"I don't know. Come in and shut the door;[Pg 5] take a seat, take a cigarette—bother this drapery—well, what have you been doing with yourself?"
Mr Verneede took neither a seat nor a cigarette. He took his place behind the painter, and gazed at the work in progress with a critical air.
He was a fantastic-looking old gentleman, dressed in a tightly-buttoned frock coat. A figure suggestive of Count d'Orsay gone to the dogs. Mildewed3, washed, and mangled4 by Fate, and very much faded in the process.
He said nothing for a moment, and then he said, after a long and critical survey of the little genre5 picture on which our artist was engaged:
"Your work improves, decidedly your work improves, Leavesley—improves, very much so, very much so, very much so."
The artist said nothing, and the irresponsible critic, placing his hat on the floor and tightly clasping the umbrella he carried under his left arm, made a funnel6 of his hands and gazed through it at the picture.
"Decidedly, decidedly; but might I make a suggestion?"
"Yes, yes."
[Pg 6]
"Well, now, frankly7, the attitude of that man with the axe8——"
"Which man with the axe?"
"He in the right-hand corner by the——"
"That's not a man with an axe, that's a lady with a fan, you old owl9."
"Heavens!" cried Mr Verneede. "How could I have been so deceived, it was the light. Of course, of course, of course—a lady with a fan, it's quite obvious now. A lady with a fan—do you find these very small pictures pay, Leavesley?"
"Yes—no—I don't know. Sit down, like a good fellow; that's right—look here."
"I attend."
"I'm expecting a young lady to call here to-day."
"A young lady?"
"Yes, and I wish you'd wait and see her."
"I shall be charmed."
"You will when you see her—but it's not that. See here, Verneede, I want to explain her to you."
"I listen."
"She's quite unlike any one else."
"Ha!"
"I mean in this way, she's so jolly and[Pg 7] innocent and altogether good, that upon my word I wish she wasn't coming here alone."
"You fear to trust yourself——"
"Oh, rubbish! only, it doesn't seem the thing."
"Decidedly not, decidedly not."
"Oh, rubbish! she's as safe here as if she were with her grandfather—what I mean to say is this, she's so innocent of the world that she does things quite innocently that—that conventional people don't do, don't you know. She has no mother."
"Poor young thing!"
"And her father, who is one of the jolliest men in the world, lets her do anything she likes. I wish I had a female of some sort to receive her here, but I haven't," said Mr Leavesley, looking round the studio as if in search of the article in question.
"I know of an eminently10 respectable female," said Mr Verneede meditatively11, "who would fall in with your requirements; unfortunately, she is not available at a short notice; she lives in Hoxton, as a matter of fact."
"That's no use, might as well live in the moon. No matter, you'll do, an excellent substitute like What's-his-name's marmalade."
[Pg 8]
"May I ask," said Mr Verneede, rather stiffly, as if slightly ruffled12 by this last remark, "is this young lady, from a worldly point of view, an éligible partie?"
"Don't know, she's a most lovable girl. I met them in Paris, she and her father, and travelled back with them. They have a big house up at Highgate, and an estate somewhere in the country, but, somehow, I fancy their affairs are involved. Mr Lambert always seems to be going to law with people. No matter, I want to get some cakes—cakes and tea are the right sort of things to offer a person—a girl—wine is impossible. What's the time? After two! Wait here for me, I won't be long."
He took his hat, and left the studio to Mr Verneede.
Verneede was one of those bizarre figures, with whose construction Nature seems to have had very little to do. What he had been was a mystery, where he lived was to most people a mystery, and what he lived on was a mystery to every one. Some tiny income he must have had, but no man knew from whence it came. Useless and picturesque13 as an old fashion-plate, he wandered through life[Pg 9] with an umbrella under his arm, ready to stand at any street corner in the chill east wind or the broiling14 sun and listen to any tale told by any man, and give useless advice or instruction on any subject.
His criticisms were the despair and delight of artists, according to their liability to be soothed16 or maddened by the absolutely inane17.
For the rest, he was quite harmless, his chiefest vice15, after a taste for beer, a passion for borrowing umbrellas and never returning them.
Mr Verneede seated, immersed in his own weird18 thoughts and contemplations, came suddenly to consciousness again with a start.
A dark-haired girl of that lost type which recalls La Cruche Cassée and the Love-in-April conceptions of Fragonard, exquisitely19 pretty and exquisitely dressed, was in the studio. He had not heard her knock, or perceived her enter. Had she descended20 through the ceiling or risen from the floor? was it a real girl, or was it June materialised in a gown of corn-flower blue, and with wild field poppies in her breast?
"God bless my soul!" said Mr Verneede.
"You were asleep, I think," said the girl. "I'm so sorry to have disturbed you, but I[Pg 10] want to see Mr Leavesley; this is his studio, I think."
"Oh, certainly, yes, this is his studio, I believe. Pray take a seat. Ah, yes—dear me, what a strange coincidence——"
"And these are his pictures?" said the girl, looking round her in an interested way. She had placed a tiny parcel and an impossible parasol on the table, and was drawing off a suede21 glove leisurely22, as she glanced around her.
"These are his pictures," answered the old gentleman, "works of art—very much so, the highest art inspired by the truest genius."
Miss Lambert—for the June-like apparition was Miss Lambert—followed with her little face the sweep of the old gentleman's arm as he pointed23 out the highest art inspired by the truest genius. Rough studies, canvases turned face to the wall, and one or two small finished pictures.
Then, realising that he had found an innocent victim, he began to expatiate24 on art and on the pictures around them, and she to listen, innocence25 attending to ignorance.
"He is very clever, isn't he?" put in Miss Lambert, during a pause in the exordium.
[Pg 11]
"A genius, my dear young lady, a genius," said Mr Verneede, looking at her over his shoulder as he replaced on a high bracket a little picture he had reached down to show her.
"One of the few living artists who can paint light. I may say that he paints light with a delicacy26 and an elegance27 all his own. Fiat28 Lux"—the shelf came down with a crash and a cloud of dust—"as the poet says—pray don't move, I will restore the débris—as the poet says. Now the gem29 of my young friend Leavesley's collection, in my mind, is the John the Baptist."
He went to a huge canvas which stood with its face to the wall, seized it with arms outstretched, and turned it towards the girl.
It was a picture of a semi-nude female after Reubens that the blundering old gentleman had seized upon.
"Observe the sunlight on the beard," came the voice of the showman from behind the canvas, "the devotion in the eyes, the—ooch!!"
A pillow caught from the couch by Frank Leavesley who had just entered, and dexterously30 thrown, had flattened31 canvas and showman beneath a cloud of dust.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
apparition
|
|
| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
mildewed
|
|
| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
mangled
|
|
| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
genre
|
|
| n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
funnel
|
|
| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
axe
|
|
| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
owl
|
|
| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
eminently
|
|
| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
meditatively
|
|
| adv.冥想地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
ruffled
|
|
| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
picturesque
|
|
| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
broiling
|
|
| adj.酷热的，炽热的，似烧的v.（用火）烤（焙、炙等）( broil的现在分词 )；使卷入争吵；使混乱；被烤（或炙） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
soothed
|
|
| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
inane
|
|
| adj.空虚的，愚蠢的，空洞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
weird
|
|
| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
exquisitely
|
|
| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
suede
|
|
| n.表面粗糙的软皮革 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
leisurely
|
|
| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
expatiate
|
|
| v.细说，详述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
delicacy
|
|
| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
elegance
|
|
| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
fiat
|
|
| n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
gem
|
|
| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
dexterously
|
|
| adv.巧妙地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
flattened
|
|
| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |