"Omnibus est," said the driver, without turning round. There was a moment's silence. The policeman passed, coughing, by the entrance of the alley. The boy crouched7 in the shadow, for he did not want to be found out. He was pretty sure, too, that it was a Pirate; nothing else, he reasoned, would go from such odd places and at such odd hours.
"About when do you start?" He tried to sound nonchalant.
"At sunrise."
"How far do you go?"
"The whole way."
"And can I have a return ticket which will bring me all the way back?"
"You can."
"Do you know, I half think I'll come." The driver made no answer. The sun must have risen, for he unhitched the brake. And scarcely had the boy jumped in before the omnibus was off.
How? Did it turn? There was no room. Did it go forward? There was a blank wall. Yet it was moving—moving at a stately pace through the fog, which had turned from brown to yellow. The thought of warm bed and warmer breakfast made the boy feel faint. He wished he had not come. His parents would not have approved. He would have gone back to them if the weather had not made it impossible. The solitude8 was terrible; he was the only passenger. And the omnibus, though well-built, was cold and somewhat musty. He drew his coat round him, and in so doing chanced to feel his pocket. It was empty. He had forgotten his purse.
"Stop!" he shouted. "Stop!" And then, being of a polite disposition9, he glanced up at the painted notice-board so that he might call the driver by name. "Mr. Browne! stop; O, do please stop!"
Mr. Browne did not stop, but he opened a little window and looked in at the boy. His face was a surprise, so kind it was and modest.
"Mr. Browne, I've left my purse behind. I've not got a penny. I can't pay for the ticket. Will you take my watch, please? I am in the most awful hole."
"Tickets on this line," said the driver, "whether single or return, can be purchased by coinage from no terrene mint. And a chronometer10, though it had solaced11 the vigils of Charlemagne, or measured the slumbers12 of Laura, can acquire by no mutation13 the double-cake that charms the fangless14 Cerberus of Heaven!" So saying, he handed in the necessary ticket, and, while the boy said "Thank you," continued: "Titular15 pretensions16, I know it well, are vanity. Yet they merit no censure17 when uttered on a laughing lip, and in an homonymous18 world are in some sort useful, since they do serve to distinguish one Jack19 from his fellow. Remember me, therefore, as Sir Thomas Browne."
"Are you a Sir? Oh, sorry!" He had heard of these gentlemen drivers. "It is good of you about the ticket. But if you go on at this rate, however does your bus pay?"
"It does not pay. It was not intended to pay. Many are the faults of my equipage; it is compounded too curiously20 of foreign woods; its cushions tickle21 erudition rather than promote repose22; and my horses are nourished not on the evergreen23 pastures of the moment, but on the dried bents and clovers of Latinity. But that it pays!—that error at all events was never intended and never attained24."
"Sorry again," said the boy rather hopelessly. Sir Thomas looked sad, fearing that, even for a moment, he had been the cause of sadness. He invited the boy to come up and sit beside him on the box, and together they journeyed on through the fog, which was now changing from yellow to white. There were no houses by the road; so it must be either Putney Heath or Wimbledon Common.
"Have you been a driver always?"
"I was a physician once."
"But why did you stop? Weren't you good?"
"As a healer of bodies I had scant25 success, and several score of my patients preceded me. But as a healer of the spirit I have succeeded beyond my hopes and my deserts. For though my draughts26 were not better nor subtler than those of other men, yet, by reason of the cunning goblets27 wherein I offered them, the queasy28 soul was ofttimes tempted29 to sip30 and be refreshed."
"The queasy soul," he murmured; "if the sun sets with trees in front of it, and you suddenly come strange all over, is that a queasy soul?"
"Have you felt that?"
"Why yes."
After a pause he told the boy a little, a very little, about the journey's end. But they did not chatter32 much, for the boy, when he liked a person, would as soon sit silent in his company as speak, and this, he discovered, was also the mind of Sir Thomas Browne and of many others with whom he was to be acquainted. He heard, however, about the young man Shelley, who was now quite a famous person, with a carriage of his own, and about some of the other drivers who are in the service of the Company. Meanwhile the light grew stronger, though the fog did not disperse33. It was now more like mist than fog, and at times would travel quickly across them, as if it was part of a cloud. They had been ascending34, too, in a most puzzling way; for over two hours the horses had been pulling against the collar, and even if it were Richmond Hill they ought to have been at the top long ago. Perhaps it was Epsom, or even the North Downs; yet the air seemed keener than that which blows on either. And as to the name of their destination, Sir Thomas Browne was silent.
Crash!
"Thunder, by Jove!" said the boy, "and not so far off either. Listen to the echoes! It's more like mountains."
He thought, not very vividly35, of his father and mother. He saw them sitting down to sausages and listening to the storm. He saw his own empty place. Then there would be questions, alarms, theories, jokes, consolations36. They would expect him back at lunch. To lunch he would not come, nor to tea, but he would be in for dinner, and so his day's truancy37 would be over. If he had had his purse he would have bought them presents—not that he should have known what to get them.
Crash!
The peal38 and the lightning came together. The cloud quivered as if it were alive, and torn streamers of mist rushed past. "Are you afraid?" asked Sir Thomas Browne.
"What is there to be afraid of? Is it much farther?"
The horses of the omnibus stopped just as a ball of fire burst up and exploded with a ringing noise that was deafening39 but clear, like the noise of a blacksmith's forge. All the cloud was shattered.
"Oh, listen. Sir Thomas Browne! No, I mean look; we shall get a view at last. No, I mean listen; that sounds like a rainbow!"
The noise had died into the faintest murmur31, beneath which another murmur grew, spreading stealthily, steadily40, in a curve that widened but did not vary. And in widening curves a rainbow was spreading from the horses' feet into the dissolving mists.
"But how beautiful! What colours! Where will it stop? It is more like the rainbows you can tread on. More like dreams."
The colour and the sound grew together. The rainbow spanned an enormous gulf41. Clouds rushed under it and were pierced by it, and still it grew, reaching forward, conquering the darkness, until it touched something that seemed more solid than a cloud.
The boy stood up. "What is that out there?" he called. "What does it rest on, out at that other end?"
In the morning sunshine a precipice42 shone forth43 beyond the gulf A precipice—or was it a castle? The horses moved. They set their feet upon the rainbow.
"Oh, look!" the boy shouted. "Oh, listen! Those caves—or are they gateways44? Oh, look between those cliffs at those ledges45. I see people! I see trees!"
"Look also below," whispered Sir Thomas. "Neglect not the diviner Acheron."
The boy looked below, past the flames of the rainbow that licked against their wheels. The gulf also had cleared, and in its depths there flowed an everlasting46 river. One sunbeam entered and struck a green pool, and as they passed over he saw three maidens47 rise to the surface of the pool, singing, and playing with something that glistened48 like a ring.
"You down in the water——" he called.
They answered, "You up on the bridge——" There was a burst of music. "You up on the bridge, good luck to you. Truth in the depth, truth on the height."
"You down in the water, what are you doing?"
Sir Thomas Browne replied: "They sport in the mancipiary possession of their gold"; and the omnibus arrived.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
alley
|
|
| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
moss
|
|
| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
huddled
|
|
| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
cape
|
|
| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
neatly
|
|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
crouched
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
disposition
|
|
| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
chronometer
|
|
| n.精密的计时器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
solaced
|
|
| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
slumbers
|
|
| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
mutation
|
|
| n.变化，变异，转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
fangless
|
|
| Fangless | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
15
titular
|
|
| adj.名义上的，有名无实的；n.只有名义（或头衔）的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
pretensions
|
|
| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
censure
|
|
| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
homonymous
|
|
| adj.同音异义的，双关的，同名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
jack
|
|
| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
tickle
|
|
| v.搔痒，胳肢；使高兴；发痒；n.搔痒，发痒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
repose
|
|
| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
evergreen
|
|
| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
attained
|
|
| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
scant
|
|
| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
draughts
|
|
| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
goblets
|
|
| n.高脚酒杯( goblet的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
queasy
|
|
| adj.易呕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
tempted
|
|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
sip
|
|
| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
murmur
|
|
| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
chatter
|
|
| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
disperse
|
|
| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
vividly
|
|
| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
consolations
|
|
| n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
truancy
|
|
| n.逃学，旷课 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
peal
|
|
| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
deafening
|
|
| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
steadily
|
|
| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
precipice
|
|
| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
gateways
|
|
| n.网关( gateway的名词复数 )；门径；方法；大门口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
ledges
|
|
| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
everlasting
|
|
| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
maidens
|
|
| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
glistened
|
|
| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |