登陆注册
5239300000033

第33章 OUT OF TOWN(1)

SITTING, on a bright September morning, among my books and papers at my open window on the cliff overhanging the sea-beach, I have the sky and ocean framed before me like a beautiful picture. A beautiful picture, but with such movement in it, such changes of light upon the sails of ships and wake of steamboats, such dazzling gleams of silver far out at sea, such fresh touches on the crisp wave-tops as they break and roll towards me - a picture with such music in the billowy rush upon the shingle, the blowing of morning wind through the corn-sheaves where the farmers' waggons are busy, the singing of the larks, and the distant voices of children at play - such charms of sight and sound as all the Galleries on earth can but poorly suggest.

So dreamy is the murmur of the sea below my window, that I may have been here, for anything I know, one hundred years. Not that I have grown old, for, daily on the neighbouring downs and grassy hill-sides, I find that I can still in reason walk any distance, jump over anything, and climb up anywhere; but, that the sound of the ocean seems to have become so customary to my musings, and other realities seem so to have gone aboard ship and floated away over the horizon, that, for aught I will undertake to the contrary, I am the enchanted son of the King my father, shut up in a tower on the sea-shore, for protection against an old she-goblin who insisted on being my godmother, and who foresaw at the font - wonderful creature! - that I should get into a scrape before I was twenty-one. I remember to have been in a City (my Royal parent's dominions, I suppose), and apparently not long ago either, that was in the dreariest condition. The principal inhabitants had all been changed into old newspapers, and in that form were preserving their window-blinds from dust, and wrapping all their smaller household gods in curl-papers. I walked through gloomy streets where every house was shut up and newspapered, and where my solitary footsteps echoed on the deserted pavements. In the public rides there were no carriages, no horses, no animated existence, but a few sleepy policemen, and a few adventurous boys taking advantage of the devastation to swarm up the lamp-posts. In the Westward streets there was no traffic; in the Westward shops, no business. The water-patterns which the 'Prentices had trickled out on the pavements early in the morning, remained uneffaced by human feet.

At the corners of mews, Cochin-China fowls stalked gaunt and savage; nobody being left in the deserted city (as it appeared to me), to feed them. Public Houses, where splendid footmen swinging their legs over gorgeous hammer-cloths beside wigged coachmen were wont to regale, were silent, and the unused pewter pots shone, too bright for business, on the shelves. I beheld a Punch's Show leaning against a wall near Park Lane, as if it had fainted. It was deserted, and there were none to heed its desolation. In Belgrave Square I met the last man - an ostler - sitting on a post in a ragged red waistcoat, eating straw, and mildewing away.

If I recollect the name of the little town, on whose shore this sea is murmuring - but I am not just now, as I have premised, to be relied upon for anything - it is Pavilionstone. Within a quarter of a century, it was a little fishing town, and they do say, that the time was, when it was a little smuggling town. I have heard that it was rather famous in the hollands and brandy way, and that coevally with that reputation the lamplighter's was considered a bad life at the Assurance Offices. It was observed that if he were not particular about lighting up, he lived in peace; but that, if he made the best of the oil-lamps in the steep and narrow streets, he usually fell over the cliff at an early age. Now, gas and electricity run to the very water's edge, and the South-Eastern Railway Company screech at us in the dead of night.

But, the old little fishing and smuggling town remains, and is so tempting a place for the latter purpose, that I think of going out some night next week, in a fur cap and a pair of petticoat trousers, and running an empty tub, as a kind of archaeological pursuit. Let nobody with corns come to Pavilionstone, for there are breakneck flights of ragged steps, connecting the principal streets by back-ways, which will cripple that visitor in half an hour. These are the ways by which, when I run that tub, I shall escape. I shall make a Thermopylae of the corner of one of them, defend it with my cutlass against the coast-guard until my brave companions have sheered off, then dive into the darkness, and regain my Susan's arms. In connection with these breakneck steps I observe some wooden cottages, with tumble-down out-houses, and back-yards three feet square, adorned with garlands of dried fish, in one of which (though the General Board of Health might object) my Susan dwells.

同类推荐
  • Tales of Trail and Town

    Tales of Trail and Town

    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。
  • 五国故事

    五国故事

    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。
  • 铁花仙史

    铁花仙史

    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。
  • 大乘止观法门宗圆记

    大乘止观法门宗圆记

    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。
  • 石城山志

    石城山志

    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
  • 紫气成道

    紫气成道

    有人的地方就有江湖,有江湖的地方就有杀戮。有修仙者的地方就有各种神话传说、妖魔鬼怪。机缘巧合之下,林夜拥有属于自己的一个小世界,一番努力下小世界一点点的成长为大千世界,而他也依靠着一个世界的气运,一步步走向三界巅峰,成为至高之一。在这成长的过程中经历了怎样的艰难险阻,风云变幻呢,让我们一起来见证……
  • 政治传播研究:理论、载体、形态、符号

    政治传播研究:理论、载体、形态、符号

    立足政治传播学,梳理评介西方政治传播学的发展历史、研究范式与研究方法、中国政治传播研究的现状、媒体与政府关系研究概况等。阐述报刊、广播电视、新媒体等大众媒介的政治传播功能及其与政治的关系。分析作为政治传播形态的政治新闻、政治宣传与政治的关联。并从传播符号角度对政治修辞、政治象征、政治形象进行研究。与同类政治传播著作相较有一定的创新性。
  • 虚拟人生之全能巨星

    虚拟人生之全能巨星

    “平凡人的命运啊,当然是要靠自我奋斗,而像我这种先知,也不能太变态,毕竟还是要考虑到历史的进程嘛。”一次穿越,一个系统,开启了云飞扬另一段不一样的精彩人生!
  • 久婚成爱

    久婚成爱

    蒋欣怡转身发现,原来这个世界上不只是姚海笙一个男人,还有蒋痕远远地看着自己不曾离开过。蒋欣怡不了不想再与姚海笙纠缠不清,于是与蒋痕假装情侣索性结婚成为了一对有名无实的夫妻。过起了他们之间的小爱情,当爱开始萌牙时,却杀出了路人甲乙丙丁……他们的路不好走,可还是会一步步往前走……
  • 女勇士

    女勇士

    她听着妈妈讲的东方故事长大,故事中的女剑客穿林越莽,上阵杀敌。她听着家族遥远的传说,姑姑因为追寻爱情被全村人殴打奚落,任由梦想萌生凋零。她看着姨妈月兰跨越太平洋寻亲,却被跻身美国上流社会的丈夫拒之门外;妈妈英兰染黑白发,日日操劳不停,想要一大家人守在一起的热闹时光。异乡的生活是如此光怪陆离,奇诡辛酸,她们的魂儿散落得满世界都是,但是,沿着来时的路走,就能找到回家的路。当你意识到女人也能成为勇士,手中便握有力量。短篇小说集《女勇士》是知名华裔女作家汤婷婷代表作,由《无名女人》《白虎》等五则小说构成,展示了一个生活在异乡的华人女孩的所思所想。
  • 双生花

    双生花

    我常常可以听到花开花落的声音,撕心裂肺。我无法描述那是怎样的一种声音,但我可以告诉你它的样子,是一只透明的有些晃眼的玻璃杯,被狠狠地丢在地上,支离破碎。升腾出一片片玫瑰,红得刺眼,美的妖娆。一个声音歇斯底里的呼唤着,我们爱,否则死……
  • 修仙界生存手札

    修仙界生存手札

    【目前起点搜不到QQ阅读可看】与其同真实一并死去,我宁愿为谎言而生。你说我“命数将尽”,命运却为我选择出这条反抗一切的路。无论如何,一直、一直继续下去吧。按照命运的轨迹,继续走下去。——即便生存如此艰难。◆PS:1.非所谓正统修仙文,无男主,类群像,“每个人都是自己的主角”。2.可以暴打作者的读者群号:7769636283.不是什么正经仙侠,不是什么正经作者,所有角色随时可能死亡的一个残酷世界。——“现实永远比小说更荒唐。”4.不喜勿喷,有意见有看法可探讨。5.自嗨作,所有萌点皆为我圈地自萌不喜请绕道。6.文笔渣剧情渣觉得自己什么都渣哪哪儿都不好,对此不适请提前规避。
  • 叛逃通缉令

    叛逃通缉令

    S级特工邵坤,为从神秘魔鬼特训场巫山脱离,接了特工生涯中的最后一个任务。令邵坤没想到的是,这最后一个任务彻底将他的人生轨迹改变。大是非下,邵坤为情而战,毅然背离组织的决策,由暗杀目标,变成了保护目标,从而产生了最大的矛盾点。从王者特工,到被全员特工组追杀的对象,邵坤一路险象丛生。身份的特殊,能力的卓越,邵坤浩瀚的斗争之路上,陆续得到各路女孩儿的信赖。挑战和机遇并存,邵坤在谈笑间度过重重险境,阴差阳错下俘获了无数美女的芳心。逆鳞之战,就此拉开…
  • 一份公证书

    一份公证书

    《一份公证书》本书收录了许均铨的小小说作品,分为作品荟萃、作品评论、创作心得和创作年表四部分。篇幅短小,制式灵活,内容上贴近现实、贴近生活、贴近群众,有着非常鲜明的时代气息,为广大读者喜闻乐见。
  • 养生导引法

    养生导引法

    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。