登陆注册
15459000000210

第210章 Chapter 4(5)

One of the attentions she had from immediately after her marriage most freely paid him was that of her interest in his rarities, her appreciation of his taste, her native passion for beautiful objects and her grateful desire not to miss anything he could teach her about them. Maggie had in due course seen her begin to "work" this fortunately natural source of sympathy for all it was worth. She took possession of the ground throughout its extent; she abounded, to odd excess, one might have remarked, in the assumption of its being for her, with her husband, ALL the ground, the finest clearest air and most breatheable medium common to them. It had been given to Maggie to wonder if she did n't in these intensities of approbation too much shut him up to his province; but this was a complaint he had never made his daughter, and Charlotte must at least have had for her that, thanks to her admirable instinct, her range of perception marching with his own and never falling behind, she (287) had probably not so much as once treated him to a rasping mistake or a revealing stupidity. Maggie, wonderfully, in the summer days, felt it forced upon her that that was one way, after all, of being a genial wife; and it was never so much forced upon her as at these odd moments of her encountering the as Amerigo called them, under the coved ceilings of Fawns while, so together yet at the same time so separate, they were making their daily round. Charlotte hung behind with emphasised attention; she stopped when her husband stopped, but at the distance of a case or two, or of whatever other succession of objects; and the likeness of their connexion would n't have been wrongly figured if he had been thought of as holding in one of his pocketed hands the end of a long silken halter looped round her beautiful neck. He did n't twitch it, yet it was there; he did n't drag her, but she came; and those betrayals that I have described the Princess as finding irresistible in him were two or three mute facial intimations which his wife's presence did n't prevent his addressing his daughter--nor prevent his daughter, as she passed, it was doubtless to be added, from flushing a little at the receipt of.

They amounted perhaps only to a wordless, wordless smile, but the smile was the soft shake of the twisted silken rope, and Maggie's translation of it, held in her breast till she got well away, came out only, as if it might have been overheard, when some door was closed behind her. "Yes, you see--I lead her now by the neck, I lead her to her doom, and she does n't so much as know what it is, though she has a fear in her heart which. if you had (288) the chances to apply your ear there that I, as a husband, have, you would hear thump and thump and thump. She thinks it MAY be, her doom, the awful place over there--awful for HER; but she's afraid to ask, don't you see? just as she's afraid of not asking; just as she's afraid of so many other things that she sees multiplied all about her now as perils and portents. She'll know, however--when she does know."

Charlotte's one opportunity meanwhile for the air of confidence she had formerly worn so well and that agreed so with her firm and charming type was the presence of visitors never, as the season advanced, wholly intermitted--rather in fact, so constant, with all the people who turned up for luncheon and for tea and to see the house, now replete, now famous, that Maggie grew to think again of this large element of "company" as of a kind of renewed water-supply for the tank in which, like a party of panting gold-fish, they kept afloat. It helped them unquestionably with each other, weakening the emphasis of so many of the silences of which their intimate intercourse would otherwise have consisted. Beautiful and wonderful for her even at times was the effect of these interventions--their effect above all in bringing home to each the possible heroism of perfunctory things.

They learned fairly to live in the perfunctory; they remained in it as many hours of the day as might be; it took on finally the likeness of some spacious central chamber in a haunted house, a great overarched and over-glazed rotunda where gaiety might reign, but the doors of which opened into sinister circular passages. (289) Here they turned up for each other, as they said, with the blank faces that denied any uneasiness felt in the approach; here they closed numerous doors carefully behind them--all save the door that connected the place, as by a straight tented corridor, with the outer world, and, encouraging thus the irruption of society, imitated the aperture through which the bedizened performers of the circus are poured into the ring.

同类推荐
  • 华严念佛三昧论

    华严念佛三昧论

    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。
  • 西岳华山志

    西岳华山志

    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。
  • 苑洛集

    苑洛集

    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。
  • 七佛所说神咒经

    七佛所说神咒经

    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。
  • 渴门

    渴门

    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。
热门推荐
  • 废柴倾世之少主请接嫁

    废柴倾世之少主请接嫁

    一朝穿越,身无斗气,受制于人。不知澜幽,朱雀之地掌权者,夕幻大陆最隐秘的隐世宗族少主,神秘势力之传承者。玄武之伤,青龙之变,他与她的邂逅,绕成日后的缱绻。四方涌动,争端各起。为守护菡萏之心,她不惜以命相护,携手同伴,毅然踏上了未知的旅程。本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。
  • 校园风暴:拐个男神回我家

    校园风暴:拐个男神回我家

    十二年前,得知真相的她独自离家;十二年后,她的归来只为复仇。借宫野学院的刀来一一除去家族的肿瘤。不过她只是不小心将校草大人看光了,他也不必这样步步紧追吧?“来人,把南宫小姐给我捆起来。”他邪魅一笑。“你你你不要命了?我我我可是海军上校!”某女吓得语无伦次。“海军上校?”“当然!小心我炸死你哦!”“这个么……床上见分晓!”某男来势汹汹,可怜她在外面耀武扬威,原来他才是大灰狼!她以为她解决了十二年前的冤案之后环游世界,无拘无束。可没想到却遇到了他,算了,国民男神什么的,一并收了吧!
  • 总裁追妻100遍

    总裁追妻100遍

    不过是去买了个姨妈巾,却意外遭人挟持,还被逼着看了现场版的“艺术小电影”,而男女主演竟然一个是人渣男朋友,一个是绿茶婊闺蜜。齐晓乐表示她整个人都不好了。而更令人崩溃的事情在后面,经历男友和闺蜜的双重背叛之后,她还没从打击中回过神来,就被另一击直球击中了心脏!她被人卖了抵债,价值竟然高达一千万?真是笑死人了,她全身上下难道是黄金做的吗?齐晓乐听到这个荒唐的事情只想哈哈大笑两下,但是眼前的男人好像已经认定了这件事,口口声声说她是他的人。怎么办,她现在跑路,还来得及吗?
  • 一曲倾城:废材特工腹黑帝

    一曲倾城:废材特工腹黑帝

    她,宫羽凉,现代绝世特工,一朝穿越,成为逆风大陆宇威国丞相府废材三小姐,任人欺凌,受人摆布,当废材小姐变成绝世特工,当举国闻名的废材草包变成举世无双的天才神女,她的命运又会如何改写?某男腹黑一笑:“你的命运,当然是我来改写!”
  • 十年之约:只是因为遇见你

    十年之约:只是因为遇见你

    十年前,你就坐在我的身边,那样清楚,那样真实;十年后,当你站在演唱会的现场,当你唱响那首《heart》的时候,你会不会想起十年前那个坐在你身边的小女孩。十年的时光,如此短暂。当他终于找到她的时候,可……
  • 药寻孽缘:邪草有毒啊

    药寻孽缘:邪草有毒啊

    传说第九个世界,还魂草,玄古铃,暮凌花的故事。
  • 苍穹寻梦

    苍穹寻梦

    2212年12月21日,玛雅人预言的2012世界末日已经过去整整两百年。世界虽然没有灭亡,但地球生存环境发生巨大改变,资源枯竭,环境污染,地球不再适宜人居,人类陷入了前所未有的困境。为了生存,人类开始在茫茫宇宙中寻找......
  • 《别致》

    《别致》

    我在梦中,不小心,看见了另外一个自己。她是巫术世家的传人,她冰冷,她孤傲,她能看透一切然后把一切都不放在眼里。她也叫秋瞳。然而,一个不期而遇的年轻男子的出现,却改变了这一切,那个男人同样的孤傲,同样的淡薄世间一切,却不小心,改变了她的一生。因为这个男子,她被族人诅咒,掉入了凡尘之中,承受着她本不该承受的,十世情结。
  • 玉清无极总真文昌大洞仙经

    玉清无极总真文昌大洞仙经

    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。
  • 洪荒仙鬼纪

    洪荒仙鬼纪

    天道之下,生,即是为了死;死,即是为了下一轮回的生。生死间,天地法则。仙,本就是天逆而生;修仙,即更是逆天而行。若天欲降罚于吾,吾更要逆天而行!