第 4 节
作者:寻找山吹      更新:2022-08-21 16:40      字数:9322
  particular holes in his three or four pair of coloured stockings。
  Morgan was dear to his mother; but he never was better dressed than
  was absolutely necessary … partly; no doubt; by his own fault; for
  he was as indifferent to his appearance as a German philosopher。
  〃My dear fellow; you ARE coming to pieces;〃 Pemberton would say to
  him in sceptical remonstrance; to which the child would reply;
  looking at him serenely up and down:  〃My dear fellow; so are you!
  I don't want to cast you in the shade。〃  Pemberton could have no
  rejoinder for this … the assertion so closely represented the fact。
  If however the deficiencies of his own wardrobe were a chapter by
  themselves he didn't like his little charge to look too poor。
  Later he used to say 〃Well; if we're poor; why; after all;
  shouldn't we look it?〃 and he consoled himself with thinking there
  was something rather elderly and gentlemanly in Morgan's disrepair
  … it differed from the untidiness of the urchin who plays and
  spoils his things。  He could trace perfectly the degrees by which;
  in proportion as her little son confined himself to his tutor for
  society; Mrs。 Moreen shrewdly forbore to renew his garments。  She
  did nothing that didn't show; neglected him because he escaped
  notice; and then; as he illustrated this clever policy; discouraged
  at home his public appearances。  Her position was logical enough …
  those members of her family who did show had to be showy。
  During this period and several others Pemberton was quite aware of
  how he and his comrade might strike people; wandering languidly
  through the Jardin des Plantes as if they had nowhere to go;
  sitting on the winter days in the galleries of the Louvre; so
  splendidly ironical to the homeless; as if for the advantage of the
  calorifere。  They joked about it sometimes:  it was the sort of
  joke that was perfectly within the boy's compass。  They figured
  themselves as part of the vast vague hand…to…mouth multitude of the
  enormous city and pretended they were proud of their position in it
  … it showed them 〃such a lot of life〃 and made them conscious of a
  democratic brotherhood。  If Pemberton couldn't feel a sympathy in
  destitution with his small companion … for after all Morgan's fond
  parents would never have let him really suffer … the boy would at
  least feel it with him; so it came to the same thing。  He used
  sometimes to wonder what people would think they were … to fancy
  they were looked askance at; as if it might be a suspected case of
  kidnapping。  Morgan wouldn't be taken for a young patrician with a
  preceptor … he wasn't smart enough; though he might pass for his
  companion's sickly little brother。  Now and then he had a five…
  franc piece; and except once; when they bought a couple of lovely
  neckties; one of which he made Pemberton accept; they laid it out
  scientifically in old books。  This was sure to be a great day;
  always spent on the quays; in a rummage of the dusty boxes that
  garnish the parapets。  Such occasions helped them to live; for
  their books ran low very soon after the beginning of their
  acquaintance。  Pemberton had a good many in England; but he was
  obliged to write to a friend and ask him kindly to get some fellow
  to give him something for them。
  If they had to relinquish that summer the advantage of the bracing
  climate the young man couldn't but suspect this failure of the cup
  when at their very lips to have been the effect of a rude jostle of
  his own。  This had represented his first blow…out; as he called it;
  with his patrons; his first successful attempt … though there was
  little other success about it … to bring them to a consideration of
  his impossible position。  As the ostensible eve of a costly journey
  the moment had struck him as favourable to an earnest protest; the
  presentation of an ultimatum。  Ridiculous as it sounded; he had
  never yet been able to compass an uninterrupted private interview
  with the elder pair or with either of them singly。  They were
  always flanked by their elder children; and poor Pemberton usually
  had his own little charge at his side。  He was conscious of its
  being a house in which the surface of one's delicacy got rather
  smudged; nevertheless he had preserved the bloom of his scruple
  against announcing to Mr。 and Mrs。 Moreen with publicity that he
  shouldn't be able to go on longer without a little money。  He was
  still simple enough to suppose Ulick and Paula and Amy might not
  know that since his arrival he had only had a hundred and forty
  francs; and he was magnanimous enough to wish not to compromise
  their parents in their eyes。  Mr。 Moreen now listened to him; as he
  listened to every one and to every thing; like a man of the world;
  and seemed to appeal to him … though not of course too grossly … to
  try and be a little more of one himself。  Pemberton recognised in
  fact the importance of the character … from the advantage it gave
  Mr。 Moreen。  He was not even confused or embarrassed; whereas the
  young man in his service was more so than there was any reason for。
  Neither was he surprised … at least any more than a gentleman had
  to be who freely confessed himself a little shocked … though not
  perhaps strictly at Pemberton。
  〃We must go into this; mustn't we; dear?〃 he said to his wife。  He
  assured his young friend that the matter should have his very best
  attention; and he melted into space as elusively as if; at the
  door; he were taking an inevitable but deprecatory precedence。
  When; the next moment; Pemberton found himself alone with Mrs。
  Moreen it was to hear her say 〃I see; I see〃 … stroking the
  roundness of her chin and looking as if she were only hesitating
  between a dozen easy remedies。  If they didn't make their push Mr。
  Moreen could at least disappear for several days。  During his
  absence his wife took up the subject again spontaneously; but her
  contribution to it was merely that she had thought all the while
  they were getting on so beautifully。  Pemberton's reply to this
  revelation was that unless they immediately put down something on
  account he would leave them on the spot and for ever。  He knew she
  would wonder how he would get away; and for a moment expected her
  to enquire。  She didn't; for which he was almost grateful to her;
  so little was he in a position to tell。
  〃You won't; you KNOW you won't … you're too interested;〃 she said。
  〃You are interested; you know you are; you dear kind man!〃  She
  laughed with almost condemnatory archness; as if it were a reproach
  … though she wouldn't insist; and flirted a soiled pocket…
  handkerchief at him。
  Pemberton's mind was fully made up to take his step the following
  week。  This would give him time to get an answer to a letter he had
  despatched to England。  If he did in the event nothing of the sort
  … that is if he stayed another year and then went away only for
  three months … it was not merely because before the answer to his
  letter came (most unsatisfactory when it did arrive) Mr。 Moreen
  generously counted out to him; and again with the sacrifice to
  〃form〃 of a marked man of the world; three hundred francs in
  elegant ringing gold。  He was irritated to find that Mrs。 Moreen
  was right; that he couldn't at the pinch bear to leave the child。
  This stood out clearer for the very reason that; the night of his
  desperate appeal to his patrons; he had seen fully for the first
  time where he was。  Wasn't it another proof of the success with
  which those patrons practised their arts that they had managed to
  avert for so long the illuminating flash?  It descended on our
  friend with a breadth of effect which perhaps would have struck a
  spectator as comical; after he had returned to his little servile
  room; which looked into a close court where a bare dirty opposite
  wall took; with the sound of shrill clatter; the reflexion of
  lighted back windows。  He had simply given himself away to a band
  of adventurers。  The idea; the word itself; wore a romantic horror
  for him … he had always lived on such safe lines。  Later it assumed
  a more interesting; almost a soothing; sense:  it pointed a moral;
  and Pemberton could enjoy a moral。  The Moreens were adventurers
  not merely because they didn't pay their debts; because they lived
  on society; but because their whole view of life; dim and confused
  and instinctive; like that of clever colour…blind animals; was
  speculative and rapacious and mean。  Oh they were 〃respectable;〃
  and that only made them more immondes。  The young man's analysis;
  while he brooded; put it at last very simply … they were
  adventurers because they were toadies and snobs。  That was the
  completest account of them … it was the law of their being。  Even
  when this truth became vivid to their ingenious inmate he remained
  unconscious of how much his mind had been prepared for it by the
  extraordinary little boy who had now become such a complication in
  his life。  Much less could he then calculate on the information he
  was sti