登陆注册
15398400000018

第18章

"If you're going into this kind of thing there's a fact you should know beforehand; it may save you some disappointment.There's a hatred of art, there's a hatred of literature--I mean of the genuine kinds.Oh the shams--those they'll swallow by the bucket!" I looked up at the charming house, with its genial colour and crookedness, and I answered with a smile that those evil passions might exist, but that I should never have expected to find them there."Ah it doesn't matter after all," he a bit nervously laughed; which I was glad to hear, for I was reproaching myself with having worked him up.

If I had it soon passed off, for at luncheon he was delightful;strangely delightful considering that the difference between himself and his wife was, as he had said, irreconcilable.He had the art, by his manner, by his smile, by his natural amenity, of reducing the importance of it in the common concerns of life; and Mrs.Ambient, Imust add, lent herself to this transaction with a very good grace.Iwatched her at table for further illustrations of that fixed idea of which Miss Ambient had spoken to me; for in the light of the united revelations of her sister-in-law and her husband she had come to seem to me almost a sinister personage.Yet the signs of a sombre fanaticism were not more immediately striking in her than before; it was only after a while that her air of incorruptible conformity, her tapering monosyllabic correctness, began to affect me as in themselves a cold thin flame.Certainly, at first, she resembled a woman with as few passions as possible; but if she had a passion at all it would indeed be that of Philistinism.She might have been (for there are guardian-spirits, I suppose, of all great principles)the very angel of the pink of propriety--putting the pink for a principle, though I'd rather put some dismal cold blue.Mark Ambient, apparently, ten years before, had simply and quite inevitably taken her for an angel, without asking himself of what.

He had been right in calling my attention to her beauty.In looking for some explanation of his original surrender to her I saw more than before that she was, physically speaking, a wonderfully cultivated human plant--that he might well have owed her a brief poetic inspiration.It was impossible to be more propped and pencilled, more delicately tinted and petalled.

If I had had it in my heart to think my host a little of a hypocrite for appearing to forget at table everything he had said to me in our walk, I should instantly have cancelled such a judgement on reflecting that the good news his wife was able to give him about their little boy was ground enough for any optimistic reaction.It may have come partly, too, from a certain compunction at having breathed to me at all harshly on the cool fair lady who sat there--a desire to prove himself not after all so mismated.Dolcino continued to be much better, and it had been promised him he should come downstairs after his dinner.As soon as we had risen from our own meal Mark slipped away, evidently for the purpose of going to his child; and no sooner had I observed this than I became aware his wife had simultaneously vanished.It happened that Miss Ambient and I, both at the same moment, saw the tail of her dress whisk out of a doorway; an incident that led the young lady to smile at me as if Inow knew all the secrets of the Ambients.I passed with her into the garden and we sat down on a dear old bench that rested against the west wall of the house.It was a perfect spot for the middle period of a Sunday in June, and its felicity seemed to come partly from an antique sun-dial which, rising in front of us and forming the centre of a small intricate parterre, measured the moments ever so slowly and made them safe for leisure and talk.The garden bloomed in the suffused afternoon, the tall beeches stood still for an example, and, behind and above us, a rose tree of many seasons, clinging to the faded grain of the brick, expressed the whole character of the scene in a familiar exquisite smell.It struck me as a place to offer genius every favour and sanction--not to bristle with challenges and checks.Miss Ambient asked me if I had enjoyed my walk with her brother and whether we had talked of many things.

"Well, of most things," I freely allowed, though I remembered we hadn't talked of Miss Ambient.

"And don't you think some of his theories are very peculiar?""Oh I guess I agree with them all." I was very particular, for Miss Ambient's entertainment, to guess.

"Do you think art's everything?" she put to me in a moment.

"In art, of course I do!"

"And do you think beauty's everything?"

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 超时空改命大师

    超时空改命大师

    这不是一个童话故事,这是一个科幻英雄传奇,所以没有“永远幸福快乐的王子和公主”,只有在低层打滚的蚁民和穿越多个平行时空附身改命﹑普渡众生的“改命大师”。英雄有两张脸孔:一张是英雄,一张是寻常人。作为英雄,季安魄力十足,他的名言是:“倒霉蛋,上帝对你不公平,那就让我还你一个公平吧。”作为寻常人,季安盼着通过任务奖励改写人生。到底要完成多少次任务,穿越多少个时空,才可以把过去的过错修正,得到一段最平凡的幸福?
  • 骷髅山

    骷髅山

    骷髅山白骨洞的子弟修炼成仙必须经历重重考验,包括元婴、法宝、丹药、修炼武器等修炼,最终主人公:阿康能否顺利通过考验,位列仙班昵?......
  • 孤星傲

    孤星傲

    烈火焚天,圣婴降世;西天有恙,至尊重生。浩瀚神界,天机混乱,各种生灵出世,为争夺神界主宰之权,神洲大陆上掀起一阵阵腥风血雨。在乱世之中,更有“外敌”趁势崛起,于神界显化,争夺神界主宰之权。谁将是宿命中人,成为神界之主;谁又会打破宿命,真正重生。争天道,踏乾坤,谁才是万世的至尊;为所爱,造不朽,谁才是真正情深。且看一代英杰圣女,于神界争锋,演绎痴情的爱恋,塑造万古的神话。
  • 文化引领 特色发展

    文化引领 特色发展

    《中国教育改革和发展纲要》指出中小学校“要办出各自的特色”。近些年来,许多中小学校在特色学校建设的理论与实践上都进行了有益的探索。胡锦涛总书记对重庆发展作出“314”总体部署,强调要把重庆建设成为“城乡统筹发展的直辖市”,因此,九龙坡区在构建和谐社会、促进城乡统筹发展的时代背景下,整体推进特色学校建设无疑被赋予了新的内涵。
  • 争霸暗世界

    争霸暗世界

    李汉本是一个普普通通的乡村留守儿童,不服管教。后来受到一些外来刺激,开始认真学习考上了理想的大学。毕业后因为世态炎凉,经历沉浮后无奈走上了一条世人眼中的不归路,开始接触国内的及国外的,前卫的及传统的,历史悠久的及创立不久的帮派中人,他的队伍在腥风血雨中壮大,他本人在挫折磨难中一步步通往地下世界权力之巅。
  • 神级杀手在都市

    神级杀手在都市

    世界顶级杀手唐林,历尽惊险与繁华之后,突然接到保护未婚妻的任务。这保镖工作可真不好做,要会飙车,懂喝茶,斗得过纨绔,躲得了暗杀。不过对于全能杀手的唐林来说,这些都是小儿科。可是,当美女大小姐突然倾心,大明星硬倒贴,漂亮警花天天跟踪的时候,唐林才发现,原来要做个普通人,也不是那么容易啊!
  • 奇异少女之黑暗

    奇异少女之黑暗

    在一次夜晚降临了一个小女孩,名叫鹿晚颖,她的降临发生了奇怪的事,母亲死了,出生的地方消失了,然后被送到了森之林村庄,但在17岁时村民被屠杀,她开始了不一样的“旅程”变成了暗黑魔女,大家称她为“奇异少女”……
  • 三小只的初恋

    三小只的初恋

    萌萌哒,又可爱又酷的三小只开始了他们的甜蜜地初恋。
  • 重生之我是奥登

    重生之我是奥登

    一直为奥登惋惜的王伟,意外穿越成零七年刚刚参加NBA选秀的格雷格·奥登。一个被伤病毁掉的天才中锋,王伟能改变奥登曾经悲剧的职业生涯吗?NBA,你们的奥登大帝回来了!
  • 极品男佣

    极品男佣

    唉!谁叫我没文凭又没工作经历,我就做一名男佣吧!陈十三无奈的决定。却没想到男佣竟然是如此高尚有前途的职业,美女金领、时尚女编辑、校园小公主、霸道的总裁未婚妻、甚至冤家对头魔门圣女,都成了陈十三的雇主,生活一下子丰富多彩起来……