The Hollanders were always an original and leading people. They claim to have invented printing (wooden type), oil-painting, liberty, banking5, gardening, etc. Above all, years before my tale, they invented cleanliness. So, while the English gentry6, in velvet7 jerkins and chicken-toed shoes, trode floors of stale rushes, foul8 receptacle of bones, decomposing9 morsels10, spittle, dogs, eggs, and all abominations, this hosier's sitting-room at Tergou was floored with Dutch tiles, so highly glazed11 and constantly washed, that you could eat off them. There was one large window; the cross stone-work in the centre of it was very massive, and stood in relief, looking like an actual cross to the inmates12, and was eyed as such in their devotions. The panes13 were very small and lozenge-shaped, and soldered14 to one another with strips of lead: the like you may see to this day in our rural cottages. The chairs were rude and primitive15, all but the arm-chair, whose back, at right angles with its seat, was so high that the sitter's head stopped two feet short of the top. This chair was of oak, and carved at the summit. There was a copper17 pail, that went in at the waist, holding holy water, and a little hand-besom to sprinkle it far and wide; and a long, narrow, but massive oak table, and a dwarf sticking to its rim16 by his teeth, his eyes glaring, and his claws in the air like a pouncing18 vampire19. Nature, it would seem, did not make Giles a dwarf out of malice20 prepense; she constructed a head and torso with her usual care; but just then her attention was distracted, and she left the rest to chance; the result was a human wedge, an inverted21 cone22. He might justly have taken her to task in the terms of Horace,
“Amphora coepit
Institui; currente rota cur urceus exit?”
His centre was anything but his centre of gravity. Bisected, upper Giles would have outweighed23 three lower Giles. But this very disproportion enabled him to do feats24 that would have baffled Milo. His brawny25 arms had no weight to draw after them; so he could go up a vertical26 pole like a squirrel, and hang for hours from a bough27 by one hand like a cherry by its stalk. If he could have made a vacuum with his hands, as the lizard28 is said to do with its feet, he would have gone along a ceiling. Now, this pocket-athlete was insanely fond of gripping the dinner-table with both hands, and so swinging; and then—climax of delight! he would seize it with his teeth, and, taking off his hands, hold on like grim death by his huge ivories.
But all our joys, however elevating, suffer interruption. Little Kate caught Sampsonet in this posture29, and stood aghast. She was her mother's daughter, and her heart was with the furniture, not with the 12mo gymnast.
“Am I?” inquired Kate calmly; “that is news to me.”
“Oh, indeed!” said Kate drily.
This piece of unwonted satire34 launched, and Giles not visibly blasted, she sat down quietly and cried.
Her mother came in almost at that moment, and Giles hurled35 himself under the table, and there glared.
“What is to do now?” said the dame36 sharply. Then turning her experienced eyes from Kate to Giles, and observing the position he had taken up, and a sheepish expression, she hinted at cuffing37 of ears.
“Nay, mother,” said the girl; “it was but a foolish word Giles spoke38. I had not noticed it at another time; but I was tired and in care for Gerard, you know.”
“Let no one be in care for me,” said a faint voice at the door, and in tottered39 Gerard, pale, dusty, and worn out; and amidst uplifted hands and cries of delight, curiosity, and anxiety mingled40, dropped exhausted41 into the nearest chair.
Beating Rotterdam, like a covert42, for Margaret, and the long journey afterwards, had fairly knocked Gerard up. But elastic43 youth soon revived, and behold44 him the centre of an eager circle. First of all they must hear about the prizes. Then Gerard told them he had been admitted to see the competitors' works, all laid out in an enormous hall before the judges pronounced.
“Oh, mother! oh, Kate! when I saw the goldsmiths' work, I had liked to have fallen on the floor. I thought not all the goldsmiths on earth had so much gold, silver, jewels, and craft of design and facture. But, in sooth, all the arts are divine.”
Then, to please the females, he described to them the reliquaries, feretories, calices, crosiers, crosses, pyxes, monstrances, and other wonders ecclesiastical, and the goblets45, hanaps, watches, Clocks, chains, brooches, &c., so that their mouths watered.
“But, Kate, when I came to the illuminated46 work from Ghent and Bruges, my heart sank. Mine was dirt by the side of it. For the first minute I could almost have cried; but I prayed for a better spirit, and presently I was able to enjoy them, and thank God for those lovely works, and for those skilful47, patient craftsmen48, whom I own my masters. Well, the coloured work was so beautiful I forgot all about the black and white. But next day, when all the other prizes had been given, they came to the writing, and whose name think you was called first?”
“Yours,” said Kate.
The others laughed her to scorn.
“You may well laugh,” said Gerard, “but for all that, Gerard Eliassoen of Tergou was the name the herald49 shouted. I stood stupid; they thrust me forward. Everything swam before my eyes. I found myself kneeling on a cushion at the feet of the Duke. He said something to me, but I was so fluttered I could not answer him. So then he put his hand to his side, and did not draw a glaive and cut off my dull head, but gave me a gold medal, and there it is.” There was a yell and almost a scramble50. “And then he gave me fifteen great bright golden angels. I had seen one before, but I never handled one. Here they are.”
“Oh, Gerard! oh, Gerard!”
“There is one for you, our eldest; and one for you, Sybrandt, and for you, Little Mischief; and two for thee, Little Lily, because God hath afflicted51 thee; and one for myself, to buy colours and vellum; and nine for her that nursed us all, and risked the two crowns upon poor Gerard's hand.”
The gold drew out their characters. Cornelis and Sybrandt clutched each his coin with one glare of greediness and another glare of envy at Kate, who had got two pieces. Giles seized his and rolled it along the floor and gambolled52 after it. Kate put down her crutches53 and sat down, and held out her little arms to Gerard with a heavenly gesture of love and tenderness; and the mother, fairly benumbed at first by the shower of gold that fell on her apron54, now cried out, “Leave kissing him, Kate; he is my son, not yours. Ah. Gerard! my boy! I have not loved you as you deserved.”
Then Gerard threw himself on his knees beside her, and she flung her arms round him and wept for joy and pride upon his neck.
“Good lad! good lad!” cried the hosier, with some emotion. “I must go and tell the neighbours. Lend me the medal, Gerard; I'll show it my good friend Peter Buyskens; he is ever regaling me with how his son Jorian won the tin mug a shooting at the butts55.”
“Ay, do, my man; and show Peter Buyskens one of the angels. Tell him there are fourteen more where that came from. Mind you bring it me back!”
“Stay a minute, father; there is better news behind,” said Gerard, flushing with joy at the joy he caused.
“Better! better than this?”
Then Gerard told his interview with the Countess, and the house rang with joy.
“Now, God bless the good lady, and bless the dame Van Eyck! A benefice? our son! My cares are at an end. Eli, my good friend and master, now we two can die happy whenever our time comes. This dear boy will take our place, and none of these loved ones will want a home or a friend.”
From that hour Gerard was looked upon as the stay of the family. He was a son apart, but in another sense. He was always in the right, and nothing too good for him. Cornelis and Sybrandt became more and more jealous of him, and longed for the day he should go to his benefice; they would get rid of the favourite, and his reverence's purse would be open to them. With these views he co-operated. The wound love had given him throbbed56 duller and duller. His success and the affection and admiration57 of his parents made him think more highly of himself, and resent with more spirit Margaret's ingratitude58 and discourtesy. For all that, she had power to cool him towards the rest of her sex, and now for every reason he wished to be ordained59 priest as soon as he could pass the intermediate orders. He knew the Vulgate already better than most of the clergy60, and studied the rubric and the dogmas of the Church with his friends the monks61; and, the first time the bishop62 came that way, he applied63 to be admitted “exorcist,” the third step in holy orders. The bishop questioned him, and ordained him at once. He had to kneel, and, after a short prayer, the bishop delivered to him a little MS. full of exorcisms, and said: “Take this, Gerard, and have power to lay hands on the possessed64, whether baptized or catechumens!” and he took it reverently65, and went home invested by the Church with power to cast out demons66.
Returning home from the church, he was met by little Kate on her crutches.
“Oh, Gerard! who, think you, hath sent to our house seeking you?—the burgomaster himself.”
“Ghysbrecht Van Swieten! What would he with me?”
“Nay, Gerard, I know not. But he seems urgent to see you. You are to go to his house on the instant.”
“Well, he is the burgomaster: I will go; but it likes me not. Kate, I have seen him cast such a look on me as no friend casts. No matter; such looks forewarn the wise. To be sure, he knows.”
“Knows what, Gerard?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Kate, I'll go.”
该作者的其它作品
《white lies》
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
eldest
|
|
| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
sitting-room
|
|
| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
sketch
|
|
| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
dwarf
|
|
| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
banking
|
|
| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
gentry
|
|
| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
velvet
|
|
| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
decomposing
|
|
| 腐烂( decompose的现在分词 )； （使）分解； 分解（某物质、光线等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
morsels
|
|
| n.一口( morsel的名词复数 )；（尤指食物）小块，碎屑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
glazed
|
|
| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
inmates
|
|
| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
panes
|
|
| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
soldered
|
|
| v.（使）焊接，焊合( solder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
primitive
|
|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
rim
|
|
| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
copper
|
|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
pouncing
|
|
| v.突然袭击( pounce的现在分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
vampire
|
|
| n.吸血鬼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
malice
|
|
| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
inverted
|
|
| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
cone
|
|
| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
outweighed
|
|
| v.在重量上超过( outweigh的过去式和过去分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
feats
|
|
| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
brawny
|
|
| adj.强壮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
vertical
|
|
| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
bough
|
|
| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
lizard
|
|
| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
posture
|
|
| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
dents
|
|
| n.花边边饰；凹痕( dent的名词复数 )；凹部；减少；削弱v.使产生凹痕( dent的第三人称单数 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
snarled
|
|
| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
mischief
|
|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
growled
|
|
| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
satire
|
|
| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
hurled
|
|
| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
dame
|
|
| n.女士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
cuffing
|
|
| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的现在分词 )；袖口状白血球聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
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： |
|
|
|
|
39
tottered
|
|
| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
covert
|
|
| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
elastic
|
|
| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
goblets
|
|
| n.高脚酒杯( goblet的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
illuminated
|
|
| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
skilful
|
|
| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
craftsmen
|
|
| n. 技工 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
herald
|
|
| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
scramble
|
|
| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
afflicted
|
|
| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
gambolled
|
|
| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
53
crutches
|
|
| n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
apron
|
|
| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
butts
|
|
| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
throbbed
|
|
| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
ingratitude
|
|
| n.忘恩负义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
ordained
|
|
| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
clergy
|
|
| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
monks
|
|
| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
bishop
|
|
| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
reverently
|
|
| adv.虔诚地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
demons
|
|
| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |