霍华德庄园 英文版 Howards End
爱德华.摩根.福斯特 Edward Morgan Forster
Chapter 30
Tibby was now approaching his last year at Oxford. He hadmoved out of college, and was contemplating the Universe, orsuch portions of it as concerned him, from his comfortablelodgings in Long Wall. He was not concerned with much.When a young man is untroubled by passions and sincerelyindifferent to public opinion, his outlook is necessarilylimited. Tibby neither wished to strengthen the position ofthe rich nor to improve that of the poor, and so was wellcontent to watch the elms nodding behind the mildlyembattled parapets of Magdalen. There are worse lives.Though selfish, he was never cruel; though affected inmanner, he never posed. Like Margaret, he disdained theheroic equipment, and it was only after many visits that mendiscovered Schlegel to possess a character and a brain. Hehad done well in Mods, much to the surprise of those whoattended lectures and took proper exercise, and was nowglancing disdainfully at Chinese in case he should some dayconsent to qualify as a Student Interpreter. To him thusemployed Helen entered. A telegram had preceded her.
He noticed, in a distant way, that his sister hadaltered. As a rule he found her too pronounced, and hadnever come across this look of appeal, pathetic yetdignified--the look of a sailor who has lost everything at sea.
"I have come from Oniton," she began. "There has been agreat deal of trouble there."
"Who's for lunch?" said Tibby, picking up the claret,which was warming in the hearth. Helen sat downsubmissively at the table. "Why such an early start?" he asked.
"Sunrise or something--when I could get away."
"So I surmise. Why?"
"I don't know what's to be done, Tibby. I am very muchupset at a piece of news that concerns Meg, and do not wantto face her, and I am not going back to Wickham Place. Istopped here to tell you this."
The landlady came in with the cutlets. Tibby put amarker in the leaves of his Chinese Grammar and helpedthem. Oxford--the Oxford of the vacation--dreamed andrustled outside, and indoors the little fire was coated withgrey where the sunshine touched it. Helen continued her oddstory.
"Give Meg my love and say that I want to be alone. Imean to go to Munich or else Bonn."
"Such a message is easily given," said her brother.
"As regards Wickham Place and my share of the furniture,you and she are to do exactly as you like. My own feelingis that everything may just as well be sold. What does onewant with dusty economic, books, which have made the worldno better, or with mother's hideous chiffoniers? I havealso another commission for you. I want you to deliver aletter." She got up. "I haven't written it yet. Whyshouldn't I post it, though?" She sat down again. "My headis rather wretched. I hope that none of your friends arelikely to come in."
Tibby locked the door. His friends often found it inthis condition. Then he asked whether anything had gonewrong at Evie's wedding.
"Not there," said Helen, and burst into tears.
He had known her hysterical--it was one of her aspectswith which he had no concern--and yet these tears touchedhim as something unusual. They were nearer the things thatdid concern him, such as music. He laid down his knife andlooked at her curiously. Then, as she continued to sob, hewent on with his lunch.
The time came for the second course, and she was stillcrying. Apple Charlotte was to follow, which spoils bywaiting. "Do you mind Mrs. Martlett coming in?" he asked,"or shall I take it from her at the door?"
"Could I bathe my eyes, Tibby?"
He took her to his bedroom, and introduced the puddingin her absence. Having helped himself, he put it down towarm in the hearth. His hand stretched towards the Grammar,and soon he was turning over the pages, raising his eyebrowsscornfully, perhaps at human nature, perhaps at Chinese. Tohim thus employed Helen returned. She had pulled herselftogether, but the grave appeal had not vanished from her eyes.
"Now for the explanation," she said. "Why didn't Ibegin with it? I have found out something about Mr.Wilcox. He has behaved very wrongly indeed, and ruined twopeople's lives. It all came on me very suddenly last night;I am very much upset, and I do not know what to do. Mrs. Bast--"
"Oh, those people!"
Helen seemed silenced.
"Shall I lock the door again?"
"No, thanks, Tibbikins. You're being very good to me.I want to tell you the story before I go abroad. You mustdo exactly what you like--treat it as part of thefurniture. Meg cannot have heard it yet, I think. But Icannot face her and tell her that the man she is going tomarry has misconducted himself. I don't even know whethershe ought to be told. Knowing as she does that I dislikehim, she will suspect me, and think that I want to ruin hermatch. I simply don't know what to make of such a thing. Itrust your judgment. What would you do?"
"I gather he has had a mistress," said Tibby.
Helen flushed with shame and anger. "And ruined twopeople's lives. And goes about saying that personal actionscount for nothing, and there always will be rich and poor.He met her when he was trying to get rich out in Cyprus--Idon't wish to make him worse than he is, and no doubt shewas ready enough to meet him. But there it is. They met.He goes his way and she goes hers. What do you suppose isthe end of such women?"
He conceded that it was a bad business.
"They end in two ways: Either they sink till the lunaticasylums and the workhouses are full of them, and cause Mr.Wilcox to write letters to the papers complaining of ournational degeneracy, or else they entrap a boy into marriagebefore it is too late. She--I can't blame her.
"It is certainly a very bad business," said Tibby.
posed. Like Margaret, he disdained.
His reply seemed to calm his sister. "I was afraid thatI saw it out of proportion. But you are right outside it,and you must know. In a day or two--or perhaps a week--takewhatever steps you think fit. I leave it in your hands."
She concluded her charge.
"The facts as they touch Meg are all before you," sheadded; and Tibby sighed and felt it rather hard that,because of his open mind, he should be empanelled to serveas a juror. He had never been interested in human beings,for which one must blame him, but he had had rather too muchof them at Wickham Place. Just as some people cease toattend when books are mentioned, so Tibby's attentionwandered when "personal relations" came under discussion.Ought Margaret to know what Helen knew the Basts to know?Similar questions had vexed him from infancy, and at Oxfordhe had learned to say that the importance of human beingshas been vastly overrated by specialists. The epigram, withits faint whiff of the eighties, meant nothing. But hemight have let it off now if his sister had not beenceaselessly beautiful.
"You see, Helen--have a cigarette--I don't see what I'mto do."
"Then there's nothing to be done. I dare say you areright. Let them marry. There remains the question ofcompensation. "
"Do you want me to adjudicate that too? Had you notbetter consult an expert?"
"This part is in confidence," said Helen. "It hasnothing to do with Meg, and do not mention it to her. Thecompensation--I do not see who is to pay it if I don't, andI have already decided on the minimum sum. As soon aspossible I am placing it to your account, and when I am inGermany you will pay it over for me. I shall never forgetyour kindness, Tibbikins, if you do this."
"What is the sum?"
"Five thousand."
"Good God alive!" said Tibby, and went crimson.
"Now, what is the good of driblets? To go through lifehaving done one thing--to have raised one person from theabyss: not these puny gifts of shillings andblankets--making the grey more grey. No doubt people willthink me extraordinary."
contemplating the Universe, orsuch portions of it as concerned.
"I don't care a damn what people think!" cried he,heated to unusual manliness of diction. "But it's half whatyou have."
"Not nearly half." She spread out her hands over hersoiled skirt. "I have far too much, and we settled atChelsea last spring that three hundred a year is necessaryto set a man on his feet. What I give will bring in ahundred and fifty between two. It isn't enough."
He could not recover. He was not angry or even shocked,and he saw that Helen would still have plenty to live on.But it amazed him to think what haycocks people can make oftheir lives. His delicate intonations would not work, andhe could only blurt out that the five thousand pounds wouldmean a great deal of bother for him personally.
"I didn't expect you to understand me."
"I? I understand nobody."
"But you'll do it?"
"Apparently."
"I leave you two commissions, then. The first concernsMr. Wilcox, and you are to use your discretion. The secondconcerns the money, and is to be mentioned to no one, andcarried out literally. You will send a hundred pounds onaccount tomorrow."
He walked with her to the station, passing through thosestreets whose serried beauty never bewildered him and neverfatigued. The lovely creature raised domes and spires intothe cloudless blue, and only the ganglion of vulgarity roundCarfax showed how evanescent was the phantom, how faint itsclaim to represent England. Helen, rehearsing hercommission, noticed nothing: the Basts were in her brain,and she retold the crisis in a meditative way, which mighthave made other men curious. She was seeing whether itwould hold. He asked her once why she had taken the Bastsright into the heart of Evie's wedding. She stopped like afrightened animal and said, "Does that seem to you so odd?"Her eyes, the hand laid on the mouth, quite haunted him,until they were absorbed into the figure of St. Mary theVirgin, before whom he paused for a moment on the walk home.
It is convenient to follow him in the discharge of hisduties. Margaret summoned him the next day. She wasterrified at Helen's flight, and he had to say that she hadcalled in at Oxford. Then she said: "Did she seem worriedat any rumour about Henry?" He answered, "Yes." "I knew itwas that!" she exclaimed. "I'll write to her." Tibby was relieved.
He then sent the cheque to the address that Helen gavehim, and stated that later on he was instructed to forwardfive thousand pounds. An answer came back, very civil andquiet in tone--such an answer as Tibby himself would havegiven. The cheque was returned, the legacy refused, thewriter being in no need of money. Tibby forwarded this toHelen, adding in the fulness of his heart that Leonard Bastseemed somewhat a monumental person after all. Helen'sreply was frantic. He was to take no notice. He was to godown at once and say that she commanded acceptance. Hewent. A scurf of books and china ornaments awaited them.The Basts had just been evicted for not paying their rent,and had wandered no one knew whither. Helen had begunbungling with her money by this time, and had even sold outher shares in the Nottingham and Derby Railway. For someweeks she did nothing. Then she reinvested, and, owing tothe good advice of her stockbrokers, became rather richerthan she had been before.