登陆注册
5143800000005

第5章

my service wasn't worth his being taken into.My offer could only be to help him to find another place, and yet there was an indelicacy, as it were, in taking for granted that his thoughts would immediately be fixed on another.I had a hope that he would be able to give his life a different form--though certainly not the form, the frequent result of such bereavements, of his setting up a little shop.That would have been dreadful; for I should have wished to forward any enterprise he might embark in, yet how could I have brought myself to go and pay him shillings and take back coppers, over a counter? My visit then was simply an intended compliment.He took it as such, gratefully and with all the tact in the world.He knew I really couldn't help him and that I knew he knew I couldn't; but we discussed the situation--with a good deal of elegant generality--at the foot of the stairs, in the hall already dismantled, where I had so often discussed other situations with him.The executors were in possession, as was still more apparent when he made me pass for a few minutes into the dining-room, where various objects were muffled up for removal.

Two definite facts, however, he had to communicate; one being that he was to leave the house for ever that night (servants, for some mysterious reason, seem always to depart by night), and the other--he mentioned it only at the last and with hesitation--that he was already aware his late master had left him a legacy of eighty pounds."I'm very glad," I said, and Brooksmith was of the same mind: "It was so like him to think of me." This was all that passed between us on the subject, and I know nothing of his judgement of Mr.Offord's memento.Eighty pounds are always eighty pounds, and no one has ever left ME an equal sum; but, all the same, for Brooksmith, I was disappointed.I don't know what I had expected, but it was almost a shock.Eighty pounds might stock a small shop--a VERY small shop; but, I repeat, I couldn't bear to think of that.I asked my friend if he had been able to save a little, and he replied: "No, sir; I've had to do things." Ididn't inquire what things they might have been; they were his own affair, and I took his word for them as assentingly as if he had had the greatness of an ancient house to keep up; especially as there was something in his manner that seemed to convey a prospect of further sacrifice.

"I shall have to turn round a bit, sir--I shall have to look about me," he said; and then he added indulgently, magnanimously: "If you should happen to hear of anything for me--"I couldn't let him finish; this was, in its essence, too much in the really grand manner.It would be a help to my getting him off my mind to be able to pretend I COULD find the right place, and that help he wished to give me, for it was doubtless painful to him to see me in so false a position.I interposed with a few words to the effect of how well aware I was that wherever he should go, whatever he should do, he would miss our old friend terribly--miss him even more than I should, having been with him so much more.

This led him to make the speech that has remained with me as the very text of the whole episode.

"Oh sir, it's sad for YOU, very sad indeed, and for a great many gentlemen and ladies; that it is, sir.But for me, sir, it is, if I may say so, still graver even than that: it's just the loss of something that was everything.For me, sir," he went on with rising tears, "he was just ALL, if you know what I mean, sir.You have others, sir, I daresay--not that I would have you understand me to speak of them as in any way tantamount.But you have the pleasures of society, sir; if it's only in talking about him, sir, as I daresay you do freely--for all his blest memory has to fear from it--with gentlemen and ladies who have had the same honour.

That's not for me, sir, and I've to keep my associations to myself.

Mr.Offord was MY society, and now, you see, I just haven't any.

You go back to conversation, sir, after all, and I go back to my place," Brooksmith stammered, without exaggerated irony or dramatic bitterness, but with a flat unstudied veracity and his hand on the knob of the street-door.He turned it to let me out and then he added: "I just go downstairs, sir, again, and I stay there.""My poor child," I replied in my emotion, quite as Mr.Offord used to speak, "my dear fellow, leave it to me: WE'LL look after you, we'll all do something for you.""Ah if you could give me some one LIKE him! But there ain't two such in the world," Brooksmith said as we parted.

同类推荐
  • 辛巳泣蕲录

    辛巳泣蕲录

    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。
  • 诸方门人参问语录

    诸方门人参问语录

    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。
  • The Golden Sayings

    The Golden Sayings

    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。
  • TheTenant of Wildfell Hall

    TheTenant of Wildfell Hall

    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。
  • Cast Upon the Breakers

    Cast Upon the Breakers

    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
  • 世界名牌大全(英汉双语版)

    世界名牌大全(英汉双语版)

    本书《世界名牌圣经》是中英文的对照白金版本,不仅给读者展现原汁原味的世界名牌,而且领略名牌风采的同时大幅度提高了英语水平和人生品质。本书根据中国人的喜好精心挑选了8大品类:尖端品牌、世界名表、品牌服装、化妆品、珠宝首饰、皮具、名酒、豪车系列。这8部分全是作者精挑细选出的世界名牌,每一个部分分为“品牌名片”、“品牌标志”、“品牌阅读”并附核心词汇。“品牌名片”一目了然列明名牌的品类、标志风格、创始人、诞生地、诞生时间;“品牌标志”展示名牌的商标;“品牌阅读”详细叙述名牌传奇、名牌经典之作等等。
  • 九月樱花馆·夜光少女季

    九月樱花馆·夜光少女季

    正义的使者,专业揭穿迷信骗局的“夜光少女”蓝小千,这次来到好友秦琪的城市,就遭遇了可怕的抢劫!外貌超级华丽,举止超级优雅的“王子”洛青銮救了他,而且还成为了她的“假面王子”,保护着蓝小千勇闯鬼屋“雾之家”!冰山冷酷大帅哥韩煜非,笑面腹黑贵公子洛青銮,傻白甜少爷苏厥——传说中的九月樱花馆,到底掩盖着怎样的秘密?在甜蜜的KISS之后,洛青銮假面下的另一幅面孔,到底又是什么样?不管前方多么危险,多么可怕,勇敢的“夜光少女”,再次出击!
  • 重生之坂道之诗

    重生之坂道之诗

    前世的程序员兼超级偶像宅出身的主角,被命运一脚踹到了另一个世界变成了自己喜欢的偶像,这是命中注定的杯具还是一场奇妙究极幸运的开始?然而还会有重新选择的一次机会,王者归来主角有已然改变了他自己的追求,国内最强偶像组合,打造世界闻名的最强偶像,扮猪吃老虎?还是王霸之气直接呼脸,想用哪种就哪种~究竟如何完成心里的计划,一切尽在坂道之诗。
  • 快穿女主她又要挂了

    快穿女主她又要挂了

    这世界上总有些人,开局尚好,却最终打的一败涂地。忘忧因为时空动乱,被迫成为这些短暂的‘天之骄子’踏上了篡位的王者之路。任务前·系统:美人在手,维护剧情不愁(*^▽^*)任务中·系统:主人主人那是女主的靠山啊,你不能抢。主人主人那是女主的机缘,你不能夺啊。主人主人那是女主的男主,求放下!!任务后放弃治疗的系统:看着那个一直殷勤追在主人身后的男人,鞠了一把同情泪。某男人:不不不,我不需要同情,因为迟早有天我是要上位成为她男人的。PS:1V1,双洁,陪伴是最长久的告白,精分男主,逆袭打脸甜宠爽文。
  • 西方文化与教育史

    西方文化与教育史

    世界各国的文化与教育各有所长,如何汇集国外文化与教育的优势资源,建立符合本国实际的先进的文化与教育体系和模式?《西方文化与教育史》就是致力于这一目的的研究成果。我国文化与教育的深刻变革不可能在很短的时间内建成,需要经过一个从量变到质变的发展过程,需要较长时间坚持不懈的努力。我们要想真正地赶上和超过国际先进文化与教育发展水平,必须要有一个大的跨越,必须对西方几千年来文化与教育发展历程进行整体的梳理,对与孔子齐名的一大批教育思想家及其教育理论进行认真的分析、批判和总结,必须通过对其整体脉络的发展变化的把握来对国人进行思路的创新,才能够最终实现跨越式发展。
  • 销售精英是这样炼成的

    销售精英是这样炼成的

    郑一群创作的《销售精英是这样炼成的》系统地阐述了如何才能把自己打造成为一名销售精英,从培养积极的销售心态、销售中懂得主动出击、坦然面对客户、包容与接纳客户、坚持不懈才能赢得销售、合理使用销售攻心术、巧妙应用销售技巧、与客户快速达成成交、将服务延伸到销售全程等九个方面,以案例加分析的形式对销售过程中怎样把握和驾驭顾客的心理直至让自己成为销售精英进行了详细的分析,并提出了一定的解决办法,从而帮助销售员更深刻地理解销售的重要性,同时掌握一些被无数人证明行之有效的销售技巧和方法,力图帮助销售员在每一次销售过程中都能轻松成交,轻松提升销售业绩,进而步入销售精英的行列。
  • 天庭执法使

    天庭执法使

    (新书《重回都市修仙生活》已发布) 一块神秘的令牌,机缘之下被林凡得到以后,从此,林凡的人生彻底发生了巨变,他的交际圈也开始从凡人转变成了一帮神仙!齐天大圣与其是生死兄弟;四大天王对其敬畏有加;十八罗汉都是林凡的好友;阎王也想与其称兄道弟,各路神仙争相与其结交,各路妖魔对其闻风丧胆……(老书《逆天小地主》已经完本,书荒的朋友可以去看一下,书友群:529061976进群无限制,欢迎大家前来水群。)
  • 佛说诸佛经

    佛说诸佛经

    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。
  • 四分律

    四分律

    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。
  • 命运三国之龙套觅封侯

    命运三国之龙套觅封侯

    街亭之失,引发星落五丈原,假若街亭不失呢?