登陆注册
15326300000054

第54章

(These last words were uttered in a tone of sorrowful agitation: Mr Glegg pushed his tea from him, and tapped the table with both his hands.)`Well, Mr Glegg! if those are your feelings, it's best they should be known,' said Mrs Glegg, taking off her napkin, and folding it in an excited manner.`But if you talk o' my being provided for beyond what I could expect, I beg leave to tell you as I'd a right to except a many things as I don't find.And as to my being like a mad dog, it's well if you're not cried shame on by the county for your treatment of me, for it's what I can't bear, and I won't bear'...

Here Mrs Glegg's voice intimated that she was going to cry, and breaking off from speech, she rang the bell violently.

`Sally,' she said, rising from her chair, and speaking in rather a choked voice, `light a fire upstairs, and put the blinds down.Mr Glegg, you'll please to order what you'd like for dinner.I shall have gruel.'

Mrs Glegg walked across the room to the small book-case, and took down Baxter's `Saints' Everlasting Rest'which she carried with her upstairs.

It was the book she was accustomed to lay open before her on special occasions:

on wet Sunday mornings - or when she heard of a death in the family - or when, as in this case, her quarrel with Mr Glegg had been set an octave higher than usual.

But Mrs Glegg carried something else upstairs with her, which together with the `Saints' Rest' and the gruel, may have had some influence in gradually calming her feelings and making it possible for her to endure existence on the ground-floor shortly before tea-time.This was partly Mr Glegg's suggestion that she would do well to let her five hundred lie still until a good investment turned up, and, further, his parenthetic hint at his handsome provision for her in case of his death.Mr Glegg, like all men of his stamp, was extremely reticent about his will, and Mrs Glegg in her gloomier moments, had forebodings that, like other husbands of whom she had heard, he might cherish the mean project of heightening her grief at his death by leaving her poorly off, in which case she was firmly resolved that she would have scarcely any weeper on her bonnet and would cry no more than if he had been a second husband.But if he had really shown her any testamentary tenderness, it would be affecting to think of him, poor man, when he was gone, and even his foolish fuss about the flowers and garden-stuff, and his insistence on the subject of snails, would be touching when it was once fairly at an end.To survive Mr Glegg and talk eulogistically of him, as a man who might have his weaknesses, but who had done the right thing by her notwithstanding his numerous poor relations - to have sums of interest coming in more frequently and secrete it in various corners baffling to the most ingenious of thieves (for, to Mrs Glegg's mind, banks and strong boxes would have nullified the pleasure of property - she might as well have taken her food in capsules) - finally, to be looked up to by her own family and the neighbourhood, so as no woman can ever hope to be who has not the praeterite and present dignity comprised in being a `widow well left,' - all this made a flattering and conciliatory view of the future.So that when good Mr Glegg, restored to good-humour by much hoeing, and moved by the sight of his wife's empty chair with her knitting rolled up in the corner, went upstairs to her and observed that the bell had been tolling for poor Mr Morton, Mrs Glegg answered magnanimously, quite as if she had been an uninjured woman, `Ah!then there'll be a good business for somebody to take to.'

Baxter had been open at least eight hours by this time, for it was nearly five o'clock; and if people are to quarrel often, it follows as a corollary that their quarrels cannot be protracted beyond certain limits.

Mr and Mrs Glegg talked quite amicably about the Tullivers that evening:

Mr Glegg went the length of admitting that Tulliver was a sad man for getting into hot water, and was like enough to run through his property; and Mrs Glegg, meeting this acknowledgment half-way, declared that it was beneath her to take notice of such a man's conduct, and that for her sister's sake, she would let him keep the five hundred a while longer, for when she put it out on a mortgage she should only get four per cent.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 赤焰红尘

    赤焰红尘

    这是一个由两个神话时代中间过渡的无神话时代,一个现代人穿越到过去,历尽艰险,靠信仰之力而成神的故事,让主人公由现代教育中的绝对无神论逐渐体会到了信仰对于人的重要。有希望,有信仰,心才不会死!
  • 风华无双:废材小姐太嚣张

    风华无双:废材小姐太嚣张

    钟漓国奇闻,镇南候府花痴小姐一朝梦想成真,成为举世无双的当朝太子的准新娘,却在大婚前日,衣不蔽体的出现在城门口受尽屈辱而死,当她再次睁开眼,星眸璀璨,凌厉乍现,强者之魂已注入弱者之躯。前世她是二十一世界天才少女夏侯拾依,今世她竟然成了草包废材小姐夏侯拾依。不能修炼?灵力永远都是红阶一级的草包废物?笑话!明明就是你等有眼不识金镶玉,待本姑凉一朝洗尽铅华,闪瞎你们的钛合金狗眼。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 心医:溺水三千

    心医:溺水三千

    作者保证!本文苏苏苏到炸,结尾虐到爆!看过我以前的作品的都知道我的水平。——————心病是只有自己可以治愈的伤痛,我见过所有人的悲欢离合,安抚过,治疗过所有人的心,唯独自己,我发现不了,也治愈不好。五年后我再次回到这个城市,再遇见他,我的生活都乱套了。——————她也只是普通人,海归的她再次遇见五年前的伤痛,身边出现的人也不再是以前的模样。天地无极,爱恨无间。或许只有今天能活下去,别怕……
  • 林果飘香

    林果飘香

    本书以科学性为前提,以点带面,将科学性、知识性、趣味性融为一体,内容丰富,信息量较大,适宜于高中以上文化程度的读者阅读。果树是树木中与人们生活最为贴近的一部分,木本果树提供了世界上大部分的水果和干果,世界水果中产量最高的柑橘、苹果、葡萄、桃、梨等,干果中产量最高的核桃、开心果、杏仁、榛子、枣等都是木本果树。这些水果和干果丰富了人们的膳食结构,为人类提供了维生素、氨基酸等许多必需的营养,同时成为农林业发展中重要的经济作物。《科普通鉴:林果飘香》带你了解果树的生物学特性和果树栽培的一些基本知识,对于我们合理消费果树产品,提高生产生活的质量有很大帮助。
  • 穿越之名门商女

    穿越之名门商女

    前世为家族、为国家无数次的游走在生与死的边缘,最终湮没在大厦的废墟中,既然有机会重活一次,她只打算为自己而活!
  • 悬疑的未解之谜

    悬疑的未解之谜

    人类有多少好奇,世界就有多少奥秘。亲爱的孩子们,你们有多少想象,世界就有多少精彩。来吧!让我们一起去解读大自然的神秘物语。翻开《悬疑的未解之谜》一书,它将带领我们去解开各地悬而未解的世界之谜。
  • 末世生存系统:炮灰逆袭

    末世生存系统:炮灰逆袭

    一介孤儿千瑾兮被系统莫名其妙的带到小说里!成为了小说里的炮灰!不甘的她,带着金手指系统,持着无双空间,领着一众美男,肩上俩酷帅神宠,一路走上巅峰!
  • 星空雷神

    星空雷神

    “谁若敢动她分毫,我灭他满门,雷炼其九族灵魂”开学第一天就被人欺负,不甘示弱的陈锋毅然选择了修炼一途,一步步踏入世界的巅峰。
  • 念念父亲心

    念念父亲心

    念念父亲心简介;本书讲述的是一个父亲寻找女儿的故事,二十多年前女儿的妈妈为了掩盖自己不能见人的丑行,逼着女儿的父亲邹天涯离婚了,一怒之下邹天涯离开了家乡,经过二十多年的拼搏终于成就了一番事业,这时邹天涯开始了寻找女儿,就在父女团聚后,这个可恶的女人又出现了,邹天涯和他现在的妻子却死在了这个可恶的前妻的车子面前了。本书字里行间皆是泪水,昭示了一个父亲的儿女情长。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)