The spirit of Niafer entered at the mouth of the image. Instantly the head sneezed, and said, "I am unhappy." But Manuel kept on playing. The spirit descended5 further, bringing life to the lungs and the belly6, so that the image then cried, "I am hungry." But Manuel kept on playing. So the soul was drawn7 further and further, until Manuel saw that the white image had taken on the colors of flesh, and was moving its toes in time to his playing; and so knew that the entire body was informed with life.
He cast down the flageolet, and touched the breast of the image with the ancient formal gestures of the old Tuyla mystery, and he sealed the mouth of the image with a kiss, so that the spirit of Niafer was imprisoned8 in the image which Manuel had made. Under his lips the lips which had been Misery9's cried, "I love." And Niafer rose, a living girl just such as Manuel had remembered for more than a whole year: but with that kiss all memories of paradise and all the traits of angelhood departed from her.
"Well, well, dear snip10," said Manuel, the first thing of all, "now it is certainly a comfort to have you back again."
Niafer, even in the rapture11 of her happiness, found this an unimpassioned greeting from one who had gone to unusual lengths to recover her companionship. Staring, she saw that Manuel had all the marks of a man in middle life, and spoke12 as became appearances. For it was at the price of his youth that Manuel had recovered the woman whom his youth desired: and Misery had subtly evened matters by awarding an aging man the woman for whose sake a lad had fearlessly served Misery. There was no longer any such lad, for the conquered had destroyed the conqueror13.
Then, after a moment's consideration of this tall gray stranger, Niafer also looked graver and older. Niafer asked for a mirror: and Manuel had none.
"Now but certainly I must know at once just how faithfully you have remembered me," says Niafer.
He led the way into the naked and desolate14 November forest, and they came to the steel-colored Wolflake hard by the gray hut: and Niafer found she was limping, for Manuel had not got her legs quite right, so that for the rest of her second life she was lame15. Then Niafer gazed for a minute, or it might be for two minutes, at her reflection in the deep cold waters of the Wolflake.
"Is this as near as you have come to remembering me, my dearest!" she said, dejectedly, as she looked down at Manuel's notion of her face. For the appearance which Niafer now wore she found to be very little like that which Niafer remembered as having been hers, in days wherein she had been tolerably familiar with the Lady Gisèle's mirrors; and it was a grief to Niafer to see how utterly16 the dearest dead go out of mind in no long while.
"I have forgotten not one line or curve of your features," says Manuel, stoutly17, "in all these months, nor in any of these last days that have passed as years. And when my love spurred me to make your image, Niafer, my love loaned me unwonted cunning. Even by ordinary, they tell me, I have some skill at making images: and while not for a moment would I seem to boast of that skill, and not for worlds would I annoy you by repeating any of the complimentary18 things which have been said about my images,—by persons somewhat more appreciative19, my dear, of the toil20 and care that goes to work of this sort,—I certainly think that in this instance nobody has fair reason to complain."
She looked at his face now: and she noted21 what the month of living with Béda, with whom a day is as a year, had done to the boy's face which she remembered. Count Manuel's face was of remodeled stuff: youth had gone out of it, and the month of years had etched wrinkles in it, success had hardened and caution had pinched and self-complacency had kissed it. And Niafer sighed again, as they sat reunited under leafless trees by the steel-colored Wolflake.
"There is no circumventing22 time and death, then, after all," said Niafer, "for neither of us is now the person that ascended23 Vraidex. No matter: I love you, Manuel, and I am content with what remains24 of you: and if the body you have given me is to your will it is to my will."
But now three rascally25 tall ragged26 fellows, each blind in one eye, and each having a thin peaked beard, came into the opening before the gray hut, trampling27 the dead leaves there as they shouted for Mimir. "Come out!" they cried: "come out, you miserable28 Mirmir, and face those three whom you have wronged!"
Dom Manuel rose from the bank of the Wolflake, and went toward the shouters. "There is no Mimir," he told them, "in Dun Vlechlan, or not at least in this peculiarly irrational29 part of the forest."
"You lie," they said, "for even though you have hitched30 a body to your head we recognize you." They looked at Niafer, and all three laughed cruelly. "Was it for this hunched31, draggled, mud-faced wench that you left us, you squinting32 old villain33? And have you so soon forgotten the vintner's parlor34 at Neogréant, and what you did with the gold plates?"
"No, I have not forgotten these things, for I never knew anything about them," said Manuel.
Said one of the knaves35, twirling fiercely his moustachios: "Hah, shameless Mimir, do you look at me, who have known you and your blind son Oriander, too, to be unblushing knaves for these nine centuries! Now, I suppose, you will be denying the affair of the squirrel also?"
"Oh, be off with your nonsense!" says Manuel, "for I have not yet had twenty-two years of living, and I never saw you before, and I hope never to see you again."
But they all set upon him with cutlasses, so there was nothing remaining save to have out his sword and fight. And when each of these one-eyed persons had vanished curiously36 under his death-wound, Manuel told Niafer it was a comfort to find that the month of years had left him a fair swordsman for all that his youth was gone; and that he thought they had better be leaving this part of the high woods of Dun Vlechlan, wherein unaccountable things took place, and all persons behaved unreasonably37.
"Were these wood-spirits unreasonable," asks Niafer, "in saying that the countenance38 and the body you have given me are ugly?"
"My dear," replied Manuel, "it was their saying that which made me try to avoid the conflict, because it does not look well, not even in dealing39 with demons40, to injure the insane."
"Manuel, and can it be you who are considering appearances?"
Dom Manuel said gravely: "My dealings with Misery and with Misery's kindred have taught me many things which I shall never forget nor very willingly talk about. One of these teachings, though, is that in most affairs there is a middle road on which there is little traffic and comparatively easy going. I must tell you that the company I have been in required a great deal of humoring, for of course it is not safe to trifle with any evil principle. No, no, one need not absolutely and openly defy convention, I perceive, in order to follow after one's own thinking," says Manuel, shrewdly, and waggling a gray beard.
"I am so glad you have learned that at last! At least, I suppose, I am glad," said Niafer, a little wistfully, as she recalled young Manuel of the high head.
"But, as I was saying, I now estimate that these tattered41 persons who would have prevented my leaving, as well as the red fellow that would have hindered my entering, this peculiarly irrational part of the forest, were spiritual intruders into Misery's domain42 whom Misery had driven out of their wits. No, Niafer, I voice no criticism, because with us two this Misery of earth, whom some call Béda, and others Kruchina, has dealt very handsomely. It troubles me to suspect that he was also called Mimir; but of this we need not speak, because a thing done has an end, even a killed grandfather. Nevertheless, I think that Dun Vlechlan is unwholesome, and I am of the opinion that you and I will be more comfortable elsewhere."
"But must we go back to looking after pigs, dear Manuel, or are you now too old for that?"
Dom Manuel smiled, and you saw that he retained at least his former lordliness. "No, now that every obligation is lifted, and we are reunited, dear snip, I can at last go traveling everywhither, so that I may see the ends of this world and judge them. And we will do whatever else we choose, for, as I must tell you, I am now a nobleman with lackeys43 and meadowlands and castles of my own, if only I could obtain possession of them."
"This is excellent hearing," said Niafer, "and much better than pig-stealing, and I am glad that the world has had sense enough to appreciate you, Manuel, and you it. And we will have rubies44 in my coronet, because I always fancied them. Now do you tell me how it all happened, and what I am to be called countess of. And we will talk about that traveling later, for I have already traveled a great distance today, but we must certainly have rubies."
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1
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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3
thriftily
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| 节俭地； 繁茂地； 繁荣的 | |
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4
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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5
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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6
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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7
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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8
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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snip
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| n.便宜货，廉价货，剪，剪断 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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12
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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13
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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14
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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15
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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18
complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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21
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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22
circumventing
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| v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的现在分词 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行 | |
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23
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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26
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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27
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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28
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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29
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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30
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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31
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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32
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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33
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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34
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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35
knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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36
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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37
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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38
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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39
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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40
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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41
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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42
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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43
lackeys
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| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
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44
rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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