酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

End of the Tether-Part4_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
out from afar on thronged wharves and in the busy



streets. He had never adopted the comparatively modern

fashion of pipeclayed cork helmets. He disliked the



form; and he hoped he could manage to keep a cool

head to the end of his life without all these contrivances



for hygienic ventilation. His hair was cropped close,

his linen always of immaculate whiteness; a suit of thin



gray flannel, worn threadbare but scrupulously brushed,

floated about his burly limbs, adding to his bulk by the



looseness of its cut. The years had mellowed the good-

humored, imperturbable audacity of his prime into a



temper carelesslyserene; and the leisurely tapping of

his iron-shod stick accompanied his footfalls with a self-



confident sound on the flagstones. It was impossible to

connect such a fine presence and this unruffled aspect



with the belittling troubles of poverty; the man's whole

existence appeared to pass before you, facile and large,



in the freedom of means as ample as the clothing of his

body.



The irrational dread of having to break into his five

hundred pounds for personal expenses in the hotel dis-



turbed the steady poise of his mind. There was no

time to lose. The bill was running up. He nourished



the hope that this five hundred would perhaps be the

means, if everything else failed, of obtaining some work



which, keeping his body and soul together (not a matter

of great outlay), would enable him to be of use to his



daughter. To his mind it was her own money which he

employed, as it were, in backing her father and solely



for her benefit. Once at work, he would help her with

the greater part of his earnings; he was good for many



years yet, and this boarding-house business, he argued

to himself, whatever the prospects, could not be much of



a gold-mine from the first start. But what work? He

was ready to lay hold of anything in an honest way so



that it came quickly to his hand; because the five hun-

dred pounds must be preserved intact for eventual use.



That was the great point. With the entire five hundred

one felt a substance at one's back; but it seemed to him



that should he let it dwindle to four-fifty or even four-

eighty, all the efficiency would be gone out of the money,



as though there were some magic power in the round

figure. But what sort of work?



Confronted by that haunting question as by an uneasy

ghost, for whom he had no exorcising formula, Captain



Whalley stopped short on the apex of a small bridge

spanning steeply the bed of a canalized creek with



granite shores. Moored between the square blocks a sea-

going Malay prau floated half hidden under the arch



of masonry, with her spars lowered down, without a sound

of life on board, and covered from stem to stern with a



ridge of palm-leaf mats. He had left behind him the

overheated pavements bordered by the stone frontages



that, like the sheer face of cliffs, followed the sweep

of the quays; and an unconfined spaciousness of orderly



and sylvan aspect opened before him its wide plots of

rolled grass, like pieces of green carpetsmoothly pegged



out, its long ranges of trees lined up in colossal porticos

of dark shafts roofed with a vault of branches.



Some of these avenues ended at the sea. It was a ter-

raced shore; and beyond, upon the level expanse, pro-



found and glistening like the gaze of a dark-blue eye,

an oblique band of stippled purple lengthened itself in-



definitely through the gap between a couple of verdant

twin islets. The masts and spars of a few ships far



away, hull down in the outer roads, sprang straight from

the water in a fine maze of rosy lines penciled on the



clear shadow of the eastern board. Captain Whalley

gave them a long glance. The ship, once his own, was



anchored out there. It was staggering to think that it




文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号