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第57节

classic mystery and detective stories-第57节

小说: classic mystery and detective stories 字数: 每页4000字

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The general verdict received my assent。  I had never met those

delightful people; but was always expecting to meet them。  Hitherto

they had been conspicuous by their absence。  According to my

experience in Spain; France; and Germany; such dinners had been

dreary or noisy and vapid。  If the guests were English; they were

chillingly silent; or surlily monosyllabic: to their neighbors they

were frigid; amongst each other they spoke in low undertones。  And

if the guests were foreigners; they were noisy; clattering; and

chattering; foolish for the most part; and vivaciously commonplace。

I don't know which made me feel most dreary。  The predominance of

my countrymen gave the dinner the gayety of a funeral; the

predominance of the Mossoo gave it the fatigue of got…up

enthusiasm; of trivial expansiveness。  To hear strangers imparting

the scraps of erudition and connoisseurship which they had that

morning gathered from their valets de place and guide…books; or

describing the sights they had just seen; to you; who either saw

them yesterday; or would see them to…morrow; could not be

permanently attractive。  My mind refuses to pasture on such food

with gusto。  I cannot be made to care what the Herr Baron's

sentiments about Albert Durer or Lucas Cranach may be。  I can

digest my rindfleisch without the aid of the commis voyageur's

criticisms on Gothic architecture。  This may be my misfortune。  In

spite of the Italian blood which I inherit; I am a shy manshy as

the purest Briton。  But; like other shy men; I make up in obstinacy

what may be deficient in expansiveness。  I can be frightened into

silence; but I won't be dictated to。  You might as well attempt the

persuasive effect of your eloquence upon a snail who has withdrawn

into his shell at your approach; and will not emerge till his

confidence is restored。  To be told that I MUST see this; and ought

to go there; because my casual neighbor was charme; has never

presented itself to me as an adequate motive。



From this you readily gather that I am severely taciturn at a table

d'hote。  I refrain from joining in the 〃delightful conversation〃

which flies across the table; and know that my reticence is

attributed to 〃insular pride。〃  It is really and truly nothing but

impatience of commonplace。  I thoroughly enjoy good talk; but; ask

yourself; what are the probabilities of hearing that rare thing in

the casual assemblage of forty or fifty people; not brought

together by any natural affinities or interests; but thrown

together by the accident of being in the same district; and in the

same hotel?  They are not 〃forty feeding like one;〃 but like forty。

They have no community; except the community of commonplace。  No;

tables d'hote are not delightful; and do not gather interesting

people together。



Such has been my extensive experience。  But this at Nuremberg is a

conspicuous exception。  At that table there was one guest who; on

various grounds; personal and incidental; remains the most

memorable man I ever met。  From the first he riveted my attention

in an unusual degree。  He had not; as yet; induced me to emerge

from my habitual reserve; for in truth; although he riveted my

attention; he inspired me with a strange feeling of repulsion。  I

could scarcely keep my eyes from him; yet; except the formal bow on

sitting down and rising from the table; I had interchanged no sign

of fellowship with him。  He was a young Russian; named Bourgonef;

as I at once learned; rather handsome; and peculiarly arresting to

the eye; partly from an air of settled melancholy; especially in

his smile; the amiability of which seemed breaking from under

clouds of grief; and still more so from the mute appeal to sympathy

in the empty sleeve of his right arm; which was looped to the

breast…button of his coat。  His eyes were large and soft。  He had

no beard or whisker; and only delicate moustaches。  The sorrow;

quiet but profound; the amiable smile and the lost arm; were

appealing details which at once arrested attention and excited

sympathy。  But to me this sympathy was mingled with a vague

repulsion; occasioned by a certain falseness in the amiable smile;

and a furtiveness in the eyes; which I sawor fanciedand which;

with an inexplicable reserve; forming as it were the impregnable

citadel in the center of his outwardly polite and engaging manner;

gave me something of that vague impression which we express by the

words 〃instinctive antipathy。〃



It was; when calmly considered; eminently absurd。  To see one so

young; and by his conversation so highly cultured and intelligent;

condemned to early helplessness; his food cut up for him by a

servant; as if he were a child; naturally engaged pity; and; on the

first day; I cudgeled my brains during the greater part of dinner

in the effort to account for his lost arm。  He was obviously not a

military man; the unmistakable look and stoop of a student told

that plainly enough。  Nor was the loss one dating from early life:

he used his left arm too awkwardly for the event not to have had a

recent date。  Had it anything to do with his melancholy?  Here was

a topic for my vagabond imagination; and endless were the romances

woven by it during my silent dinner。  For the reader must be told

of one peculiarity in me; because to it much of the strange

complications of my story are due; complications into which a mind

less active in weaving imaginary hypotheses to interpret casual and

trifling facts would never have been drawn。  From my childhood I

have been the victim of my constructive imagination; which has led

me into many mistakes and some scrapes; because; instead of

contenting myself with plain; obvious evidence; I have allowed

myself to frame hypothetical interpretations; which; to acts simple

in themselves; and explicable on ordinary motives; render the

simple…seeming acts portentous。  With bitter pangs of self…reproach

I have at times discovered that a long and plausible history

constructed by me; relating to personal friends; has crumpled into

a ruin of absurdity; by the disclosure of the primary misconception

on which the whole history was based。  I have gone; let us say; on

the supposition that two people were secretly lovers; on this

supposition my imagination has constructed a whole scheme to

explain certain acts; and one fine day I have discovered

indubitably that the supposed lovers were not lovers; but

confidants of their passions in other directions; and; of course;

all my conjectures have been utterly false。  The secret flush of

shame at failure has not; however; prevented my falling into

similar mistakes immediately after。



When; therefore; I hereafter speak of my 〃constructive

imagination;〃 the reader will know to what I am alluding。  It was

already busy with Bourgonef。  To it must be added that vague

repulsion; previously mentioned。  This feeling abated on the second

day; but; although lessened; it remained powerful enough to prevent

my speaking to him。  Whether it would have continued to abate until

it disappeared; as such antipathies often disappear; under the

familiarities of prolonged intercourse; without any immediate

appeal to my amour propre; I know not; but every reflective mind;

conscious of being accessible to antipathies; will remember that

one certain method of stifling them is for the object to make some

appeal to our interest or our vanity: in the engagement of these

more powerful feelings; the antipathy is quickly strangled。  At any

rate it is so in my case; and was so now。



On the third day; the conversation at table happening to turn; as

it often turned; upon St。 Sebald's Church; a young Frenchman; who

was criticising its architecture with fluent dogmatism; drew

Bourgonef into the discussion; and thereby elicited such a display

of accurate and extensive knowledge; no less than delicacy of

appreciation; that we were all listening spellbound。  In the midst

of this triumphant exposition the irritated vanity of the Frenchman

could do nothing to regain his position but oppose a flat denial to

a historical statement made by Bourgonef; backing his denial by the

confident assertion that 〃all the competent authorities〃 held with

him。  At this point Bourgonef appealed to me; and in that tone of

deference so exquisitely flattering from one we already know to be

superior he requested my decision; observing that; from the manner

in which he had seen me examine the details of the architecture; he

could not be mistaken in his confidence that I was a connoisseur。

All eyes were turned upon me。  As a shy man; this made me blush; as

a vain man; the blush was accompanied with delight。  It might

easily have happened that such an appeal; acting at once upon

shyness and ignorance; would have inflamed my wrath; but the appeal

happening to be directed on a point which I had recently

investigated and thoroughly mastered; I was flattered at the

opportunity of a victorious

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