登陆注册
15444200000005

第5章 CHAPTER III--A FAMILY POLYGON(1)

Mrs. Grubb's family circle was really not a circle at all; it was rather a polygon--a curious assemblage of distinct personages.

There was no unity in it, no membership one of another. It was four ones, not one four. If some gatherer of statistics had visited the household, he might have described it thus:-

Mrs. S. Cora Grubb, widow, aged forty years.

'Alisa Bennett, feeble-minded, aged ten or twelve years.

'Atlantic and Pacific Simonson, twins, aged four years.'

The man of statistics might seek in vain for some principle of attraction or cohesion between these independent elements; but no one who knew Mrs. Grubb would have been astonished at the sort of family that had gathered itself about her. Queer as it undoubtedly was at this period, it had, at various times, been infinitely queerer.

There was a certain memorable month, shortly after her husband's decease, when Mrs. Grubb allowed herself to be considered as a compensated hostess, though the terms 'landlady' and 'boarder' were never uttered in her hearing. She hired a Chinese cook, who slept at home; cleared out, for the use of Lisa and the twins, a small storeroom in which she commonly kept Eldorado face-powder; and herself occupied a sofa in the apartment of a friend of humanity in the next street. These arrangements enabled her to admit an experimenter on hypnotism, a mental healer who had been much abused by the orthodox members of her cult, and was evolving a method of her own, an ostensible delegate to an Occidental Conference of Religions, and a lady agent for a flexible celluloid undershirt. For a few days Mrs. Grubb found the society of these persons very stimulating and agreeable; but before long the hypnotist proved to be an unscrupulous gentleman, who hypnotised the mental healer so that she could not heal, and the Chinese cook so that he could not cook. When, therefore, the delegate departed suddenly in company with the celluloid-underwear lady, explaining by a hurried postal card that they would 'remit' from Chicago, she evicted the other two boarders, and retired again to private life.

This episode was only one of Mrs. Grubb's many divagations, for she had been a person of advanced ideas from a comparatively early age.

It would seem that she must have inherited a certain number of 'views,' because no human being could have amassed, in a quarter of a century, as many as she held at the age of twenty-five. She had then stood up with Mr. Charles Grubb, before a large assembly, in the presence of which they promised to assume and continue the relation of husband and wife so long as it was mutually agreeable. As a matter of fact it had not been mutually agreeable to Mr. Grubb more than six months, but such was the nobility of his character that he never disclosed his disappointment nor claimed any immunity from the responsibilities of the marriage state. Mr. Grubb was a timid, conventional soul, who would have given all the testimony of all the witnesses of his wedding ceremony for the mere presence of a single parson; but he imagined himself in love with Cora Wilkins, and she could neither be wooed nor won by any of the beaten paths that led to other women. He foolishly thought that the number of her convictions would grow less after she became a wife, little suspecting the fertility of her mind, which put forth a new explanation of the universe every day, like a strawberry plant that devotes itself so exclusively to 'runners' that it has little vigour left for producing fruit.

The town in New York where they lived proving to be too small, narrow, and bigoted to hold a developing soul like Mrs. Grubb's, she persuaded her husband to take passage for California, where the climate might be supposed more favourable to the growth of saving ideas. Mr. Grubb would, of course, be obliged to relinquish his business, but people could buy and sell anywhere, she thought, and as for her, she wanted nothing but unlimited space in which to expand.

There was money enough for an economical journey and a month or two of idleness afterwards; and as Mrs. Grubb believed everything in the universe was hers, if she only chose to claim it, the question of finances never greatly troubled her. They sailed for the golden West, then, this ill-assorted couple, accompanied by Mrs. Grubb's only sister, who had been a wife, was now a widow, and would shortly become a mother. The interesting event occurred much sooner than had been anticipated. The ship became the birthplace of the twins, who had been most unwelcome when they were thought about as one, and entirely offensive when found to be two. The mother did not long survive the shock of her surprise and displeasure, and after naming the babies Atlantic and Pacific, and confiding them distinctly to the care of Mr., not Mrs., Grubb, she died, and was buried at sea, not far from Cape Horn. Mrs. Cora enjoyed at first the dramatic possibilities of her position on the ship, where the baby orphans found more than one kindly, sentimental woman ready to care for them; but there was no permanent place in her philosophy for a pair of twins who entered existence with a concerted shriek, and continued it for ever afterwards, as if their only purpose in life was to keep the lungs well inflated. Her supreme wish was to be freed from the carking cares of the flesh, and thus for ever ready to wing her free spirit in the pure ether of speculation.

You would hardly suppose that the obscure spouse of Mrs. Grubb could wash and dress the twins, prepare their breakfast, go to his work, come home and put them to bed, four or five days out of every seven in the week; but that is what he did, accepting it as one phase of the mysterious human comedy (or was it tragedy?) in which he played his humble part.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 镀金时代

    镀金时代

    许南音精通古玩鉴赏,但到了国际大拍行,她才知道,原来捡漏发财早已过时,这是一个甚至比抢劫更加安全高效敛财的地方。这是,有钱人的游戏!南音幡然悔悟,自己不玩,就等着被人玩死!
  • 华夏文明

    华夏文明

    看过穿越文吧。如果说,一个现代的职业杀手,穿越回到古代会发生一些什么呢?敬请期待。。。。
  • 创世星之人类新纪元

    创世星之人类新纪元

    23世纪,地球走向灭亡,外太空一个新的“地球”——创世星,成为了人类新的集聚地。新的经济,新的法律,新的秩序,新的生活方式。人类面临新一轮挑战。主角白念怀揣信念在未知新世界探寻真理。创世星的冒险现在开始......
  • 梦之殇咒

    梦之殇咒

    故事以穿越题材为主,穿越与现代相互设坑。穿越前的流程虽然较长,但全是为穿越后的相遇设坑。有欢快有哀悯有深切,依附虽然不是很紧密。重在创意。
  • 御剑神峰

    御剑神峰

    天下惶惶,唯我乘之,天下悠悠,唯我独之。乘龙卫士,快随我看看他能到底发生了什么事,是怎么应对的。
  • 双炎少年

    双炎少年

    一部参合着极道、玄幻、搞笑、爱情、友情、兄弟情的经典网络现代修真小说。精彩的剧情,华丽的动作武打都将给您带入一个真实的虚幻世界。凋零的玫瑰,感人涕零的爱情。究竟怎样才算是海枯石烂?残忍的杀戳,命悬一线的生死较量。那是靠心与心之间的默契才能取得的胜利!让三界安宁。让爱永恒。让他们的故事从这一刻起,拉开序幕······
  • 凶灵缠身

    凶灵缠身

    一个江湖武者在隐退之后被人所杀,不得不加入到冥府之中,在一个又一个平行世界之中杀戮、赎罪。且看一个罪孽深重之人的成就冥府正神的故事。ps:平行世界不是完全根据电影、电视剧、小说、动漫写的。
  • 恋你成瘾

    恋你成瘾

    林执遇上颜习语的那一刻起,就知道这个女人是自己想要的,所以不惜用尽一切手段得到她。颜习语不知道林执究竟看上她哪一点了,她改还不行吗?她想尽一切方法避开他,却还是逃不开他的手掌心。
  • 太上洞玄灵宝法烛经

    太上洞玄灵宝法烛经

    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。
  • 我欲成说

    我欲成说

    主人公本生世不凡,顺风顺水,享受人生,可奈何背负家族命运,却又全然不知。一次次命运波澜,一次次逆水行舟,主人公一边完成自己都不知道终点的使命,一边享受着人生的爱恨情仇,体悟着人生暖寒。。。。