登陆注册
16243100000004

第4章

They were rather earnest about the Tommies,and the threat of conion,and the shortage of sugar and toffee for the children.In all these things,of course,the authorities were ridiculously at fault.But Clifford could not take it to heart.To him the authorities were ridiculous ab ovo ,not because of toffee or Tommies.

And the authorities felt ridiculous,and behaved in a rather ridiculous fashion,and it was all a mad hatter's tea-party for a while.Till things developed over there,and Lloyd George came to save the situation over here.And this surpassed even ridicule,the flippant young laughed no more.

In 1916Herbert Chatterley was killed,so Clifford became heir.He was terrified even of this.His importance as son of Sir Geoffrey,and child of Wragby,was so ingrained in him,he could never escape it.And yet he knew that this too,in the eyes of the vast seething world,was ridiculous.

Now he was heir and responsible for Wragby.Was that not terrible?and also splendid and at the same time,perhaps,purely absurd?

Sir Geoffrey would have none of the absurdity.He was pale and tense,withdrawn into himself,and obstinately determined to save his country and his own position,let it be Lloyd George or who it might.So cut off he was,so divorced from the England that was really England,so utterly incapable,that he even thought well of Horatio Bottomley.Sir Geoffrey stood for England and Lloyd George as his forebears had stood for England and St George:and he never knew there was a difference.So Sir Geoffrey felled timber and stood for Lloyd George and England,England and Lloyd George.

And he wanted Clifford to marry and produce an heir.Clifford felt his father was a hopeless anachronism.But wherein was he himself any further ahead,except in a wincing sense of the ridiculousness of everything,and the paramount ridiculousness of his own position?For willy-nilly he took his baronetcy and Wragby with the last seriousness.

The gay excitement had gone out of the war...dead.Too much death and horror.A man needed support arid comfort.A man needed to have an anchor in the safe world.A man needed a wife.

The Chatterleys,two brothers and a sister,had lived curiously isolated,shut in with one another at Wragby,in spite of all their connexions.Asense of isolation intensified the family tie,a sense of the weakness of their position,a sense of defencelessness,in spite of,or because of,the title and the land.They were cut off from those industrial Midlands in which they passed their lives.And they were cut off from their own class by the brooding,obstinate,shut-up nature of Sir Geoffrey,their father,whom they ridiculed,but whom they were so sensitive about.

The three had said they would all live together always.But now Herbert was dead,and Sir Geoffrey wanted Clifford to marry.Sir Geoffrey barely mentioned it:he spoke very little.But his silent,brooding insistence that it should be so was hard for Clifford to bear up against.

But Emma said No!She was ten years older than Clifford,and she felt his marrying would be a desertion and a betrayal of what the young ones of the family had stood for.

Clifford married Connie,nevertheless,and had his month's honeymoon with her.It was the terrible year 1917,and they were intimate as two people who stand together on a sinking ship.He had been virgin when he married:and the sex part did not mean much to him.They were so close,he and she,apart from that.And Connie exulted a little in this intimacy which was beyond sex,and beyond a man's 'satisfaction'.Clifford anyhow was not just keen on his 'satisfaction',as so many men seemed to be.No,the intimacy was deeper,more personal than that.And sex was merely an accident,or an adjunct,one of the curious obsolete,organic processes which persisted in its own clumsiness,but was not really necessary.Though Connie did want children:if only to fortify her against her sister-in-law Emma.

But early in 1918Clifford was shipped home smashed,and there was no child.And Sir Geoffrey died of chagrin.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 三十而立人为峰

    三十而立人为峰

    欢迎阅读本小说。本书主角25岁消失于东南亚,没几天后出现在了中亚,几个月后却开始在全世界各地出现,一直到7年后,才终于踏上了返乡的路程,而这时候,他已经是一名三十而立的男人,从幼稚、青涩到成熟,他花了7年。归国后他只有一张银行卡以及一身的秘密。回到家,他只想好好的侍奉7年没有机会侍奉的父母,他回国后的一切几乎都是为了父母的笑颜,不管是工作或是经商等等,在这期间他结识了无数的人,掌权的或者掌钱的、地下的或者地上的,甚至还结识了仇人——大仇人。
  • 快穿之女主,求不萌

    快穿之女主,求不萌

    想她堂堂一穷逼,住在这40平米的小屋竟然还因为吃了袋方便面进入了什么快穿系统。这就算了,为什么她看的快穿文他们都有新手大礼包,到她这儿就什么都没有。这也不说了,就说这智障系统,刚第一个任务就被它下了惩罚。很久以后,系统成功地被某主神关进了小黑屋整整一年。
  • 凰女归来:逆天七小姐

    凰女归来:逆天七小姐

    被虐待,被凌辱,苦心征战十年沙场,却换得爱人的一杯毒酒!也终于明白原来带给他快乐的只有权利!一次重生,让这些人的一生,一个朝代发生变化,真正的爱人是在背后为你默默付出而不图回报的人,经历了一次次的暴风骤雨,终得花开苦难若风闻,彼岸妖娆诸似开。终究也只剩她一人。一人也可以面临以后的风风雨雨!愿你共安!
  • 寻仙门

    寻仙门

    “何为修仙?”“不为俗世所扰,追寻永生之道。”“如不能免其扰,又当如何?”“我若最强,何人能扰我?”这是一个人族、妖族、灵族三族并立的世界!这是一个在妖族长大的人族少年一步步登顶成为强者的故事!
  • 仙侠之灵剑传

    仙侠之灵剑传

    百炼仙,长生愿,侠骨柔情江湖恋;飘零客,仗剑行,十年生死弹指间;几许离恨寸心缘,天涯自古痴情怨;叹一声,梦里玄机,轮回因果,风萧萧兮,为爱逆天!
  • 播音创作基础训练教程

    播音创作基础训练教程

    播音主持专业教学自20世纪60年代滥觞于北京广播学院,得益于一代代播音教学岗位巨擘、大师、前辈、同侪的矻矻致力,薪火相传,而今已迈入枝繁叶茂、万类霜天竞自由的盛年。现如今,播音主持学术理论大架已然形成,同业人在科学承继中前瞻、出新与发展,一批又一批播音主持人才走出象牙塔,在广播电视一线挥洒着智慧和才情。这是广播电视事业兴旺发达之兆迹,也是播音主持后备人才培养之方略。广播电视事业发展正未有穷期;播音主持专业人才培养亦跨越常往,继续抒写着一代风流。瞻前顾后,于今天在播音主持岗位上奋争了35个春秋的我辈,欣然中自是慨当以慷。
  • 逃离的爱:总裁,你落网了

    逃离的爱:总裁,你落网了

    小时,她被远送美国,大时,她被情所伤。“祈总,夫人去夜店了,”某男挑了挑眉;“祈总,夫人在公司当中调戏了男人,”某男身边有一股低气压,助理当时表示就不好了,少夫人,你够了;“祈总,夫人说要和你离婚,”某男拿出电话,“去把你家少夫人绑回家,”又继续自己的工作。
  • 巫师手札

    巫师手札

    新书《仙道剑魂》已发,有兴趣的朋友不妨来看看。穿越仙侠世界,随身携带掉落系统。武道立派,仙家立宗,万般道法皆讲根骨,没有根骨怎么办?总被人踩怎么办?还好贫道自带掉率,先刷一波天才,嘣嘎脆!
  • 金龙决

    金龙决

    一个转世的八爪金龙,一个吸血鬼,一个狼人..这样的组合会有什么故事.?
  • 活人皮

    活人皮

    来自世界上某一个漆黑的角落的悲歌。当关心变成厌烦的时候,她,不爱了。