登陆注册
5201800000063

第63章

There is a good deal of drudgery, of course; but one preserves one's moral freedom, what we call in French one's quant a soi.And when one hears good talk one can join in it without compromising any opinions but one's own; or one can listen, and answer it inwardly.Ah, good conversation--there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.And so I have never regretted giving up either diplomacy or journalism--two different forms of the same self-abdication." He fixed his vivid eyes on Archer as he lit another cigarette."Voyez-vous, Monsieur, to be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it? But, after all, one must earn enough to pay for the garret; and I confess that to grow old as a private tutor--or a `private' anything--is almost as chilling to the imagination as a second secretaryship at Bucharest.Sometimes I feel I must make a plunge: an immense plunge.Do you suppose, for instance, there would be any opening for me in America--in New York?"

Archer looked at him with startled eyes.New York, for a young man who had frequented the Goncourts and Flaubert, and who thought the life of ideas the only one worth living! He continued to stare at M.

Riviere perplexedly, wondering how to tell him that his very superiorities and advantages would be the surest hindrance to success.

"New York--New York--but must it be especially New York?" he stammered, utterly unable to imagine what lucrative opening his native city could offer to a young man to whom good conversation appeared to be the only necessity.

A sudden flush rose under M.Riviere's sallow skin.

"I--I thought it your metropolis: is not the intellectual life more active there?" he rejoined; then, as if fearing to give his hearer the impression of having asked a favour, he went on hastily: "One throws out random suggestions--more to one's self than to others.In reality, I see no immediate prospect--" and rising from his seat he added, without a trace of constraint: "But Mrs.Carfry will think that I ought to be taking you upstairs."During the homeward drive Archer pondered deeply on this episode.His hour with M.Riviere had put new air into his lungs, and his first impulse had been to invite him to dine the next day; but he was beginning to understand why married men did not always immediately yield to their first impulses.

"That young tutor is an interesting fellow: we had some awfully good talk after dinner about books and things," he threw out tentatively in the hansom.

May roused herself from one of the dreamy silences into which he had read so many meanings before six months of marriage had given him the key to them.

"The little Frenchman? Wasn't he dreadfully common?" she questioned coldly; and he guessed that she nursed a secret disappointment at having been invited out in London to meet a clergyman and a French tutor.

The disappointment was not occasioned by the sentiment ordinarily defined as snobbishness, but by old New York's sense of what was due to it when it risked its dignity in foreign lands.If May's parents had entertained the Carfrys in Fifth Avenue they would have offered them something more substantial than a parson and a schoolmaster.

But Archer was on edge, and took her up.

"Common--common WHERE?" he queried; and she returned with unusual readiness: "Why, I should say anywhere but in his school-room.Those people are always awkward in society.But then," she added disarmingly, "I suppose I shouldn't have known if he was clever."Archer disliked her use of the word "clever" almost as much as her use of the word "common"; but he was beginning to fear his tendency to dwell on the things he disliked in her.After all, her point of view had always been the same.It was that of all the people he had grown up among, and he had always regarded it as necessary but negligible.Until a few months ago he had never known a "nice" woman who looked at life differently; and if a man married it must necessarily be among the nice.

"Ah--then I won't ask him to dine!" he concluded with a laugh; and May echoed, bewildered: "Goodness--ask the Carfrys' tutor?"

"Well, not on the same day with the Carfrys, if you prefer I shouldn't.But I did rather want another talk with him.He's looking for a job in New York."Her surprise increased with her indifference: he almost fancied that she suspected him of being tainted with "foreignness.""A job in New York? What sort of a job? People don't have French tutors: what does he want to do?""Chiefly to enjoy good conversation, I understand,"her husband retorted perversely; and she broke into an appreciative laugh."Oh, Newland, how funny! Isn't that FRENCH?"On the whole, he was glad to have the matter settled for him by her refusing to take seriously his wish to invite M.Riviere.Another after-dinner talk would have made it difficult to avoid the question of New York;and the more Archer considered it the less he was able to fit M.Riviere into any conceivable picture of New York as he knew it.

He perceived with a flash of chilling insight that in future many problems would be thus negatively solved for him; but as he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage."After that Isuppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other's angles," he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep.

同类推荐
  • 佛说法受尘经

    佛说法受尘经

    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。
  • 明伦汇编人事典十五岁部

    明伦汇编人事典十五岁部

    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。
  • 婴儿论

    婴儿论

    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。
  • 白华楼藏稿

    白华楼藏稿

    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。
  • A Drift from Redwood Camp

    A Drift from Redwood Camp

    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
  • I Want to Go to School 为了那渴望的目光

    I Want to Go to School 为了那渴望的目光

    《为了渴望的目光》在取得大量第一手资料和真实感人实例的基础上,对中国希望工程的20年历程进行了全景式扫描和总结,深刻地展现了希望工程20年来的丰硕成果。
  • 穷人穷心灵,富人富思维

    穷人穷心灵,富人富思维

    本书告诉大家的是一些鲜为人知的财富规律和投资理财方面的技巧和观念,能够让你掌握更专业的投资技巧和理财方法,并获得较多的回报,迅速跻身于富人的行列。
  • 云起风雷

    云起风雷

    江湖之中,风云突变;朝堂之上,波涛暗涌。十八年前风雷军主帅李冰河被刺于邬水河畔,副帅杜厉生死于青楼妓馆,轩辕国君未曾彻查便下令解散全军;十八年后一封加急信件送至御前,“风雷”二字再被提起,搅动了整个轩辕......
  • 清末民初北京国民道德建设的社会文化史考察

    清末民初北京国民道德建设的社会文化史考察

    的现代化,即敦促教育国民由传统臣民向现代公民转变,是近一百多年来政府和社会各界都很关心也都在推动的社会大课题。清末民初的北京,作为全国观瞻所系的“首善之区”,在由传统帝都向民国首都转型的过程中,强力发起了从散漫、保守的传统“臣民”道德向具有公共意识与社会责任的现代“国民”道德转型的社会教化运动。这场运动明面上是伦理道德范畴的现代转型,实质上却是清末民初北京文化权力关系(传播谁的道德)、文化阶层关系(谁对谁传播道德)及文化社会关系(怎样传播道德)的深刻综合反映。
  • 乱入魔王

    乱入魔王

    他和父母美好的生活,在一个凄惨的夜晚被打破。那一晚他失去了所有的亲人,便一夜求魔。一生成魔。从此背负诸多坏名走上了一条不一样的修仙路。
  • 成败一张嘴

    成败一张嘴

    说话本身就是一门技巧性很强的艺术,它直接影响到生活中的方方面面。一个会说话的人,可以用流利的语言表达自己的意图,把道理讲得很清楚,而且有条有理,使别人乐于接受。口才好、说话动听的人,在事业上成功的希望就大。相反,如果口才不好、言语拙劣甚至出言不慎的人与他人发生误会时,就不可能获得别人的同情、理解以及帮助。
  • 20几岁会恋爱,30几岁就幸福

    20几岁会恋爱,30几岁就幸福

    你可能会大声说,长大不需要指引,长大是我自己一个人的事情,谈恋爱也是我自己的事情。但结果呢?你的书架上有你中意的杂志和小说,你的抽屉里有爱听的珍藏版CD,你的手机有惦记着的朋友的号码……最重要的是,你的心里还有一个爱着的影子,那个人有着微笑如白昼的面孔,有着璀璨如夏天的眼睛。
  • Historical Lecturers and Essays

    Historical Lecturers and Essays

    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。
  • 重生之弃女傲世

    重生之弃女傲世

    她是异界天才炼药师,炼丹、摆阵、治病无所不能。却因一颗灵草而殒命。再次醒来,她成为了她...一个被家族所弃,父母双亡的弱智少女。“洛傻子快把脸伸过来给我打两巴掌,别磨蹭!”“两巴掌就够吗?”洛凝嘴角噙着一抹笑意,声音平静而冷漠。电光石火之间,只听到“啪啪啪!”的脆响接连响起。看着吓傻的众人,她勾唇冷笑,“我不再是曾经的软柿子,若敢再欺,后果自负!”“大胆洛凝!这是你对伯父的说话态度吗?”洛凝嘴角微弯,眼中带着一抹嘲讽,“洛家主!难道你忘了,我早已和洛家没有了任何关系!”我命由我不由天,这是洛凝做人的一贯准则。即便是重生,命运的节奏依然要掌握在自己的手中。校草为她痴迷,冷峻总裁为才展颜,黑道枭雄为她痴心...然她的心中只有她的道,修真之道,逆天之道。谁要挡她的道,那就该有被灭的觉悟!且看弃女如何逆袭,一步步踏上强者巅峰之路...
  • 橙红年代(壹):风云乍起

    橙红年代(壹):风云乍起

    刘子光做保安的父亲在值班时被流氓打成重伤,于是他顶替父亲,成为一家物业公司的保安。他有一双所向披靡的铁拳,这注定他要生活在风头浪尖。他单枪匹马击退了来小区滋事的不良分子团伙,却被物业公司老总当成了眼中钉。