登陆注册
5380000000011

第11章

RoderickEarly on the morrow Rowland received a visit from his new friend.

Roderick was in a state of extreme exhilaration, tempered, however, by a certain amount of righteous wrath.He had had a domestic struggle, but he had remained master of the situation.He had shaken the dust of Mr.Striker's office from his feet.

"I had it out last night with my mother," he said.

"I dreaded the scene, for she takes things terribly hard.

She does n't scold nor storm, and she does n't argue nor insist.

She sits with her eyes full of tears that never fall, and looks at me, when I displease her, as if I were a perfect monster of depravity.

And the trouble is that I was born to displease her.

She does n't trust me; she never has and she never will.

I don't know what I have done to set her against me, but ever since I can remember I have been looked at with tears.

The trouble is," he went on, giving a twist to his moustache, "I 've been too absurdly docile.I 've been sprawling all my days by the maternal fireside, and my dear mother has grown used to bullying me.I 've made myself cheap! If I 'm not in my bed by eleven o'clock, the girl is sent out to explore with a lantern.

When I think of it, I fairly despise my amiability.It 's rather a hard fate, to live like a saint and to pass for a sinner!

I should like for six months to lead Mrs.Hudson the life some fellows lead their mothers!""Allow me to believe," said Rowland, "that you would like nothing of the sort.If you have been a good boy, don't spoil it by pretending you don't like it.You have been very happy, I suspect, in spite of your virtues, and there are worse fates in the world than being loved too well.

I have not had the pleasure of seeing your mother, but I would lay you a wager that that is the trouble.She is passionately fond of you, and her hopes, like all intense hopes, keep trembling into fears."Rowland, as he spoke, had an instinctive vision of how such a beautiful young fellow must be loved by his female relatives.

Roderick frowned, and with an impatient gesture, "I do her justice,"he cried."May she never do me less!" Then after a moment's hesitation, "I 'll tell you the perfect truth," he went on.

"I have to fill a double place.I have to be my brother as well as myself.It 's a good deal to ask of a man, especially when he has so little talent as I for being what he is not.

When we were both young together I was the curled darling.

I had the silver mug and the biggest piece of pudding, and I stayed in-doors to be kissed by the ladies while he made mud-pies in the garden and was never missed, of course.

Really, he was worth fifty of me! When he was brought home from Vicksburg with a piece of shell in his skull, my poor mother began to think she had n't loved him enough.

I remember, as she hung round my neck sobbing, before his coffin, she told me that I must be to her everything that he would have been.

I swore in tears and in perfect good faith that I would, but naturally I have not kept my promise.I have been utterly different.

I have been idle, restless, egotistical, discontented.

I have done no harm, I believe, but I have done no good.

My brother, if he had lived, would have made fifty thousand dollars and put gas and water into the house.

My mother, brooding night and day on her bereavement, has come to fix her ideal in offices of that sort.

Judged by that standard I 'm nowhere!"

Rowland was at loss how to receive this account of his friend's domestic circumstances; it was plaintive, and yet the manner seemed to him over-trenchant."You must lose no time in making a masterpiece," he answered; "then with the proceeds you can give her gas from golden burners.""So I have told her; but she only half believes either in masterpiece or in proceeds.She can see no good in my making statues;they seem to her a snare of the enemy.She would fain see me all my life tethered to the law, like a browsing goat to a stake.

In that way I 'm in sight.'It 's a more regular occupation!'

that 's all I can get out of her.A more regular damnation!

Is it a fact that artists, in general, are such wicked men?

I never had the pleasure of knowing one, so I could n't confute her with an example.She had the advantage of me, because she formerly knew a portrait-painter at Richmond, who did her miniature in black lace mittens (you may see it on the parlor table), who used to drink raw brandy and beat his wife.

I promised her that, whatever I might do to my wife, I would never beat my mother, and that as for brandy, raw or diluted, I detested it.

She sat silently crying for an hour, during which I expended treasures of eloquence.It 's a good thing to have to reckon up one's intentions, and I assure you, as I pleaded my cause, I was most agreeably impressed with the elevated character of my own.

I kissed her solemnly at last, and told her that I had said everything and that she must make the best of it.This morning she has dried her eyes, but I warrant you it is n't a cheerful house.

I long to be out of it!"

"I 'm extremely sorry," said Rowland, "to have been the prime cause of so much suffering.I owe your mother some amends;will it be possible for me to see her?"

"If you 'll see her, it will smooth matters vastly;though to tell the truth she 'll need all her courage to face you, for she considers you an agent of the foul fiend.She does n't see why you should have come here and set me by the ears:

you are made to ruin ingenuous youths and desolate doting mothers.

I leave it to you, personally, to answer these charges.

You see, what she can't forgive--what she 'll not really ever forgive--is your taking me off to Rome.

Rome is an evil word, in my mother's vocabulary, to be said in a whisper, as you 'd say 'damnation.' Northampton is in the centre of the earth and Rome far away in outlying dusk, into which it can do no Christian any good to penetrate.

And there was I but yesterday a doomed habitue of that repository of every virtue, Mr.Striker's office!""And does Mr.Striker know of your decision?" asked Rowland.

同类推荐
  • 美人谱

    美人谱

    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。
  • 容斋三笔

    容斋三笔

    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。
  • 脉诀

    脉诀

    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。
  • 黄帝阴符经集注

    黄帝阴符经集注

    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。
  • 棠阴比事

    棠阴比事

    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。
热门推荐
  • 弥沙塞羯磨本

    弥沙塞羯磨本

    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。
  • 司礼监

    司礼监

    莫欺少年穷,我叔魏忠贤。——傲骨出品,必属精品。五代正版订阅群:964647911(前四代已亡)
  • 爷爷进城

    爷爷进城

    无为,原名赵亮。甘肃平凉人,定居广西北海。出版有中短篇小说集《周家情事》。广西作家协会会员!
  • 夏商西周的社会变迁(当代中国人文大系)

    夏商西周的社会变迁(当代中国人文大系)

    研究夏商西周时期的社会性质,是本书着重注意的地方。专家们关于古史分期问题的研究近年来取得了很大进展。本书试图从正面进行阐述,提出一些与以往不同的看法,以论证夏商西周的社会性质问题。
  • 执卡者

    执卡者

    欢迎来到卡片的世界。在这里您将看到各种各样的神奇卡片,有能召唤各种奇异生灵的召唤卡、有威武霸气的武技卡、有绚丽多彩的魔法卡、也有令人实力倍增的辅助卡、治愈伤势的恢复卡,当然增加自身力量、速度、体质、精神的属性卡也不能少。除此之外,更有可以令人变身‘神魔’的变身卡、千奇百怪的道具卡、还有一些不为人知的神秘而特殊的卡片等等。罗浩,一个卡片的爱好者,但凡关于卡片的东西,无论什么都要去研究一番,而罗浩心中也一直有着一个梦想,那就是创造出一套可以流行世界的卡片游戏,但是,在罗浩的梦想即将实现之际,一张神秘的卡片,将他带到了这个卡片的世界。在这个陌生的世界中,拥有另一个世界丰富卡片知识的罗浩凭借着对卡片独特的理解,借助那神秘卡片带来的神奇能力,从此走上了一条不同寻常的执卡者之路。
  • 苟在汉末

    苟在汉末

    凡穿越众,有三思。一曰喜:或为弃旧,或为觅新。二曰惑:路茫茫,何以生,何以死。三曰憾:既得陇复望蜀!得之愈多,失之愈多,得其形者,终失其神,不如弃之!近闻查良镛先生去世,余悲痛万分,忽欲投身刀笔,有感则行。记得幼年时读三国演义,罗老先生挖了一堆的坑,当年百思不得其解,遂在本书中多有个人浅见,后学末进还望诸位书友斧正。
  • 绝品御灵师

    绝品御灵师

    天才降临,神功大成!他从山上来,扫尽世间不平!!!!!
  • 最强特种兵之战鹰

    最强特种兵之战鹰

    鹰眼,一个过去被列入绝密档案的特种兵王,带领着蛟龙分队成为山海丛林中最凌厉的刀刃,直刺入敌人的心脏,长白山的一桩特别任务让蛟龙分队迈进了前所未有的任务中——保护国家宝藏,追讨失宝,不让外敌染指半分!为了国家尊严与荣誉,蛟龙跨越野外,在都市中与敌人短刃相见,战争不止是硝烟弥漫,人心难测更是悬头刀。前路艰险,身为军人,宁战死,挺一身傲骨!(小小青蛇读者群372855502)
  • 走近太空之子(征服太空之路丛书)

    走近太空之子(征服太空之路丛书)

    在当今世界,发展载人航天技术已经成为各国综合国力的直接体现。各发达国家在发展战略上都将增强综合国力作为首要目标,其核心就是高科技的发展,而载人航天技术就是其主要内容之一。刘芳主编的《走近太空之子》是“征服太空之路丛书”之一。《走近太空之子》内容涉及太空世界的各个侧面,文字浅显易懂,生动活泼。
  • 里院

    里院

    里院,里取隐藏之意,为暗影之中的医院。从里一院,到里十院,这样的医院,在华夏大地之上,共分布着十座。里院以医院为遮掩,镇守在十座鬼门关之前,他们阳间秩序守卫者自居,同鬼门关之后的地府一道,维护着各自不同世界的规则,防止出现百鬼夜行之类的重大灵异事件发生。然而,一个巨大的阴谋犹如遮天蔽日的黑幕从天而降,没有人意识到阴阳秩序的混乱,仅仅只是一个开始……