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Tales of Unrest-Part16_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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stepped out with the rest, a smouldering cigar between his teeth. A

disregarded little woman in rusty black, with both arms full of



parcels, ran along in distress, bolted suddenly into a third-class

compartment and the train went on. The slamming of carriage doors



burst out sharp and spiteful like a fusillade; an icy draught

mingled with acrid fumes swept the whole length of the platform and



made a tottering old man, wrapped up to his ears in a woollen

comforter, stop short in the moving throng to cough violently over his



stick. No one spared him a glance.

Alvan Hervey passed through the ticket gate. Between the bare walls



of a sordidstaircase men clambered rapidly; their backs appeared

alike--almost as if they had been wearing a uniform; their indifferent



faces were varied but somehow suggested kinship, like the faces of a

band of brothers who through prudence, dignity, disgust, or foresight



would resolutelyignore each other; and their eyes, quick or slow;

their eyes gazing up the dusty steps; their eyes brown, black, gray,



blue, had all the same stare, concentrated and empty, satisfied and

unthinking.



Outside the big doorway of the street they scattered in all

directions, walking away fast from one another with the hurried air of



men fleeing from something compromising; from familiarity or

confidences; from something suspected and concealed--like truth or



pestilence. Alvan Hervey hesitated, standing alone in the doorway for

a moment; then decided to walk home.



He strodefirmly. A misty rain settled like silvery dust on clothes,

on moustaches; wetted the faces, varnished the flagstones, darkened



the walls, dripped from umbrellas. And he moved on in the rain with

careless serenity, with the tranquil ease of someone successful and



disdainful, very sure of himself--a man with lots of money and

friends. He was tall, well set-up, good-looking and healthy; and his



clear pale face had under its commonplacerefinement that slight tinge

of overbearing brutality which is given by the possession of only



partly difficult accomplishments; by excelling in games, or in the art

of making money; by the easy mastery over animals and over needy men.



He was going home much earlier than usual, straight from the City and

without calling at his club. He considered himself well connected,



well educated and intelligent. Who doesn't? But his connections,

education and intelligence were strictly on a par with those of the



men with whom he did business or amused himself. He had married five

years ago. At the time all his acquaintances had said he was very much



in love; and he had said so himself, frankly, because it is very well

understood that every man falls in love once in his life--unless his



wife dies, when it may be quite praiseworthy to fall in love again.

The girl was healthy, tall, fair, and in his opinion was well



connected, well educated and intelligent. She was also intensely bored

with her home where, as if packed in a tight box, her individuality--



of which she was very conscious--had no play. She strode like a

grenadier, was strong and upright like an obelisk, had a beautiful



face, a candid brow, pure eyes, and not a thought of her own in her

head. He surrendered quickly to all those charms, and she appeared to



him so unquestionably of the right sort that he did not hesitate for a

moment to declare himself in love. Under the cover of that sacred and



poetical fiction he desired her masterfully, for various reasons; but

principally for the satisfaction of having his own way. He was very



dull and solemn about it--for no earthly reason, unless to conceal his

feelings--which is an eminently proper thing to do. Nobody, however,



would have been shocked had he neglected that duty, for the feeling he

experienced really was a longing--a longing stronger and a little more



complex no doubt, but no more reprehensible in its nature than a

hungry man's appetite for his dinner.



After their marriage they busied themselves, with marked success, in

enlarging the circle of their acquaintance. Thirty people knew them



by sight; twenty more with smiling demonstrations tolerated their




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