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New Arabian Nights-Part3_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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every show of intelligence and sensibility in their appearance, but

with little promise of strength or the quality that makes success.



Few were much above thirty, and not a few were still in their

teens. They stood, leaning on tables and shifting on their feet;



sometimes they smoked extraordinarily fast, and sometimes they let

their cigars go out; some talked well, but the conversation of



others was plainly the result of nervoustension, and was equally

without wit or purport. As each new bottle of champagne was



opened, there was a manifestimprovement in gaiety. Only two were

seated - one in a chair in the recess of the window, with his head



hanging and his hands plunged deep into his trouser pockets, pale,

visibly moist with perspiration, saying never a word, a very wreck



of soul and body; the other sat on the divan close by the chimney,

and attracted notice by a trenchant dissimilarity from all the



rest. He was probably upwards of forty, but he looked fully ten

years older; and Florizel thought he had never seen a man more



naturally hideous, nor one more ravaged by disease and ruinous

excitements. He was no more than skin and bone, was partly



paralysed, and wore spectacles of such unusual power, that his eyes

appeared through the glasses greatly magnified and distorted in



shape. Except the Prince and the President, he was the only person

in the room who preserved the composure of ordinary life.



There was little decency among the members of the club. Some

boasted of the disgraceful actions, the consequences of which had



reduced them to seek refuge in death; and the others listened

without disapproval. There was a tacit understanding against moral



judgments; and whoever passed the club doors enjoyed already some

of the immunities of the tomb. They drank to each other's



memories, and to those of notablesuicides in the past. They

compared and developed their different views of death - some



declaring that it was no more than blackness and cessation; others

full of a hope that that very night they should be scaling the



stars and commencing with the mighty dead.

"To the eternal memory of Baron Trenck, the type of suicides!"



cried one. "He went out of a small cell into a smaller, that he

might come forth again to freedom."



"For my part," said a second, "I wish no more than a bandage for my

eyes and cotton for my ears. Only they have no cotton thick enough



in this world."

A third was for reading the mysteries of life in a future state;



and a fourth professed that he would never have joined the club, if

he had not been induced to believe in Mr. Darwin.



"I could not bear," said this remarkablesuicide, "to be descended

from an ape."



Altogether, the Prince was disappointed by the bearing and

conversation of the members.



"It does not seem to me," he thought, "a matter for so much

disturbance. If a man has made up his mind to kill himself, let



him do it, in God's name, like a gentleman. This flutter and big

talk is out of place."



In the meanwhile Colonel Geraldine was a prey to the blackest

apprehensions; the club and its rules were still a mystery, and he



looked round the room for some one who should be able to set his

mind at rest. In this survey his eye lighted on the paralytic



person with the strong spectacles; and seeing him so exceedingly

tranquil, he besought the President, who was going in and out of



the room under a pressure of business, to present him to the

gentleman on the divan.



The functionary explained the needlessness of all such formalities

within the club, but nevertheless presented Mr. Hammersmith to Mr.



Malthus.

Mr. Malthus looked at the Colonel curiously, and then requested him



to take a seat upon his right.

"You are a new-comer," he said, "and wish information? You have



come to the proper source. It is two years since I first visited

this charming club."



The Colonel breathed again. If Mr. Malthus had frequented the

place for two years there could be little danger for the Prince in



a single evening. But Geraldine was none the less astonished, and

began to suspect a mystification.






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