Six months after our friend had left England George Corvick, who made his living by his pen, contracted for a piece of work which imposed on him an absence of some length and a journey of some difficulty, and his undertaking1 of which was much of a surprise to me. His brother-inlaw had become editor of a great provincial2 paper, and the great provincial paper, in a fine flight of fancy, had conceived the idea of sending a “special commissioner” to India. Special commissioners3 had begun, in the “metropolitan4 press,” to be the fashion, and the journal in question must have felt it had passed too long for a mere5 country cousin. Corvick had no hand, I knew, for the big brush of the correspondent, but that was his brother-inlaw’s affair, and the fact that a particular task was not in his line was apt to be with himself exactly a reason for accepting it. He was prepared to out-Herod the metropolitan press; he took solemn precautions against priggishness, he exquisitely6 outraged7 taste. Nobody ever knew it — that offended principle was all his own. In addition to his expenses he was to be conveniently paid, and I found myself able to help him, for the usual fat book, to a plausible8 arrangement with the usual fat publisher. I naturally inferred that his obvious desire to make a little money was not unconnected with the prospect9 of a union with Gwendolen Erme. I was aware that her mother’s opposition10 was largely addressed to his want of means and of lucrative11 abilities, but it so happened that, on my saying the last time I saw him something that bore on the question of his separation from our young lady, he brought out with an emphasis that startled me: “Ah I’m not a bit engaged to her, you know!”
“Not overtly,” I answered, “because her mother doesn’t like you. But I’ve always taken for granted a private understanding.”
“Well, there WAS one. But there isn’t now.” That was all he said save something about Mrs. Erme’s having got on her feet again in the most extraordinary way — a remark pointing, as I supposed, the moral that private understandings were of little use when the doctor didn’t share them. What I took the liberty of more closely inferring was that the girl might in some way have estranged12 him. Well, if he had taken the turn of jealousy13 for instance it could scarcely be jealousy of me. In that case — over and above the absurdity14 of it — he wouldn’t have gone away just to leave us together. For some time before his going we had indulged in no allusion15 to the buried treasure, and from his silence, which my reserve simply emulated16, I had drawn17 a sharp conclusion. His courage had dropped, his ardour had gone the way of mine — this appearance at least he left me to scan. More than that he couldn’t do; he couldn’t face the triumph with which I might have greeted an explicit18 admission. He needn’t have been afraid, poor dear, for I had by this time lost all need to triumph. In fact I considered I showed magnanimity in not reproaching him with his collapse19, for the sense of his having thrown up the game made me feel more than ever how much I at last depended on him. If Corvick had broken down I should never know; no one would be of any use if HE wasn’t. It wasn’t a bit true I had ceased to care for knowledge; little by little my curiosity not only had begun to ache again, but had become the familiar torment20 of my days and my nights. There are doubtless people to whom torments21 of such an order appear hardly more natural than the contortions22 of disease; but I don’t after all know why I should in this connexion so much as mention them. For the few persons, at any rate, abnormal or not, with whom my anecdote23 is concerned, literature was a game of skill, and skill meant courage, and courage meant honour, and honour meant passion, meant life. The stake on the table was of a special substance and our roulette the revolving24 mind, but we sat round the green board as intently as the grim gamblers at Monte Carlo. Gwendolen Erme, for that matter, with her white face and her fixed25 eyes, was of the very type of the lean ladies one had met in the temples of chance. I recognised in Corvick’s absence that she made this analogy vivid. It was extravagant26, I admit, the way she lived for the art of the pen. Her passion visibly preyed27 on her, and in her presence I felt almost tepid28. I got hold of “Deep Down” again: it was a desert in which she had lost herself, but in which too she had dug a wonderful hole in the sand — a cavity out of which Corvick had still more remarkably29 pulled her.
Early in March I had a telegram from her, in consequence of which I repaired immediately to Chelsea, where the first thing she said to me was: “He has got it, he has got it!”
She was moved, as I could see, to such depths that she must mean the great thing. “Vereker’s idea?”
“His general intention. George has cabled from Bombay.”
She had the missive open there; it was emphatic30 though concise31. “Eureka. Immense.” That was all — he had saved the cost of the signature. I shared her emotion, but I was disappointed. “He doesn’t say what it is.”
“How could he — in a telegram? He’ll write it.”
“But how does he know?”
“Know it’s the real thing? Oh I’m sure that when you see it you do know. Vera incessu patuit dea!”
“It’s you, Miss Erme, who are a ‘dear’ for bringing me such news!”- -I went all lengths in my high spirits. “But fancy finding our goddess in the temple of Vishnu! How strange of George to have been able to go into the thing again in the midst of such different and such powerful solicitations!”
“He hasn’t gone into it, I know; it’s the thing itself, let severely32 alone for six months, that has simply sprung out at him like a tigress out of the jungle. He didn’t take a book with him — on purpose; indeed he wouldn’t have needed to — he knows every page, as I do, by heart. They all worked in him together, and some day somewhere, when he wasn’t thinking, they fell, in all their superb intricacy, into the one right combination. The figure in the carpet came out. That’s the way he knew it would come and the real reason — you didn’t in the least understand, but I suppose I may tell you now — why he went and why I consented to his going. We knew the change would do it — that the difference of thought, of scene, would give the needed touch, the magic shake. We had perfectly33, we had admirably calculated. The elements were all in his mind, and in the secousse of a new and intense experience they just struck light.” She positively34 struck light herself — she was literally35, facially luminous36. I stammered37 something about unconscious cerebration, and she continued: “He’ll come right home — this will bring him.”
“To see Vereker, you mean?”
“To see Vereker — and to see ME. Think what he’ll have to tell me!”
I hesitated. “About India?”
“About fiddlesticks! About Vereker — about the figure in the carpet.”
“But, as you say, we shall surely have that in a letter.”
She thought like one inspired, and I remembered how Corvick had told me long before that her face was interesting. “Perhaps it can’t be got into a letter if it’s ‘immense.’”
“Perhaps not if it’s immense bosh. If he has hold of something that can’t be got into a letter he hasn’t hold of THE thing. Vereker’s own statement to me was exactly that the ‘figure’ WOULD fit into a letter.”
“Well, I cabled to George an hour ago — two words,” said Gwendolen.
“Is it indiscreet of me to ask what they were?”
She hung fire, but at last brought them out. “‘Angel, write.’”
“Good!” I exclaimed. “I’ll make it sure — I’ll send him the same.”
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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emulated
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| v.与…竞争( emulate的过去式和过去分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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contortions
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| n.扭歪，弯曲；扭曲，弄歪，歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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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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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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preyed
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| v.掠食( prey的过去式和过去分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生 | |
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tepid
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| adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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concise
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| adj.简洁的，简明的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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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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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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