登陆注册
5258500000019

第19章 VII(2)

Nick was not surprised to learn that it was becoming the fashion, that summer, to pop down to Venice and take a look at the Lansings. Streffy had set the example, and Streffy's example was always followed. And then Susy's marriage was still a subject of sympathetic speculation. People knew the story of the wedding cheques, and were interested in seeing how long they could be made to last. It was going to be the thing, that year, to help prolong the honey-moon by pressing houses on the adventurous couple. Before June was over a band of friends were basking with the Lansings on the Lido.

Nick found himself unexpectedly disturbed by their arrival. To avoid comment and banter he put his book aside and forbade Susy to speak of it, explaining to her that he needed an interval of rest. His wife instantly and exaggeratedly adopted this view, guarding him from the temptation to work as jealously as she had discouraged him from idling; and he was careful not to let her find out that the change in his habits coincided with his having reached a difficult point in his book. But though he was not sorry to stop writing he found himself unexpectedly oppressed by the weight of his leisure. For the first time communal dawdling had lost its charm for him; not because his fellow dawdlers were less congenial than of old, but because in the interval he had known something so immeasurably better. He had always felt himself to be the superior of his habitual associates, but now the advantage was too great: really, in a sense, it was hardly fair to them.

He had flattered himself that Susy would share this feeling; but he perceived with annoyance that the arrival of their friends heightened her animation. It was as if the inward glow which had given her a new beauty were now refracted upon her by the presence of the very people they had come to Venice to avoid.

Lansing was vaguely irritated; and when he asked her how she liked being with their old crowd again his irritation was increased by her answering with a laugh that she only hoped the poor dears didn't see too plainly how they bored her. The patent insincerity of the reply was a shock to Lansing. He knew that Susy was not really bored, and he understood that she had simply guessed his feelings and instinctively adopted them: that henceforth she was always going to think as he thought. To confirm this fear he said carelessly: "Oh, all the same, it's rather jolly knocking about with them again for a bit;" and she answered at once, and with equal conviction: "Yes, isn't it?

The old darlings--all the same!"

A fear of the future again laid its cold touch on Lansing.

Susy's independence and self-sufficiency had been among her chief attractions; if she were to turn into an echo their delicious duet ran the risk of becoming the dullest of monologues. He forgot that five minutes earlier he had resented her being glad to see their friends, and for a moment he found himself leaning dizzily over that insoluble riddle of the sentimental life: that to be differed with is exasperating, and to be agreed with monotonous.

Once more he began to wonder if he were not fundamentally unfitted for the married state; and was saved from despair only by remembering that Susy's subjection to his moods was not likely to last. But even then it never occurred to him to reflect that his apprehensions were superfluous, since their tie was avowedly a temporary one. Of the special understanding on which their marriage had been based not a trace remained in his thoughts of her; the idea that he or she might ever renounce each other for their mutual good had long since dwindled to the ghost of an old joke.

It was borne in on him, after a week or two of unbroken sociability, that of all his old friends it was the Mortimer Hickses who bored him the least. The Hickses had left the Ibis for an apartment in a vast dilapidated palace near the Canareggio. They had hired the apartment from a painter (one of their newest discoveries), and they put up philosophically with the absence of modern conveniences in order to secure the inestimable advantage of "atmosphere." In this privileged air they gathered about them their usual mixed company of quiet studious people and noisy exponents of new theories, themselves totally unconscious of the disparity between their different guests, and beamingly convinced that at last they were seated at the source of wisdom.

In old days Lansing would have got half an hour's amusement, followed by a long evening of boredom, from the sight of Mrs.

Hicks, vast and jewelled, seated between a quiet-looking professor of archaeology and a large-browed composer, or the high priest of a new dance-step, while Mr. Hicks, beaming above his vast white waistcoat, saw to it that the champagne flowed more abundantly than the talk, and the bright young secretaries industriously "kept up" with the dizzy cross-current of prophecy and erudition. But a change had come over Lansing. Hitherto it was in contrast to his own friends that the Hickses had seemed most insufferable; now it was as an escape from these same friends that they had become not only sympathetic but even interesting. It was something, after all, to be with people who did not regard Venice simply as affording exceptional opportunities for bathing and adultery, but who were reverently if confusedly aware that they were in the presence of something unique and ineffable, and determined to make the utmost of their privilege.

同类推荐
  • 太清导引养生经

    太清导引养生经

    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。
  • 南朝金粉录

    南朝金粉录

    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。
  • The Sea-Gull

    The Sea-Gull

    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。
  • Pageant of Summer

    Pageant of Summer

    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。
  • 中风论

    中风论

    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
  • 御龙:地下国度

    御龙:地下国度

    2001年昆仑山大地震之后,五个面临遣散的特种兵和两个身份神秘的地质学家接到任务,秘密潜入昆仑山调查地震之后裂开的冰川大裂缝。历经万险,他们终于靠近裂缝,在一番惊心动魄的冒险后却发现在裂缝下隐藏着一座神秘莫测的地下空间,当中尽是宛如神迹的惊天景象。此时,队伍当中一名地质学家张国生诡异的举动引起了所有人的怀疑,他真实的身份到底是什么?巍峨壮丽的昆仑山下数十万平方公里的巨型地下空间难道仅仅只是无稽之谈?这个神秘的勘察任务究竟目的何在?古老的种族御龙氏究竟在守护着一个什么样的神迹?神龙是不是真的存在于世?究竟还有多少不为人知的事物被埋藏于不见天日的地下?一个在五十年前就设好的诡局即将揭晓。
  • 攀仙路

    攀仙路

    霍时凝领着她那群小伙伴一路打小怪兽,在剑修道路上摸爬滚打的开始她波澜壮阔得一生PS以主角的成长经历为主线,感情线较少,会有男主
  • 病玫瑰

    病玫瑰

    《病玫瑰》中,诗人的灵魂翼羽随处翩跹,意象婉如思涛中自由飘荡的飞舟。然而,现代文明对精神家园的攻击,也深深地触动着诗人文爱艺,诗人凝重的视境,通过那些悲天悯人的诗句,传递给读者。
  • 他比春风更美好

    他比春风更美好

    这是一个关于陪伴与信任的故事。他一张冷漠脸,原本英俊神勇的大神探,现在却萎靡颓废。她是不服输小姐,从校园到职场一路顺风顺水,人生从无意外。“素质是个好东西,你最好也能有。”初见面的两人就怼得干净利落。他背负四年前沉重回忆,埋头舔着伤口。她费尽心思想拉她一把,却成为“判官”的下一个目标。跟踪事件,诡异血迹,迷失荒野……她身边接二连三发生离奇事件。这一次他没有选择逃避,而是选择守护,一场惊险的追凶之路开始了。有些人,怼着怼着就变成撩了。有些爱,最开始就已经写定了。因为路过太多不堪的风景,才更当知晓余生的意义。
  • 诸神永恒

    诸神永恒

    黑暗将至诸神永恒秦舞阳有些绝望,这那是金手指,这简直是个大坑,能退货重来吗灾难来临之际,有兄弟反目,有爱人远离,可终有人相信,我们的生命由我们来做主,而不是神。本人有一本240万字的完结作品《龙境秘踪》,诸位如果有兴趣,可以看一看。这部作品我会坚持写完,每天两章,不论推荐。
  • 黑心

    黑心

    故事以一次矿难为背景,刑警支队长海小安牵头破案,通过对一具无头尸源的寻找,意外遇上了潜逃多年的人贩子宋雅杰,被杀的郭德学正是她的男人,她还借卵给海小安的继母生了一个女孩。鬼脸砬子煤矿卐井透水事故发生,黑心矿主为掩盖矿难真相策划了炸井……刘宝库替真正的矿主幕后老板当矿长,直到最后老板才走到前台来……本书表现了人民警察伟大的品质,和为正义做出个人牺牲的精神。
  • 老婆不要我了怎么办

    老婆不要我了怎么办

    第一次见面,这个妖孽男拉着她挡桃花说她是他女朋友飞机上她睡着了,他偷袭她,说她是他未婚妻机场大厅,为了不让她离开,这个混蛋说她是他老婆一天之内,她从单身成了混蛋男的女朋友、未婚妻、老婆秦墨涵觉得这天是自己二十三年来最倒霉的一天她恨不得掐死这个妖孽男池司阳却觉得这一天是他二十六年来最幸运的一天老天爷让他遇到了自己心仪的女人秉持母亲大人的教导,看上了就要紧紧的圈住这个女人他是娶定了
  • 小妖联萌

    小妖联萌

    人之假造为妖,物之性灵为精。贾小帅的动物园,不仅有动物,还有一群萌萌的小妖精。哇呜,粑粑叫我去巡山喽——
  • 汤姆叔叔的小屋

    汤姆叔叔的小屋

    《汤姆叔叔的小屋》,又译为《黑奴吁天录》、《汤姆大伯的小屋》,是美国著名作家斯陀夫人的一部现实主义作品。小说着力刻画了信仰基督教、具有崇高牺牲精神的黑奴汤姆,在不平等的社会制度下遭受的悲惨命运,借此揭示了奴隶制度的罪恶本质。《汤姆叔叔的小屋》一经出版,立即引起了社会各界的强烈反响,在一定程度上推动了美国人民的反奴隶制情绪,从而成为导致美国内战爆发的因素之一。
  • 补陀洛迦山传

    补陀洛迦山传

    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。