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the professor at the breakfast table-第47部分
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from Michel Angelo; which seem to have been her patterns mainly。
》From Nature; I think; or after a cast from Nature。 Oh!
Your smaller studies are in this; I suppose;I said; taking up
the drawing…book with a lock on it;Yes;she said。 I should like
to see her style of working on a small scale。 There was nothing in
it worth showing;she said; and presently I saw her try the lock;
which proved to be fast。 We are all caricatured in it; I haven't
the least doubt。 I think; though; I could tell by her way of
dealing with us what her fancies were about us boarders。 Some of
them act as if they were bewitched with her; but she does not seem
to notice it much。 Her thoughts seem to be on her little neighbor
more than on anybody else。 The young fellow John appears to stand
second in her good graces。 I think he has once or twice sent her
what the landlady's daughter calls bo…kays of flowers;somebody
has; at any rate。 I saw a book she had; which must have come from
the divinity…student。 It had a dreary title…page; which she had
enlivened with a fancy portrait of the author;a face from memory;
apparently;one of those faces that small children loathe without
knowing why; and which give them that inward disgust for heaven so
many of the little wretches betray; when they hear that these are
〃good men;〃 and that heaven is full of such。 The gentleman with
the diamondthe Koh…i…noor; so called by uswas not encouraged; I
think; by the reception of his packet of perfumed soap。 He pulls
his purple moustache and looks appreciatingly at Iris; who never
sees him; as it should seem。 The young Marylander; who I thought
would have been in love with her before this time; sometimes looks
from his corner across the long diagonal of the table; as much as to
say; I wish you were up here by me; or I were down there by you;
which would; perhaps; be a more natural arrangement than the present
one。 But nothing comes of all this;and nothing has come of my
sagacious idea of finding out the girl's fancies by looking into her
locked drawing…book。
Not to give up all the questions I was determined to solve; I made
an attempt also to work into the Little Gentleman's chamber。 For
this purpose; I kept him in conversation; one morning; until he was
just ready to go up…stairs; and then; as if to continue the talk;
followed him as he toiled back to his room。 He rested on the
landing and faced round toward me。 There was something in his eye
which said; Stop there! So we finished our conversation on the
landing。 The next day; I mustered assurance enough to knock at his
door; having a pretext ready。 No answer。 Knock again。 A door;
as if of a cabinet; was shut softly and locked; and presently I
heard the peculiar dead beat of his thick…soled; misshapen boots。
The bolts and the lock of the inner door were unfastened;with
unnecessary noise; I thought;and he came into the passage。 He
pulled the inner door after him and opened the outer one at which I
stood。 He had on a flowered silk dressing…gown; such as
〃Mr。 Copley〃 used to paint his old…fashioned merchant…princes in;
and a quaint…looking key in his hand。 Our conversation was short;
but long enough to convince me that the Little Gentleman did not
want my company in his chamber; and did not mean to have it。
I have been making a great fuss about what is no mystery at all;a
schoolgirl's secrets and a whimsical man's habits。 I mean to give
up such nonsense and mind my own business。 Hark! What the deuse
is that odd noise in his chamber?
I think I am a little superstitious。 There were two things; when
I was a boy; that diabolized my imagination;I mean; that gave me a
distinct apprehension of a formidable bodily shape which prowled
round the neighborhood where I was born and bred。 The first was a
series of marks called the 〃Devil's footsteps。〃 These were patches
of sand in the pastures; where no grass grew; where the low…bush
blackberry; the 〃dewberry;〃 as our Southern neighbors call it; in
prettier and more Shakspearian language; did not spread its clinging
creepers;where even the pale; dry; sadly…sweet 〃everlasting〃 could
not grow; but all was bare and blasted。 The second was a mark in
one of the public buildings near my home;the college dormitory
named after a Colonial Governor。 I do not think many persons are
aware of the existence of this mark;little having been said about
the story in print; as it was considered very desirable; for the
sake of the Institution; to hush it up。 In the northwest corner;
and on the level of the third or fourth story; there are signs of a
breach in the walls; mended pretty well; but not to be mistaken。 A
considerable portion of that corner must have been carried away;
from within outward。 It was an unpleasant affair; and I do not care
to repeat the particulars; but some young men had been using sacred
things in a profane and unlawful way; when the occurrence; which was
variously explained; took place。 The story of the Appearance in the
chamber was; I suppose; invented afterwards; but of the injury to
the building there could be no question; and the zig…zag line; where
the mortar is a little thicker than before; is still distinctly
visible。 The queer burnt spots; called the 〃Devil's footsteps;〃 had
never attracted attention before this time; though there is no
evidence that they had not existed previously; except that of the
late Miss M。; a 〃Goody;〃 so called; or sweeper; who was positive on
the subject; but had a strange horror of referring to an affair of
which she was thought to know something。 I tell you it was not so
pleasant for a little boy of impressible nature to go up to bed in
an old gambrel…roofed house; with untenanted; locked upper…chambers;
and a most ghostly garret;with the 〃Devil's footsteps〃 in the
fields behind the house and in front of it the patched dormitory
where the unexplained occurrence had taken place which startled
those godless youths at their mock devotions; so that one of them
was epileptic from that day forward; and another; after a dreadful
season of mental conflict; took holy orders and became renowned for
his ascetic sanctity。
There were other circumstances that kept up the impression produced
by these two singular facts I have just mentioned。 There was a dark
storeroom; on looking through the key…hole of which; I could dimly
see a heap of chairs and tables; and other four…footed things; which
seemed to me to have rushed in there; frightened; and in their
fright to have huddled together and climbed up on each other's
backs;as the people did in that awful crush where so many were
killed; at the execution of Holloway and Haggerty。 Then the Lady's
portrait; up…stairs; with the sword…thrusts through it;marks of
the British officers' rapiers;and the tall mirror in which they
used to look at their red coats;confound them for smashing its
mate?and the deep; cunningly wrought arm…chair in which Lord Percy
used to sit wh
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