You imagine them fleeing through our complex and difficult social system as it were for life, first on foot and severally to the Folkestone Central Station, then in a first-class carriage, with Kipps’ bag as sole chaperon to Charing1 Cross, and then in a four-wheeler, a long, rumbling2, palpitating, slow flight through the multitudinous swarming3 London streets to Sid. Kipps kept peeping out of the window. ‘It’s the next corner after this, I believe,’ he would say. For he had a sort of feeling that at Sid’s he would be immune from the hottest pursuit. He paid the cabman in a manner adequate to the occasion, and turned to his prospective4 brother-inlaw. ‘Me and Ann,’ he said, ‘we’re going to marry.’
‘But I thought —’ began Sid.
Kipps motioned him towards explanations in the shop.
‘It’s no good my arguing with you,’ said Sid, smiling delightedly as the case unfolded. ‘You done it now.’ And Masterman, being apprised5 of the nature of the affair, descended6 slowly in a state of flushed congratulation.
‘I thought you might find the Higher Life a bit difficult,’ said Masterman, projecting a bony hand. ‘But I never thought you’d have the originality7 to clear out . . . Won’t the young lady of the superior classes swear! Never mind — it doesn’t matter anyhow.
‘You were starting a climb,’ he said at dinner, ‘that doesn’t lead anywhere. You would have clambered from one refinement9 of vulgarity to another, and never got to any satisfactory top. There isn’t a top. It’s a squirrel’s cage. Things are out of joint10, and the only top there is in a lot of blazing card-playing women and betting men, seasoned with archbishops and officials and all that sort of glossy11 pandering12 Tosh . . . You’d have hung on, a disconsolate13, dismal14 little figure somewhere up the ladder, far below even the motor-car class, while your wife larked15 about, or fretted17 because she wasn’t a bit higher than she was . . . I found it all out long ago. I’ve seen women of that sort. And I don’t climb any more.’
‘I often thought about what you said last time I saw you,’ said Kipps.
‘I wonder what I said,’ said Masterman, in parenthesis18. ‘Anyhow, you’re doing the right and sane19 thing, and that’s a rare spectacle. You’re going to marry your equal, and you’re going to take your own line, quite independently of what people up there, or people down there, think you ought or ought not to do. That’s about the only course one can take nowadays, with everything getting more muddled20 and upside down every day. Make your own little world and your own house first of all; keep that right side up whatever you do, and marry your mate . . . That, I suppose, it what I should do —— if I had a mate . . . But people of my sort, luckily for the world, don’t get made in pairs. No!
‘Besides — However —’ And abruptly22, taking advantage of an interruption by Master Walt, he lapsed23 into thought.
Presently he came out of his musings. ‘After all,’ he said, ‘there’s Hope.’
‘What about?’ said Sid.
‘Everything,’ said Masterman.
‘Where there’s life there’s hope,’ said Mrs. Sid. ‘But none of you aren’t eating anything like you ought to.’ Masterman lifted his glass.
‘Here’s to Hope!’ he said, ‘the Light of the World!’
Sid beamed at Kipps, as who should say, ‘You don’t meet a character like this every dinner-time.’
‘Here’s to Hope!’ repeated Masterman. The best thing one can have. Hope of life — Yes.’
He imposed his moment of magnificent self-pity on them all. Even young Walt was impressed.
2
They spent the days before their marriage in a number of agreeable excursions together. One day they went to Kew by steamboat, and admired the house full of paintings of flowers extremely; and one day they went early to have a good long day at the Crystal Palace, and enjoyed themselves very much indeed. They got there so early that nothing was open inside; all the stalls were wrappered up, and all the minor24 exhibitions locked and barred. They seemed the minutest creatures even to themselves in that enormous empty aisle25, and their echoing footsteps indecently loud. They contemplated26 realistic groups of plaster savages27, and Ann thought they’d be queer people to have about. She was glad there were none in this country. They meditated28 upon replicas29 of classical statuary without excessive comment. Kipps said, at large, it must have been a queer world then; but Ann very properly doubted if they really went about like that. But the place at that early hour was really lonely. One began to fancy things. So they went out into the October sunshine of the mighty30 terraces, and wandered amidst miles of stucco tanks, and about those quite Gargantuan31 grounds. A great gray emptiness it was, and it seemed marvellous to them, but not nearly so marvellous as it might have seemed. ‘I never see a finer place, never,’ said Kipps, turning to survey the entirety of the enormous glass front with Paxton’s vast image in the centre.
‘What it must ‘ave cost to build!’ said Ann, and left her sentence eloquently32 incomplete.
Presently they came to a region of caves and waterways, and amidst these waterways strange reminders33 of the possibilities of the Creator. They passed under an arch made of a whale’s jaws34, and discovered amidst herbage, browsing35 or standing36 unoccupied and staring as if amazed at themselves, huge effigies37 of iguanodons, and deinotheria, and mastodons and such-like cattle gloriously done in green and gold.
‘They got everything,’ said Kipps. ‘Earl’s Court isn’t a patch on it.’
His mind was very greatly exercised by these monsters, and he hovered38 about them and returned to them. ‘You’d wonder ‘ow they ever got enough to eat,’ he said several times.
3
It was later in the day, and upon a seat in the presence of the green and gold Labyrinthodon that looms39 so splendidly above the lake, that the Kippses fell into talk about their future. They had made a sufficient lunch in the palace, they had seen pictures and no end of remarkable40 things, and that and the amber8 sunlight made a mood for them, quiet and philosophical41 — a haven42 mood. Kipps broke a contemplative silence with an abrupt21 allusion43 to one principal preoccupation. ‘I shall offer an ‘pology, and I shall offer ‘er brother damages. If she likes to bring an action for Breach44 after that, well — I done all I can . . . They can’t get much out of reading my letters in court, because I didn’t write none. I dessay a thousan’ or two’ll settle all that, anyhow. I ain’t much worried about that. That don’t worry me very much, Ann — No.’
And then, ‘It’s a lark16 our marrying.
‘It’s curious ‘ow things come about. If I ‘adn’t run against you, where should I ‘ave been now — eh? . . . Even after we met I didn’t seem to see it like — not marrying you, I mean — until that night I came. I didn’t — reely.’
‘I didn’t neither,’ said Ann, with thoughtful eyes on the water.
For a time Kipps’ mind was occupied by the prettiness of her thinking face. A faint tremulous network of lights, reflected, from the ripples45 of a passing duck, played subtly over her cheek and faded away.
Ann reflected. ‘I s’pose things ‘ad to be,’ she said.
Kipps mused46. ‘It’s curious ‘ow over I got on to be engaged to ‘er.’
‘She wasn’t suited to you,’ said Ann.
‘Suited? No fear! That’s jest it. ‘Ow did it come about?’
‘I expect she led you on,’ said Ann.
Kipps was half minded to assent47. Then he had a twinge of conscience. ‘It wasn’t that, Ann,’ he said. ‘It’s curious. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t that. I don’t recollect48 . . . No . . . Life’s jolly rum; that’s one thing, any’ow. And I suppose I’m a rum sort of feller. I get excited sometimes, and then I don’t seem to care what I do. That’s about what it was reely. Still —’
They meditated, Kipps with his arms folded and pulling at his scanty49 moustache. Presently a faint smile came over his face.
‘We’ll get a nice little ’ouse out ‘Ithe way.’
‘It’s ‘omelier than Folkestone,’ said Ann.
‘Jest a nice little ’ouse,’ said Kipps. ‘There’s Hughenden, of course. But that’s let. Besides being miles too big. And I wouldn’t live in Folkestone again some’ow — not for anything.’
‘I’d like to ‘ave a ’ouse of my own,’ said Ann. ‘I’ve often thought, being in service, ‘ow much I’d like to manage a ’ouse of my own.’
‘You’d know all about what the servants was up to, anyhow,’ said Kipps, amused. ‘Servants! We don’t want no servants,’ said Ann, startled.
‘You’ll ‘ave to ‘ave a servant,’ said Kipps. ‘If it’s only to do the ‘eavy work of the ’ouse.’
‘What! and not be able ‘ardly to go into my own kitchen?’ said Ann.
‘You ought to ‘ave a servant,’ said Kipps.
‘One could easy ‘ave a woman in for anything that’s ‘eavy,’ said Ann. ‘Besides — If I ‘ad one of the girls one sees about nowadays, I should want to be taking the broom out of er ‘and and do it all over myself. I’d manage better without ‘er.’
‘We ought to ‘ave one servant, anyhow,’ said Kipps, ‘else ‘ow should we manage if we wanted to go out together or anything like that?’
‘I might get a young girl,’ said Ann, ‘and bring ‘er up in my own way.’ Kipps left the matter at that and came back to the house.
‘There’s little ‘ouses going into Hythe just the sort we want, not too big and not too small. We’ll ‘ave a kitching and a dining-room and a little room to sit in of a night.’
‘I mustn’t be a ’ouse with a basement,’ said Ann. ‘What’s a basement?’
‘It’s a downstairs, where there’s not ‘arf enough light and everything got to be carried — up and down, up and down, all day — coals and everything. And it’s got to ‘ave a water-tap and sink and things upstairs. You’d ‘ardly believe, Artie, if you ‘adn’t been in service, ‘ow cruel and silly some ‘ouses are built — you’d think they ‘ad a spite against servants the way the stairs are made.’
‘We won’t ‘ave one of that sort,’ said Kipps . . . ‘We’ll ‘ave a quiet little life. Now go out a bit — now come ‘ome again. Read a book, perhaps, if we got nothing else to do. ‘Ave old Buggins in for an evening at times. ‘Ave Sid down. There’s bicycles —’
‘I don’t fancy myself on a bicycle,’ said Ann.
‘‘Ave a trailer,’ said Kipps, ‘and sit like a lady. I’d take you out to New Romney easy as anything, jest to see the old people.’
‘I wouldn’t mind that,’ said Ann.
‘We’ll jest ‘ave a sensible little ’ouse, and sensible things. No art or anything of that sort, nothing stuck-up or anything, but jest sensible. We’ll be as right as anything, Ann.’
‘No Socialism,’ said Ann, starting a lurking50 doubt.
‘No Socialism,’ said Kipps, ‘just sensible — that’s all.’
‘I dessay it’s all right for them that understand it, Artie, but I don’t agree with this Socialism.’
‘I don’t neither, reely,’ said Kipps. ‘I can’t argue about it, but it don’t seem real like to me. All the same, Masterman’s a clever fellow, Ann.’
‘I didn’t like ’im at first, Artie, but I do now — in a way. You don’t understand ’im all at once.’
‘‘E’s so clever,’ said Kipps. ‘‘Arf the time I can’t make out what ‘e’s up to. ‘E’s the cleverest chap I ever met. I never ‘eard such talking. ‘E ought to write a book . . . It’s rum world, Ann, when a chap like that isn’t ‘ardly able to earn a living.’
‘It’s ‘is ‘ealth,’ said Ann.
‘I expect it is,’ said Kipps, and ceased to talk for a little while. ‘We shall be ‘appy in that little ’ouse, Ann, don’t y’ think?’ She met his eyes and nodded.
‘I seem to see it,’ said Kipps, ‘sort of cosy51 like. ‘Bout tea-time and muffins, kettle on the ‘ob, cat on the ‘earthrug — we must ‘ave a cat, Ann — and you there. Eh?’
They regarded each other with appreciative52 eyes, and Kipps became irrelevant53.
‘I don’t believe, Ann,’ he said, ‘I ‘aven’t kissed you not for ‘arf an hour. Leastways, not since we was in those caves.’ For kissing had already ceased to be a matter of thrilling adventure for them.
Ann shook her head. ‘You be sensible and go on talking about Mr. Masterman,’ she said . . .
But Kipps had wandered to something else. ‘I like the way your ‘air turns back jest there,’ he said, with an indicative finger. ‘It was like that, I remember, when you was a girl. Sort of wavy54. I’ve often thought of it . . . ‘Member when we raced that time — out be’ind the church?’
Then for a time they sat idly, each following out agreeable meditations55. ‘It’s rum,’ said Kipps.
‘What’s rum?’
‘‘Ow everything’s ‘appened,’ said Kipps. ‘Who’d ‘ave thought of our being ’ere like this six weeks ago? . . . Who’d ‘ave thought of my ever ‘aving any money?’
His eyes went to the big Labyrinthodon. He looked first carelessly and then suddenly with a growing interest in its vast face. ‘I’m deshed,’ he murmured. Ann became interested. He laid a hand on her arm and pointed56. Ann scrutinised the Labyrinthodon, and then came round to Kipps’ face in mute interrogation.
‘Don’t you see it?’ said Kipps. ‘See what?’ . . .
‘‘E’s jest like old Coote.’
‘It’s extinct,’ said Ann, not clearly apprehending57. ‘I dessay ‘e is. But ‘e’s jest like Old Coote, all the same for that.’
Kipps meditated on the monstrous58 shapes in sight. ‘I wonder ‘ow all these old antediluvium animals got extinct,’ he asked. ‘No one couldn’t possibly ‘ave killed ’em.’
‘Why, I know that!’ said Ann. ‘They was overtook by the Flood . . . ’
Kipps meditated for a while. ‘But I thought they had to take two of everything there was —’
‘Within reason they ‘ad,’ said Ann . . .
The Kippses left it at that.
The great green and gold Labyrinthodon took no notice of their conversation. It gazed with its wonderful eyes over their heads into the infinite — inflexibly59 calm. It might, indeed, have been Coote himself there, Coote the unassuming, cutting them dead.
There was something about its serenity60 that suggested patience, suggested the indifference61 of a power that waits. In the end this quality, dimly apprehended62, made the Kippses uneasy, and after a while they got up, and glancing backward, went their way.
4
And in due course these two simple souls married, and Venus Urania, the Goddess of Wedded63 Love, who is indeed a very great and noble and kindly64 goddess, bent65 down and blessed their union.
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1
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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2
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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3
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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4
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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12
pandering
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| v.迎合（他人的低级趣味或淫欲）( pander的现在分词 )；纵容某人；迁就某事物 | |
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13
disconsolate
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| adj.忧郁的，不快的 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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15
larked
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| v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的过去式和过去分词 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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17
fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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parenthesis
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| n.圆括号，插入语，插曲，间歇，停歇 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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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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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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replicas
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| n.复制品( replica的名词复数 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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gargantuan
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| adj.巨大的，庞大的 | |
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eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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reminders
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| n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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browsing
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| v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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effigies
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| n.（人的）雕像，模拟像，肖像( effigy的名词复数 ) | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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39
looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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40
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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42
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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43
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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44
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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45
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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46
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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47
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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48
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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49
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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50
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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51
cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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52
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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53
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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54
wavy
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| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
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55
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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apprehending
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的现在分词 )； 理解 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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inflexibly
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| adv.不屈曲地，不屈地 | |
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60
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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61
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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62
apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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63
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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65
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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