登陆注册
5243300000121

第121章 CHAPTER XXVI(2)

He moved forward slowly toward the head-gardener, and luminous plans rose in his mind, ready-made at each step. He could strangle this annoying fool, or smother him, into non-resisting insensibility, and then put him inside that death-house, and let it be supposed that he had been asphyxiated by accident.

The men when they came back would find him there.

But ah! they would know that they had not left him there;they would have seen him outside, no doubt, after the fire had been lighted. Well, the key could be left in the unlocked door. Then it could be supposed that he had rashly entered, and been overcome by the vapours.

He approached the man silently, his brain arranging the details of the deed with calm celerity.

Then some objections to the plan rose up before him: they dealt almost exclusively with the social nuisance the thing would entail. There was to be a house-party, with that Duke and Duchess in it, of whom his wife talked so much, and it would be a miserable kind of bore to have a suffocated gardener forced upon them as a principal topic of conversation. Of course, too, it would more or less throw the whole household into confusion. And its effect upon his wife!--the progress of his thoughts was checked abruptly by this suggestion. A vision of the shock such a catastrophe might involve to her--or at the best, of the gross unpleasantness she would find in it--flashed over his mind, and then yielded to a softening, radiant consciousness of how much this meant to him.

It seemed to efface everything else upon the instant.

A profoundly tender desire for her happiness was in complete possession. Already the notion of doing anything to wound or grieve her appeared incredible to him.

"Well, Gafferson," he heard himself saying, in one of the more reserved tones of his patriarchal manner.

He had halted close to the inattentive man, and stood looking down upon him. His glance was at once tolerant and watchful.

Gafferson slowly rose from his slouching posture, surveyed the other while his faculties in leisurely fashion worked out the problem of recognition, aud then raised his finger to his cap-brim. "Good-evening, sir,"he said.

This gesture of deference was eloquently convincing.

Thorpe, after an instant's alert scrutiny, smiled upon him.

"I was glad to hear that you had come to us," he said with benevolent affability. "We shall expect great things of a man of your reputation.""It'll be a fair comfort, sir," the other replied, "to be in a place where what one does is appreciated.

What use is it to succeed in hybridizing a Hippeastrum procera with a Pancratium Amancaes, after over six hundred attempts in ten years, and then spend three years a-hand-nursing the seedlings, and then your master won't take enough interest in the thing to pay your fare up to London to the exhibition with 'em? That's what 'ud break any man's heart.""Quite true," Thorpe assented, with patrician kindliness.

"You need fear nothing of that sort here, Gafferson. We give you a free hand. Whatever you want, you have only to let us know. And you can't do things too well to please us.""Thank you, sir," said Gafferson, and really, as Thorpe thought about it, the interview seemed at an end.

The master turned upon his heel, with a brief, oblique nod over his shoulder, and made his way out into the open air. Here, as he walked, he drew a succession of long consolatory breaths. It was almost as if he had emerged from the lethal presence of the fumigator itself.

He took the largest cigar from his case, lighted it, and sighed smoke-laden new relief as he strolled back toward the terrace.

But a few minutes before he had been struggling helplessly in the coils of an evil nightmare.

These terrors seemed infinitely far behind him now.

He gave an indifferent parting glance backward at them, as one might over his after-breakfast cigar at the confused alarms of an early awakening hours before.

There was nothing worth remembering--only the shapeless and foolish burden of a bad dream.

The assurance rose within him that he was not to have any more such trouble. With a singular clearness of mental vision he perceived that the part of him which brought bad dreams had been sloughed off, like a serpent's skin.

There had been two Thorpes, and one of them--the Thorpe who had always been willing to profit by knavery, and at last in a splendid coup as a master thief had stolen nearly a million, and would have shrunk not at all from adding murder to the rest, to protect that plunder--this vicious Thorpe had gone away altogether. There was no longer a place for him in life; he would never be seen again by mortal eye....There remained only the good Thorpe, the pleasant, well-intentioned opulent gentleman;the excellent citizen; the beneficent master, to whom, even Gafferson like the others, touched a respectful forelock.

It passed in the procession of his reverie as a kind of triumph of virtue that the good Thorpe retained the fortune which the bad Thorpe had stolen. It was in all senses a fortunate fact, because now it would be put to worthy uses.

Considering that he had but dimly drifted about heretofore on the outskirts of the altruistic impulse, it was surprisingly plain to him now that he intended to be a philanthropist.

Even as he mentioned the word to himself, the possibilities suggested by it expanded in his thoughts. His old dormant, formless lust for power stirred again in his pulses.

What other phase of power carried with it such rewards, such gratitudes, such humble subservience on all sides as far as the eye could reach--as that exercised by the intelligently munificent philanthropist?

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 网游之湛蓝之枪

    网游之湛蓝之枪

    当曾经统御一方星域的主宰者战死在自己的巅峰时,来到了未来的地球当秦纪对这全新的世界感到万般无奈时,网游又成了他另一个驰骋的战场当他进入游戏的那一刻起,一切都早已注定当他被困在这游戏世界之中,那就用这虚拟世界的法则重回现实以手中的长枪重新书写自己的传奇,让萦绕在枪尖的锋芒破碎这蔚蓝的天空
  • 教室外的经济学

    教室外的经济学

    这本书,能帮你在需要决策时做出更好的选择,教你如何在经济上做一个精明聪慧的人。
  • 酷酷总裁的冷面情人

    酷酷总裁的冷面情人

    他——一代服饰集团的总裁,风/流倜傥,英俊潇洒,却牢牢冰封住他那颗本就热情似火的真心——她——从小生活在复杂矛盾的家庭中,一场意外的变故更加尘封住她那颗脆弱敏感的心房——冰山美人——是众多对她趋之若鹜的男人对她的美称!两颗冷傲孤寂的心灵,在曲折的感情道路上碰撞出爱情的火花——然而一个因爱而不娶,一个因爱而不嫁,两颗近在咫尺的真心却因婚姻——这道爱情的枷锁,而天涯相隔——敬请关注本作者的另一部即将完结的作品《多情总裁地下妻》——http//m.wkkk.net/a/105640/
  • The Conditions of Existence

    The Conditions of Existence

    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。
  • 皇上,我们离婚吧

    皇上,我们离婚吧

    杨意,21世纪的美少女服装设计师,25岁,意外穿越到这个传说中的架时空——翼羽皇朝,还借了当朝皇后娘娘的尸体还了魂。最是无情帝王家,皇帝后宫佳丽三千,她才不想成为其中一枚,再怎么说她也是来自一夫一妻制的21世纪。可不是她不想就可以摆脱,往往都是事与愿违,当爱情来临,她又将会如何选择?
  • Song and Legend From the Middle Ages

    Song and Legend From the Middle Ages

    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。
  • 玄风庆会录

    玄风庆会录

    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。
  • 元始八威龙文经

    元始八威龙文经

    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。
  • 孔二先生:孔子的平凡世界

    孔二先生:孔子的平凡世界

    历史上,他是位圣人,知礼明义,正襟危坐,与人保持距离感政治上,他渴望出仕,渴望与当权者合谋,心灵却不肯被招安生活中,他爱好音乐,喜斟小酒,崇尚财富,却鄙视不义之财教学中,他诲人不倦,粉丝云集,却常有弟子质疑他、顶撞他,他是个苦孩子,做过保安、会计,自学成才他善于化解职场矛盾,坚守自己的做人底线婚姻生活并不美满,但他鼓励子女自由恋爱周游列国,率真的他对异性有说不清的萌动,这时的先生,很接地气,在他身上你能发现自己的影子,他是国人心中的夫子,他在兄弟中排行第二,他是我们的孔二先生。
  • 空间之农家医女

    空间之农家医女

    穿越前的白映桐是白家小祖宗,日子过得那叫春风得意;穿越后的白映桐生活除了狗血还是狗血,遇见了一大堆奇葩亲戚不说,老天还顺便附赠了一个成天只会哭啼啼的柔弱亲娘,感觉略糟心!恶毒奶奶来挑刺,我打!刁钻小婶来找茬,我轰!恶心小叔占便宜,我一个巴掌扇过去!吝啬伯母求分家,分家啊?好啊!分分分,赶紧分!带着柔弱娘亲跑邻村,空间在手,美容院我有!发家致富奔小康!什么!你相公嫌弃你眼睛小,结果跟着邻村寡妇跑了!没关系,姐给你研制新型大眼霜,一双电眼迷死他!等等!你说江秀才欺负你胖,所以喜欢的是青楼头牌狐狸精!真搞笑,姐给你定制365天全方位瘦身计划,一朝瘦闪电,哭死他!慢着!心上人说你满脸疙瘩难上厅堂,因此天天写情诗给你妹!奇葩啊,姐给你制作祛痘配方,洗的,擦的,吃的面面俱到保准你的脸蛋光又滑,后悔死他!这年头长的不美谁有空看你内心,可是没了善良可爱纯真的心,还是会落为红粉骷髅,所以,我们要两手抓!【小剧场一】:白映桐:乡亲们,我是美容师,不是大夫!不是大夫!不是大夫!乡亲们:胡说,王寡妇儿子的结巴就是你治好的!我们明明瞧见了!白映桐:……乡亲们:听说白姑娘上次接了皇榜把皇帝的病都给治好了呢!白映桐:……乡亲们:白姑娘,我们说的对不对!白映桐:对!【小剧场二】:白映桐:上将军,我这美容方子可不便宜,不知,大人准备出多少银子?萧墨澜:啊,既然白老板如此爱算账,那萧某倒是想问问白老板,睡了本将这事,该如何算!什么?毓秀阁老板和萧将军竟然有一腿了!!!白映桐瞥了一眼众人眼中八卦热情,怒道:你想怎么算?!萧墨澜:带着美容方子嫁我,本将任你睡!白映桐:……众人:唉,看来这月我们又要交礼钱了啊!【小剧场三】小小萧:爹爹,我为什么要保养皮肤,明明人家是男孩子!萧墨澜:儿砸,你觉得你娘亲漂亮吗?小小萧狠狠点了点头。萧墨澜:我之所以能娶你娘,是因为你爹我长的好!知道吗,所以,你要是想娶漂亮老婆,自己颜值首先要够本!小小萧:恩,爹,我懂了!父子俩的谈话全落在白映桐耳里,啧,她怎么发现萧墨澜这家伙越来越不要脸了呢!————————————————女主不女强,不霸道,不好欺负,有些萌,爱吐槽,犀利嘴,当然貌美不解释!男主爱美,平常画风会不对,两大爱好:除了行兵打仗就是保养自己的脸!