登陆注册
5192700000007

第7章

His work in fact was blurred a little all that day by the sense of what had now passed between them.It wasn't much, but it had just made the difference.They had listened together to Beethoven and Schumann; they had talked in the pauses, and at the end, when at the door, to which they moved together, he had asked her if he could help her in the matter of getting away.She had thanked him and put up her umbrella, slipping into the crowd without an allusion to their meeting yet again and leaving him to remember at leisure that not a word had been exchanged about the usual scene of that coincidence.This omission struck him now as natural and then again as perverse.She mightn't in the least have allowed his warrant for speaking to her, and yet if she hadn't he would have judged her an underbred woman.It was odd that when nothing had really ever brought them together he should have been able successfully to assume they were in a manner old friends - that this negative quantity was somehow more than they could express.

His success, it was true, had been qualified by her quick escape, so that there grew up in him an absurd desire to put it to some better test.Save in so far as some other poor chance might help him, such a test could be only to meet her afresh at church.Left to himself he would have gone to church the very next afternoon, just for the curiosity of seeing if he should find her there.But he wasn't left to himself, a fact he discovered quite at the last, after he had virtually made up his mind to go.The influence that kept him away really revealed to him how little to himself his Dead EVER left him.He went only for THEM - for nothing else in the world.

The force of this revulsion kept him away ten days: he hated to connect the place with anything but his offices or to give a glimpse of the curiosity that had been on the point of moving him.

It was absurd to weave a tangle about a matter so simple as a custom of devotion that might with ease have been daily or hourly;yet the tangle got itself woven.He was sorry, he was disappointed: it was as if a long happy spell had been broken and he had lost a familiar security.At the last, however, he asked himself if he was to stay away for ever from the fear of this muddle about motives.After an interval neither longer nor shorter than usual he re-entered the church with a clear conviction that he should scarcely heed the presence or the absence of the lady of the concert.This indifference didn't prevent his at once noting that for the only time since he had first seen her she wasn't on the spot.He had now no scruple about giving her time to arrive, but she didn't arrive, and when he went away still missing her he was profanely and consentingly sorry.If her absence made the tangle more intricate, that was all her own doing.By the end of another year it was very intricate indeed; but by that time he didn't in the least care, and it was only his cultivated consciousness that had given him scruples.Three times in three months he had gone to church without finding her, and he felt he hadn't needed these occasions to show him his suspense had dropped.Yet it was, incongruously, not indifference, but a refinement of delicacy that had kept him from asking the sacristan, who would of course immediately have recognised his description of her, whether she had been seen at other hours.His delicacy had kept him from asking any question about her at any time, and it was exactly the same virtue that had left him so free to be decently civil to her at the concert.

This happy advantage now served him anew, enabling him when she finally met his eyes - it was after a fourth trial - to predetermine quite fixedly his awaiting her retreat.He joined her in the street as soon as she had moved, asking her if he might accompany her a certain distance.With her placid permission he went as far as a house in the neighbourhood at which she had business: she let him know it was not where she lived.She lived, as she said, in a mere slum, with an old aunt, a person in connexion with whom she spoke of the engrossment of humdrum duties and regular occupations.She wasn't, the mourning niece, in her first youth, and her vanished freshness had left something behind that, for Stransom, represented the proof it had been tragically sacrificed.Whatever she gave him the assurance of she gave without references.She might have been a divorced duchess - she might have been an old maid who taught the harp.

同类推荐
  • 赠刘景擢第

    赠刘景擢第

    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。
  • 海上魂

    海上魂

    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。
  • 搜神后记

    搜神后记

    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 Sleeping-Car - A Farce

    The Sleeping-Car - A Farce

    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。
  • 樵香小记

    樵香小记

    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
  • 异仙在都市

    异仙在都市

    大学新生穷小子丁越凡无意中得到了一个“露藏”,所谓露藏就是平行异界在地球上的标识。进而通过这个露藏逐步得到了这个异界的认可,成为这个异界的主人。得到一个平行异界是好事,可同时脑袋里住进去一个随时会造反的真仙元神做“仆人”还是好事吗?一个连修仙为何物都不知道的小人物丁越凡就遇到了这样的奇事!丁越凡逐渐掌控了异界,成了一个仙之异类——异仙!有异界这个大后方,他在都市中越来越如鱼得水……
  • 女王我爱你

    女王我爱你

    人前她是雷厉风行,光彩照人的刑辩律师,人后她是颠三倒四的邋遢女。人前他是风流倜傥,如沐春风的集团总裁,人后他是指手摭天的大人物。他被诬告QJ杀人,她是他的辩护律师,故事由此展开。————你所看到的一切文案都是幻觉,这种非主流一样的存在请让我们忘掉它。他面若桃花,却不是混混之流的小正太,24K纯金太子。她年纪一把,也不是下嫁无门的大龄剩女,被人疼上心尖的律政女王。薄南风以为,江南可以唾弃他,践踏他,欺负他,那是她的权利。但她管不着他甘愿被她唾弃,被她践踏,被她欺负,娶她,爱她,心疼她,那是他的权力。她可以不允许他下贱,但她管不着他犯贱。在薄南风看来,爱惨了一个人那就是犯贱。
  • 羽雪恋

    羽雪恋

    青梅竹马,不离不弃,相爱情缠,屡试不爽。颖少羽:看着你很不乖的样子,我不得不教教你。韩依雪:少羽,你看我要有多乖就有多乖乖的了啦。颖:这次来一训,下次你才能更乖不是吗?
  • 傻狐的快穿记

    傻狐的快穿记

    “畜生道?”“轮”苏阿狸微眯眼眸,坚定地回答道。判官微微叹气,问世间情为何物,缘也,命也。复杂,复杂,太复杂。他原是高高在上的神却与她错过了后来为了她为了他们渺茫的缘,化身千千万万的碎片,只为了最后的相见。
  • 重生青春年代

    重生青春年代

    方哲一觉醒来,发现自己重生高三。那些未能完成的遗憾,都有机会弥补,可把他激动坏了。可当他回到家中,却发现自己和爸妈成了邻居,还多了一个‘自己’?这到底是什么鬼啊?还有这个富二代的人设,又是什么剧本?这是一个有钱人的时代,也是最骚的青春年代。家声继《回到过去当神话》又一力作,轻松搞笑日常温暖系。书友群:274091522(敲门砖,方哲)
  • 凡世歌

    凡世歌

    凡世沉浮,仗剑而舞;我辈擎乾坤,我辈狂如歌。*******愿解腰间三尺剑,直问何处斩蛟龙*****
  • 假若时光不曾老去

    假若时光不曾老去

    如同一片安静的海洋上忽然卷起了狂风骤浪,张扬的少年也如同此般闯进了“冰山女王”顾也凉的生活。他忽来忽去、忽乱忽静,又忽悲忽喜、忽然离去,直至踪迹难寻,仅仅留给顾也凉一本厚厚的相册,一片薰衣草花田。可是,相机能装进永恒吗?薰衣草能开到天荒地老吗?假若时光不曾老去,沐雨而归的少年该是什么模样?在希望与绝望的长河中,少女执着的等待终究会不会被辜负?他们,还会在不久后遇见吗?
  • 唐朝名画录

    唐朝名画录

    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。
  • 宠妻有术:杠上邪魅王爷

    宠妻有术:杠上邪魅王爷

    “这位公子,我看你印堂发黑,脸色苍白,脚步虚浮,定是中了奇毒……”男人步步紧逼,苏敏连连后退,危险时分竟脱口而岀。“哦?是吗?那苏小姐可有解毒良方?”男人狭长的的凤眸勾起一个好看的弧度,语气带着危险的问。“我……我……”“没有吗?我倒知道一个良方,不知苏姑娘可有兴趣听?”苏敏抬头看着男人邪魅的俊颜近在咫尺,咽了咽口水问,“什……什么良方?”好看的双唇微微上扬,“阴阳调和……”
  • 异世淘宝女王

    异世淘宝女王

    穿越泛滥的年代,需要一点新鲜。地球太满,火星太远,跟着咱开发异界去。连锁淘宝第一家,垄断经营不发都难。随便挖挖也能挖出异界兵马佣?