章节正文
first, have you not? Even when I lay asleep in the coffin you
began to love me, but until you dreamed a certain dream you would
not admit it."
"Yva, what was the meaning of that dream?"
"I cannot say, Humphrey. But I tell you this. As you will learn
in time, one spirit may be clothed in different garments of the
flesh."
I did not understand her, but, in some strange way, her words
brought to my mind those that Natalie spoke at the last, and I
answered:
"Yva, when my wife lay dying she bade me seek her elsewhere,
for certainly I should find her. Doubtless she meant beyond the
shores of death--or perhaps she also dreamed."
She bent her head, looking at me very strangely.
"Your wife, too, may have had the gift of dreams, Humphrey. As
you dream and I dream, so mayhap she dreamed. Of dreams, then,
let us say no more, since I think that they have served their
purpose, and all three of us understand."
Then I stretched out my arms, and next instant my head lay upon
her perfumed breast. She lifted it and kissed me on the lips,
saying:
"With this kiss again I give myself to you. But oh! Humphrey,
do not ask too much of the god of my people, Fate," and she
looked me in the eyes and sighed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, trembling.
"Many, many things. Among them, that happiness is not for
mortals, and remember that though my life began long ago, I am
mortal as you are, and that in eternity time makes no
difference."
"And if so, Yva, what then? Do we meet but to part?"
"Who said it? Not I. Humphrey, I tell you this. Nor earth, nor
heaven, nor hell have any bars through which love cannot burst
its way towards reunion and completeness. Only there must be
love, manifested in many shapes and at many times, but ever
striving to its end, which is not of the flesh. Aye, love that
has lost itself, love scorned, love defeated, love that seems
false, love betrayed, love gone astray, love wandering through
the worlds, love asleep and living in its sleep, love awake and
yet sleeping; all love that has in it the germ of life. It
matters not what form love takes. If it be true I tell you that
it will win its way, and in the many that it has seemed to
worship, still find the one, though perchance not here.
At her words a numb fear gripped my heart.
"Not here? Then where?" I said.
"Ask your dead wife, Humphrey. Ask the dumb stars. Ask the God
you worship, for I cannot answer, save in one word--Somewhere!
Man, be not afraid. Do you think that such as you and I can be
lost in the aching abysms of space? I know but little, yet I tell
you that we are its rulers. I tell you that we, too, are gods, if
only we can aspire and believe. For the doubting and timid there
is naught. For those who see with the eyes of the soul and
stretch out their hands to grasp there is all. Even Bastin will
tell you this."
"But," I said, "life is short. Those worlds are far away, and
you are near."
She became wonderful, mysterious.
"Near I am far," she said; "and far I am near, if only this
love of yours is strong enough to follow and to clasp. And,
Humphrey, it needs strength, for here I am afraid that it will
bear little of such fruit as men desire to pluck."
Again terror took hold of me, and I looked at her, for
I did not know what to say or ask.
"Listen," she went on. "Already my father has offered me to you
in marriage, has he not, but at a price which you do not
understand? Believe me, it is one that you should never pay,
since the rule of the world can be too dearly bought by the
slaughter of half the world. And if you would pay it, I cannot."
"But this is madness!" I exclaimed. "Your father has no powers
over our earth."
"I would that I could think so, Humphrey. I tell you that he
has powers and that it is his purpose to use them as he has done
before. You, too, he would use, and me."
"And, if so, Yva, we are lords of ourselves. Let us take each
other while we may. Bastin is a priest."
"Lords of ourselves! Why, for ought I know, at this very moment
Oro watches us in his thought and laughs. Only in death,
Humphrey, shall we pass beyond his reach and become lords of
ourselves."
"It is monstrous!" I cried. "There is the boat, let us fly
away."
"What boat can bear us out of stretch of the arm of the old god
of my people, Fate, whereof Oro is the high priest? Nay, here we
must wait our doom."
"Doom," I said--"doom? What then is about to happen?"
"A terrible thing, as I think, Humphrey. Or, rather, it will
not happen."
"Why not, if it must?"
"Beloved," she whispered, "Bastin has expounded to me a new
faith whereof the master-word is Sacrifice. The terrible thing
will not happen because of sacrifice! Ask me no more."
She mused a while, seated there in the moonlight upon the
ancient altar of sacrifice, the veil she wore falling about her
face and making her mysterious. Then she threw it back, showing
her lovely eyes and glittering hair, and laughed.
"We have still an earthly hour," she said; "therefore let us
forget the far, dead past and the eternities to come and be
joyful in that hour. Now throw your arms about me and I will tell
you strange stories of lost days, and you shall look into my eyes
and learn wisdom, and you shall kiss my lips and taste of bliss--
you, who were and are and shall be--you, the beloved of Yva from
the beginning to the end of Time."
Chapter XXII
The Command
I think that both Bastin and Bickley, by instinct as it were,
knew what had passed between Yva and myself and that she had
promised herself to me. They showed this by the way in which they
avoided any mention of her name. Also they began to talk of their
own plans for the future as matters in which I had no part. Thus
I heard them discussing the possibility of escape from the island
whereof suddenly they seemed to have grown weary, and whether by
any means two men (two, not three) could manage to sail and steer
the lifeboat that remained upon the wreck. In short, as in all
such cases, the woman had come between; also the pressure of a
common loss caused them to forget their differences and to draw
closer together. I who had succeeded where they both had failed,
was, they seemed to think, out of their lives, so much that our
ancient intimacy had ended.
This attitude hurt me, perhaps because in many respects the
situation was awkward. They had, it is true, taken their failures
extremely well, still the fact remained that both of them had
fallen in love with the wonderful creature, woman and yet more
than woman, who had bound herself to me. How then could we go on
living together, I in prospective possession of the object that
all had desired, and they without the pale?
Moreover, they were jealous in another and quite a different
fashion because they both loved me in their own ways and were
convinced that I who had hitherto loved them, henceforward should
have no affection left to spare, since surely this Glittering
Lady, this marvel of wisdom and physical perfections would take
it all. Of course they were in error, since even if I could have
been so base and selfish, this was no conduct that Yva would have
wished or even suffered. Still that was their thought.
Mastering the situation I reflected a little while and then
spoke straight out to them.
"My friends," I said, "as I see that you have guessed, Yva and
I are affianced to each other and love each other perfectly."
"Yes, Arbuthnot," said Bastin, "we saw that in your face, and
in hers as she bade us good night before she went into the cave,
and we congratulate you and wish you every happiness."
"We wish you every happiness, old fellow," chimed in Bickley.
He paused a while, then added, "But to be honest, I am not sure
that I congratulate you."
"Why not, Bickley?"
"Not for the reason that you may suspect, Arbuthnot, I mean not
because you have won where we have lost, as it was only to be
expected that you would do, but on account of something totally
different. I told you a while ago and repetition is useless and
painful. I need only add therefore that since then my conviction
has strengthened and I am sure, sorry as I am to say it, that in
this matter you must prepare for disappointment and calamity.
That woman, if woman she really is, will never be the wife of
mortal man. Now be angry with me if you like, or laugh as you
have the right to do, seeing that like Bastin and yourself, I
also asked her to marry me, but something makes me speak what I
believe to be the truth."
"Like Cassandra," I suggested.
"Yes, like Cassandra who was not a popular person." At first I
was inclined to resent Bickley's words--who would not have been
in the circumstances? Then of a sudden there rushed in upon my
mind the conviction that he spoke the truth. In this world Yva
was not for me or any man. Moreover she knew it, the knowledge
peeped out of every word she spoke in our passionate love scene
by the lake. She was aware, and subconsciously I was aware, that
we were plighting our troth, not for time but for eternity. With
time we had little left to do; not for long would she wear the
ring I gave her on that holy night.
Even Bastin, whose perceptions normally were not acute, felt
that the situation was strained and awkward and broke in with a
curious air of forced satisfaction:
"It's uncommonly lucky for you, old boy, that you happen to
have a clergyman in your party, as I shall be able to marry you
in a respectable fashion. Of course I can't say that the
Glittering Lady is as yet absolutely converted to our faith, but
I am certain that she has absorbed enough of its principles to
justify me in uniting her in Christian wedlock."
"Yes," I answered, "she has absorbed its principles;
she told me as much herself. Sacrifice, for instance,"
and as I spoke the word my eyes filled with tears.
"Sacrifice!" broke in Bickley with an angry snort, for he
needed a vent to his mentaldisturbance. "Rubbish. Why should
every religion demand sacrifice as savages do? By it alone they
stand condemned."
"Because as I think, sacrifice is the law of life, at least of
all life that is worth the living," I answered sadly enough.
"Anyhow I believe you are right, Bickley, and that Bastin will
not be troubled to marry us."
"You don't mean," broke in Bastin with a horrified air, "that
you propose to dispense--"
"No, Bastin, I don't mean that. What I mean is that it comes
upon me that something will prevent this marriage. Sacrifice,
perhaps, though in what shape I do not know. And now good night.
I am tired."
That night in the chill dead hour before the dawn Oro came
again. I woke up to see him seated by my bed, majestic, and, as
it seemed to me, lambent, though this may have been my
imagination.
"You take strange liberties with my daughter, Barbarian, or she
takes strange liberties with you, it does not matter which," he
said, regarding me with his calm and terrible eyes.
"Why do you presume to call me Barbarian?" I asked, avoiding
the main issue.
began to love me, but until you dreamed a certain dream you would
not admit it."
"Yva, what was the meaning of that dream?"
"I cannot say, Humphrey. But I tell you this. As you will learn
in time, one spirit may be clothed in different garments of the
flesh."
I did not understand her, but, in some strange way, her words
brought to my mind those that Natalie spoke at the last, and I
answered:
"Yva, when my wife lay dying she bade me seek her elsewhere,
for certainly I should find her. Doubtless she meant beyond the
shores of death--or perhaps she also dreamed."
She bent her head, looking at me very strangely.
"Your wife, too, may have had the gift of dreams, Humphrey. As
you dream and I dream, so mayhap she dreamed. Of dreams, then,
let us say no more, since I think that they have served their
purpose, and all three of us understand."
Then I stretched out my arms, and next instant my head lay upon
her perfumed breast. She lifted it and kissed me on the lips,
saying:
"With this kiss again I give myself to you. But oh! Humphrey,
do not ask too much of the god of my people, Fate," and she
looked me in the eyes and sighed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, trembling.
"Many, many things. Among them, that happiness is not for
mortals, and remember that though my life began long ago, I am
mortal as you are, and that in eternity time makes no
difference."
"And if so, Yva, what then? Do we meet but to part?"
"Who said it? Not I. Humphrey, I tell you this. Nor earth, nor
heaven, nor hell have any bars through which love cannot burst
its way towards reunion and completeness. Only there must be
love, manifested in many shapes and at many times, but ever
striving to its end, which is not of the flesh. Aye, love that
has lost itself, love scorned, love defeated, love that seems
false, love betrayed, love gone astray, love wandering through
the worlds, love asleep and living in its sleep, love awake and
yet sleeping; all love that has in it the germ of life. It
matters not what form love takes. If it be true I tell you that
it will win its way, and in the many that it has seemed to
worship, still find the one, though perchance not here.
At her words a numb fear gripped my heart.
"Not here? Then where?" I said.
"Ask your dead wife, Humphrey. Ask the dumb stars. Ask the God
you worship, for I cannot answer, save in one word--Somewhere!
Man, be not afraid. Do you think that such as you and I can be
lost in the aching abysms of space? I know but little, yet I tell
you that we are its rulers. I tell you that we, too, are gods, if
only we can aspire and believe. For the doubting and timid there
is naught. For those who see with the eyes of the soul and
stretch out their hands to grasp there is all. Even Bastin will
tell you this."
"But," I said, "life is short. Those worlds are far away, and
you are near."
She became wonderful, mysterious.
"Near I am far," she said; "and far I am near, if only this
love of yours is strong enough to follow and to clasp. And,
Humphrey, it needs strength, for here I am afraid that it will
bear little of such fruit as men desire to pluck."
Again terror took hold of me, and I looked at her, for
I did not know what to say or ask.
"Listen," she went on. "Already my father has offered me to you
in marriage, has he not, but at a price which you do not
understand? Believe me, it is one that you should never pay,
since the rule of the world can be too dearly bought by the
slaughter of half the world. And if you would pay it, I cannot."
"But this is madness!" I exclaimed. "Your father has no powers
over our earth."
"I would that I could think so, Humphrey. I tell you that he
has powers and that it is his purpose to use them as he has done
before. You, too, he would use, and me."
"And, if so, Yva, we are lords of ourselves. Let us take each
other while we may. Bastin is a priest."
"Lords of ourselves! Why, for ought I know, at this very moment
Oro watches us in his thought and laughs. Only in death,
Humphrey, shall we pass beyond his reach and become lords of
ourselves."
"It is monstrous!" I cried. "There is the boat, let us fly
away."
"What boat can bear us out of stretch of the arm of the old god
of my people, Fate, whereof Oro is the high priest? Nay, here we
must wait our doom."
"Doom," I said--"doom? What then is about to happen?"
"A terrible thing, as I think, Humphrey. Or, rather, it will
not happen."
"Why not, if it must?"
"Beloved," she whispered, "Bastin has expounded to me a new
faith whereof the master-word is Sacrifice. The terrible thing
will not happen because of sacrifice! Ask me no more."
She mused a while, seated there in the moonlight upon the
ancient altar of sacrifice, the veil she wore falling about her
face and making her mysterious. Then she threw it back, showing
her lovely eyes and glittering hair, and laughed.
"We have still an earthly hour," she said; "therefore let us
forget the far, dead past and the eternities to come and be
joyful in that hour. Now throw your arms about me and I will tell
you strange stories of lost days, and you shall look into my eyes
and learn wisdom, and you shall kiss my lips and taste of bliss--
you, who were and are and shall be--you, the beloved of Yva from
the beginning to the end of Time."
Chapter XXII
The Command
I think that both Bastin and Bickley, by instinct as it were,
knew what had passed between Yva and myself and that she had
promised herself to me. They showed this by the way in which they
avoided any mention of her name. Also they began to talk of their
own plans for the future as matters in which I had no part. Thus
I heard them discussing the possibility of escape from the island
whereof suddenly they seemed to have grown weary, and whether by
any means two men (two, not three) could manage to sail and steer
the lifeboat that remained upon the wreck. In short, as in all
such cases, the woman had come between; also the pressure of a
common loss caused them to forget their differences and to draw
closer together. I who had succeeded where they both had failed,
was, they seemed to think, out of their lives, so much that our
ancient intimacy had ended.
This attitude hurt me, perhaps because in many respects the
situation was awkward. They had, it is true, taken their failures
extremely well, still the fact remained that both of them had
fallen in love with the wonderful creature, woman and yet more
than woman, who had bound herself to me. How then could we go on
living together, I in prospective possession of the object that
all had desired, and they without the pale?
Moreover, they were jealous in another and quite a different
fashion because they both loved me in their own ways and were
convinced that I who had hitherto loved them, henceforward should
have no affection left to spare, since surely this Glittering
Lady, this marvel of wisdom and physical perfections would take
it all. Of course they were in error, since even if I could have
been so base and selfish, this was no conduct that Yva would have
wished or even suffered. Still that was their thought.
Mastering the situation I reflected a little while and then
spoke straight out to them.
"My friends," I said, "as I see that you have guessed, Yva and
I are affianced to each other and love each other perfectly."
"Yes, Arbuthnot," said Bastin, "we saw that in your face, and
in hers as she bade us good night before she went into the cave,
and we congratulate you and wish you every happiness."
"We wish you every happiness, old fellow," chimed in Bickley.
He paused a while, then added, "But to be honest, I am not sure
that I congratulate you."
"Why not, Bickley?"
"Not for the reason that you may suspect, Arbuthnot, I mean not
because you have won where we have lost, as it was only to be
expected that you would do, but on account of something totally
different. I told you a while ago and repetition is useless and
painful. I need only add therefore that since then my conviction
has strengthened and I am sure, sorry as I am to say it, that in
this matter you must prepare for disappointment and calamity.
That woman, if woman she really is, will never be the wife of
mortal man. Now be angry with me if you like, or laugh as you
have the right to do, seeing that like Bastin and yourself, I
also asked her to marry me, but something makes me speak what I
believe to be the truth."
"Like Cassandra," I suggested.
"Yes, like Cassandra who was not a popular person." At first I
was inclined to resent Bickley's words--who would not have been
in the circumstances? Then of a sudden there rushed in upon my
mind the conviction that he spoke the truth. In this world Yva
was not for me or any man. Moreover she knew it, the knowledge
peeped out of every word she spoke in our passionate love scene
by the lake. She was aware, and subconsciously I was aware, that
we were plighting our troth, not for time but for eternity. With
time we had little left to do; not for long would she wear the
ring I gave her on that holy night.
Even Bastin, whose perceptions normally were not acute, felt
that the situation was strained and awkward and broke in with a
curious air of forced satisfaction:
"It's uncommonly lucky for you, old boy, that you happen to
have a clergyman in your party, as I shall be able to marry you
in a respectable fashion. Of course I can't say that the
Glittering Lady is as yet absolutely converted to our faith, but
I am certain that she has absorbed enough of its principles to
justify me in uniting her in Christian wedlock."
"Yes," I answered, "she has absorbed its principles;
she told me as much herself. Sacrifice, for instance,"
and as I spoke the word my eyes filled with tears.
"Sacrifice!" broke in Bickley with an angry snort, for he
needed a vent to his mentaldisturbance. "Rubbish. Why should
every religion demand sacrifice as savages do? By it alone they
stand condemned."
"Because as I think, sacrifice is the law of life, at least of
all life that is worth the living," I answered sadly enough.
"Anyhow I believe you are right, Bickley, and that Bastin will
not be troubled to marry us."
"You don't mean," broke in Bastin with a horrified air, "that
you propose to dispense--"
"No, Bastin, I don't mean that. What I mean is that it comes
upon me that something will prevent this marriage. Sacrifice,
perhaps, though in what shape I do not know. And now good night.
I am tired."
That night in the chill dead hour before the dawn Oro came
again. I woke up to see him seated by my bed, majestic, and, as
it seemed to me, lambent, though this may have been my
imagination.
"You take strange liberties with my daughter, Barbarian, or she
takes strange liberties with you, it does not matter which," he
said, regarding me with his calm and terrible eyes.
"Why do you presume to call me Barbarian?" I asked, avoiding
the main issue.
- doubtless [´dautlis]
ad.无疑地；大概，多半 (初中英语单词) - instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
- sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
- worship [´wə:ʃip] n.&v.崇拜；敬仰 (初中英语单词)
- terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
- priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
- moonlight [´mu:nlait] n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词)
- mysterious [mi´stiəriəs] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (初中英语单词)
- wisdom [´wizdəm] n.智慧，聪明，才智 (初中英语单词)
- beloved [bi´lʌvd] a.为....所爱的 n.爱人 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- instinct [´instiŋkt] n.本能；直觉；天资 (初中英语单词)
- possibility [,pɔsə´biliti] n.可能(性)；希望；前途 (初中英语单词)
- pressure [´preʃə] n.压榨 vt.对...施压力 (初中英语单词)
- jealous [´dʒeləs] a.妒忌的 (初中英语单词)
- affection [ə´fekʃən] n.友爱；慈爱 (初中英语单词)
- marvel [´mɑ:vəl] n.令人惊异的事；奇迹 (初中英语单词)
- physical [´fizikəl] a.物质的；有形的 (初中英语单词)
- selfish [´selfiʃ] a.自私的，利己的 (初中英语单词)
- suspect [´sʌspekt, sə´spekt] v.怀疑；觉得 n.嫌疑犯 (初中英语单词)
- account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
- useless [´ju:sləs] a.无用的，无价值的 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- disappointment [,disə´pɔintmənt] n.失望；挫折 (初中英语单词)
- conviction [kən´vikʃən] n.定罪；确信，信服 (初中英语单词)
- moreover [mɔ:´rəuvə] ad.再者，此外，而且 (初中英语单词)
- absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
- mental [´mentl] a.精神的；心理的 (初中英语单词)
- coffin [´kɔfin] n.棺材，柩 (高中英语单词)
- eternity [i´tə:niti] n.永恒，来世，无穷 (高中英语单词)
- naught [nɔ:t] n.无；零 (高中英语单词)
- earthly [´ə:θli] a.地球的；世俗的 (高中英语单词)
- awkward [´ɔ:kwəd] a.笨拙的；为难的 (高中英语单词)
- hitherto [,hiðə´tu:] ad.至今，迄今 (高中英语单词)
- congratulate [kən´grætjuleit] vt.祝贺 (高中英语单词)
- repetition [,repi´tiʃən] n.重复；背诵；复制品 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- resent [ri´zent] vt.不满于；怨恨；忿恨 (高中英语单词)
- passionate [´pæʃənit] a.易动情的；易怒的 (高中英语单词)
- clergyman [´klə:dʒimən] n.牧师；教士 (高中英语单词)
- respectable [ri´spektəbəl] a.可敬的；有身价的 (高中英语单词)
- disturbance [di´stə:bəns] n.扰乱，骚动 (高中英语单词)
- majestic [mə´dʒestik] a.雄伟的；崇高的 (高中英语单词)
- regarding [ri´gɑ:diŋ] prep.关于 (高中英语单词)
- presume [pri´zju:m] v.假定；推测；以为 (高中英语单词)
- astray [ə´strei] ad.&a.在歧途上(的) (英语四级单词)
- perchance [pə´tʃɑ:ns] ad.偶然；可能 (英语四级单词)
- aspire [ə´spaiə] vi.立志要；升高；热望 (英语四级单词)
- dearly [´diəli] ad.深深地(爱等)；昂贵 (英语四级单词)
- whereof [weər´ɔv] ad.关于什么；关于那事 (英语四级单词)
- intimacy [´intiməsi] n.亲密；熟悉；秘密 (英语四级单词)
- prospective [prə´spektiv] a.预期的；未来的 (英语四级单词)
- barbarian [bɑ:´beəriən] a.&n.野蛮(人)的 (英语四级单词)
- reunion [ri:´ju:njən] n.再结合；再联合；团聚 (英语六级单词)
- normally [´nɔ:məli] ad.正常情况下；通常 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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