登陆注册
5227100000052

第52章 CHAPTER III DRIVE WITH SWITHIN(4)

"The fellow," he said to Mrs. Septimus, "follows her about with his eyes like a dog--the bumpy beggar! I don't wonder at it-- she's a very charming woman, and, I should say, the pink of discretion!" A vague consciousness of, perfume caging about Irene, like that from a flower with half-closed petals and a passionate heart, moved him to the creation of this image. "But I wasn't sure of it," he said, "till I saw him pick up her handkerchief."

Mrs. Small's eyes boiled with excitement.

"And did he give it her back?" she asked.

"Give it back?" said Swithin: "I saw him slobber on it when he thought I wasn't looking!

Mrs. Small gasped--too interested to speak.

"But she gave him no encouragement," went on Swithin; he stopped, and stared for a minute or two in the way that alarmed Aunt Hester so--he had suddenly recollected that, as they were starting back in the-phaeton, she had given Bosinney her hand a second time, and let it stay there too.... He had touched his horses smartly with the whip, anxious to get her all to himself.

But she had looked back, and she had not answered his first question; neither had he been able to see her face--she had kept it hanging down.

There is somewhere a picture, which Swithin has not seen, of a man sitting on a rock, and by him, immersed in the still, green water, a sea-nymph lying on her back, with her hand on her naked breast. She has a half-smile on her face--a smile of hopeless surrender and of secret joy.

Seated by Swithin's side, Irene may have been smiling like that.

When, warmed by champagne, he had her all to himself, he unbosomed himself of his wrongs; of his smothered resentment against the new chef at the club; his worry over the house in Wigmore Street, where the rascally tenant had gone bankrupt through helping his brother-in-law as if charity did not begin at home; of his deafness, too, and that pain he sometimes got in his right side. She listened, her eyes swimming under their lids.

He thought she was thinking deeply of his troubles, and pitied himself terribly. Yet in his fur coat, with frogs across the breast, his top hat aslant, driving this beautiful woman, he had never felt more distinguished.

A coster, however, taking his girl for a Sunday airing, seemed to have the same impression about himself. This person had flogged his donkey into a gallop alongside, and sat, upright as a waxwork, in his shallopy chariot, his chin settled pompously on a red handkerchief, like Swithin's on his full cravat; while his girl, with the ends of a fly-blown boa floating out behind, aped a woman of fashion. Her swain moved a stick with a ragged bit of string dangling from the end, reproducing with strange fidelity the circular flourish of Swithin's whip, and rolled his head at his lady with a leer that had a weird likeness to Swithin's primeval stare.

Though for a time unconscious of the lowly ruffian's presence, Swithin presently took it into his head that he was being guyed.

He laid his whip-lash across the mares flank. The two chariots, however, by some unfortunate fatality continued abreast.

Swithin's yellow, puffy face grew red; he raised his whip to lash the costermonger, but was saved from so far forgetting his dignity by a special intervention of Providence. A carriage driving out through a gate forced phaeton and donkey-cart into proximity; the wheels grated, the lighter vehicle skidded, and was overturned.

Swithin did not look round. On no account would he have pulled up to help the ruffian. Serve him right if he had broken his neck!

But he could not if he would. The greys had taken alarm. The phaeton swung from side to side, and people raised frightened faces as they went dashing past. Swithin's great arms, stretched at full length, tugged at the reins. His cheeks were puffed, his lips compressed, his swollen face was of a dull, angry red.

Irene had her hand on the rail, and at every lurch she gripped it tightly. Swithin heard her ask:

"Are we going to have an accident, Uncle Swithin?"

He gasped out between his pants: "It's nothing; a--little fresh!"

"I've never been in an accident."

Don't you move!" He took a look at--her. She was smiling, perfectly calm. "Sit still," he repeated. "Never fear, I'll get you home!"

And in the midst of all his terrible efforts, he was surprised to hear her answer in a voice not like her own:

"I don't care if I never get home!"

The carriage giving a terrific lurch, Swithin's exclamation was jerked back into his throat. The horses, winded by the rise of a hill, now steadied to a trot, and finally stopped of their own accord.

"When"--Swithin described it at Timothy's--"I pulled 'em up, there she was as cool as myself. God bless my soul! she behaved as if she didn't care whether she broke her neck or not! What was it she said: 'I don't care if I never get home?" Leaning over the handle of his cane, he wheezed out, to Mrs. Small's terror:

"And I'm not altogether surprised, with a finickin' feller like young Soames for a husband!"

It did not occur to him to wonder what Bosinney had done after they had left him there alone; whether he had gone wandering about like the dog to which Swithin had compared him; wandering down to that copse where the spring was still in riot, the cuckoo still calling from afar; gone down there with her handkerchief pressed to lips, its fragrance mingling with the scent of mint and thyme. Gone down there with such a wild, exquisite pain in his heart that he could have cried out among the trees. Or what, indeed, the fellow had done. In fact, till he came to Timothy's, Swithin had forgotten all about him.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 商务礼仪现用现查

    商务礼仪现用现查

    本书的目的是给广大读者,特别是商界人士提供一个值得参照的读本,直接可以修正自己日常言行中的错误,进而用礼仪规范约束自己,成为一个“有礼之士”。本书没有连篇累牍、复杂难记的理论和体系让你无所适从。相反,它言简意赅,为你提供具体的建议,帮你解决实际问题。你可以通过读本书,这样你将获得更多的礼仪知识;也可以碰到问题随时查阅,找到你马上需要解决问题的答案。
  • 朝阳门外旧事多(外一篇)

    朝阳门外旧事多(外一篇)

    现年头儿要真能在北京城里找见地道的北京老爷子已经不是件容易的事了。说其地道,不光是说其土生土长在北京城,还得说他亲眼见过老北京城的四墙九门,那城墙仰脖抬眼望有三丈六尺六高,墙头上并排跑得开十二匹高头大马。那九门分布在北京城的东西南北,九门为旗,九门为栓,九座城门把个北京城拱卫得严严紧紧。九门就是九位大将军,一字排开的是正阳门、崇文门、宣武门、朝阳门、东直门、阜成门、西直门、安定门、德胜门。
  • 将门凤华

    将门凤华

    新书《衣手遮天》已发布……重生一世,她只想一斤牛肉三碗酒,老娘瞪狗狗都抖。【已经有三本完结古言,请放心入坑。
  • 空间之弃妇良田

    空间之弃妇良田

    【双强】+【美食】+【萌宝】+【灵兽】女boss穿越成没二两肉的土村妇,住房漏雨,米缸无粮,身边还有个面黄肌瘦的包子管她叫娘,最蛋疼的是,还是未婚生子,骂她淫娃荡妇的人可以绕村子几周。回是回不去了,只能咬牙挺胸赚钱把娃儿养,山里觅野味,填饱肚子,发现空间,种植灵果,灵药,培养珍珠宝石,良田万顷,金银赚大发,弃妇翻身亮瞎世人眼,叫那些骂她的人都去见鬼,还有那个杀千刀的娃儿他爹,哪里凉快哪里待着,想要认娃,先跪搓板,再挨鸡几棍毛掸子,交了抚养费,赎罪钱,再说......关于睡觉某女:“家里只有一间卧房,男女有别,你睡这里。”某爷蹙眉:“这么乱,是人睡的地方吗?”某女:“确实不是人睡的地方,这里曾是驴棚。”某爷黑脸……关于认爹某爷:“童童,我是你爹爹。”某宝:“想做我爹爹,先交十万两银子。”随侍立马递上十万两银子的银票,“小主子,请笑纳。”某爷:“童童,可以叫爹爹了吧?”某宝:“不行。”某爷:“?”某宝叉着小手:“娘亲说,你黑心,黑肺,不负责任,抛妻弃子,所以,这十万两银子是你的赎罪费,外加抚养费。”某爷囧:“童童,你如何才肯认爹爹?”某宝:“娘亲原谅你了吗?”某爷垂丧:“没有。”某宝:“跪搓板,挨鸡毛掸子,任你选,只要娘亲原谅你,我就叫你爹。”某爷:“……”有爹好乘凉随侍:“爷,小世子给皇上下了无敌痒痒粉。”某爷漫不经心:“嗯,去告诉皇上,作为君王,堂兄,要懂得谦让,关爱幼弟。”随侍汗:“爷……”某爷:“还有何事?”随侍:“小世子在太后宫里放了毒蛇,毒蝎。”某爷:“哦!那老妖婆死了吗?若是死了,替本王送口棺材去。”随侍晕厥:“爷……还……还有一事儿,小世子说,您这爹当得不称职,要重新给王妃选夫婿,帖子都已经发出去了。”某爷怒:“还杵着作甚?赶紧去将帖子撤回来“随侍哭,狂奔……
  • 鼠璞

    鼠璞

    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。
  • 重生之盛宠毒后

    重生之盛宠毒后

    先皇后死在凤位不瞑目,好姐妹抽她筋骨咒她永不超生,史书字字戳她脊梁骨。含恨重生,步步攻心。她宁负天下,也要亲手将那些人拉进地狱,不得好死。唯独,他的强势瓦解了她的心墙。只是沈温婉忘了,普天之下最不能动心的,就是自己。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 刘墉家庭励志书:少爷小姐要争气

    刘墉家庭励志书:少爷小姐要争气

    这本书不单是作家刘墉写给儿子、女儿的信,也是写给每一位师长和孩子的“家书”。表面上看,这本书只是给女儿的一封封信,实际谈的却是处世、是交际、是说话、是美、是爱、是公义、是责任、是关怀、是开阔……这本书写得非常平实而生活,没什么专有名词,所以即使不加注音,也能让十岁的孩子看懂。它不但能点亮十岁到二十岁年轻人的心,也能传达给父母师长一些重要的观念。就是愿所有的孩子都能快乐地上学、长大…
  • 圪麻石纪事

    圪麻石纪事

    曹向荣,女,教师,山西省作家协会会员。1995年开始发表散文。《消停的月儿》、《书的记忆》、《核桃》,分别发表于1999年第9期、2000年第9期、2002年第4期的《中华散文》。散文集《消停的月儿》,于2001年中国华侨出版社出版。2003年开始写小说。2004年,《泥哨》、《小巷胡同的女人》两篇同时发表于《黄河》第5期。中篇小说《泥哨》,入选当年《小说选刊》,第12期(下半月号)做首篇。2005年,《泥哨》荣获黄河杂志社“雁门杯”优秀小说奖。圪麻石的坡上,人流如海,上的上,下的下,人们的脸笑开了花。圪麻石全村,今天全天灶上不安锅,都在张二狗家吃饭。今天,张二狗家过事,过大事,他母亲八十大寿。
  • 半妖修仙传

    半妖修仙传

    一个流落妖域的人族少年,因百滴白虎精血而成就半妖之躯,在满满都是套路的三界之中,为打破宿命的牵绊而不断突破自我,问鼎仙界巅峰……这是一部修仙爽文,杀伐果决,绝不拖泥带水!!!
  • 总经理留人之道

    总经理留人之道

    如今企业界面临的最严峻、最重大的挑战不是找不到人才,而是如何找到合适人才,并让其能够始终忠诚于公司,留住人才!在知识经济与经济全球化的影响下,企业与员工在全球范围内进行双向选择,员工的流动率将上升,稳定性也将越低。