言情一品书

手机浏览器扫描二维码访问

第13部分(第1页)

roof that will leak; for the tree that will fall。 There was always a warm corner for the old shepherd in the kitchen; always food for the hungry; always their goblets were polished; though they lay sick; and their windows were lit though they lay dying。 Lords though they were; they were content to go down into obscurity with the molecatcher and the stone–mason。 Obscure noblemen; forgotten builders—thus he apostrophized them with a warmth that entirely gainsaid such critics as called him cold; indifferent; slothful (the truth being that a quality often lies just on the other side of the wall from where we seek it)—thus he apostrophized his house and race in terms of the most moving eloquence; but when it came to the peroration—and what is eloquence that lacks a peroration?—he fumbled。 He would have liked to have ended with a flourish to the effect that he would follow in their footsteps and add another stone to their building。 Since; however; the building already covered nine acres; to add even a single stone seemed superfluous。 Could one mention furniture in a peroration? Could one speak of chairs and tables and mats to lie beside people’s beds? For whatever the peroration wanted; that was what the house stood in need of。 Leaving his speech unfinished for the moment; he strode down hill again resolved henceforward to devote himself to the furnishing of the mansion。 The news—that she was to attend him instantly—brought tears to the eyes of good old Mrs Grimsditch; now grown somewhat old。 Together they perambulated the house。

The towel horse in the King’s bedroom (’and that was King Jamie; my Lord;’ she said; hinting that it was many a day since a King had slept under their roof; but the odious Parliament days were over and there was now a Crown in England again) lacked a leg; there were no stands to the ewers in the little closet leading into the waiting room of the Duchess’s page; Mr Greene had made a stain on the carpet with his nasty pipe smoking; which she and Judy; for all their scrubbing; had never been able to wash out。 Indeed; when Orlando came to reckon up the matter of furnishing with rosewood chairs and cedar–wood cabis; with silver basins; china bowls; and Persian carpets; every one of the three hundred and sixty–five bedrooms which the house contained; he saw that it would be no light one; and if some thousands of pounds of his estate remained over; these would do little more than hang a few galleries with tapestry; set the dining hall with fine; carved chairs and provide mirrors of solid silver and chairs of the same metal (for which he had an inordinate passion) for the furnishing of the royal bedchambers。

He now set to work in earnest; as we can prove beyond a doubt if we look at his ledgers。 Let us glance at an inventory of what he bought at this time; with the expenses totted up in the margin—but these we omit。

‘To fifty pairs of Spanish blankets; ditto curtains of crimson and white taffeta; the valence to them of white satin embroidered with crimson and white silk。。。

‘To seventy yellow satin chairs and sixty stools; suitable with their buckram covers to them all。。。

‘To sixty seven walnut tree tables。。。

‘To seventeen dozen boxes containing each dozen five dozen of Venice glasses。。。

‘To one hundred and two mats; each thirty yards long。。。

‘To niy seven cushions of crimson damask laid with silver parchment lace and footstools of cloth of tissue and chairs suitable。。。

‘To fifty branches for a dozen lights apiece。。。’

Already—it is an effect lists have upon us—we are beginning to yawn。 But if we stop; it is only that the catalogue is tedious; not that it is finished。 There are niy–nine pages more of it and the total sum disbursed ran into many thousands—that is to say millions of our money。 And if his day was spent like this; at night again; Lord Orlando might be found reckoning out what it would cost to level a million molehills; if the men were paid tenpence an hour; and again; how many hundredweight of nails at fivepence halfpenny a gill were needed to repair the fence round the park; which was fifteen miles in circumference。 And so on and so on。

The tale; we say; is tedious; for one cupboard is much like another; and one molehill not much different from a million。 Some pleasant journeys it cost him; and some fine adventures。 As; for instance; when he set a whole city of blind women near Bruges to stitch hangings for a silver canopied bed; and the story of his adventure with a Moor in Venice of whom he bought (but only at the sword’s point) his lacquered cabi; might; in other hands; prove worth the telling。 Nor did the work lack variety; for here would e; drawn by teams from Sussex; great trees; to be sawn across and laid along the gallery for flooring; and then a chest from Persia; stuffed with wool and sawdust。 from which; at last; he would take a single plate; or one topaz ring。

At length; however; there was no room in the galleries for another table; no room on the tables for another cabi; no room in the cabi for another rose–bowl; no room in the bowl for another handful of potpourri; there was no room for anything anywhere; in short the house was furnished。 In the garden snowdrops; crocuses; hyacinths; magnolias; roses; lilies; asters; the dahlia in all its varieties; pear trees and apple trees and cherry trees and mulberry trees; with an enormous quantity of rare and flowering shrubs; of trees evergreen and perennial; grew so thick on each other’s roots that there was no plot of earth without its bloom; and no stretch of sward without its shade。 In addition; he had imported wild fowl with gay plumage; and two Malay bears; the surliness of whose manners concealed; he was certain; trusty hearts。

All now was ready; and when it was evening and the innumerable silver sconces were lit and the light airs which for ever moved about the galleries stirred the blue and green arras; so that it looked as if the huntsmen were riding and Daphne flying; when the silver shone and lacquer glowed and wood kindled; when the carved chairs held their arms out and dolphins swam upon the walls with mermaids on their backs; when all this and much more than all this was plete and to his liking; Orlando walked through the house with his elk hounds following and felt content。 He had matter now; he thought; to fill out his peroration。 Perhaps it would be well to begin the speech all over again。 Yet; as he paraded the galleries he felt that still something was lacking。 Chairs and tables; however richly gilt and carved; sofas; resting on lions’ paws with swans’ necks curving under them; beds even of the softest swansdown are not by themselves enough。 People sitting in them; people lying in them improve them amazingly。 Accordingly Orlando now began a series of very splendid entertainments to the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood。 The three hundred and sixty–five bedrooms were full for a month at a time。 Guests jostled each other on the fifty–two staircases。 Three hundred servants bustled about the pantries。 Banquets took place almost nightly。 Thus; in a very few years; Orlando had worn the nap off his velvet; and spent the half of his fortune; but he had earned the good opinion of his neighbours。 held a score of offices in the county; and was annually presented with perhaps a dozen volumes dedicated to his Lordship in rather fulsome terms by grateful poets。 For though he was careful not to consort with writers at that time and kept himself always aloof from ladies of foreign blood; still; he was excessively generous both to women and to poets; and both adored him。

But when the feasting was at its height and his guests were at their revels; he was apt to take himself off to his private room alone。 There when the door was shut; and he was certain of privacy; he would have out an old writing book; stitched together with silk stolen from his mother’s workbox; and labelled in a round schoolboy hand; ‘The Oak Tree; A Poem’。 In this he would write till midnight chimed and long after。 But as he scratched out as many lines as he wrote in; the sum of them was often; at the end of the year; rather less than at the beginning; and it looked as if in the process of writing the poem would be pletely unwritten。 For it is for the historian of letters to remark that he had changed his style amazingly。 His floridity was chastened; his abundance curbed; the age of prose was congealing those warm fountains。 The very landscape outside was less stuck about with garlands and the briars themselves were less thorned and intricate。 Perhaps the senses were a little duller and honey and cream less seductive to the palate。 Also that the streets were better drained and the houses better lit had its effect upon the style; it cannot be doubted。

One day he was adding a line or two with enormous labour to ‘The Oak Tree; A Poem’; when a shadow crossed the tail of his eye。 It was no shadow; he soon saw; but the figure of a very tall lady in riding hood and mantle crossing the quadrangle on which his room looked out。 As this was the most private of the courts; and the lady was a stranger to him; Orlando marvelled how she had got there。 Three days later the same apparition appeared again; and on Wednesday noon appeared once more。 This time; Orlando was determined to follow her; nor apparently was she afraid to be found; for she slackened her steps as he came up and looked him full in the face。 Any other woman thus caught in a Lord’s private grounds would have been afraid; any other woman with that face; head–dress; and aspect would have thrown her mantilla across her shoulders to hide it。 For this lady resembled nothing so much as a hare; a hare startled; but obdurate; a hare whose timidity is overe by an immense and foolish audacity; a hare that sits upright and glowers at its pursuer with great; bulging eyes; with ears erect but quivering; with nose pointed; but twitching。 This hare; moreover; was six feet high and wore a head–dress into the bargain of some antiquated kind which made her look still taller。 Thus confronted; she stared at Orlando with a stare in which timidity and audacity were most strangely bined。

First; she asked him; with a proper; but somewhat clumsy curtsey; to forgive her her intrusion。 Then; rising to her full height again; which must have been something over six feet two; she went on to say—but with such a cackle of nervous laughter; so much tee–heeing and haw–hawing that Orlando thought she must have escaped from a lunatic asylum—that she was the Archduchess Harriet Griselda of Finster–Aarhorn and Scand–op–Boom in the Roumanian territory。 She desired above all things to make his acquaintance; she said。 She had taken lodging over a baker’s shop at the Park Gates。 She had seen his picture and it was the image of a sister of hers who was—here she guffawed—long since dead。 She was visiting the English court。 The Queen was her Cousin。 The King was a very good fellow but seldom went to bed sober。 Here she tee–heed and haw–hawed again。 In short; there was nothing for it but to ask her in and give her a glass of wine。

Indoors; her manners regained the hauteur natural to a Roumanian Archduchess; and had she not shown a knowledge of wines rare in a lady; and made some o

血色使命  丛林战争  女性经理人打造术:跟王熙凤学管理  五胡烽火录  草包英雄  我的苦难我的大学  演讲论辩技巧  东北黑旋风  梨园往事  双子变变变  冷血悍将  销售人员职业教程  要塞-中世纪领主  红色之翼  生活要懂点博弈学 作 者: 王宇  亮剑精神  在中国做事(全文阅读) - 黄夏君  民国演义  江泽民  现在,发现你的优势  

热门小说推荐
重生八零之极品军妻

重生八零之极品军妻

吃货林思念重生到了八零年,面对这桩谋算来的婚姻,男人的冷漠,她却像打了鸡血似的,誓要把男主拿下。男人的冷漠与误会让她终于有了离开的想法,可军婚不好离,她不信邪的为离婚奋斗着。可这冷漠的男人从什么时候起,紧紧的追着她的脚步,还恬不知耻的要和她生儿子。呸,谁要和你生儿子?你有儿子了好不好,要生也是生一个像她一样漂亮可爱...

华娱特效大亨

华娱特效大亨

新书我的特效时代上传,求收藏,求推荐!落魄功夫小生陆麟,拥有一台能做出炫酷特效的超级电脑。从此华语影片不在是低成本小制作的代名词。奇幻瑰丽的仙侠世界登上银幕,沉迷华夏网文的外国小哥,不再期待漫威!书友群481993635...

上门狂婿

上门狂婿

被丈母娘为难,被女神老婆嫌弃!都说我是一无是处的上门女婿!突然,家族电话通知我继承亿万家财,其实我是一个级富二代...

奶爸至尊

奶爸至尊

肉身不破,灵魂不灭,为了回到穿越前,为了再见到他可爱的女儿,不断引起星域乱战,一个不死强者,重启纪元,回归平凡,从此一个无敌奶爸诞生了。续集,正在新书连载着...

通天武尊

通天武尊

他是绝世炼丹天才,因生来不能修炼武道,遭到自己最亲近的女人背叛杀害,转世重生于一个被人欺凌的废材少年身上。废材?天才?笑话,这万界内没人比他杨辰更了解培养天才!武道?丹道?双修又有何难!成就妖孽之道一路逆袭!极我逸才铸神体,荡尽不平!以我璀华炼仙丹,万界颤抖!...

都市最强狂兵

都市最强狂兵

龙血部队兵王狂龙因违反规定,被迫回到中海。本想低调做人,却偶遇美女总裁让自己睡了她,哪知道被卷入一场莫名的争斗,成为了她的贴身保镖。叶轻狂从此龙入花海,身边美女如云,但也麻烦不断读者群527212401...

每日热搜小说推荐