📝 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 / 61
1The same evening afforded him an opportunity of trying his strength. Maria, Julia, Henry Crawford, and Mr. Yates were in
2the billiard-room. Tom, returning from them into the drawing-room, where Edmund was standing thoughtfully by the fire,
3while Lady Bertram was on the sofa at a little distance, and Fanny close beside her arranging her work, thus began as he
4entered--"Such a horribly vile billiard-table as ours is not to be met with, I believe, above ground. I can stand it no
5longer, and I think, I may say, that nothing shall ever tempt me to it again; but one good thing I have just
6ascertained: it is the very room for a theatre, precisely the shape and length for it; and the doors at the farther end,
7communicating with each other, as they may be made to do in five minutes, by merely moving the bookcase in my father's
8room, is the very thing we could have desired, if we had sat down to wish for it; and my father's room will be an
9excellent greenroom. It seems to join the billiard-room on purpose." "You are not serious, Tom, in meaning to act?" said
10Edmund, in a low voice, as his brother approached the fire. "Not serious! never more so, I assure you. What is there to
11surprise you in it?" "I think it would be very wrong. In a general light, private theatricals are open to some
12objections, but as we are circumstanced, I must think it would be highly injudicious, and more than injudicious to
13attempt anything of the kind. It would shew great want of feeling on my father's account, absent as he is, and in some
14degree of constant danger; and it would be imprudent, I think, with regard to Maria, whose situation is a very delicate
15one, considering everything, extremely delicate." "You take up a thing so seriously! as if we were going to act three
16times a week till my father's return, and invite all the country. But it is not to be a display of that sort. We mean
17nothing but a little amusement among ourselves, just to vary the scene, and exercise our powers in something new. We
18want no audience, no publicity. We may be trusted, I think, in chusing some play most perfectly unexceptionable; and I
19can conceive no greater harm or danger to any of us in conversing in the elegant written language of some respectable
20author than in chattering in words of our own. I have no fears and no scruples. And as to my father's being absent, it
21is so far from an objection, that I consider it rather as a motive; for the expectation of his return must be a very
22anxious period to my mother; and if we can be the means of amusing that anxiety, and keeping up her spirits for the next
23few weeks, I shall think our time very well spent, and so, I am sure, will he. It is a very anxious period for her." As
24he said this, each looked towards their mother. Lady Bertram, sunk back in one corner of the sofa, the picture of
25health, wealth, ease, and tranquillity, was just falling into a gentle doze, while Fanny was getting through the few
26difficulties of her work for her. Edmund smiled and shook his head. "By Jove! this won't do," cried Tom, throwing
27himself into a chair with a hearty laugh. "To be sure, my dear mother, your anxiety--I was unlucky there." "What is the
28matter?" asked her ladyship, in the heavy tone of one half-roused; "I was not asleep." "Oh dear, no, ma'am, nobody
29suspected you! Well, Edmund," he continued, returning to the former subject, posture, and voice, as soon as Lady Bertram
30began to nod again, "but this I will maintain, that we shall be doing no harm." "I cannot agree with you; I am convinced
31that my father would totally disapprove it." "And I am convinced to the contrary. Nobody is fonder of the exercise of
32talent in young people, or promotes it more, than my father, and for anything of the acting, spouting, reciting kind, I
33think he has always a decided taste. I am sure he encouraged it in us as boys. How many a time have we mourned over the
34dead body of Julius Caesar, and to be'd and not to be'd, in this very room, for his amusement? And I am sure, my name
35was Norval, every evening of my life through one Christmas holidays." "It was a very different thing. You must see the
36difference yourself. My father wished us, as schoolboys, to speak well, but he would never wish his grown-up daughters
37to be acting plays. His sense of decorum is strict." "I know all that," said Tom, displeased. "I know my father as well
38as you do; and I'll take care that his daughters do nothing to distress him. Manage your own concerns, Edmund, and I'll
39take care of the rest of the family." "If you are resolved on acting," replied the persevering Edmund, "I must hope it
40will be in a very small and quiet way; and I think a theatre ought not to be attempted. It would be taking liberties
41with my father's house in his absence which could not be justified." "For everything of that nature I will be
42answerable," said Tom, in a decided tone. "His house shall not be hurt. I have quite as great an interest in being
43careful of his house as you can have; and as to such alterations as I was suggesting just now, such as moving a
44bookcase, or unlocking a door, or even as using the billiard-room for the space of a week without playing at billiards
45in it, you might just as well suppose he would object to our sitting more in this room, and less in the breakfast-room,
46than we did before he went away, or to my sister's pianoforte being moved from one side of the room to the other.
47Absolute nonsense!" "The innovation, if not wrong as an innovation, will be wrong as an expense." "Yes, the expense of
48such an undertaking would be prodigious! Perhaps it might cost a whole twenty pounds. Something of a theatre we must
49have undoubtedly, but it will be on the simplest plan: a green curtain and a little carpenter's work, and that's all;
50and as the carpenter's work may be all done at home by Christopher Jackson himself, it will be too absurd to talk of
51expense; and as long as Jackson is employed, everything will be right with Sir Thomas. Don't imagine that nobody in this
52house can see or judge but yourself. Don't act yourself, if you do not like it, but don't expect to govern everybody
53else." "No, as to acting myself," said Edmund, "that I absolutely protest against." Tom walked out of the room as he
54said it, and Edmund was left to sit down and stir the fire in thoughtful vexation. Fanny, who had heard it all, and
55borne Edmund company in every feeling throughout the whole, now ventured to say, in her anxiety to suggest some comfort,
56"Perhaps they may not be able to find any play to suit them. Your brother's taste and your sisters' seem very
57different." "I have no hope there, Fanny. If they persist in the scheme, they will find something. I shall speak to my
58sisters and try to dissuade them, and that is all I can do." "I should think my aunt Norris would be on your side." "I
59dare say she would, but she has no influence with either Tom or my sisters that could be of any use; and if I cannot
60convince them myself, I shall let things take their course, without attempting it through her. Family squabbling is the
61greatest evil of all, and we had better do anything than be altogether by the ears."
🎉 全部完成！共 61 行