米德尔马契 英文版 Middlemarch
乔治.艾略特 George Eliot
CHAPTER XLIX.
A task too strong for wizard spellsThis squire had brought about;'T is easy dropping stones in wells,But who shall get them out?"
"I wish to God we could hinder Dorothea from knowing this," said SirJames Chettam, with a little frown on his brow, and an expressionof intense disgust about his mouth.
He was standing on the hearth-rug in the library at Lowick Grange,and speaking to Mr. Brooke. It was the day after Mr. Casaubon hadbeen buried, and Dorothea was not yet able to leave her room.
"That would be difficult, you know, Chettam, as she is an executrix,and she likes to go into these things--property, land, that kindof thing. She has her notions, you know," said Mr. Brooke,sticking his eye-glasses on nervously, and exploring the edges of afolded paper which he held in his hand; "and she would like to act--depend upon it, as an executrix Dorothea would want to act. And shewas twenty-one last December, you know. I can hinder nothing."
Sir James looked at the carpet for a minute in silence, and thenlifting his eyes suddenly fixed them on Mr. Brooke, saying, "I willtell you what we can do. Until Dorothea is well, all business mustbe kept from her, and as soon as she is able to be moved she mustcome to us. Being with Celia and the baby will be the best thingin the world for her, and will pass away the time. And meanwhile youmust get rid of Ladislaw: you must send him out of the country."Here Sir James's look of disgust returned in all its intensity.
Mr. Brooke put his hands behind him, walked to the windowand straightened his back with a little shake before he replied.
"That is easily said, Chettam, easily said, you know."
"My dear sir," persisted Sir James, restraining his indignationwithin respectful forms, "it was you who brought him here, and youwho keep him here--I mean by the occupation you give him."
"Yes, but I can't dismiss him in an instant without assigning reasons,my dear Chettam. Ladislaw has been invaluable, most satisfactory.I consider that I have done this part of the country a service bybringing him--by bringing him, you know." Mr. Brooke ended with a nod,turning round to give it.
"It's a pity this part of the country didn't do without him,that's all I have to say about it. At any rate, as Dorothea'sbrother-in-law, I feel warranted in objecting strongly to his beingkept here by any action on the part of her friends. You admit,I hope, that I have a right to speak about what concerns the dignityof my wife's sister?"
Sir James was getting warm.
"Of course, my dear Chettam, of course. But you and I havedifferent ideas--different--"
"Not about this action of Casaubon's, I should hope," interruptedSir James. "I say that he has most unfairly compromised Dorothea.I say that there never was a meaner, more ungentlemanly actionthan this--a codicil of this sort to a will which he made at the timeof his marriage with the knowledge and reliance of her family--a positive insult to Dorothea!"
"Well, you know, Casaubon was a little twisted about Ladislaw.Ladislaw has told me the reason--dislike of the bent he took, you know--Ladislaw didn't think much of Casaubon's notions, Thoth and Dagon--that sort of thing: and I fancy that Casaubon didn't like theindependent position Ladislaw had taken up. I saw the lettersbetween them, you know. Poor Casaubon was a little buried in books--he didn't know the world."
"It's all very well for Ladislaw to put that color on it,"said Sir James. "But I believe Casaubon was only jealous of himon Dorothea's account, and the world will suppose that shegave him some reason; and that is what makes it so abominable--coupling her name with this young fellow's."
"My dear Chettam, it won't lead to anything, you know,"said Mr. Brooke, seating himself and sticking on his eye-glass again. "It's all of a piece with Casaubon's oddity.This paper, now, `Synoptical Tabulation' and so on, `for the useof Mrs. Casaubon,' it was locked up in the desk with the will.I suppose he meant Dorothea to publish his researches, eh? andshe'll do it, you know; she has gone into his studies uncommonly."
"My dear sir," said Sir James, impatiently, "that is neitherhere nor there. The question is, whether you don't see with methe propriety of sending young Ladislaw away?"
"Well, no, not the urgency of the thing. By-and-by, perhaps,it may come round. As to gossip, you know, sending him away won'thinder gossip. People say what they like to say, not what theyhave chapter and verse for," said Mr Brooke, becoming acute aboutthe truths that lay on the side of his own wishes. "I might get ridof Ladislaw up to a certain point--take away the `Pioneer' from him,and that sort of thing; but I couldn't send him out of the countryif he didn't choose to go--didn't choose, you know."
Mr. Brooke, persisting as quietly as if he were only discussingthe nature of last year's weather, and nodding at the end with hisusual amenity, was an exasperating form of obstinacy.
to conclude that you decline to do anything?"have beenless?
"Good God!" said Sir James, with as much passion as he ever showed,"let us get him a post; let us spend money on him. If he could goin the suite of some Colonial Governor! Grampus might take him--and I could write to Fulke about it."
"But Ladislaw won't be shipped off like a head of cattle, my dear fellow;Ladislaw has his ideas. It's my opinion that if he were to partfrom me to-morrow, you'd only hear the more of him in the country.With his talent for speaking and drawing up documents, there arefew men who could come up to him as an agitator--an agitator,you know."
"Agitator!" said Sir James, with bitter emphasis, feeling thatthe syllables of this word properly repeated were a sufficientexposure of its hatefulness.
"But be reasonable, Chettam. Dorothea, now. As you say,she had better go to Celia as soon as possible. She can stay underyour roof, and in the mean time things may come round quietly.Don't let us be firing off our guns in a hurry, you know.Standish will keep our counsel, and the news will be old beforeit's known. Twenty things may happen to carry off Ladislaw--without my doing anything, you know."
"Then I am to conclude that you decline to do anything?"
"Decline, Chettam?--no--I didn't say decline. But I really don'tsee what I could do. Ladislaw is a gentleman."
"I am glad to hear It!" said Sir James, his irritation making himforget himself a little. "I am sure Casaubon was not."
"Well, it would have been worse if he had made the codicil to hinderher from marrying again at all, you know."
"I don't know that," said Sir James. "It would have beenless indelicate."
"One of poor Casaubon's freaks! That attack upset his brain a little.It all goes for nothing. She doesn't _want_ to marry Ladislaw."
"But this codicil is framed so as to make everybody believe that she did.I don't believe anything of the sort about Dorothea," said Sir James--then frowningly, "but I suspect Ladislaw. I tell you frankly,I suspect Ladislaw."
"I couldn't take any immediate action on that ground, Chettam. In fact,if it were possible to pack him off--send him to Norfolk Island--that sort of thing--it would look all the worse for Dorothea tothose who knew about it. It would seem as if we distrusted her--distrusted her, you know."
That Mr. Brooke had hit on an undeniable argument, did not tendto soothe Sir James. He put out his hand to reach his hat,implying that he did not mean to contend further, and said,still with some heat--
"You can't do better than get her to Freshitt as soon as possible,Chettam. I approve that plan altogether," said Mr. Brooke, well pleasedthat he had won the argument. It would have been highly inconvenientto him to part with Ladislaw at that time, when a dissolution mighthappen any day, and electors were to be convinced of the course bywhich the interests of the country would be best served. Mr. Brookesincerely believed that this end could be secured by his own returnto Parliament: he offered the forces of his mind honestly to the nation.