【儿童英文读物】Sylvie and Bruno西尔维和布鲁诺.docx

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1、【儿童英文读物】Sylvie and Bruno西尔维和布鲁诺CHAPTER 1. LESS BREAD! MORE TAXES! and then all the people cheered again, and one man, who was more excited than the rest, flung his hat high into the air, and shouted (as well as I could make out) “Who roar for the Sub-Warden?” Everybody roared, but whether it was for

2、 the Sub-Warden, or not, did not clearly appear: some were shouting “Bread!” and some “Taxes!”, but no one seemed to know what it was they really wanted. All this I saw from the open window of the Wardens breakfast-saloon, looking across the shoulder of the Lord Chancellor, who had sprung to his fee

3、t the moment the shouting began, almost as if he had been expecting it, and had rushed to the window which commanded the best view of the market-place. “What can it all mean?” he kept repeating to himself, as, with his hands clasped behind him, and his gown floating in the air, he paced rapidly up a

4、nd down the room. “I never heard such shouting beforeand at this time of the morning, too! And with such unanimity! Doesnt it strike you as very remarkable?” I represented, modestly, that to my ears it appeared that they were shouting for different things, but the Chancellor would not listen to my s

5、uggestion for a moment. “They all shout the same words, I assure you!” he said: then, leaning well out of the window, he whispered to a man who was standing close underneath, “Keepem together, cant you? The Warden will be here directly. Giveem the signal for the march up!” All this was evidently not

6、 meant for my ears, but I could scarcely help hearing it, considering that my chin was almost on the Chancellors shoulder. The march up was a very curious sight: Image.The march-up a straggling procession of men, marching two and two, began from the other side of the market-place, and advanced in an

7、 irregular zig-zag fashion towards the Palace, wildly tacking from side to side, like a sailing vessel making way against an unfavourable wind so that the head of the procession was often further from us at the end of one tack than it had been at the end of the previous one. Yet it was evident that

8、all was being done under orders, for I noticed that all eyes were fixed on the man who stood just under the window, and to whom the Chancellor was continually whispering. This man held his hat in one hand and a little green flag in the other: whenever he waved the flag the procession advanced a litt

9、le nearer, when he dipped it they sidled a little farther off, and whenever he waved his hat they all raised a hoarse cheer. “Hoo-roah!” they cried, carefully keeping time with the hat as it bobbed up and down. “Hoo-roah! Noo! Consti! Tooshun! Less! Bread! More! Taxes!” “Thatll do, thatll do!” the C

10、hancellor whispered. “Let em rest a bit till I give you the word. Hes not here yet!” But at this moment the great folding-doors of the saloon were flung open, and he turned with a guilty start to receive His High Excellency. However it was only Bruno, and the Chancellor gave a little gasp of relieve

11、d anxiety. “Morning!” said the little fellow, addressing the remark, in a general sort of way, to the Chancellor and the waiters. “Doos oo know where Sylvie is? Is looking for Sylvie!” “Shes with the Warden, I believe, yreince!” the Chancellor replied with a low bow. There was, no doubt, a certain a

12、mount of absurdity in applying this title (which, as of course you see without my telling you, was nothing but your Royal Highness condensed into one syllable) to a small creature whose father was merely the Warden of Outland: still, large excuse must be made for a man who had passed several years a

13、t the Court of Fairyland, and had there acquired the almost impossible art of pronouncing five syllables as one. But the bow was lost upon Bruno, who had run out of the room, even while the great feat of The Unpronounceable Monosyllable was being triumphantly performed. Just then, a single voice in

14、the distance was understood to shout “A speech from the Chancellor!” “Certainly, my friends!” the Chancellor replied with extraordinary promptitude. “You shall have a speech!” Here one of the waiters, who had been for some minutes busy making a queer-looking mixture of egg and sherry, respectfully p

15、resented it on a large silver salver. The Chancellor took it haughtily, drank it off thoughtfully, smiled benevolently on the happy waiter as he set down the empty glass, and began. To the best of my recollection this is what he said. “Ahem! Ahem! Ahem! Fellow-sufferers, or rather suffering fellows”

16、 (“Dont call em names!” muttered the man under the window. “I didnt say felons!” the Chancellor explained.) “You may be sure that I always sympa” (“Ear, ear!” shouted the crowd, so loudly as quite to drown the orators thin squeaky voice) “that I always sympa” he repeated. (“Dont simper quite so much

17、!” said the man under the window. “It makes yer look a hidiot!” And, all this time, “Ear, ear!” went rumbling round the market-place, like a peal of thunder.) “That I always sympathise!” yelled the Chancellor, the first moment there was silence. “But your true friend is the Sub-Warden! Day and night

18、 he is brooding on your wrongsI should say your rightsthat is to say your wrongsno, I mean your rights” (“Dont talk no more!” growled the man under the window. “Youre making a mess of it!”) At this moment the Sub-Warden entered the saloon. He was a thin man, with a mean and crafty face, and a greeni

19、sh-yellow complexion; and he crossed the room very slowly, looking suspiciously about him as if he thought there might be a savage dog hidden somewhere. “Bravo!” he cried, patting the Chancellor on the back. “You did that speech very well indeed. Why, youre a born orator, man!” “Oh, thats nothing!”

20、the Chancellor replied, modestly, with downcast eyes. “Most orators are born, you know.” The Sub-Warden thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “Why, so they are!” he admitted. “I never considered it in that light. Still, you did it very well. A word in your ear!” The rest of their conversation was all in whi

21、spers: so, as I could hear no more, I thought I would go and find Bruno. I found the little fellow standing in the passage, and being addressed by one of the men in livery, who stood before him, nearly bent double from extreme respectfulness, with his hands hanging in front of him like the fins of a

22、 fish. “His High Excellency,” this respectful man was saying, “is in his Study, yreince!” (He didnt pronounce this quite so well as the Chancellor.) Thither Bruno trotted, and I thought it well to follow him. The Warden, a tall dignified man with a grave but very pleasant face, was seated before a w

23、riting-table, which was covered with papers, and holding on his knee one of the sweetest and loveliest little maidens it has ever been my lot to see. She looked four or five years older than Bruno, but she had the same rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes, and the same wealth of curly brown hair. Her eage

24、r smiling face was turned upwards towards her fathers, and it was a pretty sight to see the mutual love with which the two facesone in the Spring of Life, the other in its late Autumnwere gazing on each other. “No, youve never seen him,” the old man was saying: “you couldnt, you know, hes been away

25、so longtraveling from land to land, and seeking for health, more years than youve been alive, little Sylvie!” Here Bruno climbed upon his other knee, and a good deal of kissing, on a rather complicated system, was the result. “He only came back last night,” said the Warden, when the kissing was over

26、: “hes been traveling post-haste, for the last thousand miles or so, in order to be here on Sylvies birthday. But hes a very early riser, and I dare say hes in the Library already. Come with me and see him. Hes always kind to children. Youll be sure to like him.” “Has the Other Professor come too?”

27、Bruno asked in an awe-struck voice. “Yes, they arrived together. The Other Professor iswell, you wont like him quite so much, perhaps. Hes a little more dreamy, you know.” “I wiss Sylvie was a little more dreamy,” said Bruno. “What do you mean, Bruno?” said Sylvie. Bruno went on addressing his fathe

28、r. “She says she cant, oo know. But I thinks it isnt cant, its wont.” “Says she cant dream!” the puzzled Warden repeated. “She do say it,” Bruno persisted. “When I says to her Lets stop lessons!, she says Oh, I cant dream of letting oo stop yet!” “He always wants to stop lessons,” Sylvie explained,

29、“five minutes after we begin!” “Five minutes lessons a day!” said the Warden. “You wont learn much at that rate, little man!” “Thats just what Sylvie says,” Bruno rejoined. “She says I wont learn my lessons. And I tells her, over and over, I cant learn em. And what doos oo think she says? She says I

30、t isnt cant, its wont!” “Lets go and see the Professor,” the Warden said, wisely avoiding further discussion. The children got down off his knees, each secured a hand, and the happy trio set off for the Libraryfollowed by me. I had come to the conclusion by this time that none of the party (except,

31、for a few moments, the Lord Chancellor) was in the least able to see me. “Whats the matter with him?” Sylvie asked, walking with a little extra sedateness, by way of example to Bruno at the other side, who never ceased jumping up and down. Image.Visiting the profesor “What was the matterbut I hope h

32、es all right nowwas lumbago, and rheumatism, and that kind of thing. Hes been curing himself, you know: hes a very learned doctor. Why, hes actually invented three new diseases, besides a new way of breaking your collar-bone!” “Is it a nice way?” said Bruno. “Well, hum, not very,” the Warden said, a

33、s we entered the Library. “And here is the Professor. Good morning, Professor! Hope youre quite rested after your journey!” A jolly-looking, fat little man, in a flowery dressing-gown, with a large book under each arm, came trotting in at the other end of the room, and was going straight across with

34、out taking any notice of the children. “Im looking for Vol. Three,” he said. “Do you happen to have seen it?” “You dont see my children, Professor!” the Warden exclaimed, taking him by the shoulders and turning him round to face them. The Professor laughed violently: then he gazed at them through hi

35、s great spectacles, for a minute or two, without speaking. At last he addressed Bruno. “I hope you have had a good night, my child?” Bruno looked puzzled. “Is had the same night oove had,” he replied. “Theres only been one night since yesterday!” It was the Professors turn to look puzzled now. He to

36、ok off his spectacles, and rubbed them with his handkerchief. Then he gazed at them again. Then he turned to the Warden. “Are they bound?” he enquired. “No, we arent,” said Bruno, who thought himself quite able to answer this question. The Professor shook his head sadly. “Not even half-bound?” “Why

37、would we be half-bound?” said Bruno. “Were not prisoners!” But the Professor had forgotten all about them by this time, and was speaking to the Warden again. “Youll be glad to hear,” he was saying, “that the Barometers beginning to move” “Well, which way?” said the Wardenadding, to the children, “No

38、t that I care, you know. Only he thinks it affects the weather. Hes a wonderfully clever man, you know. Sometimes he says things that only the Other Professor can understand. Sometimes he says things that nobody can understand! Which way is it, Professor? Up or down?” “Neither!” said the Professor,

39、gently clapping his hands. “Its going sidewaysif I may so express myself.” “And what kind of weather does that produce?” said the Warden. “Listen, children! Now youll hear something worth knowing!” “Horizontal weather,” said the Professor, and made straight for the door, very nearly trampling on Bru

40、no, who had only just time to get out of his way. “Isnt he learned?” the Warden said, looking after him with admiring eyes. “Positively he runs over with learning!” “But he neednt run over me!” said Bruno. The Professor was back in a moment: he had changed his dressing-gown for a frock-coat, and had

41、 put on a pair of very strange-looking boots, the tops of which were open umbrellas. “I thought youd like to see them,” he said. “These are the boots for horizontal weather!” Image.Boots for horizontal weather “But whats the use of wearing umbrellas round ones knees?” “In ordinary rain,” the Profess

42、or admitted, “they would not be of much use. But if ever it rained horizontally, you know, they would be invaluablesimply invaluable!” “Take the Professor to the breakfast-saloon, children,” said the Warden. “And tell them not to wait for me. I had breakfast early, as Ive some business to attend to.

43、” The children seized the Professors hands, as familiarly as if they had known him for years, and hurried him away. I followed respectfully behind.CHAPTER 2. LAMIE INCONNUE. As we entered the breakfast-saloon, the Professor was saying “and he had breakfast by himself, early: so he begged you wouldnt

44、 wait for him, my Lady. This way, my Lady,” he added, “this way!” And then, with (as it seemed to me) most superfluous politeness, he flung open the door of my compartment, and ushered in “a young and lovely lady!” I muttered to myself with some bitterness. “And this is, of course, the opening scene

45、 of Vol. I. She is the Heroine. And I am one of those subordinate characters that only turn up when needed for the development of her destiny, and whose final appearance is outside the church, waiting to greet the Happy Pair!” “Yes, my Lady, change at Fayfield,” were the next words I heard (oh that

46、too obsequious Guard!), “next station but one.” And the door closed, and the lady settled down into her corner, and the monotonous throb of the engine (making one feel as if the train were some gigantic monster, whose very circulation we could feel) proclaimed that we were once more speeding on our

47、way. “The lady had a perfectly formed nose,” I caught myself saying to myself, “hazel eyes, and lips” and here it occurred to me that to see, for myself, what “the lady” was really like, would be more satisfactory than much speculation. I looked round cautiously, andwas entirely disappointed of my h

48、ope. The veil, which shrouded her whole face, was too thick for me to see more than the glitter of bright eyes and the hazy outline of what might be a lovely oval face, but might also, unfortunately, be an equally unlovely one. I closed my eyes again, saying to myself “couldnt have a better chance for an experiment in Telepathy! Ill think out her face, and afterwards test the portrait with the original.” At first, no result at all crowned my efforts, though I divided my swift mind, now hithe