'I can't make it out,' he cried. 'I play much better than you, and I hold better hands, and yet you get the tricks.'
'We didn't make a single mistake,' he assured his partner, 'and we actually had the odd in our hands, but not one of our finesses7 came off, and all his did.' He turned to Alec. 'How the dickens did you guess I had those two queens?'
'Because I've known you for twenty years,' answered Alec, smiling. 'I know that, though you're impulsive8 and emotional, you're not without shrewdness; I know that your brain acts very quickly and sees all kinds of remote contingencies9; then you're so pleased at having noticed them that you act as if they were certain to occur. Given these data, I can tell pretty well what cards you have, after they've gone round two or three times.'
'The knowledge you have of your opponents' cards is too uncanny,' said Mrs. Crowley.
'I can tell a good deal from people's faces. You see, in Africa I have had a lot of experience; it's apparently10 so much easier for the native to lie than to tell the truth that you get into the habit of paying no attention to what he says, and a great deal to the way he looks.'
While Mrs. Crowley made herself comfortable in the chair, which she had already chosen as her favourite, Dick went over to the fire and stood in front of it in such a way as effectually to prevent the others from getting any of its heat.
'What made you first take to exploration?' asked Mrs. Crowley suddenly.
Alec gave her that slow, scrutinising look of his, and answered, with a smile:
'I don't know. I had nothing to do and plenty of money.'
'Not a bit of it,' interrupted Dick. 'A lunatic wanted to find out about some district that people had never been to, and it wouldn't have been any use to them if they had, because, if the natives didn't kill you, the climate made no bones about it. He came back crippled with fever, having failed in his attempt, and, after asserting that no one could get into the heart of Rofa's country and return alive, promptly11 gave up the ghost. So Alec immediately packed up his traps and made for the place.'
'I proved the man was wrong,' said Alec quietly. 'I became great friends with Rofa, and he wanted to marry my sister, only I hadn't one.'
'And if anyone said it was impossible to hop12 through Asia on one foot, you'd go and do it just to show it could be done,' retorted Dick 'You have a passion for doing things because they're difficult or dangerous, and, if they're downright impossible, you chortle with joy.'
'You make me really too melodramatic,' smiled Alec.
'But that's just what you are. You're the most transpontine person I ever saw in my life.' Dick turned to Lucy and Mrs. Crowley with a wave of the hand. 'I call you to witness. When he was at Oxford13, Alec was a regular dab14 at classics; he had a gift for writing verses in languages that no one except dons wanted to read, and everyone thought that he was going to be the most brilliant scholar of his day.'
'This is one of Dick's favourite stories,' said Alec. 'It would be quite amusing if there were any truth in it.'
But Dick would not allow himself to be interrupted.
'At mathematics, on the other hand, he was a perfect ass6. You know, some people seem to have that part of their brains wanting that deals with figures, and Alec couldn't add two and two together without making a hexameter out of it. One day his tutor got in a passion with him and said he'd rather teach arithmetic to a brick wall. I happened to be present, and he was certainly very rude. He was a man who had a precious gift for making people feel thoroughly15 uncomfortable. Alec didn't say anything, but he looked at him; and, when he flies into a temper, he doesn't get red and throw things about like a pleasant, normal person—he merely becomes a little paler and stares at you.'
'I beg you not to believe a single word he says,' remonstrated16 Alec.
'Well, Alec threw over his classics. Everyone concerned reasoned with him; they appealed to his common sense; they were appealing to the most obstinate17 fool in Christendom. Alec had made up his mind to be a mathematician18. For more than two years he worked ten hours a day at a subject he loathed19; he threw his whole might into it and forced out of nature the gifts she had denied him, with the result that he got a first class. And much good it's done him.'
'It wasn't that I cared for mathematics, but it taught me to conquer the one inconvenient22 word in the English language.'
'And what the deuce is that?'
'I'm afraid it sounds very priggish,' laughed Alec. 'The word impossible.'
Dick gave a little snort of comic rage.
'And it also gave you a ghastly pleasure in doing things that hurt you. Oh, if you'd only been born in the Middle Ages, what a fiendish joy you would have taken in mortifying23 your flesh, and in denying yourself everything that makes life so good to live! You're never thoroughly happy unless you're making yourself thoroughly miserable24.'
'Each time I come back to England I find that you talk more and greater nonsense, Dick,' returned Alec drily.
'I'm one of the few persons now alive who can talk nonsense,' answered his friend, laughing. 'That's why I'm so charming. Everyone else is so deadly earnest.'
He settled himself down to make a deliberate speech.
'I deplore25 the strenuousness26 of the world in general. There is an idea abroad that it is praiseworthy to do things, and what they are is of no consequence so long as you do them. I hate the mad hurry of the present day to occupy itself. I wish I could persuade people of the excellence28 of leisure.'
'One could scarcely accuse you of cultivating it yourself,' said Lucy, smiling.
Dick looked at her for a moment thoughtfully.
'Do you know that I'm hard upon forty?'
'With the light behind, you might still pass for thirty-two,' interrupted Mrs. Crowley.
He turned to her seriously.
'I haven't a grey hair on my head.'
'I suppose your servant plucks them out every morning?'
'Oh, no, very rarely; one a month at the outside.'
'I think I see one just beside the left temple.'
He turned quickly to the glass.
'Dear me, how careless of Charles! I shall have to give him a piece of my mind.'
'Come here, and let me take it out,' said Mrs. Crowley.
'I will let you do nothing of the sort I should consider it most familiar.'
'You were giving us the gratuitous29 piece of information that you were nearly forty,' said Alec.
'The thought came to me the other day with something of a shock, and I set about a scrutiny30 of the life I was leading. I've worked at the bar pretty hard for fifteen years now, and I've been in the House since the general election. I've been earning two thousand a year, I've got nearly four thousand of my own, and I've never spent much more than half my income. I wondered if it was worth while to spend eight hours a day settling the sordid31 quarrels of foolish people, and another eight hours in the farce32 of governing the nation.'
'Why do you call it that?'
Dick Lomas shrugged his shoulders scornfully.
'Because it is. A few big-wigs rule the roost, and the rest of us are only there to delude33 the British people into the idea that they're a self-governing community.'
'What is wrong with you is that you have no absorbing aim in politics,' said Alec gravely.
'That's the last thing I should have expected you to be,' said Mrs. Crowley, who dressed with admirable taste. 'Why on earth have you taken to that?'
Dick shrugged his shoulders.
'No one can have been through a parliamentary election without discovering how unworthy, sordid, and narrow are the reasons for which men vote. There are very few who are alive to the responsibilities that have been thrust upon them. They are indifferent to the importance of the stakes at issue, but make their vote a matter of ignoble35 barter36. The parliamentary candidate is at the mercy of faddists and cranks. Now, I think that women, when they have votes, will be a trifle more narrow, and they will give them for motives37 that are a little more sordid and a little more unworthy. It will reduce universal suffrage38 to the absurd, and then it may be possible to try something else.'
Dick had spoken with a vehemence39 that was unusual to him. Alec watched him with a certain interest.
'And what conclusions have you come to?'
For a moment he did not answer, then he gave a deprecating smile.
'I feel that the step I want to take is momentous40 for me, though I am conscious that it can matter to nobody else whatever. There will be a general election in a few months, and I have made up my mind to inform the whips that I shall not stand again. I shall give up my chambers41 in Lincoln's Inn, put up the shutters42, so to speak, and Mr. Richard Lomas will retire from active life.'
'You wouldn't really do that?' cried Mrs. Crowley.
'Why not?'
'In a month complete idleness will simply bore you to death.'
'I doubt it. Do you know, it seems to me that a great deal of nonsense is talked about the dignity of work. Work is a drug that dull people take to avoid the pangs43 of unmitigated boredom44. It has been adorned45 with fine phrases, because it is a necessity to most men, and men always gild46 the pill they're obliged to swallow. Work is a sedative47. It keeps people quiet and contented48. It makes them good material for their leaders. I think the greatest imposture49 of Christian50 times is the sanctification of labour. You see, the early Christians51 were slaves, and it was necessary to show them that their obligatory52 toil53 was noble and virtuous54. But when all is said and done, a man works to earn his bread and to keep his wife and children; it is a painful necessity, but there is nothing heroic in it. If people choose to put a higher value on the means than on the end, I can only pass with a shrug21 of the shoulders, and regret the paucity55 of their intelligence.'
'It's really unfair to talk so much all at once,' said Mrs. Crowley, throwing up her pretty hands.
But Dick would not be stopped.
'For my part I have neither wife nor child, and I have an income that is more than adequate. Why should I take the bread out of somebody else's mouth? And it's not on my own merit that I get briefs—men seldom do—I only get them because I happen to have at the back of me a very large firm of solicitors56. And I can find nothing worthy27 in attending to these foolish disputes. In most cases it's six of one and half a dozen of the other, and each side is very unjust and pig-headed. No, the bar is a fair way of earning your living like another, but it's no more than that; and, if you can exist without, I see no reason why Quixotic motives of the dignity of human toil should keep you to it. I've already told you why I mean to give up my seat in Parliament.'
'Have you realised that you are throwing over a career that may be very brilliant? You should get an under-secretaryship in the next government.'
'That would only mean licking the boots of a few more men whom I despise.'
'It's a very dangerous experiment that you're making.'
Dick looked straight into Alec MacKenzie's eyes.
'And is it you who counsel me not to make it on that account?' he said, smiling. 'Surely experiments are only amusing if they're dangerous.'
'I should like to make idleness a fine art,' he laughed. 'People, now-a-days, turn up their noses at the dilettante58. Well, I mean to be a dilettante. I want to devote myself to the graces of life. I'm forty, and for all I know I haven't so very many years before me: in the time that remains59, I want to become acquainted with the world and all the graceful60, charming things it contains.'
Alec, fallen into deep thought, stared into the fire. Presently he took a long breath, rose from his chair, and drew himself to his full height.
'I suppose it's a life like another, and there is no one to say which is better and which is worse. But, for my part, I would rather go on till I dropped. There are ten thousand things I want to do. If I had ten lives I couldn't get through a tithe61 of what, to my mind, so urgently needs doing.'
'And what do you suppose will be the end of it?' asked Dick.
'For me?'
Dick nodded, but did not otherwise reply. Alec smiled faintly.
'Well, I suppose the end of it will be death in some swamp, obscurely, worn out with disease and exposure; and my bearers will make off with my guns and my stores, and the jackals will do the rest.'
'I'm a fatalist. I've lived too long among people with whom it is the deepest rooted article of their faith, to be anything else. When my time comes, I cannot escape it.' He smiled whimsically. 'But I believe in quinine, too, and I think that the daily use of that admirable drug will make the thread harder to cut.'
To Lucy it was an admirable study, the contrast between the man who threw his whole soul into a certain aim, which he pursued with a savage63 intensity64, knowing that the end was a dreadful, lonely death; and the man who was making up his mind deliberately65 to gather what was beautiful in life, and to cultivate its graces as though it were a flower garden.
'And the worst of it is that it will all be the same in a hundred years,' said Dick. 'We shall both be forgotten long before then, you with your strenuousness, and I with my folly66.'
'And what conclusion do you draw from that?' asked Mrs. Crowley.
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1
digestion
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| n.消化，吸收 | |
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facetious
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| adj.轻浮的，好开玩笑的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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finesses
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| v.手腕，手段，技巧( finesse的第三人称单数 ) | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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10
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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12
hop
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| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
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13
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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17
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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mathematician
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| n.数学家 | |
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19
loathed
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
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20
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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mortifying
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| adj.抑制的，苦修的v.使受辱( mortify的现在分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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strenuousness
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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gratuitous
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| adj.无偿的，免费的；无缘无故的，不必要的 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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delude
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| vt.欺骗；哄骗 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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43
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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gild
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| vt.给…镀金，把…漆成金色，使呈金色 | |
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47
sedative
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| adj.使安静的，使镇静的；n. 镇静剂，能使安静的东西 | |
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48
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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50
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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51
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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52
obligatory
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| adj.强制性的，义务的，必须的 | |
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53
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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54
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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55
paucity
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| n.小量，缺乏 | |
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solicitors
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| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
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57
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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58
dilettante
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| n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者 | |
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59
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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61
tithe
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| n.十分之一税；v.课什一税，缴什一税 | |
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62
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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66
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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67
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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