登陆注册
5289200000008

第8章 IV

I can see now his rather pallid face, and the unfamiliar sombre fire that had come into his eyes. I see him very vividly to-night. I sit recalling his words, his tones, and last evening's Westminster Gazette still lies on my sofa, containing the notice of his death. At lunch to-day the club was busy with him and the strange riddle of his fate.

They found his body very early yesterday morning in a deep excavation near East Kensington Station. It is one of two shafts that have been made in connection with an extension of the railway southward. It is protected from the intrusion of the public by a hoarding upon the high road, in which a small doorway has been cut for the convenience of some of the workmen who live in that direction. The doorway was left unfastened through a misunderstanding between two gangers, and through it he made his way . . . . .

My mind is darkened with questions and riddles.

It would seem he walked all the way from the House that night--he has frequently walked home during the past Session--and so it is I figure his dark form coming along the late and empty streets, wrapped up, intent. And then did the pale electric lights near the station cheat the rough planking into a semblance of white? Did that fatal unfastened door awaken some memory?

Was there, after all, ever any green door in the wall at all?

I do not know. I have told his story as he told it to me.

There are times when I believe that Wallace was no more than the victim of the coincidence between a rare but not unprecedented type of hallucination and a careless trap, but that indeed is not my profoundest belief. You may think me superstitious if you will, and foolish; but, indeed, I am more than half convinced that he had in truth, an abnormal gift, and a sense, something--I know not what--that in the guise of wall and door offered him an outlet, a secret and peculiar passage of escape into another and altogether more beautiful world. At any rate, you will say, it betrayed him in the end. But did it betray him? There you touch the inmost mystery of these dreamers, these men of vision and the imagination.

We see our world fair and common, the hoarding and the pit. By our daylight standard he walked out of security into darkness, danger and death. But did he see like that?

同类推荐
  • 信力入印法门经

    信力入印法门经

    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。
  • Letters on Literature

    Letters on Literature

    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。
  • 文心雕龙集校

    文心雕龙集校

    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。
  • 月涧禅师语录

    月涧禅师语录

    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。
  • 众妙集

    众妙集

    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
  • 凤门嫡女

    凤门嫡女

    正文已完结。她,天命之女,身份尊贵,却被小人所害。一朝重生,强势归来,光芒四射!一滴异能之血,生死人,肉白骨,搅动天下风云!一手如意茶入人梦境,专治平生憾事,千金难求!只是这异能之血竟招来一个美貌神官,步步紧逼,穷追不舍。“娘子,天命不可违!”“天命说啥?”“它说,我命里缺你!”书友交流群:100915606、472274518,敲门砖,书中任一主角名
  • 儿童趣味脑筋急转弯

    儿童趣味脑筋急转弯

    本书精选了近千条适合孩子阅读的脑筋急转弯,选条注重健康、趣味、巧妙,同时每页还设有幽默有趣的小拦目,让你在紧张的挑战中得到快乐与智慧的双重收获。
  • 世无匹

    世无匹

    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。
  • 奔火

    奔火

    魏南风几乎一夜没睡,天亮透前,大脑才终于累得昏沉,迷迷糊糊坠入一团纠缠的网中,弹了几下腿,合上眼。她安慰自己:好了好了,终于睡着了,呼噜扯得轰响了。面色极差,双眼通红无神,一缺觉,脸上的几根三八纹就出来作怪,把平时还算平滑的脸分割成凸凹不平的几大块,用手按按扯扯,它们横眉冷眼,各守封地严阵以待。不想见任何人,最好有个黑箱子,把她关在里面,好好补一觉。客厅闹钟提示已经上午十点,南风皱皱眉,强打起精神,涂脸、穿衣、化妆。吴熏准时等在常去的那家餐馆,见她进来,掐灭了手中的烟。“又没睡好?” 他瞟瞟她。
  • 创世战尊

    创世战尊

    武者大陆武力至上,其中分为修炼者和修灵者。一名少年,自幼成孤,又因母亲是“妖女”,以及无法感应“气海”遭到家族歧视,唯有母亲遗留的星空卷轴所伴。在一晚流星雨之后,这部星空卷轴竟然演变成《源始道经》,并且带给平凡少年不平凡的修炼之途,从此少年改变命运,一飞冲天……
  • 傲娇BOSS已上线

    傲娇BOSS已上线

    讲述了原本成长在幸福家庭的女主人公项瑾瑜,却因为一场突如其来的车祸,彻底改变了她的一生。即便如此,坚强的她不忘初心,为梦而生。音乐便是她的梦,音乐的世界,给世间万事万物带进了美好的时空,同时也给项瑾瑜带去了爱与希望。在梦与爱的旅途中,项瑾瑜认识了一群同样怀着音乐梦想的好朋友,收获了一份真挚的爱情。梦的城堡,需要用爱守护,一群不忘初心,坚持梦想的年轻人,用他们的爱与热情,勇敢与执着、唱响了梦与爱的主题曲!
  • 青春那些事儿

    青春那些事儿

    医专毕业那年的夏天,由于我工作分配问题暂时没有着落,我便从县城坐车返回百里之外的老家,漫山遍野开遍了野梨花,香飘十里开外,村子得名野梨沟村。
  • 读寓言悟管理

    读寓言悟管理

    为了让广大业内人士和读者在繁忙的工作和学习之余学习到世界著名企业的管理精髓,《读寓言悟管理》采用了讲寓言故事学管理知识的形式,对大量的管理材料进行了精心筛选,反复推敲。每一个故事都力求精炼概括,每一个著名企业的事典都做到视角独到。《读寓言悟管理》不同于其他的管理书籍,在于避免了枯燥空洞的理论说教,以全新的形式——活泼生动的寓言为引导,结合国内外成功的经典事例,用精炼简洁的语言阐述了深刻的管理理念。
  • 我的冷艳总裁夫人

    我的冷艳总裁夫人

    明面上他风流倜傥,让无数男人羡慕嫉妒。暗地里,他是让敌人闻风丧胆的恶魔。回归都市,却被新婚老婆拒之门外,并要求离婚……QQ群:320788489【第三部作品】《我在仙界当老板》火热连载,欢迎各位阅读品尝!
  • 摩诃僧祇律大比丘戒本

    摩诃僧祇律大比丘戒本

    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。