登陆注册
19689000000053

第53章 CHAPTER XIX.(1)

Instead of resuming his investigation of South's brain, which perhaps was not so interesting under the microscope as might have been expected from the importance of that organ in life, Fitzpiers reclined and ruminated on the interview. Grace's curious susceptibility to his presence, though it was as if the currents of her life were disturbed rather than attracted by him, added a special interest to her general charm. Fitzpiers was in a distinct degree scientific, being ready and zealous to interrogate all physical manifestations, but primarily he was an idealist. He believed that behind the imperfect lay the perfect; that rare things were to be discovered amid a bulk of commonplace; that results in a new and untried case might be different from those in other cases where the conditions had been precisely similar.

Regarding his own personality as one of unbounded possibilities, because it was his own--notwithstanding that the factors of his life had worked out a sorry product for thousands--he saw nothing but what was regular in his discovery at Hintock of an altogether exceptional being of the other sex, who for nobody else would have had any existence.

One habit of Fitzpiers's--commoner in dreamers of more advanced age than in men of his years--was that of talking to himself. He paced round his room with a selective tread upon the more prominent blooms of the carpet, and murmured, "This phenomenal girl will be the light of my life while I am at Hintock; and the special beauty of the situation is that our attitude and relations to each other will be purely spiritual. Socially we can never be intimate. Anything like matrimonial intentions towards her, charming as she is, would be absurd. They would spoil the ethereal character of my regard. And, indeed, I have other aims on the practical side of my life."

Fitzpiers bestowed a regulation thought on the advantageous marriage he was bound to make with a woman of family as good as his own, and of purse much longer. But as an object of contemplation for the present, as objective spirit rather than corporeal presence, Grace Melbury would serve to keep his soul alive, and to relieve the monotony of his days.

His first notion--acquired from the mere sight of her without converse--that of an idle and vulgar flirtation with a timber- merchant's pretty daughter, grated painfully upon him now that he had found what Grace intrinsically was. Personal intercourse with such as she could take no lower form than intellectual communion, and mutual explorations of the world of thought. Since he could not call at her father's, having no practical views, cursory encounters in the lane, in the wood, coming and going to and from church, or in passing her dwelling, were what the acquaintance would have to feed on.

Such anticipated glimpses of her now and then realized themselves in the event. Rencounters of not more than a minute's duration, frequently repeated, will build up mutual interest, even an intimacy, in a lonely place. Theirs grew as imperceptibly as the tree-twigs budded. There never was a particular moment at which it could be said they became friends; yet a delicate understanding now existed between two who in the winter had been strangers.

Spring weather came on rather suddenly, the unsealing of buds that had long been swollen accomplishing itself in the space of one warm night. The rush of sap in the veins of the trees could almost be heard. The flowers of late April took up a position unseen, and looked as if they had been blooming a long while, though there had been no trace of them the day before yesterday; birds began not to mind getting wet. In-door people said they had heard the nightingale, to which out-door people replied contemptuously that they had heard him a fortnight before.

The young doctor's practice being scarcely so large as a London surgeon's, he frequently walked in the wood. Indeed such practice as he had he did not follow up with the assiduity that would have been necessary for developing it to exceptional proportions. One day, book in hand, he walked in a part of the wood where the trees were mainly oaks. It was a calm afternoon, and there was everywhere around that sign of great undertakings on the part of vegetable nature which is apt to fill reflective human beings who are not undertaking much themselves with a sudden uneasiness at the contrast. He heard in the distance a curious sound, something like the quack of a duck, which, though it was common enough here about this time, was not common to him.

Looking through the trees Fitzpiers soon perceived the origin of the noise. The barking season had just commenced, and what he had heard was the tear of the ripping tool as it ploughed its way along the sticky parting between the trunk and the rind. Melbury did a large business in bark, and as he was Grace's father, and possibly might be found on the spot, Fitzpiers was attracted to the scene even more than he might have been by its intrinsic interest. When he got nearer he recognized among the workmen the two Timothys, and Robert Creedle, who probably had been "lent" by Winterborne; Marty South also assisted.

Each tree doomed to this flaying process was first attacked by Creedle. With a small billhook he carefully freed the collar of the tree from twigs and patches of moss which incrusted it to a height of a foot or two above the ground, an operation comparable to the "little toilet" of the executioner's victim. After this it was barked in its erect position to a point as high as a man could reach. If a fine product of vegetable nature could ever be said to look ridiculous it was the case now, when the oak stood naked- legged, and as if ashamed, till the axe-man came and cut a ring round it, and the two Timothys finished the work with the crosscut-saw.

同类推荐
  • 佛说八吉祥经

    佛说八吉祥经

    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。
  • 太上黄庭内景玉经

    太上黄庭内景玉经

    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。
  • 别译杂阿含经

    别译杂阿含经

    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。
  • 升庵诗话

    升庵诗话

    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。
  • Pierrette

    Pierrette

    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。
热门推荐
  • 冥女如玉

    冥女如玉

    多年前的冥妻忽然找上门来……村子里面挖出一副大红棺材……死亡与恐惧接踵而至……
  • 完美过客

    完美过客

    一位神秘的少女,一座结缘的学校,一群性格迥异的男生。完美过客,现在开始!
  • 恰同学少年

    恰同学少年

    本书精选了著名作家梁晓声散文数十篇,以独特的视角、独特的思维、独特的情感、独特的抒发方式和独特的评说风格展现了作者童年、少年、青年时代的生活。在所选作品中均体现出了作者的个人记忆和国家记忆的交织,梁晓声以其真实而痛快笔法,通过很多有价值细节的描摹,刻画出了复杂而极端年代里不可忘却的集体记忆。
  • 绝宠女配:误惹腹黑王爷

    绝宠女配:误惹腹黑王爷

    拍个戏都能穿越,穿越就算了,还没问清楚“相公”姓氏名谁有多少家产呢,就给人劫亲了。劫亲也不错,重点在于劫她的人长得真不错。小手勾勾,“帅哥,咱两合伙开家演艺娱乐公司怎么样?”某帅大手一捞,将某女扑倒在身下,吃干抹尽。“小颜儿,先给本王生个娃儿再说。”(简介弱爆,书名无能……告别懒癌,请放心入坑。)【感谢腾讯文学书评团提供书评支持】
  • 解放洛阳

    解放洛阳

    敌为固守洛阳,修了无数明碉暗堡,使洛阳堡垒化,又派出悍将“邱老虎”镇守,这样,我军志在必得,敌人死守不弃,战斗岂能不烈?
  • 巨星追妻:缠爱大明星

    巨星追妻:缠爱大明星

    一名叫作李筱筱的专栏作家,因为母亲想要为她安排相亲,不得不找一个代打男朋友回去交差。一名帅气自大,却又背负着家族秘密,为了让母亲能够进入家门,他选择了一条他并不喜欢的道路。一名阳光正能量的警官,通过一个乌龙事件被李筱筱强迫为代打男朋友,却不想警官却和自己的损友是青梅竹马。一名沉稳专一的相亲对象,明知自己心有所属却仍旧不离不弃的未婚夫。她该何去何从?已有文完结,请大家放心跳坑!!
  • 不死武医

    不死武医

    这是一个科技武道并存的时代,这个时代最受欢迎的竞技是武道联赛。夏默出身贫民,获得远古医祖传承,开启征战联赛之旅。天才云集的豪门又如何,既生瑜,何生亮,这个时代注定只有他夏默能站在联赛之巅,成为万众瞩目的明星。夏默语录:打得过就打,打不过给你下下毒,创造一个小病,实在不行,让你打也打不死我!
  • 血染大明

    血染大明

    他曾经是大明边将,与努尔哈赤力战辽东,他就是哈大全!然而,朝政的腐败,皇帝的无能,都让他备感失望,于是他背叛大明王朝,成为大明最可怕的敌人。
  • 旅游手册(现代生活百科)

    旅游手册(现代生活百科)

    人们外出旅游观光或走亲访友,最担心的是“钱”丢失或被盗。那么旅行途中应怎样藏钱呢?要找准“藏”钱的地点。钱的存放要化整为零,大票面的放在贴身的内衣内裤外面的几个口袋里,并至少应分在两处。元和角票是旅行中最频繁使用的,对这笔钱宜分散放在上衣和裤子外面的几个口袋里,每处总数三五元而已。钱包和背包里原则上不应放钱。在公共车辆上,更切忌背在背上,而夹克、西装也应拉上拉锁或扣上扣子。值得注意的是如果怕失窃而一直“攥紧”或“抱住”钱袋,那狡猾的小偷就会紧紧地盯上你乘机下手,因此,对藏钱处既要时时小心,又不能太显眼。
  • 鬼魅血瞳

    鬼魅血瞳

    凌洛熙在回学校的途中目睹了一场车祸,让人不解的是被撞的女人眼睛的瞳孔竟是血一样的红色。被撞死的女人到底是谁?新明大学流传着的恐怖传说,离奇的坠楼事件。在每个死者的手上都留下一个奇怪的布片,布片到底隐藏着怎样的秘密?学校里的神秘的组织是否和这一切有着关联?真的是鬼魂作祟,还是另有隐情?