“It’s not to be expected, I suppose,” observed Mrs. Glegg, by way of winding3 up the subject, “as I shall go to the mill again before Bessy comes to see me, or as I shall go and fall down o’ my knees to Mr. Tulliver, and ask his pardon for showing him favors; but I shall bear no malice4, and when Mr. Tulliver speaks civil to me, I’ll speak civil to him. Nobody has any call to tell me what’s becoming.”
Finding it unnecessary to plead for the Tullivers, it was natural that aunt Pullet should relax a little in her anxiety for them, and recur5 to the annoyance6 she had suffered yesterday from the offspring of that apparently7 ill-fated house. Mrs. Glegg heard a circumstantial narrative8, to which Mr. Pullet’s remarkable9 memory furnished some items; and while aunt Pullet pitied poor Bessy’s bad luck with her children, and expressed a half-formed project of paying for Maggie’s being sent to a distant boarding-school, which would not prevent her being so brown, but might tend to subdue10 some other vices11 in her, aunt Glegg blamed Bessy for her weakness, and appealed to all witnesses who should be living when the Tulliver children had turned out ill, that she, Mrs. Glegg, had always said how it would be from the very first, observing that it was wonderful to herself how all her words came true.
“Then I may call and tell Bessy you’ll bear no malice, and everything be as it was before?” Mrs. Pullet said, just before parting.
“Yes, you may, Sophy,” said Mrs. Glegg; “you may tell Mr. Tulliver, and Bessy too, as I’m not going to behave ill because folks behave ill to me; I know it’s my place, as the eldest12, to set an example in every respect, and I do it. Nobody can say different of me, if they’ll keep to the truth.”
Mrs. Glegg being in this state of satisfaction in her own lofty magnanimity, I leave you to judge what effect was produced on her by the reception of a short letter from Mr. Tulliver that very evening, after Mrs. Pullet’s departure, informing her that she needn’t trouble her mind about her five hundred pounds, for it should be paid back to her in the course of the next month at farthest, together with the interest due thereon until the time of payment. And furthermore, that Mr. Tulliver had no wish to behave uncivilly to Mrs. Glegg, and she was welcome to his house whenever she liked to come, but he desired no favors from her, either for himself or his children.
It was poor Mrs. Tulliver who had hastened this catastrophe13, entirely14 through that irrepressible hopefulness of hers which led her to expect that similar causes may at any time produce different results. It had very often occurred in her experience that Mr. Tulliver had done something because other people had said he was not able to do it, or had pitied him for his supposed inability, or in any other way piqued15 his pride; still, she thought to-day, if she told him when he came in to tea that sister Pullet was gone to try and make everything up with sister Glegg, so that he needn’t think about paying in the money, it would give a cheerful effect to the meal. Mr. Tulliver had never slackened in his resolve to raise the money, but now he at once determined16 to write a letter to Mrs. Glegg, which should cut off all possibility of mistake. Mrs. Pullet gone to beg and pray for him indeed! Mr. Tulliver did not willingly write a letter, and found the relation between spoken and written language, briefly17 known as spelling, one of the most puzzling things in this puzzling world. Nevertheless, like all fervid18 writing, the task was done in less time than usual, and if the spelling differed from Mrs. Glegg’s — why, she belonged, like himself, to a generation with whom spelling was a matter of private judgment19.
Mrs. Glegg did not alter her will in consequence of this letter, and cut off the Tulliver children from their sixth and seventh share in her thousand pounds; for she had her principles. No one must be able to say of her when she was dead that she had not divided her money with perfect fairness among her own kin2. In the matter of wills, personal qualities were subordinate to the great fundamental fact of blood; and to be determined in the distribution of your property by caprice, and not make your legacies20 bear a direct ratio to degrees of kinship, was a prospective21 disgrace that would have embittered22 her life. This had always been a principle in the Dodson family; it was one form if that sense of honor and rectitude which was a proud tradition in such families — a tradition which has been the salt of our provincial23 society.
But though the letter could not shake Mrs. Glegg’s principles, it made the family breach24 much more difficult to mend; and as to the effect it produced on Mrs. Glegg’s opinion of Mr. Tulliver, she begged to be understood from that time forth25 that she had nothing whatever to say about him; his state of mind, apparently, was too corrupt26 for her to contemplate27 it for a moment. It was not until the evening before Tom went to school, at the beginning of August, that Mrs. Glegg paid a visit to her sister Tulliver, sitting in her gig all the while, and showing her displeasure by markedly abstaining28 from all advice and criticism; for, as she observed to her sister Deane, “Bessy must bear the consequence o’ having such a husband, though I’m sorry for her,” and Mrs. Deane agreed that Bessy was pitiable.
That evening Tom observed to Maggie: “Oh my! Maggie, aunt Glegg’s beginning to come again; I’m glad I’m going to school. You’ll catch it all now!”
Maggie was already so full of sorrow at the thought of Tom’s going away from her, that this playful exultation29 of his seemed very unkind, and she cried herself to sleep that night.
Mr. Tulliver’s prompt procedure entailed30 on him further promptitude in finding the convenient person who was desirous of lending five hundred pounds on bond. “It must be no client of Wakem’s,” he said to himself; and yet at the end of a fortnight it turned out to the contrary; not because Mr. Tulliver’s will was feeble, but because external fact was stronger. Wakem’s client was the only convenient person to be found. Mr. Tulliver had a destiny as well as Oedipus, and in this case he might plead, like Oedipus, that his deed was inflicted31 on him rather than committed by him.
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1 mediation | |
n.调解 | |
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2 kin | |
n.家族,亲属,血缘关系;adj.亲属关系的,同类的 | |
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3 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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4 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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5 recur | |
vi.复发,重现,再发生 | |
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6 annoyance | |
n.恼怒,生气,烦恼 | |
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7 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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8 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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9 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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10 subdue | |
vt.制服,使顺从,征服;抑制,克制 | |
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11 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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12 eldest | |
adj.最年长的,最年老的 | |
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13 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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14 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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15 piqued | |
v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 );激起(好奇心) | |
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16 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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17 briefly | |
adv.简单地,简短地 | |
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18 fervid | |
adj.热情的;炽热的 | |
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19 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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20 legacies | |
n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 );遗留之物;遗留问题;后遗症 | |
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21 prospective | |
adj.预期的,未来的,前瞻性的 | |
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22 embittered | |
v.使怨恨,激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 provincial | |
adj.省的,地方的;n.外省人,乡下人 | |
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24 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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25 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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26 corrupt | |
v.贿赂,收买;adj.腐败的,贪污的 | |
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27 contemplate | |
vt.盘算,计议;周密考虑;注视,凝视 | |
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28 abstaining | |
戒(尤指酒),戒除( abstain的现在分词 ); 弃权(不投票) | |
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29 exultation | |
n.狂喜,得意 | |
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30 entailed | |
使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 ); 需要; 限定继承; 使必需 | |
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31 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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