登陆注册
15462100000029

第29章 I(6)

And he would do it quite inarticulately, set in motion by seeing a child crying in the street. He would wrestle with dictionaries, in that unfamiliar tongue. . . . Well, he could not bear to see a child cry. Perhaps he could not bear to see a woman and not give her the comfort of his physical attractions. But, although I liked him so intensely, I was rather apt to take these things for granted. They made me feel comfortable with him, good towards him; they made me trust him. But I guess I thought it was part of the character of any English gentleman. Why, one day he got it into his head that the head waiter at the Excelsior had been crying--the fellow with the grey face and grey whiskers. And then he spent the best part of a week, in correspondence and up at the British consul's, in getting the fellow's wife to come back from London and bring back his girl baby. She had bolted with a Swiss scullion.

If she had not come inside the week he would have gone to London himself to fetch her. He was like that. Edward Ashburnham was like that, and I thought it was only the duty of his rank and station. Perhaps that was all that it was--but I pray God to make me discharge mine as well. And, but for the poor girl, Idaresay that I should never have seen it, however much the feeling might have been over me. She had for him such enthusiasm that, although even now I do not understand the technicalities of English life, I can gather enough. She was with them during the whole of our last stay at Nauheim.

Nancy Rufford was her name; she was Leonora's only friend's only child, and Leonora was her guardian, if that is the correct term.

She had lived with the Ashburnhams ever since she had been of the age of thirteen, when her mother was said to have committed suicide owing to the brutalities of her father. Yes, it is a cheerful story. . . . Edward always called her "the girl", and it was very pretty, the evident affection he had for her and she for him. And Leonora's feet she would have kissed--those two were for her the best man and the best woman on earth--and in heaven. I think that she had not a thought of evil in her head--the poor girl. . . .

Well, anyhow, she chanted Edward's praises to me for the hour together, but, as I have said, I could not make much of it. It appeared that he had the D.S.O., and that his troop loved him beyond the love of men. You never saw such a troop as his. And he had the Royal Humane Society's medal with a clasp. That meant, apparently, that he had twice jumped off the deck of a troopship to rescue what the girl called "Tommies", who had fallen overboard in the Red Sea and such places. He had been twice recommended for the V.C., whatever that might mean, and, although owing to some technicalities he had never received that apparently coveted order, he had some special place about his sovereign at the coronation. Or perhaps it was some post in the Beefeaters'. She made him out like a cross between Lohengrin and the Chevalier Bayard. Perhaps he was. . . . But he was too silent a fellow to make that side of him really decorative. I remember going to him at about that time and asking him what the D.S.O. was, and he grunted out:

"It's a sort of a thing they give grocers who've honourably supplied the troops with adulterated coffee in war-time"--something of that sort. He did not quite carry conviction to me, so, in the end, I put it directly to Leonora. I asked her fully and squarely--prefacing the question with some remarks, such as those that I have already given you, as to the difficulty one has in really getting to know people when one's intimacy is conducted as an English acquaintanceship--I asked her whether her husband was not really a splendid fellow--along at least the lines of his public functions.

She looked at me with a slightly awakened air--with an air that would have been almost startled if Leonora could ever have been startled.

"Didn't you know?" she asked. "If I come to think of it there is not a more splendid fellow in any three counties, pick them where you will--along those lines." And she added, after she had looked at me reflectively for what seemed a long time:

"To do my husband justice there could not be a better man on the earth. There would not be room for it--along those lines.""Well," I said, "then he must really be Lohengrin and the Cid in one body. For there are not any other lines that count."Again she looked at me for a long time.

"It's your opinion that there are no other lines that count?" she asked slowly.

"Well," I answered gaily, "you're not going to accuse him of not being a good husband, or of not being a good guardian to your ward?"She spoke then, slowly, like a person who is listening to the sounds in a sea-shell held to her ear--and, would you believe it?--she told me afterwards that, at that speech of mine, for the first time she had a vague inkling of the tragedy that was to follow so soon--although the girl had lived with them for eight years or so:

"Oh, I'm not thinking of saying that he is not the best of husbands, or that he is not very fond of the girl."And then I said something like:

"Well, Leonora, a man sees more of these things than even a wife.

And, let me tell you, that in all the years I've known Edward he has never, in your absence, paid a moment's attention to any other woman--not by the quivering of an eyelash. I should have noticed.

And he talks of you as if you were one of the angels of God.""Oh," she came up to the scratch, as you could be sure Leonora would always come up to the scratch, "I am perfectly sure that he always speaks nicely of me."I daresay she had practice in that sort of scene--people must have been always complimenting her on her husband's fidelity and adoration. For half the world--the whole of the world that knew Edward and Leonora believed that his conviction in the Kilsyte affair had been a miscarriage of justice--a conspiracy of false evidence, got together by Nonconformist adversaries. But think of the fool that I was. . . .

同类推荐
  • Dreams & Dust

    Dreams & Dust

    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。
  • 佛说大安般守意经

    佛说大安般守意经

    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。
  • 太上化道度世仙经

    太上化道度世仙经

    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。
  • Gulliver of Mars

    Gulliver of Mars

    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。
  • 国雅品

    国雅品

    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
  • 浮生如梦缘

    浮生如梦缘

    她,本应享尽荣华富贵,无忧一生,却从小背上了血海深仇。"爹,娘无论付出多少代价,女儿定会为你们报仇!"他,作为将军之子,却屈辱潜伏,只为救出父亲,找到她的踪迹。"林安,你这次无论做什么都必须听本王的。否则,从此以后你将失去她的任何消息。""微臣遵命!"逃离之际,他为她引走追兵,最终身亡天涯。"熙玥,你知道吗?我这一生最对不起的人有两个,一个遍是你。""杨焕明!你混蛋!胡说什么!"最终的真想却与她所知的一切截然不同。"这些年我所做的一切究竟是什么?""林安,别离开我…拜托…""我从不相信命运,从不相信天意,就算上天要把你带走,我也一定会把你夺回来!"
  • 蓝海开发计划

    蓝海开发计划

    本书介绍了海洋的形成、海水的来源、海水的温度、海水呈蓝色的原因、沙滩比海水热的原因、海水密度跃层、海光的形成、海洋冰山的来历、海面不平的原因等内容。
  • 叶落满心甜

    叶落满心甜

    计宠甜虐:系花,求交往(新更书名)“喜欢我吗?”“嗯。”“喜欢是淡淡的爱。”好姑娘,先上了再说~第一步霸道夺吻,第二步吻到窒息,第三步牵走去开……男主女主3v1,撩妹有心机,宠妞儿要过度!(喜欢来戳文↓↓↓)
  • TFBOYS源来轻染尘

    TFBOYS源来轻染尘

    她们殊不知,在转身离开的同时,他们落泪了;他们的狠心离去,是否是因为误会?没有信任的爱情,能持续多久?他们之间真的没有信任吗?多想回到从前啊!——尹夏沫,蓝凝凝,安冰夏她们殊不知,在转身离开的同时,他们落泪了
  • 永无宁日

    永无宁日

    一个在愚昧闭塞的环境中成长的少年,因偶然看到的一幕特殊场面而震颤而迷乱。战乱的时代又把一杆枪放在他无知的手中,从此他便知道了用枪去解决自己古怪的愿望。他一次次地杀了自己的亲人,也杀了自己所谓的敌人,欲望吞噬着他的灵魂,令人永无安生之日。
  • 痴傻神女:邪王的盛宠狂妃

    痴傻神女:邪王的盛宠狂妃

    原本皇上亲封的神女,爹宠娘疼的天才小姐,却因引狼入室而成为众人口中的痴傻小姐,瞬间从天堂坠落地狱,亲娘上吊而死,亲爹不闻不问,整日被自己的哥哥折磨,过着非人的生活。谁知,上天眷顾,让她再次清醒,从此脱胎换骨,开启了逆袭之路,棒打狠毒哥姐,惩罚亲爹嫡母,收获世人艳羡的爱情。
  • 魔行纪

    魔行纪

    他行走着,行走在无边的灰暗,无限的枯寂空间里……一个人,,,无边的黑暗将他笼罩,淹没……可是,一切都没有结束,一切都只是个开始!!规则在崩塌,世界在扭曲,地底的魂魄在哭泣!!让我以大极乐来超度已逝的英灵,用冷漠无情的屠戮来抹去世间的罪恶!拿起染血的战戈,战天,战地,战鬼神!我,林墨!
  • 印法参同

    印法参同

    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。
  • 人脉决定成败:构建圆通的人际

    人脉决定成败:构建圆通的人际

    本书研究了影响人际关系最为核心的几个元素,从人脉、形象、沟通、宽容、尊重、诚信、职场人际关系、秘而不宣的“潜规则”以及看人和识人共九个方面,告诉你如何建立、维护和协调好各种关系的原则和技巧。
  • 既见君子之花不负

    既见君子之花不负

    一个山寨,三代寨主,与世无争却败给了一个情字。一处公主宝藏,一枚惊天的黑雀,一本大磨国书,惹多少是非纠葛。冬温夏清,人间乌托国,但又有多少人能接受?如果爱,请专情,否则,后果自负!宝藏易得,美人不好惹。