【荆棘鸟】第八章 01

Charpter 8
     The new year came in with Angus MacQueen’s annual Hogmanay party on Rudna Hunish, and still the move to the big house had not been accomplished 1. It wasn’t something done overnight, between packing over seven years’ accumulation of everyday artifacts, and Fee’s declaration that the big house drawing room at least be finished first. No one was in the slightest hurry, though everyone was looking forward to it. In some respects the big house would prove no different: it lacked electricity and the flies populated it just as thickly. But in summer it was about twenty degrees cooler than outside, from the thickness of its stone walls and the ghost gums shading its roof. Also, the bathhouse was a true luxury, having hot water all winter from pipes which ran up the back of the vast fuel stove in the cookhouse next door, and every drop in its pipes was rain water. Though baths and showers had to be taken in this large structure with its ten separate cubicles 2, the big house and all the smaller houses were liberally endowed with indoor water-closet toilets, an unheard-of degree of opulence 3 envious 4 Gilly residents had been caught calling sybaritism. Aside from the Hotel Imperial, two pubs, the Catholic presbytery and the convent, the Gillanbone district survived on out-houses. 
     Except Drogheda homestead, thanks to its enormous number of tanks and roofs to catch rain water. The rules were strict: no undue 5 flushing, and plenty of sheep-dip disinfectant. But after holes in the ground, it was heaven. Father Ralph had sent Paddy a check for five thousand pounds at the beginning of the preceding December, to be going on with, his letter said; Paddy handed it to Fee with a dazed exclamation 6. 
      “I doubt I’ve managed to earn this much in all my working days,” he said.             “What shall I do with it?” Fee asked, staring at it and then looking up t him, eyes blazing. 
     “Money, Paddy! Money at last, do you realize it? Oh, I don’t care about Auntie Mary’s thirteen million pounds—there’s nothing real about so much. But this is real! What shall I do with it?” 
     “Spend it,” said Paddy simply.
     “A few new clothes for the children and yourself? And maybe there are things you’d like to buy for the big house? I can’t think of anything else we need.” 
     “Nor can I, isn’t it silly?” 
      Up got Fee from the breakfast table, beckoning 7 Meggie imperiously. 
      “Come on, girl, we’re walking up to the big house to look at it.” Though at that time three weeks had elapsed, since the frantic 8 week following Mary Carson’s death, none of the Clearys had been near the big house. But now Fee’s visit more than made up for their previous reluctance 9. From one room to another she marched with Meggie, Mrs. Smith, Minnie and Cat in attendance, more animated 10 than a bewildered Meggie had ever known her. She muttered to herself continually; this was dreadful, that was an absolute horror, was Mary color-blind, did she have no taste at all? In the drawing room Fee paused longest, eyeing it expertly. Only the reception room exceeded it in size, for it was forty feet long and thirty wide, and had a fifteen-foot ceiling. It was a curious mixture of the best  and the worst in its decoration, painted a uniform cream which had yellowed and did nothing to emphasize the magnificent moldings on the ceiling or the carved paneling on the walls. The enormous floor-to-ceiling windows that marched uninterruptedly for forty feet along the veranda 11 side were heavily curtained in brown velvet 12, casting a deep gloom over the dingy 13 brown chairs, two stunning 14 malachite benches and two equally beautiful benches in Florentine marble, and a massive fireplace of cream marble veined in deep pink. On the polished teak floor three Aubusson carpets had been squared with geometrical precision, and a Waterford chandelier six feet long touched the ceiling, its chain bunched round it. “You are to be commended, Mrs. Smith,” Fee pronounced. “It’s positively 15 awful, but spotlessly clean. I shall give you something worth caring for. Those priceless benches without anything to set them off—it’s a shame! Since the day I saw this room, I’ve longed to make it into something every person who walks into it will admire, and yet comfortable enough to make every person who walks into it want to remain.” 
     Mary Carson’ desk was a Victorian hideousness 16; Fee walked to it and the phone which stood upon it, flicking 17 its gloomy wood contemptuously. “My escritoire will do beautifully here,” she said. “I’m going to start with this room, and when it’s finished I’ll move up from the creek 18, not before. Then at least we’ll have one place where we can congregate 19 without being depressed 20.” She sat down and plucked the receiver off its hook. While her daughter and her servants stood in a small bewildered huddle 21, she proceeded to set Harry 22 Gough in motion. Mark Foys would send fabric 23 samples on the night mail; Nock & Kirbys would send paint samples; Grace Brothers would send wallpaper samples; these and other Sydney stores would send catalogues specially 24 compiled for her, describing their lines of furnishings. Laughter in his voice, Harry guaranteed to produce a competent upholsterer and a team of painters capable of doing the meticulous 25 work Fee demanded. 
     Good for Mrs. Cleary! She was going to sweep Mary Carson right out of the house. The phoning finished, everyone was directed to rip down the brown velvet curtains at once. Out they went onto the rubbish heap in an orgy of wastefulness 26 Fee supervised personally, even putting the torch to them herself. “We don’t need them,” she said, “and I’m not going to inflict 27 them on the Gillanbone poor.” “Yes, Mum,” said Meggie, paralyzed. “We’re not going to have any curtains,” said Fee, not at all disturbed over a flagrant breach 28 of the decorating customs of the time. “The veranda’s far too deep to let the sun come in directly, so why do we need curtains? I want this room to be seen.” The materials arrived, so did the painters and the upholsterer; Meggie and Cat were sent up ladders to wash and polish the top windows while Mrs. Smith and Minnie coped with the bottom ones and Fee strode around watching everything with an eagle eye. By the second week in January it was all done, and somehow of course the news leaked out on the party lines. Mrs. Cleary had made the Drogheda drawing room into a palace, and wouldn’t it be only the civil thing for Mrs. Hopeton to accompany Mrs. King and Mrs. O’Rourke on a welcome-to-the-big-house visit? No one argued that the result of Fee’s efforts was absolute beauty. The cream Aubusson carpets with their faded bunches of pink and red roses and green leaves had been strewn rather haphazardly 29 around the mirror-finished floor. Fresh cream paint covered the walls and the ceiling, every molding and carving 30 pains-takingly picked out in gilt 31, but the huge oval-shaped flat spaces in the paneling had been papered with faded black silk bearing the same bunches of roses as the three carpets, like stilted 32 Japanese paintings in cream and gilt surrounds. The Waterford chandelier had been lowered until its bottom pendant chimed a bare six and a half feet from the floor, every prism of its thousands polished to a flashing rainbow, and its great brass 33 chain tethered to the wall instead of being bunched up. On spindly cream-and-gilt tables Waterford lamps stood next to Waterford ashtrays 34 and Waterford vases stuffed with cream and pink roses; all the big comfortable chairs had been recovered in cream watered silk and placed in small cozy 35 groupings with large ottomans drawn 36 up to each one invitingly 37; in one sunny corner stood the exquisite 38 old spinet 39 with an enormous vase of cream and pink roses on it. Above the fireplace hung the portrait of Fee’s grandmother in her pale pink crinoline, and facing her at the other end of the room was an even larger portrait of a youngish, red-haired Mary Carson, face like the youngish Queen Victoria, in a stiff black gown fashionably bustled 40. “All right,” said Fee, “now we can move up from the creek. I’ll do the other rooms at my leisure. Oh, isn’t it lovely to have money and a decent home to spend it on?” 
     About three days before they moved, so early in the morning the sun had not yet risen, the roosters in the fowl 41 yard were cock-adoodling joyously 42. “Miserable wretches,” said Fee, wrapping old newspapers around her china. “I don’t know what they think they’ve done to crow about. Not an egg in the place for breakfast, and all the men at home until we finish moving. Meggie, you’ll have to go down to the chook yard for me; I’m busy.” She scanned a yellowed sheet of the Sydney Morning Herald 43, snorting over an advertisement for wasp-waisted stays. “I don’t know why Paddy insists we get all the newspapers; no one ever has time to read them. They just pile up too fast to burn in the stove. Look at this! It’s older than our tenancy of the house. Well, at least they’re handy for packing.” 
     It was nice to see her mother so cheerful, Meggie thought as she sped down the back steps and across the dusty yard. Though everyone was naturally looking forward to living in the big house, Mum seemed to hunger for it as if she could remember what living in a big house was like. How clever she was, what perfect taste she had! Things no one had ever realized before, because there had been neither time nor money to bring them out. Meggie hugged herself with excitement; Daddy had sent in to the Gilly jeweler and used some of the five thousand pounds to buy Mum a real pearl choker and real pearl earrings 44, only these had little diamonds in them as well. He was going to give them to her at their first dinner in the big house. Now that she had seen her mother’s face freed of its habitual 45 dourness 46, she could hardly wait for the expression it would wear when she received her pearls. From Bob to the twins, the children were agog 47 for that moment, because Daddy had shown them the big flat leather case, opened it to reveal the milky 48 opalescent 49 beads 50 on their black velvet bed. Their mother’s blossoming happiness had affected 51 them deeply; it was like seeing the start of a good drenching 52 rain. 
     Until now they had never quite understood how unhappy she must have been all the years they had known her. The chook yard was huge, and held four roosters and upward of forty hens. At night they inhabited a tumble-down shed, its rigorously swept floor lined around the edges with straw-filled orange crates 53 for laying, and its rear crossed by perches 54 of various heights. But during the day the chooks strutted 55 clucking around a large, wire-netted run. When Meggie opened the run gate and squeezed inside, the birds clustered about her greedily, thinking they would be fed, but since Meggie fed them in the evenings she laughed at their silly antics and stepped through them into the shed. “Honestly, what a hopeless lot of chookies you are!”  she lectured them severely 56 as she poked 57 in the nests. “Forty of you, and only fifteen eggs! Not enough for breakfast, let alone a cake. Well, I’m warning you here and now—if you don’t do something about it soon, the chopping block for the lot of you, and that applies to the lords of the coop as well as wives, so don’t spread your tails and ruffle 58 up your necks as if I’m not including you, gentlemen!” With the eggs held carefully in her apron 59, Meggie ran back to the kitchen, singing. Fee was sitting in Paddy’s chair staring at a sheet of Smith’s Weekly, her face white, her lips moving.
 

新的一年是在鲁德纳·胡尼斯的安格斯·金恩举行的一年一度的除夕宴会中到来的，而往大宅的搬迁依然没有结束。这可不是一件隔夜之间就能干完的事，他们忙于打点七年以来每日每天积攒下来的什物。菲声称，大宅的客厅至少应该先收拾好。谁也没有着慌，尽管大家都盼望着能搬进去。在某些方面，大宅并没有什么不同之处：它没有电，到处都厚厚地落满了一层苍蝇。但是在夏天，它要比外面凉爽二十来度，因为它有厚厚的石墙，魔鬼桉遮蔽着屋顶。浴室也着实豪华，整个冬天，从隔壁厨房的大火炉后面通过来的管子都能供应热水，而管子中的每一滴水都是雨水。尽管在这座大建筑里有十个小隔间，可以洗盆浴或淋浴，但是大宅中和小一些的房子中都不惜工本地修建了室内盥洗间，其豪华程度达到了闻所未闻的程度，嫉妒的基里居民称之为骄奢淫逸。除了帝国旅馆、两家客栈、天主教神父宅邸和大修道院之外，基兰博地区就只有一些小屋矮棚了。德罗海达庄园不在此列，这多亏了它那为数众多的水箱和屋顶可以收集雨水。规矩是严格的：不允许滥用冲洗水以及大量使用洗羊药水。但是，体会过在地上挖个洞就当厕所用的滋味后，这里的情况就象天堂一样了。
　　拉尔夫神父在头一年的12月初给帕迪家寄来了一张5000镑的支票、他在信上说，这笔钱是给他们过日子用的。帕迪不知所措地惊叫了一声，把支票递给了菲。
　　"我怀疑我所有的工作都加到一起，是不是能挣到这么多钱，"他说。
　　"我拿它干什么好呢？"菲问道。她望着那支票，随后抬眼望着他。"这是钱哪，帕迪！至少这是钱，你明白吗？哦，我不在乎玛丽姑妈的一千三百万镑--这么多钱根本不现实。可这是实实在在的。我拿它干什么好呢？"
　　"花了它，"帕迪直截了当地说。"给孩子们和你添几件新衣服好吗？"也许，你愿意为大宅买些东西吗？我实在想不出咱们还需要什么了。"
　　"我也一样，这不是太愚蠢了吗？"菲从早餐桌旁站了起来，急切地对梅吉招了招手。"来，丫头，咱们到大宅去看看。"
　　尽管从玛丽·卡森死后那动荡不安的一星期以来，三个月已经过去了，但克利里家的人还没到大宅附近去过呢。不过，这回到那儿去。比以前那种勉勉强强的拜访要好得多。她和梅吉从一个房间走到另一个房间，史密斯太太、明妮和凯特也陪着她们。菲比梅吉要活跃得多；梅吉被她搞糊涂了。她一个劲儿地顾自叨念着，什么这个太糟糕啦，那个让人厌恶透啦，玛丽是不是色盲？难道她根本没有鉴赏力吗？
　　在会客室里，菲停留的时间最长，非常在行地打量着。这个会客室就是太长了，有40英尺长，20英尺宽。天花板有15英尺高。它的装璜是最好的东西和最糟糕的东西的令人莫名其妙的混合。房间里漆着一层均匀的奶白色，已经有些发黄了，根本不能突出天花板上那豪华的造型图案或墙壁上的雕花镶板。沿着走廊的一侧，一溜儿40英尺长都是巨大的落地窗。挂着厚实的棕色丝绒窗帘，深黑的影子投在失去了光泽的、棕色的椅子上。还有两只极漂亮的孔雀蓝的长椅和两只同样漂亮的佛罗伦萨大理石长椅，一个堂皇的带紫粉色纹理的奶白色大理石壁炉。在打磨得亮闪闪的柚木地板上，三块奥包松地毯铺成了精确的几何图形，天花板上垂下一只六英尺高的沃特福德枝形吊灯，周围是一串串的链子。
　　
　　"史密斯太太，真得好好夸夸你呀。"菲说道。"这里的装璜糟糕得要命，但是却干干净净，一尘不染。我会给你一些值得照看一下的东西的。没有一样东西能衬托出那些贵重的长椅--简直是丢脸！自从我见到这个房间的起。我就想把它好好收拾收抬，好让每一个进来的人都要赞不绝口，并且舒服得让人舍不得离开。"
 
　　玛丽·卡森的写字台是维多利亚时代的东西，丑陋不堪。写字台上有一部电话，菲走到了它的面前，轻蔑地用手指轻轻地弹了弹那已经发暗的木头。"我的那张写字台会使这儿显得漂亮的，"她说道。"我要动手安排这个房间，把它收拾完，我才从小河那边搬过来。在这之前我可不来。这样，我们至少有一个大家能聚集在一起而又不感到气闷的地方。"
 
　　她的女儿和仆人们站在那里，挤作一小堆不知如何是好。她给哈里·高夫打了个电话。马克·福伊公司委托夜班邮车送来了布样：诸克·柯尔比公司将送来油漆样品，格雷斯兄弟公司将送来墙壁纸样品，悉尼的这种或那种商店将送来为她特别编制的商品目录，吹嘘他们的成套家具陈设。哈里哈哈大笑着，他保证能让家具商们，以及能符合菲那种苛刻要求的油漆工们来一场竞争。克利里太太真是好运气！她要把玛丽·卡森的权利从这幢房子里扫地出门。
　　电话一挂完，第个人都被指挥着立即去扯掉那些棕色的窗帘。在菲的亲自监督下，这些窗帘被扔到了外面的垃圾堆里；她甚至不怕浪费，亲手点火把窗帘统统烧了。
　　"我们不需要这些窗帘，"她说，"我不打算在基兰博的穷人面前毁掉它们。"
　　"是的，妈。"梅吉目瞪口呆地说道。
　　"我们不需要任何窗帘，"菲说道，对公然与时下流行的装饰品背道而驰没有丝毫的不安。"这些廊子太深了，阳光没能直接照射进来，所以我们干嘛要挂窗帘呢？我要让这个房间亮一些。"
　　一应材料都到了，油漆工和家具商们也来了。梅吉和凯特被分派爬到梯子上，清洗和擦亮顶部的窗子，与此同时，史密斯太太和明妮处理下部的窗子。菲四处处走着，用敏锐的眼光查看着一切。
　　到一月份的第二个星期时，会客室全部收拾完毕。这桩新闻当然从电话线里传开去了。克利里太太把德罗海达的会客厅变成了宫殿。在欢迎人们参观大宅的时候，霍普顿太太陪着金太太和奥罗克太太一起去了；这难道不是国内的头等大事吗？
　　菲一番努力的结果大获成功，这一点是毫无疑问的。带浅粉色条纹和绿叶扶植的红玫瑰的奶白色奥巴扒地毯随意地点缀在光亮如镜的地板四周；墙上和天花板上涂了一层新鲜的乳白色油漆；每一个造型和雕花都涂上了金色，显得十分醒目；镶壁板上那大片的椭圆形平面间隔上覆盖上一层浅黑色的绸子，上面的图案和那三块地毯一样一是一串玫瑰花纹，宛如在乳白色和涂金的环境中挂上了几幅夸张的日本画。那只沃特福德吊灯被放低了，离地板只有六英尺半高，上面数千个小梭晶都擦得雪亮，闪着五颜六色的光彩。吊灯上的黄铜链拴在墙上，不再盘在天花板上。在细长的乳白涂金的桌子上，沃特福德烟灰缸旁工着沃特福德台灯和插着乳白色、粉色玫瑰的沃特福德花瓶；所有那些宽大、舒适的椅子上又罩上了一层乳白色的波纹绸·屋角摆上与椅子配套的小巧的垫脚凳；每个垫脚凳上都铺着令人惬意的粗模棱纹绸；在一个阳光明媚的角落中放着那架古雅的古钢琴，上面有一只插着粉色玫瑰的乳白色大花瓶。壁炉上挂着菲祖母的那张穿着浅粉色、带撑架裙子的肖象。对面的墙上有一幅更大的肖象，是年轻时代的、红头发的玛丽·卡森。她的面部就象年轻时的维多利亚女皇，穿着一件时髦的、带裙撑的黑褶裙。
　　"好啦，"菲说，"现在我们可以从小河这边搬过去了。有空的时候，我会把其它房间收抬好的。哦，有钱，并且花在一个体体面面的家上，不是很好吗？"
　　在他们搬家关三天，天色很早，太阳还没有升起来，家禽院里的雄鸡就快活地喔喔高蹄。
　　"可怜的东西，"菲说着，用旧报纸把她的磁器包了起来。"我不明白它们干嘛要乱叫一通。手边连个做早饭的鸡蛋都没有，搬家前男人们都呆在家里吧。梅吉，你得替我到鸡棚里去一趟，我太忙了。"她匆匆地看了看一张发了黄的《悉尼先驱报》，对一同束腰的紧身衣广告嗤之以鼻。"我不明白，帕迪干嘛要让我们订这么多报纸，谁都没时间去看。它们只是被摞起来，用炉子烧都来不及。看看这张吗！比咱们这所房子的租约还旧。唔，至少它们可以用来包东西。"
　　看到她母亲这么快乐，真是叫人高兴。当梅吉快步走下屋后的台阶，穿过灰飞尘扬的院子时，她想道。尽管每一个人都自然而然地盼望着住进大宅，可是，妈妈却好象更急迫，似乎这样她就能回忆起住高楼大厦的滋味了。她多聪明，鉴赏力多高啊！有许多东西以前谁都不了解其意义，因为他们既没有时间也没有钱来使它们焕发出异彩。梅吉心中十分激动，爹爹已经被打发到基里的首饰店里去了。他要用5000镑中的一部分给妈妈买一串真正的珍珠短项链和一对真正的珍珠耳环，只有这些东西上面才有小钻石呢。他打算趁他们在大宅中吃第一顿饭的时候把这些东西送给她。现在，她已经能看到她母亲脸上往日的那种郁闷之色已经不见了。从鲍勃到那对孪生子，孩子们都在急切地等待着这个时刻，因为爹爹已经把那只扁平的大皮盒子给他们看过了。打开那盒子之后，只见黑丝绒的底座上放着那闪着白色乳光的珠子。妈妈的心花怒放深深地感染了他们，就象看到下了一场喜人的透雨一样。直到眼下，他们还不理解这些年来他们所熟悉的她是多么不幸。
　　鸡棚很大，里面养着四只公鸡和40多只母鸡。夜晚，它们栖息在一个破烂不堪的窝里。在细心扫过的地面上，四周有一排装满了稻草的赤黄色板条箱，鸡可以伏在里面。鸡窝的后部高高低低地横着一些栖木。但是在白天，这些母鸡就在一个用铁丝网拦起的大饲养场里四处咯咯地叫着。当梅吉拉开饲养场的门，挤进去的时候，这些鸡急忙围住了她，以为她是来喂食的。但是，梅吉是晚上喂食的，所以她一边嘲弄着它们这种愚蠢可笑的样子，一边从它们身上迈过，向鸡棚走去。
　　"说真的，你们这群没出息的鸡！"
她一边在鸡棚里翻弄着，一边一本正经地斥责地它们。"你们一共有40只，可是才下了15个蛋！连一顿早饭都不够，更甭说做蛋糕了。嗯，我现在警告你们--要是你们不赶紧干出个样儿来，你们的命运就是上砧板，那东西是专门对付鸡笼里的老爷和太太们的。别跟我伸尾巴翘脖子，就好象我没把你算在内似的，先生们！"
　　梅吉用围裙小心翼翼地兜着鸡蛋，唱着歌跑回了厨房。
　　菲正坐在帕迪的椅子里，读着一张《史密斯周刊》。她脸色发白，嘴唇在动着。