登陆注册
5380300000051

第51章

The ensuing week went by with a buzz and whirl, circling about Theron Ware's dizzy consciousness like some huge, impalpable teetotum sent spinning under Sister Soulsby's resolute hands.Whenever his vagrant memory recurred to it, in after months, he began by marvelling, and ended with a shudder of repulsion.

It was a week crowded with events, which seemed to him to shoot past so swiftly that in effect they came all of a heap.He never essayed the task, in retrospect, of arranging them in their order of sequence.

They had, however, a definite and interdependent chronology which it is worth the while to trace.

Mrs.Soulsby brought her trunk round to the parsonage bright and early on Friday morning, and took up her lodgement in the best bedroom, and her headquarters in the house at large, with a cheerful and business-like manner.

She desired nothing so much, she said, as that people should not put themselves out on her account, or allow her to get in their way.She appeared to mean this, too, and to have very good ideas about securing its realization.

During both Friday and the following day, indeed, Theron saw her only at the family meals.There she displayed a hearty relish for all that was set before her which quite won Mrs.Ware's heart, and though she talked rather more than Theron found himself expecting from a woman, he could not deny that her conversation was both seemly and entertaining.

She had evidently been a great traveller, and referred to things she had seen in Savannah or Montreal or Los Angeles in as matter-of-fact fashion as he could have spoken of a visit to Tecumseh.Theron asked her many questions about these and other far-off cities, and her answers were all so pat and showed so keen and clear an eye that he began in spite of himself to think of her with a certain admiration.

She in turn plied him with inquiries about the principal pew-holders and members of his congregation--their means, their disposition, and the measure of their devotion.

She put these queries with such intelligence, and seemed to assimilate his replies with such an alert understanding, that the young minister was spurred to put dashes of character in his descriptions, and set forth the idiosyncrasies and distinguishing earmarks of his flock with what he felt afterward might have been too free a tongue.But at the time her fine air of appreciation led him captive.

He gossiped about his parishioners as if he enjoyed it.

He made a specially happy thumb-nail sketch for her of one of his trustees, Erastus Winch, the loud-mouthed, ostentatiously jovial, and really cold-hearted cheese-buyer.

She was particularly interested in hearing about this man.

The personality of Winch seemed to have impressed her, and she brought the talk back to him more than once, and prompted Theron to the very threshold of indiscretion in his confidences on the subject.

Save at meal-times, Sister Soulsby spent the two days out around among the Methodists of Octavius.She had little or nothing to say about what she thus saw and heard, but used it as the basis for still further inquiries.

She told more than once, however, of how she had been pressed here or there to stay to dinner or supper, and how she had excused herself."I've knocked about too much,"she would explain to the Wares, "not to fight shy of random country cooking.When I find such a born cook as you are--well I know when I'm well off." Alice flushed with pleased pride at this, and Theron himself felt that their visitor showed great good sense.By Saturday noon, the two women were calling each other by their first names.

Theron learned with a certain interest that Sister Soulsby's Christian name was Candace.

It was only natural that he should give even more thought to her than to her quaint and unfamiliar old Ethiopian name.She was undoubtedly a very smart woman.

To his surprise she had never introduced in her talk any of the stock religious and devotional phrases which official Methodists so universally employed in mutual converse.

She might have been an insurance agent, or a school-teacher, visiting in a purely secular household, so little parade of cant was there about her.

He caught himself wondering how old she was.

She seemed to have been pretty well over the whole American continent, and that must take years of time.

Perhaps, however, the exertion of so much travel would tend to age one in appearance.Her eyes were still youthful--decidedly wise eyes, but still juvenile.They had sparkled with almost girlish merriment at some of his jokes.

She turned them about a good deal when she spoke, making their glances fit and illustrate the things she said.

He had never met any one whose eyes played so constant and prominent a part in their owner's conversation.

Theron had never seen a play; but he had encountered the portraits of famous queens of the drama several times in illustrated papers or shop windows, and it occurred to him that some of the more marked contortions of Sister Soulsby's eyes--notably a trick she had of rolling them swiftly round and plunging them, so to speak, into an intent, yearning, one might almost say devouring, gaze at the speaker--were probably employed by eminent actresses like Ristori and Fanny Davenport.

同类推荐
  • 从公三录

    从公三录

    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。
  • 威尼斯商人

    威尼斯商人

    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。
  • 送陵州路使君赴任

    送陵州路使君赴任

    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。
  • 国朝诗话

    国朝诗话

    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。
  • 祝鹊

    祝鹊

    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
  • 传奇魔具师

    传奇魔具师

    搞笑、轻鬆向。踏上巅峰的午夜,不知何时被人暗算,竟跌落为低级猎人!为了揪出幕后黑手,为了寻找真相,他踏上了旅程。途中遇到各式小伙伴。辅助竟是拍打肚皮?一旁还有人随之起舞?领主的实力竟抵抗不了一记飞踢?主角智商在线,疯狂吐槽。惨了,智商都要被拉低了。这本书内容轻鬆酣畅,充满爱、友情和逗逼的一本小说!各种崭新的名称,套路什么都不清楚。
  • 夏有乔木:雅望天堂(全集)

    夏有乔木:雅望天堂(全集)

    16岁的少女雅望,应爸爸要求去照顾其战友之子10岁的夏木。美丽的男孩夏木因为童年时期经历的了亲生母亲的死亡现场,而从此生活在一个人的世界里,无法与外界产生一丝的共鸣与沟通。雅望的出现渐渐融化了夏木的心;可是雅望青梅竹马的恋人唐小天高中毕业后去当兵后,认识了大学同学曲蔚然,最终引狼入室。从此雅望,夏木,唐小天,他们三个人的命运都因此而发生翻天覆地的改变……
  • 异界之宠物系统

    异界之宠物系统

    “叮!发现神宠!是否捕捉?”“叮!捕捉成功!获得新宠物。宠物在宠物空间中,等待宿主召唤。”“叮!神宠吞噬天材地宝。灵力转化中——0/100灵力。”“叮!消耗100点灵力,经验增加10000点。符合升级条件。”“叮!等级提升。”“叮!发现目标人物身上有宝物龙血灵芝。发布随机任务:抢劫龙血灵芝。限时十分钟。任务奖励:100灵力。是/否接受?”“我是有节操,有底线的穿越重生之优秀青年。为什么又给我发布抢劫的任务?”“叮!还有九分钟……。”“站住,打劫!”……
  • 一品道门

    一品道门

    二十一世纪道家弟子张百仁,因为触动先天剑胎,逆转时空降临隋唐时空。论道钟离权,斗剑吕洞宾!拂袖压玄奘,一剑退达摩!统御之权,归于至圣,天命帝以司牧,帝承天而抚临。这一日,张百仁背负双手傲立于紫禁之巅,手中一卷诛仙阵图缓缓铺开,俯视边关群雄:“问天下谁敌手?敢问诸君,可长生否?”
  • 华为财务管理如何与国际接轨

    华为财务管理如何与国际接轨

    在财务管理上,华为进行了一系列的规章制定与改革,以适应华为财务管理的国际化。
  • 元之武

    元之武

    杜斐所在的这片大陆名叫——元素大陆。是一片广阔无边的超级陆地,陆地上物质及其丰富,从整个元素大陆的发展史来看,大陆上的人们都离不开一种东西——元素,而元素又分为基本元素和特异元素,基本元素分别是:金木水火土风雷,而能够操纵这些元素的人便称之为——控元师……
  • 《朱子语类》词汇研究

    《朱子语类》词汇研究

    《朱子语类》文白相间,新旧质素交融,叠置着从历史上各个时期传承下来的不同历史层次的词语和宋代产生的新词新义,现存各本的异文在某种程度上又反映了宋至明清的语言演变,为汉语文白演变和词汇史的研究提供了珍贵的语言实录。
  • 彷徨少年时(黑塞作品11)

    彷徨少年时(黑塞作品11)

    《彷徨少年时》描写了少年辛克莱追求自我的艰难历程。出生并成长于“光明世界”的辛克莱,偶然发现截然不同的“另一个世界”,那里的纷乱和黑暗,使他焦虑困惑,并陷入谎言带来的灾难之中。这时,一个名叫德米安的少年出现,将他带出沼泽地,从此他开始走向孤独寻找自我的前路。之后的若干年,“德米安”以不同的身份面目出现,在他每一次孤独寻找、艰难抉择的时候,成为他的引路人……全篇以黑塞标志性的抒情笔调写就,是一部描述贯彻真正自我过程的、探索自我命运的心理小说,可以说是黑塞纪念碑式的名作。
  • 红颜刻骨之第一王妃

    红颜刻骨之第一王妃

    一朝穿越,她成为被弃孤女,独身江湖。然而,一个巨大的阴谋,她先入宫,后代嫁,命运轨迹由此更改——他,权倾朝野,冷漠绝情,却独独对她倾心;他,温润如玉,风度翩翩,唯专情她一个人;他,腹黑成性,宜动宜静,只把宠溺与真心送与她。她从不祥孤女,一跃成为朝堂第一妃……
  • 穿越之相生不悔

    穿越之相生不悔

    因一块神秘红宝石而死,哭着喊着也要抱住宝石主人的大腿,为自己谋取福利!她,江湖神秘夜寒宫宫主,解了个药,顺便拐了个人。本着心动不如行动的想法,软禁他、要挟他、吃定他,放言要将他永远圈在身边。当某一天,他回到自己的地盘,无奈的表示:不想管、惹不起、习惯了,她爱怎样就怎样,由得她去了!活在世间,难免阴差阳错,难逃阴谋阳谋...最后的最后,既是她选的,她不会后悔...