None of us had set eyes on him for a week. A prey3 to that nervous exasperation4 into which the final test of any of his inventions invariably threw him, he was living among his furnaces and retorts, keeping every door shut, sleeping on a sofa, eating nothing but fruit and bread. And suddenly he stood before me, livid, wild-eyed, stammering5, emaciated6, as though he had lately recovered from a long and dangerous illness.
He was really altered beyond recognition! For the first time I saw him wear unbuttoned the long, threadbare, stained frock-coat which fitted his figure closely and which he never discarded even when making his experiments or arranging on the shelves of his laboratories the innumerable chemicals which he was in the habit of employing. His white tie, which, by way of contrast, was always clean, had become unfastened; and his shirt-front was protruding7 from his waistcoat. As for his good, kind face, usually so grave and placid8 and still so young beneath the white curls that crowned his head, its features seemed unfamiliar9, ravaged10 by conflicting expressions, no one of which obtained the upper hand over the others: violent expressions of terror and anguish11 in which I was surprised, at moments, to observe gleams of the maddest and most extravagant12 delight.
I could not get over my astonishment13. What had happened during those few days? What tragedy could have caused the quiet, gentle Noël Dorgeroux to be so utterly14 beside himself?
"Are you ill, uncle?" I asked, anxiously, for I was exceedingly fond of him.
"No," he murmured, "no, I'm not ill."
"Then what is it? Please, what's the matter?"
"Nothing's the matter . . . nothing, I tell you."
I drew up a chair. He dropped into it and, at my entreaty15, took a glass of water; but his[Pg 11] hand trembled so that he was unable to lift it to his lips.
"Uncle, speak, for goodness' sake!" I cried. "I have never seen you in such a state. You must have gone through some great excitement."
"The greatest excitement of my life," he said, in a very low and lifeless voice. "Such excitement as nobody can have ever experienced before . . . nobody . . . nobody. . . ."
"Then do explain yourself."
"No, you wouldn't understand. . . . I don't understand either. It's so incredible! It is taking place in the darkness, in a world of darkness! . . ."
There was a pencil and paper on the table. His hand seized the pencil; and mechanically he began to trace one of those vague sketches17 to which the action of an overmastering idea gradually imparts a clearer definition. And his sketch16, as it assumed a more distinct form, ended by representing on the sheet of white paper three geometrical figures which might equally well have been badly-described circles or triangles with curved lines. In the centre of these figures, however, he drew a regular circle which he blackened entirely18 and which he marked in the middle with a still blacker point, as the iris19 is marked with the pupil:
"There, there!" he cried, suddenly, starting up in his agitation20. "Look, that's what is throbbing21 and quivering in the darkness. Isn't it enough to drive one mad? Look! . . ."
He had seized another pencil, a red one, and, rushing to the wall, he scored the white plaster with the same three incomprehensible figures, the three "triangular22 circles," in the centre of which he took the pains to draw irises23 furnished with pupils:
"Look! They're alive, aren't they? You see they're moving, you can see that they're afraid. You can see, can't you? They're alive! They're alive!"
I thought that he was going to explain. But, if so, he did not carry out his intention. His eyes, which were generally full of life, frank and open as a child's, now bore an expression of distrust. He began to walk up and down and continued to do so for a few minutes. Then, at last, opening the door and turning to me again, he said, in the same breathless tone as before:
"You will see them, Vivien; you will have to see them too and tell me that they are alive, as I have seen them alive. Come to the Yard in an hour's time, or rather when you hear a whistle, and you shall see them, the three eyes, and plenty of other things besides. You'll see."
He left the room.
The house in which we lived, the Lodge, as it was called, turned its back upon the street and faced an old, steep, ill-kept garden, at the top of which was the big yard in which my uncle had now for many years been squandering24 the remnants of his capital on useless inventions.
As far back as I could remember, I had always seen that old garden ill-tended and the long, low house in a constant state of dilapidation25, with its yellow plaster front cracked and peeling. I used to live there in the old days with my mother, who was my aunt Dorgeroux's sister. Afterwards, when both the sisters were dead, I used to come from Paris, where I was going through a course of study, to spend my holidays with my uncle. He was then mourning the death of his poor son Dominique, who was treacherously26 murdered by a German airman whom he had brought to the ground after a terrific fight in the clouds. My visits to some extent diverted my uncle's thoughts from his grief. But I had had to go abroad; and it was not until after a very long absence that I returned to Haut-Meudon Lodge, where I had now[Pg 14] been some weeks, waiting for the end of the vacation and for my appointment as a professor at Grenoble.
And at each of my visits I had found the same habits, the same regular hours devoted27 to meals and walks, the same monotonous28 life, interrupted, at the time of the great experiments, by the same hopes and the same disappointments. It was a healthy, vigorous life, which suited the tastes and the extravagant dreams of Noël Dorgeroux, whose courage and confidence no trial was able to defeat or diminish.
I opened my window. The sun shone down upon the walls and buildings of the Yard. Not a cloud tempered the blazing sky. A scent29 of late roses quivered on the windless air.
"Victorien!" whispered a voice below me, from a hornbeam overgrown with red creeper.
I knew that it must be Bérangère, my uncle's god-daughter, reading, as usual, on a stone bench, her favourite seat.
"Have you seen your god-father?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied. "He was going through the garden and back to his Yard. He looked so queer!"
Bérangère pushed aside the leafy curtain at a place where the trelliswork which closed the arbour was broken; and her pretty face, crowned with rebellious30 golden curls, came into view.
"This is pleasant!" she said laughing. "My hair's caught. And there are spiders' webs too. Ugh! Help!"
These are childish recollections, insignificant31 details. Yet why did they remain engraved32 on my memory with such precision? It is as though all our being becomes charged with emotion at the approach of the great events which we are fated to encounter and our senses thrilled beforehand by the impalpable breath of a distant storm.
I hastened down the garden and ran to the hornbeam. Bérangère was gone. I called her. I received a merry laugh in reply and saw her farther away, swinging on a rope which she had stretched between two trees, under an arch of leaves.
She was delicious like that, graceful33 and light as a bird perched on some swaying bough34. At each swoop35, all her curls flew now in this direction, now in that, giving her a sort of moving halo, with which mingled36 the leaves that fell from the shaken trees, red leaves, yellow leaves, leaves of every shade of autumn gold.
Notwithstanding the anxiety with which my uncle's excessive agitation had filled my mind, I lingered before the sight of this incomparable light-heartedness and, giving the girl the pet name formed years ago from her Christian37 name of Bérangère, I said, under my voice and almost unconsciously:
"Bergeronnette!"
She jumped out of her swing and, planting herself in front of me, said:
"You're not to call me that any longer, Mr. Professor!"
"Why not?"
"It was all right once, when I was a little mischief38 of a tomboy, hopping39 and skipping all over the place. But now . . ."
"Well, your god-father still calls you that."
"My god-father has every right to."
"And I?"
"No right at all."
This is not a love-story; and I did not mean to speak of Bérangère before coming to the momentous40 part which, as everybody knows, she played in the adventure of the Three Eyes. But this part was so closely interwoven, from the beginning and during all the early period of the adventure, with certain episodes of our intimate life that the clearness of my narrative41 would suffer if it were not mentioned, however briefly42.
Well, twelve years before the time of which[Pg 17] I am speaking, there arrived at the Lodge a little girl to whom my uncle was god-father and from whom he used to receive a letter regularly on each 1st of January, bringing him her good wishes for the new year. She lived at Toulouse with her father and mother, who had formerly43 been in business at Meudon, near my uncle's place. Now the mother had died; and the father, without further ceremony, sent the daughter to Noël Dorgeroux with a short letter of which I remember a few sentences:
"The child is dull here, in the town. . . . My business"—Massignac was a wine-agent—"takes me all over the country . . . and Bérangère is left behind alone. . . . I was thinking that, in memory of our friendly relations, you might be willing to keep her with you for a few weeks. . . . The country air will restore the colour to her cheeks. . . ."
My uncle was a very kindly44, good-hearted man. The few weeks were followed by several months and then by several years, during which the worthy45 Massignac at intervals46 announced his intention of coming to Meudon to fetch the child. So it came about that Bérangère did not leave the Lodge at all and that she surrounded my uncle with so much gay and boisterous47 affection that, in spite of his apparent indifference48, Noël Dorgeroux had felt unable to part with his god-daughter. She enlivened the silent old house with her laughter and her charm. She was the element of disorder49 and delightful50 irresponsibility which gives a value to order, discipline and austerity.
Returning this year after a long absence, I had found, instead of the child whom I had known, a girl of twenty, just as much a child and just as boisterous as ever, but exquisitely51 pretty, graceful in form and movement and possessed52 of the mystery which marks those who have led solitary53 lives within the shadow of an old and habitually54 silent man. From the first I felt that my presence interfered55 with her habits of freedom and isolation56. At once audacious and shy, timid and provocative57, bold and shrinking, she seemed to shun58 me in particular; and, during two months of a life lived in common, when I saw her at every meal and met her at every turn, I had failed to tame her. She remained remote and wild, suddenly breaking off our talks and displaying, where I was concerned, the most capricious and inexplicable59 moods.
Perhaps she had an intuition of the profound disturbance60 that was awaking within me; per[Pg 19]haps her confusion was due to my own embarrassment61. She had often caught my eyes fixed62 on her red lips or observed the change that came over my voice at certain times. And she did not like it. Man's admiration63 disconcerted her.
"Look here," I said, adopting a roundabout method so as not to startle her, "your god-father maintains that human beings, some of them more than others, give forth64 a kind of emanation. Remember that Noël Dorgeroux is first and foremost a chemist and that he sees and feels things from the chemist's point of view. Well, to his mind, this emanation is manifested by the emission65 of certain corpuscles, of invisible sparks which form a sort of cloud. This is what happens, for instance, in the case of a woman. Her charm surrounds you . . ."
My heart was beating so violently as I spoke66 these words that I had to break off. Still, she did not seem to grasp their meaning; and she said, with a proud little air:
"Your uncle tells me all about his theories. It's true, I don't understand them a bit. However, as regards this one, he has spoken to me of a special ray, which he presupposed to explain that discharge of invisible particles. And he calls this ray after the first letter of my name, the B-ray."
"Well done, Bérangère; that makes you the god-mother of a ray, the ray of seductiveness and charm."
"Not at all," she cried, impatiently. "It's not a question of seductiveness but of a material incarnation, a fluid which is even able to become visible and to assume a form, like the apparitions67 produced by the mediums. For instance, the other day . . ."
She stopped and hesitated; her face betrayed anxiety; and I had to press her before she continued:
"No, no," she said, "I oughtn't to speak of that. It's not that your uncle forbade me to. But it has left such a painful impression. . . ."
"What do you mean, Bérangère?"
"I mean, an impression of fear and suffering. I saw, with your uncle, on a wall in the Yard, the most frightful68 things: images which represented three—sort of eyes. Were they eyes? I don't know. The things moved and looked at us. Oh, I shall never forget it as long as I live."
"And my uncle?"
"Your uncle was absolutely taken aback. I had to hold him up and bring him round, for he fainted. When he came to himself, the images had vanished."
"And did he say nothing?"
"He stood silent, gazing at the wall. Then I asked him, 'What is it, god-father?' Presently he answered, 'I don't know, I don't know: it may be the rays of which I spoke to you, the B-rays. If so, it must be a phenomenon of materialization.' That was all he said. Very soon after, he saw me to the door of the garden; and he has shut himself up in the Yard ever since. I did not see him again until just now."
She ceased. I felt anxious and greatly puzzled by this revelation:
"Then, according to you, Bérangère," I said, "my uncle's discovery is connected with those three figures? They were geometrical figures, weren't they? Triangles?"
She formed a triangle with her two fore-fingers and her two thumbs:
"There, the shape was like that. . . . As for their arrangement . . ."
She picked up a twig69 that had fallen from a tree and was beginning to draw lines in the sand of the path when a whistle sounded.
"That's god-father's signal when he wants me in the Yard," she cried.
"No," I said, "to-day it's for me. We fixed it."
"Does he want you?"
"Yes, to tell me about his discovery."
"Then I'll come too."
"He doesn't expect you, Bérangère."
"Yes, he does; yes, he does."
I caught hold of her arm, but she escaped me and ran to the top of the garden, where I came up with her outside a small, massive door in a fence of thick planks70 which connected a shed and a very high wall.
She opened the door an inch or two. I insisted:
"Do you really think so?" she said, wavering a little.
"I'm positive of it, because he asked me and no one else. Come, Bérangère, be sensible."
She hesitated. I went through and closed the door upon her.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
lodge
|
|
| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
exasperation
|
|
| n.愤慨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
stammering
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
emaciated
|
|
| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
protruding
|
|
| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
placid
|
|
| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
unfamiliar
|
|
| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
ravaged
|
|
| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
anguish
|
|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
extravagant
|
|
| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
entreaty
|
|
| n.恳求，哀求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
sketch
|
|
| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
sketches
|
|
| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
iris
|
|
| n.虹膜，彩虹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
agitation
|
|
| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
throbbing
|
|
| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
triangular
|
|
| adj.三角（形）的，三者间的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
irises
|
|
| n.虹( iris的名词复数 )；虹膜；虹彩；鸢尾（花） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
squandering
|
|
| v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
dilapidation
|
|
| n.倒塌；毁坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
treacherously
|
|
| 背信弃义地； 背叛地； 靠不住地； 危险地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
monotonous
|
|
| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
scent
|
|
| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
rebellious
|
|
| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
insignificant
|
|
| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
engraved
|
|
| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
bough
|
|
| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
swoop
|
|
| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
mischief
|
|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
hopping
|
|
| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
momentous
|
|
| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
boisterous
|
|
| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
disorder
|
|
| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
delightful
|
|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
exquisitely
|
|
| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
habitually
|
|
| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
interfered
|
|
| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
isolation
|
|
| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
provocative
|
|
| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
shun
|
|
| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
inexplicable
|
|
| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
disturbance
|
|
| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
embarrassment
|
|
| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
emission
|
|
| n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
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： |
|
|
|
|
67
apparitions
|
|
| n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
frightful
|
|
| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
twig
|
|
| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
planks
|
|
| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
vex
|
|
| vt.使烦恼，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |