📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 69
1"I know it all, I know it all," cried Mrs Smith. "He had been introduced to Sir Walter and your sister before I was
2acquainted with him, but I heard him speak of them for ever. I know he was invited and encouraged, and I know he did not
3choose to go. I can satisfy you, perhaps, on points which you would little expect; and as to his marriage, I knew all
4about it at the time. I was privy to all the fors and againsts; I was the friend to whom he confided his hopes and
5plans; and though I did not know his wife previously, her inferior situation in society, indeed, rendered that
6impossible, yet I knew her all her life afterwards, or at least till within the last two years of her life, and can
7answer any question you may wish to put." "Nay," said Anne, "I have no particular enquiry to make about her. I have
8always understood they were not a happy couple. But I should like to know why, at that time of his life, he should
9slight my father's acquaintance as he did. My father was certainly disposed to take very kind and proper notice of him.
10Why did Mr Elliot draw back?" "Mr Elliot," replied Mrs Smith, "at that period of his life, had one object in view: to
11make his fortune, and by a rather quicker process than the law. He was determined to make it by marriage. He was
12determined, at least, not to mar it by an imprudent marriage; and I know it was his belief (whether justly or not, of
13course I cannot decide), that your father and sister, in their civilities and invitations, were designing a match
14between the heir and the young lady, and it was impossible that such a match should have answered his ideas of wealth
15and independence. That was his motive for drawing back, I can assure you. He told me the whole story. He had no
16concealments with me. It was curious, that having just left you behind me in Bath, my first and principal acquaintance
17on marrying should be your cousin; and that, through him, I should be continually hearing of your father and sister. He
18described one Miss Elliot, and I thought very affectionately of the other." "Perhaps," cried Anne, struck by a sudden
19idea, "you sometimes spoke of me to Mr Elliot?" "To be sure I did; very often. I used to boast of my own Anne Elliot,
20and vouch for your being a very different creature from--" She checked herself just in time. "This accounts for
21something which Mr Elliot said last night," cried Anne. "This explains it. I found he had been used to hear of me. I
22could not comprehend how. What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken! But I
23beg your pardon; I have interrupted you. Mr Elliot married then completely for money? The circumstances, probably, which
24first opened your eyes to his character." Mrs Smith hesitated a little here. "Oh! those things are too common. When one
25lives in the world, a man or woman's marrying for money is too common to strike one as it ought. I was very young, and
26associated only with the young, and we were a thoughtless, gay set, without any strict rules of conduct. We lived for
27enjoyment. I think differently now; time and sickness and sorrow have given me other notions; but at that period I must
28own I saw nothing reprehensible in what Mr Elliot was doing. 'To do the best for himself,' passed as a duty." "But was
29not she a very low woman?" "Yes; which I objected to, but he would not regard. Money, money, was all that he wanted. Her
30father was a grazier, her grandfather had been a butcher, but that was all nothing. She was a fine woman, had had a
31decent education, was brought forward by some cousins, thrown by chance into Mr Elliot's company, and fell in love with
32him; and not a difficulty or a scruple was there on his side, with respect to her birth. All his caution was spent in
33being secured of the real amount of her fortune, before he committed himself. Depend upon it, whatever esteem Mr Elliot
34may have for his own situation in life now, as a young man he had not the smallest value for it. His chance for the
35Kellynch estate was something, but all the honour of the family he held as cheap as dirt. I have often heard him
36declare, that if baronetcies were saleable, anybody should have his for fifty pounds, arms and motto, name and livery
37included; but I will not pretend to repeat half that I used to hear him say on that subject. It would not be fair; and
38yet you ought to have proof, for what is all this but assertion, and you shall have proof." "Indeed, my dear Mrs Smith,
39I want none," cried Anne. "You have asserted nothing contradictory to what Mr Elliot appeared to be some years ago. This
40is all in confirmation, rather, of what we used to hear and believe. I am more curious to know why he should be so
41different now." "But for my satisfaction, if you will have the goodness to ring for Mary; stay: I am sure you will have
42the still greater goodness of going yourself into my bedroom, and bringing me the small inlaid box which you will find
43on the upper shelf of the closet." Anne, seeing her friend to be earnestly bent on it, did as she was desired. The box
44was brought and placed before her, and Mrs Smith, sighing over it as she unlocked it, said-- "This is full of papers
45belonging to him, to my husband; a small portion only of what I had to look over when I lost him. The letter I am
46looking for was one written by Mr Elliot to him before our marriage, and happened to be saved; why, one can hardly
47imagine. But he was careless and immethodical, like other men, about those things; and when I came to examine his
48papers, I found it with others still more trivial, from different people scattered here and there, while many letters
49and memorandums of real importance had been destroyed. Here it is; I would not burn it, because being even then very
50little satisfied with Mr Elliot, I was determined to preserve every document of former intimacy. I have now another
51motive for being glad that I can produce it." This was the letter, directed to "Charles Smith, Esq. Tunbridge Wells,"
52and dated from London, as far back as July, 1803:-- "Dear Smith, "I have received yours. Your kindness almost overpowers
53me. I wish nature had made such hearts as yours more common, but I have lived three-and-twenty years in the world, and
54have seen none like it. At present, believe me, I have no need of your services, being in cash again. Give me joy: I
55have got rid of Sir Walter and Miss. They are gone back to Kellynch, and almost made me swear to visit them this summer;
56but my first visit to Kellynch will be with a surveyor, to tell me how to bring it with best advantage to the hammer.
57The baronet, nevertheless, is not unlikely to marry again; he is quite fool enough. If he does, however, they will leave
58me in peace, which may be a decent equivalent for the reversion. He is worse than last year. "I wish I had any name but
59Elliot. I am sick of it. The name of Walter I can drop, thank God! and I desire you will never insult me with my second
60W. again, meaning, for the rest of my life, to be only yours truly, "WM. ELLIOT." Such a letter could not be read
61without putting Anne in a glow; and Mrs Smith, observing the high colour in her face, said-- "The language, I know, is
62highly disrespectful. Though I have forgot the exact terms, I have a perfect impression of the general meaning. But it
63shows you the man. Mark his professions to my poor husband. Can any thing be stronger?" Anne could not immediately get
64over the shock and mortification of finding such words applied to her father. She was obliged to recollect that her
65seeing the letter was a violation of the laws of honour, that no one ought to be judged or to be known by such
66testimonies, that no private correspondence could bear the eye of others, before she could recover calmness enough to
67return the letter which she had been meditating over, and say-- "Thank you. This is full proof undoubtedly; proof of
68every thing you were saying. But why be acquainted with us now?" "I can explain this too," cried Mrs Smith, smiling.
69"Can you really?"
🎉 全部完成！共 69 行