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Chapter 3
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There was a little platform out on the roof, where he used sometimes to stand his telescope and observe the stars or the moon: the moon when possible. It was not a very safe platform, just a little ledge1 of the roof, outside the window at the end of the top corridor: or rather, the top landing, for it was only the space between the attics3. Hannele had the one attic2 room at the back, he had the room we have seen, and a little bedroom which was really only a lumber4 room. Before he came, Hannele had been alone under the roof. His rooms were then lumber room and laundry room, where the clothes were dried. But he had wanted to be high up, because of his stars, and this was the place that pleased him.

Hannele heard him quite late in the night, wandering about. She heard him also on the ledge outside. She could not sleep. He disturbed her. The moon was risen, large and bright in the sky. She heard the bells from the cathedral slowly strike two: two great drops of sound in the livid night. And again, from outside on the roof, she heard him clear his throat. Then a cat howled.

She rose, wrapped herself in a dark wrap, and went down the landing to the window at the end. The sky outside was full of moonlight. He was squatted5 like a great cat peering up his telescope, sitting on a stool, his knees wide apart. Quite motionless he sat in that attitude, like some leaden figure on the roof. The moonlight glistened6 with a gleam of plumbago on the great slope of black tiles. She stood still in the window, watching. And he remained fixed7 and motionless at the end of the telescope.

She tapped softly on the window-pane. He looked round, like some tom-cat staring round with wide night eyes. Then he reached down his hand and pulled the window open.

‘Hello,’ he said quietly. ‘You not asleep?’

‘Aren’t YOU tired?’ she replied, rather resentful.

‘No, I was as wide awake as I could be. ISN’T the moon fine tonight! What? Perfectly8 amazing. Wouldn’t you like to come up and have a look at her?’

‘No, thank you,’ she said hastily, terrified at the thought.

He resumed his posture9, peering up the telescope.

‘Perfectly amazing,’ he said, murmuring. She waited for some time, bewitched likewise by the great October moon and the sky full of resplendent white-green light. It seemed like another sort of day-time. And there he straddled on the roof like some cat! It was exactly like day in some other planet.

At length he turned round to her. His face glistened faintly, and his eyes were dilated10 like a cat’s at night.

‘You know I had a visitor?’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘My wife.’

‘Your WIFE!’ — she looked up really astonished. She had thought it might be an acquaintance — perhaps his aunt — or even an elder sister. ‘But she’s years older than you,’ she added.

‘Eight years,’ he said. ‘I’m forty-one.’

There was a silence.

‘Yes,’ he mused11. ‘She arrived suddenly, by surprise, yesterday, and found me away. She’s staying in the hotel, in the Vier Jahreszeiten.’

There was a pause.

‘Aren’t you going to stay with her?’ asked Hannele.

‘Yes, I shall probably join her tomorrow.’

There was a still longer pause.

‘Why not tonight?’ asked Hannele.

‘Oh, well — I put it off for tonight. It meant all the bother of my wife changing her room at the hotel — and it was late — and I was all mucky after travelling.’

‘But you’ll go tomorrow?’

‘Yes, I shall go tomorrow. For a week or so. After that I’m not sure what will happen.’

There was quite a long pause. He remained seated on his stool on the roof, looking with dilated, blank, black eyes at nothingness. She stood below in the open window space, pondering.

‘Do you want to go to her at the hotel?’ asked Hannele.

‘Well, I don’t, particularly. But I don’t mind, really. We’re very good friends. Why, we’ve been friends for eighteen years — we’ve been married seventeen. Oh, she’s a nice little woman. I don’t want to hurt her feelings. I wish her no harm, you know. On the contrary, I wish her all the good in the world.’

He had no idea of the blank amazement12 in which Hannele listened to these stray remarks.

‘But — ’ she stammered13. ‘But doesn’t she expect you to make LOVE to her?’

‘Oh yes, she expects that. You bet she does: woman-like.’

‘And you?’ — the question had a dangerous ring.

‘Why, I don’t mind, really, you know, if it’s only for a short time. I’m used to her. I’ve always been fond of her, you know — and so if it gives her any pleasure — why, I like her to get what pleasure out of life she can.’

‘But you — you YOURSELF! Don’t YOU feel anything?’ Hannele’s amazement was reaching the point of incredulity. She began to feel that he was making it up. It was all so different from her own point of view. To sit there so quiet and to make such statements in all good faith: no, it was impossible.

‘I don’t consider I count,’ he said na?vely.

Hannele looked aside. If that wasn’t lying, it was imbecility, or worse. She had for the moment nothing to say. She felt he was a sort of psychic14 phenomenon like a grasshopper15 or a tadpole16 or an ammonite. Not to be regarded from a human point of view. No, he just wasn’t normal. And she had been fascinated by him! It was only sheer, amazed curiosity that carried her on to her next question.

‘But do you NEVER count, then?’ she asked, and there was a touch of derision, of laughter in her tone. He took no offence.

‘Well — very rarely,’ he said. ‘I count very rarely. That’s how life appears to me. One matters so VERY little.’

She felt quite dizzy with astonishment17. And he called himself a man!

‘But if you matter so very little, what do you do anything at all for?’ she asked.

‘Oh, one has to. And then, why not? Why not do things, even if oneself hardly matters. Look at the moon. It doesn’t matter in the least to the moon whether I exist or whether I don’t. So why should it matter to me?’

After a blank pause of incredulity she said:

‘I could die with laughter. It seems to me all so ridiculous — no, I can’t believe it.’

‘Perhaps it is a point of view,’ he said.

There was a long and pregnant silence: we should not like to say pregnant with what.

‘And so I don’t mean anything to you at all?’ she said.

‘I didn’t say that,’ he replied.

‘Nothing means anything to you,’ she challenged.

‘I don’t say that.’

‘Whether it’s your wife — or me — or the moon — toute la même chose.’

‘No — no — that’s hardly the way to look at it.’

She gazed at him in such utter amazement that she felt something would really explode in her if she heard another word. Was this a man? — or what was it? It was too much for her, that was all.

‘Well, good-bye,’ she said. ‘I hope you will have a nice time at the Vier Jahreszeiten.’

So she left him still sitting on the roof.

‘I suppose,’ she said to herself, ‘that is love à l’anglaise. But it’s more than I can swallow.’


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1 ledge o1Mxk     
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁
参考例句:
  • They paid out the line to lower him to the ledge.他们放出绳子使他降到那块岩石的突出部分。
  • Suddenly he struck his toe on a rocky ledge and fell.突然他的脚趾绊在一块突出的岩石上,摔倒了。
2 attic Hv4zZ     
n.顶楼,屋顶室
参考例句:
  • Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
  • What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理?
3 attics 10dfeae57923f7ba63754c76388fab81     
n. 阁楼
参考例句:
  • They leave unwanted objects in drawers, cupboards and attics. 他们把暂时不需要的东西放在抽屉里、壁橱中和搁楼上。
  • He rummaged busily in the attics of European literature, bringing to light much of interest. 他在欧洲文学的阁楼里忙着翻箱倒笼,找到了不少有趣的东西。
4 lumber a8Jz6     
n.木材,木料;v.以破旧东西堆满;伐木;笨重移动
参考例句:
  • The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
  • They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。
5 squatted 45deb990f8c5186c854d710c535327b0     
v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 );非法擅自占用(土地或房屋);为获得其所有权;而占用某片公共用地。
参考例句:
  • He squatted down beside the footprints and examined them closely. 他蹲在脚印旁仔细地观察。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He squatted in the grass discussing with someone. 他蹲在草地上与一个人谈话。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 glistened 17ff939f38e2a303f5df0353cf21b300     
v.湿物闪耀,闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • Pearls of dew glistened on the grass. 草地上珠露晶莹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Her eyes glistened with tears. 她的眼里闪着泪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
7 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
8 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
9 posture q1gzk     
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势
参考例句:
  • The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
  • He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣,摆出一副打架的架势。
10 dilated 1f1ba799c1de4fc8b7c6c2167ba67407     
adj.加宽的,扩大的v.(使某物)扩大,膨胀,张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • Her eyes dilated with fear. 她吓得瞪大了眼睛。
  • The cat dilated its eyes. 猫瞪大了双眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 mused 0affe9d5c3a243690cca6d4248d41a85     
v.沉思,冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 );沉思自语说(某事)
参考例句:
  • \"I wonder if I shall ever see them again, \"he mused. “我不知道是否还可以再见到他们,”他沉思自问。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • \"Where are we going from here?\" mused one of Rutherford's guests. 卢瑟福的一位客人忍不住说道:‘我们这是在干什么?” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
12 amazement 7zlzBK     
n.惊奇,惊讶
参考例句:
  • All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
  • He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。
13 stammered 76088bc9384c91d5745fd550a9d81721     
v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He stammered most when he was nervous. 他一紧张往往口吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • Barsad leaned back in his chair, and stammered, \"What do you mean?\" 巴萨往椅背上一靠,结结巴巴地说,“你是什么意思?” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
14 psychic BRFxT     
n.对超自然力敏感的人;adj.有超自然力的
参考例句:
  • Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
  • She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能,能预知未来。
15 grasshopper ufqxG     
n.蚱蜢,蝗虫,蚂蚱
参考例句:
  • He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
  • The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。
16 tadpole GIvzw     
n.[动]蝌蚪
参考例句:
  • As a tadpole changes into a frog,its tail is gradually absorbed.蝌蚪变成蛙,它的尾巴就逐渐被吸收掉。
  • It was a tadpole.Now it is a frog.它过去是蝌蚪,现在是一只青蛙。
17 astonishment VvjzR     
n.惊奇,惊异
参考例句:
  • They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
  • I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。


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