“Here he comes!” Wade1 had said, the first evening, as the two young men, with Wade’s mother sat in the sultry dusk, with the Virginian creeper drawing, between the verandah arches, its black arabesques2 against a moon-lined sky.
In the darkness Bernald heard a step on the gravel3, and saw the red flit of a cigar through the shrubs4. Then a loosely-moving figure obscured the patch of sky between the creepers, and the red spark became the centre of a dim bearded face, in which Bernald discerned only a broad white gleam of forehead.
It was the young man’s subsequent impression that Winterman had not spoken much that first evening; at any rate, Bernald himself remembered chiefly what the Wades6 had said. And this was the more curious because he had come for the purpose of studying their visitor, and because there was nothing to divert him from that purpose in Wade’s halting communications or his mother’s artless comments. He reflected afterward7 that there must have been a mysteriously fertilizing8 quality in the stranger’s silence: it had brooded over their talk like a large moist cloud above a dry country.
Mrs. Wade, apparently9 apprehensive10 lest her son should have given Bernald an exaggerated notion of their visitor’s importance, had hastened to qualify it before the latter appeared.
“He’s not what you or Howland would call intellectual — "(Bernald writhed11 at the coupling of the names) — “not in the least literary; though he told Bob he used to write. I don’t think, though, it could have been what Howland would call writing.” Mrs. Wade always mentioned her younger son with a reverential drop of the voice. She viewed literature much as she did Providence12, as an inscrutably mystery; and she spoke5 of Howland as a dedicated13 being, set apart to perform secret rites14 within the veil of the sanctuary15.
“I shouldn’t say he had a quick mind,” she continued, reverting16 apologetically to Winterman. “Sometimes he hardly seems to follow what we’re saying. But he’s got such sound ideas — when he does speak he’s never silly. And clever people sometimes are, don’t you think so?” Bernald groaned17 an unqualified assent18. “And he’s so capable. The other day something went wrong with the kitchen range, just as I was expecting some friends of Bob’s for dinner; and do you know, when Mr. Winterman heard we were in trouble, he came and took a look, and knew at once what to do? I told him it was a dreadful pity he wasn’t married!”
Close on midnight, when the session on the verandah ended, and the two young men were strolling down to the bungalow19 at Winterman’s side, Bernald’s mind reverted20 to the image of the fertilizing cloud. There was something brooding, pregnant, in the silent presence beside him: he had, in place of any circumscribing21 impression of the individual, a large hovering22 sense of manifold latent meanings. And he felt a distinct thrill of relief when, half-way down the lawn, Doctor Bob was checked by a voice that called him back to the telephone.
“Now I’ll be with him alone!” thought Bernald, with a throb23 like a lover’s.
In the low-ceilinged bungalow Winterman had to grope for the lamp on his desk, and as its light struck up into his face Bernald’s sense of the rareness of his opportunity increased. He couldn’t have said why, for the face, with its ridged brows, its shabby greyish beard and blunt Socratic nose, made no direct appeal to the eye. It seemed rather like a stage on which remarkable24 things might be enacted25, like some shaggy moorland landscape dependent for form and expression on the clouds rolling over it, and the bursts of light between; and one of these flashed out in the smile with which Winterman, as if in answer to his companion’s thought, said simply, as he turned to fill his pipe: “Now we’ll talk.”
So he’d known all along that they hadn’t yet — and had guessed that, with Bernald, one might!
The young man’s glow of pleasure was so intense that it left him for a moment unable to meet the challenge; and in that moment he felt the brush of something winged and summoning. His spirit rose to it with a rush; but just as he felt himself poised26 between the ascending27 pinions28, the door opened and Bob Wade plunged29 in.
“Too bad! I’m so sorry! It was from Howland, to say he can’t come to-morrow after all.” The doctor panted out his news with honest grief.
“I tried my best to pull it off for you; and my brother wants to come — he’s keen to talk to you and see what he can do. But you see he’s so tremendously in demand. He’ll try for another Sunday later on.”
Winterman nodded with a whimsical gesture. “Oh, he’ll find me here. I shall work my time out slowly.” He pointed30 to the scattered31 sheets on the kitchen table which formed his writing desk.
“Not slowly enough to suit us,” Wade answered hospitably32. “Only, if Howland could have come he might have given you a tip or two — put you on the right track — shown you how to get in touch with the public.”
Winterman, his hands in his sagging33 pockets, lounged against the bare pine walls, twisting his pipe under his beard. “Does your brother enjoy the privilege of that contact?” he questioned gravely.
Wade stared a little. “Oh, of course Howland’s not what you’d call a popular writer; he despises that kind of thing. But whatever he says goes with — well, with the chaps that count; and every one tells me he’s written the book on Pellerin. You must read it when you get back your eyes.” He paused, as if to let the name sink in, but Winterman drew at his pipe with a blank face. “You must have heard of Pellerin, I suppose?” the doctor continued. “I’ve never read a word of him myself: he’s too big a proposition for me. But one can’t escape the talk about him. I have him crammed34 down my throat even in hospital. The internes read him at the clinics. He tumbles out of the nurses’ pockets. The patients keep him under their pillows. Oh, with most of them, of course, it’s just a craze, like the last new game or puzzle: they don’t understand him in the least. Howland says that even now, twenty-five years after his death, and with his books in everybody’s hands, there are not twenty people who really understand Pellerin; and Howland ought to know, if anybody does. He’s — what’s their great word? — interpreted him. You must get Howland to put you through a course of Pellerin.”
And as the young men, having taken leave of Winterman, retraced35 their way across the lawn, Wade continued to develop the theme of his brother’s accomplishments36.
“I wish I could get Howland to take an interest in Winterman: this is the third Sunday he’s chucked us. Of course he does get bored with people consulting him about their writings — but I believe if he could only talk to Winterman he’d see something in him, as we do. And it would be such a god-send to the poor man to have some one to advise him about his work. I’m going to make a desperate effort to get Howland here next Sunday.”
It was then that Bernald vowed37 to himself that he would return the next Sunday at all costs. He hardly knew whether he was prompted by the impulse to shield Winterman from Howland Wade’s ineptitude38, or by the desire to see the latter abandon himself to the full shamelessness of its display; but of one fact he was blissfully assured — and that was of the existence in Winterman of some quality which would provoke Howland to the amplest exercise of his fatuity39. “How he’ll draw him — how he’ll draw him!” Bernald chuckled40, with a security the more unaccountable that his one glimpse of Winterman had shown the latter only as a passive subject for experimentation41; and he felt himself avenged42 in advance for the injury of Howland Wade’s existence.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
wade
|
|
| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
arabesques
|
|
| n.阿拉伯式花饰( arabesque的名词复数 )；错综图饰；阿拉伯图案；阿拉贝斯克芭蕾舞姿（独脚站立，手前伸，另一脚一手向后伸） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
3
gravel
|
|
| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
shrubs
|
|
| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
wades
|
|
| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
afterward
|
|
| adv.后来；以后 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
fertilizing
|
|
| v.施肥( fertilize的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
apprehensive
|
|
| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
writhed
|
|
| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
dedicated
|
|
| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
rites
|
|
| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
sanctuary
|
|
| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
reverting
|
|
| 恢复( revert的现在分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
groaned
|
|
| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
assent
|
|
| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
bungalow
|
|
| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
reverted
|
|
| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
circumscribing
|
|
| v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的现在分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
throb
|
|
| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
enacted
|
|
| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
poised
|
|
| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
pinions
|
|
| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
plunged
|
|
| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
hospitably
|
|
| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
sagging
|
|
| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
crammed
|
|
| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
retraced
|
|
| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
accomplishments
|
|
| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
vowed
|
|
| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
ineptitude
|
|
| n.不适当；愚笨，愚昧的言行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
fatuity
|
|
| n.愚蠢，愚昧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
experimentation
|
|
| n.实验，试验，实验法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
avenged
|
|
| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |