The Broad Highway by Jeffery Farnol (ebook reader with highlight function TXT) đ
- Author: Jeffery Farnol
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âAnd what does it mean, Charmian?â
âGood sir, the sibyl hath spoken! Find her meaning for yourself.â
âYou have called me, on various occasions, a âcreature,â a âpedantââvery frequently a âpedant,â and now, it seems I am an âegoist,â and all becauseââ
âBecause you think too much, Peter; you never open your lips without having first thought out just what you are going to say; you never do anything without having laboriously mapped it all out beforehand, that you may not outrage Peter Vibartâs tranquillity by any impulsive act or speech. Oh! you are always thinking and thinkingâand that is even worse than stirring, and stirring at your tea, as you are doing now.â I took the spoon hastily from my cup, and laid it as far out of reach as possible. âIf ever you should write the book you once spoke of, it would be just the very sort of book that I shouldâhate.â
âWhy, Charmian?â
âBecause it would be a book of artfully turned phrases; a book in which all the characters, especially women, would think and speak and act by rote and ruleâas according to Mr. Peter Vibart; it would be a scholarly book, of elaborate finish and care of detail, with no irregularities of style or anything else to break the monotonous harmony of the wholeâindeed, sir, it would be a most unreadable book!â
âDo you think so, Charmian?â said I, once more taking up the teaspoon.
âWhy, of course!â she answered, with raised brows; âit would probably be full of Greek and Latin quotations! And you would polish and rewrite it until you had polished every vestige of life and spontaneity out of it, as you do out of yourself, with your thinking and thinking.â
âBut I never quote you Greek or Latin; that is surely something, and, as for thinking, would you have me a thoughtless fool or an impulsive ass?â
âAnything rather than a calculating, introspective philosopher, seeing only the mote in the sunbeam, and nothing of the glory.â Here she gently disengaged the teaspoon from my fingers and laid it in her own saucer, having done which she sighed, and looked at me with her head to one side. âWere they all like you, Peter, I wonderâthose old philosophers, grim and stern, and terribly repressed, with burning eyes, Peter, and with very long chins? Epictetus was, of course!â
âAnd you dislike Epictetus, Charmian?â
âI detest him! He was just the kind of person, Peter, who, being unable to sleep, would have wandered out into a terrible thunderstorm, in the middle of the night, and, being cold and wet and clammy, Peter, would have drawn moral lessons, and made epigrams upon the thunder and lightning. Epictetus, I am quite sure, was aâperson!â
âHe was one of the wisest, gentlest, and most lovable of all the Stoics!â said I.
âCan a philosopher possibly be lovable, Peter?â Here I very absent-mindedly took up a fork, but, finding her eye upon me, laid it down again.
âYou are very nervous, Peter, and very pale and worn and haggard, and all because you habituallyâoverthink yourself; and indeed, there is something very far wrong with a man who perseveringly stirs an empty cupâwith a fork!â And, with a laugh, she took my cup and, having once more refilled it, set it before me.
âAnd yet, PeterâI donât thinkâno, I donât think I would have you very much changed, after all.â
âYou mean that you would rather I remained the pedantic, egotistical creatureââ
âI mean, Peter, that, being a woman, I naturally love novelty, and you are very novelâand very interesting.â
âThank you!â said I, frowning.
âAnd more contradictory than any woman!â
âHum!â said I.
âYou are so strong and simpleâso wise and braveâand so very weak and foolish and timid!â
âTimid?â said I.
âTimid!â nodded she.
âI am a vast fool!â I acknowledged.
âAnd I never knew a man anything like you before, Peter!â
âAnd you have known many, I understand?â
âVery many.â
âYesâyou told me so once before, I believe.â
âTwice, Peter; and each time you became very silent and gloomy! Now you, on the other hand,â she continued, âhave known very few women?â
âAnd my life has been calm and unruffled in consequence!â
âYou had your books, Peter, and your horseshoes.â
âMy books and horseshoes, yes.â
âAnd were content?â
âQuite content.â
âUntil, one dayâa womanâcame to you.â
âUntil, one dayâI met a woman.â
âAnd thenâ?â
âAnd thenâI asked her to marry me, Charmian.â Here there ensued a pause, during which Charmian began to pleat a fold in the tablecloth.
âThat was ratherâunwise of you, wasnât it?â said she at last.
âHow unwise?â
âBecauseâshe mightâhave taken you at your word, Peter.â
âDo you mean thatâthat you wonât, Charmian?â
âOh dear, no! I have arrived at no decision yet how could I? You must give me time to consider.â Here she paused in her pleating to regard it critically, with her head on one side. âTo be sure,â said she, with a little nod, âto be sure, you need some one toâto look after youâthat is very evident!â
âYes.â
âTo cookâand wash for you.â
âYes.â
âTo mend your clothes for you.â
âYes.â
âAnd you think meâsufficiently competent?â
âOh, Charmian, Iâyes.â
Thank you!â said she, very solemnly, and, though her lashes had drooped, I felt the mockery of her eyes; wherefore I took a sudden great gulp of tea, and came near choking, while Charmian began to pleat another fold in the tablecloth.
âAnd so Mr. Vibart would stoop to wed so humble a person as Charmian Brown? Mr. Peter Vibart would, actually, marry a woman of whose past he knows nothing?â
âYes,â said I.
âThat, again, would be ratherâunwise, wouldnât it?â
âWhy?â
âConsidering Mr. Vibartâs very lofty ideals in regard to women.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âDidnât you once say that your wifeâs name must be above suspicionâlike Caesarâsâor something of the kind?â
âDid I?âyes, perhaps I didâwell?â
âWell, this womanâthis Humble Person has no name at all, and no shred of reputation left her. She has compromised herself beyond all redemption in the eyes of the world.â
âBut then,â said I, âthis world and I have always mutually despised each other.â
âShe ran away, this womanâeloped with the most notorious, the most accomplished rake in London.â
âWell?â
âOh!âis not that enough?â
âEnough for what, Charmian?â I saw her busy fingers falter and tremble, but her voice was steady when she answered:
âEnough to make anyâwise man think twice before asking this Humble Person toâto marry him.â
âI might think twenty times, and it would be all one!â
âYouâmeanâ?â
âThat if Charmian Brown will stoop to marry a village blacksmith, Peter Vibart will find happiness again; a happiness that is not of the sunshineânor the wind in the treesâLord, what a fool I was!â Her fingers had stopped altogether now, but she neither spoke nor raised her head.
âCharmian,â said I, leaning nearer across the table, âspeak.â
âOh, Peter!â said she, with a sudden break in her voice, and stooped her head lower. Yet in a little she looked up at me, and her eyes were very sweet and shining.
Now, as our glances met thus, up from throat to brow there crept that hot, slow wave of color, and in her face and in her eyes I seemed to read joy, and fear, and shame, and radiant joy again. But now she bent her head once more, and strove to pleat another fold, and could not; while I grew suddenly afraid of her and of myself, and longed to hurl aside the table that divided us; and thrust my hands deep into my pockets, and, finding there my tobacco-pipe, brought it out and fell to turning it aimlessly over and over. I would have spoken, only I knew that my voice would tremble, and so I sat mum-chance, staring at my pipe with unseeing eyes, and with my brain in a ferment. And presently came her voice, cool and sweet and sane:
âYour tobacco, Peter,â and she held the box towards me across the table.
âAh, thank you!â said I, and began to fill my pipe, while she watched me with her chin propped in her hands.
âPeter!â
âYes, Charmian?â
âI wonder why so grave a person as Mr. Peter Vibart should seek to marry so impossible a creature asâthe Humble Person?â
âI think,â I answered, âI think, if there is any special reason, it is because ofâyour mouth.â
âMy mouth?â
âOr your eyesâor the way you have with your lashes.â
Charmian laughed, and forthwith drooped them at me, and laughed again, and shook her head.
âBut surely, Peter, surely there are thousands, millions of women with mouths and eyes likeâthe Humble Personâs?â
âIt is possible,â said I, âbut none who have the same way with their lashes.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âI canât tell; I donât know.â
âDonât you, Peter?â
âNoâit is just a way.â
âAnd so it is that you want to marry this very Humble Person?â
âI think I have wanted to from the very first, but did not know itâbeing a blind fool!â
âAndâdid it need a night walk in a thunderstorm to teach you?â
âNoâthat is, yesâperhaps it did.â
âAndâare you quite, quite sure?â
âQuiteâquite sure!â said I, and, as I spoke, I laid my pipe upon the table and rose; and, because my hands were trembling, I clenched my fists. But, as I approached her, she started up and put out a hand to hold me off, and then I saw that her hands were trembling also. And standing thus, she spoke, very softly:
âPeter.â
âYes, Charmian?â
âDo you remember describing to me theâthe perfect woman who should be yourâwife?â
âYes.â
âHow that you must be able to respect her for her intellect?â
âYes.â
âHonor her for her virtue?â
âYes, Charmian.â
âAnd worship herâfor herâspotless purity?â
âI dreamed a paragonâperfect and impossible; I was a fool!â said I.
âImpossible! Oh, Peter! whatâwhat do you mean?â
âShe was only an impalpable shade quite impossible of realizationâa bloodless thing, as you said, and quite unnatural âa sickly figment of the imagination. I was a fool!â
âAnd you areâtoo wise now, to expectâsuch virtuesâin any woman?â
âYes,â said I; ânoâoh, Charmian! I only know that you have taken this phantomâs placeâthat you fill all my thoughts âsleeping, and wakingââ
âNo! No!â she cried, and struggled in my arms, so that I caught her hands, and held them close, and kissed them many times.
âOh, Charmian! Charmian!âdonât you knowâcanât you seeâit is you I wantâyou, and only you forever; whatever you were âwhatever you areâI love youâlove you, and always must! Marry me, Charmian!âmarry me! and you shall be dearer than my lifeâmore to me than my soulââ
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