登陆注册
5198300000001

第1章

I had taken Mrs.Prest into my confidence; in truth without her I should have made but little advance, for the fruitful idea in the whole business dropped from her friendly lips.

It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot.

It is not supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thing to the largest and most liberal view--I mean of a practical scheme;but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold conception--such as a man would not have risen to--with singular serenity.

"Simply ask them to take you in on the footing of a lodger"--I don't think that unaided I should have risen to that.

I was beating about the bush, trying to be ingenious, wondering by what combination of arts I might become an acquaintance, when she offered this happy suggestion that the way to become an acquaintance was first to become an inmate.Her actual knowledge of the Misses Bordereau was scarcely larger than mine, and indeed I had brought with me from England some definite facts which were new to her.

Their name had been mixed up ages before with one of the greatest names of the century, and they lived now in Venice in obscurity, on very small means, unvisited, unapproachable, in a dilapidated old palace on an out-of-the-way canal: this was the substance of my friend's impression of them.She herself had been established in Venice for fifteen years and had done a great deal of good there;but the circle of her benevolence did not include the two shy, mysterious and, as it was somehow supposed, scarcely respectable Americans (they were believed to have lost in their long exile all national quality, besides having had, as their name implied, some French strain in their origin), who asked no favors and desired no attention.

In the early years of her residence she had made an attempt to see them, but this had been successful only as regards the little one, as Mrs.Prest called the niece; though in reality as I afterward learned she was considerably the bigger of the two.

She had heard Miss Bordereau was ill and had a suspicion that she was in want; and she had gone to the house to offer assistance, so that if there were suffering (and American suffering), she should at least not have it on her conscience.The "little one"received her in the great cold, tarnished Venetian sala, the central hall of the house, paved with marble and roofed with dim crossbeams, and did not even ask her to sit down.This was not encouraging for me, who wished to sit so fast, and I remarked as much to Mrs.Prest.

She however replied with profundity, "Ah, but there's all the difference:

I went to confer a favor and you will go to ask one.If they are proud you will be on the right side." And she offered to show me their house to begin with--to row me thither in her gondola.

I let her know that I had already been to look at it half a dozen times;but I accepted her invitation, for it charmed me to hover about the place.

I had made my way to it the day after my arrival in Venice (it had been described to me in advance by the friend in England to whom I owed definite information as to their possession of the papers), and Ihad besieged it with my eyes while I considered my plan of campaign.

Jeffrey Aspern had never been in it that I knew of; but some note of his voice seemed to abide there by a roundabout implication, a faint reverberation.

Mrs.Prest knew nothing about the papers, but she was interested in my curiosity, as she was always interested in the joys and sorrows of her friends.As we went, however, in her gondola, gliding there under the sociable hood with the bright Venetian picture framed on either side by the movable window, I could see that she was amused by my infatuation, the way my interest in the papers had become a fixed idea."One would think you expected to find in them the answer to the riddle of the universe,"she said; and I denied the impeachment only by replying that if Ihad to choose between that precious solution and a bundle of Jeffrey Aspern's letters I knew indeed which would appear to me the greater boon.She pretended to make light of his genius, and I took no pains to defend him.One doesn't defend one's god:

one's god is in himself a defense.Besides, today, after his long comparative obscuration, he hangs high in the heaven of our literature, for all the world to see; he is a part of the light by which we walk.

The most I said was that he was no doubt not a woman's poet:

to which she rejoined aptly enough that he had been at least Miss Bordereau's.The strange thing had been for me to discover in England that she was still alive: it was as if I had been told Mrs.Siddons was, or Queen Caroline, or the famous Lady Hamilton, for it seemed to me that she belonged to a generation as extinct.

"Why, she must be tremendously old--at least a hundred," I had said;but on coming to consider dates I saw that it was not strictly necessary that she should have exceeded by very much the common span.

Nonetheless she was very far advanced in life, and her relations with Jeffrey Aspern had occurred in her early womanhood."That is her excuse,"said Mrs.Prest, half-sententiously and yet also somewhat as if she were ashamed of making a speech so little in the real tone of Venice.

As if a woman needed an excuse for having loved the divine poet!

He had been not only one of the most brilliant minds of his day (and in those years, when the century was young, there were, as everyone knows, many), but one of the most genial men and one of the handsomest.

The niece, according to Mrs.Prest, was not so old, and she risked the conjecture that she was only a grandniece.

This was possible; I had nothing but my share in the very limited knowledge of my English fellow worshipper John Cumnor, who had never seen the couple.The world, as I say, had recognized Jeffrey Aspern, but Cumnor and I had recognized him most.

The multitude, today, flocked to his temple, but of that temple he and I regarded ourselves as the ministers.

同类推荐
  • 沙弥威仪

    沙弥威仪

    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。
  • 往生净土忏愿仪

    往生净土忏愿仪

    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。
  • 禅林宝训

    禅林宝训

    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。
  • 定庵诗话续编

    定庵诗话续编

    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。
  • 摄大乘义章

    摄大乘义章

    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
  • 红楼之还珠与溶

    红楼之还珠与溶

    水域天尊因失绛珠目而难返天庭。神瑛侍者思报点化之恩下界相助。绛珠思还灌溉之情临凡还泪。牡丹仙子为得偿夙愿也下界历劫。这会衍出怎么样的红楼故事?敬请关注。这里的宝玉不是肮脏龌龊之流,却不也不会把林妹妹嫁与他.就让宝玉为妹妹和水溶做次大媒,不知亲们以为如何?新文出炉《红楼鸳梦玉舞蹁跹》心若芷萱《红楼之霸乾坤》好友新文哦!忆阑珊红楼之溶情惜黛简思<囄婚>嫩姜<不良少奶奶>铃雨轻声:《水玉梦醉红楼情》蝴蝶吻花香:<夫君太多喂不饱>
  • 入浮石山

    入浮石山

    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。
  • 赛尔号巅峰之战

    赛尔号巅峰之战

    页游赛尔号同人文——《赛尔号巅峰之战》本书剧情轻松逗比,主角依旧是我们的战神联盟(偏卡修斯布莱克一点),不变的搞笑,百变的剧情,本书带你走进一个不一样的赛尔号世界~【某人:这明明是逗比的世界!】“啥,布莱克受伤了?”“啥,布莱克被人冒充了?”“啥,战神联盟要集体死在异次空间了?”“啥,我在做梦?奥,好的好的,ZZZZ”
  • 一调一侃,心情无烦恼(中文版)

    一调一侃,心情无烦恼(中文版)

    本书风格清新活泼,内容丰富,精选经典英语幽默故事,双语对照,让你在笑声中学会地道的英语表达,了解原汁原味的英语幽默文化。英语谚语说:Many a true word is spoken in jest.戏言寓真理。一边笑一边学英语的时候,还可以体会喝多人生真谛。边笑边学英语,体会人生真谛。美国专业英语讲师MP3教你地道美语,中英双语精美选文、短句品读,想要拥有一份好心情,就一定要学会幽默,因为幽默是人类最大的幸福。滑稽的动物世界,自信达人的糗事,秀才遇上兵。
  • The Adventure of the Red Circle

    The Adventure of the Red Circle

    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。
  • 抽点时间,做超新潮超好玩的心理测试

    抽点时间,做超新潮超好玩的心理测试

    本书以心理学理论为基础,精心挑选轻松有趣的心理测试题目,荟萃性格、人格、学习、能力、思维、情绪、职业、社交、交友、智商、情商、心理、健康、财富、理财、恋爱、婚姻……每个测试都是人们了解自我、认识世界的另一个途径。明智的人会利用这些测试题追寻自己在生活和工作中的影子,很好地了解自己的优缺点,进而扬长避短、完善自我。
  • 天才密码

    天才密码

    《天才密码》理性哲理,它熔文学、哲学于一炉,集日记、随笔、杂感、言论于一体,以箴言的方式重点探讨人生激情与梦想,天才和灵感,创新之道及潜能开发等问题。我主张按照人的自然的天性开发个人潜能,寻找天才的金矿,充分发挥个人的主观能动性和创造力,从而达到人生成功的彼岸。
  • 百变妖物语

    百变妖物语

    遗落琼浆石隙的一粒向日葵种子,没受天真地秀,日精月华,感之既久,遂有通灵之意。酝酿至极,静待日食呈现。千年的企盼,终不负有心守望者,葵成功化为了人型,游历于山川、静待世态变迁。前有《倩女幽魂》,今有《百变妖物语》。一只千年修行的妖,千年修行千所孤独,滚滚红尘里谁又种下了爱的蛊,茫茫人海中谁又喝下了爱的毒……妖非妖,魔中魔,捉妖师亦奈何。谁说只有神能拯救苍生,妖亦可以;谁说只有人有情,妖亦……
  • 九邪武神

    九邪武神

    吸血、控尸、修罗、剧毒、邪刀……九技加身,天地可灭!家族废物楚风遭受奸人迫害,却在临死之际,神魂遁入了一方名为“九重神狱”的奇特空间,并从中结识了一群来历神秘的绝代凶人,从此开启了一段逆天崛起的巅峰之路!“从今以后,我再也不允许任何人踩在我的头上!”——楚风!
  • 异界修真之我要成神

    异界修真之我要成神

    唐寅,一个意外重生在异界的混混。本以为重生在天才之躯,再加上自己的猪脚光环可以纵横异界,却不知这世高手如云,神体辈出!看他如何凌傲众生,走向成神之路!