登陆注册
26289300000029

第29章 CHAPTER VIII(2)

Miss Middleton, if you look on at cricket, in comes a safe man for ten runs. He may get more, and he never gets less; and you should hear the old farmers talk of him in the booth. That's just my feeling."

Miss Middleton understood that some illustration from the cricketing-field was intended to throw light on the boy's feeling for Mr. Whitford. Young Crossjay was evidently warming to speak from his heart. But the sun was low, she had to dress for the dinner-table, and she landed him with regret, as at a holiday over. Before they parted, he offered to swim across the lake in his clothes, or dive to the bed for anything she pleased to throw, declaring solemnly that it should not he lost.

She walked back at a slow pace, and sung to herself above her darker-flowing thoughts, like the reed-warbler on the branch beside the night-stream; a ****** song of a lighthearted sound, independent of the shifting black and grey of the flood underneath.

A step was at her heels.

"I see you have been petting my scapegrace."

"Mr. Whitford! Yes; not petting, I hope. I tried to give him a lecture. He's a dear lad, but, I fancy, trying."

She was in fine sunset colour, unable to arrest the mounting tide.

She had been rowing, she said; and, as he directed his eyes, according to his wont, penetratingly, she defended herself by fixing her mind on Robinson Crusoe's old goat in the recess of the cavern.

"I must have him away from here very soon," said Vernon. "Here he's quite spoiled. Speak of him to Willoughby. I can't guess at his ideas of the boy's future, but the chance of passing for the navy won't bear trifling with, and if ever there was a lad made for the navy, it's Crossjay."

The incident of the explosion in the laboratory was new to Vernon.

"And Willoughby laughed?" he said. "There are sea-port crammers who stuff young fellows for examination, and we shall have to pack off the boy at once to the best one of the lot we can find. I would rather have had him under me up to the last three months, and have made sure of some roots to what is knocked into his head.

But he's ruined here. And I am going. So I shall not trouble him for many weeks longer. Dr. Middleton is well?"

"My father is well, yes. He pounced like a falcon on your notes in the library."

Vernon came out with a chuckle.

"They were left to attract him. I am in for a controversy.

"Papa will not spare you, to judge from his look."

"I know the look."

"Have you walked far to-day?"

"Nine and a half hours. My Flibbertigibbet 8 is too much for me at times, and I had to walk off my temper."

She cast her eyes on him, thinking of the pleasure of dealing with a temper honestly coltish, and manfully open to a specific.

"All those hours were required?"

"Not quite so long."

"You are training for your Alpine tour."

"It's doubtful whether I shall get to the Alps this year. I leave the Hall, and shall probably be in London with a pen to sell."

"Willoughby knows that you leave him?"

"As much as Mont Blanc knows that he is going to be climbed by a party below. He sees a speck or two in the valley."

"He has not spoken of it."

"He would attribute it to changes . . ."

Vernon did not conclude the sentence.

She became breathless, without emotion, but checked by the barrier confronting an impulse to ask, what changes? She stooped to pluck a cowslip.

"I saw daffodils lower down the park," she said. "One or two; they're nearly over."

"We are well off for wild flowers here," he answered.

"Do not leave him, Mr. Whitford."

"He will not want me."

"You are devoted to him."

"I can't pretend that."

"Then it is the changes you imagine you foresee ... If any occur, why should they drive you away?"

"Well, I'm two and thirty, and have never been in the fray: a kind of nondescript, half scholar, and by nature half billman or bowman or musketeer; if I'm worth anything, London's the field for me. But that's what I have to try."

"Papa will not like your serving with your pen in London: he will say you are worth too much for that."

"Good men are at it; I should not care to be ranked above them."

"They are wasted, he says."

"Error! If they have their private ambition, they may suppose they are wasted. But the value to the world of a private ambition, I do not clearly understand."

"You have not an evil opinion of the world?" said Miss Middleton, sick at heart as she spoke, with the sensation of having invited herself to take a drop of poison.

He replied: "One might as well have an evil opinion of a river: here it's muddy, there it's clear; one day troubled, another at rest. We have to treat it with common sense."

"Love it?"

"In the sense of serving it."

"Not think it beautiful?"

"Part of it is, part of it the reverse."

"Papa would quote the 'mulier formosa'".

"Except that 'fish' is too good for the black extremity. 'Woman' is excellent for the upper."

同类推荐
  • 百千印陀罗尼经之二

    百千印陀罗尼经之二

    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。
  • 景定严州续志

    景定严州续志

    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。
  • 至公

    至公

    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。
  • 竹斋集

    竹斋集

    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。
  • 近代词人逸事

    近代词人逸事

    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
  • 十日醉

    十日醉

    唔、她是四荒里最会酿酒的魔。他是四荒里最爱喝酒的仙。酒为情、为毒、使人醉,亦自醉。爱酿酒不是什么坏事,传统意义上来说,酿酒师还是一种颇有钱途的工作。可是能用自己酿的酒坑死了自己,她也是一朵奇葩。释小梦说,她不做人的生意,只应鬼所托,来取活人心中那团痴迷的梦。她用别人的梦境,来编织着自己的梦。无尽的岁月里,她和苏慕、看过别人一个个离奇古怪的梦境,一段段不为人知的往事,一桩桩缠绵悱恻的虐恋。当真相上演,释小梦只想长嚎一声:搞半天,自己的梦境才是最虐的。
  • 邪圣武魔

    邪圣武魔

    修仙有啥意思,我欲修魔才是正道,我要为魔,你奈何与我?
  • 逍遥村医

    逍遥村医

    都说医者仁心,可是穿越到贫穷小山村,要吃饭穿衣,还要饱暖思那啥,所以,暂且借着医术赚点儿老婆本吧......
  • 留情公子戏江湖

    留情公子戏江湖

    聪明的女主,华丽丽的告别三位爹爹,踏上了穿越之神给予的亿年机会。别说她傻,她很聪慧;别说她笨,她可是有着祸害天下的志向;别说她‘宦官’,其实,她很乐的逍遥。做回红娘,把美艳的红绳,全部绑在自己手中。这下子,都逃不掉啦。可是为何最后竟然连国君都不放过?无王的国度,是最悲惨滴说。“太妃下令,速速将皇上找到,并安然无恙的带回皇宫。”一群御林军出动,全视线搜索。而咱的女主,却吃着美男递来的葡萄,大叹这生活过的自在。
  • 海神波塞冬:消失的三叉戟

    海神波塞冬:消失的三叉戟

    如果真的有奥林匹斯;如果真的有十二主神;如果真的有那传奇般的古希腊;如果古希腊神话成为现实;世界会怎样?
  • tfboys之相约薰衣草

    tfboys之相约薰衣草

    他说:“莫雨兮,我,王俊凯会用一生的时间来对你好。”她说:“王俊凯,一辈子不长,不短,可是有你就好。”时间转变,他结婚了,结婚的对象不是她,可却在吻新娘时说了:“莫雨兮,我爱你!”“莫雨兮,如果重来一次,我还要爱上你。”“王俊凯,如果重来一次,我不要一个人孤独离场。”爱不重来,相约熏衣草,等待爱情的到来~这里是夕夏,我第一次写文,新人报道,请多指教~~
  • 系统在前,完美在后

    系统在前,完美在后

    当你拥有了完美,你会做些什么呢?也许是登上巅峰,也许是享受生活。而我们的女主最想做的就是——教训系统,巅峰?那是什么,钱以富可敌国,权,一国总统见了也的礼让三分。享受生活?一个全职男友搞定一切,饭来张口,衣来伸手。柯语沫的完美之路走完后,最最想的就是教训系统,丫的,想到那一路上的坑爹佳作,气就不打一出来,系统大大,屁股可准备好啦!
  • 相思莫相负

    相思莫相负

    隐世才女白落梅,执温润的笔法,继续演绎宋词里的悲欢离合。是谁在月下立雪听香?是谁在梨花细雨里等待佳人?是谁在江尾盼望夫君归?漫漫长路,相思莫相负。愿君知我心,莫和相思一并缺席在梦里。就让我们带着厮守终身的爱人,沉醉在白落梅的文字里,梦回宋朝。
  • 像爱玩儿一样爱学习

    像爱玩儿一样爱学习

    本书分别从九个方面向家长介绍,如何培养孩子对学习的兴趣。沟通心与心,打开这扇门,让孩子的学习问题不再是问题!
  • 花开花落之仙女的愤怒

    花开花落之仙女的愤怒

    一个顽皮的仙女沐雪,跌跌撞撞步入人间,刚来到人间不知人的习俗,后来被一个古代花美男兼富家公子鹿城拯救,以为遇见英雄,谁知遇见色狼,宝贵的名节就这样没有,他爸知道后{也就是玉帝先生]立刻把他接回天界,刚来回到天庭谁知居然怀孕了可年的,玉帝气的要死把可怜的沐雪囚禁,可她的青梅竹马伦谦,偷到钥匙把她放出来,于是沐雪只得下凡找孩子的亲爹,踏入了凡间的危险旅程,但是却遇到一群好伙伴还有闺蜜尔岚,就连暮雪都能找到真命天子凌霄城,那么其他人当然得找到啦,发现自己是现代的,之后一段段有趣的画面浮现你的眼球.......