章节正文
of such power as he had. His conceited and tyrannical
disposition did not allow him to let it dwindle in his
hands for want of use. The uproarious, choleric frank-
ness of his comments on people's character and conduct
caused him to be feared at bottom; though in conversa-
tion many pretended not to mind him in the least, others
would only smile sourly at the mention of his name, and
there were even some who dared to pronounce him "a
meddlesome old ruffian." But for almost all of them
one of Captain Eliott's outbreaks was nearly as distaste-
ful to face as a chance of annihilation.
V
As soon as he had come up quite close he said, mouth-
ing in a growl--
"What's this I hear, Whalley? Is it true you're sell-
ing the Fair Maid?"
Captain Whalley, looking away, said the thing was
done--money had been paid that morning; and the other
expressed at once his approbation of such an extremely
sensible proceeding. He had got out of his trap to
stretch his legs, he explained, on his way home to dinner.
Sir Frederick looked well at the end of his time. Didn't
he?
Captain Whalley could not say; had only noticed the
carriage going past.
The Master-Attendant, plunging his hands into the
pockets of an alpaca jacket inappropriately short and
tight for a man of his age and appearance, strutted
with a slight limp, and with his head reaching only to
the shoulder of Captain Whalley, who walked easily,
staring straight before him. They had been good com-
rades years ago, almost intimates. At the time when
Whalley commanded the renowned Condor, Eliott had
charge of the nearly as famous Ringdove for the same
owners; and when the appointment of Master-Attendant
was created, Whalley would have been the only other
serious candidate. But Captain Whalley, then in the
prime of life, was resolved to serve no one but his own
auspicious Fortune. Far away, tending his hot irons,
he was glad to hear the other had been successful. There
was a worldly suppleness in bluff Ned Eliott that would
serve him well in that sort of official appointment. And
they were so dissimilar at bottom that as they came
slowly to the end of the avenue before the Cathedral, it
had never come into Whalley's head that he might have
been in that man's place--provided for to the end of
his days.
The sacrededifice, standing in solemnisolation amongst
the converging avenues of enormous trees, as if to put
grave thoughts of heaven into the hours of ease, pre-
sented a closed Gothic portal to the light and glory of
the west. The glass of the rosace above the ogive glowed
like fiery coal in the deep carvings of a wheel of stone.
The two men faced about.
"I'll tell you what they ought to do next, Whalley,"
growled Captain Eliott suddenly.
"Well?"
"They ought to send a real live lord out here when
Sir Frederick's time is up. Eh?"
Captain Whalley perfunctorily did not see why a lord
of the right sort should not do as well as anyone else.
But this was not the other's point of view.
"No, no. Place runs itself. Nothing can stop it now.
Good enough for a lord," he growled in short sentences.
"Look at the changes in our time. We need a lord
here now. They have got a lord in Bombay."
He dined once or twice every year at the Government
House--a many-windowed, arcaded palace upon a hill
laid out in roads and gardens. And lately he had been
taking about a duke in his Master-Attendant's steam-
launch to visit the harbor improvements. Before that
he had "most obligingly" gone out in person to pick
out a good berth for the ducal yacht. Afterwards he
had an invitation to lunch on board. The duchess her-
self lunched with them. A big woman with a red face.
Complexion quite sunburnt. He should think ruined.
Very gracious manners. They were going on to
Japan. . . .
He ejaculated these details for Captain Whalley's edi-
fication, pausing to blow out his cheeks as if with a
pent-up sense of importance, and repeatedly protruding
his thick lips till the blunt crimson end of his nose seemed
to dip into the milk of his mustache. The place ran
itself; it was fit for any lord; it gave no trouble except
in its Marine department--in its Marine department he
repeated twice, and after a heavy snort began to relate
how the other day her Majesty's Consul-General in
French Cochin-China had cabled to him--in his official
capacity--asking for a qualified man to be sent over
to take charge of a Glasgow ship whose master had died
in Saigon.
"I sent word of it to the officers' quarters in the Sailors'
Home," he continued, while the limp in his gait seemed
to grow more accentuated with the increasing irritation
of his voice. "Place's full of them. Twice as many
men as there are berths going in the local trade. All
hungry for an easy job. Twice as many--and--What
d'you think, Whalley? . . ."
He stopped short; his hands clenched and thrust deeply
downwards, seemed ready to burst the pockets of his
jacket. A slight sigh escaped Captain Whalley.
"Hey? You would think they would be falling over
each other. Not a bit of it. Frightened to go home.
Nice and warm out here to lie about a veranda waiting
for a job. I sit and wait in my office. Nobody. What
did they suppose? That I was going to sit there like
a dummy with the Consul-General's cable before me?
Not likely. So I looked up a list of them I keep by
me and sent word for Hamilton--the worst loafer of
them all--and just made him go. Threatened to in-
struct the steward of the Sailors' Home to have him
turned out neck and crop. He did not think the berth
was good enough--if--you--please. 'I've your little
records by me,' said I. 'You came ashore here eighteen
months ago, and you haven't done six months' work
since. You are in debt for your board now at the Home,
and I suppose you reckon the Marine Office will pay in
the end. Eh? So it shall; but if you don't take this
chance, away you go to England, assisted passage, by
the first homewardsteamer that comes along. You are
no better than a pauper. We don't want any white
paupers here.' I scared him. But look at the trouble
all this gave me."
"You would not have had any trouble," Captain Whal-
ley said almost involuntarily, "if you had sent for
me."
Captain Eliott was immensely amused; he shook with
laughter as he walked. But suddenly he stopped laugh-
ing. A vague recollection had crossed his mind. Hadn't
he heard it said at the time of the Travancore and Deccan
smash that poor Whalley had been cleaned out com-
pletely. "Fellow's hard up, by heavens!" he thought;
and at once he cast a sidelong upward glance at his
companion. But Captain Whalley was smiling austerely
straight before him, with a carriage of the head incon-
ceivable in a penniless man--and he became reassured.
Impossible. Could not have lost everything. That ship
had been only a hobby of his. And the reflection that
a man who had confessed to receiving that very morning
a presumably large sum of money was not likely to
spring upon him a demand for a small loan put him
entirely at his ease again. There had come a long pause
in their talk, however, and not knowing how to begin
again, he growled out soberly, "We old fellows ought
to take a rest now."
"The best thing for some of us would be to die at the
oar," Captain Whalley said negligently.
"Come, now. Aren't you a bit tired by this time of
the whole show?" muttered the other sullenly.
"Are you?"
Captain Eliott was. Infernally tired. He only hung
on to his berth so long in order to get his pension on the
highest scale before he went home. It would be no better
than poverty, anyhow; still, it was the only thing be-
tween him and the workhouse. And he had a family.
Three girls, as Whalley knew. He gave "Harry, old
boy," to understand that these three girls were a source
of the greatest anxiety and worry to him. Enough to
drive a man distracted.
"Why? What have they been doing now?" asked
Captain Whalley with a sort of amused absent-minded-
ness.
"Doing! Doing nothing. That's just it. Lawn-
tennis and silly novels from morning to night. . . ."
If one of them at least had been a boy. But all three!
And, as ill-luck would have it, there did not seem to be
any decent young fellows left in the world. When he
looked around in the club he saw only a lot of conceited
popinjays too selfish to think of making a good woman
happy. Extreme indigence stared him in the face with
all that crowd to keep at home. He had cherished the
idea of building himself a little house in the country--
in Surrey--to end his days in, but he was afraid it was
out of the question, . . . and his staring eyes rolled
upwards with such a patheticanxiety that Captain Whal-
ley charitably nodded down at him, restraining a sort of
sickening desire to laugh.
"You must know what it is yourself, Harry. Girls
are the very devil for worry and anxiety."
"Ay! But mine is doing well," Captain Whalley pro-
nounced slowly, staring to the end of the avenue.
The Master-Attendant was glad to hear this. Uncom-
monly glad. He remembered her well. A pretty girl
she was.
Captain Whalley, stepping out carelessly, assented as
if in a dream.
"She was pretty."
The procession of carriages was breaking up.
One after another they left the file to go off at a trot,
animating the vast avenue with their scattered life and
movement; but soon the aspect of dignifiedsolitude re-
turned and took possession of the straight wide road.
A syce in white stood at the head of a Burmah pony har-
nessed to a varnished two-wheel cart; and the whole thing
waiting by the curb seemed no bigger than a child's toy
forgotten under the soaring trees. Captain Eliott
waddled up to it and made as if to clamber in, but re-
frained; and keeping one hand resting easily on the
shaft, he changed the conversation from his pension, his
daughters, and his poverty back again to the only other
topic in the world--the Marine Office, the men and the
disposition did not allow him to let it dwindle in his
hands for want of use. The uproarious, choleric frank-
ness of his comments on people's character and conduct
caused him to be feared at bottom; though in conversa-
tion many pretended not to mind him in the least, others
would only smile sourly at the mention of his name, and
there were even some who dared to pronounce him "a
meddlesome old ruffian." But for almost all of them
one of Captain Eliott's outbreaks was nearly as distaste-
ful to face as a chance of annihilation.
V
As soon as he had come up quite close he said, mouth-
ing in a growl--
"What's this I hear, Whalley? Is it true you're sell-
ing the Fair Maid?"
Captain Whalley, looking away, said the thing was
done--money had been paid that morning; and the other
expressed at once his approbation of such an extremely
sensible proceeding. He had got out of his trap to
stretch his legs, he explained, on his way home to dinner.
Sir Frederick looked well at the end of his time. Didn't
he?
Captain Whalley could not say; had only noticed the
carriage going past.
The Master-Attendant, plunging his hands into the
pockets of an alpaca jacket inappropriately short and
tight for a man of his age and appearance, strutted
with a slight limp, and with his head reaching only to
the shoulder of Captain Whalley, who walked easily,
staring straight before him. They had been good com-
rades years ago, almost intimates. At the time when
Whalley commanded the renowned Condor, Eliott had
charge of the nearly as famous Ringdove for the same
owners; and when the appointment of Master-Attendant
was created, Whalley would have been the only other
serious candidate. But Captain Whalley, then in the
prime of life, was resolved to serve no one but his own
auspicious Fortune. Far away, tending his hot irons,
he was glad to hear the other had been successful. There
was a worldly suppleness in bluff Ned Eliott that would
serve him well in that sort of official appointment. And
they were so dissimilar at bottom that as they came
slowly to the end of the avenue before the Cathedral, it
had never come into Whalley's head that he might have
been in that man's place--provided for to the end of
his days.
The sacrededifice, standing in solemnisolation amongst
the converging avenues of enormous trees, as if to put
grave thoughts of heaven into the hours of ease, pre-
sented a closed Gothic portal to the light and glory of
the west. The glass of the rosace above the ogive glowed
like fiery coal in the deep carvings of a wheel of stone.
The two men faced about.
"I'll tell you what they ought to do next, Whalley,"
growled Captain Eliott suddenly.
"Well?"
"They ought to send a real live lord out here when
Sir Frederick's time is up. Eh?"
Captain Whalley perfunctorily did not see why a lord
of the right sort should not do as well as anyone else.
But this was not the other's point of view.
"No, no. Place runs itself. Nothing can stop it now.
Good enough for a lord," he growled in short sentences.
"Look at the changes in our time. We need a lord
here now. They have got a lord in Bombay."
He dined once or twice every year at the Government
House--a many-windowed, arcaded palace upon a hill
laid out in roads and gardens. And lately he had been
taking about a duke in his Master-Attendant's steam-
launch to visit the harbor improvements. Before that
he had "most obligingly" gone out in person to pick
out a good berth for the ducal yacht. Afterwards he
had an invitation to lunch on board. The duchess her-
self lunched with them. A big woman with a red face.
Complexion quite sunburnt. He should think ruined.
Very gracious manners. They were going on to
Japan. . . .
He ejaculated these details for Captain Whalley's edi-
fication, pausing to blow out his cheeks as if with a
pent-up sense of importance, and repeatedly protruding
his thick lips till the blunt crimson end of his nose seemed
to dip into the milk of his mustache. The place ran
itself; it was fit for any lord; it gave no trouble except
in its Marine department--in its Marine department he
repeated twice, and after a heavy snort began to relate
how the other day her Majesty's Consul-General in
French Cochin-China had cabled to him--in his official
capacity--asking for a qualified man to be sent over
to take charge of a Glasgow ship whose master had died
in Saigon.
"I sent word of it to the officers' quarters in the Sailors'
Home," he continued, while the limp in his gait seemed
to grow more accentuated with the increasing irritation
of his voice. "Place's full of them. Twice as many
men as there are berths going in the local trade. All
hungry for an easy job. Twice as many--and--What
d'you think, Whalley? . . ."
He stopped short; his hands clenched and thrust deeply
downwards, seemed ready to burst the pockets of his
jacket. A slight sigh escaped Captain Whalley.
"Hey? You would think they would be falling over
each other. Not a bit of it. Frightened to go home.
Nice and warm out here to lie about a veranda waiting
for a job. I sit and wait in my office. Nobody. What
did they suppose? That I was going to sit there like
a dummy with the Consul-General's cable before me?
Not likely. So I looked up a list of them I keep by
me and sent word for Hamilton--the worst loafer of
them all--and just made him go. Threatened to in-
struct the steward of the Sailors' Home to have him
turned out neck and crop. He did not think the berth
was good enough--if--you--please. 'I've your little
records by me,' said I. 'You came ashore here eighteen
months ago, and you haven't done six months' work
since. You are in debt for your board now at the Home,
and I suppose you reckon the Marine Office will pay in
the end. Eh? So it shall; but if you don't take this
chance, away you go to England, assisted passage, by
the first homewardsteamer that comes along. You are
no better than a pauper. We don't want any white
paupers here.' I scared him. But look at the trouble
all this gave me."
"You would not have had any trouble," Captain Whal-
ley said almost involuntarily, "if you had sent for
me."
Captain Eliott was immensely amused; he shook with
laughter as he walked. But suddenly he stopped laugh-
ing. A vague recollection had crossed his mind. Hadn't
he heard it said at the time of the Travancore and Deccan
smash that poor Whalley had been cleaned out com-
pletely. "Fellow's hard up, by heavens!" he thought;
and at once he cast a sidelong upward glance at his
companion. But Captain Whalley was smiling austerely
straight before him, with a carriage of the head incon-
ceivable in a penniless man--and he became reassured.
Impossible. Could not have lost everything. That ship
had been only a hobby of his. And the reflection that
a man who had confessed to receiving that very morning
a presumably large sum of money was not likely to
spring upon him a demand for a small loan put him
entirely at his ease again. There had come a long pause
in their talk, however, and not knowing how to begin
again, he growled out soberly, "We old fellows ought
to take a rest now."
"The best thing for some of us would be to die at the
oar," Captain Whalley said negligently.
"Come, now. Aren't you a bit tired by this time of
the whole show?" muttered the other sullenly.
"Are you?"
Captain Eliott was. Infernally tired. He only hung
on to his berth so long in order to get his pension on the
highest scale before he went home. It would be no better
than poverty, anyhow; still, it was the only thing be-
tween him and the workhouse. And he had a family.
Three girls, as Whalley knew. He gave "Harry, old
boy," to understand that these three girls were a source
of the greatest anxiety and worry to him. Enough to
drive a man distracted.
"Why? What have they been doing now?" asked
Captain Whalley with a sort of amused absent-minded-
ness.
"Doing! Doing nothing. That's just it. Lawn-
tennis and silly novels from morning to night. . . ."
If one of them at least had been a boy. But all three!
And, as ill-luck would have it, there did not seem to be
any decent young fellows left in the world. When he
looked around in the club he saw only a lot of conceited
popinjays too selfish to think of making a good woman
happy. Extreme indigence stared him in the face with
all that crowd to keep at home. He had cherished the
idea of building himself a little house in the country--
in Surrey--to end his days in, but he was afraid it was
out of the question, . . . and his staring eyes rolled
upwards with such a patheticanxiety that Captain Whal-
ley charitably nodded down at him, restraining a sort of
sickening desire to laugh.
"You must know what it is yourself, Harry. Girls
are the very devil for worry and anxiety."
"Ay! But mine is doing well," Captain Whalley pro-
nounced slowly, staring to the end of the avenue.
The Master-Attendant was glad to hear this. Uncom-
monly glad. He remembered her well. A pretty girl
she was.
Captain Whalley, stepping out carelessly, assented as
if in a dream.
"She was pretty."
The procession of carriages was breaking up.
One after another they left the file to go off at a trot,
animating the vast avenue with their scattered life and
movement; but soon the aspect of dignifiedsolitude re-
turned and took possession of the straight wide road.
A syce in white stood at the head of a Burmah pony har-
nessed to a varnished two-wheel cart; and the whole thing
waiting by the curb seemed no bigger than a child's toy
forgotten under the soaring trees. Captain Eliott
waddled up to it and made as if to clamber in, but re-
frained; and keeping one hand resting easily on the
shaft, he changed the conversation from his pension, his
daughters, and his poverty back again to the only other
topic in the world--the Marine Office, the men and the
- character [´kæriktə]
n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词) - jacket [´dʒækit] n.茄克衫；外套 (初中英语单词)
- candidate [´kændideit] n.候选人；投考者 (初中英语单词)
- cathedral [kə´θi:drəl] n.大教堂 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
- enormous [i´nɔ:məs] a.巨大地，很，极 (初中英语单词)
- lately [´leitli] ad.近来，不久前 (初中英语单词)
- invitation [,invi´teiʃən] n.邀请；请帖；吸引 (初中英语单词)
- gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
- charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
- thrust [θrʌst] v.&n.猛推；冲；刺；挤进 (初中英语单词)
- ashore [ə´ʃɔ:] ad.向岸上 (初中英语单词)
- reckon [´rekən] v.计算；认为；估计 (初中英语单词)
- steamer [´sti:mə] n.汽船；轮船；蒸笼 (初中英语单词)
- upward [´ʌpwəd] a.&ad.向上(的)；以上 (初中英语单词)
- carriage [´kæridʒ] n.马车；客车；货运 (初中英语单词)
- reflection [ri´flekʃən] n.反射；映象；想法 (初中英语单词)
- knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
- poverty [´pɔvəti] n.贫穷(乏，瘠)；不足 (初中英语单词)
- anxiety [æŋ´zaiəti] n.挂念；渴望；焦虑的事 (初中英语单词)
- selfish [´selfiʃ] a.自私的，利己的 (初中英语单词)
- extreme [ik´stri:m] a.尽头的 n.极端 (初中英语单词)
- procession [prə´seʃən] n.队伍 v.列队行进 (初中英语单词)
- aspect [´æspekt] n.面貌；神色；方向 (初中英语单词)
- sourly [´sauəli] ad.愠怒地；敌对地 (高中英语单词)
- proceeding [prə´si:diŋ] n.程序；进程；行动 (高中英语单词)
- renowned [ri´naund] a.有名的，有声望的 (高中英语单词)
- duchess [´dʌtʃis] n.公爵夫人；女公爵 (高中英语单词)
- crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
- marine [mə´ri:n] a.海的 n.海军陆战队 (高中英语单词)
- steward [´stju:əd] n.管家；服务员 (高中英语单词)
- homeward [´həumwəd] ad.&a.回家(的) (高中英语单词)
- recollection [,rekə´lekʃən] n.回忆；追想；记忆力 (高中英语单词)
- pension [´penʃən] n.津贴 vt.给予...抚恤 (高中英语单词)
- decent [´di:sənt] a.体面的，正派的 (高中英语单词)
- carelessly [´kɛəlisli] ad.粗心地；疏忽地 (高中英语单词)
- dignified [´dignifaid] a.尊贵的 (高中英语单词)
- solitude [´sɔlitju:d] n.孤独；寂寞；荒凉 (高中英语单词)
- dwindle [´dwindl] vi.缩小，减少 (英语四级单词)
- resolved [ri´zɔlvd] a.决心的；坚定的 (英语四级单词)
- worldly [´wə:ldli] a.现世的；世俗的 (英语四级单词)
- edifice [´edifis] n.大厦；(知识的)体系 (英语四级单词)
- gothic [´gɔθik] a.哥特人(语)的 (英语四级单词)
- portal [´pɔ:tl] n.(正)门；隧道 (英语四级单词)
- repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli] ad.反复地；再三地 (英语四级单词)
- mustache [mə´stɑ:ʃ] n.髭，小胡子 (英语四级单词)
- glasgow [´glɑ:sgəu] n.格拉斯哥 (英语四级单词)
- veranda [və´rændə] n.游廊；阳台 (英语四级单词)
- immensely [i´mensli] ad.极大地，无限地 (英语四级单词)
- soberly [´səubəli] ad.严肃地；清醒地 (英语四级单词)
- pathetic [pə´θetik] a.可怜的；悲哀的 (英语四级单词)
- clamber [´klæmbə] v.&n.爬；攀登 (英语四级单词)
- conceited [kən´si:tid] a.自负的；自夸的 (英语六级单词)
- isolation [,aisə´leiʃən] n.隔离，孤立 (英语六级单词)
- involuntarily [in´vɔləntərili] ad.不 自觉地 (英语六级单词)
- presumably [pri´zju:məbli] ad.推测起来；大概 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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