THE Mortimer Hickses were in Rome; not, as they would in formertimes have been, in one of the antiquated1 hostelries of thePiazza di Spagna or the Porta del Popolo, where of old they hadso gaily2 defied fever and nourished themselves on local colour;but spread out, with all the ostentation3 of philistinemillionaires, under the piano nobile ceilings of one of thehigh-perched "Palaces," where, as Mrs. Hicks shamelesslydeclared, they could "rely on the plumbing4," and "have theprivilege of over-looking the Queen Mother's Gardens."It was that speech, uttered with beaming aplomb5 at a dinner-table surrounded by the cosmopolitan6 nobility of the EternalCity, that had suddenly revealed to Lansing the profound changein the Hicks point of view.
As he looked back over the four months since he had sounexpectedly joined the Ibis at Genoa, he saw that the change,at first insidious7 and unperceived, dated from the ill-fated daywhen the Hickses had run across a Reigning8 Prince on histravels.
Hitherto they had been proof against such perils9: both Mr. andMrs. Hicks had often declared that the aristocracy of theintellect was the only one which attracted them. But in thiscase the Prince possessed10 an intellect, in addition to his fewsquare miles of territory, and to one of the most beautifulField Marshal's uniforms that had ever encased a royal warrior11.
The Prince was not a warrior, however; he was stooping, pacificand spectacled, and his possession of the uniform had beenrevealed to Mrs. Hicks only by the gift of a full-lengthphotograph in a Bond Street frame, with Anastasius writtenslantingly across its legs. The Prince--and herein lay theHickses' undoing--the Prince was an archaeologist: an earnestanxious enquiring12 and scrupulous13 archaeologist. Delicate health(so his suite14 hinted) banished15 him for a part of each year fromhis cold and foggy principality; and in the company of hismother, the active and enthusiastic Dowager Princess, hewandered from one Mediterranean16 shore to another, now assistingat the exhumation17 of Ptolemaic mummies, now at the excavation18 ofDelphic temples or of North African basilicas. The beginning ofwinter usually brought the Prince and his mother to Rome orNice, unless indeed they were summoned by family duties toBerlin, Vienna or Madrid; for an extended connection with theprincipal royal houses of Europe compelled them, as the PrincessMother said, to be always burying or marrying a cousin. Atother moments they were seldom seen in the glacial atmosphere ofcourts, preferring to royal palaces those of the other, and moremodern type, in one of which the Hickses were now lodged19.
Yes: the Prince and his mother (they gaily avowed21 it) revelledin Palace Hotels; and, being unable to afford the luxury ofinhabiting them, they liked, as often as possible, to be invitedto dine there by their friends--"or even to tea, my dear," thePrincess laughingly avowed, "for I'm so awfully22 fond of butteredscones; and Anastasius gives me so little to eat in the desert."The encounter with these ambulant Highnesses had been fatal--Lansing now perceived it--to Mrs. Hicks's principles. She hadknown a great many archaeologists, but never one as agreeable asthe Prince, and above all never one who had left a throne tocamp in the desert and delve24 in Libyan tombs. And it seemed toher infinitely25 pathetic that these two gifted beings, whogrumbled when they had to go to "marry a cousin" at the Palaceof St. James or of Madrid, and hastened back breathlessly to thefar-off point where, metaphorically26 speaking, pick-axe and spadehad dropped from their royal hands--that these heirs of the agesshould be unable to offer themselves the comforts of up-to-datehotel life, and should enjoy themselves "like babies" when theywere invited to the other kind of "Palace," to feast on butteredscones and watch the tango.
She simply could not bear the thought of their privations; andneither, after a time, could Mr. Hicks, who found the Princemore democratic than anyone he had ever known at Apex27 City, andwas immensely interested by the fact that their spectacles camefrom the same optician.
But it was, above all, the artistic28 tendencies of the Prince andhis mother which had conquered the Hickses. There wasfascination in the thought that, among the rabble29 of vulgaruneducated royalties30 who overran Europe from Biarritz to theEngadine, gambling31, tangoing, and sponging on no less vulgarplebeians, they, the unobtrusive and self-respecting Hickses,should have had the luck to meet this cultivated pair, whojoined them in gentle ridicule32 of their own frivolous33 kinsfolk,and whose tastes were exactly those of the eccentric, unreliableand sometimes money-borrowing persons who had hithertorepresented the higher life to the Hickses.
Now at last Mrs. Hicks saw the possibility of being at onceartistic and luxurious34, of surrendering herself to the joys ofmodern plumbing and yet keeping the talk on the highest level.
"If the poor dear Princess wants to dine at the Nouveau Luxe whyshouldn't we give her that pleasure?" Mrs. Hicks smilinglyenquired; "and as for enjoying her buttered scones23 like a baby,as she says, I think it's the sweetest thing about her."Coral Hicks did not join in this chorus; but she accepted, withher curious air of impartiality35, the change in her parents'
manner of life, and for the first time (as Nick observed)occupied herself with her mother's toilet, with the result thatMrs. Hicks's outline became firmer, her garments soberer in hueand finer in material; so that, should anyone chance to detectthe daughter's likeness36 to her mother, the result was lesslikely to be disturbing.
Such precautions were the more needful--Lansing could not butnote because of the different standards of the society in whichthe Hickses now moved. For it was a curious fact that admissionto the intimacy37 of the Prince and his mother-- who continuallydeclared themselves to be the pariahs38, the outlaws39, theBohemians among crowned heads nevertheless involved not onlyliving in Palace Hotels but mixing with those who frequentedthem. The Prince's aide-de-camp--an agreeable young man of easymanners--had smilingly hinted that their Serene40 Highnesses,though so thoroughly41 democratic and unceremonious, were yetaccustomed to inspecting in advance the names of the personswhom their hosts wished to invite with them; and Lansing noticedthat Mrs. Hicks's lists, having been "submitted," usually cameback lengthened42 by the addition of numerous wealthy and titledguests. Their Highnesses never struck out a name; they welcomedwith enthusiasm and curiosity the Hickses' oddest and mostinexplicable friends, at most putting off some of them to alater day on the plea that it would be "cosier43" to meet them ona more private occasion; but they invariably added to the listany friends of their own, with the gracious hint that theywished these latter (though socially so well-provided for) tohave the "immense privilege" of knowing the Hickses. And thusit happened that when October gales44 necessitated45 laying up theIbis, the Hickses, finding again in Rome the august travellersfrom whom they had parted the previous month in Athens, alsofound their visiting-list enlarged by all that the capitalcontained of fashion.
It was true enough, as Lansing had not failed to note, that thePrincess Mother adored prehistoric46 art, and Russian music, andthe paintings of Gauguin and Matisse; but she also, and with abeaming unconsciousness of perspective, adored large pearls andpowerful motors, caravan47 tea and modern plumbing, perfumedcigarettes and society scandals; and her son, while apparentlyless sensible to these forms of luxury, adored his mother, andwas charmed to gratify her inclinations48 without cost tohimself--"Since poor Mamma," as he observed, "is so courageouswhen we are roughing it in the desert."The smiling aide-de-camp, who explained these things to Lansing,added with an intenser smile that the Prince and his mother wereunder obligations, either social or cousinly, to most of thetitled persons whom they begged Mrs. Hicks to invite; "and itseems to their Serene Highnesses," he added, "the mostflattering return they can make for the hospitality of theirfriends to give them such an intellectual opportunity."The dinner-table at which their Highnesses' friends were seatedon the evening in question represented, numerically, one of thegreatest intellectual opportunities yet afforded them. Thirtyguests were grouped about the flower-wreathed board, from whichEldorada and Mr. Beck had been excluded on the plea that thePrincess Mother liked cosy49 parties and begged her hosts thatthere should never be more than thirty at table. Such, atleast, was the reason given by Mrs. Hicks to her faithfulfollowers; but Lansing had observed that, of late, the sameskilled hand which had refashioned the Hickses' social circleusually managed to exclude from it the timid presences of thetwo secretaries. Their banishment50 was the more displeasing51 toLansing from the fact that, for the last three months, he hadfilled Mr. Buttles's place, and was himself their salariedcompanion. But since he had accepted the post, his obvious dutywas to fill it in accordance with his employers' requirements;and it was clear even to Eldorada and Mr. Beck that he had, asEldorada ungrudgingly said, "Something of Mr. Buttles'smarvellous social gifts. "During the cruise his task had not been distasteful to him. Hewas glad of any definite duties, however trivial, he felt moreindependent as the Hickses' secretary than as their pamperedguest, and the large cheque which Mr. Hicks handed over to himon the first of each month refreshed his languishing52 sense ofself-respect.
He considered himself absurdly over-paid, but that was theHickses' affair; and he saw nothing humiliating in being in theemploy of people he liked and respected. But from the moment ofthe ill-fated encounter with the wandering Princes, his positionhad changed as much as that of his employers. He was no longer,to Mr. and Mrs. Hicks, a useful and estimable assistant, on thesame level as Eldorada and Mr. Beck; he had become a socialasset of unsuspected value, equalling Mr. Buttles in hiscapacity for dealing53 with the mysteries of foreign etiquette,and surpassing him in the art of personal attraction. NickLansing, the Hickses found, already knew most of the PrincessMother's rich and aristocratic friends. Many of them hailed himwith enthusiastic "Old Nicks", and he was almost as familiar asHis Highness's own aide-de-camp with all those secretramifications of love and hate that made dinner-giving so muchmore of a science in Rome than at Apex City.
Mrs. Hicks, at first, had hopelessly lost her way in thislabyrinth of subterranean54 scandals, rivalries55 and jealousies;and finding Lansing's hand within reach she clung to it withpathetic tenacity56. But if the young man's value had risen inthe eyes of his employers it had deteriorated57 in his own. Hewas condemned58 to play a part he had not bargained for, and itseemed to him more degrading when paid in bank-notes than if hisretribution had consisted merely in good dinners and luxuriouslodgings. The first time the smiling aide-de-camp had caughthis eye over a verbal slip of Mrs. Hicks's, Nick had flushed tothe forehead and gone to bed swearing that he would chuck hisjob the next day.
Two months had passed since then, and he was still the paidsecretary. He had contrived59 to let the aide-de-camp feel thathe was too deficient60 in humour to be worth exchanging glanceswith; but even this had not restored his self-respect, and onthe evening in question, as he looked about the long table, hesaid to himself for the hundredth time that he would give up hisposition on the morrow.
Only--what was the alternative? The alternative, apparently,was Coral Hicks. He glanced down the line of diners, beginningwith the tall lean countenance61 of the Princess Mother, with itssmall inquisitive62 eyes perched as high as attic63 windows under afrizzled thatch64 of hair and a pediment of uncleaned diamonds;passed on to the vacuous65 and overfed or fashionably haggardmasks of the ladies next in rank; and finally caught, betweenbranching orchids66, a distant glimpse of Miss Hicks.
In contrast with the others, he thought, she looked surprisinglynoble. Her large grave features made her appear like an oldmonument in a street of Palace Hotels; and he marvelled67 at themysterious law which had brought this archaic68 face out of ApexCity, and given to the oldest society of Europe a look of suchmixed modernity.
Lansing perceived that the aide-de-camp, who was his neighbour,was also looking at Miss Hicks. His expression was serious, andeven thoughtful; but as his eyes met Lansing's he readjusted hisofficial smile.
"I was admiring our hostess's daughter. Her absence of jewelsis--er--an inspiration," he remarked in the confidential69 tonewhich Lansing had come to dread70.
"Oh, Miss Hicks is full of inspirations," he returned curtly,and the aide-de-camp bowed with an admiring air, as ifinspirations were rarer than pearls, as in his milieu71 theyundoubtedly were. "She is the equal of any situation, I amsure," he replied; and then abandoned the subject with one ofhis automatic transitions.
After dinner, in the embrasure of a drawing-room window, hesurprised Nick by returning to the same topic, and this timewithout thinking it needful to readjust his smile. His faceremained serious, though his manner was studiously informal.
"I was admiring, at dinner, Miss Hicks's invariable sense ofappropriateness. It must permit her friends to foresee for heralmost any future, however exalted72."Lansing hesitated, and controlled his annoyance73. Decidedly hewanted to know what was in his companion's mind.
"What do you mean by exalted?" he asked, with a smile of faintamusement.
"Well--equal to her marvellous capacity for shining in thepublic eye."Lansing still smiled. "The question is, I suppose, whether herdesire to shine equals her capacity."The aide-de-camp stared. "You mean, she's not ambitious?""On the contrary; I believe her to be immeasurably ambitious.""Immeasurably?" The aide-de-camp seemed to try to measure it.
"But not, surely, beyond--" "beyond what we can offer," his eyescompleted the sentence; and it was Lansing's turn to stare. Theaide-de-camp faced the stare. "Yes," his eyes concluded in aflash, while his lips let fall: "The Princess Mother admiresher immensely." But at that moment a wave of Mrs. Hicks's fandrew them hurriedly from their embrasure.
"Professor Darchivio had promised to explain to us thedifference between the Sassanian and Byzantine motives74 inCarolingian art; but the Manager has sent up word that the twonew Creole dancers from Paris have arrived, and her SereneHighness wants to pop down to the ball-room and take a peep atthem .... She's sure the Professor will understand ....""And accompany us, of course," the Princess irresistibly75 added.
Lansing's brief colloquy76 in the Nouveau Luxe window had liftedthe scales from his eyes. Innumerable dim corners of memory hadbeen flooded with light by that one quick glance of the aide-de-camp's: things he had heard, hints he had let pass, smiles,insinuations, cordialities, rumours77 of the improbability of thePrince's founding a family, suggestions as to the urgent need ofreplenishing the Teutoburger treasury79 ....
Miss Hicks, perforce, had accompanied her parents and theirprincely guests to the ballroom80; but as she did not dance, andtook little interest in the sight of others so engaged, sheremained aloof81 from the party, absorbed in an archaeologicaldiscussion with the baffled but smiling savant who was to haveenlightened the party on the difference between Sassanian andByzantine ornament82.
Lansing, also aloof, had picked out a post from which he couldobserve the girl: she wore a new look to him since he had seenher as the centre of all these scattered83 threads of intrigue84.
Yes; decidedly she was growing handsomer; or else she hadlearned how to set off her massive lines instead of trying todisguise them. As she held up her long eye-glass to glanceabsently at the dancers he was struck by the large beauty of herarm and the careless assurance of the gesture. There wasnothing nervous or fussy85 about Coral Hicks; and he was notsurprised that, plastically at least, the Princess Mother haddiscerned her possibilities.
Nick Lansing, all that night, sat up and stared at his future.
He knew enough of the society into which the Hickses had driftedto guess that, within a very short time, the hint of thePrince's aide-de-camp would reappear in the form of a directproposal. Lansing himself would probably--as the one person inthe Hicks entourage with whom one could intelligibly86 commune-beentrusted with the next step in the negotiations87: he would beasked, as the aide-de-camp would have said, "to feel theground." It was clearly part of the state policy of Teutoburgto offer Miss Hicks, with the hand of its sovereign, anopportunity to replenish78 its treasury.
What would the girl do? Lansing could not guess; yet he dimlyfelt that her attitude would depend in a great degree upon hisown. And he knew no more what his own was going to be than onthe night, four months earlier, when he had flung out of hiswife's room in Venice to take the midnight express for Genoa.
The whole of his past, and above all the tendency, on which hehad once prided himself, to live in the present and takewhatever chances it offered, now made it harder for him to act.
He began to see that he had never, even in the closest relationsof life, looked ahead of his immediate88 satisfaction. He hadthought it rather fine to be able to give himself so intenselyto the fullness of each moment instead of hurrying past it inpursuit of something more, or something else, in the manner ofthe over-scrupulous or the under-imaginative, whom he had alwaysgrouped together and equally pitied. It was not till he hadlinked his life with Susy's that he had begun to feel itreaching forward into a future he longed to make sure of, tofasten upon and shape to his own wants and purposes, till, by animperceptible substitution, that future had become his realpresent, his all-absorbing moment of time.
Now the moment was shattered, and the power to rebuild it failedhim. He had never before thought about putting together brokenbits: he felt like a man whose house has been wrecked89 by anearthquake, and who, for lack of skilled labour, is called uponfor the first time to wield90 a trowel and carry bricks. Hesimply did not know how.
Will-power, he saw, was not a thing one could suddenly decreeoneself to possess. It must be built up imperceptibly andlaboriously out of a succession of small efforts to meetdefinite objects, out of the facing of daily difficultiesinstead of cleverly eluding91 them, or shifting their burden onothers. The making of the substance called character was aprocess about as slow and arduous92 as the building of thePyramids; and the thing itself, like those awful edifices93, wasmainly useful to lodge20 one's descendants in, after they too weredust. Yet the Pyramid-instinct was the one which had made theworld, made man, and caused his fugitive94 joys to linger likefading frescoes95 on imperishable walls ....
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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ostentation
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| n.夸耀，卖弄 | |
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plumbing
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| n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究 | |
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aplomb
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| n.沉着，镇静 | |
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cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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enquiring
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| a.爱打听的，显得好奇的 | |
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scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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exhumation
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| n.掘尸，发掘；剥璐 | |
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excavation
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| n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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scones
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| n.烤饼，烤小圆面包( scone的名词复数 ) | |
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delve
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| v.深入探究，钻研 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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metaphorically
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| adv. 用比喻地 | |
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apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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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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rabble
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| n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人 | |
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royalties
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| 特许权使用费 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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impartiality
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| n. 公平, 无私, 不偏 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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pariahs
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outlaws
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| 歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cosier
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| adj.温暖舒适的( cosy的比较级 )；亲切友好的 | |
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gales
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| 龙猫 | |
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necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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displeasing
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| 不愉快的，令人发火的 | |
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languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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rivalries
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| n.敌对，竞争，对抗( rivalry的名词复数 ) | |
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tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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deteriorated
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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vacuous
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| adj.空的，漫散的，无聊的，愚蠢的 | |
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orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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milieu
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| n.环境；出身背景；(个人所处的)社会环境 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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ballroom
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| n.舞厅 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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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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intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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fussy
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| adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的 | |
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intelligibly
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| adv.可理解地，明了地，清晰地 | |
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negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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wield
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| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
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eluding
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的现在分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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frescoes
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| n.壁画( fresco的名词复数 )；温壁画技法，湿壁画 | |
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