一双蓝眼睛 英文版 A Pair of Blue Eyes
托马斯.哈代 Thomas Hardy
Chapter XXVI
'To that last nothing under earth.'
All eyes were turned to the entrance as Stephen spoke, and theancient-mannered conclave scrutinized him inquiringly.
'Why, 'tis our Stephen!' said his father, rising from his seat;and, still retaining the frothy mug in his left hand, he swungforward his right for a grasp. 'Your mother is expecting ye--thought you would have come afore dark. But you'll wait and gohome with me? I have all but done for the day, and was goingdirectly.'
'Yes, 'tis Master Stephy, sure enough. Glad to see you so soonagain, Master Smith,' said Martin Cannister, chastening thegladness expressed in his words by a strict neutrality ofcountenance, in order to harmonize the feeling as much as possiblewith the solemnity of a family vault.
'The same to you, Martin; and you, William,' said Stephen, noddingaround to the rest, who, having their mouths full of bread andcheese, were of necessity compelled to reply merely by compressingtheir eyes to friendly lines and wrinkles.
'And who is dead?' Stephen repeated.
'Lady Luxellian, poor gentlewoman, as we all shall, said theunder-mason. 'Ay, and we be going to enlarge the vault to makeroom for her.'
'When did she die?'
'Early this morning,' his father replied, with an appearance ofrecurring to a chronic thought. 'Yes, this morning. Martin hevbeen tolling ever since, almost. There, 'twas expected. She wasvery limber.'
'Ay, poor soul, this morning,' resumed the under-mason, amarvellously old man, whose skin seemed so much too large for hisbody that it would not stay in position. 'She must know by thistime whether she's to go up or down, poor woman.'
'What was her age?'
'Not more than seven or eight and twenty by candlelight. But,Lord! by day 'a was forty if 'a were an hour.'
'Ay, night-time or day-time makes a difference of twenty years torich feymels,' observed Martin.
'She was one and thirty really,' said John Smith. 'I had it fromthem that know.'
'Not more than that!'
''A looked very bad, poor lady. In faith, ye might say she wasdead for years afore 'a would own it.'
'As my old father used to say, "dead, but wouldn't drop down."'
'I seed her, poor soul,' said a labourer from behind some removedcoffins, 'only but last Valentine's-day of all the world. 'A wasarm in crook wi' my lord. I says to myself, "You be ticketedChurchyard, my noble lady, although you don't dream on't."'
'I suppose my lord will write to all the other lords anointed inthe nation, to let 'em know that she that was is now no more?'
''Tis done and past. I see a bundle of letters go off an hourafter the death. Sich wonderful black rims as they letters had--half-an-inch wide, at the very least.'
'Too much,' observed Martin. 'In short, 'tis out of the questionthat a human being can be so mournful as black edges half-an-inchwide. I'm sure people don't feel more than a very narrow borderwhen they feels most of all.'
'And there are two little girls, are there not?' said Stephen.
'Nice clane little faces!--left motherless now.'
'They used to come to Parson Swancourt's to play with Miss Elfridewhen I were there,' said William Worm. 'Ah, they did so's!' Thelatter sentence was introduced to add the necessary melancholy toa remark which, intrinsically, could hardly be made to possessenough for the occasion. 'Yes,' continued Worm, 'they'd runupstairs, they'd run down; flitting about with her everywhere.Very fond of her, they were. Ah, well!'
'Fonder than ever they were of their mother, so 'tis said here andthere,' added a labourer.
'Well, you see, 'tis natural. Lady Luxellian stood aloof from 'emso--was so drowsy-like, that they couldn't love her in the jolly-companion way children want to like folks. Only last winter Iseed Miss Elfride talking to my lady and the two children, andMiss Elfride wiped their noses for em' SO careful--my lady neveronce seeing that it wanted doing; and, naturally, children take topeople that's their best friend.'
'Be as 'twill, the woman is dead and gone, and we must make aplace for her,' said John. 'Come, lads, drink up your ale, andwe'll just rid this corner, so as to have all clear for beginningat the wall, as soon as 'tis light to-morrow.'
Stephen then asked where Lady Luxellian was to lie.
'Here,' said his father. 'We are going to set back this wall andmake a recess; and 'tis enough for us to do before the funeral.When my lord's mother died, she said, "John, the place must beenlarged before another can be put in." But 'a never expected'twould be wanted so soon. Better move Lord George first, Isuppose, Simeon?'
He pointed with his foot to a heavy coffin, covered with what hadoriginally been red velvet, the colour of which could only just bedistinguished now.
Simeon, I suppose you can mind poor Lady Elfride, and how .
'Just as ye think best, Master John,' replied the shrivelledmason. 'Ah, poor Lord George!' he continued, lookingcontemplatively at the huge coffin; 'he and I were as bitterenemies once as any could be when one is a lord and t'other only amortal man. Poor fellow! He'd clap his hand upon my shoulder andcuss me as familial and neighbourly as if he'd been a common chap.Ay, 'a cussed me up hill and 'a cussed me down; and then 'a wouldrave out again, and the goold clamps of his fine new teeth wouldglisten in the sun like fetters of brass, while I, being a smallman and poor, was fain to say nothing at all. Such a strappenfine gentleman as he was too! Yes, I rather liked en sometimes.But once now and then, when I looked at his towering height, I'dthink in my inside, "What a weight you'll be, my lord, for ourarms to lower under the aisle of Endelstow Church some day!"'
'And was he?' inquired a young labourer.
'He was. He was five hundredweight if 'a were a pound. What withhis lead, and his oak, and his handles, and his one thing andt'other'--here the ancient man slapped his hand upon the coverwith a force that caused a rattle among the bones inside--'he halfbroke my back when I took his feet to lower en down the stepsthere. "Ah," saith I to John there--didn't I, John?--"that everone man's glory should be such a weight upon another man!" Butthere, I liked my lord George sometimes.'
''Tis a strange thought,' said another, 'that while they be allhere under one roof, a snug united family o' Luxellians, they bereally scattered miles away from one another in the form of goodsheep and wicked goats, isn't it?'
'True; 'tis a thought to look at.'
'And that one, if he's gone upward, don't know what his wife isdoing no more than the man in the moon if she's gone downward.And that some unfortunate one in the hot place is a-holleringacross to a lucky one up in the clouds, and quite forgetting theirbodies be boxed close together all the time.'
'Ay, 'tis a thought to look at, too, that I can say "Hullo!" closeto fiery Lord George, and 'a can't hear me.'
'And that I be eating my onion close to dainty Lady Jane's nose,and she can't smell me.'
'What do 'em put all their heads one way for?' inquired a youngman.
'Because 'tis churchyard law, you simple. The law of the livingis, that a man shall be upright and down-right, and the law of thedead is, that a man shall be east and west. Every state of societyhave its laws.'
'We must break the law wi' a few of the poor souls, however.Come, buckle to,' said the master-mason.
And they set to work anew.
The order of interment could be distinctly traced by observing theappearance of the coffins as they lay piled around. On thosewhich had been standing there but a generation or two thetrappings still remained. Those of an earlier period showed barewood, with a few tattered rags dangling therefrom. Earlier still,the wood lay in fragments on the floor of the niche, and thecoffin consisted of naked lead alone; whilst in the case of thevery oldest, even the lead was bulging and cracking in pieces,revealing to the curious eye a heap of dust within. The shieldsupon many were quite loose, and removable by the hand, theirlustreless surfaces still indistinctly exhibiting the name andtitle of the deceased.
Overhead the groins and concavities of the arches curved in alldirections, dropping low towards the walls, where the height wasno more than sufficient to enable a person to stand upright.
The body of George the fourteenth baron, together with two orthree others, all of more recent date than the great bulk ofcoffins piled there, had, for want of room, been placed at the endof the vault on tressels, and not in niches like the others.These it was necessary to remove, to form behind them the chamberin which they were ultimately to be deposited. Stephen, findingthe place and proceedings in keeping with the sombre colours ofhis mind, waited there still.
'Simeon, I suppose you can mind poor Lady Elfride, and how she ranaway with the actor?' said John Smith, after awhile. 'I think itfell upon the time my father was sexton here. Let us see--whereis she?'
'Here somewhere,' returned Simeon, looking round him.
'Why, I've got my arms round the very gentlewoman at this moment.'He lowered the end of the coffin he was holding, wiped his face,and throwing a morsel of rotten wood upon another as an indicator,continued: 'That's her husband there. They was as fair a coupleas you should see anywhere round about; and a good-hearted pairlikewise. Ay, I can mind it, though I was but a chiel at thetime. She fell in love with this young man of hers, and theirbanns were asked in some church in London; and the old lord herfather actually heard 'em asked the three times, and didn't noticeher name, being gabbled on wi' a host of others. When she hadmarried she told her father, and 'a fleed into a monstrous rage,and said she shouldn' hae a farthing. Lady Elfride said shedidn't think of wishing it; if he'd forgie her 'twas all sheasked, and as for a living, she was content to play plays with herhusband. This frightened the old lord, and 'a gie'd 'em a houseto live in, and a great garden, and a little field or two, and acarriage, and a good few guineas. Well, the poor thing died ather first gossiping, and her husband--who was as tender-hearted aman as ever eat meat, and would have died for her--went wild inhis mind, and broke his heart (so 'twas said). Anyhow, they wereburied the same day--father and mother--but the baby lived. Ay,my lord's family made much of that man then, and put him here withhis wife, and there in the corner the man is now. The Sundayafter there was a funeral sermon: the text was, "Or ever thesilver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken;" and when'twas preaching the men drew their hands across their eyes severaltimes, and every woman cried out loud.'
'And what became of the baby?' said Stephen, who had frequentlyheard portions of the story.
'She was brought up by her grandmother, and a pretty maid shewere. And she must needs run away with the curate--ParsonSwancourt that is now. Then her grandmother died, and the titleand everything went away to another branch of the familyaltogether. Parson Swancourt wasted a good deal of his wife'smoney, and she left him Miss Elfride. That trick of running awayseems to be handed down in families, like craziness or gout. Andthey two women be alike as peas.'
'Which two?'
'Lady Elfride and young Miss that's alive now. The same hair andeyes: but Miss Elfride's mother was darker a good deal.'
'Life's a strangle bubble, ye see,' said William Worm musingly.'For if the Lord's anointment had descended upon women instead ofmen, Miss Elfride would be Lord Luxellian--Lady, I mane. But asit is, the blood is run out, and she's nothing to the Luxellianfamily by law, whatever she may be by gospel.'
'I used to fancy,' said Simeon, 'when I seed Miss Elfride huggingthe little ladyships, that there was a likeness; but I suppose'twas only my dream, for years must have altered the old familyshape.'
'And now we'll move these two, and home-along,' interposed JohnSmith, reviving, as became a master, the spirit of labour, whichhad showed unmistakable signs of being nearly vanquished by thespirit of chat, 'The flagon of ale we don't want we'll let bidehere till to-morrow; none of the poor souls will touch it 'ab'lieve.'
So the evening's work was concluded, and the party drew from theabode of the quiet dead, closing the old iron door, and shootingthe lock loudly into the huge copper staple--an incongruous act ofimprisonment towards those who had no dreams of escape.