登陆注册
5215600000175

第175章

Linda Viola stood up suddenly with a finger on her lip. He loved neither her nor her sister. The whole thing seemed so objectless as to frighten her, and also give her some hope. Why did he not carry her off? What prevented him? He was incomprehensible. What were they waiting for? For what end were these two lying and deceiving? Not for the ends of their love. There was no such thing. The hope of regaining him for herself made her break her vow of not leaving the tower that night. She must talk at once to her father, who was wise, and would understand. She ran down the spiral stairs.

At the moment of opening the door at the bottom she heard the sound of the first shot ever fired on the Great Isabel.

She felt a shock, as though the bullet had struck her breast. She ran on without pausing. The cottage was dark. She cried at the door, `Giselle!

Giselle!' then dashed round the corner and screamed her sister's name at the open window, without getting an answer; but as she was rushing, distracted, round the house, Giselle came out of the door, and darted past her, running silently, her hair loose, and her eyes staring straight ahead. She seemed to skim along the grass as if on tiptoe, and vanished.

Linda walked on slowly, with her arms stretched out before her. All was still on the island; she did not know where she was going. The tree under which Martin Decoud spent his last days, beholding life like a succession of senseless images, threw a large blotch of black shade upon the grass.

Suddenly she saw her father, standing quietly all alone in the moonlight.

The Garibaldino -- big, erect, with his snow-white hair and beard --had a monumental repose in his immobility, leaning upon a rifle. She put her hand upon his arm lightly. He never stirred.

`What have you done?' she asked, in her ordinary voice.

`I have shot Ramirez -- infame !' he answered, with his eyes directed to where the shade was blackest. `Like a thief he came, and like a thief he fell. The child had to be protected.'

He did not offer to move an inch, to advance a single step. He stood there, rugged and unstirring, like a statue of an old man guarding the honour of his house. Linda removed her trembling hand from his arm, firm and steady like an arm of stone, and, without a word, entered the blackness of the shade. She saw a stir of formless shapes on the ground, and stopped short. A murmur of despair and tears grew louder to her strained hearing.

`I entreated you not to come tonight. Oh, my Giovanni! And you promised.

Oh! Why -- why did you come, Giovanni?'

It was her sister's voice. It broke on a heartrending sob. And the voice of the resourceful Capataz de Cargadores, master and slave of the San Tome treasure, who had been caught unawares by old Giorgio while stealing acorss the open towards the ravine to get some more silver, answered careless and cool, but sounding startlingly weak from the ground.

`It seemed as though I could not live through the night without seeing thee once more -- my star, my little flower.'

The brilliant tertulia was just over, the last guests had departed, and the Senor Administrador had gone to his room already, when Dr Monygham, who had been expected in the evening but had not turned up, arrived driving along the wood-block pavement under the electric-lamps of the deserted Calle de la Constitucion, and found the great gateway of the casa still open.

He limped in, stumped up the stairs, and found the fat and sleek Basilio on the point of turning off the lights in the sala . The prosperous majordomo remained open-mouthed at this late invasion.

`Don't put out the lights,' commanded the doctor. `I want to see the senora .'

`The senora is in the Senor Administrador's cancillaria ,'

said Basilio, in an unctuous voice. `The Senor Administrador starts for the mountain in an hour. There is some trouble with the workmen to be feared, it appears. A shameless people without reason and decency. And idle, senor .

Idle.'

`You are shamelessly lazy and imbecile yourself,' said the doctor, with that faculty for exasperation which made him so generally beloved. `Don't put the lights out.'

Basilio retired with dignity. Dr Monygham, waiting in the brilliantly lighted sala , heard presently a door close at the farther end of the house. A jingle of spurs died out. The Senor Administrador was off to the mountain.

With a measured swish of her long train, flashing with jewels and the shimmer of silk, her delicate head bowed as if under the weight of a mass of fair hair, in which the silver threads were lost, the `first lady of Sulaco', as Captain Mitchell used to describe her, moved along the lighted corridor, wealthy beyond great dreams of wealth, considered, loved, respected, honoured, and as solitary as any human being had ever been, perhaps, on this earth.

The doctor's `Mrs Gould! One minute!' stopped her with a start at the door of the lighted and empty sala . From the similarity of mood and circumstance, the sight of the doctor, standing there all alone amongst the groups of furniture, recalled to her emotional memory her unexpected meeting with Martin Decoud; she seemed to hear in the silence the voice of that man, dead miserably so many years ago, pronounce the words, `Antonia left her fan here.' But it was the doctor's voice that spoke, a little altered by his excitement. She remarked his shining eyes.

同类推荐
  • 洞玄灵宝道士受三洞经箓法箓择日历

    洞玄灵宝道士受三洞经箓法箓择日历

    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。
  • 金石簿九五数诀

    金石簿九五数诀

    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。
  • 相宗八要直解

    相宗八要直解

    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。
  • 荀子

    荀子

    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 Man Between

    The Man Between

    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
  • 和乐天感鹤

    和乐天感鹤

    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。
  • Hello刁蛮千金

    Hello刁蛮千金

    她是全国五大家族之一苏家的千金,家族唯一的继承人,能文能武,不管学什么,都是一点就通,古灵精怪,冷傲不羁。他是慕容家的太子爷,只要惹到他的人都不会有好下场,偏偏她就是个例外,高冷,绝世,心高气傲,唯我独尊,两人第一次见面就势同水火,在学校偏偏还是个同桌,于是乎,“敢不敢和我比一比”“没问题,我有什么不敢的。”
  • 失落迷城

    失落迷城

    失落迷城藏于“死亡之海”中,当一批又一批的人争先抢后来到这里,等待他们的将是什么?
  • 古玩店连环案

    古玩店连环案

    清道光十年夏日里的一天深夜,辽西小城临溟(今辽宁盘锦)被笼罩在疾风骤雨之中。已是夤夜时分,县城正街老字号古玩店裕星斋的后院里突然传出一个女人撕心裂肺的哭嚎声:“老爷,狠心的,你走了,撇下我们孤儿寡母,让我们以后可怎么活呀!”这哭嚎的女人不是别人,正是裕福星老板刘凤桐的夫人,绰号“赛虞姬”的范十一娘。提起裕福星的老板刘凤桐,在当时的临溟县可是个举足轻重的人物。刘凤桐的祖父刘益三是乾隆、嘉庆年间翰林院的编修,曾参与主编《四库全书》,才高八斗,学富五车,后来患绝症病死在京城。
  • The Message

    The Message

    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。
  • 十七史蒙求

    十七史蒙求

    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。
  • 吃货系统在异界

    吃货系统在异界

    地球火热户外美食节目主持人王远,意外穿越异界获得吃货系统,看一个吃货如何用吃来称霸异界。
  • 世界文化博览(第二册)

    世界文化博览(第二册)

    《世界文化博览》精选了大量世界文化与自然遗产,以精炼的文字从多方面加以说明与介绍。揭开历史,一窥背后的故事,将人类历史上的里程碑和转折点,冲突和战争、创造和发现、崛起和衰落等,一一呈现在读者面前。其内容涵盖了原始社会、传媒通讯、人类军事武器的产生、数学宝库、西方文明的产生、人类走向宇航时代等。带你领略世界文化的博大精深,感受文化的力量和魅力,享受精神的盛宴,浓缩世界文化知识精粹。旨在为读者提高文化修养、丰富人生内涵、添加知识储备、准备写作素材、增加聚会谈资……
  • 打开心灵的锁

    打开心灵的锁

    打开心灵的锁主要内容:沉重的锁围绕着你的心灵,让你的心灵受到积压,使你的头一片空白,没有哲理,也没有智慧。只有打开那把锁,你的灵才会绽放出智慧的花朵。
  • 女性乌托邦:中国女性/性别研究二十讲

    女性乌托邦:中国女性/性别研究二十讲

    女性/性别研究在20世纪末成为显学,是1960年代新女权运动的成果;在中国,它是1980年代“妇女研究运动”的产物。本书以公开讲座为基础,上篇“新中国妇女研究”多与现实问题相关,从1980年代至今,可见中国妇女发展的具体进程;下篇“性别研究与基础教育”侧重学理讨论和学科建设,与西方女性主义对应并相互呼应,在寻根溯源的基础上为中国妇女研究开掘本土资源。