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1、【英文文学】The PatagoniaChapter 1The houses were dark in the August night and the perspective of Beacon Street, with its double chain of lamps, was a foreshortened desert. The club on the hill alone, from its semi-cylindrical front, projected a glow upon the dusky vagueness of the Common, and as I passed
2、 it I heard in the hot stillness the click of a pair of billiard balls. As every one was out of town perhaps the servants, in the extravagance of their leisure, were profaning the tables. The heat was insufferable and I thought with joy of the morrow, of the deck of the steamer, the freshening breez
3、e, the sense of getting out to sea. I was even glad of what I had learned in the afternoon at the office of the company that at the eleventh hour an old ship with a lower standard of speed had been put on in place of the vessel in which I had taken my passage. America was roasting, England might ver
4、y well be stuffy, and a slow passage (which at that season of the year would probably also be a fine one) was a guarantee of ten or twelve days of fresh air.I strolled down the hill without meeting a creature, though I could see through the palings of the Common that that recreative expanse was peop
5、led with dim forms. I remembered Mrs. Nettlepoints house she lived in those days (they are not so distant, but there have been changes) on the water-side, a little way beyond the spot at which the Public Garden terminates; and I reflected that like myself she would be spending the night in Boston if
6、 it were true that, as had been mentioned to me a few days before at Mount Desert, she was to embark on the morrow for Liverpool. I presently saw this appearance confirmed by a light above her door and in two or three of her windows, and I determined to ask for her, having nothing to do till bedtime
7、. I had come out simply to pass an hour, leaving my hotel to the blaze of its gas and the perspiration of its porters; but it occurred to me that my old friend might very well not know of the substitution of the Patagonia for the Scandinavia, so that it would be an act of consideration to prepare he
8、r mind. Besides, I could offer to help her, to look after her in the morning: lone women are grateful for support in taking ship for far countries.As I stood on her doorstep I remembered that as she had a son she might not after all be so lone; yet at the same time it was present to me that Jasper N
9、ettlepoint was not quite a young man to lean upon, having (as I at least supposed) a life of his own and tastes and habits which had long since drawn him away from the maternal side. If he did happen just now to be at home my solicitude would of course seem officious; for in his many wanderings I be
10、lieved he had roamed all over the globe he would certainly have learned how to manage. None the less I was very glad to show Mrs. Nettlepoint I thought of her. With my long absence I had lost sight of her; but I had liked her of old; she had been a close friend of my sisters; and I had in regard to
11、her that sense which is pleasant to those who, in general, have grown strange or detached the feeling that she at least knew all about me. I could trust her at any time to tell people what a respectable person I was. Perhaps I was conscious of how little I deserved this indulgence when it came over
12、me that for years I had not communicated with her. The measure of this neglect was given by my vagueness of mind about her son. However, I really belonged nowadays to a different generation: I was more the old ladys contemporary than Jaspers.Mrs. Nettlepoint was at home: I found her in her back draw
13、ing-room, where the wide windows opened upon the water. The room was dusky it was too hot for lamps and she sat slowly moving her fan and looking out on the little arm of the sea which is so pretty at night, reflecting the lights of Cambridgeport and Charlestown. I supposed she was musing upon the l
14、oved ones she was to leave behind, her married daughters, her grandchildren; but she struck a note more specifically Bostonian as she said to me, pointing with her fan to the Back Bay I shall see nothing more charming than that over there, you know! She made me very welcome, but her son had told her
15、 about the Patagonia, for which she was sorry, as this would mean a longer voyage. She was a poor creature on shipboard and mainly confined to her cabin, even in weather extravagantly termed fine as if any weather could be fine at sea.Ah, then your sons going with you? I asked.Here he comes, he will
16、 tell you for himself much better than I am able to do.Jasper Nettlepoint came into the room at that moment, dressed in white flannel and carrying a large fan.Well, my dear, have you decided? his mother continued, with some irony in her tone. He hasnt yet made up his mind, and we sail at ten oclock!What does it matter, when my things are put up? said the young man. There is no crowd at this moment; there will be c
