the golden age(金色时代)-第33章
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front; their heads together; were already reckoning up the weeks to the
holidays。 Home at last; Harold suggested one or two occupations of a
spicy and contraband flavour; but though we did our manful best there was
no knocking any interest out of them。 Then I suggested others; with the
same want of success。 Finally we found ourselves sitting silent on an
upturned wheelbarrow; our chins on our fists; staring haggardly into the
raw new conditions of our changed life; the ruins of a past behind our
backs。
And all the while Selina and Charlotte were busy stuffing Edward's
rabbits with unwonted forage; bilious and green; polishing up the cage of
his mice till the occupants raved and swore like householders in spring…
time; and collecting materials for new bows and arrows; whips; boats;
guns; and four… in…hand harness; against the return of Ulysses。 Little did
they dream that the hero; once back from Troy and all its onsets; would
scornfully condemn their clumsy but laborious armoury as rot and humbug
and only fit for kids! This; with many another like awakening; was
mercifully hidden from them。 Could the veil have been lifted; and the
girls permitted to see Edward as he would appear a short three months
hence; ragged of attire and lawless of tongue; a scorner of tradition and an
adept in strange new physical tortures; one who would in the same half…
hour dismember a doll and shatter a hallowed belief;in fine; a sort of
swaggering Captain; fresh from the Spanish Main;could they have had
the least hint of this; well; then perhaps。 But which of us is of mental
fibre to stand the test of a glimpse into futurity? Let us only hope that;
even with certain disillusionment ahead; the girls would have acted
precisely as they did。
And perhaps we have reason to be very grateful that; both as children
and long afterwards; we are never allowed to guess how the absorbing
pursuit of the moment will appear; not only to others; but to ourselves; a
very short time hence。 So we pass; with a gusto and a heartiness that to
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The Golden Age
an onlooker would seem almost pathetic; from one droll devotion to
another misshapen passion; and who shall care to play Rhadamanthus; to
appraise the record; and to decide how much of it is solid achievement;
and how much the merest child's play?
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