Some such things as these I was saying, and being upon a subject that much attracts me I possibly spoke8 too loudly, certainly I was not aware that standing9 close behind me was no less a person than the ex-King of Eritivaria, the thirty islands of the East, or I would have moderated my voice and moved away a little to give him more room. I was not aware of his presence until his satellite, one who had fallen with him into exile but still revolved10 about him, told me that his master desired to know me; and so to my surprise I was presented though neither of them even knew my name. And that was how I came to be invited by the ex-King to dine at his club.
At the time I could only account for his wishing to know me by supposing that he found in his own exiled condition some likeness11 to the fallen fortunes of the gods of whom I talked unwitting of his presence; but now I know that it was not of himself he was thinking when he asked me to dine at that club.
The club would have been the most imposing12 building in any street in London, but in that obscure mean quarter of London in which they had built it it appeared unduly13 enormous. Lifting right up above those grotesque14 houses and built in that Greek style that we call Georgian, there was something Olympian about it. To my host an unfashionable street could have meant nothing, through all his youth wherever he had gone had become fashionable the moment he went there; words like the East End could have had no meaning to him.
Whoever built that house had enormous wealth and cared nothing for fashion, perhaps despised it. As I stood gazing at the magnificent upper windows draped with great curtains, indistinct in the evening, on which huge shadows flickered15 my host attracted my attention from the doorway16, and so I went in and met for the second time the ex-King of Eritivaria.
In front of us a stairway of rare marble led upwards17, he took me through a side-door and downstairs and we came to a banqueting-hall of great magnificence. A long table ran up the middle of it, laid for quite twenty people, and I noticed the peculiarity19 that instead of chairs there were thrones for everyone except me, who was the only guest and for whom there was an ordinary chair. My host explained to me when we all sat down that everyone who belonged to that club was by rights a king.
In fact none was permitted, he told me, to belong to the club until his claim to a kingdom made out in writing had been examined and allowed by those whose duty it was. The whim20 of a populace or the candidate's own misrule were never considered by the investigators21, nothing counted with them but heredity and lawful22 descent from kings, all else was ignored. At that table there were those who had once reigned23 themselves, others lawfully24 claimed descent from kings that the world had forgotten, the kingdoms claimed by some had even changed their names. Hatzgurh, the mountain kingdom, is almost regarded as mythical25.
I have seldom seen greater splendour than that long hall provided below the level of the street. No doubt by day it was a little sombre, as all basements are, but at night with its great crystal chandeliers, and the glitter of heirlooms that had gone into exile, it surpassed the splendour of palaces that have only one king. They had come to London suddenly most of those kings, or their fathers before them, or forefathers26; some had come away from their kingdoms by night, in a light sleigh, flogging the horses, or had galloped27 clear with morning over the border, some had trudged28 roads for days from their capital in disguise, yet many had had time just as they left to snatch up some small thing without price in markets, for the sake of old times as they said, but quite as much, I thought, with an eye to the future. And there these treasures glittered on that long table in the banqueting-hall of the basement of that strange club. Merely to see them was much, but to hear their story that their owners told was to go back in fancy to epic29 times on the romantic border of fable30 and fact, where the heroes of history fought with the gods of myth. The famous silver horses of Gilgianza were there climbing their sheer mountain, which they did by miraculous31 means before the time of the Goths. It was not a large piece of silver but its workmanship outrivalled the skill of the bees.
A yellow Emperor had brought out of the East a piece of that incomparable porcelain32 that had made his dynasty famous though all their deeds are forgotten, it had the exact shade of the right purple.
And there was a little golden statuette of a dragon stealing a diamond from a lady, the dragon had the diamond in his claws, large and of the first water. There had been a kingdom whose whole constitution and history were founded on the legend, from which alone its kings had claimed their right to the scepter, that a dragon stole a diamond from a lady. When its last king left that country, because his favorite general used a peculiar18 formation under the fire of artillery33, he brought with him the little ancient image that no longer proved him a king outside that singular club.
There was the pair of amethyst34 cups of the turbaned King of Foo, the one that he drank from himself, and the one that he gave to his enemies, eye could not tell which was which.
All these things the ex-King of Eritivaria showed me, telling me a marvelous tale of each; of his own he had brought nothing, except the mascot35 that used once to sit on the top of the water tube of his favorite motor.
I have not outlined a tenth of the splendour of that table, I had meant to come again and examine each piece of plate and make notes of its history; had I known that this was the last time I should wish to enter that club I should have looked at its treasures more attentively36, but now as the wine went round and the exiles began to talk I took my eyes from the table and listened to strange tales of their former state.
He that has seen better times has usually a poor tale to tell, some mean and trivial thing has been his undoing37, but they that dined in that basement had mostly fallen like oaks on nights of abnormal tempest, had fallen mightily38 and shaken a nation. Those who had not been kings themselves, but claimed through an exiled ancestor, had stories to tell of even grander disaster, history seeming to have mellowed39 their dynasty's fate as moss40 grows over an oak a great while fallen. There were no jealousies41 there as so often there are among kings, rivalry42 must have ceased with the loss of their navies and armies, and they showed no bitterness against those that had turned them out, one speaking of the error of his Prime Minister by which he had lost his throne as "poor old Friedrich's Heaven-sent gift of tactlessness."
They gossiped pleasantly of many things, the tittle-tattle we all had to know when we were learning history, and many a wonderful story I might have heard, many a side light on mysterious wars had I not made use of one unfortunate word. That word was "upstairs."
The ex-King of Eritivaria having pointed43 out to me those unparalleled heirlooms to which I have alluded44, and many more besides, hospitably45 asked me if there was anything else that I would care to see, he meant the pieces of plate that they had in the cupboards, the curiously46 graven swords of other princes, historic jewels, legendary47 seals, but I who had had a glimpse of their marvelous staircase, whose balustrade I believed to be solid gold and wondering why in such a stately house they chose to dine in the basement, mentioned the word "upstairs." A profound hush48 came down on the whole assembly, the hush that might greet levity49 in a cathedral.
I perceived that what I had said was an ill-chosen thing. I tried to excuse myself but knew not how.
"Of course," I muttered, "members may not take guests upstairs."
"Members!" he said to me. "We are not the members!"
There was such reproof51 in his voice that I said no more, I looked at him questioningly, perhaps my lips moved, I may have said "What are you?" A great surprise had come on me at their attitude.
"We are the waiters," he said.
That I could not have known, here at last was honest ignorance that I had no need to be ashamed of, the very opulence52 of their table denied it.
"Then who are the members?" I asked.
Such a hush fell at that question, such a hush of genuine awe53, that all of a sudden a wild thought entered my head, a thought strange and fantastic and terrible. I gripped my host by the wrist and hushed my voice.
"Are they too exiles?" I asked.
Twice as he looked in my face he gravely nodded his head.
I left that club very swiftly indeed, never to see it again, scarcely pausing to say farewell to those menial kings, and as I left the door a great window opened far up at the top of the house and a flash of lightning streamed from it and killed a dog.
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1
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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suppliant
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| adj.哀恳的；n.恳求者，哀求者 | |
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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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6
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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7
fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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8
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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9
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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lawfully
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| adv.守法地，合法地；合理地 | |
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mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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27
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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30
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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31
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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32
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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33
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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amethyst
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| n.紫水晶 | |
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mascot
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| n.福神，吉祥的东西 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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undoing
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| n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭 | |
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mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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39
mellowed
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| （使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香 | |
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40
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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41
jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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42
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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48
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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49
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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50
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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51
reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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52
opulence
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| n.财富，富裕 | |
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53
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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