登陆注册
15486300000027

第27章 XII The Pleasantest Club in London(1)

All perambulators lead to the Kensington Gardens.

Not, however, that you will see David in his perambulator much longer, for soon after I first shook his faith in his mother, it came to him to be up and doing, and he up and did in the Broad Walk itself, where he would stand alone most elaborately poised, signing imperiously to the British public to time him, and looking his most heavenly just before he fell. He fell with a dump, and as they always laughed then, he pretended that this was his funny way of finishing.

That was on a Monday. On Tuesday he climbed the stone stair of the Gold King, looking over his shoulder gloriously at each step, and on Wednesday he struck three and went into knickerbockers.

For the Kensington Gardens, you must know, are full of short cuts, familiar to all who play there; and the shortest leads from the baby in long clothes to the little boy of three riding on the fence. It is called the Mother's Tragedy.

If you are a burgess of the gardens (which have a vocabulary of their own), the faces of these quaint mothers are a clock to you, in which you may read the ages of their young. When he is three they are said to wear the knickerbocker face, and you may take it from me that Mary assumed that face with a sigh; fain would she have kept her boy a baby longer, but he insisted on his rights, and I encouraged him that I might notch another point against her. I was now seeing David once at least every week, his mother, who remained culpably obtuse to my sinister design, having instructed Irene that I was to be allowed to share him with her, and we had become close friends, though the little nurse was ever a threatening shadow in the background. Irene, in short, did not improve with acquaintance. I found her to be high and mighty, chiefly, I think, because she now wore a nurse's cap with streamers, of which the little creature was ludicrously proud.

She assumed the airs of an official person, and always talked as if generations of babies had passed through her hands. She was also extremely jealous, and had a way of signifying disapproval of my methods that led to many coldnesses and even bickerings between us, which I now see to have been undignified. I brought the following accusations against her:

That she prated too much about right and wrong.

That she was a martinet.

That she pretended it was a real cap, with real streamers, when she knew Mary had made the whole thing out of a muslin blind. Iregret having used this argument, but it was the only one that really damped her.

On the other hand, she accused me of spoiling him.

Of not thinking of his future.

Of never asking him where he expected to go to if he did such things.

Of telling him tales that had no moral application.

Of saying that the handkerchief disappeared into nothingness, when it really disappeared into a small tin cup, attached to my person by a piece of elastic.

To this last charge I plead guilty, for in those days I had a pathetic faith in legerdemain, and the eyebrow feat (which, however, is entirely an affair of skill) having yielded such good results, I naturally cast about for similar diversions when it ceased to attract. It lost its hold on David suddenly, as I was to discover was the fate of all of them; twenty times would he call for my latest, and exult in it, and the twenty-first time (and ever afterward) he would stare blankly, as if wondering what the man meant. He was like the child queen who, when the great joke was explained to her, said coldly, "We are not amused," and, I assure you, it is a humiliating thing to perform before an infant who intimates, after giving you ample time to make your points, that he is not amused. I hoped that when David was able to talk--and not merely to stare at me for five minutes and then say "hat"--his spoken verdict, however damning, would be less expressive than his verdict without words, but I was disillusioned. I remember once in those later years, when he could keep up such spirited conversations with himself that he had little need for any of us, promising him to do something exceedingly funny with a box and two marbles, and after he had watched for a long time he said gravely, "Tell me when it begins to be funny."I confess to having received a few simple lessons in conjuring, in a dimly lighted chamber beneath a shop, from a gifted young man with a long neck and a pimply face, who as I entered took a barber's pole from my pocket, saying at the same time, "Come, come, sir, this will never do." Whether because he knew too much, or because he wore a trick shirt, he was the most depressing person I ever encountered; he felt none of the artist's joy, and it was sad to see one so well calculated to give pleasure to thousands not caring a dump about it.

同类推荐
  • 佛冤禅师语录

    佛冤禅师语录

    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。
  • 滦州万善晖州昊禅师语录

    滦州万善晖州昊禅师语录

    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。
  • 外科启玄

    外科启玄

    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。
  • 炙膏肓腧穴法

    炙膏肓腧穴法

    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。
  • 诸司职掌

    诸司职掌

    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
  • 猫代

    猫代

    陈末馨十岁那年在写字楼的天台上认识了一个每晚带着黑色猫咪去吹口琴的小男孩。当她的丑陋遭到所有人的唾弃,是他把她从近乎对生活失去信心死亡的边缘重新拉了回来,这种最初美好的情感毫无动摇的保持了八年,十八岁的青春,十八岁的蜕变,家庭的变故带来的是夏小香和那个女人的成功介入。与他的再次相遇,被生活洗礼后再也不像是当初的诚挚和单纯,面对现实的残酷和感情的背叛,她又该何去何从?是不是生活从来都不曾美好过?还是,陷入了自己为自己设置的圈套,无法自拔。
  • 血之颂金色黎明

    血之颂金色黎明

    神秘的吸血鬼传说遥远的血族秘史流传至今的古老神话如果有一天这世界在你面前剥开它的一层层面纱把他最真实美好温柔残酷又鲜血淋漓的一面展现给你如果所有的传说变成现实面对无边的诱惑又有谁能真正守住自己?他说我给你选择的机会,是生是死,你自己决定他毫不犹豫的点头但他没想到,有一天他会后悔当初的抉择当苍老不再是生命的一部分绵延数年永无止境的时光忽然变得漫长而孤单从最初的懵懂到逐渐拥有的勇气他以为自己在为别人的错误而去努力挽回可到最后才发现他自己本身就是这个错误里的一部分那么他又该怎样救赎自己时间与空间的背后究竟隐藏着怎样的秘密一切的尽头等待齐格非的又会是怎样的结局?
  • 迷失的御魔者

    迷失的御魔者

    浩瀚的星空中,有一颗名为桑格拉的神秘星球。那里所有习以为常的事情,在地球上都已成为传说。姬羽只是一个普普通通的大学生,但是命运挑中了他,让他不可思议的穿越了亿万光年的星空来到神秘的桑格拉。这里有地球上传说中的精灵,还有神奇的魔法,恐怖的魔兽……一切都是那么不可思议,然而姬羽却不得不在这里生活下去,背负着对于一切过往的思念,在这里成长。璀璨的魔纹在他身上点亮,力量在他身上蔓延。总有一天,他要勘破桑格拉的所有神秘,找到回家的路。“我只是一个迷失了归途的人……”
  • 夏果青青

    夏果青青

    永不能忘,那阵阵花香。也许我从未准备好再次遇见你。也许你也无法掌控自己的命运。只因为,我和你,都各自背负家族的使命。五年来,南宫城并没有什么变化。就是过去的四百年,它也改变得极少极少。有一条通贯全程南北的直路,当时的你和我就分别住在这条路的南北两端。你在南,我在北。如今,你在北,我在南。而南宫城,却从未改变。
  • 人生不过豆蔻

    人生不过豆蔻

    “……,对于这句话的理解你是怎么看的,下面请同学回答。”我还在下面偷偷写练习,并没有理会老师所说的每句话。“苏怀雨,你来回答。”言紊戳了戳我,我转头看向他,不明所以。他见我如此,小声说了句:“老师叫你回话。”我这才反应过来,抬头看向汤唐师。
  • 南宫少夫人

    南宫少夫人

    好不容易熬到毕业了,以为终于不作米虫了,没想到坐个飞机就穿了,好死不死最后一个愿望还被个没事的神仙听到了,还不了解情况就嫁人,据说自己相公还有青梅竹马!哎,这命“好的”也是没谁了。
  • 复仇时间:Death公主

    复仇时间:Death公主

    〖Death系列·①〗“我一直认为你是最信任我的人,但我没想到我最信任的人会背叛我!”南宫雪歆对北冥皓撕心裂肺地大喊。几年后欧阳苡歆(南宫雪歆)逆袭而归。“那些曾经背叛过我的人,总有一天,我会让他们付出相应的代价!尤其是你——南宫雪依,我‘亲爱'的妹妹。”逆袭公主欧阳苡歆(南宫雪歆)会怎样复仇呢?敬请期待……
  • 恋一场星空:恶魔我是你的小太阳

    恋一场星空:恶魔我是你的小太阳

    可爱的蠢萌女孩夏夏无意中撞上了大明星高冷霸道校草卫易泽的车,,,而校草可是从不近女色的人,可这是一见钟情吗?他们会擦出什么样的火花呢?夏夏的身份到底是什么呢?
  • 别怕,会有天使替我守护你

    别怕,会有天使替我守护你

    “够了,你为什么非缠着我不放?我讨厌你,你走!”“”我不走,洛璃,不管你怎么了,我陪你!”那么帅的他,却要来守护我!我不要,我要一直守护他!我和他的相遇是一场特别的相见,在初中我们相遇一直互相陪伴!,开展一场特殊的守护之旅………我会永远陪你,不离不弃!
  • 九天神龙诀

    九天神龙诀

    自盘古开天,大千世界,万族争仙!争仙,争仙,欲成仙,先争仙种。传说中天地间仙种无数,修士可通过冥想沟通仙种,凝聚仙魂,开命海,筑道宫,通四极,搭仙台,直抵仙门!无尽大陆,修士亿万,天骄无数,然自太古以来竟无一人成仙。仙,真的存在吗?