曼斯菲尔德庄园 Chapter 46

CHAPTER XLVI ,As Fanny could not doubt that her answer was conveying a real disappointment, she was rather in expectation, from her knowledge of Miss Crawford's temper, of being urged again; and though no second letter arrived for the space of a week, she had still the same feeling when it did come. ,On receiving it, she could instantly decide on its containing little writing, and was persuaded of its having the air of a letter of haste and business. Its object was unquestionable; and two moments were enough to start the probability of its being merely to give her notice that they should be in Portsmouth that very day, and to throw her into all the agitation ² of doubting what she ought to do in such a case. If two moments, however, can surround with difficulties, a third can disperse ³ them; and before she had opened the letter, the possibility of Mr. and Miss Crawford's having applied ⁴ to her uncle and obtained his permission was giving her ease. This was the letter-- ,"A most scandalous, ill-natured rumour ⁵ has just reached me, and I write, dear Fanny, to warn you against giving the least credit to it, should it spread into the country. Depend upon it, there is some mistake, and that a day or two will clear it up; at any rate, that Henry is blameless, and in spite of a moment's _etourderie_, thinks of nobody but you. Say not a word of it; hear nothing, surmise ⁶ nothing, whisper nothing till I write again. I am sure it will be all hushed up, and nothing proved but Rushworth's folly ⁷. If they are gone, I would lay my life they are only gone to Mansfield Park, and Julia with them. But why would not you let us come for you? I wish you may not repent ⁸ it.--Yours, etc." ,Fanny stood aghast. As no scandalous, ill-natured rumour had reached her, it was impossible for her to understand much of this strange letter. She could only perceive that it must relate to Wimpole Street and Mr. Crawford, and only conjecture ⁹ that something very imprudent had just occurred in that quarter to draw the notice of the world, and to excite her jealousy ¹⁰, in Miss Crawford's apprehension ¹¹, if she heard it. Miss Crawford need not be alarmed for her. She was only sorry for the parties concerned and for Mansfield, if the report should spread so far; but she hoped it might not. If the Rushworths were gone themselves to Mansfield, as was to be inferred from what Miss Crawford said, it was not likely that anything unpleasant should have preceded them, or at least should make any impression. ,As to Mr. Crawford, she hoped it might give him a knowledge of his own disposition ¹², convince him that he was not capable of being steadily ¹³ attached to any one woman in the world, and shame him from persisting any longer in addressing herself. ,Very uncomfortable she was, and must continue, till she heard from Miss Crawford again. It was impossible to banish ¹⁴ the letter from her thoughts, and she could not relieve herself by speaking of it to any human being. Miss Crawford need not have urged secrecy ¹⁵ with so much warmth; she might have trusted to her sense of what was due to her cousin. ,The next day came and brought no second letter. Fanny was disappointed. She could still think of little else all the morning; but, when her father came back in the afternoon with the daily newspaper as usual, she was so far from expecting any elucidation ¹⁶ through such a channel that the subject was for a moment out of her head. ,She was deep in other musing ¹⁷. The remembrance of her first evening in that room, of her father and his newspaper, came across her. No candle was now wanted. The sun was yet an hour and half above the horizon. She felt that she had, indeed, been three months there; and the sun's rays falling strongly into the parlour, instead of cheering, made her still more melancholy ¹⁹, for sunshine appeared to her a totally different thing in a town and in the country. Here, its power was only a glare: a stifling ²⁰, sickly glare, serving but to bring forward stains and dirt that might otherwise have slept. There was neither health nor gaiety in sunshine in a town. She sat in a blaze of oppressive heat, in a cloud of moving dust, and her eyes could only wander from the walls, marked by her father's head, to the table cut and notched ²¹ by her brothers, where stood the tea-board never thoroughly ²² cleaned, the cups and saucers wiped in streaks ²³, the milk a mixture of motes ²⁴ floating in thin blue, and the bread and butter growing every minute more greasy ²⁵ than even Rebecca's hands had first produced it. Her father read his newspaper, and her mother lamented ²⁶ over the ragged ²⁷ carpet as usual, while the tea was in preparation, and wished Rebecca would mend it; and Fanny was first roused by his calling out to her, after humphing and considering over a particular paragraph: "What's the name of your great cousins in town, Fan?" ,A moment's recollection enabled her to say, "Rushworth, sir." ,"And don't they live in Wimpole Street?" ,Could this at last be a good omen for peace?这是否终于可以视作和平的吉兆了？,Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店
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