燦爛夜空

“I have wished it also,” he answered, his tone full of pain. “But it was not to be. When the days shall come that my mother is alone, except for Lady Rachel, and grieving for me, I want you to promise that you will sometimes see her and give her consolation. Something tells me that you can do this　, Mary, that she will take it from you — and I know that she will need it sadly. Be kind to her when I am gone.”
“Yes. I promise it.”
“You are the bravest of us all, Mary. And yet upon you has lain the greatest suffering.”
“It is the suffering that has made me brave,” she answered. “Oh, Geoffry, I am getting to realize the truth that it is better to have too much of suffering in this world than too little　. : but once learnt, it brings happiness in enduring.”
Sir Geoffry nodded assent. He had learnt somewhat of it also — too late.
“I have begun a confidential letter to Colonel Layne, Mary, and shall post it before I die. To thank him for ——”
The words were drowned in a gleeful commotion — caused by the entrance of Arthur. The boy came dashing in from his afternoon’s study with the curate, some books under his arm.
“I have not been good, Aunt Mary. He said I gave him no end of trouble; and I’m afraid I did: but, you see, I bought the marbles going along, instead of in coming back, as you told me, and —— Who’s that!”
In letting his books fall on a side-table, he had caught sight of the stranger Aveeno Baby— then standing up. The fire had burnt low, and just for the moment even the young eyes did not recognize Sir Geoffry Chavasse. Mary stirred the fire into a blaze, and drew the crimson curtains before the window.
“What have you come for?” asked the little lad, as Sir Geoffry took his hand. “Are you any better, sir?”
“I shall never be better in this world, Arthur. And so you gave your tutor trouble this afternoon!”  

‘That’s excellent, Chadwick — that’s excellent! I told you Sir Abraham was the man for us’; and he put down on the table the copy of the opinion, and patted it fondly.

‘Don’t you let that be seen nu skin hk, though, archdeacon.’

‘Who?-I!-not for worlds,’ said the doctor.

‘People will talk, you know, archdeacon.’

‘Of course, of course,’ said the doctor.

‘Because, if that gets abroad, it would teach them how to fight their own battle.’

‘Quite true,’ said the doctor.

‘No one here in Barchester ought to see that but you and I, archdeacon.’

‘No, no, certainly no one else,’ said the archdeacon, pleased with the closeness of the confidence; ‘no one else shall.’

‘Mrs Grantly is very interested in the matter Propecia, I know,’ said Mr Chadwick.

Did the archdeacon wink, or did he not? I am inclined to think he did not quite wink; but that without such, perhaps, unseemly gesture he communicated to Mr Chadwick, with the corner of his eye, intimation that, deep as was Mrs Grantly’s interest in the matter, it should not procure for her a perusal of that document; and at the same time he partly opened the small drawer, above spoken of, deposited the paper on the volume of Rabelais, and showed to Mr Chadwick the nature of the key which guarded these hidden treasures. The careful steward then expressed himself contented. Ah! vain man! he could fasten up his Rabelais, and other things secret, with all the skill of Bramah or of Chubb; but where could he fasten up the key which solved these mechanical mysteries? of no drawer in that house were unknown to its mistress, and we think, moreover, that she was entitled to all such knowledge.

‘But,’ said Mr Chadwick, ‘we must, of course, tell your father and Mr Harding so much of Sir Abraham’s opinion as will satisfy them that the matter is doing well.’

‘Oh, certainly — yes, of course,’ said the doctor.

‘You had better let them know that Sir Abraham is of opinion that there is no case at any rate against Mr Harding; and that as the action is worded at present nu skin hk, it must fall to the ground; they must be nonsuited, if they carry it on; you had better tell Mr Harding, that Sir Abraham is clearly of opinion that he is only a servant, and as such not liable — or if you like it, I’ll see Mr Harding myself.’  

Dr Grantly is by no means a bad man; he is exactly the man which such an education as his was most likely to form; his intellect being sufficient for such a place in the world, but not sufficient to put him in advance of it. He performs with a rigid constancy such of the duties of a parish clergyman as are, to his thinking, above the sphere of his curate , but it is as an archdeacon that he shines.
We believe, as a general rule, that either a bishop or his archdeacons have sinecures: where a bishop works, archdeacons have but little to do, and vice versa. In the diocese of Barchester the Archdeacon of Barchester does the work. In that capacity he is diligent, authoritative, and, as his friends particularly boast, judicious. His great fault is an overbearing assurance of the virtues and claims of his order, and his great foible is an equally strong confidence in the dignity of his own manner and the eloquence of his own words. He is a moral man, believing the precepts which he teaches, and believing also that he acts up to them; though we cannot say that he would give his coat to the man who took his cloak, or that he is prepared to forgive his brother even seven times. He is severe enough in exacting his dues, considering that any laxity in this respect would endanger the security of the church; and, could he have his way, he would consign to darkness and perdition, not only every individual reformer, but every committee and every commission that would even dare to ask a question respecting the appropriation of church revenues.
‘They are church revenues: the laity admit it. Surely the church is able to administer her own revenues.’ ’Twas thus he was accustomed to argue, when the sacrilegious doings of Lord John Russell and others were discussed either at Barchester or at Oxford DR REBORN.
It was no wonder that Dr Grantly did not like John Bold, and that his wife’s suggestion that he should become closely connected with such a man dismayed him. the archdeacon never wanted courage; he was quite willing to meet his enemy on any field and with any weapon. He had that belief in his own arguments that he felt sure of success, could he only be sure of a fair fight on the part of his adversary. He had no idea that John Bold could really prove that the income of the hospital was malappropriated; why, then, should peace be sought for on such base terms? What! bribe an unbelieving enemy of the church with the sister-in-law of one dignitary and the daughter of another — with a young lady whose connections with the diocese and chapter of Barchester were so close as to give her an undeniable claim to a husband endowed with some of its sacred wealth! When Dr Grantly talks of unbelieving enemies, he does not mean to imply want of belief in the doctrines of the church , but an equally dangerous scepticism as to its purity in money matters.  

“Oh yes I can — I can do anything that’s mad or merry this evening. But I’m not at all sure that I want beef, though it is nearly three months since I’ve seen an honest bit of ox beef. I think thin bread and butter — or roses and dew even — quite substantial enough for me this evening.”
“You’re afraid of spoiling your appetite for the grand dinner Freight Forwarder,” said Vixen.
“No, I’m not. I hate grand dinners. Fancy making a fine art of eating, and studying one’s menu beforehand to see what combination of dishes will harmonise best with one’s internal economy. And then the names of the things are always better than the things themselves. It’s like a show at a fair, all the best outside. Give me a slice of English beef or mutton, and a bird that my gun has shot, and let all the fine-art dinners go hang.”
“Cut him a slice of beef, dear Miss McCroke,” said Vixen.
“Not now, thanks; I can’t eat now. I’m going to drink orange pekoe.”
Argus had taken up his position between Violet and her visitor. He sat bolt upright, like a sentinel keeping guard over his mistress; save that a human sentinel , unless idiotic or intoxicated, would hardly sit with jaws wide apart, and his tongue hanging out of one side of his mouth, as Argus did. But this lolloping attitude of the canine tongue was supposed to indicate a mind at peace with creation.
“Are you very glad to come of age, Rorie?” asked Vixen, turning her bright brown eyes upon him, full of curiosity.
“Well, it will be rather nice to have as much money as for it. She was my only guardian, you know. My father had such confidence in her rectitude and capacity that he left everything in her hands.”
“Do you find Briarwood much improved?” inquired Miss McCroke.
Lady Jane had been doing a good deal to her orchid-houses lately.
“I haven’t found Briarwood at all yet Google Advertising,” answered Rorie, “and Vixen seems determined I shan’t find it.”
“What, have you only just returned?”
  

So many fine things as he told me, gave me the curiosity to question him about his Birth and Death; if in the Country of the Sun, the individual was procreated by the ways of Generation, and if it died by the dissolution of its Constitution , or the discomposure of its Organs? “Your senses,” replied he, “bear but too little proportion to the Explication of these Mysteries: Ye Gentlemen imagine, that whatsoever you cannot comprehend is spiritual, or that it is not at all; but that Consequence 71 is absurd, and it is an argument, that there are a Million of things, perhaps, in the Universe, that would require a Million of different Organs in you to understand them. For instance, I by my Senses know the cause of the Sympathy that is betwixt the Load-stone and the Pole, of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea, and what becomes of the Animal after Death; you cannot reach these high Conceptions but by Faith, because they are Secrets above the power of your Intellects; no more than a Blind-man can judge of the beauties of a Land-skip, the Colours of a Picture, or the streaks of a Rainbow; or at best he will fancy them to be somewhat palpable, to be like Eating, a Sound, or a pleasant Smell: Even so, should I attempt to explain to you what I perceive by the Senses which you want, you would represent it to your self as somewhat that may be Heard, Seen, Felt, Smelt or Tasted, and yet it is no such thing.”
He was gone on so far in his Discourse, when my Juggler perceived, that the Company began to be weary of my Gibberish, that they understood not, and which they took to be an inarticulated Grunting: He therefore fell to pulling my Rope afresh to make me leap and skip, till the Spectators having had their Belly-fulls of Laughing, affirmed that I had almost as much Wit as the Beasts of their Country, and so broke up.
Of the Languages of the People in the Moon ; of the Manner of Feeding there, and Paying the Scot; and of how the Author was taken to Court.
Thus, all the comfort I had during the misery of my hard Usage, were the visits of this officious 72 Spirit; for you may judge what conversation me, since besides that they only took me for an Animal, in the highest class of the Category of Bruits, I neither understood their Language, nor they mine. For you must know, that there are but two Idioms in use in that Country, one for the Grandees, and another for the People in general.
That of the great ones is no more but various inarticulate Tones, much like to our Musick when the Words are not added to the Air: 73 and in reality it is an Invention both very useful and pleasant; for when they are weary of talking, or disdain to prostitute their Throats to that Office, they take either a Lute or some other Instrument, whereby they communicate their Thoughts as well as by their Tongue: So that sometimes Fifteen or Twenty in a Company will handle a point of Divinity, or discuss the difficulties of a Law-suit, in the most harmonious Consort that ever tickled the Ear.

The second, which is used by the Vulgar, is performed by a shivering of the Members, but not, perhaps, as you may imagine; for some parts of the Body signifie an entire Discourse; for example, the agitation of a Finger, a Hand, an Ear, a Lip, an Arm, an Eye, a Cheek , every one severally will make up an Oration, or a Period with all the parts of it: Others serve only instead of Words, as the knitting of the Brows, the several quiverings of the Muscles, the turning of the Hands, the stamping of the Feet, the contorsion of the Arm; so that when they speak, as their Custom is, stark naked, their Members being used to gesticulate their Conceptions, move so quick that one would not think it to be a Man that spoke, but a Body that trembled.  

“No, no!” she whispered ardently, as if compelled to speak by his eyes fixed on her face. “No, it’s a knife you want to defend yourself with — to defend — there will be time —”

“And who knows if it isn’t really my duty?” he began again, as if he had not heard her disjointed words at all. “It may be — my duty to you, to myself Holiday Inn Macau. For why should I put up with the humiliation of their secret menaces? Do you know what the world would say?”

He emitted a low laugh, which struck her with terror. She would have got up, but he stooped so low over her that she could not move without first pushing him away.

“It would say, Lena, that I— the Swede — after luring my friend and partner to his death from mere greed of money, have murdered these unoffending shipwrecked strangers from sheer funk. That would be the story whispered — perhaps shouted — certainly spread out, and believed — and believed, my dear Lena!”

“Who would believe such awful things?”

“Perhaps you wouldn’t — not at first, at any rate; but the power of calumny grows with time. It’s insidious and penetrating . It can even destroy one’s faith in oneself — dry-rot the soul .”

All at once her eyes leaped to the door and remained fixed, stony, a little enlarged. Turning his head, Heyst beheld the figure of Ricardo framed in the doorway. For a moment none of the three moved, then, looking from the newcomer to the girl in the chair, Heyst formulated a sardonic introduction.

“Mr Ricardo, my dear.”

Her head drooped a little. Ricardo’s hand went up to his moustache. His voice exploded in the room.

“At your service, ma’am!”

He stepped in, taking his hat off with a flourish , and dropping it carelessly on a chair near the door.

“At your service,” he repeated, in quite another tone. “I was made aware there was a lady about, by that Pedro of ours; only I didn’t know I should have the privilege of seeing you tonight, ma’am.”

Lena and Heyst looked at him covertly, but he, with a vague gaze avoiding them both, looked at nothing, seeming to pursue some point in space.

“?” he asked suddenly.