登陆注册
15528800000010

第10章 An Artist's Freak.(2)

He asked himself,"Can it be that here is a character in which the elements of a true and good woman do not exist?Has she no heart,no mind,no conscience worthy of the name?At her age she cannot have lost these qualities.Have they never been awakened?Do they exist to that degree that they can be aroused into controlling activity?I suppose there can be pretty idiots.As people are born blind or scrofulous,so I suppose others can be born devoid of heart or conscience,inheriting from a degenerate ancestry sundry mean and vile propensities in their places.Human nature is a scale that runs both up and down,and it is astonishing how far the extremes can be apart.""How high is it possible for the same individual to rise in this scale?I imagine we are all prone to judge of people as if they were finished pictures,and to think that the defects our first scrutiny discovers will remain for all time.It is in real life much as in fiction.From first to last a villain is a villain,as if he had been created one.The heroine is a moss rose-bud by equal and unchanging necessity.Is this girl a fool,and will she remain one by any innate compulsion?By Jove!I would like to see her again in the searching light of day.I would like to follow her career sufficiently long,to discover whether nature has been guilty of the grotesque crime of associating inseparably with that fine form and those exquisite features,a hideous little mind that must go on intensifying its dwarfed deformity,until death snuffs it out.If this be true,the beautiful little monster that is bothering me so suggests a knotty problem to wiser heads than mine."Somewhat later his musings led him to indulge in a broad laugh.

"Possibly,"he said aloud,"she is a modern and fashionable Undine,and has never yet received a woman's soul.The good Lord deliver me from trying to awaken it,as did the knight of old in the story,by swelling the long list of her victims.I can scarcely imagine a more pitiable and abject creature than a man (once sane and sensible)in thraldom to such a tantalizing semblance of a woman.

She would no more appreciate his devotion than the jackdaw the pearl necklace it pecked at.

"I fear my Undine theory won't answer.Stanton says she has no heart,and her face and manner confirm his words.But now I think of it,the original Undine lived a long time ago--in the age of primeval simplicity,when even cool-blooded water nymphs had hearts.One is induced to think,in our age,that this organ will eventually disappear with the other characteristics of ancient and undeveloped man,and that the brain,or what stands for it,will become all in all.In the first instance the woman's soul came in through the heart;but I suppose that in the case of a modern Undine it could enter most readily through the head.I wonder if there is something like an unawakened mind,sleeping under that broad low brow that mocks one with its fair intellectual outline.I wonder if it would be possible to set her thinking,and so eventually render her capable of receiving a woman's soul.As it is now she seems to possess only certain disagreeable feminine propensities.One might engage in such an experiment as a philosopher rather than a lover;or,what is more to my purpose,as an artist.

"By Jove!I would half like to make the attempt;it would give zest to one's summer vacation.Well,what is to hinder?Now I think of it she remarked that she was to spend the season at the Lake House,not far from the Hudson,a place well suited to my purposes.

There are the wild highlands on one side,and a soft pastoral country on the other.I could there find abundant opportunity for varied studies in scenery,and at the same time beguile my idle hours at the hotel with this face of marvellous capabilities and possibilities.

The features already exist,and would be beautiful if the girl were dead,and they could be no longer distorted by the small vices of the spirit back of them.They might become transcendently beautiful,could she in very truth receive the soul of a true and thoughtful woman--a soul such as makes my mother beautiful in her plain old age.

"I'm inclined to follow this odd fancy.That girl is a 'rara avis'such as has never flown across my path before.I shall have a quarrel with nature all my life if I must believe she can fashion a face capable of meaning so much and yet actually meaning so little,and that little disgusting."After a few moments of deep thought,he again started to his feet and commenced pacing his studio.

"Suppose,"he soliloquized,"I attempt a novel bit of artistic work as my summer recreation.Suppose I take the face of this stranger instead of a piece of canvas and try to illumine it with thought,with womanly character and intelligence.If I fail,as I probably shall,no harm will be done.If her silliness and vanity are ingrained and essential parts of her nature,she shall learn that there is at least one man who can see her as she is,and whose heart is not wax on which to stamp her pretty and senseless image.

If I only partially succeed,if I discern she has a mind,but so feeble that it can only half reclaim her from her weakness and folly,still something will be accomplished.Her features are so beautiful,that should they come to express even the glimmerings of that which is admirable,the face will be in part redeemed.

But if by some happy miracle,as in the instance of the original Undine,a mind can be awakened that will gradually prepare a place for the soul of a true woman,I shall accomplish the best work of my life,even estimated from an artistic point of view.Possibly,for my reward,she will permit me to paint her portrait as a souvenir of our summer's acquaintance."It did not take Van Berg long to complete his arrangements for leaving town.He wrote a line to his friend Stanton,saying that he proposed spending a few weeks in the vicinity of the Highlands on the Hudson,and that he could not say when he would be at his rooms or at home again.The afternoon of the following day found him a passenger on a fleet steamboat,and fully bent upon carrying out his odd artistic freak.

同类推荐
  • 技击余闻

    技击余闻

    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。
  • 多利心菩萨念诵法

    多利心菩萨念诵法

    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。
  • 心赋注

    心赋注

    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。
  • 一字寄特佛顶经

    一字寄特佛顶经

    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。
  • 梅谱

    梅谱

    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
  • 九宫策,云若皇后

    九宫策,云若皇后

    一朝穿越,一身傲骨的天才谋师竟成了冷宫疯后。于是天才皇帝遇上天才谋士,只看谁能活得风生水起!金銮殿上,他让她受辱于众。亭台池边,他勒她无饭无眠。最后他狠狠将她丢入战场,让她死不足惜!谁料转眼之间,一朝废后竟掀起三千波澜,反而成为盟国的第一策士,辅佐君王。从此,她与他平起平坐,将那废后之名狠狠踩于足下,而他的国之命脉也瞬间掌握在了她的手中,只听她的结论。谈判之时,他沉声而道:“慕云若,两国续盟,你尽可开出条件。”她扬唇一笑,只说了一个字:“你。”闻言,他莞尔一笑。——————————————这是一个很少被人知晓的职业,她藏匿在暗处,却操控了全世界。天下不过她手中的一盘棋,人心也不过是她掌中一粟。她生前既能将金融,政权,战争全部操控于手;这世也不会只是个任人宰割的丧家之犬!若要轻看于她?小心满盘皆输。=======【系列文上市消息】=======当当当!!好消息!原名《弃后》的皇后系列第一辑出版名《孽凰,皇后善谋》终于上市啦!卓越亚马逊、当当、京东、天猫均开始有售!记得搜“孽凰”或者“云哲”哦,搜副标题找不到撒~!各种活动陆续进行!关注兔子微博:月下的神兔_云哲《孽凰》(已完结,已上市,出版笔名:云哲)网络地址:http://www.*****.com/?a/593012/==============================【点点点↓↓↓↓】
  • 仙幻传奇

    仙幻传奇

    31世纪,人类科学家成功的开发出了名为“仙幻”的超级芯片,据说,利用“仙幻”芯片,任何人都可以拥有超人般的实力。到了51世纪时,逐渐完善的仙幻系统已经被分为修真系,机甲系,魔法系,古武系四大流派,除此以外还不乏其他稀有派系,如:异能系,召唤系,斗气系,念力系,……在这个仙幻时代的宇宙纪元,属于弱势的古武系中的一名小小学员,开始踏上了重振古武系之威,纵横大宇宙世界的道路!
  • 光明战争之圣帝传奇

    光明战争之圣帝传奇

    【光明战争之圣帝传奇】又名【刹神戮魔之银河英雄传说】零大陆,处于科技发达的未来,即有强大的科技,又有人们可以操纵的元素力量,科技与元素力量,带你见识不一样的未来世界,整片大陆,有五个最强国家,大明、大天、大圣、大战、大翼,其中以大明国科技最为发达,大天国最为强大。五亿年未曾出现的光明之神再现大明国,化身萌妹子明帝,只为再次维护地球和平,为你展开银河英雄的传说
  • 戮天神帝

    戮天神帝

    生与死轮回不止,我们生,他们死!杀就要杀个巅峰不败,战就要战个浴血苍穹,废材崛起,杀戮横行,且看众生无我,登顶无上大道,成就一代戮天神帝。
  • 苍茫剑起,隐世无踪

    苍茫剑起,隐世无踪

    就算你染血披挂,也不得他口中的份牵挂就算你杀尽天下,也不及他眼中的半个她一生甘愿为你你却愿为她弃了半生可就算她占尽牵挂,仍不得煮酒三分论天下就算她倾尽天下,终不能一生戎马笑天涯
  • 君之泣婢

    君之泣婢

    那一刻,她淡淡一笑,是他亲手杀了自己最爱的女人。是啊,君终是君,婢终是婢。自己又何尝去渴望帝君之爱,她喃喃:“君陌归汐,君陌归汐啊。”回眸一瞬,苦笑,你说过,你还欠我,漫天花雨……诉成泪,垂眸,深宫怨,纵成凰,却与君咫尺陌路。初我为婢,执君手,只剩缱绻……
  • 不灭火神

    不灭火神

    在一个大城市中生活着一个正在上初三的男孩,他总是受同学的排挤,欺辱。虽然他已经习惯了这种生活,但他的心中依然希望着有一天自己的生活能够得到改变,不再忍受这种生活。而这一切竟真的发生了!他的身份到底是谁?就在一天放学的路上,他的命运发生了彻底改变。。。。。。。
  • 邪帝盛宠:修罗邪医

    邪帝盛宠:修罗邪医

    她,26世纪的修罗邪医,一手绝世医术让世人称绝。据说,她神秘莫测,喜怒无常,阴晴不定,一手银针玩得出神入化。一朝意外,她穿越至废材月无墨身上,却得知,她本就属于这个世界;他,玩转三界的邪帝——夜洛邪,拥有绝世的容颜和近妖的天赋,他的名字让三界颤抖,却因阴谋被封印数千年。她救下他,他化名叶洛邪,为报恩就此周旋在她身边,却得知两人有婚约在身。自此之后,淡漠如冰的她身边跟着妖冶无俦的他。他从不轻易出手,以一双狐眸观世间沧桑;一出手,风云变色,世人在他面前只有颤栗的选择。他的强大不容置疑。不过,谁能告诉她,面前这一脸无赖、流氓样的妖孽,是世人口中睥睨天下、鬼魅惧之的大神?
  • 最强游戏人生

    最强游戏人生

    正常生活中的普通人,在游戏中却是神一般的存在。最强BUG辅助,随便刷个兵都是件神装。猪脚说:“你不是有BUG吗?你不是很恰吗?你来啊,你来啊,劳资的BUG,你伤不起。
  • 超级元素之幻体

    超级元素之幻体

    2190年,随着科技的发展,化学元素单质已经发现了173种!一次意外,元素173发生了质变,超级元素渐渐的被发现,为人们提供了无尽的能源,同时也改变了人类的生活!超级元素给人类带来怎样的改变,让我们一起进入未来世界吧!