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
  • 耳目记

    耳目记

    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。
  • 刘河间伤寒医鉴

    刘河间伤寒医鉴

    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。
  • 根本说一切有部苾刍尼毗奈耶

    根本说一切有部苾刍尼毗奈耶

    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。
  • 阿毗达磨发智论

    阿毗达磨发智论

    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。
  • Misalliance

    Misalliance

    Tarleton, an ordinary young business man of thirty or less, is taking his weekly Friday to Tuesday in the house of his father, John Tarleton, who has made a great deal of money out of Tarleton is Underwear.汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 只眼看男人

    只眼看男人

    一个男人就是一个五味瓶——酸、甜、苦、辣、臭样样俱全,男人本“色”还是男人本色?从女人的视角透视时下男人的弱点,爱情、婚姻以及性。调侃男人,不是无话可说而是津津乐道。透视男人本色,把握男人性情。
  • 科技探秘

    科技探秘

    《巅峰阅读文库·我的第一本探索书
  • 乱花丛中过

    乱花丛中过

    官人,带我走,去看星辰大海……※※※※※※※※※※※※不但要在乱花丛中过,更要在乱花丛中崛起!一个草根的奋斗史,一个王者的传奇……
  • 多个心眼少上当

    多个心眼少上当

    本书选取了众多人际关系中的典型案例,应对每个案例,又给出了能够直接运用的、卓有成效的心理策略。它集合了我不是教你诈;揣摩心理,以心攻心;韬光养晦,深藏不露;洞察人性,把握尺度;做个讨人喜欢的人;结交、不结仇;留条路给自己退;为自己排雷;别把自己当回事儿等十大心眼。其下又分有80多个小心眼。
  • 与君逍遥不记年

    与君逍遥不记年

    纯情如他,心意初开时,承蒙她的来临,笑靥如花,丝毫不掩,热情洋溢,如高贵的杯盏,奈何斟满,不舍酒香,够够他喜欢很多年,人世间最美的初见,不过如此。闷骚如他,苦苦寻觅,兜兜转转,却始终与她错过再错过,久别的重逢,真的太久。情深如他,抓住便不会放手,留在她身边,纵使伤得千疮万孔,却不轻言不爱。愿得一人心。蓦然回首,发现身边的你,怎奈无法从心去爱。一生中错过太多,而你却从未离去,感谢上苍,我的余生,愿与君逍遥不记年。
  • EXO之花开终是落

    EXO之花开终是落

    “如果可以,我真想和你一直旅游,一直微笑,一直陪在你身边,守护你,心疼你,不让你受委屈,待岁月静好,坐在躺椅上,听着录音机在温柔的静寂中,用没牙的嘴聊聊每一寸光阴.如果,我可以守住这辈子的爱,不让生死将它隔离,不让岁月加它抛弃,不让时光将它淡化。就这样,静静的守着你,我在那里,你在哪了。”——by:爱你的我
  • 甜心宝贝:惹上撒旦校草

    甜心宝贝:惹上撒旦校草

    回国入学,本想平静度过高三,殊不知这一年内却发生了太多令人诧异之事。刚来学校不久,便相识了校园几大男神,并与之发生了一系列感情碰撞,在生日来临前的十一天,每天都能收到来自神秘少年的蓝色妖姬,明明是双生子,但她与哥哥生日却不一样。生日当天,一场巨大的阴谋和真相浮出水面,神秘少年再度出现,带来了蓝色妖姬和桔梗花,在两种花的背后到底隐藏着怎样令人揪心的秘密?她与哥哥究竟是不是双生子?得知真相之后,旧爱与新爱如何抉择,而她的真实身份,到底是谁?
  • 弃妻难求:惹火娇妻惹人怜

    弃妻难求:惹火娇妻惹人怜

    她是个不施粉黛的绝色美女,好玩,好酒,却不懂情为何物。嫁一绝世美男为妻,夜半偷抱偷吻,只想了解情为何物。然,却被他责骂,还一怒休之。她心中有了恼火,只不过是一男人嘛,天下最多的就是这个,谁稀罕,凭这容貌,还能寻不到被她迷倒的男人!
  • 从诺森德开始

    从诺森德开始

    穿越了,知道了剧情的发展,不等于你可以改变未来。wow玩家穿越成为了奎尔萨拉斯的精灵,在扭转灾难失败后,再一次从死亡中苏醒的他,以一位死亡骑士的身份,开始了他在艾泽拉斯世界的旅途。(PS:第一卷开头的一些章节是第一人称的,后来经过读者的要求变为了第三人称。后面的都是第三人称了。)(ps2:番外篇二我开了新书,以后都在那里连载,当这本卡的时候就去连载术士的,反过来也一样,希望各位亲能够支持一下。名字叫《那年那些穿越者们》)
  • 半仙不仙

    半仙不仙

    长不大的天师,浴火历劫的上神。一段奇异的收妖历练。两人携手走过,缘深缘浅又何妨?天命尚可改!--------其实这就是一个轻松的故事。客官请笑纳