登陆注册
19619200000011

第11章 II. MIDSUMMER-DAY'S DREAM.(3)

It was not the most advisable thing, as I have allowed, but it was inevitable, and it afforded them a spectacle which is by no means wanting in sublimity, and which is certainly unique,--the spectacle of that great city on a hot day, defiant of the elements, and prospering on with every form of labor, and at a terrible cost of life. The man carrying the hod to the top of the walls that rankly grow and grow as from his life's blood, will only lay down his load when he feels the mortal glare of the sun blaze in upon heart and brain; the plethoric millionaire for whom he toils will plot and plan in his office till he swoons at the desk; the trembling beast must stagger forward while the flame-faced tormentor on the box has strength to lash him on; in all those vast palaces of commerce there are ceaseless sale and purchase, packing and unpacking, lifting up and laying down, arriving and departing loads; in thousands of shops is the unspared and unsparing weariness of selling; in the street, filled by the hurry and suffering of tens of thousands, is the weariness of buying.

Their afternoon's experience was something that Basil and Isabel could, when it was past, look upon only as a kind of vision, magnificent at times, and at other times full of indignity and pain. They seemed to have dreamed of a long horse-car pilgrimage through that squalid street by the river-side, where presently they came to a market, opening upon the view hideous vistas of carnage, and then into a wide avenue, with processions of cars like their own coming and going up and down the centre of a foolish and useless breadth, which made even the tall buildings (rising gauntly up among the older houses of one or two stories) on either hand look low, and let in the sun to bake the dust that the hot breaths of wind caught up and gent swirling into the shabby shops. Here they dreamed of the eternal demolition and construction of the city, and farther on of vacant lots full of granite boulders, clambered over by goats. In their dream they had fellow-passengers, whose sufferings made them odious and whom they were glad to leave behind when they alighted from the car, and running out of the blaze of the avenue, quenched themselves in the shade of the cross-street. A little strip of shadow lay along the row of brown-stone fronts, but there were intervals where the vacant lots cast no shadow. With great bestowal of thought they studied hopelessly how to avoid these spaces as if they had been difficult torrents or vast expanses of desert sand; they crept slowly along till they came to such a place, and dashed swiftly across it, and then, fainter than before, moved on. They seemed now and then to stand at doors, and to be told that people were out and again that they were in; and they had a sense of cool dark parlors, and the airy rustling of light-muslined ladies, of chat and of fans and ice-water, and then they came forth again; and evermore "The day increased from heat to heat"

At last they were aware of an end of their visits, and of a purpose to go down town again, and of seeking the nearest car by endless blocks of brown-stone fronts, which with their eternal brownstone flights of steps, and their handsome, intolerable uniformity, oppressed them like a procession of houses trying to pass a given point and never getting by.

Upon these streets there was, seldom a soul to be seen, so that when their ringing at a door had evoked answer, it had startled them with a vague, sad surprise. In the distance on either hand they could see cars and carts and wagons toiling up and down the avenues, and on the next intersecting pavement sometimes a laborer with his jacket slung across his shoulder, or a dog that had plainly made up his mind to go mad. Up to the time of their getting into one of those phantasmal cars for the return down-townwards they had kept up a show of talk in their wretched dream; they had spoken of other hot days that they had known elsewhere; and they had wondered that the tragical character of heat had been so little recognized. They said that the daily New York murder might even at that moment be somewhere taking place; and that no murder of the whole homicidal year could have such proper circumstance; they morbidly wondered what that day's murder would be, and in what swarming tenement-house, or den of the assassin streets by the river-sides,--if indeed it did not befall in some such high, close-shuttered, handsome dwelling as those they passed, in whose twilight it would be so easy to strike down the master and leave him undiscovered and unmourned by the family ignorantly absent at the mountains or the seaside. They conjectured of the horror of midsummer battles, and pictured the anguish of shipwrecked men upon a tropical coast, and the grimy misery of stevedores unloading shiny cargoes of anthracite coal at city docks. But now at last, as they took seats opposite one another in the crowded car, they seemed to have drifted infinite distances and long epochs asunder. They looked. hopelessly across the intervening gulf, and mutely questioned when it was and from what far city they or some remote ancestors of theirs had set forth upon a wedding journey. They bade each other a tacit farewell, and with patient, pathetic faces awaited the end of the world.

同类推荐
  • 九转灵砂大丹

    九转灵砂大丹

    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。
  • 渐悟集

    渐悟集

    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。
  • 茶具图赞

    茶具图赞

    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。
  • 黄帝内经素问遗篇

    黄帝内经素问遗篇

    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。
  • 注维摩诘经卷

    注维摩诘经卷

    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。
热门推荐
  • 绝世王宠:情绝天下

    绝世王宠:情绝天下

    他是名震天下的绝世公子段情,他是人人惧怕的玉段山庄少庄主段情,他是天下女子倾心下嫁的绝色美男段情,他,一个上天的宠儿,带着母亲的血海深仇踏入江湖,重重迷雾,阻止不了他复仇的步伐。当面具一层层的剥落,原来,他就是她,本以为是一场刻骨铭心的爱情,却到头来只是一场阴谋。当心死,身伤的她绝望地跳下绝情崖,一把魔琴的现世,让她凤凰涅槃再次归来,江湖因此掀起一场腥风血雨,迷茫的她到底该如何选择,是他,是他,还是他!
  • 投资致富金点子

    投资致富金点子

    本书分为十章,内容包括全面认识投资、股票投资金点子、基金投资金点子、债券投资金点子、外汇投资金点子、期货和期权投资金点子、黄金投资金点子、房地产投资金点子。
  • 龙妃凤舞:龙王,你好坏

    龙妃凤舞:龙王,你好坏

    “母后,我的头上为什么会有小角?”宝宝睁着好奇可爱的大眼睛奶声奶气的盯着她问。她傻眼了,顿时哑口无言。“母后,为什么我会有尾巴?”宝宝摸着可爱的小尾巴瓷声瓷气的询问她。她看着他摇摆的小龙尾,再次无语。“母后,我的身上有好多片片喔,为什么母后没有?”正在洗澡中的宝宝摸着身上的金黄色小粼片,睁着迷惘的圆溜溜的眼睛问道。她怔住了,因为她是人,他是龙。天啊,她怎么能告诉宝宝,她和他不一样,就因为他是一条龙,是她珠胎暗结,怀胎十月生下来的小龙人。她灵魂出窍,然后在海边被好色又邪恶的龙王纠缠,在海面上欢爱数夜后。没料到,她已经珠胎暗结,身怀龙种,十月怀胎,她生下了小龙人,却不知道宝宝他爹是哪一个海的龙王。
  • QQ飞车之黑夜君王

    QQ飞车之黑夜君王

    上个赛级的冠军么?此时萧凯伦心中已经想好,不管是小橘子,还是白勇太,还有大反派暴风车队的神级车手五人,以及暴风车队后期的第六人,还有流火王国!疾风王国!幻想王国!在不久的将来,我萧凯伦绝对会驾着那传说中的赛车,横扫整个飞车世界,让你们所有人都把我的名字印入脑海!
  • 元战巅峰

    元战巅峰

    一次世家之间的争斗,导致父子之间出现隔阂。葬魂谷的山洞奇遇,让他获得上古神秘卷轴。不败战神蚩尤的精血,让他再塑真身!谁曾想这竟是一场阴谋!血雨腥风里暗流涌动!跌宕起伏间爱恨交织!一切精彩尽在《元战巅峰》!
  • 高冷校草:IloveU

    高冷校草:IloveU

    一个爱玩的千金,父亲为了不让夏依沫再闹被迫隐藏身份进入冽冰学院,后来发现两个死党也在这里上学!不仅这样,还认识了什么高冷校草?!这么鬼?!!被强吻了!!!
  • 青梅与酒

    青梅与酒

    小时候,我总会幻想长大是怎样的?长大后,我却总是回想小时候的时光。人有时候就是这样,失去才知道珍惜。如果时光能倒流,我会放弃一切跟你走--我的爱人:郁酒
  • 转世大魔

    转世大魔

    前世,他的名号令人闻风丧胆!如今,他转世到一千年前,纵使从头开始,终有一天,也必将创下比前世更强威名!
  • 读心甜妻,非你勿撩

    读心甜妻,非你勿撩

    一次读心的较量,一场催眠,沈可心如愿成为他身边最亲密的人,却也搭上了她宝贵的婚姻。他说:“我大龄,你剩女,我们负负得正!”清晨醒来,看到浑身赤条条并把她抱得死紧的男人,沈可心终于忍不住爆发:“陆谨言,你要不要脸?我们是形婚!”“我不要脸,要你!而且,我很行……”“陆谨言你给我滚!!@#¥%…”
  • 七叶阑珊,花开彼岸

    七叶阑珊,花开彼岸

    昆仑七叶,花开即千年,花落亦千年,化身为花精的雪妍生来喜捣蛋,不经意间打碎琉璃盏,被贬落凡尘,灵力聚散在尘世间化作非物,开启了一段尘世绝恋,雪派中终得上天垂帘,不料、人世间凄惨来的那般猛烈,堕妖成魔,追寻往日的记忆,却早已深入其中不愿相信,来临的一切显得是那样苍白无力,消失在天地之间。