登陆注册
14727200000123

第123章

I WAS three-and-twenty years of age. Not another word had I heard to enlighten me on the subject of my expectations, and my twenty-third birthday was a week gone. We had left Barnard's Inn more than a year, and lived in the Temple. Our chambers were in Garden-court, down by the river.

Mr Pocket and I had for some time parted company as to our original relations, though we continued on the best terms Notwithstanding my inability to settle to anything - which I hope arose out of the restless and incomplete tenure on which I held my means - I had a taste for reading, and read regularly so many hours a day. That matter of Herbert's was still progressing, and everything with me was as I have brought it down to the close of the last preceding chapter.

Business had taken Herbert on a journey to Marseilles. I was alone, and had a dull sense of being alone. Dispirited and anxious, long hoping that to-morrow or next week would clear my way, and long disappointed, I sadly missed the cheerful face and ready response of my friend.

It was wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets. Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind. So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs;and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death. Violent blasts of rain had accompanied these rages of wind, and the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all.

Alterations have been made in that part of the Temple since that time, and it has not now so lonely a character as it had then, nor is it so exposed to the river. We lived at the top of the last house, and the wind rushing up the river shook the house that night, like discharges of cannon, or breakings of a sea. When the rain came with it and dashed against the windows, I thought, raising my eyes to them as they rocked, that I might have fancied myself in a storm-beaten light-house. Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night;and when I set the doors open and looked down the staircase, the staircase lamps were blown out; and when I shaded my face with my hands and looked through the black windows (opening them ever so little, was out of the question in the teeth of such wind and rain) I saw that the lamps in the court were blown out, and that the lamps on the bridges and the shore were shuddering, and that the coal fires in barges on the river were being carried away before the wind like red-hot splashes in the rain.

I read with my watch upon the table, purposing to close my book at eleven o'clock. As I shut it, Saint Paul's, and all the many church-clocks in the City - some leading, some accompanying, some following - struck that hour. The sound was curiously flawed by the wind; and I was listening, and thinking how the wind assailed and tore it, when I heard a footstep on the stair.

What nervous folly made me start, and awfully connect it with the footstep of my dead sister, matters not. It was past in a moment, and I listened again, and heard the footstep stumble in coming on. Remembering then, that the staircase-lights were blown out, I took up my reading-lamp and went out to the stair-head. Whoever was below had stopped on seeing my lamp, for all was quiet.

`There is some one down there, is there not?' I called out, looking down.

`Yes,' said a voice from the darkness beneath.

`What floor do you want?'

`The top. Mr Pip.'

`That is my name. - There is nothing the matter?'

`Nothing the matter,' returned the voice. And the man came on.

I stood with my lamp held out over the stair-rail, and he came slowly within its light. It was a shaded lamp, to shine upon a book, and its circle of light was very contracted; so that he was in it for a mere instant, and then out of it. In the instant, I had seen a face that was strange to me, looking up with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by the sight of me.

Moving the lamp as the man moved, I made out that he was substantially dressed, but roughly; like a voyager by sea. That he had long iron-grey hair. That his age was about sixty. That he was a muscular man, strong on his legs, and that he was browned and hardened by exposure to weather.

As he ascended the last stair or two, and the light of my lamp included us both, I saw, with a stupid kind of amazement, that he was holding out both his hands to me.

`Pray what is your business?' I asked him.

`My business?' he repeated, pausing. `Ah! Yes. I will explain my business, by your leave.'

`Do you wish to come in?'

`Yes,' he replied; `I wish to come in, Master.'

I had asked him the question inhospitably enough, for I resented the sort of bright and gratified recognition that still shone in his face.

I resented it, because it seemed to imply that he expected me to respond to it. But, I took him into the room I had just left, and, having set the lamp on the table, asked him as civilly as I could, to explain himself.

He looked about him with the strangest air - an air of wondering pleasure, as if he had some part in the things he admired - and he pulled off a rough outer coat, and his hat. Then, I saw that his head was furrowed and bald, and that the long iron-grey hair grew only on its sides. But, I saw nothing that in the least explained him. On the contrary, I saw him next moment, once more holding out both his hands to me.

`What do you mean?' said I, half suspecting him to be mad.

He stopped in his looking at me, and slowly rubbed his right hand over his head. `It's disapinting to a man,' he said, in a coarse broken voice, `arter having looked for'ard so distant, and come so fur; but you're not to blame for that - neither on us is to blame for that. I'll speak in half a minute. Give me half a minute, please.'

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 猎龙笔记

    猎龙笔记

    我要成为一个猎人,可以猎龙的猎人。我要成为猎人榜单上的第一个神位,赌上我伊恩之名,挑战所有的龙类!
  • 飘仙之风华绝代

    飘仙之风华绝代

    千里冰封、万里雪飘——————————历经艰辛逃回家中,可是家在哪里?哪里还有家?仇恨的种子已在心间生根发芽步履滚滚红尘,寻求修仙之道尽看世间悲欢、铸我风华绝代
  • 大侠王义雄系列

    大侠王义雄系列

    试验性质的传统武侠新品,由相互独立却又丝扣的多个章节构成。以湖北籍侠客王义雄的游历为主线,各类人马轮番登演,云诡波谲,精彩纷呈,叙述了明季的江湖隐秘事件,其中不乏旷世绝伦的大场面。跌宕的情节,新奇的故事,悬疑的氛围,且听我娓娓道来。谢谢各位赏脸阅读。
  • 彩色武途

    彩色武途

    武道之极究竟是什么呢?当彩虹七色全都齐了,会变成白色吗?那呢白色之后呢?一个个的疑问将伴随着主人公的成长,主人公也会为各位观众解答,这是不一样的武途,也不在是以武会友,让我们伴随着作者的成长而成长,我相信我会从另一个角度告诉大家,武途即是人生,彩色武途,彩色人生。
  • 灰烬纪元

    灰烬纪元

    何为文明血海洗地,尸骸奠戮,以予之刀剑,斩彼之荆棘苍穹。此即为文明
  • 疯斗星空

    疯斗星空

    流浪星空的青铜巨柱,绝望的飞向未知和迷茫,它……究竟承载了谁的希望?灭绝人性的万族战场,交织着人族的血与耻辱,谁……一怒之下挥刀屠至尊?怒吼……宁为热血肉,不做叛族狗,宁为刀下魂,不做可怜人,宁为亿狂屠,不做丧尊奴,宁为万族王,不做软弱郎。为生存而战,傲骨破碎死不悔,为尊严而战,万颅染血笑苍天,为族人而战,热血满腔荡空撒,为兄弟而战,携手苍穹成至尊……
  • 诛神弑天下

    诛神弑天下

    她,23世纪王牌杀手,强大无比,却让最心爱的人所杀,下到地狱,阎王爷都要敬让三分。穿越到无人不知无人不晓的废物身上!废柴?不,十系鬼才系武无双,收服神兽。她丑?不,她美如仙子植物看了都惭愧三分。他,强大无比,无人不知无人不晓,却看上了她,宠她。绝对宠文1V1
  • 夜与芯之恋

    夜与芯之恋

    可爱慕芷芯强势归来,冷酷夜佐少该如何应对,天使是否已发生改变,从小青梅竹马的俩人又是否能变成恋人。
  • 荡平天下

    荡平天下

    本书为【凤凰剑】下部,【荡平天下】上部的【凤凰剑】已完结。剧情上下衔接,由江湖篇转战到了朝野疆场。——她是那个要做一代女帝明主,要帝王为奴,要天下臣服的战神后裔!她本想荡平天下女帝称霸。奈何天道不公,神堕成魔。她本想好好过安稳日子,却火烧桃花源。她死里逃生,寻仇兰陵王,却将人家军营翻了天!她又一夕入朝,认贼作父当了万户侯。女扮男装的君侯爷扮猪吃虎,耍纨绔,斗地痞,闹的京城人仰马翻!只不过是去了趟男馆还被傀儡皇帝当成了妓子,闹着要给侯爷赎身!何为时来运转?就是君侯太会随机应变,将朝野混的如鱼得水,霸的帝王为娈奴,混迹风月花都!君侯于是将皇帝反压,证实了女攻本色!大周天和五年秋,帝伐君侯征齐州。临阵,贪官却不识万户侯,扔个百夫长就让上战场!君侯一怒生擒兰陵王,被拜一品百夫长。一战启荡平天下大业。也应了倾覆天下毒咒。都说女君侯最风流,可她却能让帝王为娈奴,王侯成面首,傲骨将军身下做受。谁是何意百炼刚,又为谁化为绕指柔?三国混战九年春秋,乱世最艳的色彩就是——女枭雄美君侯。绝对女尊女,要翻男朝天!
  • 那年我们追过的人

    那年我们追过的人

    青春短暂,稍瞬即逝。还记得那片星空下的约定,那欲言又止的心声,那年我们追过的人......