These disagreeables, extending over many months, ran along side by side with the pressing business of Mr. Armstrong’s lawsuit8, which was threatening to take a turn rather depreciatory9 of Dempster’s professional prevision; and it is not surprising that, being thus kept in a constant state of irritated excitement about his own affairs, he had little time for the further exhibition of his public spirit, or for rallying the forlorn hope of sound churchmanship against cant10 and hypocrisy11. Not a few persons who had a grudge12 against him, began to remark, with satisfaction, that ‘Dempster’s luck was forsaking13 him’; particularly Mrs. Linnet, who thought she saw distinctly the gradual ripening14 of a providential scheme, whereby a just retribution would be wrought15 on the man who had deprived her of Pye’s Croft. On the other hand, Dempster’s well-satisfied clients, who were of opinion that the punishment of his wickedness might conveniently be deferred16 to another world, noticed with some concern that he was drinking more than ever, and that both his temper and his driving were becoming more furious. Unhappily those additional glasses of brandy, that exasperation17 of loud-tongued abuse, had other effects than any that entered into the contemplation of anxious clients: they were the little super-added symbols that were perpetually raising the sum of home misery18.
Poor Janet! how heavily the months rolled on for her, laden19 with fresh sorrows as the summer passed into autumn, the autumn into winter, and the winter into spring again. Every feverish20 morning, with its blank listlessness and despair, seemed more hateful than the last; every coming night more impossible to brave without arming herself in leaden stupor21. The morning light brought no gladness to her: it seemed only to throw its glare on what had happened in the dim candle-light—on the cruel man seated immovable in drunken obstinacy22 by the dead fire and dying lights in the dining-room, rating her in harsh tones, reiterating23 old reproaches—or on a hideous24 blank of something unremembered, something that must have made that dark bruise25 on her shoulder, which aches as she dressed herself.
Do you wonder how it was that things had come to this pass—what offence Janet had committed in the early years of marriage to rouse the brutal26 hatred27 of this man? The seeds of things are very small: the hours that lie between sunrise and the gloom of midnight are travelled through by tiniest markings of the clock: and Janet, looking back along the fifteen years of her married life, hardly knew how or where this total misery began; hardly knew when the sweet wedded28 love and hope that had set for ever had ceased to make a twilight29 of memory and relenting, before the on-coming of the utter dark.
Old Mrs. Dempster thought she saw the true beginning of it all in Janet’s want of housekeeping skill and exactness. ‘Janet,’ she said to herself, ‘was always running about doing things for other people, and neglecting her own house. That provokes a man: what use is it for a woman to be loving, and making a fuss with her husband, if she doesn’t take care and keep his home just as he likes it; if she isn’t at hand when he wants anything done; if she doesn’t attend to all his wishes, let them be as small as they may? That was what I did when I was a wife, though I didn’t make half so much fuss about loving my husband. Then, Janet had no children.’ ... Ah! there Mammy Dempster had touched a true spring, not perhaps of her son’s cruelty, but of half Janet’s misery. If she had had babes to rock to sleep—little ones to kneel in their night-dress and say their prayers at her knees—sweet boys and girls to put their young arms round her neck and kiss away her tears, her poor hungry heart would have been fed with strong love, and might never have needed that fiery30 poison to still its cravings. Mighty32 is the force of motherhood! says the great tragic33 poet to us across the ages, finding, as usual, the simplest words for the sublimest34 fact—δεινόν τὸ τίκτειν ἐστίν. It transforms all things by its vital heat: it turns timidity into fierce courage, and dreadless defiance35 into tremulous submission36; it turns thoughtlessness into foresight37, and yet stills all anxiety into calm content; it makes selfishness become self-denial, and gives even to hard vanity the glance of admiring love. Yes! if Janet had been a mother, she might have been saved from much sin, and therefore from much of her sorrow.
But do not believe that it was anything either present or wanting in poor Janet that formed the motive38 of her husband’s cruelty. Cruelty, like every other vice39, requires no motive outside itself—it only requires opportunity. You do not suppose Dempster had any motive for drinking beyond the craving31 for drink; the presence of brandy was the only necessary condition. And an unloving, tyrannous, brutal man needs no motive to prompt his cruelty; he needs only the perpetual presence of a woman he can call his own. A whole park full of tame or timid-eyed animals to torment40 at his will would not serve him so well to glut41 his lust42 of torture; they could not feel as one woman does; they could not throw out the keen retort which whets43 the edge of hatred.
Janet’s bitterness would overflow44 in ready words; she was not to be made meek45 by cruelty; she would repent46 of nothing in the face of injustice47, though she was subdued48 in a moment by a word or a look that recalled the old days of fondness; and in times of comparative calm would often recover her sweet woman’s habit of caressing49 playful affection. But such days were become rare, and poor Janet’s soul was kept like a vexed50 sea, tossed by a new storm before the old waves have fallen. Proud, angry resistance and sullen51 endurance were now almost the only alternations she knew. She would bear it all proudly to the world, but proudly towards him too; her woman’s weakness might shriek52 a cry for pity under a heavy blow, but voluntarily she would do nothing to mollify him, unless he first relented. What had she ever done to him but love him too well—but believe in him too foolishly? He had no pity on her tender flesh; he could strike the soft neck he had once asked to kiss. Yet she would not admit her wretchedness; she had married him blindly, and she would bear it out to the terrible end, whatever that might be. Better this misery than the blank that lay for her outside her married home.
But there was one person who heard all the plaints and all the outbursts of bitterness and despair which Janet was never tempted53 to pour into any other ear; and alas54! in her worst moments, Janet would throw out wild reproaches against that patient listener. For the wrong that rouses our angry passions finds only a medium in us; it passes through us like a vibration55, and we inflict56 what we have suffered.
Mrs. Raynor saw too clearly all through the winter that things were getting worse in Orchard57 Street. She had evidence enough of it in Janet’s visits to her; and, though her own visits to her daughter were so timed that she saw little of Dempster personally, she noticed many indications not only that he was drinking to greater excess, but that he was beginning to lose that physical power of supporting excess which had long been the admiration58 of such fine spirits as Mr. Tomlinson. It seemed as if Dempster had some consciousness of this—some new distrust of himself; for, before winter was over, it was observed that he had renounced59 his habit of driving out alone, and was never seen in his gig without a servant by his side.
Nemesis60 is lame61, but she is of colossal62 stature63, like the gods; and sometimes, while her sword is not yet unsheathed, she stretches out her huge left arm and grasps her victim. The mighty hand is invisible, but the victim totters64 under the dire65 clutch.
The various symptoms that things were getting worse with the Dempsters afforded Milby gossip something new to say on an old subject. Mrs. Dempster, every one remarked, looked more miserable66 than ever, though she kept up the old pretence67 of being happy and satisfied. She was scarcely ever seen, as she used to be, going about on her good-natured errands; and even old Mrs. Crewe, who had always been wilfully68 blind to anything wrong in her favourite Janet, was obliged to admit that she had not seemed like herself lately. ‘The poor thing’s out of health,’ said the kind little old lady, in answer to all gossip about Janet; ‘her headaches always were bad, and I know what headaches are; why, they make one quite delirious69 sometimes.’ Mrs. Phipps, for her part, declared she would never accept an invitation to Dempster’s again; it was getting so very disagreeable to go there, Mrs. Dempster was often ‘so strange’. To be sure, there were dreadful stories about the way Dempster used his wife; but in Mrs. Phipps’s opinion, it was six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. Mrs. Dempster had never been like other women; she had always a flighty way with her, carrying parcels of snuff to old Mrs. Tooke, and going to drink tea with Mrs. Brinley, the carpenter’s wife; and then never taking care of her clothes, always wearing the same things week-day or Sunday. A man has a poor look-out with a wife of that sort. Mr. Phipps, amiable70 and laconic71, wondered how it was women were so fond of running each other down.
Mr. Pratt having been called in provisionally to a patient of Mr. Pilgrim’s in a case of compound fracture, observed in a friendly colloquy72 with his brother surgeon the next day,—‘So Dempster has left off driving himself, I see; he won’t end with a broken neck after all. You’ll have a case of meningitis and delirium73 tremens instead.’
‘Ah,’ said Mr. Pilgrim, ‘he can hardly stand it much longer at the rate he’s going on, one would think. He’s been confoundedly cut up about that business of Armstrong’s, I fancy. It may do him some harm, perhaps, but Dempster must have feathered his nest pretty well; he can afford to lose a little business.’
‘His business will outlast74 him, that’s pretty clear,’ said Pratt; ‘he’ll run down like a watch with a broken spring one of these days.’
Another prognostic of evil to Dempster came at the beginning of March. For then little ‘Mamsey’ died—died suddenly. The housemaid found her seated motionless in her arm-chair, her knitting fallen down, and the tortoise-shell cat reposing75 on it unreproved. The little white old woman had ended her wintry age of patient sorrow, believing to the last that ‘Robert might have been a good husband as he had been a good son.’
When the earth was thrown on Mamsey’s coffin76, and the son, in crape scarf and hatband, turned away homeward, his good angel, lingering with outstretched wing on the edge of the grave, cast one despairing look after him, and took flight for ever.
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1
annoyances
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| n.恼怒( annoyance的名词复数 )；烦恼；打扰；使人烦恼的事 | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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persecuting
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的现在分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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lawsuit
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| n.诉讼，控诉 | |
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depreciatory
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| adj.贬值的，蔑视的 | |
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cant
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| n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔 | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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forsaking
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| 放弃( forsake的现在分词 )； 弃绝； 抛弃； 摒弃 | |
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ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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reiterating
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的现在分词 ) | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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bruise
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| n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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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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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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sublimest
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| 伟大的( sublime的最高级 )； 令人赞叹的； 极端的； 不顾后果的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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40
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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41
glut
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| n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽 | |
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42
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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43
whets
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| v.（在石头上）磨（刀、斧等）( whet的第三人称单数 )；引起，刺激（食欲、欲望、兴趣等） | |
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44
overflow
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| v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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46
repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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49
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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50
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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51
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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52
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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53
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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54
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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nemesis
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| n.给以报应者，复仇者，难以对付的敌手 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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totters
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的第三人称单数 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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laconic
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| adj.简洁的；精练的 | |
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colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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outlast
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| v.较…耐久 | |
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reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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