苏珊姑妈的妙招（下）来一睹苏珊姑妈的风采吧！"

By the Rule of Contrary

By Lucy Maud Montgomery ∷陈佳选注

“Old Susan Oliver, as sure as a gun

,” said old John with another chuckle. “She looks mad clean through. I suppose she’s coming here to blow me up

for refusing to let Burton take that girl of hers. She’s been angling and scheming for it for years,

but she will find who she has to deal with. Come on, Miss Susan.”

John Ellis laid down his paper and stood up with a sarcastic smile.

Miss Susan reached the steps and skimmed undauntedly up them.

She did indeed look angry and disturbed. Without any preliminary greeting she burst out into a tirade that simply took away her complacent foe’s breath.

“Look here, John Ellis, I want to know what this means. I’ve discovered that that young upstart

of a son of yours, who ought to be in short trousers yet, has been courting my niece, Madge Oliver, all summer. He has had the impudence

to tell me that he wants to marry her. I won’t have it, I tell you, and you can tell your son so. Marry my niece indeed! A pretty pass

the world is coming to! I’ll never consent to it.

”Perhaps if you had searched Greenwood and all the adjacent districts thoroughly you might have found a man who was more astonished and taken aback than old John Ellis was at that moment, but I doubt it.

The wind was completely taken out of his sails

and every bit of the Ellis contrariness was roused.

“What have you got to say against my son?” he fairly shouted in his rage. “Isn’t he good enough for your girl, Susan Oliver, I’d like to know?”

“No, he isn’t,” retorted Miss Susan deliberately and unflinchingly

. “He’s well enough in his place, but you’ll please to remember, John Ellis, that my niece is an Oliver, and the Olivers don’t marry beneath them.”

Old John was furious. “Beneath them indeed! Why, woman, it is condescension

in my son to so much as look at your niece—condescension, that is what it is. You are as poor as church mice

.”

“We come of good family, though,” retorted Miss Susan. “You Ellises are nobodies

. Your grandfather was a hired man

! And yet you have the presumption

to think you’re fit to marry into an old, respectable family like the Olivers. But talking doesn’t signify

. I simply won’t allow this nonsense to go on. I came here today to tell you soplump

and plain. It’s your duty to stop it; if you don’t I will, that’s all.”

27. as sure as a gun: 一定，毫无疑问。

28. blow somebody up: 严责、斥责某人。

29. angle:（用手段、诡计等）猎取，谋取； scheme: 搞阴谋。

28. blow somebody up: 严责、斥责某人。

29. angle:（用手段、诡计等）猎取，谋取； scheme: 搞阴谋。

30. skim: 飞快地掠过； undauntedly: 无畏地。

31. tirade: 激烈的发言，长篇的攻击性言论； foe: 仇敌。

32. upstart: 自命不凡的人。

33. impudence: 厚脸皮。

34. pretty pass: 困境。

35. adjacent: 邻近的； taken aback: 震惊的。

36. take the wind out of sb.’s sails: 使某人泄气，抢占某人上风。

37. unflinchingly: 不畏缩地。

38. condescension: 屈尊俯就。

39. as poor as church mice: 穷得像教堂的老鼠，一贫如洗。

40. nobody: 无名小卒，无足轻重的人。

41. hired man: 雇工，农场工人。

42. presumption: 冒昧，放肆，自以为是。

43. 光是说说不能代表什么/不能起什么作用。

44. plump: 直截了当地。

“Oh, will you?” John Ellis was at a white heat of rage and stubbornness now. “We’ll see, Miss Susan, we’ll see. My son shall marry whatever girl he pleases, and I’ll back him up in it—do you hear that? Come here and tell me my son isn’t good enough for your niece indeed! I’ll show you he can get her anyway.”

“You’ve heard what I’ve said,” was the answer, “and you’d better go by it, that’s all. I shan’t stay to bandy words

with you, John Ellis. I’m going home to talk to my niece and tell her her duty plain, and what I want her to do, and she’ll do it, I haven’t a fear.”

Miss Susan was halfway down the steps, but John Ellis ran to the railing of the verandah to get the last word.

“I’ll send Burton down this evening to talk to her and tell her what he wants her to do, and we’ll see whether she’ll sooner listen to you than to him,” he shouted.

Miss Susan deigned no reply

. Old John strode out to the turnip field. Burton saw him coming and looked for another outburst of wrath

, but his father’s first words almost took away his breath.

“See here, Burt, I take back all I said this afternoon. I want you to marry Madge Oliver now, and the sooner, the better. That old cat of a Susan had the face to come up and tell me you weren’t good enough for her niece. I told her a few plain truths. Don’t you mind the old crosspatch

. I’ll back you up.”

By this time Burton had begun hoeing vigorously, to hide the amused twinkle of comprehension

in his eyes. He admired Miss Susan’s tactics, but he did not say so.

“All right, Father,” he answered dutifully. When Miss Susan reached home she told Madge to bathe her eyes and put on her new pink muslin

,because she guessed Burton would be down that evening.

“Oh, Auntie, how did you manage it?” cried Madge. “Madge,” said Miss Susan solemnly, but with dancing eyes, “do you know how to drive a pig? Just try to make it go in the opposite direction and it will bolt

the way you want it. Remember that, my dear.”?

45. bandy words: 斗嘴。

46. deign no reply: 不屑作答。

47. wrath: 狂怒，愤怒。

48. crosspatch: 脾气暴躁的人，爱发牢骚的人。

49. comprehension: 理解。

50. muslin: 平纹细布。

51. bolt: 冲出。

——END——

以上内容选自《英语学习》杂志

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主编：侯毅凌

《英语学习》杂志创刊于1958年，由北京外国语大学主办，是一本集知识、学习和趣味于一体的英语文化综合性刊物，被评为“全国优秀外语教辅期刊”，一贯以“学习英语的终身益友，了解世界的精彩橱窗”为宗旨，在突出人文旨趣、深入介绍西方社会文化、增进阅读者的英语修养的理念指导下，坚持严谨而不失活泼、品位与趣味并重的办刊风格，凸显杂志的高等教育气质。

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