登陆注册
26523300000057

第57章

On Bernard's expressing surprise and saying that he had supposed them to be fixed at the sea-side for the rest of the season, the femme de chambre, who seemed a very intelligent person, begged to remind him that the season was drawing to a close, that Madame had taken the chalet but for five weeks, only ten days of which period were yet to expire, that ces dames, as Monsieur perhaps knew, were great travellers, who had been half over the world and thought nothing of breaking camp at an hour's notice, and that, in fine, Madame might very well have received a telegram summoning her to another part of the country.

"And where have the ladies gone?" asked Bernard.

"For the moment, to Paris."

"And in Paris where have they gone?"

"Dame, chez elles--to their house," said the femme de chambre, who appeared to think that Bernard asked too many questions.

But Bernard persisted.

"Where is their house?"

The waiting-maid looked at him from head to foot.

"If Monsieur wishes to write, many of Madame's letters come to her banker," she said, inscrutably.

"And who is her banker?"

"He lives in the Rue de Provence."

"Very good--I will find him out," said our hero, turning away.

The discriminating reader who has been so good as to interest himself in this little narrative will perhaps at this point exclaim with a pardonable consciousness of shrewdness:

"Of course he went the next day to the Rue de Provence!"

Of course, yes; only as it happens Bernard did nothing of the kind.

He did one of the most singular things he ever did in his life--a thing that puzzled him even at the time, and with regard to which he often afterward wondered whence he had drawn the ability for so remarkable a feat--he simply spent a fortnight at Blanquais-les-Galets. It was a very quiet fortnight; he spoke to no one, he formed no relations, he was company to himself. It may be added that he had never found his own company half so good. He struck himself as a reasonable, delicate fellow, who looked at things in such a way as to make him refrain--refrain successfully, that was the point--from concerning himself practically about Angela Vivian.

His saying that he would find out the banker in the Rue de Provence had been for the benefit of the femme de chambre, whom he thought rather impertinent; he had really no intention whatever of entering that classic thoroughfare.

He took long walks, rambled on the beach, along the base of the cliffs and among the brown sea-caves, and he thought a good deal of certain incidents which have figured at an earlier stage of this narrative. He had forbidden himself the future, as an object of contemplation, and it was therefore a matter of necessity that his imagination should take refuge among the warm and familiar episodes of the past. He wondered why Mrs. Vivian should have left the place so suddenly, and was of course struck with the analogy between this incident and her abrupt departure from Baden. It annoyed him, it troubled him, but it by no means rekindled the alarm he had felt on first perceiving the injured Angela on the beach.

That alarm had been quenched by Angela's manner during the hour that followed and during their short talk in the evening.

This evening was to be forever memorable, for it had brought with it the revelation which still, at moments, suddenly made Bernard tremble; but it had also brought him the assurance that Angela cared as little as possible for anything that a chance acquaintance might have said about her.

It is all the more singular, therefore, that one evening, after he had been at Blanquais a fortnight, a train of thought should suddenly have been set in motion in his mind.

It was kindled by no outward occurrence, but by some wandering spark of fancy or of memory, and the immediate effect of it was to startle our hero very much as he had been startled on the evening I have described. The circumstances were the same; he had wandered down to the beach alone, very late, and he stood looking at the duskily-tumbling sea.

Suddenly the same voice that had spoken before murmured another phrase in the darkness, and it rang upon his ear for the rest of the night. It startled him, as I have said, at first; then, the next morning, it led him to take his departure for Paris. During the journey it lingered in his ear; he sat in the corner of the railway-carriage with his eyes closed, abstracted, on purpose to prolong the reverberation.

If it were not true it was at least, as the Italians have it, ben trovato, and it was wonderful how well it bore thinking of.

It bears telling less well; but I can at least give a hint of it.

The theory that Angela hated him had evaporated in her presence, and another of a very different sort had sprung into being.

It fitted a great many of the facts, it explained a great many contradictions, anomalies, mysteries, and it accounted for Miss Vivian's insisting upon her mother's leaving Blanquais at a few hours' notice, even better than the theory of her resentment could have done. At any rate, it obliterated Bernard's scruples very effectually, and led him on his arrival in Paris to repair instantly to the Rue de Provence.

This street contains more than one banker, but there is one with whom Bernard deemed Mrs. Vivian most likely to have dealings.

He found he had reckoned rightly, and he had no difficulty in procuring her address. Having done so, however, he by no means went immediately to see her; he waited a couple of days--perhaps to give those obliterated scruples I have spoken of a chance to revive. They kept very quiet, and it must be confessed that Bernard took no great pains to recall them to life.

After he had been in Paris three days, he knocked at Mrs. Vivian's door.

同类推荐
  • 周易略例

    周易略例

    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。
  • The Trail of the White Mule

    The Trail of the White Mule

    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。
  • 春草斋集

    春草斋集

    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。
  • camellia girl

    camellia girl

    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。
  • 禅源诸诠集都序

    禅源诸诠集都序

    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
  • 盛世情侠:天长地久

    盛世情侠:天长地久

    其貌不扬的小女子爱上天下最帅最帅的大帅哥时,她最终能得尝心愿成为帅哥的最爱吗?冷艳绝美的冰山美人屡次被她称之为靠不住的男人不顾性命地救助,她会爱上他吗?超越情理伦常之外的爱情,是否能在世俗中生存?究竟是彼此相爱还是彼此折磨?是幸福还是痛苦?是放手还是紧紧抓牢?誓言真的能天长地久吗?天长地久真的能化作忘情水吗?冷面无情的冰雪堡主,跨越生死再世为人却消失了最最珍贵的记忆,除了仇恨,不曾有爱,他还能找回他的挚爱吗?阳光灿烂的无忧岛主,历经沧海桑田几度风雨却依然难舍旧日爱人,当爱再起,痛定思痛,他还能摆脱阴翳重获新生吗?女儿如花,女儿如梦,女儿如酒,最美莫过梨花带雨中展颜一笑。一切爱恨,一切痴怨,尽在《天长地久》中。
  • 小李飞刀之真龙劫

    小李飞刀之真龙劫

    小李飞刀,例不虚发新的元素,新的故事看看再说
  • Hi,完美小姐

    Hi,完美小姐

    集美中学有王子号称的楚翼,一直以优雅的形象出名,是个备受所有女生关注的超级校草。但是集美中学里却有个他的死对头,一个以疯出名的小丫头罗蔷薇。楚翼表面上不动声色地维持他绅士形象,实际却录下了蔷薇向别人告白的丢人证据,威胁她必须要一个月内变成淑女,假扮他的女朋友,帮他挡掉家族的婚姻安排。蔷薇虽然很不情愿,但还是在他的重重威胁下同意了。于是,她悲惨的改造生活就开始了……
  • 激活

    激活

    管理是一门艺术,而激励是这门艺术中的艺术。管理者的重要天职就是焕发每个员工的积极性及挖掘他们的潜能。实践证明,善于激励的管理者通常容易获得成功。要知道,企业的员工不是简单集合在一起就能发挥作用,因为十个零加在一起其结果还是零。管理者必须掌握如何启动员工动力的激励艺术,才能获得成功。本书包括:激励原则篇、愿景共鸣篇、基本保障篇、绩效考核编、物质奖励篇、精神鼓舞篇、人文情感篇等。
  • 火影之佐井的新术

    火影之佐井的新术

    既然成为了一名忍者,就只能一条路走到底,永远也不能回头——团藏
  • 爱上最好的你

    爱上最好的你

    在青春最美好的时代,可以奋不顾身的爱一个人,也可以默默的等待,如果爱,那一定要轰轰烈烈,一定要无怨无悔,如果等待,那不要毫无期限,毫无期限的等待不是爱,而是浪费,浪费青春,浪费情感。既然爱,就不要选择等待,既然爱,就勇敢的说出来。青春绚丽,爱情痴缠,当青春的腼腆,遇上爱情的甜蜜,一段故事就开始了……
  • 花殇遗夜

    花殇遗夜

    一个父母都是半妖的女儿,在生下来的不久就失去了父母,随即又被自己的爷爷寄于厚望,灌输了大量的法力后,被她的爷爷通过轮回之道送到了天界。作为灵魂状态的她,还没有自己的意识,她被一个美丽的女人生了下来,然后她又悲剧的离开了自己的母亲,被偷走放在了荒郊野外,幸好被一个好心的神婆看到,收留为了自己的女儿。等到她长大了以后,自己的亲身父母却来认领,等她明白了这一切的时候,那场在她母亲生她的时候的大战中侥幸逃脱的蛇族族长却成了魔,再次出来祸害这一界。她天赋极佳,修炼后实力超群,就在对战蛇族族长的时候她突破了神的境界,进入了超凡之境,因此她的前世未来也出现在了她的眼前。
  • 樱花王子速速恋

    樱花王子速速恋

    有种冷漠叫霸道,有种气场叫温柔,有种张扬叫骄傲,有种爱情叫四角恋!在樱花盛开的季节里,灰姑娘的华丽蜕变即刻开始,不做公主争做女王!只要有自信你就是太阳!当迷糊少女遇上帝樱三大王子,会擦出怎样的爱情火花?三位完美王子,究竟谁才是守护女王的骑士?冷枪之下,胸口的血花又为谁绽放?粉白樱花飞舞的季节,清风糅合着细碎的阳光,三位少年可否在樱花树下等我?
  • 机械魔女

    机械魔女

    暂无,以后就有了,暂时不编辑,日后再说。
  • 重生之金牌医女

    重生之金牌医女

    前世,她是医术精湛的医生,一台手术,一场车祸,她意外重生在一个小护士身上。一个老人,一只猫咪,她成功逆袭。重披白袍,她摇身一变成为医院最年轻的主刀医生。是意外的车祸让她离开自己的身体还是遭人恶意陷害?她的归宿,是屡次救她于水火之中的优雅大公子?还是过她的眼眸寻找旧爱的青梅竹马?抑或是拥有她心脏的梦中少年?