“You will forgive me, won't you, for not disclosing my identity?” he said, laying his hand with a friendly gesture upon the other's sleeve. “Had you known me you would have spoken less freely, and I should not have had the opportunity of learning your true worth. For example, you might hardly have been so frank upon the matter of wealth had you known that you were speaking to the master of the Hall.”
“Naturally you are. How could you take me for anything but a workman? So I am. Chemistry is one of my hobbies, and I spend hours a day in my laboratory yonder. I have only just struck work, and as I had inhaled8 some not-over-pleasant gases, I thought that a turn down the road and a whiff of tobacco might do me good. That was how I came to meet you, and my toilet, I fear, corresponded only too well with my smoke-grimed face. But I rather fancy I know you by repute. Your name is Robert McIntyre, is it not?”
“Yes, though I cannot imagine how you knew.”
“Well, I naturally took some little trouble to learn something of my neighbours. I had heard that there was an artist of that name, and I presume that artists are not very numerous in Tamfield. But how do you like the design? I hope it does not offend your trained taste.”
“Indeed, it is wonderful—marvellous! You must yourself have an extraordinary eye for effect.”
“Oh, I have no taste at all; not the slightest. I cannot tell good from bad. There never was such a complete Philistine9. But I had the best man in London down, and another fellow from Vienna. They fixed10 it up between them.”
They had been standing11 just within the folding doors upon a huge mat of bison skins. In front of them lay a great square court, paved with many-coloured marbles laid out in a labyrinth12 of arabesque13 design. In the centre a high fountain of carved jade14 shot five thin feathers of spray into the air, four of which curved towards each corner of the court to descend15 into broad marble basins, while the fifth mounted straight up to an immense height, and then tinkled16 back into the central reservoir. On either side of the court a tall, graceful17 palm-tree shot up its slender stem to break into a crown of drooping18 green leaves some fifty feet above their heads. All round were a series of Moorish19 arches, in jade and serpentine20 marble, with heavy curtains of the deepest purple to cover the doors which lay between them. In front, to right and to left, a broad staircase of marble, carpeted with rich thick Smyrna rug work, led upwards21 to the upper storeys, which were arranged around the central court. The temperature within was warm and yet fresh, like the air of an English May.
“It's taken from the Alhambra,” said Raffles Haw. “The palm-trees are pretty. They strike right through the building into the ground beneath, and their roots are all girt round with hot-water pipes. They seem to thrive very well.”
“What beautifully delicate brass22-work!” cried Robert, looking up with admiring eyes at the bright and infinitely23 fragile metal trellis screens which adorned24 the spaces between the Moorish arches.
“It is rather neat. But it is not brass-work. Brass is not tough enough to allow them to work it to that degree of fineness. It is gold. But just come this way with me. You won't mind waiting while I remove this smoke?”
He led the way to a door upon the left side of the court, which, to Robert's surprise, swung slowly open as they approached it. “That is a little improvement which I have adopted,” remarked the master of the house. “As you go up to a door your weight upon the planks25 releases a spring which causes the hinges to revolve26. Pray step in. This is my own little sanctum, and furnished after my own heart.”
If Robert expected to see some fresh exhibition of wealth and luxury he was woefully disappointed, for he found himself in a large but bare room, with a little iron truckle-bed in one corner, a few scattered27 wooden chairs, a dingy28 carpet, and a large table heaped with books, bottles, papers, and all the other debris29 which collect around a busy and untidy man. Motioning his visitor into a chair, Raffles Haw pulled off his coat, and, turning up the sleeves of his coarse flannel30 shirt, he began to plunge31 and scrub in the warm water which flowed from a tap in the wall.
“You see how simple my own tastes are,” he remarked, as he mopped his dripping face and hair with the towel. “This is the only room in my great house where I find myself in a congenial atmosphere. It is homely32 to me. I can read here and smoke my pipe in peace. Anything like luxury is abhorrent33 to me.”
“Really, I should not have though it,” observed Robert.
“It is a fact, I assure you. You see, even with your views as to the worthlessness of wealth, views which, I am sure, are very sensible and much to your credit, you must allow that if a man should happen to be the possessor of vast—well, let us say of considerable—sums of money, it is his duty to get that money into circulation, so that the community may be the better for it. There is the secret of my fine feathers. I have to exert all my ingenuity34 in order to spend my income, and yet keep the money in legitimate35 channels. For example, it is very easy to give money away, and no doubt I could dispose of my surplus, or part of my surplus, in that fashion, but I have no wish to pauperise anyone, or to do mischief36 by indiscriminate charity. I must exact some sort of money's worth for all the money which I lay out You see my point, don't you?”
“Entirely37; though really it is something novel to hear a man complain of the difficulty of spending his income.”
“I assure you that it is a very serious difficulty with me. But I have hit upon some plans—some very pretty plans. Will you wash your hands? Well, then, perhaps you would care to have a look round. Just come into this corner of the room, and sit upon this chair. So. Now I will sit upon this one, and we are ready to start.”
The angle of the chamber38 in which they sat was painted for about six feet in each direction of a dark chocolate-brown, and was furnished with two red plush seats protruding40 from the walls, and in striking contrast with the simplicity41 of the rest of the apartment.
“This,” remarked Raffles Haw, “is a lift, though it is so closely joined to the rest of the room that without the change in colour it might puzzle you to find the division. It is made to run either horizontally or vertically42. This line of knobs represents the various rooms. You can see 'Dining,' 'Smoking,' 'Billiard,' 'Library' and so on, upon them. I will show you the upward action. I press this one with 'Kitchen' upon it.”
There was a sense of motion, a very slight jar, and Robert, without moving from his seat, was conscious that the room had vanished, and that a large arched oaken door stood in the place which it had occupied.
“That is the kitchen door,” said Raffles Haw. “I have my kitchen at the top of the house. I cannot tolerate the smell of cooking. We have come up eighty feet in a very few seconds. Now I press again and here we are in my room once more.”
Robert McIntyre stared about him in astonishment.
“The wonders of science are greater than those of magic,” he remarked.
“Yes, it is a pretty little mechanism43. Now we try the horizontal. I press the 'Dining' knob and here we are, you see. Step towards the door, and you will find it open in front of you.”
Robert did as he was bid, and found himself with his companion in a large and lofty room, while the lift, the instant that it was freed from their weight, flashed back to its original position. With his feet sinking into the soft rich carpet, as though he were ankle-deep in some mossy bank, he stared about him at the great pictures which lined the walls.
“Surely, surely, I see Raphael's touch there,” he cried, pointing up at the one which faced him.
“Yes, it is a Raphael, and I believe one of his best. I had a very exciting bid for it with the French Government. They wanted it for the Louvre, but of course at an auction44 the longest purse must win.”
“And this 'Arrest of Catiline' must be a Rubens. One cannot mistake his splendid men and his infamous45 women.”
“Yes, it is a Rubens. The other two are a Velasquez and a Teniers, fair specimens46 of the Spanish and of the Dutch schools. I have only old masters here. The moderns are in the billiard-room. The furniture here is a little curious. In fact, I fancy that it is unique. It is made of ebony and narwhals' horns. You see that the legs of everything are of spiral ivory, both the table and the chairs. It cost the upholsterer some little pains, for the supply of these things is a strictly47 limited one. Curiously48 enough, the Chinese Emperor had given a large order for narwhals' horns to repair some ancient pagoda49, which was fenced in with them, but I outbid him in the market, and his celestial50 highness has had to wait. There is a lift here in the corner, but we do not need it. Pray step through this door. This is the billiard-room,” he continued as they advanced into the adjoining room. “You see I have a few recent pictures of merit upon the walls. Here is a Corot, two Meissoniers, a Bouguereau, a Millais, an Orchardson, and two Alma-Tademas. It seems to me to be a pity to hang pictures over these walls of carved oak. Look at those birds hopping51 and singing in the branches. They really seem to move and twitter, don't they?”
“They are perfect. I never saw such exquisite52 work. But why do you call it a billiard-room, Mr. Haw? I do not see any board.”
“Oh, a board is such a clumsy uncompromising piece of furniture. It is always in the way unless you actually need to use it. In this case the board is covered by that square of polished maple53 which you see let into the floor. Now I put my foot upon this motor. You see!” As he spoke, the central portion of the flooring flew up, and a most beautiful tortoise-shell-plated billiard-table rose up to its proper position. He pressed a second spring, and a bagatelle-table appeared in the same fashion. “You may have card-tables or what you will by setting the levers in motion,” he remarked. “But all this is very trifling54. Perhaps we may find something in the museum which may be of more interest to you.”
He led the way into another chamber, which was furnished in antique style, with hangings of the rarest and richest tapestry55. The floor was a mosaic56 of coloured marbles, scattered over with mats of costly57 fur. There was little furniture, but a number of Louis Quatorze cabinets of ebony and silver with delicately-painted plaques58 were ranged round the apartment.
“It is perhaps hardly fair to dignify59 it by the name of a museum,” said Raffles Haw. “It consists merely of a few elegant trifles which I have picked up here and there. Gems60 are my strongest point. I fancy that there, perhaps, I might challenge comparison with any private collector in the world. I lock them up, for even the best servants may be tempted61.”
He took a silver key from his watch chain, and began to unlock and draw out the drawers. A cry of wonder and of admiration62 burst from Robert McIntyre, as his eyes rested upon case after case filled with the most magnificent stones. The deep still red of the rubies63, the clear scintillating64 green of the emeralds, the hard glitter of the diamonds, the many shifting shades of beryls, of amethysts65, of onyxes, of cats'-eyes, of opals, of agates66, of cornelians seemed to fill the whole chamber with a vague twinkling, many-coloured light. Long slabs67 of the beautiful blue lapis lazuli, magnificent bloodstones, specimens of pink and red and white coral, long strings68 of lustrous69 pearls, all these were tossed out by their owner as a careless schoolboy might pour marbles from his bag.
“This isn't bad,” he said, holding up a great glowing yellow mass as large as his own head. “It is really a very fine piece of amber39. It was forwarded to me by my agent at the Baltic. Twenty-eight pounds, it weighs. I never heard of so fine a one. I have no very large brilliants—there were no very large ones in the market—but my average is good. Pretty toys, are they not?” He picked up a double handful of emeralds from a drawer, and then let them trickle70 slowly back into the heap.
“Good heavens!” cried Robert, as he gazed from case to case. “It is an immense fortune in itself. Surely a hundred thousand pounds would hardly buy so splendid a collection.”
“I don't think that you would do for a valuer of precious stones,” said Raffles Haw, laughing. “Why, the contents of that one little drawer of brilliants could not be bought for the sum which you name. I have a memo71. here of what I have expended72 up to date on my collection, though I have agents at work who will probably make very considerable additions to it within the next few weeks. As matters stand, however, I have spent—let me see-pearls one forty thousand; emeralds, seven fifty; rubies, eight forty; brilliants, nine twenty; onyxes—I have several very nice onyxes-two thirty. Other gems, carbuncles, agates—hum! Yes, it figures out at just over four million seven hundred and forty thousand. I dare say that we may say five millions, for I have not counted the odd money.”
“Good gracious!” cried the young artist, with staring eyes.
“I have a certain feeling of duty in the matter. You see the cutting, polishing, and general sale of stones is one of those industries which is entirely dependent upon wealth. If we do not support it, it must languish73, which means misfortune to a considerable number of people. The same applies to the gold filigree74 work which you noticed in the court. Wealth has its responsibilities, and the encouragement of these handicrafts are among the most obvious of them. Here is a nice ruby75. It is Burmese, and the fifth largest in existence. I am inclined to think that if it were uncut it would be the second, but of course cutting takes away a great deal.” He held up the blazing red stone, about the size of a chestnut76, between his finger and thumb for a moment, and then threw it carelessly back into its drawer. “Come into the smoking-room,” he said; “you will need some little refreshment77, for they say that sight-seeing is the most exhausting occupation in the world.”
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1
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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functionary
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| n.官员；公职人员 | |
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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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raffles
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| n.抽彩售物( raffle的名词复数 )v.以抽彩方式售（物）( raffle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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philistine
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| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
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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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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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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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arabesque
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| n.阿拉伯式花饰；adj.阿拉伯式图案的 | |
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jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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15
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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17
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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moorish
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| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
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serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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revolve
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| vi.(使)旋转；循环出现 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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abhorrent
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| adj.可恶的，可恨的，讨厌的 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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41
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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44
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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45
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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46
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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47
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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48
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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49
pagoda
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| n.宝塔（尤指印度和远东的多层宝塔），（印度教或佛教的）塔式庙宇 | |
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50
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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51
hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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52
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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53
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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54
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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55
tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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56
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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58
plaques
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| （纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑 | |
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59
dignify
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| vt.使有尊严；使崇高；给增光 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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61
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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64
scintillating
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| adj．才气横溢的,闪闪发光的; 闪烁的 | |
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65
amethysts
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| n.紫蓝色宝石( amethyst的名词复数 )；紫晶；紫水晶；紫色 | |
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66
agates
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| n.玛瑙( agate的名词复数 )；玛瑙制（或装有玛瑙的）工具； （小孩玩的）玛瑙纹玩具弹子；5。5磅铅字 | |
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67
slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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69
lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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70
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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71
memo
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| n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章 | |
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72
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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languish
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| vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎 | |
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74
filigree
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| n.金银丝做的工艺品；v.用金银细丝饰品装饰；用华而不实的饰品装饰；adj.金银细丝工艺的 | |
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75
ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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76
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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77
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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