登陆注册
15461100000041

第41章 Chapter 21(1)

In Oxford Street "In going downstairs the first time I found an unexpected difficulty because I could not see my feet; indeed I stumbled twice, and there was an unaccustomed clumsiness in gripping the bolt. By not looking down, however, I managed to walk on the level passably well.

"My mood, I say, was one of exaltation. I felt as a seeing man might do, with padded feet and noiseless clothes, in a city of the blind. I experienced a wild impulse to jest, to startle people, to clap men on the back, fling people's hats astray, and generally revel in my extraordinary advantage.

"But hardly had I emerged upon Great Portland Street, however (my lodgings was close to the big draper's shop there), when I heard a clashing concussion and was hit violently behind, and turning saw a man carrying a basket of soda-water siphons, and looking in amazement at his burden. Although the blow had really hurt me, I found something so irresistible in his astonishment that I laughed aloud. 'The devil's in the basket,' I said, and suddenly twisted it out of his hand. He let go incontinently, and I swung the whole weight into the air.

"But a fool of a cabman, standing outside a public house, made a sudden rush for this, and his extending fingers took me with excruciating violence under the ear. I let the whole down with a smash on the cabman, and then, with shouts and the clatter of feet about me, people coming out of shops, vehicles pulling up, I realised what I had done for myself, and cursing my folly, backed against a shop window and prepared to dodge out of the confusion. In a moment I should be wedged into a crowd and inevitably discovered.

I pushed by the butcher boy, who luckily did not turn to see the nothingness that shoved him aside, and dodged behind the cabman's four-wheeler. I do not know how they settled the business. I hurried straight across the road, which was happily clear, and hardly heeding which way I went, in the fright of detection the incident had given, plunged into the afternoon throng of Oxford Street.

"I tried to get into the stream of people, but they were too thick for me, and in a moment my heels were being trodden upon. I took to the gutter, the roughness of which I found painful to my feet, and forthwith the shaft of a crawling hansom dug me forcibly under the shoulder blade, reminding me that I was already bruised severely. I staggered out of the way of the cab, avoided a perambulator by a convulsive movement, and found myself behind the hansom. A happy thought saved me, and as this drove slowly along I followed in its immediate wake, trembling and astonished at the turn of my adventure. And not only trembling, but shivering. It was a bright day in January and I was stark naked and the thin slime of mud that covered the road was freezing. Foolish as it seems to me now, I had not reckoned that, transparent or not, I was still amenable to the weather and all its consequences.

"Then suddenly a bright idea came into my head. I ran round and got into the cab. And so, shivering, scared, and sniffing with the first intimations of a cold, and with the bruises in the small of my back growing upon my attention. I drove slowly along Oxford Street and past Tottenham Court Road. My mood was as different from that in which I had sallied forth ten minutes ago as it is possible to imagine. This invisibility indeed! The one thought that possessed me was--how was I to get out of the scrape Iwas in.

"We crawled past Mudie's, and there a tall woman with five or six yellow-labelled books hailed my cab, and I sprang out just in time to escape her, shaving a railway van narrowly in my flight. I made off up the roadway to Bloomsbury Square, intending to strike north past the Museum and so get into the quiet district. I was not cruelly chilled, and the strangeness of my situation so unnerved me that I whimpered as I ran. At the northward corner of the Square a little white dog ran out of the Pharmaceutical Society's offices, and incontinently made for me, nose down.

"I had never realised it before, but the nose is to the mind of a dog what the eye is to the mind of a seeing man. Dogs perceive the scent of a man moving as men perceive his vision. This brute began barking and leaping, showing, as it seemed to me, only too plainly that he was aware of me.

I crossed Great Russell Street, glancing over my shoulder as I did so, and went some way along Montague Street before I realised what I was running towards.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 最强胡少

    最强胡少

    胡家孤儿,无依无靠,一人努力,最终站在世界之巅
  • 我和校花是同桌

    我和校花是同桌

    我们不是流氓,只是一群学生我们肆意挥霍着青春,但却坚持着自己的底线我们可以用图钉扎女生的屁股但在女同学受到欺负的时候我们会毫不犹豫的挺身而出我们喜欢漂亮的女生也喜欢漂亮的女老师这一切都没有错因为我们正青春
  • 傲娇女王哪里跑

    傲娇女王哪里跑

    某阳一天送了某月一束棒棒糖,某月:“阳!你在干嘛?”某阳:“啊?呃,我在追你啊。”某月:“哦~你在追我吗?”当逗比的傲娇女王遇上了高冷的情场白痴会发生什么呢?小白文,用搞笑轻松的语言叙述那些可能存在黑道的故事……
  • 最佳强娶:总裁追妻令

    最佳强娶:总裁追妻令

    许念,二十岁那年,被家人抛弃,拒之门外,她在门外哭喊,最后晕倒在了暴雨之中。再次醒来是在陌生人男人的家里,这个男人收留她,给她工作,待她温柔。许念一心认为他是个好人,对他无话不说,然而就是这个好人,给了她一生都难以忘记的痛苦回忆。深夜,他压她在身下,用好听用性感的嗓音宣誓主权。他说:“你是我的,并且只能是我的。”许念泪水沾湿了枕头,她哭着求他别这样,然而,一切都是徒劳。他霸占她,囚困她,剥夺了她的自由。她不甘心,一直想办法逃走。一次失败,第二次成功。就在他们的结婚典礼上,那一刻,她真正明白什么表情叫做面如死灰……
  • 腹黑邪王狂宠萌后

    腹黑邪王狂宠萌后

    如果有一天,你从凡人变成仙界人人敬仰的神然后再变成弱弱的凡人,你会怎么想?如果有一天,在你将要被一群乌鸦吃,你被一个风华绝代的男子给救了,可你发现那人貌似是你的哥哥,却对你不止有兄妹之情,你会怎么想?来三万年前,差点被猥琐的鱼精拿来修炼,遇见口是心非的兰灵花,目睹天蓝雪域的天灾,亲临神魔大战的过程。天啊,要不要给她这么劲爆。再次把仙界搞得鸡飞狗跳时,众神鼻青脸肿的来找她的哥哥,抱怨道“王啊,神女这次是真的打了微臣啊!”她的眼睛睁的大大的“我没有,是他们欺负我。”带着哭的鼻音。“来人,星尘君以下犯上,关禁闭五百年。”男子神态慵懒,漫不经心道。欺负他的宝贝,哪怕是四海八方的首座,他都要把窝给掀了。
  • 魔王始

    魔王始

    一个灵动的少年,在家族覆灭后,是如何在群敌的虎视下,艰苦的生存步步惊心的成长,最后铁血的复仇。
  • 大国诸城:21世纪中国城市与区域竞争

    大国诸城:21世纪中国城市与区域竞争

    《大国诸城:21世纪中国城市与区域竞争》从类型着手,研究了全国几大富有代表性的城市及区域的发展之路,剖析了其各自发展的短板和可取之处,《大国诸城:21世纪中国城市与区域竞争》并在此基础上提出了中肯的建言,由此为中国的城市和区域发展提供最为全面的建设智慧。
  • 捡个傲娇男神带回家

    捡个傲娇男神带回家

    某女再出去度假时捡到了一个男人,注意!是男人!捡就捡呗,还是个失忆的!算了,带回家等哪天想起来了再把他送走吧。可是!某男根本没失忆!还一直赖在他家不走!终于,某女发火了,一把拽住某男的衣服,说:'你在我家白吃白住没有一年也有半载了!吃住费你准备什么时候交啊!"某男慢慢把某女的手放下,手却忽然捧着某女的脸,亲了一下她的嘴,说:“要钱没有,要人一个,会搓背会捶腿,还会暖床!怎么样,要不要?”某彪悍女忽然脸红着逃掉了。
  • HP之巫师界的灾难

    HP之巫师界的灾难

    她林筱穿越了,而且是哈利波特的世界!但是似乎有哪里不对?......哦,好吧,这里没有小天使哈利,没有万事通小姐赫敏,没有暴躁级长罗恩,也没有铂金小孔雀德拉科。......只有黑魔王汤姆·马沃罗·里德尔。没错!就是那个邪恶的没有鼻子只有鼻孔的蛇脸的秃头老怪物伏地魔!额......自己还流弊的和他有血缘关系,是双生的姐·姐!逃?逃不掉,林筱被少年伏地魔抱在怀里:“我亲爱的库莱尔,你要去哪儿?”占了便宜还无辜的伏地魔好像......该死地把她的心抓住了!那么既然逃不掉,就改变他的命运吧。林筱想。此文跟原剧有很多地方不同,所以别介意别介意~
  • 穿越人海守护你

    穿越人海守护你

    当红偶像组合tfboys队长王俊凯一直在寻找小时候的那个小女孩,可是再相见时,她却失忆了。王俊凯用爱感染她,最终恢复了记忆,可一切都不过是物是人非。。