登陆注册
5215600000120

第120章

quarters round the courtyard; but the twilight sky dazed him by its enormous and overwhelming brilliance. A thin poncho hung over his naked, bony shoulders;the rags of his trousers came down no lower than his knees; an eighteen months' growth of hair fell in dirty grey locks on each side of his sharp cheek-bones. As he dragged himself past the guard-room door, one of the soldiers, lolling outside, moved by some obscure impulse, leaped forward with a strange laugh and rammed a broken old straw hat on his head. And Dr Monygham, after having tottered, continued on his way. He advanced one stick, then one maimed foot, then the other stick; the other foot followed only a very short distance along the ground, toilfully, as though it were almost too heavy to be moved at all; and yet his legs under the hanging angles of the poncho appeared no thicker than the two sticks in his hands.

A ceaseless trembling agitated his bent body, all his wasted limbs, his bony head, the conical ragged crown of the sombrero, whose sample flat rim rested on his shoulders.

In such conditions of manner and attire did Dr Monygham go forth to take possession of his liberty. And these conditions seemed to bind him indissolubly to the land of Costaguana like an awful procedure of naturalization, involving him deep in the national life, far deeper than any amount of success and honour could have done. They did away with his Europeanism;for Dr Monygham had made himself an ideal conception of his disgrace. It was a conception eminently fit and proper for an officer and a gentleman.

Dr Monygham, before he went out to Costaguana, had been surgeon in one of her Majesty's regiments of foot. It was a conception which took no account of physiological facts or reasonable arguments; but it was not stupid for all that. It was simple. A rule of conduct resting mainly on severe rejections is necessarily simple. Dr Monygham's view of what it behoved him to do was severe; it was an ideal view, in so much that it was the imaginative exaggeration of a correct feeling. It was also, in its force, influence, and persistency, the view of an eminently loyal nature.

There was a great fund of loyalty in Dr Monygham's nature. He had settled it all on Mrs Gould's head. He believed her worthy of every devotion. At the bottom of his heart he felt an angry uneasiness before the prosperity of the San Tome mine, because its growth was robbing her of all peace of mind. Costaguana was no place for a woman of that kind. What could Charles Gould have been thinking of when he brought her out there! It was outrageous!

And the doctor had watched the course of events with a grim and distant reserve which, he imagined, his lamentable history imposed upon him.

Loyalty to Mrs Gould could not, however, leave out of account the safety of her husband. The doctor had contrived to be in town at the critical time because he mistrusted Charles Gould. He considered him hopelessly infected with the madness of revolutions. That is why he hobbled in distress in the drawing-room of the Casa Gould on that morning, exclaiming, `Decoud, Decoud!' in a tone of mournful irritation.

Mrs Gould, her colour heightened, and with glistening eyes, looked straight before her at the sudden enormity of that disaster. The finger-tips on one hand rested lightly on a low little table by her side, and the arm trembled right up to the shoulder. The sun, which looks late upon Sulaco, issuing in all the fullness of its power high up on the sky from behind the dazzling snow-edge of Higuerota, had precipitated the delicate, smooth, pearly greyness of light, in which the town lies steeped during the early hours, into sharp-cut masses of black shade and spaces of hot, blinding glare. Three long rectangles of sunshine fell through the windows of the sala ; while just across the street the front of the Avellanos's house appeared very sombre in its own shadow seen through the flood of light.

A voice said at the door, `What of Decoud?'

It was Charles Gould. They had not heard him coming along the corridor.

His glance just glided over his wife and struck full at the doctor.

`You have brought some news, doctor?'

Dr Monygham blurted it all at once, in the rough. For some time after he had done, the Administrador of the San Tome mine remained looking at him without a word. Mrs Gould sank into a low chair with her hands lying on her lap. A silence reigned between those three motionless persons. Then Charles Gould spoke:

`You must want some breakfast.'

He stood aside to let his wife pass first. She caught up her husband's hand and pressed it as she went out, raising the handkerchief to her eyes.

The sight of her husband had brought Antonia's position to her mind, and she could not contain her tears at the thought of the poor girl. When she rejoined the two men in the dining-room after having bathed her face, Charles Gould was saying to the doctor across the table:

`No, there does not seem any room for doubt.'

And the doctor assented.

`No, I don't see myself how we could question that wretched Hirsch's tale. It's only too true, I fear.'

She sat down desolately at the head of the table and looked from one to the other. The two men, without absolutely turning their heads away, tried to avoid her glance. The doctor even made a show of being hungry;he seized his knife and fork, and began to eat with emphasis, as if on the stage. Charles Gould made no pretence of the sort; with his elbows raised squarely, he twisted both ends of his flaming moustaches -- they were so long that his hands were quite away from his face.

`I am not surprised,' he muttered, abandoning his moustaches and throwing one arm over the back of his chair. His face was calm with that immobility of expression which betrays the intensity of a mental struggle. He felt that this accident had brought to a point all the consequences involved in his line of conduct, with its conscious and subconscious intentions.

同类推荐
  • 张氏可书

    张氏可书

    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。
  • 幽闲鼓吹

    幽闲鼓吹

    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。
  • 仿指南录

    仿指南录

    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。
  • 枢言

    枢言

    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。
  • 明伦汇编人事典悔悟部

    明伦汇编人事典悔悟部

    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。
热门推荐
  • 鬼王的魔妃

    鬼王的魔妃

    他,是墨龙王朝的三皇子,凶狠嗜血,喜怒无常,暴戾乖张,有修罗鬼王之称。传闻,他是天煞孤星的大凶之命,短短两年时间,死在他床上的女人,就有六个之多。她,是太傅府性子最懦弱最不受待见的六小姐,是街边乞丐都会嫌恶的丑丫头,是琴棋书画一无所通的白痴。但是暗地里,她却是黑暗世界的绝色罗刹,是横行天下的锦衣大盗,是天下第一楼的大红头牌,是黑白两道闻之丧胆的杀手。十六岁那年,因为皇后的一句话,她成为了他的第七个冲喜小皇妃。他说:“丑丫头,在王府,你最好给我老实点,不然我用一根手指就可以压死你。”她龇牙咧嘴的回应:“笨蛋宁王,你最好也给我老实点,不然我就天天去逛青楼,同样用绿帽子压死你。”当倾世修罗遇到百变魔女,到底会碰撞出什么样的火花呢!!!
  • 错爱成瘾:逃婚甜妻,难招架!

    错爱成瘾:逃婚甜妻,难招架!

    “啊……啊……太用力了,好痛!”她一脸委屈。“关个门都能夹到手,服了你的智商。”他手里拿着药,亲自给她敷。他宠她入骨,“蠢点好,不会跑!”成人礼当天,她被陷害,睡了自己的“亲小叔”,四年后归来,她躲着他,不肯见他,但是怀里的小包子却总是把那个男人带回家来,“妈咪,这是我的客人哦,你要好好照顾~”儿子总喜欢引狼入室,坑妈不要太过分!甜宠不虐,欢迎入坑!(男女主没有血缘关系)
  • 跛脚的皇帝

    跛脚的皇帝

    他,一个扑街小写手,有朝一日穿越成一个跛脚的皇帝,在这架空的历史王朝,朝局诡诈,宫庭险恶,铁马兵戈,血雨腥风……在这里,有三大王爷的朝局争斗;在这里,有九大美人的宫庭争艳;在这里,有九大皇子的夺嫡之势……他,六下江南又为那般;他,一生都在发动战争,却又如何;他,兴教育,革弊政……而他是又如何在这里,开创出一片大事业?敬请期待《跛脚的皇帝》!书友QQ群:948506569!
  • 惊魂马戏团(动物传奇·传奇卷)

    惊魂马戏团(动物传奇·传奇卷)

    动物与人类一样经历“生老病死”、“婚丧嫁娶”,动物们也性格各异。它们的存在使大自然充满生机和活力,也使人类的生活更加丰富和充实。“动物传奇”丛书以短小的篇幅、精练的语言,描绘出大自然是善良的,同时也是冷酷的,人类只有顺应大自然,而不是战胜大自然,才会与大自然和谐地融为一体。这是一套关于人与自然的心灵健康之书。传奇卷为其中一本,讲述的是动物之间与、人与动物之间发生的跌宕起伏的传奇故事。
  • 宋帅追妻攻略

    宋帅追妻攻略

    一场车祸醒来,邱翼遥从以前的刁蛮任性、飞扬跋扈的大小姐,变成处理事波澜不惊、坦然自若且独立自主的女孩......车祸前,邱翼遥每次见到宋翼恒就追着问:“翼恒哥哥,你有没有想我?”“翼恒哥哥,你你是不是会娶我?”“翼恒哥哥,你为什么那么久不来看我?”宋翼恒对她避之不及。车祸醒来后,宋翼恒来看她时,邱翼遥却是三百六十度大转变的态度:“翼恒哥,谢谢你以前对我的照顾、包容以及关爱,谢谢你一直作为我的大哥哥一样维护我。你在部队那么忙要照顾好自己的身体。我以后不会再不懂事地纠缠你了。”宋翼恒看到她莫名的大变性内心很宽慰却又感到一丝不安,总觉得有什么重要的东西在他心里慢慢抽离,想抓住却又无力。
  • 小夜曲:音乐与黄昏五故事集(2017诺奖得主石黑一雄作品)

    小夜曲:音乐与黄昏五故事集(2017诺奖得主石黑一雄作品)

    本书是作者的第一部短篇集,全书以音乐为线索,由五个看似独立却又相互关联的故事组成。故事的主要人物都同音乐情牵相关:郁郁不得志的餐厅乐手,风光不再的过气歌星,孤芳自赏的大提琴手,为求成功被迫整容的萨克斯手等等,多是对音乐一往情深,对生活却满腹牢骚。情节或荒诞不经,或令人唏嘘,借音乐人生这个主题,表现了作者一贯的对现代人生存状态的反思:理想与现实的差距,命运的嘲弄,才华的折磨,以及庞大社会机器控制下被压抑的情感……
  • 做人做事就这么简单

    做人做事就这么简单

    人生一世,无外乎两件事:一件是做人,一件是做事。做人固然没有一定的法则和标准,但它存在一定的通则,一定有它的技巧与规律。做人做事需要我们穷尽一生的时间来学。在我们成长的路上或是人生任何的时刻,都需要不断地去校正自己的言行,让自己以善美的心姿融入到生活的舞台上,赢得社会、生活、他人的信赖。历史上的王侯将相、圣贤豪杰,凡成就大事的人,都是做人做事的高手。他们之所以在做人做事方面有成就,完全得益于他们知道了人生的奥妙,懂得做人做事之道。
  • 逆天战神妃

    逆天战神妃

    (正文加番外已完结,放心阅读)她是龙陵国人人皆知的丑颜废物小姐,一碗毒药,再度睁开眼睛,迎来的是21世纪的金牌杀手,不能修炼灵力,无元素天赋,没有契约兽?又有谁知道她丑颜下的绝色,强大的灵力,更是掌控了六系元素,魔兽之主跟随!一双金瞳,惊艳天下……是神,是魔,那又如何,若天阻拦,我便逆天而行……当腹黑狡诈的她遇上风华绝代的他,又该上演一场怎么样的追逐好戏!
  • 这么爱,那么殇

    这么爱,那么殇

    路言兮,生于普通家庭,学习踏踏实实,工作兢兢业业,生活平平淡淡,近27年的人生过得有些庸碌无为,没谈恋爱,心里却一直装着一个人。直到一个偶然错误的发生,她的人生似乎有些偏离了原来的轨道,莫名其妙卷入一场阴谋里,她是该退避三舍还是直面人生,熙熙攘攘的人群中,找到一个对的人不容易,她只是想把选择做成不会后悔的结局,为此,她付出了她的勇气和执着。叶城,因着一条捡回来的命,他一直被动地活着,他最大的愿望就是自由,心里的自由,人生选择的自由。等一切真正如他所愿,他才知道自己从未被抛弃过,他所以为的束缚,却是有人更痛苦地在替他承受,而这一次,他知道自己想要的是什么,能做的是什么。
  • 走向新农村的希望之路:宁夏农民专业合作经济组织发展研究

    走向新农村的希望之路:宁夏农民专业合作经济组织发展研究

    改革开放以来,中国社会发生了翻天覆地的变化,经济社会的发展取得了举世瞩目的成就,但城乡发展的差距却在不断扩大。