登陆注册
4718300000003

第3章

A number of children going along the road stopped and regarded the artist curiously. A boatman exchanged civilities with him. He felt that possibly his circumspect attitude and position seemed peculiar and unaccountable. Smoking, perhaps, might seem more natural. He drew pipe and pouch from his pocket, filled the pipe slowly.

"I wonder," . . . he said, with a scarcely perceptible loss of complacency. " At any rate we must give him a chance." He struck a match in the virile way, and proceeded to light his pipe.

Presently he heard his landlady behind him, coming with his lamp lit from the kitchen. He turned, gesticulating with his pipe, and stopped her at the door of his sitting-room. He had some difficulty in explaining the situation in whispers, for she did not know he had a visitor. She retreated again with the lamp, still a little mystified to judge from her manner, and he resumed his hovering at the corner of the porch, flushed and less at his ease.

Long after he had smoked out his pipe, and when the bats were abroad, his curiosity dominated his complex hesitations, and he stole back into his darkling sitting-room. He paused in the doorway. The stranger was still in the same attitude, dark against the window. Save for the singing of some sailors aboard one of the little slate-carrying ships in the harbour, the evening was very still. Outside, the spikes of monkshood and delphinium stood erect and motionless against the shadow of the hillside. Something flashed into Isbister's mind; he started, and leaning over the table, listened. An unpleasant suspicion grew stronger; became conviction. Astonishment seized him and became--dread!

No sound of breathing came from the seated figure!

He crept slowly and noiselessly round the table, pausing twice to listen. At last he could lay his hand on the back of the armchair. He bent down until the two heads were ear to ear.

Then he bent still lower to look up at his visitor's face. He started violently and uttered an exclamation.

The eyes were void spaces of white.

He looked again and saw that they were open and with the pupils rolled under the lids. He was suddenly afraid. Overcome by the strangeness of the man's condition, he took him by the shoulder and shook him. "Are you asleep?" he said, with his voice jumping into alto, and again, "Are you asleep?"A conviction took possession of his mind that this man was dead. He suddenly became active and noisy, strode across the room, blundering against the table as he did so, and rang the bell.

"Please bring a light at once," he said in the passage.

"There is something wrong with my friend."Then he returned to the motionless seated figure, grasped the shoulder, shook it, and shouted. The room was flooded with yellow glare as his astonished landlady entered with the light. His face was white as he turned blinking towards her. "I must fetch a doctor at once," he said. "It is either death or a fit. Is there a doctor in the village? Where is a doctor to be found? "THE TRANCE

The state of cataleptic rigour into which this man had fallen, lasted for an unprecedented length of time, and then he passed slowly to the flaccid state, to a lax attitude suggestive of profound repose. Then it was his eyes could be closed.

He was removed from the hotel to the Boscastle surgery, and from the surgery, after some weeks, to London. But he still resisted every attempt at reanimation. After a time, for reasons that will appear later, these attempts were discontinued. For a great space he lay in that strange condition, inert and still neither dead nor living but, as it were, suspended, hanging midway between nothingness and existence.

His was a darkness unbroken by a ray of thought or sensation, a dreamless inanition, a vast space of peace.

The tumult of his mind had swelled and risen to an abrupt climax of silence. Where was the man?

Where is any man when insensibility takes hold of him?

"It seems only yesterday," said Isbister. "Iremember it all as though it happened yesterday--clearer perhaps, than if it had happened yesterday."It was the Isbister of the last chapter, but he was no longer a young man. The hair that had been brown and a trifle in excess of the fashionable length, was iron grey and clipped close, and the face that had been pink and white was buff and ruddy. He had a pointed beard shot with grey. He talked to an elderly man who wore a summer suit of drill (the summer of that year was unusually hot). This was Warming, a London solicitor and next of kin to Graham, the man who had fallen into the trance. And the two men stood side by side in a room in a house in London regarding his recumbent figure.

It was a yellow figure Iying lax upon a water-bed and clad in a flowing shirt, a figure with a shrunken face and a stubby beard, lean limbs and lank nails, and about it was a case of thin glass. This glass seemed to mark off the sleeper from the reality of life about him, he was a thing apart, a strange, isolated abnormality.

The two men stood close to the glass, peering in.

"The thing gave me a shock," said Isbister "Ifeel a queer sort of surprise even now when I think of his white eyes. They were white, you know, rolled up. Coming here again brings it all back to me.

"Have you never seen him since that time? " asked Warming.

"Often wanted to come," said Isbister; "but business nowadays is too serious a thing for much holiday keeping. I've been in America most of the time.""If I remember rightly," said Warming, "you were an artist?""Was. And then I became a married man. I saw it was all up with black and white, very soon--at least for a mediocre man, and I jumped on to process.

Those posters on the Cliffs at Dover are by my people.""Good posters," admitted the solicitor, "though I |was sorry to see them there." I"Last as long as the cliffs, if necessary," exclaimed Isbister with satisfaction. " The world changes.

同类推荐
  • 缘起经

    缘起经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Mazelli and Other Poems

    Mazelli and Other Poems

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 西州院

    西州院

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 波斯教残经

    波斯教残经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说鬼子母经

    佛说鬼子母经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 到莫干山看老别墅

    到莫干山看老别墅

    本书介绍了莫干山别墅楼独特的建筑特点与建筑风格,包括白云山馆、林海别墅、88号别墅、松月庐、郭沫若住过的雄庄、潘家园林等。
  • 曾国藩如何改变人生

    曾国藩如何改变人生

    本书以曾国藩的一生经历为主线,深入挖掘他在求学、当京官、镇压太平天国、晚年这四个不同时期的人生追求和理想,乃至如何显著地影响着他的人生轨迹。这对当代仍有积极的参考意义。
  • 神级卡牌系统

    神级卡牌系统

    没有繁杂的灵技武技,有的只是各式各样的战斗灵卡。一朝重生,系统加身,他早已不是云家的废物少爷。你是至高无上的卡师,百万中无一?不好意思,我有神级卡牌系统。什么?卡师制作出灵卡成功率只有百分之一?不好意思,系统制作的成功率是百分之百。卡师都不能提升灵卡品质?不好意思,系统可以。卡师不能做出天榜地榜的灵卡?不好意思,系统也可以。因为有了系统,云逸就这样在神级卡师的路上越走越远!
  • 风声

    风声

    《风声》是麦家最精彩长篇小说:五个打入敌人情报组织内部的人中,必定有一个人,就是“老鬼”!五个人被关押在一栋全面监控的别墅里,“老鬼”机智地与日伪周旋,制造种种假象迷惑敌人。最后关头,“老鬼”不得不牺牲生命,设法将情报成功传递出去。这是英雄的结局?不,这只是一切传奇的开始……在信念的重压下,在内心的旷野里,每个人背后,都有一部波澜壮阔、悲恸天地的历史。《风声》之后,世间再无传奇!
  • 清末民初历史演义(套装共5册)

    清末民初历史演义(套装共5册)

    《清末民初历史演义全集》以小说的形式触及到晚清所谓“庇护制网络结构”与王朝衰败之间的关系。正如费正清在《剑桥中国晚清史》中指出,“清代中国政治行为的特殊型式即庇护制网络结构的形成”,是导致清末官场招权纳贿、任人唯亲、裙带关系盛行和政治腐化的根源。《清末民初历史演义》通过记述一系列重要政治人物的逸闻轶事,揭露并谴责了晚清官员的丑态和官场黑幕,同时也从历史的角度反思了庇护制网络结构不断超出可控范围使政治体制沦为“私利”工具的这一历史现象。这也使得《清末民初历史演义》超出一般谴责小说的范畴而具有了更加深刻的意义。  
  • 中国人为什么看不起中国人

    中国人为什么看不起中国人

    全书按体例共分为五部分。“古今”部分剖析国人对男女情事的心理、批判清末民初的腐败统治、悲慨古今民告官的悲惨下场。“公器”部分认为,权力乃天下之公器,不是官员个人的财产,不可私相授受,揭露官场的症结、教育制度的不合理之处。“乡村”部分关注乡村的权力结构、乡村的变化、农民工和城市的关系以及工会如何援助农民工。“风气”部分批判社会上的冷漠风气、不正常的师生关系、现在读者的不正常阅读、社会机构的衙门化、文化界的造假。“世相”部分深刻揭示出当今社会的阶层已经出现固定化的趋势,个人机会的公平是社会健康发展的保障;尊重消费者权利、尊重公民的权利是社会的当务之急。
  • 嘿呀我的男孩

    嘿呀我的男孩

    夏敏,完美少女变成A爆肥姐!以前的校花,如今的阿姨,那个曾经青梅竹马的王子,十年后重逢是否还能重新认爱?Ohno,与其哭哭啼啼被动等爱,看我们的夏小雪(夏敏)改名(改命)之后如何再次收复赵子晗这只小妖!说好的情深款款都是不存在的,只是她把渣男活生生洗脑成了十全美男!
  • 重生娇宠世子妃

    重生娇宠世子妃

    乔府大小姐乔寻容在嫁与卫府世子为妃当日蹊跷落水身亡。重生归来乔姑娘只求快逸人生,解开自己前世亡故的曲折离奇。卫世子宠妻入骨,为爱历经波澜。梁国公主错爱过后终遇良人,黎国流落在外的亡命公子又是如何夺回原本属于自己的皇位。这是一群年轻人各自拼搏终寻真爱的故事。
  • 我家王爷黑化啦

    我家王爷黑化啦

    【1v1,乖巧软萌(扮猪吃虎)女主vs温柔清冷(黑化病娇)男主】——苏云染没想到,第一次坐船就撞上了暗礁,更没想到的是,自己明明都掉到水里了,竟然还会被雷劈;劈就劈吧,居然还给劈到书里去了……——别人穿越都是穿越在剧情关键点,她捏,直接穿越到大结局的二十二年后。幸好幸好,男主的儿子好看又温柔,说话又好听,他的下属个个都是人才,这生活一天天的真有意思。ps:重生霸道男配,系统穿越女配
  • 王爷的小野猫

    王爷的小野猫

    她就像一只难以驯服的野猫,邪恶残忍的他将她囚禁起来……他有信心让她爱上他,一场灵与肉的纠缠开始了……一夜之间,十船被焚,血河滚滚,他高高在上地看着她,狂妄放肆地道,“小美人,来当朕的小奴隶!”他是野心勃勃邪恶无比的王爷,残忍嗜血;他是一手遮天的皇帝,狡猾如狐,她是穿越到海盗女儿身上的现代惊风号间谍,强悍嚣张,俗称百变女郎;连接二三而来的美男,个个狠毒无比,身手不凡,她,将如何逃出那残暴王爷的手掌心,又如何安全地周旋于众美男之间……