Silently the two men faced each other. Then Ernest hissed1:
"Thief!"
Reginald shrugged2 his shoulders.
"So Ethel has infected you with her absurd fancies! Poor boy! I am afraid.... I have been wanting to tell you for some time.... But I think... We have reached the parting of our road!"
"And that you dare to tell me!"
The more he raged, the calmer Reginald seemed to become.
"Really," he said, "I fail to understand.... I must ask you to leave my room!"
"You fail to understand? You cad!" Ernest cried. He stepped to the writing-table and opened the secret drawer with a blow. A bundle of manuscripts fell on the floor with a strange rustling4 noise. Then, seizing his own story, he hurled5 it upon the table. And behold7--the last pages bore corrections in ink that could have been made only a few minutes ago!
Reginald smiled. "Have you come to play havoc8 with my manuscripts?" he remarked.
"Your manuscripts? Reginald Clarke, you are an impudent9 impostor! You have written no word that is your own. You are an embezzler10 of the mind, strutting11 through life in borrowed and stolen plumes12!"
And at once the mask fell from Reginald's face.
"Why stolen?" he coolly said, with a slight touch of irritation13. "I absorb. I appropriate. That is the most any artist can say for himself. God creates; man moulds. He gives us the colours; we mix them."
"That is not the question. I charge you with having wilfully14 and criminally interfered15 in my life; I charge you with having robbed me of what was mine; I charge you with being utterly16 vile17 and rapacious18, a hypocrite and a parasite19!"
"Foolish boy," Reginald rejoined austerely20. "It is through me that the best in you shall survive, even as the obscure Elizabethans live in him of Avon. Shakespeare absorbed what was great in little men--a greatness that otherwise would have perished--and gave it a setting, a life."
"A thief may plead the same. I understand you better. It is your inordinate21 vanity that prompts you to abuse your monstrous22 power."
"You err23. Self-love has never entered into my actions. I am careless of personal fame. Look at me, boy! As I stand before you I am Homer, I am Shakespeare ... I am every cosmic manifestation24 in art. Men have doubted in each incarnation my individual existence. Historians have more to tell of the meanest Athenian scribbler or Elizabethan poetaster than of me. The radiance of my work obscured my very self. I care not. I have a mission. I am a servant of the Lord. I am the vessel25 that bears the Host!"
He stood up at full length, the personification of grandeur26 and power. A tremendous force trembled in his very finger tips. He was like a gigantic dynamo, charged with the might of ten thousand magnetic storms that shake the earth in its orbit and lash27 myriads28 of planets through infinities29 of space....
Under ordinary circumstances Ernest or any other man would have quailed30 before him. But the boy in that epic31 moment had grown out of his stature32. He felt the sword of vengeance33 in his hands; to him was intrusted the cause of Abel and of Walkham, of Ethel and of Jack34. His was the struggle of the individual soul against the same blind and cruel fate that in the past had fashioned the ichthyosaurus and the mastodon.
"By what right," he cried, "do you assume that you are the literary Messiah? Who appointed you? What divine power has made you the steward35 of my mite36 and of theirs whom you have robbed?"
"I am a light-bearer. I tread the high hills of mankind.... I point the way to the future. I light up the abysses of the past. Were not my stature gigantic, how could I hold the torch in all men's sight? The very souls that I tread underfoot realise, as their dying gaze follows me, the possibilities with which the future is big.... Eternally secure, I carry the essence of what is cosmic ... of what is divine.... I am Homer ... Goethe ... Shakespeare.... I am an embodiment of the same force of which Alexander, Caesar, Confucius and the Christos were also embodiments.... None so strong as to resist me."
A sudden madness overcame Ernest at this boast. He must strike now or never. He must rid humanity of this dangerous maniac--this demon37 of strength. With a power ten times intensified38, he raised a heavy chair so as to hurl6 it at Reginald's head and crush it.
Reginald stood there calmly, a smile upon his lips.... Primal39 cruelties rose from the depth of his nature.... Still he smiled, turning his luminous40 gaze upon the boy ... and, behold ... Ernest's hand began to shake ... the chair fell from his grasp.... He tried to call for help, but no sound issued from his lips.... Utterly paralysed he confronted ... the Force....
Minutes--eternities passed.
And still those eyes were fixed41 upon him.
But this was no longer Reginald!
It was all brain ... only brain ... a tremendous brain-machine ... infinitely42 complex ... infinitely strong. Not more than a mile away Ethel endeavoured to call to him through the night. The telephone rang, once, twice, thrice, insistingly. But Ernest heard it not. Something dragged him ... dragged the nerves from his body dragged, dragged, dragged.... It was an irresistible43 suction ... pitiless ... passionless ... immense.
Sparks, blue, crimson44 and violet, seemed to play around the living battery. It reached the finest fibres of his mind.... Slowly ... every trace of mentality45 disappeared.... First the will ... then feeling ... judgment46 ... memory ... fear even.... All that was stored in his brain-cells came forth47 to be absorbed by that mighty48 engine....
The Princess With the Yellow Veil appeared ... flitted across the room and melted away. She was followed by childhood memories ... girls' heads, boys' faces.... He saw his dead mother waving her arms to him.... An expression of death-agony distorted the placid49 features.... Then, throwing a kiss to him, she, too, disappeared. Picture on picture followed.... Words of love that he had spoken ... sins, virtues50, magnanimities, meannesses, terrors ... mathematical formulas even, and snatches of songs. Leontina came and was swallowed up.... No, it was Ethel who was trying to speak to him ... trying to warn.... She waved her hands in frantic51 despair.... She was gone.... A pale face ... dark, dishevelled hair.... Jack.... How he had changed! He was in the circle of the vampire's transforming might. "Jack," he cried. Surely Jack had something to explain ... something to tell him ... some word that if spoken would bring rest to his soul. He saw the words rise to the boy's lips, but before he had time to utter them his image also had vanished. And Reginald ... Reginald, too, was gone.... There was only the mighty brain ... panting ... whirling.... Then there was nothing.... The annihilation of Ernest Fielding was complete.
Vacantly he stared at the walls, at the room and at his master. The latter was wiping the sweat from his forehead. He breathed deeply.... The flush of youth spread over his features.... His eyes sparkled with a new and dangerous brilliancy.... He took the thing that had once been Ernest Fielding by the hand and led it to its room.
收听单词发音 |
1
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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vampire
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| n.吸血鬼 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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embezzler
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| n.盗用公款者，侵占公款犯 | |
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strutting
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| 加固，支撑物 | |
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plumes
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| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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rapacious
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| adj.贪婪的，强夺的 | |
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parasite
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| n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客 | |
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austerely
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| adv.严格地，朴质地 | |
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inordinate
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| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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err
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| vi.犯错误，出差错 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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infinities
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| n.无穷大( infinity的名词复数 )；无限远的点；无法计算的量；无限大的量 | |
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30
quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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32
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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35
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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40
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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41
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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42
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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43
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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44
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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45
mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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46
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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47
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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48
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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49
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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50
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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51
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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