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Allan Quatermain-Part30_H.Rider Haggard(1856-1925)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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and most charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers

who happened to come that way, etc.



All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There

was, they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation



of the beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain

porosity of mind similar to that produced upon the physical body



by the healthful influences of sun and air. Consequently it

was probable that we might absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little



faster if suitable teachers could be found. Another thing was

that, as the female sex was naturally loquacious, good practice



would be gained in the viva voce department of our studies.

To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen



departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with

our wishes in every way, and that, if possible, our views should



be met.

Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I



trust and believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where

we were accustomed to carry on our studies the following morning,



we found, instead of our usual venerable tutors, three of the

best-looking young women whom Milosis could produce -- and that



is saying a good deal -- who blushed and smiled and curtseyed,

and gave us to understand that they were there to carry on our



instruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in bewilderment,

thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his memory



before -- but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previous

evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education



should be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, and

appealed to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis.



'Well,' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they? If

we sent them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings,



eh? One doesn't like to be rough, you see; and they look regular

blues, don't they, eh?'



By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest

of the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything



went very well: the young ladies were certainly very clever,

and they only smiled when we blundered. I never saw Good so



attentive to his books before, and even Sir Henry appeared to

tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest. 'Ah,' thought I, 'will



it always be thus?'

Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed



with questions about our native country, what the ladies were

like there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could



in Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness

was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which



she replied with a little toss of the head, that she was a plain

teaching woman and nothing else, and that it was not kind 'to



deceive a poor girl so'. Then we had a little singing that was

really charming, so natural and unaffected. The Zu-Vendi love-songs



are most touching. On the third day we were all quite intimate.

Good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his fair



teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with his

own. I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendian



art, and never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to

drop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my back, whilst in



the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared, so far as I

could judge, to be going through a lesson framed on the great



educational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers Esq., though

in a very modified or rather spiritualized form. The lady softly



repeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he took hers; 'eyes',

and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips', and -- but just



at that moment my young lady dropped the cockroach down my back

and ran away laughing. Now if there is one thing I loathe more



than another it is cockroaches, and moved quite beyond myself,

and yet laughing at her impudence, I took up the cushion she



had been sitting on and threw it after her. Imagine then my

shame -- my horror, and my distress -- when the door opened,



and, attended by two guards only, in walked Nyleptha. The cushion

could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the



guards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried




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