51(y)(7)
用你喜欢的方式阅读你喜欢的小说
双城记英文版 - Part 3 Chapter XXXIII. THE SHADOW
繁体
恢复默认
返回目录【键盘操作】左右光标键:上下章节;回车键:目录;双击鼠标:停止/启动自动滚动;滚动时上下光标键调节滚动速度。
  One of the first considerations which arose in the business mind of Mr. Lorry when business hours came round, was this:—that he had no right to imperil Tellson’s by sheltering the wife of an emigrant prisoner under the Bank roof. His own possessions, safety, life, he would have hazarded for Lucie and her child, without a moment’s demur; but the great trust he held was not his own, and as to that business charge he was a strict man of business.At first, his mind reverted to Defarge, and he thought of finding out the wine-shop again and taking counsel with its master in reference to the safest dwelling-place in the distracted state of the city. But, the same consideration that suggested him, repudiated him; he lived in the most violent Quarter, and doubtless was influential there, and deep in its dangerous workings.Noon coming, and the Doctor not returning, and every minute’s delay tending to compromise Tellson’s, Mr. Lorry advised with Lucie. She said that her father had spoken of hiring a lodging for a short term, in that Quarter, near the Banking-house. As there was no business objection to this, and as he foresaw that even if it were all well with Charles, and he were to be released, he could not hope to leave the city, Mr. Lorry went out in quest of such a lodging, and found a suitable one, high up in a removed by-street where the closed blinds in all the other windows of a high melancholy square of buildings marked deserted homes.To this lodging he at once removed Lucie and her child, and Miss Pross; giving them what comfort he could, and much more than he had himself. He left Jerry with them, as a figure to fill a doorway that would bear considerable knocking on the head, and returned to his own occupations. A disturbed and doleful mind he brought to bear upon them; and slowly and heavily, the day lagged on with him.It wore itself out, and wore him out with it, until the Bank closed. He was again alone in his room of the previous night, considering what to do next, when he heard a foot upon the stair. In a few moments a man stood in his presence, who, with a keenly observant look at him, addressed him by his name.“Your servant,” said Mr. Lorry. “Do you know me?”He was a strongly made man with dark curling hair, from forty- five to fifty years of age. For answer he repeated without any change of emphasis, the words:“Do you know me?”“I have seen you somewhere.”“Perhaps at my wine-shop?”Much interested and agitated, Mr. Lorry said: “You come from Doctor Manette?”“Yes, I come from Doctor Manette.”“And what says he? What does he send me?”Defarge gave into his anxious hand, an open scrap of paper. It bore the words in the Doctor’s writing:Charles is safe, but I cannot safely leave this place yet. I have obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note from Charles to his wife. Let the bearer see his wife.It was dated from La Force, within an hour.“Will you accompany me,” said Mr. Lorry, joyfully relieved after reading this note aloud, “to where his wife resides?”“Yes,” returned Defarge.Scarcely noticing as yet, in what a curiously reserved and mechanical way Defarge spoke, Mr. Lorry put on his hat and they went down into the court-yard. There they found two women; one knitting.“Madame Defarge, surely!” said Mr. Lorry, who had left her in exactly the same attitude some seventeen years ago.“It is she,” observed her husband.“Does Madame go with us?” inquired Mr. Lorry, seeing that she moved as they moved.“Yes. That she may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons. It is for their safety.”Beginning to be struck by Defarge’s manner, Mr. Lorry looked dubiously at him, and led the way. Both the women followed; the second woman being The Vengeance.They passed through the intervening streets as quickly as they might, ascended the staircase of the new domicile, were admitted by Jerry, and found Lucie weeping, alone. She was thrown into a transport by the tidings Mr. Lorry gave her of her husband, and clasped the hand that delivered his note—little thinking what it had been doing near him in the night, and might, but for a chance, have done for him.DEAREST—Take courage. I am well, and your father has influence around me. You cannot answer this. Kiss our child for me.That was all the writing. It was so much, however, to her who received it, that she turned from Defarge to his wife, and kissed one of the hands that knitted. It was a passionate, loving, thankful, womanly action, but the hand made no response—dropped cold and heavy, and took to its knitting again.There was something in its touch that gave Lucie a check. She stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom, and, with her hands yet at her neck, looked terrified at Madame Defarge. Madame Defarge met the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a cold, impassive stare.“My dear,” said Mr. Lorry, striking in to explain; “there are frequent risings in the streets; and, although it is not likely they will ever trouble you, Madame Defarge wishes to see those whom she has the power to protect at such times, to the end that she may know them—that she may identify them. I believe,” said Mr. Lorry, rather halting in his reassuring words, as the stony manner of all the three impressed itself upon him more and more, “I state the case, Citizen Defarge?”Defarge looked gloomily at his wife, and gave no other answer than a gruff sound of acquiescence.“You had better, Lucie,” said Mr. Lorry, doing all he could to propitiate, by tone and manner, “have the dear child here, and our good Pross. Our good Pross, Defarge, is an English lady, and knows no French.”The lady in question, whose rooted conviction that she was more than a match for any foreigner, was not to be shaken by distress and danger, appeared with folded arms, and observed in English to The Vengeance, whom her eyes first encountered, “Well, I am sure, Boldface! I hope you are pretty well!” She also bestowed a British cough on Madame Defarge; but, neither of the two took much heed of her.“Is that his child?” said Madame Defarge, stopping in her work for the first time and pointing her knitting-needle at little Lucie as if it were the finger of Fate.“Yes, Madame,” answered Mr. Lorry; “this is our poor prisoner’s darling daughter, and only child.”The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child, that her mother instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her, and held her to her breast. The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed then to fall, threatening and dark, on both the mother and the child.“It is enough, my husband,” said Madame Defarge. “I have seen them. We may go.”But the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it—not visible and presented, but indistinct and withheld—to alarm Lucie into saying, as she laid her appealing hand on Madame Defarge’s dress:“You will be good to my poor husband. You will do him no harm. You will help me to see him if you can?”“Your husband is not my business here,” returned Madame Defarge, looking down at her with perfect composure. “It is the daughter of your father who is my business here.”“For my sake, then, be merciful to my husband. For my child’s sake! She will put her hands together and pray you to be merciful. We are more afraid of you than of these others.”Madame Defarge received it as a compliment, and looked at her husband. Defarge, who had been uneasily biting his thumb-nail and looking at her, collected his face into a sterner expression.“What is that your husband says in that little letter?” asked Madame Defarge, with a lowering smile. “Influence; he says something touching influence?”“That my father,” said Lucie, hurriedly taking the paper from her breast, but with her alarmed eyes on her questioner and not on it, “has much influence around him.”“Surely it will release him!” said Madame Defarge. “Let it do so.”“As a wife and mother,” cried Lucie most earnestly, “I implore you to have pity on me and not exercise any power that you possess, against my innocent husband, but to use it in his behalf. O sister-woman, think of me. As a wife and mother!”Madame Defarge looked, coldly as ever, at the suppliant, and said, turning to her friend The Vengeance:“The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since we were as little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly considered? We have known their husbands and fathers laid in prison and kept from them, often enough? All our lives, we have seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression, and neglect of all kinds?”“We have seen nothing else,” returned The Vengeance.“We have borne this a long time,” said Madame Defarge, turning her eyes again upon Lucie. “Judge you! Is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?”She resumed her knitting and went out. The Vengeance followed. Defarge went last, and closed the door.“Courage, my dear Lucie,” said Mr. Lorry, as he raised her. “Courage, courage! So far all goes well with us—much, much better than it has of late gone with many poor souls. Cheer up, and have a thankful heart.”“I am not thankless, I hope, but that dreadful woman seems to throw a shadow on me and on all my hopes.”“Tut, tut!” said Mr. Lorry; “what is this despondency in the brave little beast? A shadow indeed! No substance in it, Lucie.”But the shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon himself, for all that, and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly.
或许您还会喜欢:
摆脱危机者的调查书
作者:佚名
章节:12 人气:0
摘要:1明明那是别人说过的话,而且我还记得别人说那些话时的情景;可是,我总觉得那才是发自我灵魂深处的话。不过,既然语言得有两个人参与才能成立,也就不能不说是由于我的存在才成为别人的语言的真正的源泉了。有一回,那位核电站的原工程师,也就是和我相互排斥的那个人,他既想让我听见,却又装做自言自语似地说:“没有比选上救场跑垒员①更令人胆战心惊而又最雄心勃勃的了!那是为业余棒球殉难啊。 [点击阅读]
摩尔弗兰德斯
作者:佚名
章节:37 人气:0
摘要:第1章序近来,世人颇感兴趣于长篇小说和浪漫故事,而对个人经历很难信以为真,以致对此人的真名及其它情况都予以隐瞒;鉴于此,对于后面的文字,读者如何看待均随其所愿。可以认为,笔者在本书中写出了她自身的经历,从一开始她就讲述自己为何认为最好隐瞒自己的真名,对此我们毋须多言。 [点击阅读]
放学后
作者:佚名
章节:30 人气:0
摘要:九月十日,星期二的放学后。头顶上方传来“砰”的一声,我反射动作的抬起头,见到三楼窗户丢出某黑色物体,正好在我的上方,我慌忙避开。黑色物体落在我刚才站的地点后,破碎了。那是天竺葵的盆栽!那时放学后,我走在教室大楼旁时发生的事。不知从何处飘来的钢琴声。我呆然凝视那破碎的陶盆,一瞬,无法理解发生什么事,直到腋下的汗珠沿手臂滴落,我才忽然清醒过来。紧接的瞬间,我拔腿往前跑。 [点击阅读]
数字城堡
作者:佚名
章节:15 人气:0
摘要:丹·布朗(DanBrown)是美国当今最著名的畅销书作家之一。2003年3月出版的《达·芬奇密码》创造了一个书市奇迹,旋风般地横扫了美国各大畅销书榜,至今全球销量已超过800万册。丹·布朗也凭这部小说而大红大紫。丹·布朗出生于美国一个中产阶级家庭,从小在美国新罕布什尔州的埃克塞特镇长大,在阿默斯特学院和菲利普·埃克塞特学院度过了大学生涯,毕业之后留在菲利普·埃克塞特学院教授英语。 [点击阅读]
斯塔福特疑案
作者:佚名
章节:31 人气:0
摘要:布尔纳比少校穿上皮靴,扣好围颈的大衣领,在门旁的架子上拿下一盏避风灯,轻轻地打开小平房的正门,从缝隙向外探视。映入眼帘的是一派典型的英国乡村的景色,就象圣诞卡片和旧式情节剧的节目单上所描绘的一样——白雪茫茫,堆银砌玉。四天来整个英格兰一直大雪飞舞。在达尔特莫尔边缘的高地上,积雪深达数英所。全英格兰的户主都在为水管破裂而哀叹。只需个铝管工友(哪怕是个副手)也是人们求之不得的救星了。寒冬是严峻的。 [点击阅读]
斯泰尔斯庄园奇案
作者:佚名
章节:13 人气:0
摘要:曾经轰动一时,在公众中引起强烈兴趣的“斯泰尔斯庄园案”,现在已经有点冷落下来了。然而,由于随之产生的种种流言蜚语广为流传,我的朋友波洛和那一家的人。都要求我把整个故事写出来。我们相信,这将有效地驳倒那些迄今为止仍在流传的耸人听闻的谣言。因此,我决定把我和这一事件有关的一些情况简略地记下来。我是作为伤病员从前线给遣送回家的;在一所令人相当沮丧的疗养院里挨过了几个月之后,总算给了我一个月的病假。 [点击阅读]
新人呵,醒来吧
作者:佚名
章节:4 人气:0
摘要:去国外旅行时,因为工作上的关系,我经常要在国外生活一段时间。每次做这种旅行时,我都像一棵无根之草,在陌生的国度里设法处理可能出现的困难。为此我都要做一点准备,至少可以保持心理平衡。实际上,我不过是在旅行时带上出发前一直在读的一系列丛书,不久我将独自一人生活在异国他乡,可是一读到在东京时读的这些书,胆战心惊、急躁、沉靡的我就会得到鼓舞。 [点击阅读]
新人来自火星
作者:佚名
章节:11 人气:0
摘要:侯维瑞赫-乔-威尔斯与另两位作家约翰-高尔斯华绥和阿诺德-贝内持并称为本世纪初英国小说中的现实主义三杰。19世纪中叶,英国的批判现实主义小说在狄更斯和萨克雷等大师手中达到了灿烂辉煌的高峰。19世纪末、20纪初英国进入帝国主义阶段以后,现实主义小说依然发挥着它的批判作用,从道德、文化、经济、政治等各个方面暴露与抨击资本主义社会的罪恶。 [点击阅读]
新宿鲛
作者:佚名
章节:24 人气:0
摘要:01鲛岛脱下牛仔裤与POLO衫,正要迭好,忽然听见一阵惨叫。鲛岛停顿了一会儿,随后关上储物柜,上了锁。钥匙吊在手环上,而手环则用尼龙搭扣绑在手腕上。他用浴巾裹住下身,走出更衣室。这时又听见了一声惨叫。更衣室外是一条走廊。走到尽头,就是桑拿房了。桑拿房前,还有休息室与小睡室。惨叫,就是从小睡室里传来的。小睡室大概二十畳①大,里头只有一个灯泡亮着,特别昏暗。 [点击阅读]
新探案系列
作者:佚名
章节:13 人气:0
摘要:我担心福尔摩斯先生也会变得象那些时髦的男高音歌手一样,在人老艺衰之后,还要频频地向宽厚的观众举行告别演出。是该收场了,不管是真人还是虚构的,福尔摩斯不可不退场。有人认为最好是能够有那么一个专门为虚构的人物而设的奇异的阴间——一个奇妙的、不可能存在的地方,在那里,菲尔丁的花花公子仍然可以向理查逊的美貌女郎求爱,司各特的英雄们仍然可以耀武扬威,狄更斯的欢乐的伦敦佬仍然在插科打诨, [点击阅读]