登陆注册
5151800000034

第34章 MY KINSMAN, MAJOR MOLINEUX(5)

Robin gazed with dismay and astonishment on the unprecedented physiognomy of the speaker.The forehead with its double prominence the broad hooked nose, the shaggy eyebrows, and fiery eyes were those which he had noticed at the inn, but the man's complexion had undergone a singular, or, more properly, a twofold change.One side of the face blazed an intense red, while the other was black as midnight, the division line being in the broad bridge of the nose; and a mouth which seemed to extend from ear to ear was black or red, in contrast to the color of the cheek.The effect was as if two individual devils, a fiend of fire and a fiend of darkness, had united themselves to form this infernal visage.The stranger grinned in Robin's face, muffled his party-colored features, and was out of sight in a moment.

"Strange things we travellers see!" ejaculated Robin.

He seated himself, however, upon the steps of the church-door, resolving to wait the appointed time for his kinsman.A few moments were consumed in philosophical speculations upon the species of man who had just left him; but having settled this point shrewdly, rationally, and satisfactorily, he was compelled to look elsewhere for his amusement.And first he threw his eyes along the street.It was of more respectable appearance than most of those into which he had wandered, and the moon, creating, like the imaginative power, a beautiful strangeness in familiar objects, gave something of romance to a scene that might not have possessed it in the light of day.The irregular and often quaint architecture of the houses, some of whose roofs were broken into numerous little peaks, while others ascended, steep and narrow, into a single point, and others again were square; the pure snow-white of some of their complexions, the aged darkness of others, and the thousand sparklings, reflected from bright substances in the walls of many; these matters engaged Robin's attention for a while, and then began to grow wearisome.Next he endeavored to define the forms of distant objects, starting away, with almost ghostly indistinctness, just as his eye appeared to grasp them, and finally he took a minute survey of an edifice which stood on the opposite side of the street, directly in front of the church-door, where he was stationed.It was a large, square mansion, distinguished from its neighbors by a balcony, whichrested on tall pillars, and by an elaborate Gothic window, communicating therewith.

"Perhaps this is the very house I have been seeking," thought Robin.

Then he strove to speed away the time, by listening to a murmur which swept continually along the street, yet was scarcely audible, except to an unaccustomed ear like his; it was a low, dull, dreamy sound, compounded of many noises, each of which was at too great a distance to be separately heard.Robin marvelled at this snore of a sleeping town, and marvelled more whenever its continuity was broken by now and then a distant shout, apparently loud where it originated.But altogether it was a sleep-inspiring sound, and, to shake off its drowsy influence, Robin arose, and climbed a window-frame, that he might view the interior of the church.There the moonbeams came trembling in, and fell down upon the deserted pews, and extended along the quiet aisles.A fainter yet more awful radiance was hovering around the pulpit, and one solitary ray had dared to rest upon the open page of the great Bible.Had nature, in that deep hour, become a worshipper in the house which man had builded? Or was that heavenly light the visible sanctity of the place,--visible because no earthly and impure feet were within the walls? The scene made Robin's heart shiver with a sensation of loneliness stronger than he had ever felt in the remotest depths of his native woods; so he turned away and sat down again before the door.There were graves around the church, and now an uneasy thought obtruded into Robin's breast.What if the object of his search, which had been so often and so strangely thwarted, were all the time mouldering in his shroud? What if his kinsman should glide through yonder gate, and nod and smile to him in dimly passing by?

"Oh that any breathing thing were here with me!" said Robin.

Recalling his thoughts from this uncomfortable track, he sent them over forest, hill, and stream, and attempted to imagine how that evening of ambiguity and weariness had been spent by his father's household.He pictured them assembled at the door, beneath the tree, the great old tree, which had been spared for its huge twisted trunk and venerable shade, when a thousand leafy brethren fell.There, at the going down of the summer sun, it was his father's custom to perform domestic worship thatthe neighbors might come and join with him like brothers of the family, and that the wayfaring man might pause to drink at that fountain, and keep his heart pure by freshening the memory of home.Robin distinguished the seat of every individual of the little audience; he saw the good man in the midst, holding the Scriptures in the golden light that fell from the western clouds; he beheld him close the book and all rise up to pray.He heard the old thanksgivings for daily mercies, the old supplications for their continuance to which he had so often listened in weariness, but which were now among his dear remembrances.He perceived the slight inequality of his father's voice when he came to speak of the absent one; he noted how his mother turned her face to the broad and knotted trunk; how his elder brother scorned, because the beard was rough upon his upper lip, to permit his features to be moved; how the younger sister drew down a low hanging branch before her eyes; and how the little one of all, whose sports had hitherto broken the decorum of the scene, understood the prayer for her playmate, and burst into clamorous grief.Then he saw them go in at the door; and when Robin would have entered also, the latch tinkled into its place, and he was excluded from his home.

同类推荐
  • 述报法兵侵台纪事残辑

    述报法兵侵台纪事残辑

    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。
  • Tempest

    Tempest

    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。
  • 是斋百一选方

    是斋百一选方

    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。
  • 为霖禅师云山法会录

    为霖禅师云山法会录

    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。
  • 太上说紫微神兵护国消魔经

    太上说紫微神兵护国消魔经

    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
  • 沙海1:荒沙诡影

    沙海1:荒沙诡影

    一组离奇照片让吴邪决定深入沙漠,派出探查的伙计却精神失常离奇失踪。寻找下发现失踪的伙计在少年黎簇的背上刻下了诡异的图案。吴邪执意邀请黎簇一同前往沙漠腹地古潼京。一行人在沙漠中竟被传说中会移动的海子带到了荒无人烟的白沙区,发现那片区域就是他们要寻找的死亡禁地,同时也是一个机密工程的遗址。卡车围住的海子,白沙下游走的神秘生物,在吴邪、王盟、黎簇陷入绝境之时,黑眼镜突然现身。他能否解救吴邪?解雨臣给了黎簇怎样的信息?闷油瓶留下的线索会是关键吗?这一切黎簇又会如何面对?
  • 南词叙录

    南词叙录

    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。
  • 代嫁庶女:丑妾要休夫

    代嫁庶女:丑妾要休夫

    你也穿越我也穿越,可为何别人不是穿成公主就是穿成小姐,夏紫婠却只能穿成一个受尽欺负的丑丫头?还是一个丑得惊天地泣鬼神、闻名整个金城的丫头!!好吧,成了丑丫头不要紧,大不了安安分分过日子呗?可为何老天爷你就是不长眼,姐姐们不愿穿的衣裳她穿,姐姐们不愿吃的食物她吃,姐姐们不愿嫁的纨绔……她嫁!!!这个纨绔,年年轻轻,花心过多,女人不少,那正妻小妾们个个不是省油的灯,相公更是嫌弃她长得丑,看都不愿看到她!!什么?笑她丑,还笑她丑,再笑她丑!!!是可忍孰不可忍,忍无可忍无须再忍,真拿不发威的老虎当病猫呢!!!
  • 必知的发明大家

    必知的发明大家

    科学是人类进步的第一推动力,而科学知识的普及则是实现这一推动的必由之路。在新的时代,社会的进步、科技的发展、人们生活水平的不断提高,为我们青少年的科普教育提供了新的契机。抓住这个契机,大力普及科学知识,传播科学精神,提高青少年的科学素质,是我们全社会的重要课题。
  • 上神来到

    上神来到

    她是21世纪的嗜血杀手,医毒双绝,绝色倾城,冷艳无双,亦是千年前的天族尊主,一朝因意外,穿越变成了五岁小孩,且又失忆了,被魔族太子殿下捡了回去。他是魔界少主,魔族的太子,容颜无双,行事任性,嚣张恣睢,但自他遇见了她,在她面前,所有的锋芒和脾气都在不知不觉间慢慢收敛。待她亭亭玉立之时,他也慢慢明白了他对她的感情,而她也懂了……但面对种族的殊异,记忆恢复的她又会作出怎样的决定?(1v1,身心干净,甜文哦~)(前期萌娃)(对外冷漠对内暴躁又霸道的女杀手vs对外纨绔毒舌对内幼稚怂包的妻管严太子爷)
  • 长歌倾城花落人故

    长歌倾城花落人故

    皇宫争斗,奇异无疆,侵者大央。乱世苍苍,微光迷离,生死茫茫。情之伤悲,少年白发,何处心安?每个人的命运在世事万殊的世间,都是那般渺小甚微。有人为信仰披荆斩棘,有人为权势不顾一切,有人为情爱付诸性命。故人已故,海棠花落,岁月老去,生命流去。唯留思念,永恒不歇。
  • 极品妖孽在校园

    极品妖孽在校园

    征战沙场,他是兵王!纵意都市,他是至尊!偶得一枚神奇的板指,让他拥有了各种不可思异的能力!老子既然回归都市,就是来缔造传奇的!铁子群号:537357574新书《花都至尊仙医》求大家支持。
  • 神号玩家

    神号玩家

    无尽世界,有的真实、有的虚幻,与其只活在一个世界里,不如纵身沉浸在万千世界之中,有些让人伤心欲绝,有些则让人重燃希望,每个世界,都上演着挑战极限和突破边界的故事,尽情体验这些世界吧!无限的可能等你探索!————IMAX全新品牌形象片《无限世界》娱乐至死,金钱至上。现实世界的逍遥!虚拟世界的纵横!两个世界华丽的碰撞,这……是最好的时代!
  • 亚洲现代作家作品浅析

    亚洲现代作家作品浅析

    文学作品是作家根据一定的立场、观点、社会理想和审美观念,从社会生活中选取一定的材料,经过提炼加工而后创作出来的。它既包含客观的现实生活,也包含作家主观的思想感情。此书堪称亚洲现代作家及作品的博览会,内容全面具体,具有很强的文学性和知识性。
  • 安若娉婷

    安若娉婷

    她,借太尉大小姐安娉婷之身意外重生。本以为从此开挂,走上人生巅峰。谁晓已被指婚当朝丞相二公子,市间相传,此人品行不端,身有残缺!再看生母早逝,父亲淡漠,兄妹排挤…她,该逆来顺受,或是奋起反抗?