登陆注册
5291400000021

第21章 CHAPTER VII.(2)

A large group of buyers stood round the auctioneer, or followed him when, between his pauses, he wandered on from one lot of plantation produce to another, like some philosopher of the Peripatetic school delivering his lectures in the shady groves of the Lyceum. His companions were timber-dealers, yeomen, farmers, villagers, and others; mostly woodland men, who on that account could afford to be curious in their walking-sticks, which consequently exhibited various monstrosities of vegetation, the chief being cork-screw shapes in black and white thorn, brought to that pattern by the slow torture of an encircling woodbine during their growth, as the Chinese have been said to mould human beings into grotesque toys by continued compression in infancy. Two women, wearing men's jackets on their gowns, conducted in the rear of the halting procession a pony-cart containing a tapped barrel of beer, from which they drew and replenished horns that were handed round, with bread-and-cheese from a basket.

The auctioneer adjusted himself to circumstances by using his walking-stick as a hammer, and knocked down the lot on any convenient object that took his fancy, such as the crown of a little boy's head, or the shoulders of a by-stander who had no business there except to taste the brew; a proceeding which would have been deemed humorous but for the air of stern rigidity which that auctioneer's face preserved, tending to show that the eccentricity was a result of that absence of mind which is engendered by the press of affairs, and no freak of fancy at all.

Mr. Melbury stood slightly apart from the rest of the Peripatetics, and Grace beside him, clinging closely to his arm, her modern attire looking almost odd where everything else was old-fashioned, and throwing over the familiar garniture of the trees a homeliness that seemed to demand improvement by the addition of a few contemporary novelties also. Grace seemed to regard the selling with the interest which attaches to memories revived after an interval of obliviousness.

Winterborne went and stood close to them; the timber-merchant spoke, and continued his buying; Grace merely smiled. To justify his presence there Winterborne began bidding for timber and fagots that he did not want, pursuing the occupation in an abstracted mood, in which the auctioneer's voice seemed to become one of the natural sounds of the woodland. A few flakes of snow descended, at the sight of which a robin, alarmed at these signs of imminent winter, and seeing that no offence was meant by the human invasion, came and perched on the tip of the fagots that were being sold, and looked into the auctioneer's face, while waiting for some chance crumb from the bread-basket. Standing a little behind Grace, Winterborne observed how one flake would sail downward and settle on a curl of her hair, and how another would choose her shoulder, and another the edge of her bonnet, which took up so much of his attention that his biddings proceeded incoherently; and when the auctioneer said, every now and then, with a nod towards him, "Yours, Mr. Winterborne," he had no idea whether he had bought fagots, poles, or logwood.

He regretted, with some causticity of humor, that her father should show such inequalities of temperament as to keep Grace tightly on his arm to-day, when he had quite lately seemed anxious to recognize their betrothal as a fact. And thus musing, and joining in no conversation with other buyers except when directly addressed, he followed the assemblage hither and thither till the end of the auction, when Giles for the first time realized what his purchases had been. Hundreds of fagots, and divers lots of timber, had been set down to him, when all he had required had been a few bundles of spray for his odd man Robert Creedle's use in baking and lighting fires.

Business being over, he turned to speak to the timber merchant.

But Melbury's manner was short and distant; and Grace, too, looked vexed and reproachful. Winterborne then discovered that he had been unwittingly bidding against her father, and picking up his favorite lots in spite of him. With a very few words they left the spot and pursued their way homeward.

同类推荐
  • THE SKETCH BOOK

    THE SKETCH BOOK

    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。
  • 黄庭内景五脏六腑补泻图

    黄庭内景五脏六腑补泻图

    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。
  • 顾竹侯灯窗漫录

    顾竹侯灯窗漫录

    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。
  • 洪武圣政记

    洪武圣政记

    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。
  • 佛说孛经

    佛说孛经

    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
  • 擦去心灵的尘土(学生心理健康悦读)

    擦去心灵的尘土(学生心理健康悦读)

    心灵如果蒙上了一层层尘土,应当及时想方设法的将之擦除。大家应常怀一颗感激的心看待世界,认识世界,提升自己的道德修养,不被生活压力所麻痹,不被坏风气所影响,常做道德上所鼓励的事情,这样掩盖在心灵上的尘土就会脱落,就会拥有一颗真诚完美的心灵。
  • 中二武者俏狐狸

    中二武者俏狐狸

    这是一个中二修仙者和蠢萌吃货小狐狸的故事,在这浩大的大陆上,有多少异域风情,又有多少跌宕起伏的爱情故事,游罢四国,看遍万水千山,饮酒,提剑,抱你。白小狐:你别抱我,怎么这么不正经啊。墨云颢:不正经的是我,正经的也是我,所以你到底喜欢哪个我?白小狐:我那个也不喜欢!墨云颢:随便啦,我还不喜欢你呢。
  • 贺邢州卢员外

    贺邢州卢员外

    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。
  • 白狐蝶

    白狐蝶

    千年之前,妖族化蝶枯萎、人间战火四起、魔界争斗不休,一时间天下大乱,妖界守护神被派驻幽冥大道,守护妖界与其他六界的通道,同时,曾经被妖族残害的生灵集合袭击妖界,身为幽冥镇守者的九尾白狐首当其冲。适逢妖族卡娜诞生,危机时破茧而出,幽冥大道万物早熟,惊醒了沉睡的九尾白狐。白狐于天际只看到一白衣女子的淡淡虚影,却不知那女子是谁,千年来,他日夜寻找,一段爱恨情仇由此而生。
  • 世界上最伟大企业的员工守则

    世界上最伟大企业的员工守则

    众多企业奉为圭臬的第一培训理念 无数员工提升自我的首选励志读本。深度挖掘杰出企业的优秀理念 完美展示卓越员工的职业风貌。卓越的企业需要卓越的员工来塑造,卓越的员工需要卓越的员工守则来打造。综观世界上最优秀、最卓越的企业,它们的成功与辉煌皆源自其优秀的员工守则:中石油、中石化、中国移动、中国网通、联想、海尔、蒙牛、伊利、华为、万科、海南航空、创维、国美、格兰仕、同仁堂、三星电子……
  • 黑骏马

    黑骏马

    《黑骏马》是英国女作家安娜·西韦尔最受欢迎的一部作品,也是她一生中唯一的一部小说作品,小说一出版即轰动全球。作者以第一人称的手法叙述了黑骏马一生的辛酸经历。它是一匹性格温顺、精力旺盛的优种马,然而命运多舛,几易其主,开始时在尊贵的庄园主那里受到厚待,然而好景不长,主人家遭变故,黑骏马被卖。随着年龄的增长,它又再次被卖,最后沦为苦力马,饱尝了人间的酸甜苦辣。值得庆幸的是,晚年的黑骏马却有了一个好的归宿。此书问世后,在欧美常销不衰,影响了一代又一代的读者,唤起了人们对动物的关爱。
  • 森罗拈花录

    森罗拈花录

    名捕殒命,旧案重现,森罗万象花落谁家?东厂?锦衣卫?潮信楼?海贼余寇?究竟谁才是幕后黑手?
  • 温太太的豪门日常

    温太太的豪门日常

    一场精心设计的宴会,她被陷害,声名狼藉。相恋多年的男友当场下跪跟旧爱求婚。在她走投无路之时,一夜醉酒的对象趁机步步紧逼。“嫁给我,我可以帮你。”他是帝国最年轻的司令,强势,霸道,心狠手辣。偏偏宠她入骨。“为什么是我?”她不解。“因为你长得像一个人?”“像谁?”“温太太”
  • 江湖行

    江湖行

    仗剑天涯。挥不去离愁别恨,斩不段恩怨情仇。鄱阳湖水;长安城泪;化作幽州恨。纵有《六合诀》、龙泉剑,剩下孤独酒一壶。
  • 王爷,有种别娶我

    王爷,有种别娶我

    【天才小宠妃】空有花瓶长相没半点才艺的废物,上吊自尽,醒来相爷千金挺起脊梁,用现代的包装与小聪明,该赚钱就赚钱、该出手就出手,美男天生就是用来调戏滴嘛!