It chanced that on the very next day after the episode I had occasion to pass that way, and stopped to have another look at the obnoxious2 placard. I was standing3 staring at it and wondering what could have induced our neighbours to take such an outrageous4 step, when I became suddenly aware of a sweet, girlish face which peeped out at me from between the bars of the gate, and of a white hand which eagerly beckoned5 me to approach. As I advanced to her I saw that it was the same young lady whom I had seen in the carriage.
“Mr. West,” she said, in a quick whisper, glancing from side to side as she spoke6 in a nervous, hasty manner, “I wish to apologise to you for the indignity7 to which you and your family were subjected yesterday. My brother was in the avenue and saw it all, but he is powerless to interfere8. I assure you, Mr. West, that if that hateful thing,” pointing up at the placard, “has given you any annoyance9, it has given my brother and myself far more.”
“Why, Miss Heatherstone,” said I, putting the matter off with a laugh, “Britain is a free country, and if a man chooses to warn off visitors from his premises10 there is no reason why he should not.”
“It is nothing less than brutal,” she broke out, with a petulant11 stamp of the foot. “To think that your sister, too, should have such a unprovoked insult offered to her! I am ready to sink with shame at the very thought.”
“Pray do not give yourself one moment’s uneasiness upon the subject,” said I earnestly, for I was grieved at her evident distress12. “I am sure that your father has some reason unknown to us for taking this step.”
“Heaven knows he has!” she answered, with ineffable13 sadness in her voice, “and yet I think it would be more manly14 to face a danger than to fly from it. However, he knows best, and it is impossible for us to judge. But who is this?” she exclaimed, anxiously, peering up the dark avenue. “Oh, it is my brother Mordaunt. Mordaunt,” she said, as the young man approached us. “I have been apologising to Mr. West for what happened yesterday, in your name as well as my own.”
“I am very, very glad to have the opportunity of doing it in person,” said he courteously15. “I only wish that I could see your sister and your father as well as yourself, to tell them how sorry I am. I think you had better run up to the house, little one, for it’s getting near tiffin-time. No — don’t you go Mr. West. I want to have a word with you.”
Miss Heatherstone waved her hand to me with a bright smile, and tripped up the avenue, while her brother unbolted the gate, and, passing through, closed it again, locking it upon the outside.
“I’ll have a stroll down the road with you, if you have no objection. Have a manilla.” He drew a couple of cheroots from his pocket and handed one to me. “You’ll find they are not bad,” he said. “I became a connoisseur16 in tobacco when I was in India. I hope I am not interfering17 with your business in coming along with you?”
“Not at all,” I answered “I am very glad to have your company.”
“I’ll tell you a secret,” said my companion. “This is the first time that I have been outside the grounds since we have been down here.”
“And your sister?”
“She has never been out, either,” he answered. “I have given the governor the slip today, but he wouldn’t half like it if he knew. It’s a whim18 of his that we should keep ourselves entirely19 to ourselves. At least, some people would call it a whim, for my own part I have reason to believe that he has solid grounds for all that he does — though perhaps in this matter he may be a little too exacting20.”
“You must surely find it very lonely,” said I. “Couldn’t you manage to slip down at times and have a smoke with me? That house over yonder is Branksome.”
“Indeed, you are very kind,” he answered, with sparkling eyes. “I should dearly like to run over now and again. With the exception of Israel Stakes, our old coachman and gardener, I have not a soul that I can speak to.”
“And your sister — she must feel it even more,” said I, thinking in my heart that my new acquaintance made rather too much of his own troubles and too little of those of his companion.
“Yes; poor Gabriel feels it, no doubt,” he answered carelessly, “but it’s a more unnatural21 thing for a young man of my age to be cooped up in this way than for a woman. Look at me, now. I am three-and-twenty next March, and yet I have never been to a university, nor to a school for that matter. I am as complete an ignoramus as any of these clodhoppers. It seems strange to you, no doubt, and yet it is so. Now, don’t you think I deserve a better fate?”
He stopped as he spoke, and faced round to me, throwing his palms forward in appeal.
As I looked at him, with the sun shining upon his face, he certainly did seem a strange bird to be cooped up in such a cage. Tall and muscular, with a keen, dark face, and sharp, finely cut features, he might have stepped out of a canvas of Murillo or Velasquez. There were latent energy and power in his firm-set mouth, his square eyebrows22, and the whole pose of his elastic23, well-knit figure.
“There is the learning to be got from books and the learning to be got from experience,” said I sententiously. “If you have less of your share of the one, perhaps you have more of the other. I cannot believe you have spent all your life in mere24 idleness and pleasure.”
“Pleasure!” he cried. “Pleasure! Look at this!” He pulled off his hat, and I saw that his black hair was all decked and dashed with streaks25 of grey. “Do you imagine that this came from pleasure?” he asked, with a bitter laugh.
“You must have had some great shock,” I said, astonished at the sight, “some terrible illness in your youth. Or perhaps it arises from a more chronic26 cause — a constant gnawing27 anxiety. I have known men as young as you whose hair was as grey.”
“Poor brutes28!” he muttered. “I pity them.”
“If you can manage to slip down to Branksome at times,” I said, “perhaps you could bring Miss Heatherstone with you. I know that my father and my sister would be delighted to see her, and a change, if only for an hour or two, might do her good.”
“It would be rather hard for us both to get away together,” he answered, “However, if I see a chance I shall bring her down. It might be managed some afternoon perhaps, for the old man indulges in a siesta29 occasionally.”
We had reached the head of the winding30 lane which branches off from the high road and leads to the laird’s house, so my companion pulled up.
“I must go back,” he said abruptly31, “or they will miss me. It’s very kind of you, West, to take this interest in us. I am very grateful to you, and so will Gabriel be when she hears of your kind invitation. It’s a real heaping of coals of fire after that infernal placard of my father’s.”
He shook my hand and set off down the road, but he came running after me presently, calling me to stop.
“I was just thinking,” he said, “that you must consider us a great mystery up there at Cloomber. I dare say you have come to look upon it as a private lunatic asylum32, and I can’t blame you. If you are interested in the matter, I feel it is unfriendly upon my part not to satisfy your curiosity, but I have promised my father to be silent about it. And indeed if I were to tell you all that I know you might not be very much the wiser after all. I would have you understand this, however — that my father is as sane33 as you or I, and that he has very good reasons for living the life which he does. I may add that his wish to remain secluded34 does not arise from any unworthy or dishonourable motives35, but merely from the instinct of self-preservation.”
“He is in danger, then?” I ejaculated.
“Yes; he is in constant danger.”
“But why does he not apply to the magistrates36 for protection?” I asked. “If he is afraid of any one, he has only to name him and they will bind37 him over to keep the peace.”
“My dear West,” said young Heatherstone, “the danger with which my father is threatened is one that cannot be averted38 by any human intervention39. It is none the less very real, and possibly very imminent40.”
“You don’t mean to assert that it is supernatural,” I said incredulously.
“Well, hardly that, either,” he answered with hesitation41. “There.” he continued, “I have said rather more than I should, “but I know that you will not abuse my confidence. Good-bye!”
He look to his heels and was soon out of sight round a curve in the country road.
A danger which was real and imminent, not to be averted by human means, and yet hardly supernatural — here was a conundrum42 indeed!
I had come to look upon the inhabitants of the Hall as mere eccentrics, but after what young Mordaunt Heatherstone had just told me, I could no longer doubt that some dark and sinister43 meaning underlay44 all their actions. The more I pondered over the problem, the more unanswerable did it appear, and yet I could not get the matter out of my thoughts.
The lonely, isolated45 Hall, and the strange, impending46 catastrophe47 which hung over its inmates48, appealed forcibly to my imagination. All that evening, and late into the night, I sat moodily49 by the fire, pondering over what I had heard, and revolving50 in my mind the various incidents which might furnish me with some clue to the mystery.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
effaced
|
|
| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
obnoxious
|
|
| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
outrageous
|
|
| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
beckoned
|
|
| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
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： |
|
|
|
|
7
indignity
|
|
| n.侮辱，伤害尊严，轻蔑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
petulant
|
|
| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
distress
|
|
| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
ineffable
|
|
| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
manly
|
|
| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
courteously
|
|
| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
connoisseur
|
|
| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
interfering
|
|
| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
whim
|
|
| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
exacting
|
|
| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
unnatural
|
|
| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
elastic
|
|
| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
streaks
|
|
| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
chronic
|
|
| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
gnawing
|
|
| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
brutes
|
|
| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
siesta
|
|
| n.午睡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
winding
|
|
| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
asylum
|
|
| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
sane
|
|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
secluded
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
motives
|
|
| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
magistrates
|
|
| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
bind
|
|
| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
averted
|
|
| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
intervention
|
|
| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
imminent
|
|
| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
conundrum
|
|
| n.谜语；难题 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
underlay
|
|
| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
impending
|
|
| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
catastrophe
|
|
| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
inmates
|
|
| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
moodily
|
|
| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
revolving
|
|
| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |