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When the Sleeper Wakes-Part40_H. G. WELLS (1866-1946)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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But at the top he understood, and recognized the

metallic bars to which he clung. He was in the cage



under the ball of St. Paul's. The dome rose but a

little way above the general contour of the city,



into the still twilight, and sloped away, shining

greasily under a few distant lights, into a circumambient



ditch of darkness.

Out between the bars he looked upon the wind-clear



northern sky and saw the starry constellations

all unchanged. Capella hung in the west, Vega was



rising, and the seven glittering points of the Great

Bear swept overhead in their statelycircle about the



Pole.

He saw these stars in a clear gap of sky. To the



east and south the great circular shapes of

complaining wind-wheels blotted out the heavens, so that the



glare about the Council House was hidden. To the

south-west hung Orion, showing like a pallid ghost



through a tracery of iron-work and interlacing shapes

above a dazzling coruscation of lights. A bellowing



and siren screaming that came from the flying

stages warned the world that one of the aeroplanes



was ready to start. He remained for a space gazing

towards the glaring stage. Then his eyes went back



to the northward constellations.

For a long time he was silent. "This," he said at



last, smiling in the shadow, "seems the strangest thing

of all. To stand in the dome of Saint Paul's and look



once more upon these familiar, silent stars!"

Thence Graham was taken by Asano along devious



ways to the great gambling and business quarters

where the bulk of the fortunes in the city were lost



and made. It impressed him as a well-nigh interminable

series of very high halls, surrounded by tiers upon



tiers of galleries into which opened thousands of

offices, and traversed by a complicatedmultitude of



bridges, footways, aerial motor rails, and trapeze and

cable leaps. And here more than anywhere the note



of vehementvitality, of uncontrollable, hasty activity.

rose high. Everywhere was violent advertisement,



until his brain swam at the tumult of light and colour.

And Babble Machines of a peculiarly rancid tone were



abundant and filled the air with strenuous squealing

and an idiotic slang. "Skin your eyes and slide,"



"Gewhoop, Bonanza," "Gollipers come and hark!"

The place seemed to him to be dense with people



either profoundly agitated or swelling with obscure

cunning, yet he learnt that the place was comparatively



empty, that the great political convulsion of the

last few days had reduced transactions to an



unprecedented minimum. In one huge place were long

avenues of roulette tables, each with an excited,



undignified crowd about it; in another a

yelping Babel of white-faced women and red-



necked leathery-lunged men bought and sold the

shares of an absolutely fictitious business



undertaking which, every five minutes, paid a dividend of

ten per cent and cancelled a certain proportion of its



shares by means of a lottery wheel.

These business activities were prosecuted with an



energy that readily passed into violence, and Graham

approaching a dense crowd found at its centre a couple



of prominent merchants in violentcontroversy with

teeth and nails on some delicate point of business



etiquette. Something still remained in life to be fought

for. Further he had a shock at a vehement



announcement in phonetic letters of scarlet flame, each twice

the height of a man, that " WE ASSURE THE



PROPRAIET'R. WE ASSURE THE PROPRAIET'R."

"Who's the proprietor?" he asked.



"You."

" But what do they assure me?" he asked. "What



do they assure me?"

"Didn't you have assurance?"



Graham thought. "Insurance? "




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