登陆注册
15705000000024

第24章 A Resuscitation(3)

"Culross,"said he,"I'm disappointed in you.I didn't mean to listen,but I couldn't help hearing what you said just now.Idon't blame you particularly.Young men will be fools.And I do not in any way mean to insult you when I tell you to stop your coming here.I don't want to see you inside this door again,and after a while you will thank me for it.You have taken a very unfair advantage of my invitation.Imake allowances for your youth."He held back the curtain for the lad to pass out.David threw a miserable glance at the girl.She was standing looking at her father with an expression that David could not fathom.He went into the hall,picked up his hat,and walked out in silence.

David wondered that night,walking the chilly streets after he quitted the house,and often,often afterward,if that comfortable and prosperous gentleman,safe beyond the perturbations of youth,had any idea of what he had done.How COULD he know anything of the black monotony of the life of the man he turned from his door?The "desk's dead wood"and all its hateful slavery,the dull darkened rooms where his mother prosed through endless evenings,the bookless,joyless,hopeless existence that had cramped him all his days rose up before him,as a stretch of unbroken plain may rise before a lost man till it maddens him.

The bowed man in the car-seat remembered with a flush of reminiscent misery how the lad turned suddenly in his walk and entered the door of a drinking-room that stood open.It was very comfortable within.The screens kept out the chill of the autumn night,the sawdust-sprinkled floor was clean,the tables placed near together,the bar glittering,the attendants white-aproned and brisk.

David liked the place,and he liked better still the laughter that came from a room within.It had a note in it a little different from anything he had ever heard before in his life,and one that echoed his mood.He ventured to ask if he might go into the farther room.

It does not mean much when most young men go to a place like this.They take their bit of unwholesome dissipation quietly enough,and are a little coarser and more careless each time they indulge in it,perhaps.

But certainly their acts,whatever gradual deterioration they may indicate,bespeak no sudden moral revolution.With this young clerk it was different.He was a worse man from the moment he entered the door,for he did violence to his principles;he killed his self-respect.

He had been paid at the office that night,and he had the money --a week's miserable pittance --in his pocket.His every action revealed the fact that he was a novice in recklessness.His innocent face piqued the men within.They gave him a welcome that amazed him.Of course the rest of the evening was a chaos to him.The throat down which he poured the liquor was as tender as a child's.The men turned his head with their ironical compliments.Their boisterous good-fellowship was as intoxicat-ing to this poor young recluse as the liquor.

It was the revulsion from this feeling,when he came to a consciousness that the men were laughing at him and not with him,that wrecked his life.He had gone from beer to whiskey,and from whiskey to brandy,by this time,at the suggestion of the men,and was making awkward lunges with a billiard cue,spurred on by the mock-ing applause of the others.One young fellow was particularly hilarious at his expense.His jokes became insults,or so they seemed to David.

A quarrel followed,half a jest on the part of the other,all serious as far as David was concerned.And then --Well,who could tell how it happened?The billiard cue was in David's hand,and the skull of the jester was split,a horrible gaping thing,revolt-ingly animal.

David never saw his home again.His mother gave it out in church that her heart was broken,and she wrote a letter to David begging him to reform.She said she would never cease to pray for him,that he might return to grace.He had an attorney,an impecunious and very aged gentleman,whose life was a venerable failure,and who talked so much about his personal inconveniences from indigestion that he forgot to take a very keen interest in the concerns of his client.David's trial made no sensation.He did not even have the cheap sympathy of the morbid.The court-room was almost empty the dull spring day when the east wind beat against the window,jangling the loose panes all through the reading of the verdict.

Twenty years!

Twenty years in the penitentiary!

David looked up at the judge and smiled.

Men have been known to smile that way when the car-wheel crashes over their legs,or a bullet lets the air through their lungs.

All that followed would have seemed more terrible if it had not appeared to be so remote.David had to assure himself over and over that it was really he who was put in that disgraceful dress,and locked in that shameful walk from corridor to work-room,from work-room to chapel.The work was not much more monotonous than that to which he had been accustomed in the office.Here,as there,one was reproved for not doing the required amount,but never praised for extraordinary efforts.Here,as there,the workers regarded each other with dislike and suspicion.Here,as there,work was a penalty and not a pleasure.

It is the nights that are to be dreaded in a penitentiary.Speech eases the brain of free men;but the man condemned to eter-nal silence is bound to endure torments.

Thought,which might be a diversion,becomes a curse;it is a painful disease which becomes chronic.It does not take long to forget the days of the week and the months of the year when time brings no variance.

David drugged himself on dreams.He knew it was weakness,but it was the wine of forgetfulness,and he indulged in it.He went over and over,in endless repetition,every scene in which Zoe Le Baron had figured.

同类推荐
  • 玉堂丛语

    玉堂丛语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 赵飞燕别传

    赵飞燕别传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 刺孟篇

    刺孟篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 游钟山记

    游钟山记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金刚顶瑜伽护摩仪轨

    金刚顶瑜伽护摩仪轨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 九重天之一方天地

    九重天之一方天地

    修炼之道本是逆天而行,放眼世上,有多少人在这条路上蹉跎一生,虚度了光阴,到头来得到的又是什么?但不管有多艰难,我都要修炼,我要打开这盒子。如果以前一直都没人成功,那就由我开这先例。如果打不开这盒子,我的一生都不会快乐,它会让我痛苦,即使软弱的活着,也是一种折磨。修炼的苦,能让我感受到一种能触摸得到的痛,痛的能感觉到快乐,因为我能感觉到我离打开身世靠近了一点。
  • 伤痛不过百日长爱你不过年少轻狂

    伤痛不过百日长爱你不过年少轻狂

    多年以后,想来自己也是好笑,我爱的人不爱我却爱她,她爱的人不爱他却爱他,把自己伤的遍体鳞伤也绝不放手,来呀。互相伤害
  • 重生之校园王者荣耀

    重生之校园王者荣耀

    三生三世,我又获得了重生,为了当初的诺言,儿时的梦想,不甘于平凡的我再一次重新踏上征程。美女云集,羡煞众人。兄弟万千,踏破长城。酒煮天下,孰谁豪杰。我主沉浮,谁与争锋。
  • 幻世纹章

    幻世纹章

    神历300年,旧文明灰飞烟灭的第三百年,帝国文明的第三百年,第二场浩劫来袭,毁灭的阴影笼罩在几块大陆。他,幻爵,年轻俊美,有着一张仿佛来自皇城般好看的脸,幻神之子,体内却没有圣血能力,以平民的身份生活在暴风王城。可是,阻止第二场浩劫成为救世主的宿命,却选择了他。觉醒圣血能力,圣血共鸣召唤守护兽,圣血空间藏下神器破天。掌心纹章闪耀光芒,挥动武器,发动术,血雾沾染了他星辰般明亮干净的眸,为了阻止杀戮而杀戮。血的羁绊,命运逆转,帝国凶险,幻之纹章,会有怎样的结局?
  • 卿本木匠奈何做官

    卿本木匠奈何做官

    清朝的贪官穿越到明朝天启年间当清官的故事
  • 核涯传

    核涯传

    我是一个普普通通的人,为什么我的命运是悲惨的,我身边的朋友为什么会一个个离我远去,我的爱人为什么也离我远去?
  • 天界封仙

    天界封仙

    叙文前言仙之一字困惑无数修道之人,修道明性即是修真,然一切修仙之人真如传说中一样?无欲无求救人于危,度民于罗浮么?人若修仙真的要抛去七情六欲吗?吞云吐雾点石成金是描述仙人的,而他们真的可以如此?一个不知自己是谁的少年进入了一个追求长生的世界,在这个世界中强者林立,他不过是蝼蚁般的存在,如何能站住脚?世事无常,得运者昌,他能否争夺到那一点气运,成为傲世天地的仙人,成为不朽传奇?让我们一起进入看看他如何创造神话,成就唯我独尊的仙道第一人。
  • 语千季

    语千季

    人总是不断从孤独中走来,背后一排排柏油路不断延伸,而彼此的世界里也不断更迭。我们时常会想起之前错过的风景,也渐渐发现返身之后的无奈。我们开始尖叫着、呼喊着,害怕自己迷失在荒野中。曾经以为坚定不移地向前走,那就没有恐惧和悲伤,却明白我们一直在错过,错过那些最爱我们的人,错过能给你温暖的港湾。这条路已经没有了尽头,我们笑着骗自己,驶向生命的终点……
  • 冥间会所

    冥间会所

    人活着的时候有许多梦想和冤屈,但是有是人到死也无法实现梦想和伸冤,所以他们就会憋着一口气不愿意离开,他们如果不按时去投胎转世,那么冥界秩序就会被打乱,冥王为了消除他们的怨气成立了一个会所,来帮他们消除怨气。
  • 浮世瞳

    浮世瞳

    为了隐埋在双瞳深处的真正秘密,他毅然走进都市……国术与异能的碰撞,异术与超术的对决,谁主沉浮!阴谋阳谋,诡计百出。前世今生,轮回不止。以强者的决心笑傲花都,以帝皇的姿态俯瞰世界!浮华乱世,浮沉俗世,浮萍若世,浮生随世,它名——浮世瞳。