登陆注册
5393100000054

第54章

My success as story-teller, commentator, critic, jester, revived my childish ambition towards authorship. My first stirrings in this direction I cannot rightly place. I remember when very small falling into a sunk dust-bin--a deep hole, rather, into which the gardener shot his rubbish. The fall twisted my ankle so that I could not move; and the time being evening and my prison some distance from the house, my predicament loomed large before me. Yet one consolation remained with me: the incident would be of value to me in the autobiography upon which I was then engaged. I can distinctly recollect lying on my back among decaying leaves and broken glass, framing my account. "On this day a strange adventure befell me. Walking in the garden, all unheeding, I suddenly"--I did not want to add the truth--"tumbled into a dust-hole, six feet square, that any one but a moon calf might have seen." I puzzled to evolve a more dignified situation. The dust-bin became a cavern, the entrance to which had been artfully concealed; the six or seven feet I had really fallen, "an endless descent, terminating in a vast and gloomy chamber." I was divided between opposing desires: One, for rescue followed by sympathy and supper; the other, for the alarming experience of a night of terror where I lay. Nature conquering Art, I yelled; and the episode terminated prosaically with a warm bath and arnica. But from it I judge that desire for the woes and perils of authorship was with me somewhat early.

Of my many other dreams I would speak freely, discussing them at length with sympathetic souls, but concerning this one ambition I was curiously reticent. Only to two--my mother and a grey-bearded Stranger--did I ever breathe a word of it. Even from my father I kept it a secret, close comrades in all else though we were. He would have talked of it much and freely, dragged it into the light of day; and from this I shrank.

My talk with the Stranger came about in this wise. One evening I had taken a walk to Victoria Park--a favourite haunt of mine at summer time. It was a fair and peaceful evening, and I fell a-wandering there in pleasant reverie, until the waning light hinted to me the question of time. I looked about me. Only one human being was in sight, a man with his back towards me, seated upon a bench overlooking the ornamental water.

I drew nearer. He took no notice of me, and interested--though why, I could not say--I seated myself beside him at the other end of the bench. He was a handsome, distinguished-looking man, with wonderfully bright, clear eyes and iron-grey hair and beard. I might have thought him a sea captain, of whom many were always to be met with in that neighbourhood, but for his hands, which were crossed upon his stick, and which were white and delicate as a woman's. He turned his face and glanced at me. I fancied that his lips beneath the grey moustache smiled; and instinctively I edged a little nearer to him.

"Please, sir," I said, after awhile, "could you tell me the right time?"

"Twenty minutes to eight," he answered, looking at his watch. And his voice drew me towards him even more than had his beautiful strong face. I thanked him, and we fell back into silence.

"Where do you live?" he turned and suddenly asked me.

"Oh, only over there," I answered, with a wave of my arm towards the chimney-fringed horizon behind us. "I needn't be in till half-past eight. I like this Park so much," I added, "I often come and sit here of an evening.'

"Why do you like to come and sit here?" he asked. "Tell me."

"Oh, I don't know," I answered. "I think."

I marvelled at myself. With strangers generally I was shy and silent; but the magic of his bright eyes seemed to have loosened my tongue.

I told him my name; that we lived in a street always full of ugly sounds, so that a gentleman could not think, not even in the evening time, when Thought goes a-visiting.

"Mamma does not like the twilight time," I confided to him. "It always makes her cry. But then mamma is--not very young, you know, and has had a deal of trouble; and that makes a difference, I suppose."

He laid his hand upon mine. We were sitting nearer to each other now.

"God made women weak to teach us men to be tender," he said. "But you, Paul, like this 'twilight time'?"

"Yes," I answered, "very much. Don't you?"

"And why do you like it?" he asked.

"Oh," I answered, "things come to you."

"What things?"

"Oh, fancies," I explained to him. "I am going to be an author when I grow up, and write books."

He took my hand in his and shook it gravely, and then returned it to me. "I, too, am a writer of books," he said.

And then I knew what had drawn me to him.

So for the first time I understood the joy of talking "shop" with a fellow craftsman. I told him my favourite authors--Scott, and Dumas, and Victor Hugo; and to my delight found they were his also; he agreeing with me that real stories were the best, stories in which people did things.

"I used to read silly stuff once," I confessed, "Indian tales and that sort of thing, you know. But mamma said I'd never be able to write if I read that rubbish."

"You will find it so all through life, Paul," he replied. "The things that are nice are rarely good for us. And what do you read now?"

"I am reading Marlowe's Plays and De Quincey's Confessions just now,"

同类推荐
  • 集一切福德三昧经

    集一切福德三昧经

    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。
  • 彊村语业

    彊村语业

    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。
  • 昭觉丈雪醉禅师语录

    昭觉丈雪醉禅师语录

    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。
  • 南华真经章句音义

    南华真经章句音义

    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。
  • 章大力先生稿

    章大力先生稿

    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
  • 有法有天:不可不知的350个法律常识

    有法有天:不可不知的350个法律常识

    法律并非人们想象中的那样高深莫测,也并不是司法机关或者律师等专业人士的专利,而是贴近大众生活的“日常必需品”。用最通俗的语言来讲解最晦涩的法律条款,是本书的最大特点。拥有它,读懂它,你的合法权益将不再受到侵害,成功维权不再是梦。本书针对当前许多人对法律的需求,从当事人的角度出发,针对人们在日常生活中遇到的各种纠纷和人们所关心的法律问题,列举了大量案例进行深入分析。本书克服了法律普及读物重说法、轻案例的弊端,在内容的编排上,从多角度分析具体情况,使面临麻烦的你迅速抓住问题的要害,在短时间内成为运用法律成功维权的高手。书中专业的法律评析,能让人们轻松地找到法律依据,以最便捷、最科学的方式运用法律。
  • 狂临异世

    狂临异世

    经过一年的磨练,醉猪对小说了有新的领悟新作《蛊佛》正式上传,希望各位读者朋友能够继续支持见证醉猪的成长
  • 三国一点儿也不靠谱

    三国一点儿也不靠谱

    刘备为什么要三顾茅庐?关羽为什么要千里走单骑?曹操为什么只承认他和刘备是英雄?《隆中对》到底是什么意思?赵云为何不讨刘备喜欢?诸葛亮为什么不断对曹魏用兵?为什么天下合久必分?为什么分久又必合?为什么…… 在中国,《三国演义》使三国人物形象深入人心。 然而,历史果真如此吗?翻阅雾满拦江的这本《三国一点儿也不靠谱》,你会发现,你所知道的三国简直是一点儿也不靠谱!
  • 百戏之祖(一)

    百戏之祖(一)

    一个繁体的汉字“戏”,左边是虚,右边为戈,它形象地说明了戏曲艺术最初是一种模仿现实生活——狩猎、渔耕、战争、宗教等等的娱乐。娱乐,作为人性本能的需求,与生俱有。戏剧的源起,来自于原始人类的艺术性创造,这种创造往往带有宗教信仰的特征。审美意义上的戏剧的出现,则需要经历一个逐步转移的漫长过程。人类幼年期的娱乐,与我们童稚时代的玩耍嬉戏,在本质上是一致的。随着时代的进步,到了以舒解筋骨、平衡心理、陶情冶性为目的,乃至需要从中获得思想教益时,人们的娱乐才进入了自觉的层面。
  • 八十天环游地球

    八十天环游地球

    我们在阅读文学名著时,往往会遇到一些难以理解的词句,这样就会阻碍我们读懂某一句话或某一段话的意思。所以,我们必须正确理解词句的含义,而理解词语不能仅仅局限在表面含义,还要认真体会它们所表达的作用。
  • 一本书读完人类兵器的历史

    一本书读完人类兵器的历史

    如果说战争推动并造就了历史,那么兵器就推动并造就了战争。崔佳编著的《一本书读完人类兵器的历史》将人类兵器发展的历史用故事的形式加以讲述,再现了人类兵器发展过程中的历史事件,激发读者的求知欲望和好奇心。《一本书读完人类兵器的历史》图文并茂,是一本不多见的讲述兵器发展历史的图书。现在就让我们一起,随着本书的精彩内容,一起进入人类兵器历史发展的隧道,去开始一场精彩刺激的旅程吧。
  • 他是饲养员

    他是饲养员

    (唔……是一篇小短文)陆琛是G市五中有名的混世魔王,不曾想他,会栽在一个,爱哭的小姑娘身上。陆琛家后草坪…“陆琛,你又在打游戏!”某个爱哭包眼泪汪汪…陆琛看到这幅模样,深切表示,好嘞,我怂了…
  • 绯色婚宠,宁少的1号夫人

    绯色婚宠,宁少的1号夫人

    每天打四份工艰苦度日却不小心打到总裁头上,柳明媚表示很无辜。面前摆着三条路:监狱、婚姻、娱乐圈,柳明媚觉得第三条路勉强可以接受。本以为他帮她,宠她,是她坚实的依靠,却不想,宁奕辰不过是她的监牢,他跟她永远隔着一堵高墙。当她站在最闪亮的聚光灯下,功成名就之时,宁奕辰才发觉自己做错了一件事。宁奕辰:“你不适合娱乐圈!”柳明媚:“你说一个天后不适合娱乐圈?”宁奕辰:“你最适合嫁给我!”
  • 重生之七小姐不好惹

    重生之七小姐不好惹

    前世,她是人人可欺的废物,天生没有魂力,不能修炼。在以武为尊的云巅大陆上,强者被人尊敬,弱者只能被人欺凌。她,21世纪的高材生也是一名医生,一场车祸让她成为了丞相府的废物七小姐。既然她成为了这个世界的叶千霜,那么她就会让那些曾经欺负过原主的人加倍偿还,害她的人挫骨扬灰,恨她的人生不如死。
  • 佛说八吉祥神咒经

    佛说八吉祥神咒经

    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。