登陆注册
15486000000007

第7章 THE LION AND THE UNICORN(7)

That's poor for him. He takes his meals at cabmen's shelters and at Lockhart's, and he's been doing so for a month."Helen recalled with a guilty thrill the receipt of certain boxes of La France roses--cut long, in the American fashion--which had arrived within the last month at various country houses. She felt indignant at herself, and miserable. Her indignation was largely due to the recollection that she had given these flowers to her hostess to decorate the dinner-table.

She hated to ask this girl of things which she should have known better than any one else. But she forced herself to do it. She felt she must know certainly and at once.

"How do you know this?" she asked. "Are you sure there is no mistake?""He told me himself," said Marion, "when he talked of letting the plays go and returning to America. He said he must go back;that his money was gone."

"He is gone to America!" Helen said, blankly.

"No, he wanted to go, but I wouldn't let him," Marion went on.

"I told him that some one might take his play any day. And this third one he has written, the one he finished this summer in town, is the best of all, I think. It's a love-story. It's quite beautiful." She turned and arranged her veil at the glass, and as she did so, her eyes fell on the photographs of herself scattered over the mantelpiece, and she smiled slightly. But Helen did not see her--she was sitting down now, pulling at the books on the table. She was confused and disturbed by emotions which were quite strange to her, and when Marion bade her good-by she hardly noticed her departure. What impressed her most of all in what Marion had told her, was, she was surprised to find, that Philip was going away. That she herself had frequently urged him to do so, for his own peace of mind, seemed now of no consequence. Now that he seriously contemplated it, she recognized that his absence meant to her a change in everything. She felt for the first time the peculiar place he held in her life. Even if she had seen him but seldom, the fact that he was within call had been more of a comfort and a necessity to her than she understood.

That he was poor, concerned her chiefly because she knew that, although this condition could only be but temporary, it would distress him not to have his friends around him, and to entertain them as he had been used to do. She wondered eagerly if she might offer to help him, but a second thought assured her that, for a man, that sort of help from a woman was impossible.

She resented the fact that Marion was deep in his confidence;that it was Marion who had told her of his changed condition and of his plans. It annoyed her so acutely that she could not remain in the room where she had seen her so complacently in possession. And after leaving a brief note for Philip, she went away. She stopped a hansom at the door, and told the man to drive along the Embankment--she wanted to be quite alone, and she felt she could see no one until she had thought it all out, and had analyzed the new feelings.

So for several hours she drove slowly up and down, sunk far back in the cushions of the cab, and staring with unseeing eyes at the white enamelled tariff and the black dash-board.

She assured herself that she was not jealous of Marion, because, in order to be jealous, she first would have to care for Philip in the very way she could not bring herself to do.

She decided that his interest in Marion hurt her, because it showed that Philip was not capable of remaining true to the one ideal of his life. She was sure that this explained her feelings--she was disappointed that he had not kept up to his own standard; that he was weak enough to turn aside from it for the first pretty pair of eyes. But she was too honest and too just to accept that diagnosis of her feelings as final--she knew there had been many pairs of eyes in America and in London, and that though Philip had seen them, he had not answered them when they spoke. No, she confessed frankly, she was hurt with herself for neglecting her old friend so selfishly and for so long a time; his love gave him claims on her consideration, at least, and she had forgotten that and him, and had run after strange gods and allowed others to come in and take her place, and to give him the sympathy and help which she should have been the first to offer, and which would have counted more when coming from her than from any one else. She determined to make amends at once for her thoughtlessness and selfishness, and her brain was pleasantly occupied with plans and acts of kindness. It was a new entertainment, and she found she delighted in it. She directed the cabman to go to Solomons's, and from there sent Philip a bunch of flowers and a line saying that on the following day she was coming to take tea with him. She had a guilty feeling that he might consider her friendly advances more seriously than she meant them, but it was her pleasure to be reckless: her feelings were running riotously, and the sensation was so new that she refused to be circumspect or to consider consequences. Who could tell, she asked herself with a quick, frightened gasp, but that, after all, it might be that she was learning to care? From Solomons's she bade the man drive to the shop in Cranbourne Street where she was accustomed to purchase the materials she used in painting, and Fate, which uses strange agents to work out its ends, so directed it that the cabman stopped a few doors below this shop, and opposite one where jewelry and other personal effects were bought and sold.

At any other time, or had she been in any other mood, what followed might not have occurred, but Fate, in the person of the cabman, arranged it so that the hour and the opportunity came together.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 网游之血色逆袭

    网游之血色逆袭

    每个人都有心中的梦想,但是骨感的现实……被事实一次次的证明。所以有太多的人不甘心,不甘于所拥有或者所得到的,我们也许无力对抗现实,但至少还有一片虚拟的天空,挑战从这里开始,是兄弟情谊,儿女情长还是争名夺利,血染沙场
  • 小妈,么么哒!

    小妈,么么哒!

    我们家泽一最最最乖了,无论什么时候都是天底下最最最可爱的人!凌沐晨嘟着嘴,骄傲的对外宣布!!啥?说她自吹自擂,又情人眼里出西施?阿呸,她可是他的小妈咪,东西可以乱吃,话可不能乱说,乱什么的这事在她这儿可不流行。咦咦咦?可是泽一居然说喜欢她?小妈咪摇身一变就成女朋友?哇噻!这唱的又是哪一出呀?情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 超空主宰

    超空主宰

    超空间内三界主宰,万古之界主修灵力,上古之界主修魔法,太古之界主修科技。阴阳相衡超空间的死敌邪族虎视眈眈,谁能拯救万民于水火。他不为太多只为保护想要保护的人,而走上修行之路......
  • 末世杀才

    末世杀才

    进化,多么惹人遐想的一个词眼!只是,当进化的浪潮袭卷而来时,你,真的准备好了吗?
  • 千魄刀

    千魄刀

    魄是粗粝重浊的阴气,构成人感觉形体魂是轻盈阳刚的阳气,构成人思维才智一个人所能承受的因果是有限的,而事物的发展和真相所能追溯的从前却是无穷的。幼年溺水死亡的弟弟到底是否存在,学校的地下有着什么秘密世界上总有些未知的不属于人类的邻域Paintedredtree
  • 我是网游大高手

    我是网游大高手

    余洛洛是个内向的人,对人生觉得迷茫。在班上,他一直被富二代周生给欺负,直到某一天,他想要反抗,却遭到了周生的暴打,这时候,一个女孩出现在他面前……从此,遇见了一群不平凡的伙伴,拉开了一段不平凡电竞传奇的序幕。从网游,到竞技,我们的目标,是总冠军!这是一群人攀登荣耀巅峰的故事,这是一个热血到燃烧的时代,这是一段年少轻狂的青春。让我们沐浴在六十亿目光下,向着全世界高声喊出,WE-ARE-THE-CHAMPION!!!“静待疾风起,人生不言弃。”——谨以此句献给所有曾在疾风联盟中奋斗过的开拓者们。
  • 异瞳崛起

    异瞳崛起

    一枚硬币,三颗痣,一个老头再加上一双堪称神器的眼睛。穿越金手指,每位穿越者必备的神器。而平凡的主角人生却是因为一个邋遢老头为了给其去痣而发生改变。而被老天隐藏的妖孽天赋被邋遢老头揭开,不知是好是坏。跑题了,咱来说说金手指。注意:以上的邋遢老头并非爷爷,好吧说爷爷也可以,毕竟年龄大了不叫爷爷叫什么?不过注意,此爷爷非彼爷爷。对,跑题了,咱接着说金手指。要说人家穿越都是戒指爷爷和系统,唯独平凡乃是一头狼。看着一点都不可靠。
  • 霸业征途

    霸业征途

    一次意外的穿越,使其主人公回到青铜器时代,五国纷争硝烟四起,主人公为了解救天下苍生免受战火灾难决定一统天下,用现代的军事手段训练一批精锐的部队建立了安保社和黑蛟骑兵团踏上征途,来统一自己的帝国霸业,
  • 都市大高手

    都市大高手

    高手苏晨来到都市,掀起一场腥风血雨的都市之战。战商场大鳄、战暗实力、战各种二代、战一切不服。高手就是打的你满地找牙,还让你心里佩服。高手就是让妞主动暖床,还要当给你钱。高手苏晨,注定不凡。
  • 腹黑王爷毒医帝

    腹黑王爷毒医帝

    想他一代天命女帝,毒医传人,痴心错付,渣男腐女陷害致死,一朝重生,她要复仇,却履入险境,为了断那一对狗男女的后路,她招惹上他,“女人,偷了本王的心还想逃?”“你想如何?”她欲逃,却被他吃干抹尽,他以为这样她就会留在他身边,她却不屑一顾的离去,他用尽手段,却在无他任何消息,他看着窗外“女人,我不会放过你的……