登陆注册
5249600000096

第96章 CHAPTER THE THIRTY-THIRD(2)

She rattled her teaspoon impatiently in her empty cup.

"Can you always trust your eyes, even in broad daylight?" she burst out.

"How often do they deceive you, in the simplest things? What did I hear you all disputing about the other day in the garden? You were looking at some view?"

"Yes--at the view down the alley of trees at the other end of the churchyard wall."

"Some object in the alley had attracted general notice--had it not?"

"Yes--an object at the further end of it."

"I heard you up here. You all differed in opinion, in spite of your wonderful eyes. My father said it moved. You said it stood still. Oscar said it was a man. Mrs. Finch said it was a calf. Nugent ran off, and examined this amazing object at close quarters. And what did it turn out to be? A stump of an old tree blown across the road in the night! Why am I to envy people the possession of a sense which plays them such tricks as that? No! no! Herr Grosse is going to 'cut into my cataracts,' as he calls it--because I am going to be married to a man I love; and I fancy, like a fool, I may love him better still, if I can see him. I may be quite wrong," she added archly. "It may end in my not loving him half as well as I do now!"

I thought of Oscar's face, and felt a sickening fear that she might be speaking far more seriously than she suspected. I tried to change the subject. No! Her imaginative nature had found its way into a new region of speculation before I could open my lips.

"I associate light," she said thoughtfully, "with all that is beautiful and heavenly--and dark with all that is vile and horrible and devilish. I wonder how light and dark will look to me when I see?"

"I believe they will astonish you," I answered, "by being entirely unlike what you fancy them to be now."

She started. I had alarmed her without intending it.

"Will Oscar's face be utterly unlike what I fancy it to be now?" she asked, in suddenly altered tones. "Do you mean to say that I have not had the right image of him in my mind all this time?"

I tried again to draw her off to another topic. What more could I do--with my tongue tied by the German's warning to us not to agitate her, in the face of the operation to be performed on the next day?

It was quite useless. She went on, as before, without heeding me.

"Have I no means of judging rightly what Oscar is like?" she said. "I touch my own face; I know how long it is and how broad it is; I know how big the different features are, and where they are. And then I touch Oscar, and compare his face with my knowledge of my own face. Not a single detail escapes me. I see him in my mind as plainly as you see me across this table. Do you mean to say, when I see him with my eyes, that I shall discover something perfectly new to me? I don't believe it!" She started up impatiently, and took a turn in the room. "Oh!" she exclaimed, with a stamp of her foot, "why can't I take laudanum enough, or chloroform enough to kill me for the next six weeks--and then come to life again when the German takes the bandage off my eyes!" She sat down once more, and drifted all on a sudden into a question of pure morality.

"Tell me this," she said. "Is the greatest virtue, the virtue which it is most difficult to practice?"

"I suppose so," I answered.

She drummed with both hands on the table, petulantly, viciously, as hard as she could.

"Then, Madame Pratolungo," she said, "the greatest of all the virtues is--Patience. Oh, my friend, how I hate the greatest of all the virtues at this moment!"

That ended it--there the conversation found its way into other topics at last.

Thinking afterwards of the new side of her mind which Lucilla had shown to me, I derived one consolation from what had passed at the breakfast-table. If Mr. Sebright proved to be right, and if the operation failed after all, I had Lucilla's word for it that blindness, of itself, is not the terrible affliction to the blind which the rest of us fancy it to be--because we can see.

Towards half-past seven in the evening, I went out alone, as I had planned, to meet Oscar on his return from London.

At a long straight stretch of the road, I saw him advancing towards me.

He was walking more rapidly than usual, and singing as he walked. Even through its livid discoloration, the poor fellow's face looked radiant with happiness as he came nearer. He waved his walking-stick exultingly in the air. "Good news!" he called out at the top of his voice. "Mr.

Sebright has made me a happy man again!" I had never before seen him so like Nugent in manner, as I now saw him when we met and he shook hands with me.

"Tell me all about it," I said.

He gave me his arm; and, talking all the way, we walked back slowly to Dimchurch.

"In the first place," he began, "Mr. Sebright holds to his own opinion more firmly than ever. He feels absolutely certain that the operation will fail."

"Is that your good news?" I asked reproachfully.

"No," he said. "Though, mind, I own to my shame there was a time when I almost hoped it would fail. Mr. Sebright has put me in a better frame of mind. I have little or nothing to dread from the success of the operation--if, by any extraordinary chance, it should succeed. I remind you of Mr. Sebright's opinion merely to give you a right idea of the tone which he took with me at starting. He only consented under protest to contemplate the event which Lucilla and Herr Grosse consider to be a certainty. 'If the statement of your position requires it,' he said, 'I will admit that it is barely possible she may be able to see you two months hence. Now begin.' I began by informing him of my marriage engagement."

"Shall I tell you how Mr. Sebright received the information?" I said. "He held his tongue, and made you a bow."

Oscar laughed.

"Quite true!" he answered. "I told him next of Lucilla's extraordinary antipathy to dark people, and dark shades of color of all kinds. Can you guess what he said to me when I had done?"

I owned that my observation of Mr. Sebright's character did not extend to guessing that.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 挺进太空:中国载人航天纪事

    挺进太空:中国载人航天纪事

    本书由中华民族的飞天梦想写起,讲述了中国载人航天工程从决策到实施的全部过程,全面回顾了我国载人航天事业的起步、发展和辉煌的奋斗历程,生动再现了心怀梦想的中国航天人站在世界科技前沿、开拓进取,忘我奋斗,用勇气、智慧和力量,创造了跨越式发展的巨大成就,展现了我国几代航天科技工作者不畏艰辛、勇攀高峰、顽强拼搏、锐意创新的精神风貌和动人故事。本书既是普及航天科技知识的教科书,更是开展爱国主义教育的生动教材。
  • 逢君又在落花时

    逢君又在落花时

    苏周是一个自认为自己很至高无上的女孩子,她从来就没有把一个人给放在眼里。但是,当她在一次宴会上面认识了自己的男朋友之后,就和她相爱了。在他的面前,苏周总是表现的很乖巧。她也收起了自己以往调皮捣蛋的样子。苏周也经常被陷害着。没想到一意外让她穿越了,她以为自己穿越以后会好一些,但是也会经常的被人家陷害。让她觉得在古代实在是太危险了,又没有什么意思。那么,苏周能否平安的完成这一次穿越之旅呢?她能否平安的回到大家的身边去呢?【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 仗剑江湖

    仗剑江湖

    徐江南后来说,乘风亦乘酒,只做天下不醉人。斗胆请客官们温酒,听小人一场醒木,说一段江湖如画。
  • 最强妖锋

    最强妖锋

    踢踢球,赢得别人赞赏,就能强化自身能力。如果你有这样的金手指,你会如何?……高中生楚歌为自己定下一个小小的目标,他想成为最伟大的球星,结果,他不小心超过了。书友群:831483258
  • 定鼎奇闻

    定鼎奇闻

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 长生大秦

    长生大秦

    那一年,项籍在咸阳宫表演举十万斤鼎,那一年,刘季拿着赤霄剑在市集教训泼皮,当秦皇威压四海的时候,群雄瑟瑟发抖,原来上古神话都是存在,这是一个追求武道长生的故事。
  • 生死博弈(连载四)

    生死博弈(连载四)

    查验邮戳辨析冤案梁国文到了省人民医院急救中心的重症抢救监护室,只见王永丰戴着氧气面罩上了呼吸机,左右两只手臂上打着吊针,一边输血,一边输药物,身上还连接着心脑电监护器,脑部放置着冰袋,仍然处在深度昏迷之中。一位医师告诉梁国文:“病人由于撞击导致颅骨凹陷,颅内血肿,肋骨骨折,折断的肋骨又刺破了肺部,导致大出血和血气胸,送来时心脏已经停止跳动,呼吸也没有了,现在生命体象不是很稳定,心脏随时有可能停止跳动,还没有脱离生命危险。我们准备在其生命体象比较稳定以后再对其进行开颅和开胸手术。
  • 上清胎精记解行事诀

    上清胎精记解行事诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 异域生存说明书

    异域生存说明书

    陌生的世界,陌生的人,陌生的国度,陌生的文明,这是一个异域来客的故事!
  • 大魔神

    大魔神

    大道之极,神通自成,仙神魔无高下。徐晋,一名曾经杀人无数的刺客在执行最后一趟刺杀任务之时,反遭同门暗算,死后阴魂坠入幽冥地府。在地府又遭欺压,奋起反抗,意外开通了阴阳两界的空间通道,从此穿梭两界,开始了曲折离奇的修真之路。阴魂修士无肉体,又如何在纯阳界生存?在纯阳界立住脚跟之后,又如何返回幽冥界去?意外沟通的阴阳两界,两界之间天然的优势互补和相互制衡,又能给他的修炼带来何种帮助?这一切,都有待徐晋自己一步一步去揭开。是成仙、成神还是正位天魔?全在一念之间!不信天上掉馅饼继《重生之衙内》之后,转入仙侠小说写作的一次尝试。馅饼将一如既往地发扬官场文严谨的写作风格,努力构筑一个前后呼应而又曲折离奇的仙侠故事。故事好不好看,不敢自夸,但更新必然稳定!QQ一群:105460631(已满)。QQ二群:107885964(招人中)。