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The Arrow of Gold-Part34_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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within my breast it gave me an illusion of lonelygreatness with my

miserable head uplifted amongst the stars. But when I made up my



mind (which I did quickly, to be done with it) to call on the

banker's wife, almost the first thing she said to me was that the



Marquis de Villarel was "amongst us." She said it joyously. If in

her husband's room at the bank legitimism was a mere unpopulated



principle, in her salon Legitimacy was nothing but persons. "Il

m'a cause beaucoup de vous," she said as if there had been a joke



in it of which I ought to be proud. I slunk away from her. I

couldn't believe that the grandee had talked to her about me. I



had never felt myself part of the great Royalist enterprise. I

confess that I was so indifferent to everything, so profoundly



demoralized, that having once got into that drawing-room I hadn't

the strength to get away; though I could see perfectly well my



volatile hostess going from one to another of her acquaintances in

order to tell them with a little gesture, "Look! Over there - in



that corner. That's the notorious Monsieur George." At last she

herself drove me out by coming to sit by me vivaciously and going



into ecstasies over "ce cher Monsieur Mills" and that magnificent

Lord X; and ultimately, with a perfectlyodious snap in the eyes



and drop in the voice, dragging in the name of Madame de Lastaola

and asking me whether I was really so much in the confidence of



that astonishing person. "Vous devez bien regretter son depart

pour Paris," she cooed, looking with affected bashfulness at her



fan. . . . How I got out of the room I really don't know. There

was also a staircase. I did not fall down it head first - that



much I am certain of; and I also remember that I wandered for a

long time about the seashore and went home very late, by the way of



the Prado, giving in passing a fearful glance at the Villa. It

showed not a gleam of light through the thin foliage of its trees.



I spent the next day with Dominic on board the little craft

watching the shipwrights at work on her deck. From the way they



went about their business those men must have been perfectly sane;

and I felt greatly refreshed by my company during the day.



Dominic, too, devoted himself to his business, but his taciturnity

was sardonic. Then I dropped in at the cafe and Madame Leonore's



loud "Eh, Signorino, here you are at last!" pleased me by its

resonant friendliness. But I found the sparkle of her black eyes



as she sat down for a moment opposite me while I was having my

drink rather difficult to bear. That man and that woman seemed to



know something. What did they know? At parting she pressed my

hand significantly. What did she mean? But I didn't feel offended



by these manifestations. The souls within these people's breasts

were not volatile in the manner of slightly scented and inflated



bladders. Neither had they the impervious skins which seem the

rule in the fine world that wants only to get on. Somehow they had



sensed that there was something wrong; and whateverimpression they

might have formed for themselves I had the certitude that it would



not be for them a matter of grins at my expense.

That day on returning home I found Therese looking out for me, a



very unusualoccurrence of late. She handed me a card bearing the

name of the Marquis de Villarel.



"How did you come by this?" I asked. She turned on at once the tap

of her volubility and I was not surprised to learn that the grandee



had not done such an extraordinary thing as to call upon me in

person. A young gentleman had brought it. Such a nice young



gentleman, she interjected with her piously ghoulish expression.

He was not very tall. He had a very smooth complexion (that woman



was incorrigible) and a nice, tiny black moustache. Therese was

sure that he must have been an officer en las filas legitimas.



With that notion in her head she had asked him about the welfare of

that other model of charm and elegance, Captain Blunt. To her



extreme surprise the charming young gentleman with beautiful eyes




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