the unbearable bassington-第20章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
after me beautifully。 I've never been there with a lady before;
and he's sure to ask me afterwards; in his fatherly way; if we're
engaged。〃
The lunch was a success in every way。 There was just enough
orchestral effort to immerse the conversation without drowning it;
and Youghal was an attentive and inspired host。 Through an open
doorway Elaine could see the cafe reading…room; with its imposing
array of NEUE FREIE PRESSE; BERLINER TAGEBLATT; and other exotic
newspapers hanging on the wall。 She looked across at the young man
seated opposite her; who gave one the impression of having centred
the most serious efforts of his brain on his toilet and his food;
and recalled some of the flattering remarks that the press had
bestowed on his recent speeches。
〃Doesn't it make you conceited; Courtenay;〃 she asked; 〃to look at
all those foreign newspapers hanging there and know that most of
them have got paragraphs and articles about your Persian speech?〃
Youghal laughed。
〃There's always a chastening corrective in the thought that some of
them may have printed your portrait。 When once you've seen your
features hurriedly reproduced in the MATIN; for instance; you feel
you would like to be a veiled Turkish woman for the rest of your
life。〃
And Youghal gazed long and lovingly at his reflection in the
nearest mirror; as an antidote against possible incitements to
humility in the portrait gallery of fame。
Elaine felt a certain soothed satisfaction in the fact that this
young man; whose knowledge of the Middle East was an embarrassment
to Ministers at question time and in debate; was showing himself
equally well…informed on the subject of her culinary likes and
dislikes。 If Suzette could have been forced to attend as a witness
at a neighbouring table she would have felt even happier。
〃Did the head waiter ask if we were engaged?〃 asked Elaine; when
Courtenay had settled the bill; and she had finished collecting her
sunshade and gloves and other impedimenta from the hands of
obsequious attendants。
〃Yes;〃 said Youghal; 〃and he seemed quite crestfallen when I had to
say 'no。'〃
〃It would be horrid to disappoint him when he's looked after us so
charmingly;〃 said Elaine; 〃tell him that we are。〃
CHAPTER X
THE Rutland Galleries were crowded; especially in the neighbourhood
of the tea…buffet; by a fashionable throng of art…patrons which had
gathered to inspect Mervyn Quentock's collection of Society
portraits。 Quentock was a young artist whose abilities were just
receiving due recognition from the critics; that the recognition
was not overdue he owed largely to his perception of the fact that
if one hides one's talent under a bushel one must be careful to
point out to everyone the exact bushel under which it is hidden。
There are two manners of receiving recognition: one is to be
discovered so long after one's death that one's grandchildren have
to write to the papers to establish their relationship; the other
is to be discovered; like the infant Moses; at the very outset of
one's career。 Mervyn Quentock had chosen the latter and happier
manner。 In an age when many aspiring young men strive to advertise
their wares by imparting to them a freakish imbecility; Quentock
turned out work that was characterised by a pleasing delicate
restraint; but he contrived to herald his output with a certain
fanfare of personal eccentricity; thereby compelling an attention
which might otherwise have strayed past his studio。 In appearance
he was the ordinary cleanly young Englishman; except; perhaps; that
his eyes rather suggested a library edition of the Arabian Nights;
his clothes matched his appearance and showed no taint of the
sartorial disorder by which the bourgeois of the garden…city and
the Latin Quarter anxiously seeks to proclaim his kinship with art
and thought。 His eccentricity took the form of flying in the face
of some of the prevailing social currents of the day; but as a
reactionary; never as a reformer。 He produced a gasp of admiring
astonishment in fashionable circles by refusing to paint actresses
… except; of course; those who had left the legitimate drama to
appear between the boards of Debrett。 He absolutely declined to
execute portraits of Americans unless they hailed from certain
favoured States。 His 〃water…colour…line;〃 as a New York paper
phrased it; earned for him a crop of angry criticisms and a shoal
of Transatlantic commissions; and criticism and commissions were
the things that Quentock most wanted。
〃Of course he is perfectly right;〃 said Lady Caroline Benaresq;
calmly rescuing a piled…up plate of caviare sandwiches from the
neighbourhood of a trio of young ladies who had established
themselves hopefully within easy reach of it。 〃Art;〃 she
continued; addressing herself to the Rev。 Poltimore Vardon; 〃has
always been geographically exclusive。 London may be more important
from most points of view than Venice; but the art of portrait
painting; which would never concern itself with a Lord Mayor;
simply grovels at the feet of the Doges。 As a Socialist I'm bound
to recognise the right of Ealing to compare itself with Avignon;
but one cannot expect the Muses to put the two on a level。〃
〃Exclusiveness;〃 said the Reverend Poltimore; 〃has been the
salvation of Art; just as the lack of it is proving the downfall of
religion。 My colleagues of the cloth go about zealously
proclaiming the fact that Christianity; in some form or other; is
attracting shoals of converts among all sorts of races and tribes;
that one had scarcely ever heard of; except in reviews of books of
travel that one never read。 That sort of thing was all very well
when the world was more sparsely populated; but nowadays; when it
simply teems with human beings; no one is particularly impressed by
the fact that a few million; more or less; of converts; of a low
stage of mental development; have accepted the teachings of some
particular religion。 It not only chills one's enthusiasm; it
positively shakes one's convictions when one hears that the things
one has been brought up to believe as true are being very
favourably spoken of by Buriats and Samoyeds and Kanakas。〃
The Rev。 Poltimore Vardon had once seen a resemblance in himself to
Voltaire; and had lived alongside the comparison ever since。
〃No modern cult or fashion;〃 he continued; 〃would be favourably
influenced by considerations based on statistics; fancy adopting a
certain style of hat or cut of coat; because it was being largely
worn in Lancashire and the Midlands; fancy favouring a certain
brand of champagne because it was being extensively patronised in
German summer resorts。 No wonder that religion is falling into
disuse in this country under such ill…directed methods。〃
〃You can't prevent the heathen being converted if they choose to
be;〃 said Lady Caroline; 〃this is an age of toleration。〃
〃You could always deny it;〃 said the Rev。 Poltimore; 〃like the
Belgians do with regrettable occurrences in the Congo。 But I would
go further than that。 I would stimulate the waning enthusiasm for
Christianity in this country by labelling it as the exclusive
possession of a privileged few。 If one could induce the Duchess of
Pelm; for instance; to assert that the Kingdom of Heaven; as far as
the British Isles are concerned; is strictly limited to herself;
two of the under…gardeners at Pelmby; and; possibly; but not
certainly; the Dean of Dunster; there would be an instant reshaping
of the popular attitude towards religious convictions and
observances。 Once let the idea get about that the Christian Church
is rather more exclusive than the Lawn at Ascot; and you would have
a quickening of religious life such as this generation has never
witnessed。 But as long as the clergy an