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Tales and Fantasies-Part1_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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haunt - a pawnshop - and the effort necessary to invent the



pseudonym (which, somehow, seemed to him a necessary part of

the procedure), had taken more time than he imagined: and



when he returned to the billiard-room with the spoils, the

bank had already closed its doors.



This was a shrewd knock. 'A piece of business had been

neglected.' He heard these words in his father's trenchant



voice, and trembled, and then dodged the thought. After all,

who was to know? He must carry four hundred pounds about



with him till Monday, when the neglect could be

surreptitiously repaired; and meanwhile, he was free to pass



the afternoon on the encircling divan of the billiard-room,

smoking his pipe, sipping a pint of ale, and enjoying to the



masthead the modest pleasures of admiration.

None can admire like a young man. Of all youth's passions



and pleasures, this is the most common and least alloyed; and

every flash of Alan's black eyes; every aspect of his curly



head; every graceful reach, every easy, stand-off attitude of

waiting; ay, and down to his shirt-sleeves and wrist-links,



were seen by John through a luxurious glory. He valued

himself by the possession of that royal friend, hugged



himself upon the thought, and swam in warm azure; his own

defects, like vanquished difficulties, becoming things on



which to plume himself. Only when he thought of Miss

Mackenzie there fell upon his mind a shadow of regret; that



young lady was worthy of better things than plain John

Nicholson, still known among schoolmates by the derisive name



of 'Fatty'; and he felt, if he could chalk a cue, or stand at

ease, with such a careless grace as Alan, he could approach



the object of his sentiments with a less crushing sense of

inferiority.



Before they parted, Alan made a proposal that was startling

in the extreme. He would be at Colette's that night about



twelve, he said. Why should not John come there and get the

money? To go to Colette's was to see life, indeed; it was



wrong; it was against the laws; it partook, in a very dingy

manner, of adventure. Were it known, it was the sort of



exploit that disconsidered a young man for good with the more

serious classes, but gave him a standing with the riotous.



And yet Colette's was not a hell; it could not come, without

vaulting hyperbole, under the rubric of a gilded saloon; and,



if it was a sin to go there, the sin was merely local and

municipal. Colette (whose name I do not know how to spell,



for I was never in epistolary communication with that

hospitable outlaw) was simply an unlicensed publican, who



gave suppers after eleven at night, the Edinburgh hour of

closing. If you belonged to a club, you could get a much



better supper at the same hour, and lose not a jot in public

esteem. But if you lacked that qualification, and were an



hungered, or inclined toward conviviality at unlawful hours,

Colette's was your only port. You were very ill-supplied.



The company was not recruited from the Senate or the Church,

though the Bar was very well represented on the only occasion



on which I flew in the face of my country's laws, and, taking

my reputation in my hand, penetrated into that grim supper-



house. And Colette's frequenters, thrillingly conscious of

wrong-doing and 'that two-handed engine (the policeman) at



the door,' were perhaps inclined to somewhat feverish excess.

But the place was in no sense a very bad one; and it is



somewhat strange to me, at this distance of time, how it had

acquired its dangerous repute.



In precisely the same spirit as a man may debate a project to

ascend the Matterhorn or to cross Africa, John considered



Alan's proposal, and, greatly daring, accepted it. As he

walked home, the thoughts of this excursion out of the safe



places of life into the wild and arduous, stirred and

struggled in his imagination with the image of Miss Mackenzie



- incongruous and yet kindred thoughts, for did not each

imply unusual tightening of the pegs of resolution? did not






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