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Chita-A Memory of Last Island-Part3_Lafcadio Hearn(1850-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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silhouette of the hotel, whose hundred windows were now all

aflame. The vast timber building seemed to defy the storm. The



wind, roaring round its broad verandas,--hissing through every

crevice with the sound and force of steam,--appeared to waste its



rage. And in the half-lull between two terrible gusts there came

to the captain's ears a sound that seemed strange in that night



of multitudinous terrors ... a sound of music!

VI.



... Almost every evening throughout the season there had been

dancing in the great hall;--there was dancing that night also.



The population of the hotel had been augmented by the advent of

families from other parts of the island, who found their summer



cottages insecure places of shelter: there were nearly four

hundred guests assembled. Perhaps it was for this reason that



the entertainment had been prepared upon a grander plan than

usual, that it assumed the form of a fashionable ball. And all



those pleasure seekers,--representing the wealth and beauty of

the Creole parishes,--whether from Ascension or Assumption, St.



Mary's or St. Landry's, Iberville or Terrebonne, whether

inhabitants of the multi-colored and many-balconied Creole



quarter of the quaintmetropolis, or dwellers in the dreamy

paradises of the Teche,--mingled joyously, knowing each other,



feeling in some sort akin--whether affiliated by blood,

connaturalized by caste, or simply interassociated by traditional



sympathies of class sentiment and class interest. Perhaps in the

more than ordinary merriment of that evening something of nervous



exaltation might have been discerned,--something like a feverish

resolve to oppose apprehension with gayety, to combat uneasiness



by diversion. But the hours passed in mirthfulness; the first

general feeling of depression began to weigh less and less upon



the guests; they had found reason to confide in the solidity of

the massive building; there were no positive terrors, no



outspoken fears; and the new conviction of all had found

expression in the words of the host himself,--"Il n'y a rien de



mieux a faire que de s'amuser!" Of what avail to lament the

prospective devastation of cane-fields,--to discuss the possible



ruin of crops? Better to seek solace in choregraphic harmonies,

in the rhythm of graciousmotion and of perfect melody, than



hearken to the discords of the wild orchestra of storms;--wiser

to admire the grace of Parisian toilets, the eddy of trailing



robes with its fairy-foam of lace, the ivorine loveliness of

glossy shoulders and jewelled throats, the glimmering of



satin-slippered feet,--than to watch the raging of the flood

without, or the flying of the wrack ...



So the music and the mirth went on: they made joy for

themselves--those elegant guests;--they jested and sipped rich



wines;--they pledged, and hoped, and loved, and promised, with

never a thought of the morrow, on the night of the tenth of



August, eighteen hundred and fifty-six. Observant parents were

there, planning for the future bliss of their nearest and



dearest;--mothers and fathers of handsome lads, lithe and elegant

as young pines, and fresh from the polish of foreign university



training;--mothers and fathers of splendid girls whose simplest

attitudes were witcheries. Young cheeks flushed, young hearts



fluttered with an emotion more puissant than the excitement of

the dance;--young eyes betrayed the happy secret discreeter lips



would have preserved. Slave-servants circled through the

aristocratic press, bearing dainties and wines, praying



permission to pass in terms at once humble and officious,--always

in the excellent French which well-trained house-servants were



taught to use on such occasions.

... Night wore on: still the shining floor palpitated to the



feet of the dancers; still the piano-forte pealed, and still the

violins sang,--and the sound of their singing shrilled through



the darkness, in gasps of the gale, to the ears of Captain Smith,

as he strove to keep his footing on the spray-drenched deck of






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