登陆注册
5287900000062

第62章 CHAPTER XVI(3)

And while Myrtle's eyes followed hers, the flattened and half-crushed creature seemed to swell and spread like his relative in the old fable, like the black dog in Faust, until he became of tenfold size, and at last of colossal proportions. And, fearful to relate, the batrachian features humanized themselves as the monster grew, and, shaping themselves more and more into a remembered similitude, Myrtle saw in them a hideous likeness of--No! no! it was too horrible, was that the face which had been so close to hers but yesterday? were those the lips, the breath from which had stirred her growing curls as he leaned over her while they read together some passionate stanza from a hymn that was as much like a love-song as it dared to be in godly company? A shadow of disgust--the natural repugnance of loveliness for deformity-ran all through her, and she shrieked, as she thought, and threw herself at the feet of that other figure. She felt herself lifted from the floor, and then a cold thin hand seemed to take hers. The warm life went out of her, and she was to herself as a dimly conscious shadow that glided with passive acquiescence wherever it was led. Presently she found herself in a half-lighted apartment, where there were books on the shelves around, and a desk with loose manuscripts lying on it, and a little mirror with a worn bit of carpet before it. And while she looked, a great serpent writhed in through the half-open door, and made the circuit of the room, laying one huge ring all round it, and then, going round again, laid another ring over the first, and so on until he was wound all round the room like the spiral of a mighty cable, leaving a hollow in the centre; and then the serpent seemed to arch his neck in the air, and bring his head close down to Myrtle's face; and the features were not those of a serpent, but of a man, and it hissed out the words she had read that very day in a little note which said, "Come to my study to-morrow, and we will read hymns together."Again she was back in her little chamber, she did not know how, and the two women were looking into her eyes with strange meaning in their own. Something in them seemed to plead with her to yield to their influence, and her choice wavered which of them to follow, for each would have led her her own way,--whither she knew not. It was the strife of her "Vision," only in another form,--the contest of two lives her blood inherited for the mastery of her soul. The might of beauty conquered. Myrtle resigned herself to the guidance of the lovely phantom, which seemed so much fuller of the unextinguished fire of life, and so like herself as she would grow to be when noon should have ripened her into maturity.

Doors opened softly before them; they climbed stairs, and threaded corridors, and penetrated crypts, strange yet familiar to her eyes, which seemed to her as if they could see, as it were, in darkness.

Then came a confused sense of eager search for something that she knew was hidden, whether in the cleft of a rock, or under the boards of a floor, or in some hiding-place among the skeleton rafters, or in a forgotten drawer, or in a heap of rubbish, she could not tell; but somewhere there was something which she was to find, and which, once found, was to be her talisman. She was in the midst of this eager search when she awoke.

The impression was left so strongly on her mind that with all her fears she could not resist the desire to make an effort to find what meaning there was in this frightfully real dream. Her courage came back as her senses assured her that all around her was natural, as when she left it. She determined to follow the lead of the strange hint her nightmare had given her.

In one of the upper chambers of the old mansion there stood a tall, upright desk of the ancient pattern, with folding doors above and large drawers below. "That desk is yours, Myrtle," her uncle Malachi had once said to her; "and there is a trick or two about it that it will pay you to study." Many a time Myrtle had puzzled herself about the mystery of the old desk. All the little drawers, of which there were a considerable number, she had pulled out, and every crevice, as she thought, she had carefully examined. She determined to make one more trial. It was the dead of the night, and this was a fearful old place to be wandering about; but she was possessed with an urgent feeling which would not let her wait until daylight.

She stole like a ghost from her chamber. She glided along the narrow entries as she had seemed to move in her dream. She opened the folding doors of the great upright desk. She had always before examined it by daylight, and though she had so often pulled all the little drawers out, she had never thoroughly explored the recesses which received them. But in her new-born passion of search, she held her light so as to illuminate all these deeper spaces. At once she thought she saw the marks of pressure with a finger. She pressed her own finger on this place, and, as it yielded with a slight click, a small mahogany pilaster sprang forward, revealing its well-kept secret that it was the mask of a tall, deep, very narrow drawer.

There was something heavy in it, and, as Myrtle turned it over, a golden bracelet fell into her hand. She recognized it at once as that which had been long ago the ornament of the fair woman whose portrait hung in her chamber. She clasped it upon her wrist, and from that moment she felt as if she were the captive of the lovely phantom who had been with her in her dream.

"The old man walked last night, God save us!" said Kitty Fagan to Biddy Finnegan, the day after Myrtle's nightmare and her curious discovery.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 逃离

    逃离

    【2013年诺贝尔文学奖得主代表作】【荣获2009年布克国际奖】【《纽约时报》年度最佳图书,法国《读书》杂志年度最佳外国小说,荣获加拿大文学大奖吉勒奖】【著名翻译家李文俊精心翻译】她是当代短篇小说大师。——诺贝尔奖颁奖辞逃离,或许是旧的结束。或许是新的开始。或许只是一些微不足道的瞬间,就像看戏路上放松的脚步,就像午后窗边怅然的向往。
  • 都市最强帝君

    都市最强帝君

    大乘帝君韩晨因心中的执念,终无法走出渡劫飞升的最后一步。为破除执念建逆转阴阳阵。却被敌所趁,最后无奈炸毁阵法,却因此重生回到了千年前的地球,执念产生的那一刻。一切将是一个重新逆转的开始,看曾经的宅男吊丝如何再一步步倔起。仙逆都市!PS:在此特意说明一下,到大乘期的俢真者,可建一方势力自称为帝。这里的帝只是一个称号,不是境界。PS:另有书友群龙门,群号:555736106欢迎广大书友加群讨论,聊天交友!
  • 机长烈爱,非你莫属

    机长烈爱,非你莫属

    (已完结)一对是青梅竹马,一对是契约情人。请看美丽空姐与酷帅机长之间的千回百转,痴痴缠缠。(慢热文,往后更精彩!)————————我是林筱晓。我一生最大的愿望就是让冷柏航爱上我。因为他不会,所以这只能是愿望。当某天一不小心圈圈又叉叉后,你老套地来求婚,我别别扭扭又屁颠颠地答应,然后开始一场围墙内的拉力赛。你要低调隐婚,好,隐婚就隐婚。你要充分自由,好,自由就自由。只是,当你说要分手,我真的说不出分手就分手。。。。。。爱上你,只需一秒。忘记你,却要一生。拼尽所有后,我终于学会放弃,开始忘记。背起行囊,我将要开始一场旅程,目的是没有你的地方。你说,你的生命可以没有我。那么,我的生命也将没有你。【我是冷柏航。我把天空拉得很近,却把爱情推得很远。我后悔了。不管她是否喝了孟婆汤,不管她是否有了新的爱,我要寻回她。不择手段,用尽深情。】
  • 流光引

    流光引

    前世,她叫慕流光,如飞逝而过的光芒,一闪而灭。今生,她叫水重若,重生而来,人生宛若。树欲静而风不止,本相随却终相负,只道一句,天意弄人。只因民生多艰,苍生可怜,她桑桑嫁衣,渡江东去,从此宫闱争斗,两处天涯。山雨欲来风满楼,金戈铁马几时休?金銮殿上,她素手裂衣,曼身佥白,冷笑出声,其实也没什么,不过是拿三十万人还我夫君一命而已,本宫并不吃亏。她三嫁之身,携漫天风雨,盈盈一笑,楚腰窕窕,天下江山在我眼里,不过尔尔,如果是你,我,也许会考虑一下。
  • 注定遇见谭先生

    注定遇见谭先生

    “二十三号,你出来。”清早,第五监所八号监舍门口,女狱警冰冷的叫着蓝忆荞的服刑编号。趴在板铺上低头绘画的蓝忆荞慢吞吞抬头,一双布满血丝的眼看着女狱警。久久不应。她没有想鸡蛋碰石头似的和狱警对着干的意思。她是喉咙眼儿疼的像被火烤的。她不想让自己最惨的一面落别人眼里让人幸灾乐祸去。她努力酝酿了一些津液咽下去润了润嗓子才开的口:“干嘛?”……
  • 斑羚飞渡

    斑羚飞渡

    动物小说之所以比其他类型的小说更有吸引力,是因为这个题材最容易刺破人类文化的外壳和文明社会种种虚伪的表象,可以毫无遮掩地直接表现丑陋与美丽融于一体的原生态的生命。人类文化和社会文明会随着时代的变迁而不断更新,但生命中残酷竞争、顽强生存和追求辉煌的精神内核是永远不会改变的。因此,动物小说更有理由赢得读者,也更有理由追求不朽。
  • 都市至尊神医

    都市至尊神医

    叶无天传承了师傅的泡妞本领和旷世医术,凭着一身本事和一张子弹打不穿的厚脸皮,在这大都市里混得风生水起。。。可是这些都不重要,最重要的是,八岁前那可怕的记忆觉醒了。。。
  • 冰炎动

    冰炎动

    他,天生体弱,却能一步一步成为强者。他,只想守护某些人,却不得已厮杀而去。他,只不过想要和心爱的人厮守,却遭遇重重阻挠。没办法了,他只好拿起手中长剑,将他们彻底摧毁了。于是大路上终于流传了这么一句话:冰炎动,紫光现,大陆怆!
  • 不必把太多人请进生命里

    不必把太多人请进生命里

    学贯中西的潜能开发大师新作,从心理学的角度破解人际交往中的各种心理偏见、不当行为、障碍关系更圆满的坏习惯,并提供了各种应对之道,有系统有步骤地让每一个人都能找到提升关系质量的具体方法。核心点:别把有限的时间浪费在对无谓的人所发生的无谓的事情身上!断绝不必要的联系、舍弃多余的应酬、脱离对人脉的执念。读一读,悟一悟,你的观念、心理、命运,或许将从此改变!
  • Jasmin

    Jasmin

    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。