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the glimpses of the moon-第33部分

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frizzled thatch of hair and a pediment of uncleaned diamonds;

passed on to the vacuous and overfed or fashionably haggard

masks of the ladies next in rank; and finally caught; between

branching orchids; a distant glimpse of Miss Hicks。



In contrast with the others; he thought; she looked surprisingly

noble。  Her large grave features made her appear like an old

monument in a street of Palace Hotels; and he marvelled at the

mysterious law which had brought this archaic face out of Apex

City; and given to the oldest society of Europe a look of such

mixed modernity。



Lansing perceived that the aide…de…camp; who was his neighbour;

was also looking at Miss Hicks。  His expression was serious; and

even thoughtful; but as his eyes met Lansing's he readjusted his

official smile。



〃I was admiring our hostess's daughter。  Her absence of jewels

iseran inspiration;〃 he remarked in the confidential tone

which Lansing had come to dread。



〃Oh; Miss Hicks is full of inspirations;〃 he returned curtly;

and the aide…de…camp bowed with an admiring air; as if

inspirations were rarer than pearls; as in his milieu they

undoubtedly were。  〃She is the equal of any situation; I am

sure;〃 he replied; and then abandoned the subject with one of

his automatic transitions。



After dinner; in the embrasure of a drawing…room window; he

surprised Nick by returning to the same topic; and this time

without thinking it needful to readjust his smile。  His face

remained serious; though his manner was studiously informal。



〃I was admiring; at dinner; Miss Hicks's invariable sense of

appropriateness。  It must permit her friends to foresee for her

almost any future; however exalted。〃



Lansing hesitated; and controlled his annoyance。  Decidedly he

wanted to know what was in his companion's mind。



〃What do you mean by exalted?〃 he asked; with a smile of faint

amusement。



〃Wellequal to her marvellous capacity for shining in the

public eye。〃



Lansing still smiled。  〃The question is; I suppose; whether her

desire to shine equals her capacity。〃



The aide…de…camp stared。  〃You mean; she's not ambitious?〃



〃On the contrary; I believe her to be immeasurably ambitious。〃



〃Immeasurably?〃  The aide…de…camp seemed to try to measure it。

〃But not; surely; beyond〃 〃beyond what we can offer;〃 his eyes

completed the sentence; and it was Lansing's turn to stare。  The

aide…de…camp faced the stare。  〃Yes;〃 his eyes concluded in a

flash; while his lips let fall:  〃The Princess Mother admires

her immensely。〃  But at that moment a wave of Mrs。 Hicks's fan

drew them hurriedly from their embrasure。



〃Professor Darchivio had promised to explain to us the

difference between the Sassanian and Byzantine motives in

Carolingian art; but the Manager has sent up word that the two

new Creole dancers from Paris have arrived; and her Serene

Highness wants to pop down to the ball…room and take a peep at

them 。。。。  She's sure the Professor will understand 。。。。〃



〃And accompany us; of course;〃 the Princess irresistibly added。



Lansing's brief colloquy in the Nouveau Luxe window had lifted

the scales from his eyes。  Innumerable dim corners of memory had

been flooded with light by that one quick glance of the aide…de…

camp's:  things he had heard; hints he had let pass; smiles;

insinuations; cordialities; rumours of the improbability of the

Prince's founding a family; suggestions as to the urgent need of

replenishing the Teutoburger treasury 。。。。



Miss Hicks; perforce; had accompanied her parents and their

princely guests to the ballroom; but as she did not dance; and

took little interest in the sight of others so engaged; she

remained aloof from the party; absorbed in an archaeological

discussion with the baffled but smiling savant who was to have

enlightened the party on the difference between Sassanian and

Byzantine ornament。



Lansing; also aloof; had picked out a post from which he could

observe the girl:  she wore a new look to him since he had seen

her as the centre of all these scattered threads of intrigue。

Yes; decidedly she was growing handsomer; or else she had

learned how to set off her massive lines instead of trying to

disguise them。  As she held up her long eye…glass to glance

absently at the dancers he was struck by the large beauty of her

arm and the careless assurance of the gesture。  There was

nothing nervous or fussy about Coral Hicks; and he was not

surprised that; plastically at least; the Princess Mother had

discerned her possibilities。



Nick Lansing; all that night; sat up and stared at his future。

He knew enough of the society into which the Hickses had drifted

to guess that; within a very short time; the hint of the

Prince's aide…de…camp would reappear in the form of a direct

proposal。  Lansing himself would probablyas the one person in

the Hicks entourage with whom one could intelligibly commune…be

entrusted with the next step in the negotiations:  he would be

asked; as the aide…de…camp would have said; 〃to feel the

ground。〃  It was clearly part of the state policy of Teutoburg

to offer Miss Hicks; with the hand of its sovereign; an

opportunity to replenish its treasury。



What would the girl do?  Lansing could not guess; yet he dimly

felt that her attitude would depend in a great degree upon his

own。  And he knew no more what his own was going to be than on

the night; four months earlier; when he had flung out of his

wife's room in Venice to take the midnight express for Genoa。



The whole of his past; and above all the tendency; on which he

had once prided himself; to live in the present and take

whatever chances it offered; now made it harder for him to act。

He began to see that he had never; even in the closest relations

of life; looked ahead of his immediate satisfaction。  He had

thought it rather fine to be able to give himself so intensely

to the fullness of each moment instead of hurrying past it in

pursuit of something more; or something else; in the manner of

the over…scrupulous or the under…imaginative; whom he had always

grouped together and equally pitied。  It was not till he had

linked his life with Susy's that he had begun to feel it

reaching forward into a future he longed to make sure of; to

fasten upon and shape to his own wants and purposes; till; by an

imperceptible substitution; that future had become his real

present; his all…absorbing moment of time。



Now the moment was shattered; and the power to rebuild it failed

him。  He had never before thought about putting together broken

bits:  he felt like a man whose house has been wrecked by an

earthquake; and who; for lack of skilled labour; is called upon

for the first time to wield a trowel and carry bricks。  He

simply did not know how。



Will…power; he saw; was not a thing one could suddenly decree

oneself to possess。  It must be built up imperceptibly and

laboriously out of a succession of small efforts to meet

definite objects; out of the facing of daily difficulties

instead of cleverly eluding them; or shifting their burden on

others。  The making of the substance called character was a

process about as slow and arduous as the building of the

Pyramids; and the thing itself; like those awful edifices; was

mainly useful to lodge one's descendants in; after they too were

dust。  Yet the Pyramid…instinct was the one which had made the

world; made man; and caused his fugitive joys to linger like

fading frescoes on imperishable walls 。。。。







XXI



ON the drive back from her dinner at the Nouveau Luxe; events

had followed the course foreseen by Susy。



She had promised Strefford to seek legal advice about her

divorce; and he had kissed her; and the promise had been easier

to make than she had expected; the kiss less difficult to

receive。



She had gone to the dinner a…quiver with the mortification of

learning that her husband was still with the Hickses。  Morally

sure of it though she had been; the discovery was a shock; and

she measured for the first time the abyss between fearing and

knowing。  No wonder he had not writtenthe modern husband did

not have to:  he had only to leave it to time and the newspapers

to make known his intentions。  Susy could imagine Nick's saying

to himself; as he sometimes used to say when she reminded him of

an unanswered letter:  〃But there are lots of ways of answering

a letterand writing doesn't happen to be mine。〃



Wellhe had done it in his way; and she was answered。  For a

minute; as she laid aside the paper; darkness submerged her; and

she felt herself dropping down into the bottomless anguish of

her dreadful vigil in the Palazzo Vanderlyn。  But she was weary

of anguish:  her healthy body and nerves instinctively rejected

it。  The wave was spent; and she felt herself irresistibly

struggling back to light and life and youth。  He didn't want

her!  Well; she would try not to want him!  There lay all the

old expedients at her handthe rouge for her white lips; the

atropine for her blurred eyes; the new dress on her bed; the

thought of Strefford and his guests awaiting her; and of the

conclusions that the diners of the Nouveau Luxe would draw from

seeing them together。  Thank heaven no one would say:  〃Poor old

Susydid you know Nick had chucked her?〃  They would all say:

〃Poor old Nick!  Yes; I daresay she was sorry to chuck him; but

Altringham's mad to marry her; and what could she do? 〃



And once again events had followed the course she had foreseen。

Seeing her at Lord Altringham's table; with the Ascots and the

old Duchess of Dunes; the interested spectators could not but

regard the dinner as confirming the rumour of her marriage。  As

Ellie said; people didn't wait nowadays to announce their

〃engagements〃 till the tiresome divorce proceedings were over。

Ellie herself; prodigally pearled and ermined; had floated in

late with Al
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