登陆注册
19967200000025

第25章

I asked, but Dora smiled at a glance, the hypocrisy out of my face.

'What does anything matter?' she demanded.

I knew perfectly well the standard by which nothing mattered, and there was no use, of course, in going on pretending that I did not.

'I assured him that you didn't paint,' I said, accusingly.

'Oh, I had to--otherwise what was there to go upon? He would have been found only to be lost again.You did not contemplate that?'

Miss Harris inquired sweetly.

'I should have thought it was the surest way of losing him.'

'I can't think why you should be so rude.He observes progress already.'

'With a view to claiming and holding him, would it be of any use,' Iasked, 'for me to start in oils?'

Miss Harris eyed me calmly.

'I don't know,' she said, 'but it doesn't seem the same thing somehow.I think you had better leave it to me.'

'Indeed, I won't,' I said; 'there is too much in it,' and we smiled across the gulf of our friendly understanding.

I crossed to the mantelpiece and picked up one of the little wet panels.There was that in it which explained my friend's exultation much more plainly than words.

'That is what I am to show him tomorrow,' she exclaimed; 'I think Ihave done as he told me.I think it's pretty right.'

Whether it was pretty right or pretty wrong, she had taken in an extraordinary way an essence out of him.It wasn't of course good, but his feeling was reflected in it, at once so brilliantly and so profoundly that it was startling to see.

'Do you think he'll be pleased?' she asked, anxiously.

'I think he'll be astounded,' I said, reserving the rest, and she cried in her pleasure, 'Oh, you dear man!'

'I see you have taken possession of him,' I went on.

'Ah, body and soul,' Dora rejoined, and it must have been something like that.I could imagine how she did it; with what wiles of simplicity and candid good-fellowship she had drawn him to forgetfulness and response, and how presently his enthusiasm leaped up to answer hers and they had been caught altogether out of the plane of common relations, and he had gone away on that disgraceful bazaar pony with a ratified arrangement to return next day which had been almost taken for granted from the beginning.

I confess, though I had helped to bring it about, the situation didn't altogether please me.I did not dream of foolish dangers, but it seemed to take a little too much for granted; I found myself inwardly demanding whether, after all, a vivid capacity to make colour conscious was a sufficient basis on which to bring to Edward Harris's house a young man about whom we knew nothing whatever else.

An instant's regard showed the scruple fraudulent, it fled before the rush of pleasure with which I gazed at the tokens he had left behind him.I fell back on my wonder, which was great, that Dora should have possessed the technique necessary to take him at a point where he could give her so much that was valuable.

'Oh, well,' she said when I uttered it, 'you know I made the experiment! I found out in South Kensington--you can learn that much there--that I never would be able to paint well enough to make it worth while.So I dropped it and took a more general line towards life.But I find it very easy to imagine myself dedicated to that particular one again.'

'You never told me,' I said.Why had I been shut out of that experience?

'I tell you now,' Dora replied, absently, 'when I am able to offer you the fact with illustrations.' She laughed and dropped a still illuminated face in the palm of her hand.'He has wonderfully revived me,' she declared.'I could throw, honestly, the whole of Simla overboard for this.'

'Don't,' I urged, feeling, suddenly, an integral part of Simla.

'Oh, no--what end would be served? But I don't care who knows,' she went on with a rush, 'that in all life this is what I like best, and people like Mr.Armour are the people I value most.Heavens, how few of them there are! And wherever they go how the air clears up round them! It makes me quite ill to think of the life we lead here--the poverty of it, the preposterous dullness of it....'

'For goodness' sake,' I said, obscurely irritated, 'don't quote the bishop.The life holds whatever we put into it.'

'For other people it does, and for us it holds what other people put into it,' she retorted.'I don't know whether you think it's adequately filled with gold lace and truffles.'

'Why should I defend it?' I asked, not knowing indeed why.'But it has perhaps a dignity, you know.Ah, you are too fresh from your baptism,' I continued, as she shook her head and went to the piano.

The quality, whatever it was, that the last fortnight had generated in her, leaped from her fingers; she played with triumph, elation, intention.The notes seemed an outlet for the sense of beauty and for power to make it.I had never heard her play like that before.

It occurred to me to ask when she had done, how far, after a fortnight, she could throw light on Armour's aims and history, where he had come from, and the great query with which we first received him, what he could be doing in Simla.I gathered that she had learned practically nothing, and had hardly concerned herself to learn anything.What difference did it make? she asked me.Why should we inquire? Why tack a theory of origin to a phenomenon of joy? Let us say the wind brought him, and build him a temple.She was very whimsical up to the furthest stretch of what could possibly be considered tea-time.When I went away I saw her go again and sit down at the piano.In the veranda I remembered something, stopped, and went back.I had to go back.'You did not tell me,' I said, 'when he was coming again.'

'Oh, tomorrow--tomorrow, of course,' Dora paused to reply.

I resented, as I made my way to the Club, the weight of official duties that made it so impossible for me to keep at all closely in touch with this young man.

同类推荐
  • 首楞严经疏

    首楞严经疏

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 无垢净光大陀罗尼经

    无垢净光大陀罗尼经

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 古庭禅师语录辑略

    古庭禅师语录辑略

    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。
  • 六十种曲彩毫记

    六十种曲彩毫记

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Roughing It

    Roughing It

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 武道元神

    武道元神

    一次意外造就了一段传奇,再世为人的康林木不堪忍受欺辱毅然踏上追寻巅峰的道路。为寻元果,不幸坠崖,寻得玄功,英雄救美,却不幸惨遭陷害。不断探索元气的真谛,最终成就元神。我愿为你独战天下,无论这条路有多远。我愿意为你倾其所有,无论是否付出生命。
  • 冷箭(下)

    冷箭(下)

    《冷箭(套装上下册)》以中国组建的一支监狱部队先遣队押解上千名重犯进行大迁徙为背景,讲述了一段暴狱和反暴狱,我中有敌、敌中有我的反特悬疑故事。已被拍摄成三十五集同名电视剧,由央视金牌制作人俞胜利一手打造。
  • 恋梦的城

    恋梦的城

    以前喜欢城,后来却一直做着梦,每次梦里总有城,没次见到你都做一样的梦,我想我一定是爱上了你,爱上了这座城。
  • 亲亲男友:失忆俏女友

    亲亲男友:失忆俏女友

    在童话里,公主注定要和王子在一起,这是谁也改变不了的事实。公主和王子的完美恋爱,就在这个时候,一次看似意外险些要了公主的命,幸运的是公主逃过一劫,活了下来,遗憾的是公主失忆了,忘记了以前的事。命运安排的再一次的相遇,公主和王子能否完成童话里的幸福结局呢……
  • 带着电脑回三国

    带着电脑回三国

    陈乾莫名其妙地穿越了,带着一台手提电脑,到了三国最乱的192年.碰上了美丽,聪明而又幽伤的蔡琰姐妹.于是便想与蔡琰MM一起归隐,到桃花源去过着神仙样的生活.然而这个不想改变历史的他,在现实面前,却一次次违背自己的意愿......电脑,这个二十一世纪的最新科技.在一千八百多年前,会给主角带来什么呢?又会能人们带来什么呢......本书写法可能和其它类穿越文不同,大家不访一看.QQ群:79956487
  • 刁蛮弃妇选老公

    刁蛮弃妇选老公

    找女人我忍了,带回家我也忍了,离婚····好,你以为没你我活不了啊!离就离·········离婚后不敢轻易再去相信爱情!可万万没想到桃花不断,喜怒无常的霸道总裁,温柔体贴黑道老大,好不容易再次放开心扉去接受,没想到又一次发现了背叛无论是骗局还是误会她都怕了,远远的逃开这里的一切不再相信任何人变得坚强变得独立,可那些讨厌的人偏偏又来欺负姐.好....很好..既然这么欺负姐.姐也不能白让你们欺负,欠姐的姐会一样样讨回来........
  • 一见钟情:老公有你真好

    一见钟情:老公有你真好

    他是整个华夏的主宰人,所有人将他视为神一样的存在,而她只是一个身世成谜的回国千金。他只看了她一眼,便决定与她共度余生。她曾问他:“你为什么肯定我就是陪伴你一生的人?”他说:“那就叫一见钟情……”看他们夫妻强强联手强势来袭【宠文一加一,大家快快入坑吧】
  • 每天读点星云大师全集

    每天读点星云大师全集

    本书内容包括星云大师谈禅净、星云大师谈生活、星云大师谈事业、星云大师谈职场、星云大师谈人生、星云大师谈智慧、星云大师谈修身、星云大师谈幸福等。
  • 血液循环的发现者哈维的故事

    血液循环的发现者哈维的故事

    本书以青少年为主要对象、介绍哈维——血液循环的发现者、英国生理学家、著名医生,介绍其在医学领域的探索及他对人类的巨大遗产《血液循环论》。
  • 齐燕和张美凤的春天

    齐燕和张美凤的春天

    故事以描写两个女子间的情感为主题,让人想起已渐渐随时间流逝的稚嫩,青春一寸寸过去了,友谊永存,爱也还在,让我们一起用回忆感知少年的轻狂,用泪水感受生活的美好。