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When the World Shook-Part7_H.Rider Haggard(1856-1925)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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enable one to forget a little, or at least take the edge off

memory. Why should I not visit them and escape another long and



dreary English winter? No, I could not do so alone. If Bastin and

Bickley were there, their eternal arguments might amuse me. Well,



why should they not come also? When one has money things can

always be arranged.



The idea, which had its root in this absurd conversation, took

a curious hold on me. I thought of it all the evening, being



alone, and that night it re-arose m my dreams. I dreamed that my

lost Natalie appeared to me and showed me a picture. It was of a



long, low land, a curving shore of which the ends were out of the

picture, whereon grew tall palms, and where great combers broke



upon gleaming sand.

Then the picture seemed to become a reality and I saw Natalie



herself, strangely changeful in her aspect, strangely varying in

face and figure, strangely bright, standing in the mouth of a



pass whereof the little bordering cliffs were covered with bushes

and low trees, whose green was almost hid in lovely flowers.



There in my dream she stood, smiling mysteriously, and stretched

out her arms towards me.



As I awoke I seemed to hear her voice, repeating her dying

words: "Go where you seem called to go, far away. Oh! the



wonderful place in which you will find me, not knowing that you

have found me."



With some variations this dream visited me twice that night. In

the morning I woke up quite determined that I would go to the



South Sea Islands, even if I must do so alone. On that same

evening Bastin and Bickley dined with me. I said nothing to them



about my dream, for Bastin never dreamed and Bickley would have

set it down to indigestion. But when the cloth had been cleared



away and we were drinking our glass of port--both Bastin and

Bickley only took one, the former because he considered port a



sinful indulgence of the flesh, the latter because he feared it

would give him gout--I remarked casually that they both looked



very run down and as though they wanted a rest. They agreed, at

least each of them said he had noticed it in the other. Indeed



Bastin added that the damp and the cold in the church, in which

he held daily services to no congregation except the old woman



who cleaned it, had given him rheumatism, which prevented him

from sleeping.



"Do call things by their proper names," interrupted Bickley. "I

told you yesterday that what you are suffering from is neuritis



in your right arm, which will become chronic if you neglect it

much longer. I have the same thing myself, so I ought to know,



and unless I can stop operating for a while I believe my fingers

will become useless. Also something is affecting my sight,



overstrain, I suppose, so that I am obliged to wear stronger and

stronger glasses. I think I shall have to leave Ogden" (his



partner) "in charge for a while, and get away into the sun. There

is none here before June."



"I would if I could pay a locum tenens and were quite sure it

isn't wrong," said Bastin.



"I am glad you both think like that," I remarked, "as I have a

suggestion to make to you. I want to go to the South Seas about



which we were talking yesterday, to get the thorough change that

Bickley has been advising for me, and I should be very grateful



if you would both come as my guests. You, Bickley, make so much

money out of cutting people about, that you can arrange your own



affairs during your absence. But as for you, Bastin, I will see

to the wherewithal for the locum tenens, and everything else."



"You are very kind," said Bastin, "and certainly I should like

to expose that misguided author, who probably published his



offensive work without thinking that what he wrote might affect

the subscriptions to the missionary societies, also to show



Bickley that he is not always right, as he seems to think. But I

could never dream of accepting without the full approval of the



Bishop.

"You might get that of your nurse also, if she happens to be



still alive," mocked Bickley. "As for his Lordship, I don't think

he will raise any objection when he sees the certificate I will



give you about the state of your health. He is a great believer

in me ever since I took that carbuncle out of his neck which he






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