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“He wants to enslave you.”
him, you would think him the most wonderful person in
“I shudder at the thought of being free.”
the world. Some day you will meet him—when you come
“I want you to beware of him.”
back from Australia. You will like him so much. Everybody
“To see him is to worship him; to know him is to trust
likes him, and I ... love him. I wish you could come to the
him.”
theatre to-night. He is going to be there, and I am to play
“Sibyl, you are mad about him.”
Juliet. Oh! how I shall play it! Fancy, Jim, to be in love and
She laughed and took his arm. “You dear old Jim, you talk
play Juliet! To have him sitting there! To play for his delight!
as if you were a hundred. Some day you will be in love your-
I am afraid I may frighten the company, frighten or enthrall
self. Then you will know what it is. Don’t look so sulky. Surely
them. To be in love is to surpass one’s self. Poor dreadful Mr.
you should be glad to think that, though you are going away,
Isaacs will be shouting ‘genius’ to his loafers at the bar. He
you leave me happier than I have ever been before. Life has
has preached me as a dogma; to-night he will announce me
been hard for us both, terribly hard and difficult. But it will
as a revelation. I feel it. And it is all his, his only, Prince
be different now. You are going to a new world, and I have
Charming, my wonderful lover, my god of graces. But I am
found one. Here are two chairs; let us sit down and see the
poor beside him. Poor? What does that matter? When pov-
smart people go by.”
erty creeps in at the door, love flies in through the window.
They took their seats amidst a crowd of watchers. The tu-
Our proverbs want rewriting. They were made in winter,
lip-beds across the road flamed like throbbing rings of fire.
and it is summer now; spring-time for me, I think, a very
A white dust—tremulous cloud of orris-root it seemed—
62
Oscar Wilde
hung in the panting air. The brightly coloured parasols danced
She looked at him in horror. He repeated his words. They
and dipped like monstrous butterflies.
cut the air like a dagger. The people round began to gape. A
She made her brother talk of himself, his hopes, his pros-
lady standing close to her tittered.
pects. He spoke slowly and with effort. They passed words
“Come away, Jim; come away,” she whispered. He followed
to each other as players at a game pass counters. Sibyl felt
her doggedly as she passed through the crowd. He felt glad
oppressed. She could not communicate her joy. A faint smile
at what he had said.
curving that sullen mouth was all the echo she could win.
When they reached the Achilles Statue, she turned round.
After some time she became silent. Suddenly she caught a
There was pity in her eyes that became laughter on her lips.
glimpse of golden hair and laughing lips, and in an open
She shook her head at him. “You are foolish, Jim, utterly
carriage with two ladies Dorian Gray drove past.
foolish; a bad-tempered boy, that is all. How can you say
She started to her feet. “There he is!” she cried.
such horrible things? You don’t know what you are talking
“Who?” said Jim Vane.
about. You are simply jealous and unkind. Ah! I wish you
“Prince Charming,” she answered, looking after the victoria.
would fall in love. Love makes people good, and what you
He jumped up and seized her roughly by the arm. “Show
said was wicked.”
him to me. Which is he? Point him out. I must see him!” he
“I am sixteen,” he answered, “and I know what I am about.
exclaimed; but at that moment the Duke of Berwick’s four-
Mother is no help to you. She doesn’t understand how to
in-hand came between, and when it had left the space clear,
look after you. I wish now that I was not going to Australia
the carriage had swept out of the park.
at all. I have a great mind to chuck the whole thing up. I
“He is gone,” murmured Sibyl sadly. “I wish you had seen him.”
would, if my articles hadn’t been signed.”
“I wish I had, for as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he
“Oh, don’t be so serious, Jim. You are like one of the heroes
ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.”
of those silly melodramas Mother used to be so fond of acting
63
The Picture of Dorian Gray
in. I am not going to quarrel with you. I have seen him, and
her arms were flung round his neck, and her fingers strayed
oh! to see him is perfect happiness. We won’t quarrel. I know
through his hair, he softened and kissed her with real affec-
you would never harm any one I love, would you?”
tion. There were tears in his eyes as he went downstairs.
“Not as long as you love him, I suppose,” was the sullen
His mother was waiting for him below. She grumbled at his
answer.
unpunctuality, as he entered. He made no answer, but sat down
“I shall love him for ever!” she cried.
to his meagre meal. The flies buzzed round the table and
“And he?”
crawled over the stained cloth. Through the rumble of omni-
“For ever, too!”
buses, and the clatter of street-cabs, he could hear the droning
“He had better.”
voice devouring each minute that was left to him.
She shrank from him. Then she laughed and put her hand
After some time, he thrust away his plate and put his head
on his arm. He was merely a boy.
in his hands. He felt that he had a right to know. It should
At the Marble Arch they hailed an omnibus, which left
have been told to him before, if it was as he suspected. Leaden
them close to their shabby home in the Euston Road. It was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]