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Within the Tides-Part4_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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this shall get printed some day."

"Obituary notice?" Renouard dropped negligently.



"Certain - some day."

"Do you then regard yourself as immortal?"



"No, my boy. I am not immortal. But the voice of the press goes

on for ever. . . . And it will say that this was the secret of your



great success in a task where better men than you - meaning no

offence - did fail repeatedly."



"Success," muttered Renouard, pulling-to the office door after him

with considerableenergy. And the letters of the word PRIVATE like



a row of white eyes seemed to stare after his back sinking down the

staircase of that temple of publicity.



Renouard had no doubt that all the means of publicity would be put

at the service of love and used for the discovery of the loved man.



He did not wish him dead. He did not wish him any harm. We are

all equipped with a fund of humanity which is not exhausted without



many and repeated provocations - and this man had done him no evil.

But before Renouard had left old Dunster's house, at the conclusion



of the call he made there that very afternoon, he had discovered in

himself the desire that the search might last long. He never



really flattered himself that it might fail. It seemed to him that

there was no other course in this world for himself, for all



mankind, but resignation. And he could not help thinking that

Professor Moorsom had arrived at the same conclusion too.



Professor Moorsom, slight frame of middle height, a thoughtful keen

head under the thick wavy hair, veiled dark eyes under straight



eyebrows, and with an inward gaze which when disengaged and

arriving at one seemed to issue from an obscure dream of books,



from the limbo of meditation, showed himself extremelygracious to

him. Renouard guessed in him a man whom an incurable habit of



investigation and analysis had made gentle and indulgent; inapt for

action, and more sensitive to the thoughts than to the events of



existence. Withal not crushed, sub-ironic without a trace of

acidity, and with a simple manner which put people at ease quickly.



They had a long conversation on the terrace commanding an extended

view of the town and the harbour.



The splendid immobility of the bay resting under his gaze, with its

grey spurs and shining indentations, helped Renouard to regain his



self-possession, which he had felt shaken, in coming out on the

terrace, into the setting of the most powerful emotion of his life,



when he had sat within a foot of Miss Moorsom with fire in his

breast, a humming in his ears, and in a complete disorder of his



mind. There was the very garden seat on which he had been

enveloped in the radiant spell. And presently he was sitting on it



again with the professor talking of her. Near by the patriarchal

Dunster leaned forward in a wicker arm-chair, benign and a little



deaf, his big hand to his ear with the innocenteagerness of his

advanced age remembering the fires of life.



It was with a sort of apprehension that Renouard looked forward to

seeing Miss Moorsom. And strangely enough it resembled the state



of mind of a man who fears disenchantment more than sortilege. But

he need not have been afraid. Directly he saw her in a distance at



the other end of the terrace he shuddered to the roots of his hair.

With her approach the power of speech left him for a time. Mrs.



Dunster and her aunt were accompanying her. All these people sat

down; it was an intimatecircle into which Renouard felt himself



cordially admitted; and the talk was of the great search which

occupied all their minds. Discretion was expected by these people,



but of reticence as to the object of the journey there could be no

question. Nothing but ways and means and arrangements could be



talked about.

By fixing his eyes obstinately on the ground, which gave him an air



of reflective sadness, Renouard managed to recover his self-

possession. He used it to keep his voice in a low key and to



measure his words on the great subject. And he took care with a

great inward effort to make them reasonable without giving them a



discouraging complexion. For he did not want the quest to be given

up, since it would mean her going away with her two attendant grey-



heads to the other side of the world.

He was asked to come again, to come often and take part in the



counsels of all these people captivated by the sentimental




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