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Catriona-Part28_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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calm, very frosty and cloudy, and with a low shifting fog upon the

water. The body of the vessel was thus quite hid as I drew near, but



the tall spars of her stood high and bright in a sunshine like the

flickering of a fire. She proved to be a very roomy, commodious



merchant, but somewhat blunt in the bows, and loaden extraordinary deep

with salt, salted salmon, and fine white linen stockings for the Dutch.



Upon my coming on board, the captain welcomed me - one Sang (out of

Lesmahago, I believe), a very hearty, friendly tarpaulin of a man, but



at the moment in rather of a bustle. There had no other of the

passengers yet appeared, so that I was left to walk about upon the



deck, viewing the prospect and wondering a good deal what these

farewells should be which I was promised.



All Edinburgh and the Pentland Hills glinted above me in a kind of

smuisty brightness, now and again overcome with blots of cloud; of



Leith there was no more than the tops of chimneys visible, and on the

face of the water, where the haar lay, nothing at all. Out of this I



was presently aware of a sound of oars pulling, and a little after (as

if out of the smoke of a fire) a boat issued. There sat a grave man in



the stern sheets, well muffled from the cold, and by his side a tall,

pretty, tender figure of a maid that brought my heart to a stand. I



had scarce the time to catch my breath in, and be ready to meet her, as

she stepped upon the deck, smiling, and making my best bow, which was



now vastly finer than some months before, when first I made it to her

ladyship. No doubt we were both a good deal changed: she seemed to



have shot up like a young, comely tree. She had now a kind of pretty

backwardness that became her well as of one that regarded herself more



highly and was fairly woman; and for another thing, the hand of the

same magician had been at work upon the pair of us, and Miss Grant had



made us both BRAW, if she could make but the one BONNY.

The same cry, in words not very different, came from both of us, that



the other was come in compliment to say farewell, and then we perceived

in a flash we were to ship together.



"O, why will not Baby have been telling me!" she cried; and then

remembered a letter she had been given, on the condition of not opening



it till she was well on board. Within was an enclosure for myself, and

ran thus:



"DEAR DAVIE, - What do you think of my farewell? and what do you say to

your fellow passenger? Did you kiss, or did you ask? I was about to



have signed here, but that would leave the purport of my question

doubtful, and in my own case I KEN THE ANSWER. So fill up here with



good advice. Do not be too blate, and for God's sake do not try to be

too forward; nothing acts you worse. I am



"Your affectionate friend and governess,

"BARBARA GRANT."



I wrote a word of answer and compliment on a leaf out of my pocketbook,

put it in with another scratch from Catriona, sealed the whole with my



new signet of the Balfour arms, and despatched it by the hand of

Prestongrange's servant that still waited in my boat.



Then we had time to look upon each other more at leisure, which we had

not done for a piece of a minute before (upon a common impulse) we



shook hands again.

"Catriona?" said I. It seemed that was the first and last word of my



eloquence.

"You will be glad to see me again?" says she.



"And I think that is an idle word," said I. "We are too deep friends

to make speech upon such trifles."



"Is she not the girl of all the world?" she cried again. "I was never

knowing such a girl so honest and so beautiful."



"And yet she cared no more for Alpin than what she did for a kale-

stock," said I.



"Ah, she will say so indeed!" cries Catriona. "Yet it was for the name

and the gentle kind blood that she took me up and was so good to me."



"Well, I will tell you why it was," said I. "There are all sorts of

people's faces in this world. There is Barbara's face, that everyone



must look at and admire, and think her a fine, brave, merry girl. And

then there is your face, which is quite different - I never knew how



different till to-day. You cannot see yourself, and that is why you do

not understand; but it was for the love of your face that she took you



up and was so good to you. And everybody in the world would do the

same."



"Everybody?" says she.

"Every living soul?" said I.



"Ah, then, that will be why the soldiers at the castle took me up!" she

cried,



"Barbara has been teaching you to catch me," said I.

"She will have taught me more than that at all events. She will have



taught me a great deal about Mr. David - all the ill of him, and a




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