第 27 节
作者:温暖寒冬      更新:2024-04-09 19:50      字数:9273
  to do with it; it wouldn’t be so。 Not as I wish to speak disrespectful
  o’   them   as   have   got   the   power   i’   their   hands;   but   it’s   more   than
  flesh and blood ’ull bear sometimes; to be toiling and striving; and
  up early and down late; and hardly sleeping a wink when you lie
  down for thinking as the cheese may  swell;   or  the   cows may  slip
  their   calf;   or   the   wheat   may   grow   green   again   i’   the   sheaf—and
  after all; at th’ end o’ the year; it’s like as if you’d been cooking a
  feast and had got the smell of it for your pains。”
  Mrs。    Poyser;    once   launched      into  conversation;      always    sailed
  along without any check from her preliminary awe of the gentry。
  The   confidence   she   felt   in   her   own   powers   of   exposition   was   a
  motive force that overcame all resistance。
  “I’m afraid I should only do harm instead of good; if I were to
  speak   about   the   gates;   Mrs。   Poyser;”   said   the   captain;   “though   I
  assure you there’s no man on the estate I would sooner say a word
  George Eliot                                                         ElecBook Classics
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  for than your husband。 I know his farm is in better order than any
  other   within   ten   miles   of   us;   and   as   for   the   kitchen;”   he   added;
  smiling; “I don’t believe there’s one in the kingdom to beat it。 By
  the   by;   I’ve   never   seen   your   dairy:   I   must   see   your   dairy;   Mrs。
  Poyser。”
  “Indeed; sir; it’s not fit for you to go in; for Hetty’s in the middle
  o’   making   the   butter;   for   the   churning   was   thrown   late;   and   I’m
  quite   ashamed。”   This   Mrs。        Poyser   said   blushing;   and       believing
  that the captain was really interested in her milk…pans; and would
  adjust his opinion of her to the appearance of her dairy。 “Oh; I’ve
  no    doubt    it’s  in  capital   order。    Take    me    in;”  said   the   captain;
  himself leading the way; while Mrs。 Poyser followed。
  George Eliot                                                           ElecBook Classics
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  Adam Bede                                     110
  Chapter VII
  The Dairy
  he dairy was certainly worth looking at: it was a scene to
  sicken     for  with   a   sort  of  calenture     in  hot   and    dusty
  T
  streets—such   coolness;   such   purity;   such   fresh   fragrance
  of    new…pressed       cheese;     of  firm    butter;    of   wooden      vessels
  perpetually      bathed     in  pure   water;    such    soft  colouring    of   red
  earthenware and creamy surfaces; brown   wood   and polished   tin;
  grey  limestone and   rich  orange…red   rust  on   the   iron   weights   and
  hooks   and   hinges。   But   one   gets   only   a   confused   notion   of   these
  details when they surround a distractingly pretty girl of seventeen;
  standing on little pattens and rounding her dimpled arm   to  lift  a
  pound of butter out of the scale。
  Hetty   blushed   a   deep   rose…colour   when   Captain   Donnithorne
  entered     the   dairy   and    spoke    to  her;   but   it  was   not  at   all  a
  distressed   blush;   for   it   was   inwreathed   with   smiles   and   dimples;
  and   with   sparkles   from   under   long;   curled;   dark   eyelashes;   and
  while her aunt was discoursing to him about the limited amount of
  milk   that   was   to  be   spared   for   butter   and   cheese   so   long   as   the
  calves    were    not   all  weaned;    and   a   large  quantity     but  inferior
  quality of milk yielded by the  shorthorn;   which  had been   bought
  on    experiment;      together     with   other    matters     which    must     be
  interesting      to  a  young     gentleman      who    would     one   day   be   a
  landlord; Hetty tossed and patted her pound of butter with quite a
  self…possessed;   coquettish  air; slyly   conscious   that   no   turn   of   her
  head was lost。
  George Eliot                                                        ElecBook Classics
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  There are various orders of beauty; causing men to make fools
  of themselves in various styles; from the desperate to the sheepish;
  but   there   is   one   order   of   beauty   which   seems   made   to   turn   the
  heads   not   only   of   men;   but   of   all   intelligent   mammals;   even   of
  women。   It   is   a   beauty   like   that   of   kittens;   or   very   small   downy
  ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills; or babies
  just   beginning   to   toddle   and   to   engage   in   conscious   mischief—a
  beauty with which you can never be angry; but that you feel ready
  to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it
  throws you。 Hetty Sorrel’s was that sort of beauty。 Her aunt; Mrs。
  Poyser;      who    professed     to  despise    all  personal     attractions     and
  intended       to  be   the   severest    of  mentors;      continually     gazed    at
  Hetty’s charms by the sly; fascinated in spite of herself; and after
  administering such a scolding as naturally flowed from her anxiety
  to do well by her husband’s niece—who had no mother of her own
  to scold her; poor thing!—she would often confess to her husband;
  when they were safe out of hearing; that she firmly believed; “the
  naughtier the little huzzy behaved; the prettier she looked。”
  It is of little use for me to tell you that Hetty’s cheek was like a
  rose…petal;   that   dimples   played   about   her   pouting   lips;   that   her
  large dark eyes hid a soft roguishness under their long lashes; and
  that her curly hair; though all pushed back under  her  round   cap
  while   she   was   at   work;   stole   back   in   dark   delicate   rings   on   her
  forehead; and about her white shell…like ears; it is of little use for
  me     to  say   how    lovely   was    the   contour     of  her   pink…and…white
  neckerchief;   tucked   into   her   low   plum…coloured   stuff   bodice;   or
  how the linen butter…making apron; with its bib; seemed a thing to
  be   imitated   in   silk   by   duchesses;   since   it   fell   in   such   charming
  lines; or  how  her  brown   stockings and   thick…soled buckled   shoes
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  Adam Bede                                      112
  lost all that clumsiness which they must certainly have had when
  empty of her foot and ankle—of little use; unless you have seen a
  woman       who    affected    you   as  Hetty    affected    her   beholders;     for
  otherwise;      though    you   might   conjure      up   the  image    of  a  lovely
  woman;       she   would     not   in  the   least  resemble      that   distracting
  kitten…like   maiden。   I   might   mention   all       the  divine   charms     of   a
  bright     spring    day;   but   if  you   had    never    in   your   life  utterly
  forgotten yourself in straining your eyes   after  the   mounting  lark;
  or   in   wandering   through   the   still   lanes     when    the   fresh…opened
  blossoms fill them with a sacred   silent beauty  like   that  of  fretted
  aisles;   where     would    be   the  use   of  my   descriptive     catalogue?      I
  could never make you know what I meant by a bright spring day。
  Hetty’s     was   a   spring…tide    beauty;    it  was    the  beauty     of  young
  frisking things; round…limbed; gambolling; circumventing you by a
  false air of innocence—the innocence of a young star…browed calf;
  for example; that; being inclined for a promenade  out  of  bounds;
  leads   you   a   severe   steeplechase   over   hedge   and   ditch;   and   only
  comes to a stand in the middle of a bog。
  And they are the prettiest attitudes and movements into which
  a   pretty   girl   is   thrown   in   making   up   butter—tossing   movements
  that give a charming curve to the arm; and a sideward inclination
  of the round white neck; little patting and rolling movements with
  the   palm  of  the   hand;   and nice   adaptations and   finishings   which
  cannot at all be effected without a great play of the pouting mouth
  and     the    dark    eyes。    And     then    the    butter    itself   seems     to
  communicate a fresh charm—it is so pure; so sweet…scented; it  is
  turned     off  the   mould     with   such    a  beautiful    firm   surface;    like
  marble   in   a   pale   yellow