlan daily expected the appearance of Colonel Mannering, or at least a letter containing powers to act for him. But none such arrived. Mr. Mac-Morlan waked early in the morning, walked over to the Post-office, — there were no letters for him. He endeavoured to persuade himself that he should see Colonel Mannering to breakfast, and ordered his wife to place her best china and prepare herself accordingly. But the preparations were in vain. ‘Could I have foreseen this,’ he said, ‘I would have travelled Scotland over, but I would have found some one to bid against Glossin.’ Alas61! such reflections were all too late. The appointed hour arrived; and the parties met in the Masons’ Lodge62 at Kippletringan, being the place fixed63 for the adjourned sale. Mac-Morlan spent as much time in preliminaries as decency64 would permit, and read over the articles of sale as slowly as if he had been reading his own death-warrant. He turned his eye every time the door of the room opened, with hopes which grew fainter and fainter. He listened to every noise in the street of the village, and endeavoured to distinguish in it the sound of hoofs65 or wheels. It was all in vain. A bright idea then occurred, that Colonel Mannering might have employed some other person in the transaction; he would not have wasted a moment’s thought upon the want of confidence in himself which such a manoeuvre66 would have evinced. But this hope also was groundless. After a solemn pause, Mr. Glossin offered the upset price for the lands and barony of Ellangowan. No reply was made, and no competitor appeared; so, after a lapse67 of the usual interval68 by the running of a sand-glass, upon the intended purchaser entering the proper sureties, Mr. Mac-Morlan was obliged, in technical terms, to ‘find and declare the sale lawfully69 completed, and to prefer the said Gilbert Glossin as the purchaser of the said lands and estate.’ The honest writer refused to partake of a splendid entertainment with which Gilbert Glossin, Esquire, now of Ellangowan, treated the rest of the company, and returned home in huge bitterness of spirit, which he vented71 in complaints against the fickleness72 and caprice of these Indian nabobs, who never knew what they would be at for ten days together. Fortune generously determined to take the blame upon herself, and cut off even this vent70 of Mac-Morlan’s resentment73.
An express arrived about six o’clock at night, ‘very particularly drunk,’ the maid-servant said, with a packet from Colonel Mannering, dated four days back, at a town about a hundred miles’ distance from Kippletringan, containing full powers to Mr. Mac — Morlan, or any one whom he might employ, to make the intended purchase, and stating that some family business of consequence called the Colonel himself to Westmoreland, where a letter would find him, addressed to the care of Arthur Mervyn, Esq., of Mervyn Hall.
Mac-Morlan, in the transports of his wrath74, flung the power of attorney at the head of the innocent maidservant, and was only forcibly withheld75 from horse-whipping the rascally76 messenger by whose sloth77 and drunkenness the disappointment had taken place.
1 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: |
|
|
2 quaintly | |
adv.古怪离奇地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 brink | |
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 derive | |
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 precariousness | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 tenure | |
n.终身职位;任期;(土地)保有权,保有期 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 fathomless | |
a.深不可测的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 seclusion | |
n.隐遁,隔离 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 forefathers | |
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 veneration | |
n.尊敬,崇拜 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 relinquish | |
v.放弃,撤回,让与,放手 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 premises | |
n.建筑物,房屋 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 cowered | |
v.畏缩,抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 audacity | |
n.大胆,卤莽,无礼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 adjourn | |
v.(使)休会,(使)休庭 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 secrecy | |
n.秘密,保密,隐蔽 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 haranguing | |
v.高谈阔论( harangue的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 propriety | |
n.正当行为;正当;适当 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 pelting | |
微不足道的,无价值的,盛怒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 genealogy | |
n.家系,宗谱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 inadequate | |
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 rites | |
仪式,典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 memorable | |
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 asylum | |
n.避难所,庇护所,避难 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 adjourned | |
(使)休会, (使)休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 solicited | |
v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 );(指娼妇)拉客;索求;征求 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 reverences | |
n.尊敬,崇敬( reverence的名词复数 );敬礼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 humane | |
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 albeit | |
conj.即使;纵使;虽然 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 housekeeper | |
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 hemming | |
卷边 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 embroiled | |
adj.卷入的;纠缠不清的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 disinterested | |
adj.不关心的,不感兴趣的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 adviser | |
n.劝告者,顾问 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 gentry | |
n.绅士阶级,上层阶级 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 reluctance | |
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 benevolence | |
n.慈悲,捐助 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 distressful | |
adj.苦难重重的,不幸的,使苦恼的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 tenant | |
n.承租人;房客;佃户;v.租借,租用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 soothing | |
adj.慰藉的;使人宽心的;镇静的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 decency | |
n.体面,得体,合宜,正派,庄重 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 manoeuvre | |
n.策略,调动;v.用策略,调动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 lapse | |
n.过失,流逝,失效,抛弃信仰,间隔;vi.堕落,停止,失效,流逝;vt.使失效 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 lawfully | |
adv.守法地,合法地;合理地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 vent | |
n.通风口,排放口;开衩;vt.表达,发泄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 vented | |
表达,发泄(感情,尤指愤怒)( vent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 fickleness | |
n.易变;无常;浮躁;变化无常 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 resentment | |
n.怨愤,忿恨 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 withheld | |
withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 rascally | |
adj. 无赖的,恶棍的 adv. 无赖地,卑鄙地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 sloth | |
n.[动]树懒;懒惰,懒散 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |