章节正文
Rosa had scarcely pronounced these consolatory words when a
voice was heard from the staircase asking Gryphus how
matters were going on.
"Do you hear, father?" said Rosa.
"What?"
"Master Jacob calls you, he is uneasy."
"There was such a noise," said Gryphus; "wouldn't you have
thought he would murder me, this doctor? They are always
very troublesome fellows, these scholars."
Then, pointing with his finger towards the staircase, he
said to Rosa: "Just lead the way, Miss."
After this he locked the door and called out: "I shall be
with you directly, friend Jacob."
Poor Cornelius, thus left alone with his bitter grief,
muttered to himself, --
"Ah, you old hangman! it is me you have trodden under foot;
you have murdered me; I shall not survive it."
And certainly the unfortunate prisoner would have fallen ill
but for the counterpoise which Providence had granted to his
grief, and which was called Rosa.
In the evening she came back. Her first words announced to
Cornelius that henceforth her father would make no objection
to his cultivating flowers.
"And how do you know that?" the prisoner asked, with a
doleful look.
"I know it because he has said so."
"To deceive me, perhaps."
"No, he repents."
"Ah yes! but too late."
"This repentance is not of himself."
"And who put it into him?"
"If you only knew how his friend scolded him!"
"Ah, Master Jacob; he does not leave you, then, that Master
Jacob?"
"At any rate, he leaves us as little as he can help."
Saying this, she smiled in such a way that the little cloud
of jealousy which had darkened the brow of Cornelius
speedily vanished.
"How was it?" asked the prisoner.
"Well, being asked by his friend, my father told at supper
the whole story of the tulip, or rather of the bulb, and of
his own fine exploit of crushing it."
Cornelius heaved a sigh, which might have been called a
groan.
"Had you only seen Master Jacob at that moment!" continued
Rosa. "I really thought he would set fire to the castle; his
eyes were like two flaming torches, his hair stood on end,
and he clinched his fist for a moment; I thought he would
have strangled my father."
"'You have done that,' he cried, 'you have crushed the
bulb?'
"'Indeed I have.'
"'It is infamous,' said Master Jacob, 'it is odious! You
have committed a great crime!'
"My father was quite dumbfounded.
"'Are you mad, too?' he asked his friend."
"Oh, what a worthy man is this Master Jacob!" muttered
Cornelius, -- "an honest soul, an excellent heart that he
is."
"The truth is, that it is impossible to treat a man more
rudely than he did my father; he was really quite in
despair, repeating over and over again, --
"'Crushed, crushed the bulb! my God, my God! crushed!'
"Then, turning toward me, he asked, 'But it was not the only
one that he had?'"
"Did he ask that?" inquired Cornelius, with some anxiety.
"'You think it was not the only one?' said my father. 'Very
well, we shall search for the others.'
"'You will search for the others?' cried Jacob, taking my
father by the collar; but he immediately loosed him. Then,
turning towards me, he continued, asking 'And what did that
poor young man say?'
"I did not know what to answer, as you had so strictly
enjoined me never to allow any one to guess the interest
which you are taking in the bulb. Fortunately, my father
saved me from the difficulty by chiming in, --
"'What did he say? Didn't he fume and fret?'
"I interrupted him, saying, 'Was it not natural that be
should be furious, you were so unjust and brutal, father?'
"'Well, now, are you mad?' cried my father; 'what immense
misfortune is it to crush a tulip bulb? You may buy a
hundred of them in the market of Gorcum.'
"'Perhaps some less precious one than that was!' I quite
incautiously replied."
"And what did Jacob say or do at these words?" asked
Cornelius.
"At these words, if I must say it, his eyes seemed to flash
like lightning."
"But," said Cornelius, "that was not all; I am sure he said
something in his turn."
"'So, then, my pretty Rosa,' he said, with a voice as sweet
a honey, -- 'so you think that bulb to have been a precious
one?'
"I saw that I had made a blunder.
"'What do I know?' I said, negligently; 'do I understand
anything of tulips? I only know -- as unfortunately it is
our lot to live with prisoners -- that for them any pastime
is of value. This poor Mynheer van Baerle amused himself
with this bulb. Well, I think it very cruel to take from him
the only thing that he could have amused himself with.'
"'But, first of all,' said my father, 'we ought to know how
he has contrived to procure this bulb.'
"I turned my eyes away to avoid my father's look; but I met
those of Jacob.
"It was as if he had tried to read my thoughts at the bottom
of my heart.
"Some little show of anger sometimes saves an answer. I
shrugged my shoulders, turned my back, and advanced towards
the door.
"But I was kept by something which I heard, although it was
uttered in a very low voice only.
"Jacob said to my father, --
"'It would not be so difficult to ascertain that.'
"'How so?'
"'You need only search his person: and if he has the other
bulbs, we shall find them, as there usually are three
suckers!'"
"Three suckers!" cried Cornelius. "Did you say that I have
three?"
"The word certainly struck me just as much as it does you. I
turned round. They were both of them so deeply engaged in
their conversation that they did not observe my movement.
"'But,' said my father, 'perhaps he has not got his bulbs
about him?'
"'Then take him down, under some pretext or other and I will
search his cell in the meanwhile.'"
"Halloa, halloa!" said Cornelius. "But this Mr. Jacob of
yours is a villain, it seems."
"I am afraid he is."
"Tell me, Rosa," continued Cornelius, with a pensive air.
"What?"
"Did you not tell me that on the day when you prepared your
borders this man followed you?"
"So he did."
"That he glided like a shadow behind the elder trees?"
"Certainly."
"That not one of your movements escaped him?"
"Not one, indeed."
"Rosa," said Cornelius, growing quite pale.
"Well?"
"It was not you he was after."
"Who else, then?"
"It is not you that he was in love with!"
"But with whom else?"
"He was after my bulb, and is in love with my tulip!"
"You don't say so! And yet it is very possible," said Rosa.
"Will you make sure of it?"
"In what manner?"
"Oh, it would be very easy!"
"Tell me."
"Go to-morrow into the garden; manage matters so that Jacob
may know, as he did the first time, that you are going
there, and that he may follow you. Feign to put the bulb
into the ground; leave the garden, but look through the
keyhole of the door and watch him."
"Well, and what then?"
"What then? We shall do as he does."
"Oh!" said Rosa, with a sigh, "you are very fond of your
bulbs."
"To tell the truth," said the prisoner, sighing likewise,
"since your father crushed that unfortunate bulb, I feel as
if part of my own self had been paralyzed."
"Now just hear me," said Rosa; "will you try something
else?"
"What?"
"Will you accept the proposition of my father?"
"Which proposition?"
"Did not he offer to you tulip bulbs by hundreds?"
"Indeed he did."
"Accept two or three, and, along with them, you may grow the
third sucker."
"Yes, that would do very well," said Cornelius, knitting his
brow; "if your father were alone, but there is that Master
Jacob, who watches all our ways."
"Well, that is true; but only think! you are depriving
yourself, as I can easily see, of a very great pleasure."
She pronounced these words with a smile, which was not
altogether without a tinge of irony.
Cornelius reflected for a moment; he evidently was
struggling against some vehement desire.
"No!" he cried at last, with the stoicism of a Roman of old,
"it would be a weakness, it would be a folly, it would be a
meanness! If I thus give up the only and last resource which
we possess to the uncertain chances of the bad passions of
anger and envy, I should never deserve to be forgiven. No,
Rosa, no; to-morrow we shall come to a conclusion as to the
spot to be chosen for your tulip; you will plant it
according to my instructions; and as to the third sucker,"
-- Cornelius here heaved a deep sigh, -- "watch over it as a
miser over his first or last piece of gold; as the mother
over her child; as the wounded over the last drop of blood
in his veins; watch over it, Rosa! Some voice within me
tells me that it will be our saving, that it will be a
source of good to us."
"Be easy, Mynheer Cornelius," said Rosa, with a sweet
mixture of melancholy and gravity, "be easy; your wishes are
commands to me."
"And even," continued Van Baerle, warming more and more with
his subject, "if you should perceive that your steps are
watched, and that your speech has excited the suspicion of
your father and of that detestable Master Jacob, -- well,
voice was heard from the staircase asking Gryphus how
matters were going on.
"Do you hear, father?" said Rosa.
"What?"
"Master Jacob calls you, he is uneasy."
"There was such a noise," said Gryphus; "wouldn't you have
thought he would murder me, this doctor? They are always
very troublesome fellows, these scholars."
Then, pointing with his finger towards the staircase, he
said to Rosa: "Just lead the way, Miss."
After this he locked the door and called out: "I shall be
with you directly, friend Jacob."
Poor Cornelius, thus left alone with his bitter grief,
muttered to himself, --
"Ah, you old hangman! it is me you have trodden under foot;
you have murdered me; I shall not survive it."
And certainly the unfortunate prisoner would have fallen ill
but for the counterpoise which Providence had granted to his
grief, and which was called Rosa.
In the evening she came back. Her first words announced to
Cornelius that henceforth her father would make no objection
to his cultivating flowers.
"And how do you know that?" the prisoner asked, with a
doleful look.
"I know it because he has said so."
"To deceive me, perhaps."
"No, he repents."
"Ah yes! but too late."
"This repentance is not of himself."
"And who put it into him?"
"If you only knew how his friend scolded him!"
"Ah, Master Jacob; he does not leave you, then, that Master
Jacob?"
"At any rate, he leaves us as little as he can help."
Saying this, she smiled in such a way that the little cloud
of jealousy which had darkened the brow of Cornelius
speedily vanished.
"How was it?" asked the prisoner.
"Well, being asked by his friend, my father told at supper
the whole story of the tulip, or rather of the bulb, and of
his own fine exploit of crushing it."
Cornelius heaved a sigh, which might have been called a
groan.
"Had you only seen Master Jacob at that moment!" continued
Rosa. "I really thought he would set fire to the castle; his
eyes were like two flaming torches, his hair stood on end,
and he clinched his fist for a moment; I thought he would
have strangled my father."
"'You have done that,' he cried, 'you have crushed the
bulb?'
"'Indeed I have.'
"'It is infamous,' said Master Jacob, 'it is odious! You
have committed a great crime!'
"My father was quite dumbfounded.
"'Are you mad, too?' he asked his friend."
"Oh, what a worthy man is this Master Jacob!" muttered
Cornelius, -- "an honest soul, an excellent heart that he
is."
"The truth is, that it is impossible to treat a man more
rudely than he did my father; he was really quite in
despair, repeating over and over again, --
"'Crushed, crushed the bulb! my God, my God! crushed!'
"Then, turning toward me, he asked, 'But it was not the only
one that he had?'"
"Did he ask that?" inquired Cornelius, with some anxiety.
"'You think it was not the only one?' said my father. 'Very
well, we shall search for the others.'
"'You will search for the others?' cried Jacob, taking my
father by the collar; but he immediately loosed him. Then,
turning towards me, he continued, asking 'And what did that
poor young man say?'
"I did not know what to answer, as you had so strictly
enjoined me never to allow any one to guess the interest
which you are taking in the bulb. Fortunately, my father
saved me from the difficulty by chiming in, --
"'What did he say? Didn't he fume and fret?'
"I interrupted him, saying, 'Was it not natural that be
should be furious, you were so unjust and brutal, father?'
"'Well, now, are you mad?' cried my father; 'what immense
misfortune is it to crush a tulip bulb? You may buy a
hundred of them in the market of Gorcum.'
"'Perhaps some less precious one than that was!' I quite
incautiously replied."
"And what did Jacob say or do at these words?" asked
Cornelius.
"At these words, if I must say it, his eyes seemed to flash
like lightning."
"But," said Cornelius, "that was not all; I am sure he said
something in his turn."
"'So, then, my pretty Rosa,' he said, with a voice as sweet
a honey, -- 'so you think that bulb to have been a precious
one?'
"I saw that I had made a blunder.
"'What do I know?' I said, negligently; 'do I understand
anything of tulips? I only know -- as unfortunately it is
our lot to live with prisoners -- that for them any pastime
is of value. This poor Mynheer van Baerle amused himself
with this bulb. Well, I think it very cruel to take from him
the only thing that he could have amused himself with.'
"'But, first of all,' said my father, 'we ought to know how
he has contrived to procure this bulb.'
"I turned my eyes away to avoid my father's look; but I met
those of Jacob.
"It was as if he had tried to read my thoughts at the bottom
of my heart.
"Some little show of anger sometimes saves an answer. I
shrugged my shoulders, turned my back, and advanced towards
the door.
"But I was kept by something which I heard, although it was
uttered in a very low voice only.
"Jacob said to my father, --
"'It would not be so difficult to ascertain that.'
"'How so?'
"'You need only search his person: and if he has the other
bulbs, we shall find them, as there usually are three
suckers!'"
"Three suckers!" cried Cornelius. "Did you say that I have
three?"
"The word certainly struck me just as much as it does you. I
turned round. They were both of them so deeply engaged in
their conversation that they did not observe my movement.
"'But,' said my father, 'perhaps he has not got his bulbs
about him?'
"'Then take him down, under some pretext or other and I will
search his cell in the meanwhile.'"
"Halloa, halloa!" said Cornelius. "But this Mr. Jacob of
yours is a villain, it seems."
"I am afraid he is."
"Tell me, Rosa," continued Cornelius, with a pensive air.
"What?"
"Did you not tell me that on the day when you prepared your
borders this man followed you?"
"So he did."
"That he glided like a shadow behind the elder trees?"
"Certainly."
"That not one of your movements escaped him?"
"Not one, indeed."
"Rosa," said Cornelius, growing quite pale.
"Well?"
"It was not you he was after."
"Who else, then?"
"It is not you that he was in love with!"
"But with whom else?"
"He was after my bulb, and is in love with my tulip!"
"You don't say so! And yet it is very possible," said Rosa.
"Will you make sure of it?"
"In what manner?"
"Oh, it would be very easy!"
"Tell me."
"Go to-morrow into the garden; manage matters so that Jacob
may know, as he did the first time, that you are going
there, and that he may follow you. Feign to put the bulb
into the ground; leave the garden, but look through the
keyhole of the door and watch him."
"Well, and what then?"
"What then? We shall do as he does."
"Oh!" said Rosa, with a sigh, "you are very fond of your
bulbs."
"To tell the truth," said the prisoner, sighing likewise,
"since your father crushed that unfortunate bulb, I feel as
if part of my own self had been paralyzed."
"Now just hear me," said Rosa; "will you try something
else?"
"What?"
"Will you accept the proposition of my father?"
"Which proposition?"
"Did not he offer to you tulip bulbs by hundreds?"
"Indeed he did."
"Accept two or three, and, along with them, you may grow the
third sucker."
"Yes, that would do very well," said Cornelius, knitting his
brow; "if your father were alone, but there is that Master
Jacob, who watches all our ways."
"Well, that is true; but only think! you are depriving
yourself, as I can easily see, of a very great pleasure."
She pronounced these words with a smile, which was not
altogether without a tinge of irony.
Cornelius reflected for a moment; he evidently was
struggling against some vehement desire.
"No!" he cried at last, with the stoicism of a Roman of old,
"it would be a weakness, it would be a folly, it would be a
meanness! If I thus give up the only and last resource which
we possess to the uncertain chances of the bad passions of
anger and envy, I should never deserve to be forgiven. No,
Rosa, no; to-morrow we shall come to a conclusion as to the
spot to be chosen for your tulip; you will plant it
according to my instructions; and as to the third sucker,"
-- Cornelius here heaved a deep sigh, -- "watch over it as a
miser over his first or last piece of gold; as the mother
over her child; as the wounded over the last drop of blood
in his veins; watch over it, Rosa! Some voice within me
tells me that it will be our saving, that it will be a
source of good to us."
"Be easy, Mynheer Cornelius," said Rosa, with a sweet
mixture of melancholy and gravity, "be easy; your wishes are
commands to me."
"And even," continued Van Baerle, warming more and more with
his subject, "if you should perceive that your steps are
watched, and that your speech has excited the suspicion of
your father and of that detestable Master Jacob, -- well,
- survive [sə´vaiv]
vt.幸存；残存 (初中英语单词) - unfortunate [ʌn´fɔ:tʃunit] a.不幸的，运气差的 (初中英语单词)
- henceforth [´hens´fɔ:θ] ad.今后；从今以后 (初中英语单词)
- deceive [di´si:v] vt.欺骗，欺诈 (初中英语单词)
- worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)
- collar [´kɔlə] n.衣领；(狗等的)项圈 (初中英语单词)
- furious [´fjuəriəs] a.狂怒的；猛烈的 (初中英语单词)
- procure [prə´kjuə] v.获得；完(达)成；实现 (初中英语单词)
- advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中英语单词)
- knitting [´nitiŋ] n.编织(物)；接合；联合 (初中英语单词)
- evidently [´evidəntli] ad.明显地 (初中英语单词)
- weakness [´wi:knis] n.虚弱；弱点，缺点 (初中英语单词)
- resource [ri´zɔ:s] n.手段；智谋 (初中英语单词)
- uncertain [ʌn´sə:tn] a.不定的；不可靠的 (初中英语单词)
- deserve [di´zə:v] v.应受；值得 (初中英语单词)
- conclusion [kən´klu:ʒən] n.结束；结论；推论 (初中英语单词)
- perceive [pə´si:v] vt.察觉；看出；领悟 (初中英语单词)
- suspicion [sə´spiʃən] n.怀(猜)疑；嫌疑 (初中英语单词)
- pronounced [prə´naunst] a.发出音的；显著的 (高中英语单词)
- jealousy [´dʒeləsi] n.妒忌；猜忌 (高中英语单词)
- exploit [´eksplɔit] n.功绩 vt.剥削；开发 (高中英语单词)
- fortunately [´fɔ:tʃənətli] ad.幸运地 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- unfortunately [ʌn´fɔ:tʃunitli] ad.不幸；不朽；可惜 (高中英语单词)
- ascertain [,æsə´tein] vt.探查；查明 (高中英语单词)
- proposition [,prɔpə´ziʃən] n.提议；主张；陈述 (高中英语单词)
- melancholy [´melənkəli] n.忧郁 a.忧郁的 (高中英语单词)
- gravity [´græviti] n.严肃；严重；重力 (高中英语单词)
- staircase [´steəkeis] n.楼梯 =stairway (英语四级单词)
- providence [´prɔvidəns] n.天意，天命，上帝 (英语四级单词)
- flaming [´fleimiŋ] a.熊熊燃烧的；热情的 (英语四级单词)
- unjust [ʌn´dʒʌst] a.不公平(正)的 (英语四级单词)
- brutal [´bru:tl] a.兽性的；残暴的 (英语四级单词)
- villain [´vilən] n.坏人；恶棍；反面角色 (英语四级单词)
- forgiven [fə´givn] forgive的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
- warming [´wɔ:miŋ] n.暖和；加温 (英语四级单词)
- repentance [ri´pentəns] n.悔悟，悔改；忏悔 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- pensive [´pensiv] a.沉思的；忧郁的 (英语六级单词)
- vehement [´viəmənt] a.猛烈的；热烈的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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