Though the house of the Commandant of Norfolk Island was comfortable and well furnished, and though, of necessity, all that was most hideous1 in the “discipline” of the place was hidden, the loathing2 with which Sylvia had approached the last and most dreaded3 abiding4 place of the elaborate convict system, under which it had been her misfortune to live, had not decreased. The sights and sounds of pain and punishment surrounded her. She could not look out of her windows without a shudder5. She dreaded each evening when her husband returned, lest he should blurt6 out some new atrocity7. She feared to ask him in the morning whither he was going, lest he should thrill her with the announcement of some fresh punishment.
“I wish, Maurice, we had never come here,” said she, piteously, when he recounted to her the scene of the gaol-gang. “These unhappy men will do you some frightful8 injury one of these days.”
“Stuff!” said her husband. “They’ve not the courage. I’d take the best man among them, and dare him to touch me.”
“I cannot think how you like to witness so much misery9 and villainy. It is horrible to think of.”
“Our tastes differ, my dear.— Jenkins! Confound you! Jenkins, I say.” The convict-servant entered. “Where is the charge-book? I’ve told you always to have it ready for me. Why don’t you do as you are told? You idle, lazy scoundrel! I suppose you were yarning11 in the cookhouse, or —”
“If you please, sir.”
“Don’t answer me, sir. Give me the book.” Taking it and running his finger down the leaves, he commented on the list of offences to which he would be called upon in the morning to mete12 out judgment13.
“Meer-a-seek, having a pipe — the rascally14 Hindoo scoundrel!— Benjamin Pellett, having fat in his possession. Miles Byrne, not walking fast enough.— We must enliven Mr. Byrne. Thomas Twist, having a pipe and striking a light. W. Barnes, not in place at muster15; says he was ‘washing himself’— I’ll wash him! John Richards, missing muster and insolence16. John Gateby, insolence and insubordination. James Hopkins, insolence and foul17 language. Rufus Dawes, gross insolence, refusing to work.— Ah! we must look after you. You are a parson’s man now, are you? I’ll break your spirit, my man, or I’ll — Sylvia!”
“Yes.”
“Your friend Dawes is doing credit to his bringing up.”
“What do you mean?”
“That infernal villain10 and reprobate18, Dawes. He is fitting himself faster for —” She interrupted him. “Maurice, I wish you would not use such language. You know I dislike it.” She spoke19 coldly and sadly, as one who knows that remonstrance20 is vain, and is yet constrained21 to remonstrate22.
“Oh, dear! My Lady Proper! can’t bear to hear her husband swear. How refined we’re getting!”
“There, I did not mean to annoy you,” said she, wearily. “Don’t let us quarrel, for goodness’ sake.”
He went away noisily, and she sat looking at the carpet wearily. A noise roused her. She looked up and saw North. Her face beamed instantly. “Ah! Mr. North, I did not expect you. What brings you here? You’ll stay to dinner, of course.” (She rang the bell without waiting for a reply.) “Mr. North dines here; place a chair for him. And have you brought me the book? I have been looking for it.”
“Here it is,” said North, producing a volume of ‘Monte Cristo’. She seized the book with avidity, and, after running her eyes over the pages, turned inquiringly to the fly-leaf.
“It belongs to my predecessor,” said North, as though in answer to her thought. “He seems to have been a great reader of French. I have found many French novels of his.”
“I thought clergymen never read French novels,” said Sylvia, with a smile.
“There are French novels and French novels,” said North. “Stupid people confound the good with the bad. I remember a worthy23 friend of mine in Sydney who soundly abused me for reading ‘Rabelais’, and when I asked him if he had read it, he said that he would sooner cut his hand off than open it. Admirable judge of its merits!”
“But is this really good? Papa told me it was rubbish.”
“It is a romance, but, in my opinion, a very fine one. The notion of the sailor being taught in prison by the priest, and sent back into the world an accomplished24 gentleman, to work out his vengeance25, is superb.”
“No, now — you are telling me,” laughed she; and then, with feminine perversity26, “Go on, what is the story?”
“Only that of an unjustly imprisoned27 man, who, escaping by a marvel28, and becoming rich — as Dr. Johnson says, ‘beyond the dreams of avarice’— devotes his life and fortune to revenge himself.”
“And does he?”
“He does, upon all his enemies save one.”
“And he —?” “She — was the wife of his greatest enemy, and Dantès spared her because he loved her.”
Sylvia turned away her head. “It seems interesting enough,” said she, coldly.
There was an awkward silence for a moment, which each seemed afraid to break. North bit his lips, as though regretting what he had said. Mrs. Frere beat her foot on the floor, and at length, raising her eyes, and meeting those of the clergyman fixed29 upon her face, rose hurriedly, and went to meet her returning husband.
“Come to dinner, of course!” said Frere, who, though he disliked the clergyman, yet was glad of anybody who would help him to pass a cheerful evening.
“I came to bring Mrs. Frere a book.”
“Ah! She reads too many books; she’s always reading books. It is not a good thing to be always poring over print, is it, North? You have some influence with her; tell her so. Come, I am hungry.”
He spoke with that affectation of jollity with which husbands of his calibre veil their bad temper.
Sylvia had her defensive30 armour31 on in a twinkling. “Of course, you two men will be against me. When did two men ever disagree upon the subject of wifely duties? However, I shall read in spite of you. Do you know, Mr. North, that when I married I made a special agreement with Captain Frere that I was not to be asked to sew on buttons for him?”
“Indeed!” said North, not understanding this change of humour.
“And she never has from that hour,” said Frere, recovering his suavity32 at the sight of food. “I never have a shirt fit to put on. Upon my word, there are a dozen in the drawer now.”
North perused33 his plate uncomfortably. A saying of omniscient34 Balzac occurred to him. “Le grand écueil est le ridicule,” and his mind began to sound all sorts of philosophical35 depths, not of the most clerical character.
After dinner Maurice launched out into his usual topic — convict discipline. It was pleasant for him to get a listener; for his wife, cold and unsympathetic, tacitly declined to enter into his schemes for the subduing36 of the refractory37 villains38. “You insisted on coming here,” she would say. “I did not wish to come. I don’t like to talk of these things. Let us talk of something else.” When she adopted this method of procedure, he had no alternative but to submit, for he was afraid of her, after a fashion. In this ill-assorted match he was only apparently39 the master. He was a physical tyrant40. For him, a creature had but to be weak to be an object of contempt; and his gross nature triumphed over the finer one of his wife. Love had long since died out of their life. The young, impulsive41, delicate girl, who had given herself to him seven years before, had been changed into a weary, suffering woman. The wife is what her husband makes her, and his rude animalism had made her the nervous invalid42 she was. Instead of love, he had awakened43 in her a distaste which at times amounted to disgust. We have neither the skill nor the boldness of that profound philosopher whose autopsy44 of the human heart awoke North’s contemplation, and we will not presume to set forth45 in bare English the story of this marriage of the Minotaur. Let it suffice to say that Sylvia liked her husband least when he loved her most. In this repulsion lay her power over him. When the animal and spiritual natures cross each other, the nobler triumphs in fact if not in appearance. Maurice Frere, though his wife obeyed him, knew that he was inferior to her, and was afraid of the statue he had created. She was ice, but it was the artificial ice that chemists make in the midst of a furnace. Her coldness was at once her strength and her weakness. When she chilled him, she commanded him.
Unwitting of the thoughts that possessed46 his guest, Frere chatted amicably47. North said little, but drank a good deal. The wine, however, rendered him silent, instead of talkative. He drank that he might forget unpleasant memories, and drank without accomplishing his object. When the pair proceeded to the room where Mrs. Frere awaited them, Frere was boisterously48 good-humoured, North silently misanthropic49.
“Sing something, Sylvia!” said Frere, with the ease of possession, as one who should say to a living musical-box, “Play something.”
“Oh, Mr. North doesn’t care for music, and I’m not inclined to sing. Singing seems out of place here.”
“Nonsense,” said Frere. “Why should it be more out of place here than anywhere else?”
“Mrs. Frere means that mirth is in a manner unsuited to these melancholy50 surroundings,” said North, out of his keener sense.
“Melancholy surroundings!” cried Frere, staring in turn at the piano, the ottomans, and the looking-glass. “Well, the house isn’t as good as the one in Sydney, but it’s comfortable enough.”
“You don’t understand me, Maurice,” said Sylvia. “This place is very gloomy to me. The thought of the unhappy men who are ironed and chained all about us makes me miserable51.”
“What stuff!” said Frere, now thoroughly52 roused. “The ruffians deserve all they get and more. Why should you make yourself wretched about them?”
“Poor men! How do we know the strength of their temptation, the bitterness of their repentance53?”
“Evil-doers earn their punishment,” says North, in a hard voice, and taking up a book suddenly. “They must learn to bear it. No repentance can undo54 their sin.”
“But surely there is mercy for the worst of evil-doers,” urged Sylvia, gently.
North seemed disinclined or unable to reply, and nodded only.
“Mercy!” cried Frere. “I am not here to be merciful; I am here to keep these scoundrels in order, and by the Lord that made me, I’ll do it!”
“Maurice, do not talk like that. Think how slight an accident might have made any one of us like one of these men. What is the matter, Mr. North?”
Mr. North has suddenly turned pale.
“Nothing,” returned the clergyman, gasping55 —“a sudden faintness!” The windows were thrown open, and the chaplain gradually recovered, as he did in Burgess’s parlour, at Port Arthur, seven years ago. “I am liable to these attacks. A touch of heart disease, I think. I shall have to rest for a day or so.” “Ah, take a spell,” said Frere; “you overwork yourself.”
North, sitting, gasping and pale, smiles in a ghastly manner. “I— I will. If I do not appear for a week, Mrs. Frere, you will know the reason.”
“A week! Surely it will not last so long as that!” exclaims Sylvia.
The ambiguous “it” appears to annoy him, for he flushes painfully, replying, “Sometimes longer. It is, a — um — uncertain,” in a confused and shame-faced manner, and is luckily relieved by the entry of Jenkins.
“A message from Mr. Troke, sir.”
“Troke! What’s the matter now?”
“Dawes, sir, ’s been violent and assaulted Mr. Troke. Mr. Troke said you’d left orders to be told at onst of the insubordination of prisoners.”
“Quite right. Where is he?” “In the cells, I think, sir. They had a hard fight to get him there, I am told, your honour.”
“Had they? Give my compliments to Mr. Troke, and tell him that I shall have the pleasure of breaking Mr. Dawes’s spirit to-morrow morning at nine sharp.”
“Maurice,” said Sylvia, who had been listening to the conversation in undisguised alarm, “do me a favour? Do not torment56 this man.”
“What makes you take a fancy to him?” asks her husband, with sudden unnecessary fierceness.
“Because his is one of the names which have been from my childhood synonymous with suffering and torture, because whatever wrong he may have done, his life-long punishment must have in some degree atoned57 for it.”
She spoke with an eager pity in her face that transfigured it. North, devouring58 her with his glance, saw tears in her eyes. “Does this look as if he had made atonement?” said Frere coarsely, slapping the letter.
“He is a bad man, I know, but —” she passed her hand over her forehead with the old troubled gesture —“he cannot have been always bad. I think I have heard some good of him somewhere.”
“Nonsense,” said Frere, rising decisively. “Your fancies mislead you. Let me hear you no more. The man is rebellious59, and must be lashed60 back again to his duty. Come, North, we’ll have a nip before you start.”
“Mr. North, will not you plead for me?” suddenly cried poor Sylvia, her self-possession overthrown61. “You have a heart to pity these suffering creatures.”
But North, who seemed to have suddenly recalled his soul from some place where it had been wandering, draws himself aside, and with dry lips makes shift to say, “I cannot interfere62 with your husband, madam,” and goes out almost rudely.
“You’ve made old North quite ill,” said Frere, when he by-and-by returns, hoping by bluff63 ignoring of roughness on his own part to avoid reproach from his wife. “He drank half a bottle of brandy to steady his nerves before he went home, and swung out of the house like one possessed.”
But Sylvia, occupied with her own thoughts, did not reply.
收听单词发音 |
1
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
loathing
|
|
| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
dreaded
|
|
| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
abiding
|
|
| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
blurt
|
|
| vt.突然说出，脱口说出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
atrocity
|
|
| n.残暴，暴行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
frightful
|
|
| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
villain
|
|
| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
yarning
|
|
| vi.讲故事（yarn的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
mete
|
|
| v.分配；给予 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
judgment
|
|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
rascally
|
|
| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
muster
|
|
| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
insolence
|
|
| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
reprobate
|
|
| n.无赖汉；堕落的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
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： |
|
|
|
|
20
remonstrance
|
|
| n抗议，抱怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
constrained
|
|
| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
remonstrate
|
|
| v.抗议，规劝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
vengeance
|
|
| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
perversity
|
|
| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
imprisoned
|
|
| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
marvel
|
|
| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
defensive
|
|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
armour
|
|
| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
suavity
|
|
| n.温和；殷勤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
perused
|
|
| v.读（某篇文字）( peruse的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指）细阅；审阅；匆匆读或心不在焉地浏览（某篇文字） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
omniscient
|
|
| adj.无所不知的；博识的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
philosophical
|
|
| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
subduing
|
|
| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
refractory
|
|
| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
villains
|
|
| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
tyrant
|
|
| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
impulsive
|
|
| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
invalid
|
|
| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
awakened
|
|
| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
autopsy
|
|
| n.尸体解剖；尸检 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
amicably
|
|
| adv.友善地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
boisterously
|
|
| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
misanthropic
|
|
| adj.厌恶人类的，憎恶（或蔑视）世人的；愤世嫉俗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
repentance
|
|
| n.懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
undo
|
|
| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
gasping
|
|
| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
torment
|
|
| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
atoned
|
|
| v.补偿，赎（罪）( atone的过去式和过去分词 )；补偿，弥补，赎回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
devouring
|
|
| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
rebellious
|
|
| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
lashed
|
|
| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
overthrown
|
|
| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
bluff
|
|
| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |