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the unbearable bassington-第25章

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No one can effectively defend a Government when it's been in office 

several years。  The Archdeacon took refuge in light skirmishing。



〃I believe Lady Caroline sees the makings of a great Socialist 

statesman in you; Youghal;〃 he observed。



〃Great Socialist statesmen aren't made; they're stillborn;〃 replied 

Youghal。



〃What is the play about to…night?〃 asked a pale young woman who had 

taken no part in the talk。



〃I don't know;〃 said Lady Caroline; 〃but I hope it's dull。  If 

there is any brilliant conversation in it I shall burst into 

tears。〃



In the front row of the upper circle a woman with a restless 

starling…voice was discussing the work of a temporarily fashionable 

composer; chiefly in relation to her own emotions; which she seemed 

to think might prove generally interesting to those around her。



〃Whenever I hear his music I feel that I want to go up into a 

mountain and pray。  Can you understand that feeling?〃



The girl to whom she was unburdening herself shook her head。



〃You see; I've heard his music chiefly in Switzerland; and we were 

up among the mountains all the time; so it wouldn't have made any 

difference。〃



〃In that case;〃 said the woman; who seemed to have emergency 

emotions to suit all geographical conditions; 〃I should have wanted 

to be in a great silent plain by the side of a rushing river。〃



〃What I think is so splendid about his music … 〃 commenced another 

starling…voice on the further side of the girl。  Like sheep that 

feed greedily before the coming of a storm the starling…voices 

seemed impelled to extra effort by the knowledge of four imminent 

intervals of acting during which they would be hushed into 

constrained silence。



In the back row of the dress circle a late…comer; after a cursory 

glance at the programme; had settled down into a comfortable 

narrative; which was evidently the resumed thread of an unfinished 

taxi…drive monologue。



〃We all said 'it can't be Captain Parminter; because he's always 

been sweet on Joan;' and then Emily said … 〃



The curtain went up; and Emily's contribution to the discussion had 

to be held over till the entr'acte。



The play promised to be a success。  The author; avoiding the 

pitfall of brilliancy; had aimed at being interesting and as far as 

possible; bearing in mind that his play was a comedy; he had 

striven to be amusing。  Above all he had remembered that in the 

laws of stage proportions it is permissible and generally desirable 

that the part should be greater than the whole; hence he had been 

careful to give the leading lady such a clear and commanding lead 

over the other characters of the play that it was impossible for 

any of them ever to get on level terms with her。  The action of the 

piece was now and then delayed thereby; but the duration of its run 

would be materially prolonged。



The curtain came down on the first act amid an encouraging 

instalment of applause; and the audience turned its back on the 

stage and began to take a renewed interest in itself。  The 

authoress of 〃The Woman who wished it was Wednesday〃 had swept like 

a convalescent whirlwind; subdued but potentially tempestuous; into 

Lady Caroline's box。



〃I've just trodden with all my weight on the foot of an eminent 

publisher as I was leaving my seat;〃 she cried; with a peal of 

delighted laughter。  〃He was such a dear about it; I said I hoped I 

hadn't hurt him; and he said; 'I suppose you think; who drives hard 

bargains should himself be hard。'  Wasn't it pet…lamb of him?〃



〃I've never trodden on a pet lamb;〃 said Lady Caroline; 〃so I've no 

idea what its behaviour would be under the circumstances。〃



〃Tell me;〃 said the authoress; coming to the front of the box; the 

better to survey the house; and perhaps also with a charitable 

desire to make things easy for those who might pardonably wish to 

survey her; 〃tell me; please; where is the girl sitting whom 

Courtenay Youghal is engaged to?〃



Elaine was pointed out to her; sitting in the fourth row of the 

stalls; on the opposite side of the house to where Comus had his 

seat。  Once during the interval she had turned to give him a 

friendly nod of recognition as he stood in one of the side 

gangways; but he was absorbed at the moment in looking at himself 

in the glass panel。  The grave brown eyes and the mocking green…

grey ones had looked their last into each other's depths。



For Comus this first…night performance; with its brilliant 

gathering of spectators; its groups and coteries of lively talkers; 

even its counterfoil of dull chatterers; its pervading atmosphere 

of stage and social movement; and its intruding undercurrent of 

political flutter; all this composed a tragedy in which he was the 

chief character。  It was the life he knew and loved and basked in; 

and it was the life he was leaving。  It would go on reproducing 

itself again and again; with its stage interest and social interest 

and intruding outside interests; with the same lively chattering 

crowd; the people who had done things being pointed out by people 

who recognised them to people who didn't … it would all go on with 

unflagging animation and sparkle and enjoyment; and for him it 

would have stopped utterly。  He would be in some unheard…of sun…

blistered wilderness; where natives and pariah dogs and raucous…

throated crows fringed round mockingly on one's loneliness; where 

one rode for sweltering miles for the chance of meeting a collector 

or police officer; with whom most likely on closer acquaintance one 

had hardly two ideas in common; where female society was 

represented at long intervals by some climate…withered woman 

missionary or official's wife; where food and sickness and 

veterinary lore became at last the three outstanding subjects on 

which the mind settled or rather sank。  That was the life he 

foresaw and dreaded; and that was the life he was going to。  For a 

boy who went out to it from the dulness of some country rectory; 

from a neighbourhood where a flower show and a cricket match formed 

the social landmarks of the year; the feeling of exile might not be 

very crushing; might indeed be lost in the sense of change and 

adventure。  But Comus had lived too thoroughly in the centre of 

things to regard life in a backwater as anything else than 

stagnation; and stagnation while one is young he justly regarded as 

an offence against nature and reason; in keeping with the perverted 

mockery that sends decrepit invalids touring painfully about the 

world and shuts panthers up in narrow cages。  He was being put 

aside; as a wine is put aside; but to deteriorate instead of 

gaining in the process; to lose the best time of his youth and 

health and good looks in a world where youth and health and good 

looks count for much and where time never returns lost possessions。  

And thus; as the curtain swept down on the close of each act; Comus 

felt a sense of depression and deprivation sweep down on himself; 

bitterly he watched his last evening of social gaiety slipping away 

to its end。  In less than an hour it would be over; in a few 

months' time it would be an unreal memory。



In the third interval; as he gazed round at the chattering house; 

someone touched him on the arm。  It was Lady Veula Croot。



〃I suppose in a week's time you'll be on the high seas;〃 she said。  

〃I'm coming to your farewell dinner; you know; your mother has just 

asked me。  I'm not going to talk the usual rot to you about how 

much you will like it and so on。  I sometimes think that one of the 

advantages of Hell will be that no one will have the impertinence 

to point out to you that you're really better off than you would be 

anywhere else。  What do you think of the play?  Of course one can 

foresee the end; she will come to her husband with the announcement 

that their longed…for child is going to be born; and that will 

smooth over everything。  So conveniently effective; to wind up a 

comedy with the commencement of someone else's tragedy。  And every 

one will go away saying 'I'm glad it had a happy ending。'〃



Lady Veula moved back to her seat; with her pleasant smile on her 

lips and the look of infinite weariness in her eyes。



The interval; the last interval; was drawing to a close and the 

house began to turn with fidgetty attention towards the stage for 

the unfolding of the final phase of the play。  Francesca sat in 

Serena Golackly's box listening to Colonel Springfield's story of 

what happened to a pigeon…cote in his compound at Poona。  Everyone 

who knew the Colonel had to listen to that story a good many times; 

but Lady Caroline had mitigated the boredom of the infliction; and 

in fact invested it with a certain sporting interest; by offering a 

prize to the person who heard it oftenest in the course of the 

Season; the competitors being under an honourable under
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