【荆棘鸟】第三章 21

 她是他有生以来所见到的最甜美、最可爱的小姑娘了。她头发的颜色令人难以描绘，既不是红色的，又不是金色的，而是集两种色彩之大成。她那双仰望着他的银灰色的眼睛象熔融的宝石，摇曳闪烁着柔和的光，明亮而纯洁。他耸了耸肩。把烟蒂丢进火中，站了起来。自己年龄已经不小了，居然还想入非非，熔融的宝石，真是的！可能是自己的双眼被这片漫漫黄沙之地蒙住了。

 
    早晨，他开车送在他那里过夜的客人们去德罗海达，现在，他们对这里的景色
已经习惯了；他们的评论使他觉得有意思极了。最近的山峦坐落在东边200英里的地方；这儿嘛，他解释说，是黑土平原。这是一片长着稀疏的森林的草原，极目望去，简直是一马平川。今天白天的天气和昨天一样炎热，可是坐着戴姆勒小汽车赶路要比坐火车舒服得多了。今天是斋日，他们很早就动身了，拉尔夫神父的法衣和圣餐面包仔细地装在一只黑筐子里。
 
    “这些绵羊真脏啊！”梅吉注视着那数百头用鼻子在草地上拱来拱去的红褐色
的绵羊，非常难过的说道。
 
    “啊，我明白了，我该选择去新西兰才对，”神父说道。“那里一定跟爱尔兰
一样，有乳白色的绵羊。”
 
    “是的，好多地方都像爱尔兰；有和爱尔兰一样美丽的绿草。不过，比爱尔兰
荒僻一些，开垦的程度也远远不如爱尔兰。”帕迪答道。他非常喜欢拉尔夫神父。
 
    正在这时，一群鸸鹋突然晃动了一下站立起来，开始奔跑；它们快如疾风，那
姿态不雅的腿隐隐约约地看不真切，而脖子却伸得老长。孩子们喘着气，爆发出一阵大笑，如痴如迷地望着好以迅跑代疾飞为巨鸟。
 
    “要是用不着下车去开那些破门该多好啊。”当最后一道门在他们身后关上，替拉尔夫神父下车去开门的鲍勃爬回汽车里的时候，拉尔夫神父说道。
 
    当澳大利亚这片国土以令人措手不及的神速接二连三地使他们感到惊骇不已以
后，德罗海达宅院那雅致的乔治王朝时代的门面，蓓蕾初绽的紫藤花和成千上万的玫瑰花丛，似乎给他们某种到了家乡的感受。
 
    “我们要住在这里吗？”梅吉尖声问道。
 
    “也对也不对。”神父很快地说道。“你们要住的房子大约离这儿有一英里，在小河的下游。”
 
    玛丽·卡森正坐在那间宽敞的客厅里等着接待他们，她并没站起来去迎接她的弟弟，而是坐在她的高背椅中，非要他到她身边去不可。
 

The sweetest, the most adorable little girl he had ever seen; hair of a color which defied description, not red and not gold, a perfect fusion 1 of both. And looking up at him with silver-grey eyes of such a lambent purity, like melted jewels. Shrugging, he threw the cigarette stub into the fire and got to his feet. He was getting fanciful in his old age; melted jewels, indeed! More likely his own eyes were coming down with the sandy blight 2.
 
  In the morning he drove his overnight guests to Drogheda, so inured 3 by now to the landscape that he derived 4 great amusement from their comments. The last hill lay two hundred miles to the east; this was the land of the black soil plains, he explained. Just sweeping 5, lightly timbered grasslands 6 as flat as a board. The day was as hot as the previous one, but the Daimler was a great deal more comfortable to travel in than the train had been. And they had started out early, fasting, Father Ralph's vestments and the Blessed Sacrament packed carefully in a black case.
 
  "The sheep are dirty!" said Meggie dolefully, gazing at the many hundreds of rusty-red bundles with their questing noses down into the grass. "Ah, I can see I ought to have chosen New Zealand," the priest said. "It must be like Ireland, then, and have nice cream sheep."
 "Yes, it is like Ireland in many ways; it has the same beautiful green grass. But it's wilder, a lot less tamed," Paddy answered. He liked Father Ralph very much.
 
  Just then a group of emus lurched to their feet and commenced to run, fleet as the wind, their ungainly legs a blur 7, their long necks stretched out. The children gasped 8 and burst out laughing, enchanted 9 at seeing giant birds which ran instead of flying.
 
  "What a pleasure it is not to have to get out and open these' wretched gates," Father Ralph said as the last one was shut behind them and Bob, who had done gate duty for him, scrambled 10 back into the car. After the shocks Australia had administered to them in bewildering rapidity, Drogheda homestead seemed like a touch of home, with its gracious Georgian facade 11 and its budding wistaria vines, its thousands of rosebushes. "Are we going to live here?" Meggie squeaked 12. "Not exactly," the priest said quickly. "The house you're going to live in is about a mile further on, down by the creek 13."
 
  Mary Carson was waiting to receive them in the vast drawing room and did not rise to greet her brother, but forced him to come to her as she sat in her wing chair.