登陆注册
15400300000012

第12章

As I have said,I was unpacking my luggage after a journey from London into Ukraine.The MS.of "Almayer's Folly"--my companion already for some three years or more,and then in the ninth chapter of its age--was deposited unostentatiously on the writing-table placed between two windows.It didn't occur to me to put it away in the drawer the table was fitted with,but my eye was attracted by the good form of the same drawer's brass handles.Two candelabra,with four candles each,lighted up festally the room which had waited so many years for the wandering nephew.The blinds were down.

Within five hundred yards of the chair on which I sat stood the first peasant hut of the village--part of my maternal grandfather's estate,the only part remaining in the possession of a member of the family;and beyond the village in the limitless blackness of a winter's night there lay the great unfenced fields--not a flat and severe plain,but a kindly bread-giving land of low rounded ridges,all white now,with the black patches of timber nestling in the hollows.The road by which I had come ran through the village with a turn just outside the gates closing the short drive.Somebody was abroad on the deep snow track;a quick tinkle of bells stole gradually into the stillness of the room like a tuneful whisper.

My unpacking had been watched over by the servant who had come to help me,and,for the most part,had been standing attentive but unnecessary at the door of the room.I did not want him in the least,but I did not like to tell him to go away.He was a young fellow,certainly more than ten years younger than myself;I had not been--I won't say in that place,but within sixty miles of it,ever since the year '67;yet his guileless physiognomy of the open peasant type seemed strangely familiar.It was quite possible that he might have been a descendant,a son,or even a grandson,of the servants whose friendly faces had been familiar to me in my early childhood.As a matter of fact he had no such claim on my consideration.He was the product of some village near by and was there on his promotion,having learned the service in one or two houses as pantry boy.I know this because I asked the worthy V----next day.I might well have spared the question.I discovered before long that all the faces about the house and all the faces in the village:the grave faces with long mustaches of the heads of families,the downy faces of the young men,the faces of the little fair-haired children,the handsome,tanned,wide-browed faces of the mothers seen at the doors of the huts,were as familiar to me as though I had known them all from childhood and my childhood were a matter of the day before yesterday.

The tinkle of the traveller's bells,after growing louder,had faded away quickly,and the tumult of barking dogs in the village had calmed down at last.My uncle,lounging in the corner of a small couch,smoked his long Turkish chibouk in silence.

"This is an extremely nice writing-table you have got for my room,"I remarked.

"It is really your property,"he said,keeping his eyes on me,with an interested and wistful expression,as he had done ever since I had entered the house."Forty years ago your mother used to write at this very table.In our house in Oratow,it stood in the little sitting-room which,by a tacit arrangement,was given up to the girls--I mean to your mother and her sister who died so young.It was a present to them jointly from your uncle Nicholas B.when your mother was seventeen and your aunt two years younger.She was a very dear,delightful girl,that aunt of yours,of whom I suppose you know nothing more than the name.

She did not shine so much by personal beauty and a cultivated mind in which your mother was far superior.It was her good sense,the admirable sweetness of her nature,her exceptional facility and ease in daily relations,that endeared her to every body.Her death was a terrible grief and a serious moral loss for us all.Had she lived she would have brought the greatest blessings to the house it would have been her lot to enter,as wife,mother,and mistress of a household.She would have created round herself an atmosphere of peace and content which only those who can love unselfishly are able to evoke.Your mother--of far greater beauty,exceptionally distinguished in person,manner,and intellect--had a less easy disposition.

Being more brilliantly gifted,she also expected more from life.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 带着帝国时代横行

    带着帝国时代横行

    主角穿越到汉末,有着帝国时代系统,统一三国,平定匈奴,征服欧洲,开发美洲。
  • 中华句典1

    中华句典1

    本书共收录名言警句、歇后语、谜语、对联、俗语、谚语等上万条。这些鲜活的语言文字语简意赅,大多经过千锤百炼,代代相传,才流传至今。这些语句,或寓意深长,或幽默风趣,有着过目难忘的艺术效果。本书以句句的实用性、典型性和广泛性为着眼点进行编排,所选的句句时间跨度相当大,从先秦时期的重要著作,到当代名人的智慧言语均有涉及;所选的名句范围非常广,从诗词曲赋、小说杂记等文学体裁,到俗谚、歇后语、谜语等民间文学都有涉猎。除此之外,书中还提及了一些趣味故事。通过这些或引人发笑、或让人心酸的故事,可以使读者更为深刻地理解和掌握名句。
  • 穿越之失忆公主的守护人

    穿越之失忆公主的守护人

    啊,穿越了,呀,失忆了!那个帅哥是谁啊,你说什么,修仙,我不干,不干,有宝贝?可以,考虑,考虑
  • 傲世风凌

    傲世风凌

    漠然如她,神秘如他,擦肩而过,情缘由生;冷艳如她,清净如他,隔帘一瞥,为谁倾心;骄傲如她,腹黑如他,心开一角,情定一生;傲娇如她,痴情如他,胜负之约,难舍难分;强大如她,霸道如他,双人对马,并肩天涯。
  • 明星老公,老婆别逃了

    明星老公,老婆别逃了

    “老婆,往哪里逃啊?”他的腹黑。“你永远都是我老婆!”他的无赖。“老婆~我想亲你!”他的呆萌。“呵!我的女人也是你们能玷污的?”他的霸道。“老婆,我爱你!我只爱你一个!”他的专情。
  • 手游之英雄联盟

    手游之英雄联盟

    贰零零零年,地球文明的科技树在一种未知的力量下,开始以疯狂的速度生长着,无数只存在于科幻小说与电影中匪夷所思的高科技,开始频频问世,地球的科技文明,开始了恐怖而疯狂的几式大爆发。一款名叫英雄联盟的手机虚拟网游,也借助着这股爆发,开始在全世界蔓延,然而,它产生的,却是无数科学无法解释的魔法和异能……
  • 柯南之从心所欲

    柯南之从心所欲

    懂事的孩子,成为“别人家的孩子”,装扮成大家喜欢的乖巧的样子……“这就是我曾经的生活吗?真是无趣啊……如果可以……再来一次的话……”清风徐来,躺在病床少年逐渐停止了呼吸。也许是天神从沉睡中苏醒,也许是宇宙中弦的微小波动,少年的意识来到了柯南的世界。重新来过,这一次,他要如何续写自己的人生呢?*****GIN,明明可以用这种办法解决,你怎么就把枪掏出来了?科恩,我知道你喜欢摩天轮,是想和基安蒂一起坐吗?基安蒂,你这么喜欢纹身,开个纹身店吧,为组织省点资金?贝姐,虽然你让我叫你姐,但面前的有希子也强迫新一叫姐的场景怎么让我觉得有点不对头?*****我有很多称号,现在他们叫我——黑王子!
  • 仙途重生

    仙途重生

    一对刚结合在一起的男女,却意外身死,更被神秘老神仙告知两人有缘无份,面对不甘心的两人,老神仙施展逆天法术,帮助两人转世重生,他们最后能再一起吗?敬请观看胖胖爱情猪处女作,仙途重生!!
  • 天地劫

    天地劫

    世事何须辨浊清;天地不仁,善恶一念,神魔只在转瞬间。上古时期,人神共居,引起三界大乱。怫、神、仙、道、人、鬼都想独霸三界,到底谁才是霸者?谁才是英雄?神魔只在一念,杀神弑佛,是正是邪,自有众人评论。书中将一些神器、道术、武术混为一体,成为最早的修真方法,是不是所有的修真都可以长生?是不是所有的善都带着恶?谁正谁邪,公道自在人心。
  • 妾本为后

    妾本为后

    双生花,一个是内定皇后,一个是内定皇妃。妹妹不甘居于皇后之下,陷害嫡姐。她是现今特种军官,执行任务遭陷害跳入悬崖,灵魂穿越,上演了一场帝王之恋!