After breakfasting on the following morning in a small breakfast-roomdownstairs, he found Renata waiting for him. The horses were at the door.
Both of them had brought riding clothes with them. Everything theycould possibly require seemed to have been intelligently anticipated.
They mounted and rode away down the castle drive. Renata spoke1 withthe groom2 at some length.
‘He asked if we would like him to accompany us but I said no. I knowthe tracks round here fairly well.’
‘I see. You have been here before?’
‘Not very often of late years. Early in my life I knew this place very well.’
He gave her a sharp look. She did not return it. As she rode beside him,he watched her profile– the thin, aquiline3 nose, the head carried soproudly on the slender neck. She rode a horse well, he saw that.
All the same, there was a sense of ill ease in his mind this morning. Hewasn’t sure why…
His mind went back to the Airport Lounge. The woman who had cometo stand beside him. The glass of Pilsner on the table…Nothing in it thatthere shouldn’t have been–neither then, nor later. A risk he had accepted.
Why, when all that was long over, should it rouse uneasiness in him now?
They had a brief canter following a ride through the trees. A beautifulproperty, beautiful woods. In the distance he saw horned animals. A para-dise for a sportsman, a paradise for the old way of living, a paradise thatcontained– what? A serpent? As it was in the beginning– with Paradisewent a serpent. He drew rein4 and the horses fell to a walk. He and Renatawere alone–no microphones, no listening walls–The time had come for hisquestions.
‘Who is she?’ he said urgently. ‘What is she?’
‘It’s easy to answer. So easy that it’s hardly believable.’
‘Well?’ he said.
‘She’s oil. Copper5. Goldmines in South Africa. Armaments in Sweden.
Uranium deposits in the north. Nuclear development, vast stretches of co-balt. She’s all those things.’
‘And yet, I hadn’t heard about her, I didn’t know her name, I didn’tknow–’
‘She has not wanted people to know.’
‘Can one keep such things quiet?’
‘Easily, if you have enough copper and oil and nuclear deposits andarmaments and all the rest of it. Money can advertise, or money can keepsecrets, can hush6 things up.’
‘But who actually is she?’
‘Her grandfather was American. He was mainly railways, I think. Pos-sibly Chicago hogs7 in those times. It’s like going back into history, findingout. He married a German woman. You’ve heard of her, I expect. BigBelinda, they used to christen her. Armaments, shipping8, the whole indus-trial wealth of Europe. She was her father’s heiress.’
‘Between those two, unbelievable wealth,’ said Sir Stafford Nye. ‘And so–power. Is that what you’re telling me?’
‘Yes. She didn’t just inherit things, you know. She made money as well.
She’d inherited brains, she was a big financier in her own right.
Everything she touched multiplied itself. Turned to incredible sums ofmoney, and she invested them. Taking advice, taking other people’s judg-ment, but in the end always using her own. And always prospering9. Al-ways adding to her wealth so that it was too fabulous10 to be believed.
Money creates money.’
‘Yes, I can understand that. Wealth has to increase if there’s a super-fluity of it. But–what did she want? What has she got?’
‘You said it just now. Power.’
‘And she lives here? Or does she–?’
‘She visits America and Sweden. Oh yes, she visits places, but not often.
This is where she prefers to be, in the centre of a web like a vast spidercontrolling all the threads. The threads of finance. Other threads too.’
‘When you say, other threads–’
‘The arts. Music, pictures, writers. Human beings–young human beings.’
‘Yes. One might know that. Those pictures, a wonderful collection.’
‘There are galleries of them upstairs in the Schloss. There are Rem-brandts and Giottos and Raphaels and there are cases of jewels–some ofthe most wonderful jewels in the world.’
‘All belonging to one ugly, gross old woman. Is she satisfied?’
‘Not yet, but well on the way to being.’
‘Where is she going, what does she want?’
‘She loves youth. That is her mode of power. To control youth. Theworld is full of rebellious11 youth at this moment. That’s been helped on.
Modern philosophy, modern thought, writers and others whom she fin-ances and controls.’
‘But how can–?’ He stopped.
‘I can’t tell you because I don’t know. It’s an enormous ramification12.
She’s behind it in one sense, supports rather curious charities, earnestphilanthropists and idealists, raises innumerable grants for students andartists and writers.’
‘And yet you say it’s not–’
‘No, it’s not yet complete. It’s a great upheaval13 that’s being planned. It’sbelieved in, it’s the new heaven and the new earth. That’s what’s beenpromised by leaders for thousands of years. Promised by religions, prom-ised by those who support Messiahs, promised by those who come back toteach the law, like the Buddha14. Promised by politicians. The crude heavenof an easy attainment15 such as the Assassins believed in, and the Old Manof the Assassins promised his followers16 and, from their point of view, gaveto them.’
‘Is she behind drugs as well?’
‘Yes. Without conviction, of course. Only a means of having people bentto her will. It’s one way, too, of destroying people. The weak ones. Theones she thinks are no good, although they had once shown promise.
She’d never take drugs herself– she’s strong. But drugs destroy weakpeople more easily and naturally than anything else.’
‘And force? What about force? You can’t do everything by propaganda.’
‘No, of course not. Propaganda is the first stage and behind it there arevast armaments piling up. Arms that go to deprived countries and then onelsewhere. Tanks and guns and nuclear weapons that go to Africa and theSouth Seas and South America. In South America there’s a lot building up.
Forces of young men and women drilling and training. Enormous armsdumps–means of chemical warfare–’
‘It’s a nightmare! How do you know all this, Renata?’
‘Partly because I’ve been told it; from information received, partly be-cause I have been instrumental in proving some of it.’
‘But you. You and she?’
‘There’s always something idiotic17 behind all great and vast projects.’ Shelaughed suddenly. ‘Once, you see, she was in love with my grandfather. Afoolish story. He lived in this part of the world. He had a castle a mile ortwo from here.’
‘Was he a man of genius?’
‘Not at all. He was just a very good sportsman. Handsome, dissolute andattractive to women. And so, because of that, she is in a sense my pro-tectress. And I am one of her converts or slaves! I work for her. I findpeople for her. I carry out her commands in different parts of the world.’
‘Do you?’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I wondered,’ said Sir Stafford Nye.
He did wonder. He looked at Renata and he thought again of the airport.
He was working for Renata, he was working with Renata. She had broughthim to this Schloss. Who had told her to bring him here? Big, gross Char-lotte in the middle of her spider’s web? He had had a reputation, a reputa-tion of being unsound in certain diplomatic quarters. He could be usefulto these people perhaps, but useful in a small and rather humiliating way.
And he thought suddenly, in a kind of fog of question marks: Renata??? Itook a risk with her at Frankfurt airport. But I was right. It came off. Noth-ing happened to me. But all the same, he thought, who is she? What is she?
I don’t know. I can’t be sure. One can’t in the world today be sure of any-one. Anyone at all. She was told perhaps to get me. To get me into the hol-low of her hand, so that business at Frankfurt might have been cleverlythought out. It fitted in with my sense of risk, and it would make me sureof her. It would make me trust her.
‘Let’s canter again,’ she said. ‘We’ve walked the horses too long.’
‘I haven’t asked you what you are in all this?’
‘I take orders.’
‘From whom?’
‘There’s an opposition18. There’s always an opposition. There are peoplewho have a suspicion of what’s going on, of how the world is going to bemade to change, of how with money, wealth, armaments, idealism, greattrumpeting words of power that’s going to happen. There are people whosay it shall not happen.’
‘And you are with them?’
‘I say so.’
‘What do you mean by that, Renata?’
She said, ‘I say so.’
He said: ‘That young man last night–’
‘Franz Joseph?’
‘Is that his name?’
‘It is the name he is known by.’
‘But he has another name, hasn’t he?’
‘Do you think so?’
‘He is, isn’t he, the young Siegfried?’
‘You saw him like that? You realized that’s what he was, what he standsfor?’
‘I think so. Youth. Heroic youth. Aryan youth, it has to be Aryan youth inthis part of the world. There is still that point of view. A super race, the su-permen. They must be of Aryan descent.’
‘Oh yes, it’s lasted on from the time of Hitler. It doesn’t always come outinto the open much and, in other places all over the world, it isn’t stressedso much. South America, as I say, is one of the strongholds. And Peru andSouth Africa also.’
‘What does the young Siegfried do? What does he do besides look hand-some and kiss the hand of his protectress?’
‘Oh, he’s quite an orator19. He speaks and his following would follow himto death.’
‘Is that true?’
‘He believes it.’
‘And you?’
‘I think I might believe it.’ She added: ‘Oratory is very frightening, youknow. What a voice can do, what words can do, and not particularly con-vincing words at that. The way they are said. His voice rings like a bell,and women cry and scream and faint away when he addresses them–you’ll see that for yourself.
‘You saw Charlotte’s Bodyguard20 last night all dressed up–people do lovedressing up nowadays. You’ll see them all over the world in their ownchosen get-up, different in different places, some with their long hair andtheir beards, and girls in their streaming white nightgowns, talking ofpeace and beauty, and the wonderful world that is the world of the youngwhich is to be theirs when they’ve destroyed enough of the old world. Theoriginal Country of the Young was west of the Irish Sea, wasn’t it? A verysimple place, a different Country of the Young from what we’re planningnow–It was silver sands, and sunshine and singing in the waves…‘But now we want Anarchy21, and breaking down and destroying. OnlyAnarchy can benefit those who march behind it. It’s frightening, it’s alsowonderful–because of its violence, because it’s bought with pain and suf-fering–’
‘So that is how you see the world today?’
‘Sometimes.’
‘And what am I to do next?’
‘Come with your guide. I’m your guide. Like Virgil with Dante, I’ll takeyou down into hell, I’ll show you the sadistic22 films partly copied from theold SS, show you cruelty and pain and violence worshipped. And I’ll showyou the great dreams of paradise in peace and beauty. You won’t knowwhich is which and what is what. But you’ll have to make up your mind.’
‘Do I trust you, Renata?’
‘That will be your choice. You can run away from me if you like, or youcan stay with me and see the new world. The new world that’s in the mak-ing.’
‘Pasteboard,’ said Sir Stafford Nye violently.
She looked at him inquiringly.
‘Like Alice in Wonderland. The cards, the pasteboard cards all rising upin the air. Flying about. Kings and Queens and Knaves23. All sorts of things.’
‘You mean–what do you mean exactly?’
‘I mean it isn’t real. It’s make-believe. The whole damn thing is make-be-lieve.’
‘In one sense, yes.’
‘All dressed up playing parts, putting on a show. I’m getting nearer,aren’t I, to the meaning of things?’
‘In a way, yes, and in a way, no–’
‘There’s one thing I’d like to ask you because it puzzles me. Big Charlotteordered you to bring me to see her–why? What did she know about me?
What use did she think she could make of me?’
‘I don’t quite know–possibly a kind of Eminence24 Grise–working behind afa?ade. That would suit you rather well.’
‘But she knows nothing whatever about me!’
‘Oh, that!’ Suddenly Renata went into peals25 of laughter. ‘It’s so ridicu-lous, really–the same old nonsense all over again.’
‘I don’t understand you, Renata.’
‘No–because it’s so simple. Mr Robinson would understand.’
‘Would you kindly26 explain what you are talking about?’
‘It’s the same old business–“It’s not what you are. It’s who you know”. YourGreat-Aunt Matilda and Big Charlotte were at school together–’
‘You actually mean–’
‘Girls together.’
He stared at her. Then he threw his head back and roared with laughter.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
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： |
|
|
|
|
2
groom
|
|
| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
aquiline
|
|
| adj.钩状的，鹰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
rein
|
|
| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
copper
|
|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
hush
|
|
| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
hogs
|
|
| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
shipping
|
|
| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
prospering
|
|
| 成功，兴旺( prosper的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
fabulous
|
|
| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
rebellious
|
|
| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
ramification
|
|
| n.分枝，分派，衍生物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
upheaval
|
|
| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
Buddha
|
|
| n.佛；佛像；佛陀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
attainment
|
|
| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
followers
|
|
| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
idiotic
|
|
| adj.白痴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
opposition
|
|
| n.反对，敌对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
orator
|
|
| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
bodyguard
|
|
| n.护卫，保镖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
anarchy
|
|
| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
sadistic
|
|
| adj.虐待狂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
knaves
|
|
| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
eminence
|
|
| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
peals
|
|
| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |