第 20 节
作者:两块      更新:2021-02-18 22:15      字数:9322
  on the foredeck in a travelling costume checked all over;
  and in little lacquer…tip pod jean boots; and a shirt
  embroidered with pink boa…constrictors。  'What is it that
  gives travelling Snobs such a marvellous propensity to
  rush into a costume?  Why should a man not travel in a
  coat; &c。? but think proper to dress himself like a
  harlequin in mourning?  See; even young Aldermanbury; the
  tallow…merchant; who has just stepped on board; has got a
  travelling…dress gaping all over with pockets; and little
  Tom Tapeworm; the lawyer's clerk out of the City; who has
  but three weeks' leave; turns out in gaiters and a bran…
  new shooting…jacket; and must let the moustaches grow on
  his little sniffy upper lip; forsooth!
  Pompey Hicks is giving elaborate directions to his
  servant; and asking loudly; 'Davis; where's the dwessing…
  case?' and 'Davis; you'd best take the pistol…case into
  the cabin。'  Little Pompey travels with a dressing…case;
  and without a beard: whom he is going to shoot with his
  pistols; who on earth can tell? and what he is to do with
  his servant but wait upon him; I am at a loss to
  conjecture。
  Look at honest Nathan Houndsditch and his lady; and their
  little son。  What a noble air of blazing contentment
  illuminates the features of those Snobs of Eastern race!
  What a toilette Houndsditch's is!  What rings and chains;
  what gold…headed canes and diamonds; what a tuft the
  rogue has got to his chin (the rogue! he will never spare
  himself any cheap enjoyment!) Little Houndsditch has a
  little cane with a gilt head and little mosaic ornaments…
  …altogether an extra air。  As for the lady; she is all
  the colours of the rainbow! she has a pink parasol; with
  a white lining; and a yellow bonnet; and an emerald green
  shawl; and a shot…silk pelisse; and drab boots and
  rhubarb…coloured gloves; and parti…coloured glass
  buttons; expanding from the size of a fourpenny…piece to
  a crown; glitter and twiddle all down the front of her
  gorgeous costume。  I have said before; I like to look at
  'the Peoples' on their gala days; they are so
  picturesquely and outrageously splendid and happy。
  Yonder comes Captain Bull; spick and span; tight and
  trim; who travels for four or six months every year of
  his life; who does not commit himself by luxury of
  raiment or insolence of demeanour; but I think is as
  great a Snob as any man on board。  Bull passes the season
  in London; sponging for dinners; and sleeping in a garret
  near his Club。  Abroad; he has been everywhere; he knows
  the best wine at every inn in every capital in Europe;
  lives with the best English company there; has seen every
  palace and picture…gallery from Madrid to Stockholm;
  speaks an abominable little jargon of half…a…dozen
  languagesand knows nothingnothing。  Bull hunts tufts
  on the Continent; and is a sort of amateur courier。  He
  will scrape acquaintance with old Carabas before they
  make Ostend; and will remind his lordship that he met him
  at Vienna twenty years ago; or gave him a glass of
  Schnapps up the Righi。  We have said Bull knows nothing:
  he knows the birth; arms; and pedigree of all the
  peerage; has poked his little eyes into every one of the
  carriages on boardtheir panels noted and their crests
  surveyed; he knows all the Continental stories of English
  scandalhow Count Towrowski ran off with Miss Baggs at
  Napleshow VERY thick Lady Smigsmag was with young
  Cornichon of the French Legation at Florencethe exact
  amount which Jack Deuceace won of Bob Greengoose at
  Badenwhat it is that made the Staggs settle on the
  Continent: the sum for which the O'Goggarty estates are
  mortgaged; &c。  If he can't catch a lord he will hook on
  to a baronet; or else the old wretch will catch hold of
  some beardless young stripling of fashion; and show him
  'life' in various and amiable and inaccessible quarters。
  Faugh! the old brute!  If he has every one of the vices
  of the most boisterous youth; at least he is comforted by
  having no conscience。  He is utterly stupid; but of a
  jovial turn; He believes himself to be quite a
  respectable member of society: but perhaps the only good
  action he ever did in his life is the involuntary one of
  giving an example to be avoided; and showing what an
  odious thing in the social picture is that figure of the
  debauched old man who passes through life rather a
  decorous Silenus; and dies some day in his garret; alone;
  unrepenting; and unnoted; save by his astonished heirs;
  who find that the dissolute old miser has left money
  behind him。  See! he is up to old Carabas already!  I
  told you he would。
  Yonder you see the old Lady Mary MacScrew; and those
  middle…aged young women her daughters; they are going to
  cheapen and haggle in Belgium and up the Rhine until they
  meet with a boarding…house where they can live upon less
  board…wages than her ladyship pays her footmen。  But she
  will exact and receive considerable respect from the
  British Snobs located in the watering place which she
  selects for her summer residence; being the daughter of
  the Earl of Haggistoun。  That broad…shouldered buck; with
  the great whiskers and the cleaned white kid…gloves; is
  Mr。 Phelim Clancy of Poldoodystown: he calls himself Mr。
  De Clancy; he endeavours to disguise his native brogue
  with the richest superposition of English; and if you
  play at billiards or ECARTE with him; the chances are
  that you will win the first game; and he the seven or
  eight games ensuing。
  That overgrown lady with the four daughters; and the
  young dandy from the University; her son; is Mrs。 Kewsy;
  the eminent barrister's lady; who would rather die than
  not be in the fashion。  She has the 'Peerage' in her
  carpet…bag; you may be sure; but she is altogether cut
  out by Mrs。 Quod; the attorney's wife; whose carriage;
  with the apparatus of rumbles; dickeys; and imperials;
  scarcely yields in splendour to the Marquis of Carabas's
  own travelling…chariot; and whose courier has even bigger
  whiskers and a larger morocco money…bag than the
  Marquis's own travelling gentleman。  Remark her well: she
  is talking to Mr。 Spout; the new Member for Jawborough;
  who is going out to inspect the operations of the
  Zollverein; and will put some very severe questions to
  Lord Palmerston next session upon England and her
  relations with the Prussian…blue trade; the Naples…soap
  trade; the German…tinder trade; &c。  Spout will patronize
  King Leopold at Brussels; will write letters from abroad
  to the JAWBOROUGH INDEPENDENT; and in his quality of
  MEMBER DU PARLIAMONG BRITANNIQUE; will expect to be
  invited to a family dinner with every sovereign whose
  dominions he honours with a visit during his tour。
  The next person isbut hark! the bell for shore is
  ringing; and; shaking Snook's hand cordially; we rush on
  to the pier; waving him a farewell as the noble black
  ship cuts keenly through the sunny azure waters; bearing
  away that cargo of Snobs outward bound。
  CHAPTER XXII
  CONTINENTAL SNOBBERY CONTINUED
  We are accustomed to laugh at the French for their
  braggadocio propensities; and intolerable vanity about La
  France; la gloire; l'Empereur; and the like; and yet I
  think in my heart that the British Snob; for conceit and
  self…sufficiency and braggartism in his way; is without a
  parallel。  There is always something uneasy in a
  Frenchman's conceit。 He brags with so much fury;
  shrieking; and gesticulation; yells out so loudly that
  the Francais is at the head of civilization; the centre
  of thought; &c。; that one can't but see the poor fellow
  has a lurking doubt in his own mind that he is not the
  wonder he professes to be。
  About the British Snob; on the contrary; there is
  commonly no noise; no bluster; but the calmness of
  profound conviction。  We are better than all the world;
  we don't question the opinion at all; it's an axiom。  And
  when a Frenchman bellows out; 'LA FRANCE; MONSIEUR; LA
  FRANCE EST A LA TETE DU MONDE CIVILISE!' we laugh good…
  naturedly at the frantic poor devil。  WE are the first
  chop of the world: we know the fact so well in our secret
  hearts that a claim set up elsewhere is simply ludicrous。
  My dear brother reader; say; as a man of honour; if you
  are not of this opinion? Do you think a Frenchman your
  equal?  You don'tyou gallant British Snobyou know you
  don't: no more; perhaps; does the Snob your humble
  servant; brother。
  And I am inclined to think it is this conviction; and the
  consequent bearing of the Englishman towards the
  foreigner whom he condescends to visit; this confidence
  of superiority which holds up the head of the owner of
  every English hat…box from Sicily to St。 Petersburg; that
  makes us so magnificently hated throughout Europe as we
  are; thismore than all our little victories; and of
  which many Frenchmen and Spaniards have never heardthis
  amazing and indomitable insular pride; which animates my
  lord in his travelling…carriage as wel