登陆注册
5290800000015

第15章 CHAPTER III(2)

"Since this morning - it must have been: the cold dim dawn of to-day. Where have I been," he vaguely wailed, "where have I been?"He felt her hold him close, and it was as if this helped him now to make in all security his mild moan. "What a long dark day!"All in her tenderness she had waited a moment. "In the cold dim dawn?" she quavered.

But he had already gone on piecing together the parts of the whole prodigy. "As I didn't turn up you came straight - ?"She barely cast about. "I went first to your hotel - where they told me of your absence. You had dined out last evening and hadn't been back since. But they appeared to know you had been at your club.""So you had the idea of THIS - ?"

"Of what?" she asked in a moment.

"Well - of what has happened."

"I believed at least you'd have been here. I've known, all along,"she said, "that you've been coming."

"'Known' it -?"

"Well, I've believed it. I said nothing to you after that talk we had a month ago - but I felt sure. I knew you WOULD," she declared.

"That I'd persist, you mean?"

"That you'd see him."

"Ah but I didn't!" cried Brydon with his long wail. "There's somebody - an awful beast; whom I brought, too horribly, to bay.

But it's not me."

At this she bent over him again, and her eyes were in his eyes.

"No - it's not you." And it was as if, while her face hovered, he might have made out in it, hadn't it been so near, some particular meaning blurred by a smile. "No, thank heaven," she repeated, "it's not you! Of course it wasn't to have been.""Ah but it WAS," he gently insisted. And he stared before him now as he had been staring for so many weeks. "I was to have known myself.""You couldn't!" she returned consolingly. And then reverting, and as if to account further for what she had herself done, "But it wasn't only THAT, that you hadn't been at home," she went on. "Iwaited till the hour at which we had found Mrs. Muldoon that day of my going with you; and she arrived, as I've told you, while, failing to bring any one to the door, I lingered in my despair on the steps. After a little, if she hadn't come, by such a mercy, Ishould have found means to hunt her up. But it wasn't," said Alice Staverton, as if once more with her fine intentions - "it wasn't only that."His eyes, as he lay, turned back to her. "What more then?"She met it, the wonder she had stirred. "In the cold dim dawn, you say? Well, in the cold dim dawn of this morning I too saw you.""Saw ME - ?"

"Saw HIM," said Alice Staverton. "It must have been at the same moment."He lay an instant taking it in - as if he wished to be quite reasonable. "At the same moment?""Yes - in my dream again, the same one I've named to you. He came back to me. Then I knew it for a sign. He had come to you."At this Brydon raised himself; he had to see her better. She helped him when she understood his movement, and he sat up, steadying himself beside her there on the window-bench and with his right hand grasping her left. "HE didn't come to me.""You came to yourself," she beautifully smiled.

"Ah I've come to myself now - thanks to you, dearest. But this brute, with his awful face - this brute's a black stranger. He's none of ME, even as I MIGHT have been," Brydon sturdily declared.

But she kept the clearness that was like the breath of infallibility. "Isn't the whole point that you'd have been different?"He almost scowled for it. "As different as THAT - ?"Her look again was more beautiful to him than the things of this world. "Haven't you exactly wanted to know HOW different? So this morning," she said, "you appeared to me.""Like HIM?"

"A black stranger!"

"Then how did you know it was I?"

"Because, as I told you weeks ago, my mind, my imagination, has worked so over what you might, what you mightn't have been - to show you, you see, how I've thought of you. In the midst of that you came to me - that my wonder might be answered. So I knew," she went on; "and believed that, since the question held you too so fast, as you told me that day, you too would see for yourself. And when this morning I again saw I knew it would be because you had -and also then, from the first moment, because you somehow wanted me. HE seemed to tell me of that. So why," she strangely smiled, "shouldn't I like him?"It brought Spencer Brydon to his feet. "You 'like' that horror -?"

"I COULD have liked him. And to me," she said, "he was no horror.

I had accepted him."

"'Accepted' - ?" Brydon oddly sounded.

"Before, for the interest of his difference - yes. And as I didn't disown him, as I knew him - which you at last, confronted with him in his difference, so cruelly didn't, my dear, - well, he must have been, you see, less dreadful to me. And it may have pleased him that I pitied him."She was beside him on her feet, but still holding his hand - still with her arm supporting him. But though it all brought for him thus a dim light, "You 'pitied' him?" he grudgingly, resentfully asked.

"He has been unhappy, he has been ravaged," she said.

"And haven't I been unhappy? Am not I - you've only to look at me!

- ravaged?"

"Ah I don't say I like him BETTER," she granted after a thought.

"But he's grim, he's worn - and things have happened to him. He doesn't make shift, for sight, with your charming monocle.""No" - it struck Brydon; "I couldn't have sported mine 'down-town.'

They'd have guyed me there."

"His great convex pince-nez - I saw it, I recognised the kind - is for his poor ruined sight. And his poor right hand - !""Ah!" Brydon winced - whether for his proved identity or for his lost fingers. Then, "He has a million a year," he lucidly added.

"But he hasn't you."

"And he isn't - no, he isn't - YOU!" she murmured, as he drew her to his breast.

同类推荐
  • 太上洞真经洞章符

    太上洞真经洞章符

    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。
  • 传戒正范

    传戒正范

    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。
  • 佛说幻士仁贤经

    佛说幻士仁贤经

    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。
  • 唐诗纪事

    唐诗纪事

    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 Enchanted Island of Yew

    The Enchanted Island of Yew

    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
  • 极限婚令:惹火甜妻矜持点

    极限婚令:惹火甜妻矜持点

    叶甜橙被亲人算计,昏昏沉沉的过了十个月,生下孩子。之后,她不但没有见过孩子,更不知道自己生过孩子。直到意外听到继母和继妹的谈话,她们不但陷害她,还卖掉她的孩子。为了找到孩子,她不得已跟高冷寒少结婚。结婚也就算了,还赠送了一只小棉袄,是个啥意思?--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 校草冷爱

    校草冷爱

    他是神秘冷酷身上的故事说不尽的大学校草她是在校园一心求学家庭普通长相清纯可人的普通学生一次关于他身份的流言使他们相遇,从此开始交集冷酷的他不善言谈以及情感的表达,只因为冷酷的背后有不为人知的故事,以及不可诉说的隐情天真烂漫却因自卑要维持自尊和骄傲的她,察觉不到他对自己的好,以及隐忍的爱他们还会有结局吗?(简介无能,敬请谅解!本文以男主为主线,文风平淡如水,入坑需谨慎!)
  • 她的故事,始于灰烬

    她的故事,始于灰烬

    她的故事,始于灰烬,亦终于灰烬。背负着家族过往的她,为了搞清当年的真相,跟随一个来历不明的自称启铭的男人踏上了去往活死人之都——被遗忘者的国度的旅途。然而随着旅程的继续,一切都变得不再那么清晰明了……“你是世间仅存的,诺顿家族最后一人,炉乡最后的辉煌!”名为灰烬(Ash)的少女行走在这条须臾不定的不安之路上,一切浮于表面的脆弱事实都像你镜花水月般破灭无形,一切藏在黑暗中的未知谜团却开始蠢蠢欲动。“小姐,如果你拒绝了,那个生你养你的,曾经掌管着青铜与火焰的家族,将永远的沉寂在历史的尘埃中,往日的真相,也将成为一个永恒的迷。”名为永恩的男人掷地有声地说到。
  • 每一个沉溺于爱情的人,最后都输给了谎言

    每一个沉溺于爱情的人,最后都输给了谎言

    朝颜幼年时突然失去双亲,受此沉重打击患上了失语症。是邻家哥哥宇航用音乐和爱敲开了她尘封的心。成年后,这段青梅竹马的恋情却因一次车祸意外而终结。然而,宇航离世前留下的一段无声视频,在朝颜的爱情悲曲里开出一朵神秘之花。在追寻真相的过程中,朝颜结识了会读唇语的男生君寻。君寻告诉朝颜,那段遗言只是宇航对她吐露的爱情承诺。对此深信不疑的朝颜却发现了另一个真相……彼时初恋的真心竟被阴谋吞没,此间无意中酿下的罪恶却化为赎罪式的缄默守护……
  • 外婆的田野和村庄

    外婆的田野和村庄

    作品以第一人称讲述了,“那时的田野和村庄”上发生的,一些新颖离奇、有趣逗乐,甚至也可以称作令人动情和牵挂的故事。外婆、舅舅、大舅妈、老瘸兵、舅妈,还有“我”和狗剩子、愣子、小英子、锁柱,石头,在中国那个特定历史时空中所特有的“季节”里,在那片“田野”和“村庄”里,发生和上演着诸多的生活中真实的故事,同时也让我们感受和收获到异样的快乐与忧伤、困惑与无奈。亲情、友情、田野,是我们永远割舍不下的爱与痛…
  • 上古女修重修记

    上古女修重修记

    一不小心卷入道魔大战的九汐被几个大乘期的同道坑死,无意中重生在不知道多少万年以后的修真末年时代,在这个要灵气,灵气稀薄,要灵草,灵草稀少的作死年代,她从来都不知道,自己有一天会因为别人毁了自己刚炼好的一把法器,就洗劫了人家全家……
  • 盛宠小蛮妃

    盛宠小蛮妃

    葬身火海,她从地狱归来——曾经的将门贵女,先帝亲封郡主,成了深宅中人人可欺的沈三小姐;为查家族被灭旧案,她步步为营,为复仇,她遇神杀神,魔挡屠魔;只是,这位王爷,你找你的王妃干嘛来惹我?情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 论语通解(一)

    论语通解(一)

    本书稿是作者学习《论语》一书的心得的总结。作者结合现代人生活中遇到的各种困惑,将《论语》中相关的语录做了深入浅出的阐释,全面涵养一个人的灵魂、修养、品味、境界、见识,可以全面提高一个人的洞察力、理解力、判断力、忍耐力和处置力。作者通过通俗的语言,以讲座的方式呈现,语言生动,说理明晰,让读者轻松了解《论语》的真正内涵,同时把古人的思想与智慧应用在当下的生活和工作中。
  • Understand Rap

    Understand Rap

    Rap songs are famous for their double entendres, clever turns of phrase, and general ingenuity, but that doesn't mean things always make sense the first time around. Enter Understand Rap, a very funny pop-cultural reference book based on the website of the same name, which precisely explains the confusing lyrics and terms used in rap songs using language that even the most un-hip person can understand. The juxtaposition of a dry, academic tone with hip-hop terminology results in a book that's as entertaining as it is informative.
  • 异星奇途

    异星奇途

    24岁变13岁,我重生了?林晓醒来后发现一件不知是好是坏的事,自己穿越了,但穿越到了酷似1000年之后的特殊世界。这里,强者横行星河,各种黑科技耀武扬威。好在,自己也不是一无所有,比任何天赋和科技都强大的金手指已经准备就绪。任何东西都可以成为兑换的货币,在这里能找到想要的一切——天赋,科技,属性点……能想到的任何东西,在这里都能进行强化,在这里,就算是一根筷子,我也能让它变成比任何黑科技更恐怖的神器。这一世,我是注定会成为星河传说的男人。