【英文读物】The Uncle Of An Angel 1891.docx

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1、【英文读物】The Uncle Of An Angel 1891Chapter 1When Mr. Hutchinson. Port, a single gentleman who admitted that he was forty-seven years old and who actually was rising sixty, of strongly fixed personal habits, and with the most positive opinions upon every conceivable subject, came to know that by the dea

2、th of his widowed sister he had been placed in the position of guardian of that sisters only daughter, Dorothy, his promptly formed and tersely expressed conception of the situation was that the agency by which it had been brought about was distinctively diabolical. The fact may be added that during

3、 the subsequent brief term of his guardianship Mr. Port found no more reason for reversing this hastily formed opinion than did the late King David for reversing his hastily expressed views in regard to the general tendency of mankind towards untruthfulness.The two redeeming features of Mr. Ports tr

4、ying situation were that his duties as a guardian did not begin at all until his very unnecessary ward was nearly nineteen years old; and did not begin activelyhis ward having elected to remain in France for a season, under the mild direction of the elderly cousin who had been her mothers travelling

5、 companionuntil she was almost twenty. When she was one-and-twenty, as Mr. Port reflected with much satisfaction, he would be rid of her.Neither by nature nor by education had Mr. Hutchinson Port been fitted to discharge the duties which thus were thrust upon him. His disposition was introspectivebu

6、t less in a philosophical sense than a physiological, for the central point of his introspection was his liver. That he made something of a fetich of this organ will not appear surprising when the fact is stated that Mr. Port was a Philadelphian. In that city of eminent good cheer livers are develop

7、ed to a degree that only Strasburg can emulate.Naturally, Mr. Ports views of life were bounded, more or less, by what he could eat with impunity; yet beyond this somewhat contracted region his thoughts strayed pleasantly afield into the far wider region of the things which he could not eat with impu

8、nity; but which, with a truly Spartan epicureanism, he did eatand bravely accepted the bilious consequences! The slightly anxious, yet determined, expression that would appear upon Mr. Ports cleanshaven, ruddy countenance as he settled himself to the discussion of an especially good and especially d

9、angerous dinner betrayed heroic possibilities in his nature which, being otherwise directed, would have won for him glory upon the martial field.In minor mattersthat is to say, in all relations of life not pertaining to eatingMr. Port was very much what was to be expected of him from his birth and f

10、rom his environment. Every Sunday, with an exemplary piety, he sat solitary in the great square pew in St. Peters which had been occupied by successive generations of Ports ever since the year 1761, when the existing church was completed. Every other day of the week, from his late breakfast-time for

11、 some hours onward, he sat at his own particular window of the Philadelphia Club and contemplated disparagingly the outside world over the top of his magazine or newspaper. At four, precisely, for his livers sake, he rode in the Park; and for so stout a gentleman Mr. Port was an excellent horseman.M

12、r. Port Was an Excellent Horseman 024On rare occasions he dined at his club. Usually, he dined out; for while generally regarded as a very disagreeable person at dinnersbecause of his habit of finding fault with his food on the dual ground of hygiene and qualityhe was in social demand because his pr

13、esence at a dinner was a sure indication that the giver of it had a good culinary reputation; and in Philadelphia such a reputation is most highly prized. An irrelevant New York person, after meeting Mr. Port at several of the serious dinnerparties peculiar to Philadelphia, had described him as the

14、animated skeleton; and had supplemented this discourteous remark with the still more discourteous observation that as a feature of a feast the Egyptian article was to be preferredbecause it did not overeat itself, and did keep its mouth shut. However, Mr. Ports obvious rotundity destroyed what littl

15、e point was to be found in this meagre witticism; and, if it had not, the fact is well-known in Philadelphia that New Yorkers, being descended not from an honorable Quaker ancestry but from successful operations in Wall Street, are not to be held accountable for their unfortunate but unavoidable man

16、ifestations of a frivolity at once inelegant and indecorous.In regard to his summers, Mr. Portafter a month spent for the good of his liver in taking the waters at the White Sulphurof course went to Narragan-sett Pier. It may be accepted as an incontrovertible truth that a Philadelphian of a certain

17、 class who missed coming to the Pier for August would refuse to believe, for that year at least, in the alternation of the four seasons; while an enforced absence from that damply delightful watering-place for two successive summers very probably would lead to a rejection of the entire Copernican sy

18、stem. Chapter 2“Poor dear mamma and I did not have a harsh word for years, Uncle Hutchinson,” Miss Lee explained, in the course of the somewhat animated discussion that arose in consequence of Mr. Ports declaration that a part of their summer would be passed, in accordance with his usual custom, at

19、the White Sulphur, and of Dorothys declaration that she did not want to go there. This, her first summer in America, was the third summer after Mrs. Lees translation; and since Dorothy had come into colors again she naturally wanted to make the most of them. “No, not a single harsh word did we ever

20、have. We always agreed perfectly, you know; or if mamma thought differently at first she always ended by seeing that my view of the matter was the right one. The only serious difference that I remember since I was quite a little girl was that last autumn in Paris; when I had everything so perfectly

21、arranged for a delightful winter in St. Petersburg, and when mamma was completely set in her own mind that we must go to the south of France. Her cough was getting very bad then, you know, and she said that a winter in Russia certainly would kill her. I dont think it would have killed her, at least

22、not especially; but the doctor backed mamma upand said some horrid things to me in his polite French wayand declared that St. Petersburg was not even to be thought of.“And so, when I found that they were both against me that way, of course I sacrificed my own feelings and told mamma that I would do

23、just what she wanted. And mamma cried and kissed me, and said that I was an angel: wasnt it sweet of her? To be sure, though, she was having her own way, and I wasnt; and I think that I was an angel myself, for I did want to go to Russia dreadfully. After all, as things turned out, we might almost a

24、s well have gone; for poor dear mamma, you know, died that winter anyway. But Im glad I did what I could to please her, and that she called me an angel for doing it. Dont you think that I was one? And dont you feel, sir, that it is something of an honor to be an angels uncle?Suppose I Kiss You Right

25、 on Your Dear Little Bald Spot 030“Now suppose I kiss you right on your dear little bald spot, and that we make up our minds not to go to that horrid sulphur place at all. Everybody says that it is old-fashioned and stupid; and that is not the kind of an American watering-place that I want to see, y

26、ou know. It would have been all very well if wed gone there while I was in mourning, and had to be proper and quiet and retired, and all that; but Im not in mourning any longer, Uncle Hutchinsonand you havent said yet how you like this breakfast gown. Do you have to be told that white lace over pale

27、-blue silk is very becoming to your angel niece, Uncle Hutchinson? And now you shall have your kiss, and then the matter will be settled.” With which words Miss Leea somewhat bewildering but unquestionably delightful effect in blond and bluefluttered up to her elderly relative, embraced him with a g

28、raceful energy, and bestowed upon his bald spot the promised kiss.“Butbut indeed, my dear,” responded Mr. Port, when he had emerged from Miss Lees enfolding arms, “you know that going to the White Sulphur is not a mere matter of pleasure with me; it is one of hygienic necessity. You forget, Dorothy”

29、Mr. Port spoke with a most earnest seriousness“you forget my liver.”“Now, Uncle Hutchinson, what is the use of talking about your liver that way? Havent you told me a great many times already that it is an hereditary liver, and that nothing you can do to it ever will make it go right? And if it is b

30、ound to go wrong anyway, why cant you just try to forget all about it and have as pleasant a time as possible? Thats the doctrine that I always preached to poor dear mammashe had an hereditary liver too, you knowand its a very good one.“Anyhow, Ive heard mamma say countless times that Saratoga was a

31、 wonderfully good place for livers; now why cant we go there? Mamma always said that Saratoga was simply delightfulhorse-racing going on all the time, and lovely drives, and rowing on the lake, and dancing all night long, and all sorts of lovely things. Lets go to Saratoga, Uncle Hutchinson! Mamma s

32、aid that the food there was deliciousand you know you always are grumbling about the food those sulphur people give you.“But what really would be best of all for you, Uncle Hutchinson,” Miss Lee continued, with increasing animation, “is Carlsbad. Yes, thats what you really wantand while you are drin

33、king the horrid waters I can be having a nice time, you know. Then, when you have finished your course, we can take a run into Switzerland; and after that, in the autumn, we might go over to Viennayou will be delighted with the Vienna restaurants, and they do have such good white wines there. And th

34、en, from Vienna, we really can go on and have a winter in Russia. Just think how perfectly delightful it will be to drive about in sledges, all wrapped up in furs”Mr. Port shuddered; he detested cold weather“and to go to the court balls, and even, perhaps, to be present the next time they assassinat

35、e the Czar! Oh, what a good time we are going to have! Do write at once, this very day, Uncle Hutchinson, to Carlsbad and engage our rooms.”To a person of Mr. Ports staid, deliberate temperament this rapid outlining of a year of foreign travel, and this prompt assumption that the outline was to be i

36、mmediately filled in and made a reality, was upsetting. His mental processes were of the Philadelphia sort, and when Miss Lee had completed the sketch of her European project he still was engaged in consideration of her argument in favor of throwing over the White Sulphur for Saratoga. However, he h

37、ad comprehended enough of her larger plan to perceive that by accepting Saratoga promptly he might be spared the necessity of combating a far more serious assault upon his peace of mind and digestion. Travel of any sort was loathsome to Mr. Port, for it involved much hasty and inconsiderate eating.“

38、Very well,” he said, but not cheerfully, for this was the first time in a great many years that he had not made and acted upon plans shaped wholly in his own interest, “we will try Saratoga, since you so especially desire it; but if the waters affect my liver unfavorably we shall go to the White Sul

39、phur at once.”“What! We are not to go to Carlsbad, then? Oh, Uncle Hutchinson, I had set my heart upon it! Dont, now dont be in a hurry to say positively that we wont go. Think how much good the waters will do you, and think of what a lovely time you can have when your course is over, and you can ea

40、t just as much as you want of anything!”But even by this blissful prospect Mr. Port was not to be lured; and Dorothy, who combined a good deal of the wisdom of the serpent with her presumable innocence of the dove, perceived that it was the part of prudence not further to press for larger victory.“A

41、nd from Saratoga, of course, we shall go to the Pier,” said Mr. Port, but with a certain aggressiveness of tone that gave to his assertion the air of a proposition in support of which argument might be required.“To Narragansett, you mean? Oh, certainly. From what several people have told me about Na

42、rragansett I think that it must be quite entertaining, and I want to see it. And of course, Uncle Hutchinson, even if I didnt care about it at all, I should go all the same; for I want to fall in exactly with your plans and put you to as little trouble as possible, you know. For if your angel wasnt

43、willing to be self-sacrificing, she really wouldnt be an angel at all.”Pleasing though this statement of Early Christian sentiment was, it struck Mr. Portas he subsequently revolved it slowly in his slowly-moving mindas lacking a little on the side of practicality; for Miss Lee, so far, unquestionab

44、ly had contrived to upset with a fine equanimity every one of his plans that was not absolutely identical with her own.Chapter 3On the whole, the Saratoga expedition was not a success. Even on the journey, coming up by the limited train, Miss Lee was not favorably impressed by the appearance of her

45、fellow-passengers. Nearly all of the men in the car (most of whom immediately betook themselves to the bar-room, euphoniously styled a buffet, at the head of the train) were of a type that would have suggested to one accustomed to American life that variety of it which is found seated in the high pl

46、aces of the government of the city of New York; and the aggressively dressed and too abundantly jewelled female companions of these men, heavily built, heavy browed, with faces marked in hard lines, and with aggressive eyes schooled to look out upon the world with a necessarily emphatic self-asserti

47、on, were of a type that, without special knowledge of American ways, was entirely recognizable. Albeit Miss Lee, having spent much time in the mixed society of various European watering-places, was not by any means an unsophisticated young person, and was not at all a squeamish one, she was sensibly

48、 relieved by finding that the chair next to hers was occupied by a silvery-haired old lady of the most unquestionable respectability; and her composure was further restored, presently, by the return to his chair, on the other side of her of Mr. Port: who had betaken himself to what the conductor had

49、 told him was the smoking-room, and who, finding himself in a bar-room, surrounded by a throng of hard-drinking, foul-mouthed men, had sacrificed his much-loved cigar in order to free himself from such distinctly offensive surroundings.At their hotel, and elsewhere, Miss Lee and her uncle encountered many of their fellow-passengers by the limited train, together with others of a like sort which previous trains had brou