登陆注册
5235600000012

第12章 VII(2)

Yet you must not think that because Mr. Hoopdriver was a little uncomfortable, he was unhappy in the slightest degree. In the background of his consciousness was the sense that about this time Briggs would be half-way through his window dressing, and Gosling, the apprentice, busy, with a chair turned down over the counter and his ears very red, trying to roll a piece of huckaback--only those who have rolled pieces of huckaback know quite how detestable huckaback is to roll--and the shop would be dusty and, perhaps, the governor about and snappy. And here was quiet and greenery, and one mucked about as the desire took one, without a soul to see, and here was no wailing of "Sayn," no folding of remnants, no voice to shout, "Hoopdriver, forward!"

And once he almost ran over something wonderful, a little, low, red beast with a yellowish tail, that went rushing across the road before him. It was the first weasel he had ever seen in his cockney life. There were miles of this, scores of miles of this before him, pinewood and oak forest, purple, heathery moorland and grassy down, lush meadows, where shining rivers wound their lazy way, villages with square-towered, flint churches, and rambling, cheap, and hearty inns, clean, white, country towns, long downhill stretches, where one might ride at one's ease (overlooking a jolt or so), and far away, at the end of it all,--the sea.

What mattered a fly or so in the dawn of these delights? Perhaps he had been dashed a minute by the shameful episode of the Young Lady in Grey, and perhaps the memory of it was making itself a little lair in a corner of his brain from which it could distress him in the retrospect by suggesting that he looked like a fool; but for the present that trouble was altogether in abeyance. The man in drab--evidently a swell--had spoken to him as his equal, and the knees of his brown suit and the chequered stockings were ever before his eyes. (Or, rather, you could see the stockings by carrying the head a little to one side.) And to feel, little by little, his mastery over this delightful, treacherous machine, growing and growing! Every half-mile or so his knees reasserted themselves, and he dismounted and sat awhile by the roadside.

It was at a charming little place between Esher and Cobham, where a bridge crosses a stream, that Mr. Hoopdriver came across the other cyclist in brown. It is well to notice the fact here, although the interview was of the slightest, because it happened that subsequently Hoopdriver saw a great deal more of this other man in brown. The other cyclist in brown had a machine of dazzling newness, and a punctured pneumatic lay across his knees.

He was a man of thirty or more, with a whitish face, an aquiline nose, a lank, flaxen moustache, and very fair hair, and he scowled at the job before him. At the sight of him Mr. Hoopdriver pulled himself together, and rode by with the air of one born to the wheel. "A splendid morning," said Mr. Hoopdriver, "and a fine surface."

"The morning and you and the surface be everlastingly damned!" said the other man in brown as Hoopdriver receded. Hoopdriver heard the mumble and did not distinguish the words, and he felt a pleasing sense of having duly asserted the wide sympathy that binds all cyclists together, of having behaved himself as becomes one of the brotherhood of the wheel. The other man in brown watched his receding aspect. "Greasy proletarian," said the other man in brown, feeling a prophetic dislike. "Got a suit of brown, the very picture of this. One would think his sole aim in life had been to caricature me. It's Fortune's way with me. Look at his insteps on the treadles! Why does Heaven make such men?"

And having lit a cigarette, the other man in brown returned to the business in hand.

Mr. Hoopdriver worked up the hill towards Cobham to a point that he felt sure was out of sight of the other man in brown, and then he dismounted and pushed his machine; until the proximity of the village and a proper pride drove him into the saddle again.

同类推荐
  • 蜜蜂计

    蜜蜂计

    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。
  • 三水小牍

    三水小牍

    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。
  • 五阴譬喻经

    五阴譬喻经

    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。
  • Off on a Comet

    Off on a Comet

    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。
  • GHOSTS

    GHOSTS

    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
  • 等风来暖我心

    等风来暖我心

    他喜欢了她九年跟她告白了三次每次都被拒绝在他的心彻底伤透了之后她突然来找他“风晨轩求你娶我好不好?”风晨轩冷笑“安暖你当我是垃圾么?”他们会不会有未来?
  • 夏末锦时

    夏末锦时

    这是一场关于爱情的悲喜,友情的背叛与长存的故事,有温润如水也有辛辣似烈酒,总之,在每一场夏末遇见你们,是我一生最美好的时光。爱那么短,遗忘那么长,还好在这场漫长素白的青春里,我不是一个人。
  • 少林寺短打身法统宗拳谱

    少林寺短打身法统宗拳谱

    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。
  • 神算大小姐

    神算大小姐

    沐家第一纨绔涅槃重生归来,天地变色,整个世界都将改写。天材地宝,宝藏神兵,尽在她手。有仇报仇有恩报恩!想横着走还是竖着走,姿势随意选!重生归来身带神器,未卜先知,趋吉避凶,世人称其第一神算!第一神算,风云变幻尽在掌中。然遇到那人,却无法掌控自己的心。“你算天,算地,可曾算到我对你的心?”那人俊美的脸上浮起一抹微笑,恍若神谪。沐家纨绔大少爷,重生归来,翻云覆雨。站在巅峰之上时,众人才惊觉这哪里是纨绔大少爷,这分明是美的让人窒息的大小姐!多少青年俊杰捶胸顿足,失去博得佳人好感的最佳时机。那人却是邪肆一笑,宠溺的低头轻吻她的额头:“多谢你们有眼无珠,否则,我怎能佳人在怀?”
  • 突破文明

    突破文明

    我们期待着未来,只因科技让生活更美好!在浩瀚无垠的宇宙中我们很渺小,但是作为具有智慧的物种,当我们站在文明的最顶端,我们又将面临些什么呢?
  • 邪王追妻医妃别逃

    邪王追妻医妃别逃

    身为公主的她,虽然拥有高贵的身份,但是事实上呢?后宫争宠,母妃离世,小小年纪就伤痕累累,任人欺负。她是二十一世纪的医学鬼才,拥有和植物沟通的能力,处事随心随性,狂放不羁,一次试验失败,醒来却来到了一个历史上不存在的国度,灵魂附身在她的身上。从此,她变成了她,在这个世界大方异彩……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 热血异能高校:学院拽姐

    热血异能高校:学院拽姐

    皇洛异能学院的校长决定从全校的异能学员中筛选出一位最优秀的学员,将他打造成全异能者。谁知考核结束出选当天,圣物【神知】却选中了一位毫无异能的普通人类。当她进入皇洛异能学院,质疑她的异能学员们不断地来挑衅她。但谁都不知道的是,她的体内实际藏有着汪洋般的力量,即使是最强的异能者也只配让她踩在脚下……
  • 总裁霸爱成瘾

    总裁霸爱成瘾

    如果能重新选择,我宁愿被野兽强*暴,也不愿和你纠缠——柯柔只有我有权力离开你,你没有权力离开我——黑泽烈***他,是只手遮天的大亨,心中只有无限的仇恨;她,是败落的豪门孤女,温顺柔弱;***“想死?我准你死了吗?”阴冷的影子欺近,鹰眸蒙着层戾气,咬着牙,灼热的气息直接喷洒在血色尽失的精致脸蛋上。“没有我的命令,阎罗王也不会收你。嗯?那么想死?”,一把扯掉碍眼的针口,又拉下她鼻端的氧气管,他扬起嘴角,露出丝笑意,冷冷的,直达眼底。
  • Villa Rubein and Other Stories

    Villa Rubein and Other Stories

    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。
  • 秋去春归

    秋去春归

    四季花,谢又开,秋又春,燕去归。而你,归否?