登陆注册
19901600000107

第107章

Threshold G UDRUN WAS AWAY in London, having a little show of her work, with a friend, and looking round, preparing for flight from Beldover.Come what might she would be on the wing in a very short time.

She received a letter from Winifred Crich, ornamented with drawings.

`Father also has been to London, to be examined by the doctors.It made him very tired.They say he must rest a very great deal, so he is mostly in bed.He brought me a lovely tropical parrot in faience, of Dresden ware, also a man ploughing, and two mice climbing up a stalk, also in faience.

The mice were Copenhagen ware.They are the best, but mice don't shine so much, otherwise they are very good, their tails are slim and long.They all shine nearly like glass.Of course it is the glaze, but I don't like it.Gerald likes the man ploughing the best, his trousers are torn, he is ploughing with an ox, being I suppose a German peasant.It is all grey and white, white shirt and grey trousers, but very shiny and clean.Mr Birkin likes the girl best, under the hawthorn blossom, with a lamb, and with daffodils painted on her skirts, in the drawing room.But that is silly, because the lamb is not a real lamb, and she is silly too.

`Dear Miss Brangwen, are you coming back soon, you are very much missed here.I enclose a drawing of father sitting up in bed.He says he hopes you are not going to forsake us.Oh dear Miss Brangwen, I am sure you won't.

Do come back and draw the ferrets, they are the most lovely noble darlings in the world.We might carve them in holly-wood, playing against a background of green leaves.Oh do let us, for they are most beautiful.

`Father says we might have a studio.Gerald says we could easily have a beautiful one over the stables, it would only need windows to be put in the slant of the roof, which is a simple matter.Then you could stay here all day and work, and we could live in the studio, like two real artists, like the man in the picture in the hall, with the frying-pan and the walls all covered with drawings.I long to be free, to live the free life of an artist.Even Gerald told father that only an artist is free, because he lives in a creative world of his own --'

Gudrun caught the drift of the family intentions, in this letter.Gerald wanted her to be attached to the household at Shortlands, he was using Winifred as his stalking-horse.The father thought only of his child, he saw a rock of salvation in Gudrun.And Gudrun admired him for his perspicacity.

The child, moreover, was really exceptional.Gudrun was quite content.

She was quite willing, given a studio, to spend her days at Shortlands.

She disliked the Grammar School already thoroughly, she wanted to be free.

If a studio were provided, she would be free to go on with her work, she would await the turn of events with complete serenity.And she was really interested in Winifred, she would be quite glad to understand the girl.

So there was quite a little festivity on Winifred's account, the day Gudrun returned to Shortlands.

`You should make a bunch of flowers to give to Miss Brangwen when she arrives,' Gerald said smiling to his sister.

`Oh no,' cried Winifred, `it's silly.'

`Not at all.It is a very charming and ordinary attention.'

`Oh, it is silly,' protested Winifred, with all the extreme mauvaise honte of her years.Nevertheless, the idea appealed to her.She wanted very much to carry it out.She flitted round the green-houses and the conservatory looking wistfully at the flowers on their stems.And the more she looked, the more she longed to have a bunch of the blossoms she saw, the more fascinated she became with her little vision of ceremony, and the more consumedly shy and self-conscious she grew, till she was almost beside herself.She could not get the idea out of her mind.It was as if some haunting challenge prompted her, and she had not enough courage to take it up.So again she drifted into the green-houses, looking at the lovely roses in their pots, and at the virginal cyclamens, and at the mystic white clusters of a creeper.The beauty, oh the beauty of them, and oh the paradisal bliss, if she should have a perfect bouquet and could give it to Gudrun the next day.Her passion and her complete indecision almost made her ill.

At last she slid to her father's side.

`Daddie --' she said.

`What, my precious?'

But she hung back, the tears almost coming to her eyes, in her sensitive confusion.Her father looked at her, and his heart ran hot with tenderness, an anguish of poignant love.

`What do you want to say to me, my love?'

`Daddie -- !' her eyes smiled laconically -- `isn't it silly if I give Miss Brangwen some flowers when she comes?'

The sick man looked at the bright, knowing eyes of his child, and his heart burned with love.

`No, darling, that's not silly.It's what they do to queens.'

This was not very reassuring to Winifred.She half suspected that queens in themselves were a silliness.Yet she so wanted her little romantic occasion.

`Shall I then?' she asked.

`Give Miss Brangwen some flowers? Do, Birdie.Tell Wilson I say you are to have what you want.'

The child smiled a small, subtle, unconscious smile to herself, in anticipation of her way.

`But I won't get them till tomorrow,' she said.

`Not till tomorrow, Birdie.Give me a kiss then --'

Winifred silently kissed the sick man, and drifted out of the room.

She again went the round of the green-houses and the conservatory, informing the gardener, in her high, peremptory, simple fashion, of what she wanted, telling him all the blooms she had selected.

`What do you want these for?' Wilson asked.

`I want them,' she said.She wished servants did not ask questions.

`Ay, you've said as much.But what do you want them for, for decoration, or to send away, or what?'

`I want them for a presentation bouquet.'

`A presentation bouquet! Who's coming then? -- the Duchess of Portland?'

`No.'

`Oh, not her? Well you'll have a rare poppy-show if you put all the things you've mentioned into your bouquet.'

`Yes, I want a rare poppy-show.'

`You do! Then there's no more to be said.'

同类推荐
  • 璞山蒋公政训

    璞山蒋公政训

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重雕清凉传

    重雕清凉传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 茶录

    茶录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 中藏经

    中藏经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • An Essay on Man

    An Essay on Man

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 重生之我的西游

    重生之我的西游

    你相信曾经勇斗三界的齐天大圣却斗不过妖怪喽啰?天蓬会明知天规还敢去调戏嫦娥?仅因一件琉璃盏却被贬为吃人妖怪的卷帘?心怜众生却被点化是非不分的金蝉子?
  • 似水青春

    似水青春

    在你我的青涩时光里,总有那么一个人,让你能拥有特异功能,能在人来人往的操场上一下找到他,能在认真听课得同时时也能捕捉他的细微动作;与他同在一个空间的每一秒都可以旁若无人,与他对视的每一秒都能忘记呼吸。是的,就是喜欢着他,不管他人怎么说,不管结果如何,因为这些只是你与朋友才知道的秘密。
  • 蜀山之下

    蜀山之下

    “每天重复又重复的生活,百无聊赖,不管干什么都没有激情,这样活下去还干什么?”窝在电脑屏幕前的杜三眼神麻木而空洞……“想明白生命的意义吗?想真正的……活着吗?”Yes/No——————————————————当我们站在山顶,脚下云雾一片,众生卑微。
  • 冷情王爷无良妻:宠妃倾国色

    冷情王爷无良妻:宠妃倾国色

    她的穿越,是阴谋还是天意?一场因她的到来而开始谋划了十年的阴谋渐渐拉开序幕。离谷印丢,江湖乱,朝堂动。当现实摆脱一切美好的想象时,她至始至终都是别人最美丽的误会……当她从单纯的小萝莉变成黑暗中的魔鬼时,他又再次出现。他放弃江山,只为与她携手天涯;她却公然逃跑,不做皇家妇。如若你做不到弱水三千,只取一瓢,那就请放手……
  • 九天圣龙斗苍穹

    九天圣龙斗苍穹

    龙界至尊被贬入凡,历尽磨难,重回天宇。掀起一番血雨腥风,天一又如何
  • 刁蛮娘子十五岁:偷夫记

    刁蛮娘子十五岁:偷夫记

    都说胸大无脑,可这似乎不是形容她的吧?最起码她觉得自己胸够大,脑子也够灵活!做个好吃懒做的小丫头,好过做千金小姐吧?勾引个王爷,总比勾引皇帝好吧?唔,天底下最让自己后悔的是:放着国色天香的美男不敢吃!!
  • 炼界师

    炼界师

    一个残疾的八岁小乞丐,阴差阳错之下,夺走了修仙者和修神者人人都想得到的神之心,又在命运的安排下,踏上了古老而凶险的修神路。他喜欢练剑,喜欢炼器,喜欢朋友,喜欢活在阳光下……后来,他想炼制一个神界。
  • 夜妖

    夜妖

    这是一个以无尽夜空为源的修炼世界天上星辰幻灭是为何手掌星辰是何风采上古大神可移山填海平宇宙八荒睁左眼而月西落日东升睁右眼则月东升日西落且看一个少年如何掌控星空之下的世界且看一个奔跑在洪荒大地少年的追逐之路
  • 虚极霸天

    虚极霸天

    坠涯到异界,玄易开始了自己的逆天之路!……土之绝裂,火之苍绝,风之随动,紫之神秘,翠之幽洞,海之浩瀚,黑白无极的绝对。别人贵不可求的能力,他只需觉醒就能获得!人挡杀人,佛挡杀佛!我左即左,我右即右!他要这天再也遮不住他的眼,他要这地再也埋不住他的心,他要那众生皆知,他玄易……最强!
  • 新月集(中小学生必读丛书)

    新月集(中小学生必读丛书)

    新月集(The Crescent Moon,1903)主要译自1903年出版的孟加拉文诗集《儿童集》,也有的是用英文直接创作的。诗集中,诗人生动描绘了儿童们的游戏,巧妙地表现了孩子们的心理,以及他们活泼的想象。它的特殊的隽永的艺术魅力,把我们带到了一个纯洁的儿童世界,勾起了我们对于童年生活的美好回忆。本书是一部诗坛圣者的巅峰之作,一首母爱与童真的不朽乐章,一幅梦想现实交织的绚丽画卷。