登陆注册
5242200000127

第127章 Chapter 1(1)

It was n't till many days had passed that the Princess began to accept the idea of having done, a little, something she was not always doing, or indeed that of having listened to any inward voice that spoke in a new tone. Yet these instinctive postponements of reflexion were the fruit, positively, of recognitions and perceptions already active; of the sense above all that she had made at a particular hour, made by the mere touch of her hand, a difference in the situation so long present to her as practically unattackable. This situation had been occupying for months and months the very centre of the garden of her life, but it had reared itself there like some strange tall tower of ivory, or perhaps rather some wonderful beautiful but outlandish pagoda, a structure plated with hard bright porcelain, coloured and figured and adorned at the overhanging eaves with silver bells that tinkled ever so charmingly when stirred by chance airs. She had walked round and round it--that was what she felt; she had carried on her existence in the space left her for circulation, a space that sometimes seemed ample and sometimes narrow: looking up all the while at the fair structure that spread itself so amply and rose so high, but never quite making out as yet where she might have entered had she wished. She had n't (4) wished till now--such was the odd case; and what was doubtless equally odd besides was that though her raised eyes seemed to distinguish places that must serve from within, and especially far aloft, as apertures and outlooks, no door appeared to give access from her convenient garden level. The great decorated surface had remained consistently impenetrable and inscrutable.

At present however, to her considering mind, it was as if she had ceased merely to circle and to scan the elevation, ceased so vaguely, so quite helplessly to stare and wonder: she had caught herself distinctly in the act of pausing, then in that of lingering, and finally in that of stepping unprecedentedly near. The thing might have been, by the distance at which it kept her, a Mahometan mosque, with which no base heretic could take a liberty; there so hung about it the vision of one's putting off one's shoes to enter and even verily of one's paying with one's life if found there as an interloper. She had n't certainly arrived at the conception of paying with her life for anything she might do; but it was nevertheless quite as if she had sounded with a tap or two one of the rare porcelain plates. She had knocked in short--though she could scarce have said whether for admission or for what; she had applied her hand to a cool smooth spot and had waited to see what would happen. Something HAD happened; it was as if a sound, at her touch, after a little, had come back to her from within; a sound sufficiently suggesting that her approach had been noted.

If this image, however, may represent our young woman's consciousness of a recent change in her life (5)--a change now but a few days old--it must at the same time be observed that she both sought and found in renewed circulation, as I have called it, a measure of relief from the idea of having perhaps to answer for what she had done. The pagoda in her blooming garden figured the arrangement--how otherwise was it to be named?--by which, so strikingly, she had been able to marry without breaking, as she liked to put it, with her past. She had surrendered herself to her husband without the shadow of a reserve or a condition and yet had n't all the while given up her father by the least little inch. She had compassed the high felicity of seeing the two men beautifully take to each other, and nothing in her marriage had marked it as more happy than this fact of its having practically given the elder, the lonelier, a new friend. What had moreover all the while enriched the whole aspect of success was that the latter's marriage had been no more measurably paid for than her own. His having taken the same great step in the same free way had n't in the least involved the relegation of his daughter. That it was remarkable they should have been able at once so to separate and so to keep together had never for a moment, from however far back, been equivocal to her; that it was remarkable had in fact quite counted, at first and always, and for each of them equally, as part of their inspiration and their support. There were plenty of singular things they were NOT enamoured of--flights of brilliancy, of audacity, of originality, that, speaking at least for the dear man and herself, were not at all in their line; but they liked to think they had given their life this unusual extension (6) and this liberal form, which many families, many couples, and still more many pairs of couples, would n't have found workable. That last truth had been distinctly brought home to them by the bright testimony, the quite explicit envy, of most of their friends, who had remarked to them again and again that they must, on all the showing, to keep such terms, be people of the highest amiability--equally including in the praise of course Amerigo and Charlotte. It had given them pleasure--as how should n't it?--to find themselves shed such a glamour; it had certainly, that is, given pleasure to her father and herself, both of them distinguishably of a nature so slow to presume that they would scarce have been sure of their triumph without this pretty reflexion of it. So it was that their felicity had fructified; so it was that the ivory tower, visible and admirable doubtless from any point of the social field, had risen stage by stage.

Maggie's actual reluctance to ask herself with proportionate sharpness why she had ceased to take comfort in the sight of it represented accordingly a lapse from that ideal consistency on which her moral comfort almost at any time depended. To remain consistent she had always been capable of cutting down more or less her prior term.

同类推荐
  • 佛说七佛经

    佛说七佛经

    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。
  • 金刚恐怖集会方广轨仪观自在菩萨三世最胜心明王经

    金刚恐怖集会方广轨仪观自在菩萨三世最胜心明王经

    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。
  • 樵谈

    樵谈

    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。
  • 须知单

    须知单

    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。
  • 隋代宫闱史

    隋代宫闱史

    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。
热门推荐
  • 天人合一100岁:道家养生精要

    天人合一100岁:道家养生精要

    中国当代著名的得道高僧离欲上人,一生建寺弘法,化度甚众,活了107岁。安岳的禅庄法师活了100岁。仍然健在的佛智老法师也有100余岁了。一本与佛结缘的书。一本教你预防胜过治疗的书。一本可以让你活过100岁的书。调食、调眠、调身、调息、调心:此五事,佛家养生之根本也。人违背了养生法则,虽不一定会立即得病,但一旦形成习惯,就会大大增加得病的机会。这就和交通规则一样,你违背了交通规则,不一定会出事故,但其危险陛是显而易见的。人生最大的财富是健康,人生最可怜的是嫉妒,人生最大的敌人是自己,人生最大的幸福是放得下。当你快乐时,你要想,这陕乐不是永恒的;当你痛苦时,你要想,这痛苦也不是永恒的。
  • 明星女主的养成方法

    明星女主的养成方法

    暗恋八年,叶宿雨眼看就要与男神修成正果谁知半路却杀出个程咬金!一个为了她手撕前女友百般宠溺成痴汉总裁一个欺负她成瘾,组乐队,拍电影分分钟制霸娱乐圈!搅合黄了她的恋情,还要拉她下水?那就一起走上人生巅峰吧!他说。天啦噜,她只想静静……
  • 重生之别惹男神

    重生之别惹男神

    【完结】【无任何重生爽点,非爽文,入坑谨慎】上一世她追逐着他整整十年,最后却只得到一张婚礼请柬。一朝车祸,重回十年前,当她发誓再不与他扯上关系时,他却步步紧逼……“你为什么要招惹我?”“讲点道理好不好,明明是你先来招惹我的。”*爱而不得,搔首踟蹰。但去付出,去追寻,去改变,去成为更好的自己,爱意就会蓬勃生长,终究有结果的那一天。十年前高二暑假的那个夏天,席暮的一句“等我回来”引发了一切的故事。所以最后也是因为一句“等我回来”,舒桐选择了相信他,舒桐选择了原谅。不要害怕,等我回来。欢迎回来。这是一个爱而不得,搔首踟蹰,历经艰难,终成眷属的故事。
  • 农门医香

    农门医香

    身为医生的她,一朝穿越到了古代的农村,成了被人看不起的丑姑娘。奶奶强势,养母算计,大伯母刻薄,极品亲戚一大堆。好在空间在手,种药田,开医馆,财源滚滚来!眼红?一根银针治好他的眼红病。全村人都觉得丑姑娘嫁不出去了,天降美男是怎么回事?
  • 浓浓花情冽冽风

    浓浓花情冽冽风

    花开花落,我在这里静静地守候着,为你留一份心香,等你的蓦然回首。
  • 国学正义

    国学正义

    国学囊括中国人的精神信仰、认知方式、生活方式与价值观,它们或表现为文化,或表现为学术,或表现为典章制度,或表现为风俗习惯,国学常常寓于传统,潜移默化地影响中国人的思想与精神,使中国人成为蔑视物质财富而钟情精神建树,主动将“天权”置于“人权”之上,但求长治久安不求一夜暴富的特立独行的民族。
  • 倾城妖妃:执念千年终不悔

    倾城妖妃:执念千年终不悔

    【本文一对一,专情深情,青梅竹马,前世今生,喜欢的戳进来,不喜请绕道。】这是一个千年王朝覆灭的故事,抒写了一代人的成长,爱恨,抉择,结局···【非小白,偏文艺。】【简介】:前一世,你我痴痴情深却终被天所负,焚了身碎了灵魂做了无主孤魂,游荡千年归来,前缘再谱写,是终成眷属的美满,还是肝肠寸断的陌路……(不是虐文)【书友群号:228416039】喜欢的亲来加群吧,么么~~
  • 中国教育(修订版)

    中国教育(修订版)

    本书从教育制度、基础教育、职业教育、高等教育、继续教育、民族教育、特殊教育、民办教育、教师发展、教育科研、教育信息化、教育投入、教育开放13个方面全面回顾了新中国成立以来中国教育的发展历程,重点阐释了改革开放新时期以来中国教育改革和发展所取得的伟大成就与宝贵经验,并描绘了中国教育改革与发展的远景,集资料性与知识性于一身,具有权威性。
  • 海印昭如禅师语录

    海印昭如禅师语录

    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。
  • 大神夫人萌化了

    大神夫人萌化了

    始于偶遇,终于命运,一但爱上就再也忘不掉。莫蓓萌长的像“萝莉”,实则是个混世女魔王。乔一帆崇阳一校霸,却成绩一流!一次小巷的偶遇造就一段“孽缘”的开始。不良少年竟被“柔弱”的萝莉所救?为了维护自己“不良”的尊严,乔一帆从此黏上莫蓓萌——教室,“莫蓓萌你答应做我女朋友,我就帮你补课!”小树林里,“莫蓓萌,以后再有人欺负你就提我名字,这片都是我罩着的。”翻墙逃课的墙头上,“成为我的女朋友,我就下去!”小区门口,“你救过我,我要以身相许!”……命运多舛,契阔重逢…… 乔一帆西装革履,金丝眼镜“莫小姐,好久不见!”莫蓓萌一身戎装,双眸含笑“乔先生,别来无恙婚礼上有人问:“乔一帆,莫蓓萌都离开那么久了,你为什么还要等她?”当年纨绔张扬的不良少年,如今沉静内敛的男人眼底一片宠溺“我的心里有一座迷宫,莫蓓萌一直没有走出去。”