From the moment when the tailor had bowed his farewell to the moment when Graham found himself in the lift, was altogether barely five minutes. As yet the haze1 of his vast interval2 of sleep hung about him, as yet the initial strangeness of his being alive at all in this remote age touched everything with wonder, with a sense of the irrational3, with something of the quality of a realistic dream. He was still detached, an astonished spectator, still but half involved in life. What he had seen, and especially the last crowded tumult4, framed in the setting of the balcony, had a spectacular turn, like a thing witnessed from the box of a theatre. "I don't understand," he said. "What was the trouble? My mind is in a whirl. Why were they shouting? What is the danger?"
"We have our troubles," said Howard. His eyes avoided Graham's enquiry. "This is a time of unrest. And, in fact, your appearance, your waking just now, has a sort of connexion--"
He spoke5 jerkily, like a man not quite sure of his breathing. He stopped abruptly6.
"I don't understand," said Graham.
"It will be clearer later," said Howard.
He glanced uneasily upward, as though he found the progress of the lift slow.
"I shall understand better, no doubt, when I have seen my way about a little," said Graham puzzled. "It will be--it is bound to be perplexing. At present it is all so strange. Anything seems possible. Anything. In the details even. Your counting, I understand, is different."
The lift stopped, and they stepped out into a narrow but very long passage between high walls, along which ran an extraordinary number of tubes and big cables.
"What a huge place this is!" said Graham. "Is it all one building? What place is it?"
"This is one of the city ways for various public services. Light and so forth7."
"Was it a social trouble--that--in the great roadway place? How are you governed? Have you still a police?"
"Several," said Howard.
"Several?"
"About fourteen."
"I don't understand."
"Very probably not. Our social order will probably seem very complex to you. To tell you the truth, I don't understand it myself very clearly. Nobody does. You will, perhaps--bye and bye. We have to go to the Council."
Graham's attention was divided between the urgent necessity of his inquiries8 and the people in the passages and halls they were traversing. For a moment his mind would be concentrated upon Howard and the halting answers he made, and then he would lose the thread in response to some vivid unexpected impression. Along the passages, in the halls, half the people seemed to be men in the red uniform. The pale blue canvas that had been so abundant in the aisle9 of moving ways did not appear. Invariably these men looked at him, and saluted10 him and Howard as they passed.
He had a clear vision of entering a long corridor, and there were a number of girls sitting on low seats, as though in a class. He saw no teacher, but only a novel apparatus11 from which he fancied a voice proceeded. The girls regarded him and his conductor, he thought, with curiosity and astonishment12. But he was hurried on before he could form a clear idea of the gathering13. He judged they knew Howard and not himself, and that they wondered who he was. This Howard, it seemed, was a person of importance. But then he was also merely Graham's guardian15. That was odd.
There came a passage in twilight16, and into this passage a footway hung so that he could see the feet and ankles of people going to and fro thereon, but no more of them. Then vague impressions of galleries and of casual astonished passers-by turning round to stare after the two of them with their red-clad guard.
The stimulus17 of the restoratives he had taken was only temporary. He was speedily fatigued18 by this excessive haste. He asked Howard to slacken his speed. Presently he was in a lift that had a window upon the great street space, but this was glazed19 and did not open, and they were too high for him to see the moving platforms below. But he saw people going to and fro along cables and along strange, frail-looking bridges.
Thence they passed across the street and at a vast height above it. They crossed by means of a narrow bridge closed in with glass, so clear that it made him giddy even to remember it. The floor of it also was of glass. From his memory of the cliffs between New Quay20 and Boscastle, so remote in time, and so recent in his experience, it seemed to him that they must be near four hundred feet above the moving ways. He stopped, looked down between his legs upon the swarming21 blue and red multitudes, minute and foreshortened, struggling and gesticulating still towards the little balcony far below, a little toy balcony, it seemed, where he had so recently been standing22. A thin haze and the glare of the mighty23 globes of light obscured everything. A man seated in a little openwork cradle shot by from some point still higher than the little narrow bridge, rushing down a cable as swiftly almost as if he were falling. Graham stopped involuntarily to watch this strange passenger vanish below, and then his eyes went back to the tumultuous struggle.
Along one of the faster ways rushed a thick crowd of red spots. This broke up into individuals as it approached the balcony, and went pouring down the slower ways towards the dense24 struggling crowd on the central area. These men in red appeared to be armed with sticks or truncheons; they seemed to be striking and thrusting. A great shouting, cries of wrath25, screaming, burst out and came up to Graham, faint and thin. "Go on," cried Howard, laying hands on him.
Another man rushed down a cable. Graham suddenly glanced up to see whence he came, and beheld26 through the glassy roof and the network of cables and girders, dim rhythmically27 passing forms like the vanes of windmills, and between them glimpses of a remote and pallid28 sky. Then Howard had thrust him forward across the bridge, and he was in a little narrow passage decorated with geometrical patterns.
"I want to see more of that," cried Graham, resisting.
"No, no," cried Howard, still gripping his arm. "This way. You must go this way." And the men in red following them seemed ready to enforce his orders.
Some negroes in a curious wasp29-like uniform of black and yellow appeared down the passage, and one hastened to throw up a sliding shutter30 that had seemed a door to Graham, and led the way through it. Graham found himself in a gallery overhanging the end of a great chamber31. The attendant in black and yellow crossed this, thrust up a second shutter and stood waiting.
This place had the appearance of an ante-room. He saw a number of people in the central space, and at the opposite end a large and imposing32 doorway33 at the top of a flight of steps, heavily curtained but giving a glimpse of some still larger hall beyond. He perceived white men in red and other negroes in black and yellow standing stiffly about those portals.
As they crossed the gallery he heard a whisper from below, "The Sleeper," and was aware of a turning of heads, a hum of observation. They entered another little passage in the wall of this ante-chamber, and then he found himself on an iron-railed gallery of metal that passed round the side of the great hall he had already seen through the curtains. He entered the place at the corner, so that he received the fullest impression of its huge proportions. The black in the wasp uniform stood aside like a well-trained servant, and closed the valve behind him.
Compared with any of the places Graham had seen thus far, this second hall appeared to be decorated with extreme richness. On a pedestal at the remoter end, and more brilliantly lit than any other object, was a gigantic white figure of Atlas34, strong and strenuous35, the globe upon his bowed shoulders. It was the first thing to strike his attention, it was so vast, so patiently and painfully real, so white and simple. Save for this figure and for a dais in the centre, the wide floor of the place was a shining vacancy36. The dais was remote in the greatness of the area; it would have looked a mere14 slab37 of metal had it not been for the group of seven men who stood about a table on it, and gave an inkling of its proportions. They were all dressed in white robes, they seemed to have arisen that moment from their seats, and they were regarding Graham steadfastly38. At the end of the table he perceived the glitter of some mechanical appliances.
Howard led him along the end gallery until they were opposite this mighty labouring figure. Then he stopped. The two men in red who had followed them into the gallery came and stood on either hand of Graham.
"You must remain here," murmured Howard, "for a few moments," and, without waiting for a reply, hurried away along the gallery.
"But, _why_--?" began Graham.
He moved as if to follow Howard, and found his path obstructed39 by one of the men in red. "You have to wait here, Sire," said the man in red.
"_Why_?"
"Orders, Sire."
"Whose orders?"
"Our orders, Sire."
Graham looked his exasperation40.
"What place is this?" he said presently. "Who are those men?"
"They are the lords of the Council, Sire."
"What Council?"
"_The_ Council."
"Oh!" said Graham, and after an equally ineffectual attempt at the other man, went to the railing and stared at the distant men in white, who stood watching him and whispering together.
The Council? He perceived there were now eight, though how the newcomer had arrived he had not observed. They made no gestures of greeting; they stood regarding him as in the nineteenth century a group of men might have stood in the street regarding a distant balloon that had suddenly floated into view. What council could it be that gathered there, that little body of men beneath the significant white Atlas, secluded42 from every eavesdropper43 in this impressive spaciousness44? And why should he be brought to them, and be looked at strangely and spoken of inaudibly? Howard appeared beneath, walking quickly across the polished floor towards them. As he drew near he bowed and performed certain peculiar45 movements, apparently46 of a ceremonious nature. Then he ascended47 the steps of the dais, and stood by the apparatus at the end of the table.
Graham watched that visible inaudible conversation. Occasionally, one of the white-robed men would glance towards him. He strained his ears in vain. The gesticulation of two of the speakers became animated48. He glanced from them to the passive faces of his attendants.... When he looked again Howard was extending his hands and moving his head like a man who protests. He was interrupted, it seemed, by one of the white-robed men rapping the table.
The conversation lasted an interminable time to Graham's sense. His eyes rose to the still giant at whose feet the Council sat. Thence they wandered to the walls of the hall. It was decorated in long painted panels of a quasi-Japanese type, many of them very beautiful. These panels were grouped in a great and elaborate framing of dark metal, which passed into the metallic49 caryatidae of the galleries, and the great structural50 lines of the interior. The facile grace of these panels enhanced the mighty white effort that laboured in the centre of the scheme. Graham's eyes came back to the Council, and Howard was descending51 the steps. As he drew nearer his features could be distinguished52, and Graham saw that he was flushed and blowing out his cheeks. His countenance53 was still disturbed when presently he reappeared along the gallery.
"This way," he said concisely54, and they went on in silence to a little door that opened at their approach. The two men in red stopped on either side of this door. Howard and Graham passed in, and Graham, glancing back, saw the white-robed Council still standing in a close group and looking at him. Then the door closed behind him with a heavy thud, and for the first time since his awakening55 he was in silence. The floor, even, was noiseless to his feet.
Howard opened another door, and they were in the first of two contiguous chambers56 furnished in white and green. "What Council was that?" began Graham. "What were they discussing? What have they to do with me?" Howard closed the door carefully, heaved a huge sigh, and said something in an undertone. He walked slantingways across the room and turned, blowing out his cheeks again. "Ugh!" he grunted57, a man relieved.
Graham stood regarding him.
"You must understand," began Howard abruptly, avoiding Graham's eyes, "that our social order is very complex. A half explanation, a bare unqualified statement would give you false impressions. As a matter of fact--it is a case of compound interest partly--your small fortune, and the fortune of your cousin Warming which was left to you--and certain other beginnings--have become very considerable. And in other ways that will be hard for you to understand, you have become a person of significance--of very considerable significance--involved in the world's affairs."
He stopped.
"Yes?" said Graham.
"We have grave social troubles."
"Yes?"
"Things have come to such a pass that, in fact, it is advisable to seclude41 you here."
"Keep me prisoner!" exclaimed Graham.
"Well--to ask you to keep in seclusion58."
Graham turned on him. "This is strange!" he said.
"No harm will be done you."
"No harm!"
"But you must be kept here--"
"While I learn my position, I presume."
"Very well then. Begin. Why _harm_?"
"Not now."
"Why not?"
"It is too long a story, Sire."
"All the more reason I should begin at once. You say I am a person of importance. What was that shouting I heard? Why is a great multitude shouting and excited because my trance is over, and who are the men in white in that huge council chamber?"
"All in good time, Sire," said Howard. "But not crudely, not crudely. This is one of those flimsy times when no man has a settled mind. Your awakening--no one expected your awakening. The Council is consulting."
"What council?"
"The Council you saw."
Graham made a petulant60 movement. "This is not right," he said. "I should be told what is happening."
"You must wait. Really you must wait."
Graham sat down abruptly. "I suppose since I have waited so long to resume life," he said, "that I must wait a little longer."
"That is better," said Howard. "Yes, that is much better. And I must leave you alone. For a space. While I attend the discussion in the Council.... I am sorry."
He went towards the noiseless door, hesitated and vanished.
Graham walked to the door, tried it, found it securely fastened in some way he never came to understand, turned about, paced the room restlessly, made the circuit of the room, and sat down. He remained sitting for some time with folded arms and knitted brow, biting his finger nails and trying to piece together the kaleidoscopic61 impressions of this first hour of awakened62 life; the vast mechanical spaces, the endless series of chambers and passages, the great struggle that roared and splashed through these strange ways, the little group of remote unsympathetic men beneath the colossal63 Atlas, Howard's mysterious behaviour. There was an inkling of some vast inheritance already in his mind--a vast inheritance perhaps misapplied--of some unprecedented64 importance and opportunity. What had he to do? And this room's secluded silence was eloquent65 of imprisonment66!
It came into Graham's mind with irresistible67 conviction that this series of magnificent impressions was a dream. He tried to shut his eyes and succeeded, but that time-honoured device led to no awakening.
Presently he began to touch and examine all the unfamiliar68 appointments of the two small rooms in which he found himself.
In a long oval panel of mirror he saw himself and stopped astonished. He was clad in a graceful69 costume of purple and bluish white, with a little greyshot beard trimmed to a point, and his hair, its blackness streaked70 now with bands of grey, arranged over his forehead in an unfamiliar but pleasing manner. He seemed a man of five-and-forty perhaps. For a moment he did not perceive this was himself.
A flash of laughter came with the recognition. "To call on old Warming like this!" he exclaimed, "and make him take me out to lunch!"
Then he thought of meeting first one and then another of the few familiar acquaintances of his early manhood, and in the midst of his amusement realised that every soul with whom he might jest had died many score of years ago. The thought smote71 him abruptly and keenly; he stopped short, the expression of his face changed to a white consternation72.
The tumultuous memory of the moving platforms and the huge facade73 of that wonderful street reasserted itself. The shouting multitudes came back clear and vivid, and those remote, inaudible, unfriendly councillors in white. He felt himself a little figure, very small and ineffectual, pitifully conspicuous74. And all about him, the world was--_strange_.
收听单词发音 |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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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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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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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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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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rhythmically
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| adv.有节奏地 | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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wasp
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| n.黄蜂，蚂蜂 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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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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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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atlas
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| n.地图册，图表集 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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seclude
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| vi.使隔离，使孤立，使隐退 | |
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secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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eavesdropper
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| 偷听者 | |
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spaciousness
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| n.宽敞 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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structural
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| adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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53
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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concisely
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| adv.简明地 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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56
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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57
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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kaleidoscopic
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| adj.千变万化的 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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68
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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69
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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70
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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71
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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72
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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73
facade
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| n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表 | |
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74
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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