Now there are some things frankly1 impossible. The weakest intellect will admit this situation is impossible. The Athenæum will probably say as much should it venture to review this. Sunbespattered ferns, spreading beech2 trees, the Vicar and the gun are acceptable enough. But this Angel is a different matter. Plain sensible people will scarcely go on with such an extravagant3 book. And the Vicar fully4 appreciated this impossibility. But he lacked decision. Consequently he went on with it, as you shall immediately hear. He was hot, it was after dinner, he was in no mood for mental subtleties5. The Angel had him at a disadvantage, and further distracted him from the main issue by irrelevant6 iridescence7 and a violent fluttering. For the moment it never occurred to the Vicar[Pg 18] to ask whether the Angel was possible or not. He accepted him in the confusion of the moment, and the mischief8 was done. Put yourself in his place, my dear Athenæum. You go out shooting. You hit something. That alone would disconcert you. You find you have hit an Angel, and he writhes9 about for a minute and then sits up and addresses you. He makes no apology for his own impossibility. Indeed, he carries the charge clean into your camp. "A man!" he says, pointing. "A man in the maddest black clothes and without a feather upon him. Then I was not deceived. I am indeed in the Land of Dreams!" You must answer him. Unless you take to your heels. Or blow his brains out with your second barrel as an escape from the controversy10.
"The Land of Dreams! Pardon me if I suggest you have just come out of it," was the Vicar's remark.
"How can that be?" said the Angel.
"Your wing," said the Vicar, "is bleeding. Before we talk, may I have the pleasure—the melancholy11 pleasure—of tying it up? I am[Pg 19] really most sincerely sorry...." The Angel put his hand behind his back and winced12.
The Vicar assisted his victim to stand up. The Angel turned gravely and the Vicar, with numberless insignificant13 panting parentheses14, carefully examined the injured wings. (They articulated, he observed with interest, to a kind of second glenoid on the outer and upper edge of the shoulder blade. The left wing had suffered little except the loss of some of the primary wing-quills, and a shot or so in the ala spuria, but the humerus bone of the right was evidently smashed.) The Vicar stanched15 the bleeding as well as he could and tied up the bone with his pocket handkerchief and the neck wrap his housekeeper16 made him carry in all weathers.
"I'm afraid you will not be able to fly for some time," said he, feeling the bone.
"I don't like this new sensation," said the Angel.
"The Pain when I feel your bone?"
"The what?" said the Angel.
"The Pain."
"'Pain'—you call it. No, I certainly don't[Pg 20] like the Pain. Do you have much of this Pain in the Land of Dreams?"
"A very fair share," said the Vicar. "Is it new to you?"
"Quite," said the Angel. "I don't like it."
"How curious!" said the Vicar, and bit at the end of a strip of linen17 to tie a knot. "I think this bandaging must serve for the present," he said. "I've studied ambulance work before, but never the bandaging up of wing wounds. Is your Pain any better?"
"It glows now instead of flashing," said the Angel.
"I am afraid you will find it glow for some time," said the Vicar, still intent on the wound.
The Angel gave a shrug18 of the wing and turned round to look at the Vicar again. He had been trying to keep an eye on the Vicar over his shoulder during all their interview. He looked at him from top to toe with raised eyebrows19 and a growing smile on his beautiful soft-featured face. "It seems so odd," he said with a sweet little laugh, "to be talking to a Man!"
"Do you know," said the Vicar, "now that I[Pg 21] come to think of it, it is equally odd to me that I should be talking to an Angel. I am a somewhat matter-of-fact person. A Vicar has to be. Angels I have always regarded as—artistic20 conceptions——"
"Exactly what we think of men."
"But surely you have seen so many men——"
"Never before to-day. In pictures and books, times enough of course. But I have seen several since the sunrise, solid real men, besides a horse or so—those Unicorn21 things you know, without horns—and quite a number of those grotesque22 knobby things called 'cows.' I was naturally a little frightened at so many mythical23 monsters, and came to hide here until it was dark. I suppose it will be dark again presently like it was at first. Phew! This Pain of yours is poor fun. I hope I shall wake up directly."
"I don't understand quite," said the Vicar, knitting his brows and tapping his forehead with his flat hand. "Mythical monster!" The worst thing he had been called for years hitherto was a 'mediaeval anachronism' (by an advocate of Disestablishment). "Do I understand[Pg 22] that you consider me as—as something in a dream?"
"Of course," said the Angel smiling.
"Is all so very dream like," said the Angel. "Just exactly what one dreams of—or artists imagine."
"You have artists then among the Angels?"
"All kinds of artists, Angels with wonderful imaginations, who invent men and cows and eagles and a thousand impossible creatures."
"Impossible creatures!" said the Vicar.
"Impossible creatures," said the Angel. "Myths."
"But I'm real!" said the Vicar. "I assure you I'm real."
The Angel shrugged25 his wings and winced and smiled. "I can always tell when I am dreaming," he said.
"You—dreaming," said the Vicar. He looked round him.
[Pg 23]
He held out his hand with all his fingers moving. "I have it!" he said. "I begin to see." A really brilliant idea was dawning upon his mind. He had not studied mathematics at Cambridge for nothing, after all. "Tell me please. Some animals of your world ... of the Real World, real animals you know."
"Real animals!" said the Angel smiling. "Why—there's Griffins and Dragons—and Jabberwocks—and Cherubim—and Sphinxes—and the Hippogriff—and Mermaids—and Satyrs—and...."
"Thank you," said the Vicar as the Angel appeared to be warming to his work; "thank you. That is quite enough. I begin to understand."
He paused for a moment, his face pursed up. "Yes ... I begin to see it."
"See what?" asked the Angel.
"I don't see them," said the Angel.
"No, the whole point is they are not to be seen in this world. But our men with imaginations[Pg 24] have told us all about them, you know. And even I at times ... there are places in this village where you must simply take what they set before you, or give offence—I, I say, have seen in my dreams Jabberwocks, Bogle brutes28, Mandrakes.... From our point of view, you know, they are Dream Creatures...."
"Dream Creatures!" said the Angel. "How singular! This is a very curious dream. A kind of topsy-turvey one. You call men real and angels a myth. It almost makes one think that in some odd way there must be two worlds as it were...."
"At least Two," said the Vicar.
"Lying somewhere close together, and yet scarcely suspecting...."
"As near as page to page of a book."
"Penetrating29 each other, living each its own life. This is really a delicious dream!"
"And never dreaming of each other."
"Except when people go a dreaming!"
"Yes," said the Angel thoughtfully. "It must be something of the sort. And that reminds me. Sometimes when I have been dropping asleep, or[Pg 25] drowsing under the noon-tide sun, I have seen strange corrugated30 faces just like yours, going by me, and trees with green leaves upon them, and such queer uneven31 ground as this.... It must be so. I have fallen into another world."
"Sometimes," began the Vicar, "at bedtime, when I have been just on the edge of consciousness, I have seen faces as beautiful as yours, and the strange dazzling vistas32 of a wonderful scene, that flowed past me, winged shapes soaring over it, and wonderful—sometimes terrible—forms going to and fro. I have even heard sweet music too in my ears.... It may be that as we withdraw our attention from the world of sense, the pressing world about us, as we pass into the twilight33 of repose34, other worlds.... Just as we see the stars, those other worlds in space, when the glare of day recedes35.... And the artistic dreamers who see such things most clearly...."
They looked at one another.
"And in some incomprehensible manner I have fallen into this world of yours out of my own!" said the Angel, "into the world of my dreams, grown real."
[Pg 26]
He looked about him. "Into the world of my dreams."
"It is confusing," said the Vicar. "It almost makes one think there may be (ahem) Four Dimensions after all. In which case, of course," he went on hurriedly—for he loved geometrical speculations36 and took a certain pride in his knowledge of them—"there may be any number of three dimensional universes packed side by side, and all dimly dreaming of one another. There may be world upon world, universe upon universe. It's perfectly37 possible. There's nothing so incredible as the absolutely possible. But I wonder how you came to fall out of your world into mine...."
"Dear me!" said the Angel; "There's deer and a stag! Just as they draw them on the coats of arms. How grotesque it all seems! Can I really be awake?"
The half-dozen of dappled deer came in Indian file obliquely39 through the trees and halted, watching. "It's no dream—I am really a solid concrete Angel, in Dream Land," said the Angel.[Pg 27] He laughed. The Vicar stood surveying him. The Reverend gentleman was pulling his mouth askew40 after a habit he had, and slowly stroking his chin. He was asking himself whether he too was not in the Land of Dreams.
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1
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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2
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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3
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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4
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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5
subtleties
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| 细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等 | |
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6
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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7
iridescence
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| n.彩虹色；放光彩；晕色；晕彩 | |
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8
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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9
writhes
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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11
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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12
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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14
parentheses
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| n.圆括号，插入语，插曲（ parenthesis的名词复数 ） | |
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15
stanched
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| v.使（伤口）止血( stanch的过去式 )；止（血）；使不漏；使不流失 | |
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16
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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17
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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18
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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19
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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20
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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21
unicorn
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| n.(传说中的)独角兽 | |
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22
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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23
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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24
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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25
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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26
diffusely
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| 广泛地 | |
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27
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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28
brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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29
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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30
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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31
uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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32
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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33
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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34
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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35
recedes
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的第三人称单数 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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36
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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37
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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38
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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39
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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40
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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