As the candles burn blue and the air smells of brimstone at the approach of the Evil One, so, in the quiet and healthy air of Golden Friars, a depressing and agitating1 influence announced the coming of the long-absent Baronet.
From abroad, no good whatever had been at any time heard of him, and a great deal that was, in the ears of simple folk living in that unsophisticated part of the world, vaguely2 awful.
Stories that travel so far, however, lose something of their authority, as well as definiteness, on the way; there was always room for charity to suggest a mistake or exaggeration; and if good men turned up their hands and eyes after a new story, and ladies of experience, who knew mankind, held their heads high and looked grim and mysterious at mention of his name, nevertheless an interval3 of silence softened4 matters a little, and the sulphureous perfume dissipated itself in time.
Now that Sir Bale Mardykes had arrived at the Hall, there were hurried consultations5 held in many households. And though he was tried and sentenced by drum-head over some austere6 hearths7, as a rule the law of gravitation prevailed, and the greater house drew the lesser8 about it, and county people within the visiting radius10 paid their respects at the Hall.
The Reverend Martin Bedel, the then vicar of Golden Friars, a stout11 short man, with a mulberry-coloured face and small gray eyes, and taciturn habits, called and entered the drawing-room at Mardykes Hall, with his fat and garrulous12 wife on his arm.
The drawing-room has a great projecting Tudor window looking out on the lake, with its magnificent background of furrowed13 and purple mountains.
Sir Bale was not there, and Mrs. Bedel examined the pictures, and ornaments14, and the books, making such remarks as she saw fit; and then she looked out of the window, and admired the prospect15. She wished to stand well with the Baronet, and was in a mood to praise everything.
You may suppose she was curious to see him, having heard for years such strange tales of his doings.
She expected the hero of a brilliant and wicked romance; and listened for the step of the truant16 Lovelace who was to fulfil her idea of manly17 beauty and fascination18.
She sustained a slight shock when he did appear.
Sir Bale Mardykes was, as she might easily have remembered, a middle-aged19 man — and he looked it. He was not even an imposing-looking man for his time of life: he was of about the middle height, slightly made, and dark featured. She had expected something of the gaiety and animation20 of Versailles, and an evident cultivation21 of the art of pleasing. What she did see was a remarkable22 gravity, not to say gloom, of countenance23 — the only feature of which that struck her being a pair of large dark-gray eyes, that were cold and earnest. His manners had the ease of perfect confidence; and his talk and air were those of a person who might have known how to please, if it were worth the trouble, but who did not care twopence whether he pleased or not.
He made them each a bow, courtly enough, but there was no smile — not even an affectation of cordiality. Sir Bale, however, was chatty, and did not seem to care much what he said, or what people thought of him; and there was a suspicion of sarcasm24 in what he said that the rustic25 literality of good Mrs. Bedel did not always detect.
“I believe I have not a clergyman but you, sir, within any reasonable distance?”
“Golden Friars is the nearest,” said Mrs. Bedel, answering, as was her pleasure on all practicable occasions, for her husband. “And southwards, the nearest is Wyllarden — and by a bird’s flight that is thirteen miles and a half, and by the road more than nineteen — twenty, I may say, by the road. Ha, ha, ha! it is a long way to look for a clergyman.”
“Twenty miles of road to carry you thirteen miles across, hey? The road-makers lead you a pretty dance here; those gentlemen know how to make money, and like to show people the scenery from a variety of points. No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or who, when he travels, is brute26 enough to wish to get to his journey’s end.”
“That is so true, Sir Bale; one never cares if one is not in a hurry. That’s what Martin thinks — don’t we, Martin?— And then, you know, coming home is the time you are in a hurry — when you are thinking of your cup of tea and the children; and then, you know, you have the fall of the ground all in your favour.”
“It’s well to have anything in your favour in this place. And so there are children?”
“A good many,” said Mrs. Bedel, with a proud and mysterious smile, and a nod; “you wouldn’t guess how many.”
“Not I; I only wonder you did not bring them all.”
“That’s very good-natured of you, Sir Bale, but all could not come at one bout9; there are — tell him, Martin — ha, ha, ha! there are eleven.”
“It must be very cheerful down at the vicarage,” said Sir Bale graciously; and turning to the vicar he added, “But how unequally blessings27 are divided! You have eleven, and I not one — that I’m aware of.”
“And then, in that direction straight before you, you have the lake, and then the fells; and five miles from the foot of the mountain at the other side, before you reach Fottrell — and that is twenty-five miles by the road ——”
“Dear me! how far apart they are set! My gardener told me this morning that asparagus grows very thinly in this part of the world. How thinly clergymen grow also down here — in one sense,” he added politely, for the vicar was stout.
“We were looking out of the window — we amused ourselves that way before you came — and your view is certainly the very best anywhere round this side; your view of the lake and the fells — what mountains they are, Sir Bale!”
“‘Pon my soul, they are! I wish I could blow them asunder28 with a charge of duck-shot, and I shouldn’t be stifled29 by them long. But I suppose, as we can’t get rid of them, the next best thing is to admire them. We are pretty well married to them, and there is no use in quarrelling.”
“I know you don’t think so, Sir Bale, ha, ha, ha! You wouldn’t take a good deal and spoil Mardykes Hall.”
“You can’t get a mouthful or air, or see the sun of a morning, for those frightful30 mountains,” he said with a peevish31 frown at them.
“Well, the lake at all events — that you must admire, Sir Bale?”
“No ma’am, I don’t admire the lake. I’d drain the lake if I could — I hate the lake. There’s nothing so gloomy as a lake pent up among barren mountains. I can’t conceive what possessed32 my people to build our house down here, at the edge of a lake; unless it was the fish, and precious fish it is — pike! I don’t know how people digest it — I can’t. I’d as soon think of eating a watchman’s pike.”
“I thought that having travelled so much abroad, you would have acquired a great liking33 for that kind of scenery, Sir Bale; there is a great deal of it on the Continent, ain’t there?” said Mrs. Bedel. “And the boating.”
“Boating, my dear Mrs. Bedel, is the dullest of all things; don’t you think so? Because a boat looks very pretty from the shore, we fancy the shore must look very pretty from a boat; and when we try it, we find we have only got down into a pit and can see nothing rightly. For my part I hate boating, and I hate the water; and I’d rather have my house, like Haworth, at the edge of a moss34, with good wholesome35 peat to look at, and an open horizon — savage36 and stupid and bleak37 as all that is — than be suffocated38 among impassable mountains, or upset in a black lake and drowned like a kitten. O, there’s luncheon39 in the next room; won’t you take some?”
收听单词发音 |
1
agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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3
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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4
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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5
consultations
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| n.磋商（会议）( consultation的名词复数 )；商讨会；协商会；查找 | |
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6
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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hearths
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| 壁炉前的地板，炉床，壁炉边( hearth的名词复数 ) | |
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8
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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12
garrulous
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| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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13
furrowed
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| v.犁田，开沟( furrow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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truant
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| n.懒惰鬼，旷课者；adj.偷懒的，旷课的，游荡的；v.偷懒，旷课 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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20
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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21
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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22
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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23
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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24
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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26
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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28
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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29
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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30
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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31
peevish
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| adj.易怒的，坏脾气的 | |
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32
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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33
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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34
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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36
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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37
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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38
suffocated
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| （使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气 | |
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39
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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