登陆注册
15697400000044

第44章

Thinks she was born to be everybody's servant." He seated himself beside Miss Ensor on the antiquated sofa. It gave a complaining groan but held out.

"Did you have a good house?" the girl asked him. "Saw you from the distance, waving your arms about. Hadn't time to stop.""Not many," admitted Mr. Simson. "A Christmassy lot. You know.

Sort of crowd that interrupts you and tries to be funny. Dead to their own interests. It's slow work.""Why do you do it?" asked Miss Ensor.

"Damned if I know," answered Mr. Simson, with a burst of candour.

"Can't help it, I suppose. Lost me job again.""The old story?" suggested Miss Ensor.

"The old story," sighed Mr. Simson. "One of the customers happened to be passing last Wednesday when I was speaking on the Embankment.

Heard my opinion of the middle classes?"

"Well, you can't expect 'em to like it, can you?" submitted Miss Ensor.

"No," admitted Mr. Simson with generosity. "It's only natural.

It's a fight to the finish between me and the Bourgeois. I cover them with ridicule and contempt and they hit back at me in the only way they know.""Take care they don't get the best of you," Miss Ensor advised him.

"Oh, I'm not afraid," he answered. "I'll get another place all right: give me time. The only thing I'm worried about is my young woman.""Doesn't agree with you?" inquired Miss Ensor.

"Oh, it isn't that," he answered. "But she's frightened. You know. Says life with me is going to be a bit too uncertain for her. Perhaps she's right.""Oh, why don't you chuck it," advised Miss Ensor, "give the Bourgeois a rest."Mr. Simson shook his head. "Somebody's got to tackle them," he said. "Tell them the truth about themselves, to their faces.""Yes, but it needn't be you," suggested Miss Ensor.

Mary was leaning over the table. Miss Ensor's four-penny veal and ham pie was ready. Mary arranged it in front of her. "Eat it while it's hot, dearie," she counselled. "It won't be so indigestible."Miss Ensor turned to her. "Oh, you talk to him," she urged.

"Here, he's lost his job again, and is losing his girl: all because of his silly politics. Tell him he's got to have sense and stop it."Mary seemed troubled. Evidently, as Miss Ensor had stated, advice was not her line. "Perhaps he's got to do it, dearie," she suggested.

"What do you mean by got to do it?" exclaimed Miss Ensor. "Who's making him do it, except himself?"Mary flushed. She seemed to want to get back to her cooking.

"It's something inside us, dearie," she thought: "that nobody hears but ourselves.""That tells him to talk all that twaddle?" demanded Miss Ensor.

"Have you heard him?"

"No, dearie," Mary admitted. "But I expect it's got its purpose.

Or he wouldn't have to do it."

Miss Ensor gave a gesture of despair and applied herself to her pie. The hirsute face of Mr. Simson had lost the foolish aggressiveness that had irritated Joan. He seemed to be pondering matters.

Mary hoped that Joan was hungry. Joan laughed and admitted that she was. "It's the smell of all the nice things," she explained.

Mary promised it should soon be ready, and went back to her corner.

A short, dark, thick-set man entered and stood looking round the room. The frame must once have been powerful, but now it was shrunken and emaciated. The shabby, threadbare clothes hung loosely from the stooping shoulders. Only the head seemed to have retained its vigour. The face, from which the long black hair was brushed straight back, was ghastly white. Out of it, deep set beneath great shaggy, overhanging brows, blazed the fierce, restless eyes of a fanatic. The huge, thin-lipped mouth seemed to have petrified itself into a savage snarl. He gave Joan the idea, as he stood there glaring round him, of a hunted beast at bay.

Miss Ensor, whose bump of reverence was undeveloped, greeted him cheerfully as Boanerges. Mr. Simson, more respectful, rose and offered his small, grimy hand. Mary took his hat and cloak away from him and closed the door behind him. She felt his hands, and put him into a chair close to the fire. And then she introduced him to Joan.

Joan started on hearing his name. It was one well known.

"The Cyril Baptiste?" she asked. She had often wondered what he might be like.

"The Cyril Baptiste," he answered, in a low, even, passionate voice, that he flung at her almost like a blow. "The atheist, the gaol bird, the pariah, the blasphemer, the anti-Christ. I've hoofs instead of feet. Shall I take off my boots and show them to you?

I tuck my tail inside my coat. You can't see my horns. I've cut them off close to my head. That's why I wear my hair long: to hide the stumps."Mary had been searching in the pockets of his cloak. She had found a paper bag. "You mustn't get excited," she said, laying her little work-worn hand upon his shoulder; "or you'll bring on the bleeding.""Aye," he answered, "I must be careful I don't die on Christmas Day. It would make a fine text, that, for their sermons."He lapsed into silence: his almost transparent hands stretched out towards the fire.

Mr. Simson fidgeted. The quiet of the room, broken only by Mary's ministering activities, evidently oppressed him.

"Paper going well, sir?" he asked. "I often read it myself.""It still sells," answered the proprietor, and editor and publisher, and entire staff of The Rationalist.

"I like the articles you are writing on the History of Superstition. Quite illuminating," remarked Mr. Simson.

"It's many a year, I am afraid, to the final chapter," thought their author.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 淡淡的光影

    淡淡的光影

    再也没有人能代替你,一个个别离都是你陪在我身边,真的谢谢你,但是,我可能已经习惯了你的陪伴;刚开始的时候,你是个路痴,哪里都要我陪着你,到后来,你渐渐变成了我最重要的人,哭,你陪着我,笑,你陪着我,我不知道从什么时候开始想一直想要你的陪伴了;第一次离开的时候,我再也没有笑过,直到你回来。那并不是你的错,只是同学之间的憎恨,激化了对你的嫉妒,你只是再帮助,却被诬告……
  • 无价弃妃

    无价弃妃

    她是黑道老大之女,从出生开始,就注定满手染血,一生都过着刀尖舔血的日子。人不犯我,我不犯人,人若犯我,定会让你后悔终生!一朝穿越,成为被打入‘冷宫’的世子妃,上官灵珠,因为知道南宫离会另娶妾侍,为了吓唬南宫离自杀,谁知道弄假成真。情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 总裁独宠青梅妻

    总裁独宠青梅妻

    总裁,冷小姐回国了,好总裁,夫人砸了一家店找人帮她一起砸总裁,夫人进了娱乐圈好,收购那家娱乐公司总裁,夫人爬墙了好,,什么,,?
  • 陇上翘楚:人物卷

    陇上翘楚:人物卷

    雄奇绵长、多姿多彩的地理环境,源远流长、积淀丰厚的历史文化,以及当代多民族风情,构成甘肃独特的自然、社会和人文的辽远广阔时空。作为中华文明的重要发祥地之一、东西方文化交会的通衢大道、多元一体的民族大融汇之域、祖国重要的生态屏障,在苍茫中透出厚重,在古朴中显现灵动,联系着中华文明之根、氤氲着中华民族之魂。也许正因为如此,甘肃又是一个略带神秘色彩,让世人渴望了解的地方。为了立体地全方位地展示甘肃的地理风貌、历史传统和人文积淀,陈自仁编著的《陇上翘楚/人文甘肃》,《陇上翘楚/人文甘肃》从这些在历史上留下深刻影响的人物中,挑选了五十多位最具代表性的人物,对他们的一生,分别做了细腻而生动的描述。
  • 杀手17

    杀手17

    一个人的名字往往蕴含着很多东西,不一样的名字就会有不一样的价钱。人们总是愿意为好的名字出一个好的价钱。而我的工作就是帮助别人获得好名字的那个人,有多好...........那是无价一个杀手的故事
  • 封印九界之寄宿师

    封印九界之寄宿师

    父亲不知为何人所害,从此踏上寻找凶手复仇之路的少年能否找到真凶报得杀父之仇。在拜入了蜓园门下十年无所做为的少年最后能绽放吗?突然出现的一对青年男女组合又是何人?宿命大陆难道就是整个世界了吗?说不定还有别的大陆的存在呢
  • 我叫思洋

    我叫思洋

    很现实的成长篇青春轻小说,中学开始的生活,出生社会的各种经历,与两个女主角时有时无、若即若离的情感,充分体现出了现在社会的燥乱
  • 众生之虚

    众生之虚

    从魔界远道而来的少年,封印实力,以身涉险,到底所为哪般?遥远天际的诸神和下界众生,他们所面临的又将是怎样的灾难?太虚和太谛又是怎样的存在?人类从哪里来,又是去往何方?流逝的时间长河之中隐藏了多少骇人的秘密?只要掌握了诸多强大的法则,你就可以去探索这个神秘莫测的世界……
  • 一世珍藏的散文130篇

    一世珍藏的散文130篇

    本书里的美文可以说是古今中外的名篇。这些文章的题材五花八门,不少是谈草木虫鱼、风花雪月的,可即使如此,也具有丰富、生动的意义。原因何在?就在于这些草木虫鱼、风花雪月打上了作者的精神印记,成为这些名家人格的艺术象征了。从这样的文章可以读出作者独特的生命理解、人生态度和思想信仰。
  • 你看爱情它来过

    你看爱情它来过

    五岁的分别,二十岁的相见,林栀宇早已不记得幼时。意外发现上一届毕业N大校草学长顾凯陌竟然是自己的未来结婚对象,心中一万只草泥马奔过。躲躲躲。顾凯陌深邃的目光盯得她发麻,他压低了声音说:“你认为你躲得过吗?我警告你,以后躲我一次,我就亲你一次。”神经病!有毛病!脑膜炎!脑残!变态!林栀宇欲哭无泪。