登陆注册
5290800000007

第7章 CHAPTER II(2)

That was the essence of his vision - which was all rank folly, if one would, while he was out of the house and otherwise occupied, but which took on the last verisimilitude as soon as he was placed and posted. He knew what he meant and what he wanted; it was as clear as the figure on a cheque presented in demand for cash. His ALTER EGO "walked" - that was the note of his image of him, while his image of his motive for his own odd pastime was the desire to waylay him and meet him. He roamed, slowly, warily, but all restlessly, he himself did - Mrs. Muldoon had been right, absolutely, with her figure of their "craping"; and the presence he watched for would roam restlessly too. But it would be as cautious and as shifty; the conviction of its probable, in fact its already quite sensible, quite audible evasion of pursuit grew for him from night to night, laying on him finally a rigour to which nothing in his life had been comparable. It had been the theory of many superficially-judging persons, he knew, that he was wasting that life in a surrender to sensations, but he had tasted of no pleasure so fine as his actual tension, had been introduced to no sport that demanded at once the patience and the nerve of this stalking of a creature more subtle, yet at bay perhaps more formidable, than any beast of the forest. The terms, the comparisons, the very practices of the chase positively came again into play; there were even moments when passages of his occasional experience as a sportsman, stirred memories, from his younger time, of moor and mountain and desert, revived for him - and to the increase of his keenness - by the tremendous force of analogy. He found himself at moments - once he had placed his single light on some mantel-shelf or in some recess - stepping back into shelter or shade, effacing himself behind a door or in an embrasure, as he had sought of old the vantage of rock and tree; he found himself holding his breath and living in the joy of the instant, the supreme suspense created by big game alone.

He wasn't afraid (though putting himself the question as he believed gentlemen on Bengal tiger-shoots or in close quarters with the great bear of the Rockies had been known to confess to having put it); and this indeed - since here at least he might be frank! -because of the impression, so intimate and so strange, that he himself produced as yet a dread, produced certainly a strain, beyond the liveliest he was likely to feel. They fell for him into categories, they fairly became familiar, the signs, for his own perception, of the alarm his presence and his vigilance created;though leaving him always to remark, portentously, on his probably having formed a relation, his probably enjoying a consciousness, unique in the experience of man. People enough, first and last, had been in terror of apparitions, but who had ever before so turned the tables and become himself, in the apparitional world, an incalculable terror? He might have found this sublime had he quite dared to think of it; but he didn't too much insist, truly, on that side of his privilege. With habit and repetition he gained to an extraordinary degree the power to penetrate the dusk of distances and the darkness of corners, to resolve back into their innocence the treacheries of uncertain light, the evil-looking forms taken in the gloom by mere shadows, by accidents of the air, by shifting effects of perspective; putting down his dim luminary he could still wander on without it, pass into other rooms and, only knowing it was there behind him in case of need, see his way about, visually project for his purpose a comparative clearness. It made him feel, this acquired faculty, like some monstrous stealthy cat;he wondered if he would have glared at these moments with large shining yellow eyes, and what it mightn't verily be, for the poor hard-pressed ALTER EGO, to be confronted with such a type.

He liked however the open shutters; he opened everywhere those Mrs.

Muldoon had closed, closing them as carefully afterwards, so that she shouldn't notice: he liked - oh this he did like, and above all in the upper rooms! - the sense of the hard silver of the autumn stars through the window-panes, and scarcely less the flare of the street-lamps below, the white electric lustre which it would have taken curtains to keep out. This was human actual social;this was of the world he had lived in, and he was more at his ease certainly for the countenance, coldly general and impersonal, that all the while and in spite of his detachment it seemed to give him.

He had support of course mostly in the rooms at the wide front and the prolonged side; it failed him considerably in the central shades and the parts at the back. But if he sometimes, on his rounds, was glad of his optical reach, so none the less often the rear of the house affected him as the very jungle of his prey. The place was there more subdivided; a large "extension" in particular, where small rooms for servants had been multiplied, abounded in nooks and corners, in closets and passages, in the ramifications especially of an ample back staircase over which he leaned, many a time, to look far down - not deterred from his gravity even while aware that he might, for a spectator, have figured some solemn simpleton playing at hide-and-seek. Outside in fact he might himself make that ironic RAPPROCHEMENT; but within the walls, and in spite of the clear windows, his consistency was proof against the cynical light of New York.

同类推荐
  • 金匮要略方论

    金匮要略方论

    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。
  • 赛红丝

    赛红丝

    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。
  • 神童诗

    神童诗

    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。
  • 黄箓斋十天尊仪

    黄箓斋十天尊仪

    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。
  • 山水纯全集

    山水纯全集

    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
  • 梦偌往兮

    梦偌往兮

    一花一世界,一叶一菩提,春零花往复,人去往来回,梦归初识处,初心付良人,三生誓生誓,九久期伶聆,回望初识处,惘负旧时人。余生很长,故事很短,你好。然后再见……
  • 迷糊小娘子

    迷糊小娘子

    柳丁丁穿了。风氏最方便、最好用、最容易被欺负又迷糊的便利贴打杂小妹华丽丽的穿越了。圣诞节的前夕,别人都在酒吧狂欢,她被一杯小酒放倒,呼噜,然后被抬进了风氏最懦弱的少爷的房间。醒来,面前一个小帅哥说他是她相公,一个狮子吼大嗓门的妇人说是她婆婆,而她成了荣州府最胆小如鼠的小肉包小姐--施月月。不,小肉包小媳妇。东方奕,她的相公,鸾凤国首富唯一的儿子,新婚第一夜就把‘她’吓死了。托他的福,她柳丁丁魂穿了,附身在这个胖乎乎、圆墩墩、又胆小又怕死、还只有十三岁的施月月身上。婚后第二天,被婆婆公公强行带走,说是相公还小……十四岁,是挺小的,知道小还逼他娶她?丫丫的!四年以后,江的那一头,东方家的闺女要招亲了!“招、招亲?娘啊,我是你儿子的媳妇啊,不是你闺女啊……”柳丁丁一个头两个大,她的婆婆是不是太无厘头了一点?“反正你还没和奕儿同房,他也不记得你了,嫁吧嫁吧,娘给你选一个帅帅的、有钱的相公,气死那混账小子!”秦素素得意的笑,死混小子,叫你四年都不想我们,我把你媳妇送别人去。柳丁丁无语问苍天:还帅帅的?有钱的?娘啊,你不知道你儿子是鸾凤国最有钱、最帅气的黄金单身汉吗?唉!江的那一头,年方十八、帅气多金、风流倜傥的东方奕忽然打了一个哆嗦,为什么他有一股被暗算的感觉?【文文有点轻松、有点搞笑、有点小雷,希望看文文的亲们每天开心O(∩_∩)O】【喜欢文文的亲们,请收藏+推荐+留个爪印,多给夏夏一点点码字的干劲】---------------------------------自己文文推荐------------------------------【假孕妈咪小三妻】【妖颜惑宠】---------------------------------好友文文推荐------------------------------静窗幽恋:【王爷奴家有了】穿越梦幻的色彩:【偷拐小鬼当儿子穿越小仙豆:【驭狼】穿越疏婠婠:【勾夫小王妃】穿越凤骨扇:【相公好惑人】穿越随风飘:【寝妃】架空
  • 青少年健康四季(图说百科丛书)

    青少年健康四季(图说百科丛书)

    中医儿科学是整个中医药学的重要组成部分之一。在历史的长河中,为中华民族的繁衍昌盛做出了不可磨灭的贡献。俗云:“若无干小,卒不成大”,所以儿童是人类的花朵,一切事业的接班人。自古以来,由于中医儿科诊疗技术的特色,致使儿童茁壮成长,开创了人类历史的辉煌。迄至科学技术突飞猛进的今天,仍然继续为儿童健康而服务,并显示出一定的优势,尤其它对儿童的保育、将养、调护、预防的知识,有其独到之处,不仅可为国内儿童提供健康的保障,特别今天中医药学正在走向世界各地,向世界各个角落传播,定将为全球20多亿儿童造福,并做出巨大的贡献。
  • 霸少宠妻娇妻撩人

    霸少宠妻娇妻撩人

    他们是青梅竹马,撞到了什么不可告人的秘密?报复回去。竹马实力宠妻。天生一对啊
  • 三国外科风云

    三国外科风云

    在这个年代,医者,虽然是受人敬仰的职业,但是,在这个乱世,却没有多少人愿意干这一行。自古乱世出英雄,而他,靠着自己一双巧手,靠着自己机敏的头脑,成为了属于这个时代的英雄。这是一名刚毕业的医生,在一次120出车时发生了车祸,醒来发现自己躺在一张破旧的木板床上,全身酸痛......没错,他穿越了,几经波折,为了生存,为了回到现代,他竟然一步步成为了三国时期的名医,用他的一双手拯救了那个年代无数的百姓、士卒和将军……那个啥,小说嘛,不要较真,要说没有历史错误当然是不可能的。对于历史矛盾点,大家可以敬请提出哦,但那些骂街的,我可是睬都不睬的哦????QQ群:641893884
  • 明伦汇编人事典九岁部

    明伦汇编人事典九岁部

    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。
  • 贵族学院:我的睡美男

    贵族学院:我的睡美男

    魏梓,18岁就已经取得教授之称的医学怪才。姚皇,从小就患有嗜睡症的花美男。两者原本永不相交的平行线却阴错阳差的相聚在圣光贵族学院中。每一次的相遇,她都在问路,而那个他却始终都在睡觉,两者之间一直维持着叫醒睡着的人与醒来指路的人,这样一个很是纠结的关系,明明是好梦的他,却被她打断,明明觉得这次不会迷路的她,却偏偏又迷路,淡淡的让人琢磨不透的爱,不知何时悄悄的在此刻萌芽,慢慢的滋生......
  • 培养了不起的孩子

    培养了不起的孩子

    本书介绍了正确而科学的教育方法和理念。包括对孩子进行挫折教育,让孩子变得坚强而独立;根据孩子的特点进行教育,提高孩子的学习成绩;培养孩子的优势,让孩子更好的发展
  • 一种精神

    一种精神

    本书收录“一种精神”、“兴隆之本”、“从吴起开始”、“山林的界碑”、“大地震:卧龙人和熊猫”等报告文学。
  • 哥特式恐怖小说集

    哥特式恐怖小说集

    国际图书大奖获奖作品:小说及短篇故事集。本书由多个超自然的惊悚故事组成,作者布赖恩·大卫·布伦斯是美国国家畅销书作家。