登陆注册
5224500000040

第40章 CHAPTER 4 Narcissus Off Duty(3)

There were Burne and Fred Sloane arrayed to the last dot like the lurid figures on college posters. They had bought flaring suits with huge peg-top trousers and gigantic padded shoulders. On their heads were rakish college hats, pinned up in front and sporting bright orange-and-black bands, while from their celluloid collars blossomed flaming orange ties. They wore black arm-bands with orange "P's," and carried canes flying Princeton pennants, the effect completed by socks and peeping handkerchiefs in the same color motifs. On a clanking chain they led a large, angry tom-cat, painted to represent a tiger.

A good half of the station crowd was already staring at them, torn between horrified pity and riotous mirth, and as Phyllis, with her svelte jaw dropping, approached, the pair bent over and emitted a college cheer in loud, far-carrying voices, thoughtfully adding the name "Phyllis" to the end. She was vociferously greeted and escorted enthusiastically across the campus, followed by half a hundred village urchinsto the stifled laughter of hundreds of alumni and visitors, half of whom had no idea that this was a practical joke, but thought that Burne and Fred were two varsity sports showing their girl a collegiate time.

Phyllis's feelings as she was paraded by the Harvard and Princeton stands, where sat dozens of her former devotees, can be imagined. She tried to walk a little ahead, she tried to walk a little behindbut they stayed close, that there should be no doubt whom she was with, talking in loud voices of their friends on the football team, until she could almost hear her acquaintances whispering:

"Phyllis Styles must be awfully hard up to have to come with those two."

That had been Burne, dynamically humorous, fundamentally serious.

From that root had blossomed the energy that he was now trying to orient with progress....

So the weeks passed and March came and the clay feet that Amory looked for failed to appear. About a hundred juniors and seniors resigned from their clubs in a final fury of righteousness, and the clubs in helplessness turned upon Burne their finest weapon: ridicule. Every one who knew him liked himbut what he stood for (and he began to stand for more all the time) came under the lash of many tongues, until a frailer man than he would have been snowed under.

"Don't you mind losing prestige?" asked Amory one night.

They had taken to exchanging calls several times a week.

"Of course I don't. What's prestige, at best?"

"Some people say that you're just a rather original politician."

He roared with laughter.

"That's what Fred Sloane told me to-day. I suppose I have it coming."

One afternoon they dipped into a subject that had interested Amory for a long timethe matter of the bearing of physical attributes on a man's make-up. Burne had gone into the biology of this, and then:

"Of course health countsa healthy man has twice the chance of being good," he said.

"I don't agree with youI don't believe in 'muscular Christianity.'"

"I do-I believe Christ had great physical vigor."

"Oh, no," Amory protested. "He worked too hard for that. I imagine that when he died he was a broken-down manand the great saints haven't been strong."

"Half of them have."

"Well, even granting that, I don't think health has anything to do with goodness; of course, it's valuable to a great saint to be able to stand enormous strains, but this fad of popular preachers rising on their toes in simulated virility, bellowing that calisthenics will save the worldno, Burne, I can't go that."

"Well, let's waive itwe won't get anywhere, and besides I haven't quite made up my mind about it myself. Now, here's something I do knowpersonal appearance has a lot to do with it."

"Coloring?" Amory asked eagerly.

"Yes."

"That's what Tom and I figured," Amory agreed. "We took the year-books for the last ten years and looked at the pictures of the senior council. I know you don't think much of that august body, but it does represent success here in a general way. Well, I suppose only about thirty-five per cent of every class here are blonds, are really lightyet two-thirds of every senior council are light. We looked at pictures of ten years of them, mind you; that means that out of every fifteen light-haired men in the senior class one is on the senior council, and of the dark-haired men it's only one in fifty."

"It's true," Burne agreed. "The light-haired man is a higher type, generally speaking. I worked the thing out with the Presidents of the United States once, and found that way over half of them were light-hairedyet think of the preponderant number of brunettes in the race."

People unconsciously admit it," said Amory. "You'll notice a blond person is expected to talk. If a blond girl doesn't talk we call her a 'doll'; if a light-haired man is silent he's considered stupid. Yet the world is full of 'dark silent men' and 'languorous brunettes' who haven't a brain in their heads, but somehow are never accused of the dearth."

"And the large mouth and broad chin and rather big nose undoubtedly make the superior face."

"I'm not so sure." Amory was all for classical features.

"Oh, yesI'll show you," and Burne pulled out of his desk a photographic collection of heavily bearded, shaggy celebrities-Tolstoi, Whitman, Carpenter, and others.

"Aren't they wonderful?"

Amory tried politely to appreciate them, and gave up laughingly.

"Burne, I think they're the ugliest-looking crowd I ever came across. They look like an old man's home."

"Oh, Amory, look at that forehead on Emerson; look at Tolstoi's eyes." His tone was reproachful.

Amory shook his head.

"No! Call them remarkable-looking or anything you wantbut ugly they certainly are."

Unabashed, Burne ran his hand lovingly across the spacious foreheads, and piling up the pictures put them back in his desk.

Walking at night was one of his favorite pursuits, and one night he persuaded Amory to accompany him.

同类推荐
  • 根本说一切有部百一羯磨

    根本说一切有部百一羯磨

    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。
  • 三国杂事

    三国杂事

    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。
  • 证治心传

    证治心传

    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。
  • 六门陀罗尼经

    六门陀罗尼经

    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。
  • 明仁宗宝训

    明仁宗宝训

    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。
热门推荐
  • 赎罪新约

    赎罪新约

    你可曾想过,世界上可能有一段被人们永久遗忘的历史,被封冻在远古的冰川中,被高山之巅的群星所铭记,被传说中的妖精呢喃??????过去大陆的样貌还未改变时,这里也和现在一样有着许多强大的国家,那个时候,远古的精灵和魔法生物还未离去,人类个体的力量还无法打破坚固的城墙。一个少女,为了自己自私的愿望,触犯了禁忌,神对人类降下了七天的惩罚。醒来的少女为了赎罪和约定,踏上了旅程,而她所面对的,是一条漫长而艰难的道路??????
  • 大学英语六级听力训练

    大学英语六级听力训练

    本书针对听力的每种题型进行了详细的分析,让考生透彻地了解听力考试的测试方向、命题规律。同时,还提供了相应的应试技巧,帮助考生正确理解和解答听力题。本书将练习和测试相结合,一步一个台阶地提高听力水平。
  • 185119班

    185119班

    在逐渐混乱的世界里面慢慢的蜕变,踏破了邪魔外道的阴谋,抒发心中不平气,纵横天下几万里。这本书讲的就是几个少年的成长的故事。
  • 百度联盟实战:网站广告赚钱揭秘

    百度联盟实战:网站广告赚钱揭秘

    本书共分为两篇16章,上篇主要介绍百度联盟与广告优化基础知识,主要内容包括:初识百度联盟与百度推广,七大百度联盟创收产品概览,申请百度联盟的基础条件,熟悉百度联盟合作规范,百度联盟申请、审核和广告部署实例,百度联盟后台功能介绍,百度联盟官方优化专家和广告管家的使用,百度联盟官方资源汇总;下篇主要介绍百度联盟广告优化案例分析与实战指导,主要内容包括:以百度联盟创收为目的的网站主题优化,广告位置优化,广告尺寸优化,广告类型优化,广告颜色优化,广告数量优化,广告优化效果评估。
  • 以你相逢,惜我年华

    以你相逢,惜我年华

    我一直以为我不相信爱情,我这一生会孤独终老直到我遇见了他,苏流年,我才知道原来暗恋真的好累啊,原来我也会爱一个人,为他做一切,那怕是甘愿伤害我自己。颜兮“流年,我以后只能把你藏在我心里,把你当成我好朋友”“我真的好喜欢你好喜欢你,即使你不知道我喜欢你”你知道吗?暗恋是我一个人的地老天荒只能把我对你的爱掩藏在心,自己一个人想念。
  • 东山破峰重禅师语录

    东山破峰重禅师语录

    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。
  • 他藏在我心底

    他藏在我心底

    醉汉咧着嘴笑道:“你这个小姑娘真是的,我只是一时的没坐稳而已,你以为我要碰你啊,你这个样子也不照照镜子,都胖成这样了,谁会吃你豆腐啊……突然一个低沉的声音说,到我这里来。她就乖乖的坐在那里,一动都不敢动,那种温暖又踏实的声音,让她静静的享受这一份安全感。
  • 文化古迹探索

    文化古迹探索

    人类总是充满好奇心,富有求知欲望,不仅对历史积淀的文 化知识和日益发展的科学技术具有浓厚的兴趣,而且对世界上许 许多多的未解之谜都充满了好奇心。这是人类的心理特征,也是 人类社会进步的一种基本动因。从地球到宇宙,从自然到历史, 从科学到艺术,在这许许多多的领域中,无不存在着这样或那样 的“未解之谜”。
  • 煮粥条议

    煮粥条议

    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。
  • 文学闲谈:朱湘作品精选

    文学闲谈:朱湘作品精选

    本书是感悟文学大师经典,本套丛书选文广泛、丰富,且把阅读文学与掌握知识结合起来,既能增进广大读者阅读经典文学的乐趣,又能使我们体悟人生的智慧和生活哲理。本套图书格调高雅,知识丰富,具有极强的可读性、权威性和系统性,非常适合广大读者阅读和收藏,也非常适合各级图书馆装备陈列。