登陆注册
5291400000019

第19章 CHAPTER VI.(4)

"Well, then, miss, he's come here to get up a practice. I know him very well, through going there to help 'em scrub sometimes, which your father said I might do, if I wanted to, in my spare time. Being a bachelor-man, he've only a lad in the house. Oh yes, I know him very well. Sometimes he'll talk to me as if I were his own mother."

"Indeed."

"Yes. 'Grammer,' he said one day, when I asked him why he came here where there's hardly anybody living, 'I'll tell you why I came here. I took a map, and I marked on it where Dr. Jones's practice ends to the north of this district, and where Mr.

Taylor's ends on the south, and little Jimmy Green's on the east, and somebody else's to the west. Then I took a pair of compasses, and found the exact middle of the country that was left between these bounds, and that middle was Little Hintock; so here I am....' But, Lord, there: poor young man!"

"Why?"

"He said, 'Grammer Oliver, I've been here three months, and although there are a good many people in the Hintocks and the villages round, and a scattered practice is often a very good one, I don't seem to get many patients. And there's no society at all; and I'm pretty near melancholy mad,' he said, with a great yawn.

'I should be quite if it were not for my books, and my lab-- laboratory, and what not. Grammer, I was made for higher things.'

And then he'd yawn and yawn again."

"Was he really made for higher things, do you think? I mean, is he clever?"

"Well, no. How can he be clever? He may be able to jine up a broken man or woman after a fashion, and put his finger upon an ache if you tell him nearly where 'tis; but these young men--they should live to my time of life, and then they'd see how clever they were at five-and-twenty! And yet he's a projick, a real projick, and says the oddest of rozums. 'Ah, Grammer,' he said, at another time, 'let me tell you that Everything is Nothing.

There's only Me and not Me in the whole world.' And he told me that no man's hands could help what they did, any more than the hands of a clock....Yes, he's a man of strange meditations, and his eyes seem to see as far as the north star."

"He will soon go away, no doubt."

"I don't think so." Grace did not say "Why?" and Grammer hesitated. At last she went on: "Don't tell your father or mother, miss, if I let you know a secret."

Grace gave the required promise.

"Well, he talks of buying me; so he won't go away just yet."

"Buying you!--how?"

"Not my soul--my body, when I'm dead. One day when I was there cleaning, he said, 'Grammer, you've a large brain--a very large organ of brain,' he said. 'A woman's is usually four ounces less than a man's; but yours is man's size.' Well, then--hee, hee!-- after he'd flattered me a bit like that, he said he'd give me ten pounds to have me as a natomy after my death. Well, knowing I'd no chick nor chiel left, and nobody with any interest in me, I thought, faith, if I can be of any use to my fellow-creatures after I'm gone they are welcome to my services; so I said I'd think it over, and would most likely agree and take the ten pounds. Now this is a secret, miss, between us two. The money would be very useful to me; and I see no harm in it."

"Of course there's no harm. But oh, Grammer, how can you think to do it? I wish you hadn't told me."

"I wish I hadn't--if you don't like to know it, miss. But you needn't mind. Lord--hee, hee!--I shall keep him waiting many a year yet, bless ye!"

"I hope you will, I am sure."

The girl thereupon fell into such deep reflection that conversation languished, and Grammer Oliver, taking her candle, wished Miss Melbury good-night. The latter's eyes rested on the distant glimmer, around which she allowed her reasoning fancy to play in vague eddies that shaped the doings of the philosopher behind that light on the lines of intelligence just received. It was strange to her to come back from the world to Little Hintock and find in one of its nooks, like a tropical plant in a hedge- row, a nucleus of advanced ideas and practices which had nothing in common with the life around. Chemical experiments, anatomical projects, and metaphysical conceptions had found a strange home here.

Thus she remained thinking, the imagined pursuits of the man behind the light intermingling with conjectural sketches of his personality, till her eyes fell together with their own heaviness, and she slept.

同类推荐
  • 秋灯琐忆

    秋灯琐忆

    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。
  • 俱舍论颂疏论本

    俱舍论颂疏论本

    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。
  • 列女传

    列女传

    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。
  • 大广方总持宝光明经卷第一

    大广方总持宝光明经卷第一

    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。
  • 佛说四自侵经

    佛说四自侵经

    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。
热门推荐
  • Samantha at Saratoga

    Samantha at Saratoga

    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。
  • 居间

    居间

    一部折射新千年中国楼市变迁的现实主义题材小说;一部描写楼市波谲云诡的众生相的小说。揭露了中介行业不为外人所知的重重内幕和经纪人的悲欢离合。2001年,正是中国彻底废弃福利分房制度,住宅进入市场化的第四年,也是中国楼市大爆发的前夜。几位年轻人同时进入了房地产行业的一个分支——二手房行业,在政策和市场的双重利好下,他们在楼市中各有机缘,有的成为其中佼佼者,一路成长,历经沉浮,收获了美满的爱情,获得了巨额的财富,终于成为叱咤一时的房地产大鳄;有的成功后迷失自我,最终淘汰在市场经济的大潮下......
  • 孩子粗心大意,妈妈怎么办?培养孩子细心能力的66个细节

    孩子粗心大意,妈妈怎么办?培养孩子细心能力的66个细节

    粗心大意的危害我们都很清楚,那么,面对粗心大意的孩子,我们又该怎么办呢?本书从孩子粗心大意的表现与危害、妈妈对孩子粗心大意的误解、孩子粗心大意的原因分析、应对孩子粗心大意的能力培养、解决孩子粗心问题的小策略、教孩子学会有计划地做事、全面培养孩子细心的好品质、应对主要学科粗心大意的情形这8个方面,全面阐述了孩子粗心大意方方面面的问题,并总结出了一系列应对方法,从而帮助妈妈改变孩子粗心大意的毛病。
  • 盛宠豪门妻

    盛宠豪门妻

    ——夏瑜,你去死吧!又是一条无名短信,仿佛来自地狱的诅咒。在甲板上晒着太阳,正和经纪人聊的欢畅的夏瑜,恹恹的看着手机屏幕,眼底闪过古怪。会是谁一连三天,每天13点13分准时发来这种短信,像是个刻意的恶作剧。“瑜,又是那种短信?”“嗯,恶作剧吧!”揉揉眉心,夏瑜懒懒的答应着,余光不经意的撞到经纪人慕寒担忧的眸,扯动唇角安慰的笑笑……
  • 打动人心的98个推销技巧(教你成功丛书)

    打动人心的98个推销技巧(教你成功丛书)

    本书从推销员的基本技能和要求出发,以推销活动程序为线索规划内容,本着精炼理论、强化应用、培养技能的原则,主要阐释和解决推销实践中的98个具体问题。全书具有内容结构合理,逻辑严密,深入浅出,案例生动丰富,应用性、实践性、操作性强等特点,有利于提高读者的学习兴趣和分析问题、解决问题的能力。本书可作为高职高专经济管理类专业的课外读物,同时为需要职业推销员的企业提供了一本实用的员工技能培训资料,也为广大推销员提供了一本有益的自学用书。
  • 参与海湾战争的中国留学生

    参与海湾战争的中国留学生

    “1961年,国内遭受了严重的自然灾害,饥饿威胁着人们。为了求生,我从云南越过边境逃到北越;两个月后,又偷渡到南越的西贡。我在西货码头干苦力,直到1963年冬天。我本来想把赚的三百美元寄回国给你爸和你妈,但是发大财的强烈愿望,促使我用这三百美元买通了一艘西班牙货轮上的水手,他将我藏在集装箱内。偷渡进美国。”陶的叔叔沉浸在往事之中,手轻轻颤抖,“我在美国是个无户籍无居留权的‘黑人’,为了混下去,我加入了唐人街上的黑社会,在四年的时间内,打架斗殴,坑蒙拐骗,除了没杀过人.其它的坏事都做绝了。这样我四年赚了10万美元。然后,我用自残一腿的办法,退出黑社会,在纽约三十七大街开了一家餐馆。二十多年,我攒下了百万家产。当你哥哥亢还只有八岁的时候,我将他接来美国,并加入了美国国籍。我的目的,就是为了让我流血流汗掐来的一份家业,有一个继承人哪!”陶的叔叔者泪纵横,悲痛不已。
  • 中国人应知的文化常识

    中国人应知的文化常识

    如果有人问:阴历和阳历是怎么来的?篮球队中为什么没有1、2、3号队员?手术服为什么是绿色的?秋天的枫叶为何会变红?为什么日食发生在初一而不是十五?为什么说买“东西”而不说买“南北”?中国历史上第一位女皇帝是武则天吗?如果不是,那是谁?诸如此类的问题您能答得出来吗?也许您已经发现,这些都是常识性的问题,您所说的每一句话里都包含着文化。本书内容广泛,涵盖文学艺术、科举教育、官政典制、科技发明、风俗礼仪、衣食起居、节日节气、天文历法、宗教哲学、体育娱乐、医疗保健、建筑园林、考古文物、自然生物、地理景观、历史军事、政治经济等文化的各个层面,既是一本知识储备辞典,又是一本生活之余的休闲书。
  • 魔法学院之绝色甜心

    魔法学院之绝色甜心

    徐妙妙你是一个怎样的女生呢?【本文是难得一见的YY爽文,能满足各位同鞋的口味,保证绝不弃坑,保证完结,请放心阅读】
  • 道证诸天超脱之路

    道证诸天超脱之路

    意外穿越,轮回数世。怀着重回故里的执念想要自强、超脱。后得道家无上传承,在诸多世界里追求超脱,不忘初心的故事。
  • 超级魔兽工厂

    超级魔兽工厂

    我叫李修文,得到一个叫做【魔兽工厂】的应用这些非人的魔兽们,干起活来一个比一个厉害,生产出来的产品还附带特效呢品质+5?效率+100%?矮小壮实的矮人,力大无穷的巨人齐声说道:看我们如何制造一个个神奇产品,吊打外国公司。老书《德鲁伊在现代》200万字完本,人品保障。