登陆注册
5383900000063

第63章

Look here, don't be a fool! I suppose she said you were the first and last.The last you certainly were.There are limits even to the speed of American girls; but the first, my boy! You are more like the twelfth, to my ocular knowledge.Here comes Dubois the poet.He can tell you something about Miss Semiramis.

Eh! Dubois, you know Miss Semiramis Wilcox, don't you?"The Frenchman smiled and shrugged.

"Un peu," he said.

"Don't be an ass and get angry," William continued; "it's all for your own good.""The little Semiramis has been seducing my susceptible friend here.Like many of us, he has been captivated by her naturalness, her naivete, her clear good eyes,--that look of nature that is always art! May I relate the idyl of your tragic passion, dear Dubois, as an object lesson?"The Frenchman bowed, and signed William to proceed.

"You dined with us one evening, and you thus met for the first time.You sat together at table.What happened with the fish?""She swore I was the most beautiful man she had ever seen,--and I am not beautiful, as you perceive."If not beautiful, the poet was certainly true.

"What happened at the entree?"

"Oh, long before that we were pressing our feet under the table.""And the coffee--"

"Mon Dieu! we were Tristram and Yseult, we were all the great lovers in the Pantheon of love.""And what then?"

"Oh, we went to the Cafe d'Harcourt--mon ami.""Did she wear a veil?" I asked.

"Oui, certainement!"

"And did you say, `Why do you wear a veil,--setting a black cloud before the eyes and gates of heaven'?""The very words," said the Frenchman.

"And did she say, `Yes, but the veil can be raised?' ""She did, mon pauvre ami," said the poet.

"And did you raise it?"

"I did," said the poet.

"And so did I," I answered.And as I spoke, there was a crash of white marble in my soul, and lo! Love had fallen from his pedestal and been broken into a thousand pieces,--a heavy, dead thing he lay upon the threshold of my heart.

We had appointed a secret meeting in the salon of the pension that afternoon.I was not there! (Nor, as I afterwards learnt, was Semiramis.) When we did meet, I was brutally cold.I evaded all her moves; but when at last I decided to give her a hearing, I confess it needed all my cynicism to resist her air of innocence, of pathetic devotion.

If I couldn't love her, she said, might she go on loving me?

Might she write to me sometimes? She would be content if now and again I would send her a little word.Perhaps in time I would grow to believe in her love, etc.

The heart-broken abandonment with which she said this was a sore trial to me; but though love may be deceived, vanity is ever vigilant, and vanity saved me.Yet I left her with an aching sense of having been a brute, and on the morning of my departure from Paris, as I said good-bye to William and Dora, I spoke somewhat seriously of Semiramis.Dora, Dora-like, had believed in her all along,--not having enjoyed William's opportunities of studying her,--and she reproached me with being rather hard-hearted.

"Nonsense," said William, "if she really cared, wouldn't she have been up to bid you good-bye?"The words were hardly gone from his lips when there came a little knock at the door.It was Semiramis; she had come to say good-bye.Was it in nature not to be touched? "Good-bye," she said, as we stood a moment alone in the hall."I shall always think of you; you shall not be to me as a ship that has passed in the night, though to me you have behaved very like an iceberg."We parted in tears and kisses, and I lived for some weeks with that sense of having been a Nero, till two months after Ireceived a much glazed and silvered card to the usual effect.

And so I ceased to repine for the wound I had made in the heart of Semiramis Wilcox.

Of another whom I met and loved in that brief month in Paris, Icherish tenderer memories.Prim little Pauline Deschapelles! How clearly I can still see the respectable brass plate on the door of your little flat-- "Mademoiselle Deschapelles--Modes et Robes;" and indeed the "modes et robes" were true enough.For you were in truth a very hard-working little dressmaker, and Iwell remember how impressed I was to sit beside you, as you plied your needle on some gown that must be finished by the evening, and meditate on the quaint contrast between your almost Puritanic industry and your innocent love of pleasure.I don't think Iever met a more conscientious little woman than little Pauline Deschapelles.

There was but one drawback to our intercourse.She didn't know a word of English, and I couldn't speak a word of French.So we had to make shift to love without either language.But sometimes Pauline would throw down her stitching in amused impatience, and, going to her dainty secretaire, write me a little message in the simplest baby French--which I would answer in French which would knit her brows for a moment or two, and then send her off in peals of laughter.

It WAS French! I know.Among the bric-a-brac of my heart Istill cherish some of those little slips of paper with which we made international love--question and answer.

"Vous allez m'oublier, et ne plus penser a moi--ni me voir.Les hommes--egoistes-- menteurs, pas dire la verite..." so ran the questions, considerably devoid of auxiliary verbs and such details of construction.

"Je serais jamais t'oublier," ran the frightful answers!

Dear Pauline! Shall I ever see her again? She was but twenty-six.She may still live.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 如果我变成回忆

    如果我变成回忆

    在高三最后一学期的冲刺阶段,女生安莹陷入一场暗无天日的单恋,感情与学业的双重压力已让她不堪重负,如突其来的先天性疾病的复发则让她一时陷入绝境。与此同时,安莹身边的人也在各自的命运漩涡中挣扎。一场高考,几个年轻人之间会上演怎样的故事?繁华落尽后,心无所依的安莹是否可以看到一直站在自己身后的人?
  • 绝代丹帝

    绝代丹帝

    强者鄙夷天下,弱者受人鼻息!药殿之主,受人迫害,重生与世,以圣体战破苍穹,以九灵镇压万世,顺者昌,逆者亡,杀吾者,吾亦杀之!吾非圣贤,不会以德报怨!吾非善人,犯者虽远必诛!吾有圣体战苍穹,不尊世间万法!吾有九灵镇万世,横扫四合八荒!且看少年如何崛起,且听世间众人赞叹!灵武双修,成就传奇,丹道称帝,流传佳话!【一花一世界,一叶一菩提,心有多大,世界便有多广!小意出品,速度保证!】
  • 魂去,来兮

    魂去,来兮

    老太监羋倒在地,吊桶被他最终摇了上来,只是……里面装了一个人!三更已过,夜凉如水。文华殿西,零碎地站了些人,那是殿内的皇城卫士。夜里值班当差,天寒地冻,我在门下站了半宿,只觉身体僵硬麻木,仿佛已经脱离了我的躯体一般。“赵大人,天冻了,您往里面站站。”新调来的李三德声音尖细,我略回过头去,他脸上浮现出谄媚的笑:“外面风大,您当心身子骨。”李三德话音未落,我耳边听见一声冷哼:“好体贴的话,就连我们几个听着都热乎起来了。”
  • 莫泊桑作品选(语文新课标课外必读第四辑)

    莫泊桑作品选(语文新课标课外必读第四辑)

    莫泊桑出身于一个没落贵族之家,母亲醉心文艺。他受老师、诗人路易·布那影响,开始多种体裁的文学习作,后在福楼拜亲自指导下练习写作,参加了以左拉为首的自然主义作家集团的活动。莫泊桑短篇小说布局结构的精巧。典型细节的选用、叙事抒情的手法以及行云流水般的自然文笔,都给后世作家提供了楷模。
  • 艾尔伦特I将旅归途

    艾尔伦特I将旅归途

    地球,一直以来被人们所熟悉的这个地方,因为一次不寻常的入侵,揭露出它的真面目。有一支队伍,在世界崩坏之后,怀着各自心中的念想,继续前行。他们到达以前从来都没想过,超出认知的地方,冒险于这个不同以往的世界。一路上,他们也逐渐成长,逐渐变强,并去向最终的地方…
  • 婆薮槃豆传

    婆薮槃豆传

    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。
  • 医女手札

    医女手札

    前一刻她还在大秦替父亲挡剑,再睁开眼就来到这个古里古怪的时代,并且被人用匕首抵在喉间……听说澹台先生被人劫持时七少很不屑,果然百无一用是书生。结果见歹徒手里是个娇滴滴的小姑娘,七少咂咂嘴觉得这小姑娘真是惹人怜爱啊!从此,堂堂都督府的七少就差成了澹台家的倒插门女婿!(如果你喜欢飞飞的小说请收藏一下,谢谢啦!另外我那些可爱的书友们,谢谢你们不离不弃!)
  • 首席谋婚:扑倒名门老公

    首席谋婚:扑倒名门老公

    “不用遮了,该看的不该看的我都看见了,”虽然刚救她于火海,但这该死的男人也太毒蛇了吧!果未未人生第一次头等舱又让毒蛇男小瞧,点一杯红酒怎么了,凭啥说我是陪酒的,士可杀不可辱!好赖我还是时尚杂志工作的小白领。真是丢人丢到姥姥家!大龄剩女怎么了!就活该被他误会是失足女性,如此几番践踏她的尊严,不过是救她一命而已,也不能太嚣张!怎么办?挽回声誉、弥补损失的最好办法就是嫁给他。没想到钻石男严辞拒婚:“打死也不会娶你!”可是,半路杀出的“未来婆婆”,却对她说:“放心,我会让我儿子娶你的……”且看婆媳联手大作战,彻底收服钻石男!
  • 穆斯修高级学府

    穆斯修高级学府

    时间,真的可以让我们忘记彼此吗?枫叶闪过枫红爱恋,划过心伤的痕迹,你看见了吗?不是怨恨,不是仇视,仅仅默默的注视着你。一个游戏结束了,你还会记得我吗?我漫步着走过你的生命,一滩血迹混合着心脏的跳动,无声的爱情划上了心伤的句号。你,在哪里呢?我拥有了所有,而唯独没有你。过去,曾经。我们一起走过。现在,未来。只剩下了我们,而没有你。站在高层楼塔,俯瞰地下成千上万的人群,而他们中,没有你。燕,飞鸣过无数的夏天;蝉,知了了一整个夏日。夏日的悲寂,融化了冰激凌,死亡,铺天盖地…P:因为建立作品的时候出现了内容重复因此添加了一个灬的标点符号,原文名字《血祭》
  • 中国美学通史8(现代卷)

    中国美学通史8(现代卷)

    《中国美学通史(8现代卷)》是叶朗主持的教育部人文社科重大研究项目《中国美学通史》的第八卷即现代卷。主要是阐述传统美学面临西方文化冲击的应对与调适,从一个侧面印证了中国传统文化的张力。论述了东西方美学相互碰撞,对近代中国社会的影响及其各社会阶层对美学的审美要求。对当代美学的发展提供了宝贵的借鉴意义。