登陆注册
4906900000001

第1章

FOR reasons which many persons thought ridiculous, Mrs. Lightfoot Lee decided to pass the winter in Washington. She was in excellent health, but she said that the climate would do her good. In New York she had troops of friends, but she suddenly became eager to see again the very small number of those who lived on the Potomac. It was only to her closest intimates that she honestly acknowledged herself to be tortured by ennui. Since her husband's death, five years before, she had lost her taste for New York society; she had felt no interest in the price of stocks, and very little in the men who dealt in them; she had become serious.

What was it all worth, this wilderness of men and women as monotonous as the brown stone houses they lived in? In her despair she had resorted to desperate measures. She had read philosophy in the original German, and the more she read, the more she was disheartened that so much culture should lead to nothing--nothing.

After talking of Herbert Spencer for an entire evening with a very literary transcendental commission-merchant, she could not see that her time had been better employed than when in former days she had passed it in flirting with a very agreeable young stock-broker; indeed, there was an evident proof to the contrary, for the flirtation might lead to something--had, in fact, led to marriage; while the philosophy could lead to nothing, unless it were perhaps to another evening of the same kind, because transcendental philosophers are mostly elderly men, usually married, and, when engaged in business, somewhat apt to be sleepy towards evening. Nevertheless Mrs. Lee did her best to turn her study to practical use. She plunged into philanthropy, visited prisons, inspected hospitals, read the literature of pauperism and crime, saturated herself with the statistics of vice, until her mind had nearly lost sight of virtue. At last it rose in rebellion against her, and she came to the limit of her strength. This path, too, seemed to lead nowhere. She declared that she had lost the sense of duty, and that, so far as concerned her, all the paupers and criminals in New York might henceforward rise in their majesty and manage every railway on the continent. Why should she care?

What was the city to her? She could find nothing in it that seemed to demand salvation. What gave peculiar sanctity to numbers?

Why were a million people, who all resembled each other, any way more interesting than one person? What aspiration could she help to put into the mind of this great million-armed monster that would make it worth her love or respect? Religion? A thousand powerful churches were doing their best, and she could see no chance for a new faith of which she was to be the inspired prophet.

Ambition? High popular ideals? Passion for whatever is lofty and pure? The very words irritated her. Was she not herself devoured by ambition, and was she not now eating her heart out because she could find no one object worth a sacrifice?

Was it ambition--real ambition--or was it mere restlessness that made Mrs. Lightfoot Lee so bitter against New York and Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston, American life in general and all life in particular? What did she want? Not social position, for she herself was an eminently respectable Philadelphian by birth; her father a famous clergyman; and her husband had been equally irreproachable, a descendant of one branch of the Virginia Lees, which had drifted to New York in search of fortune, and had found it, or enough of it to keep the young man there. His widow had her own place in society which no one disputed. Though not brighter than her neighbours, the world persisted in classing her among clever women; she had wealth, or at least enough of itto give her all that money can give by way of pleasure to a sensible woman in an American city; she had her house and her carriage; she dressed well; her table was good, and her furniture was never allowed to fall behind the latest standard of decorative art. She had travelled in Europe, and after several visits, covering some years of time, had retumed home, carrying in one hand, as it were, a green-grey landscape, a remarkably pleasing specimen of Corot, and in the other some bales of Persian and Syrian rugs and embroideries, Japanese bronzes and porcelain. With this she declared Europe to be exhausted, and she frankly avowed that she was American to the tips of her fingers; she neither knew nor greatly cared whether America or Europe were best to live in; she had no violent love for either, and she had no objection to abusing both; but she meant to get all that American life had to offer, good or bad, and to drink it down to the dregs, fully determined that whatever there was in it she would have, and that whatever could be made out of it she would manufacture. "I know," said she, "that America produces petroleum and pigs; I have seen both on the steamers; and I am told it produces silver and gold. There is choice enough for any woman."

Yet, as has been already said, Mrs. Lee's first experience was not a success. She soon declared that New York might represent the petroleum or the pigs, but the gold of life was not to be discovered there by her eyes.

同类推荐
  • 玄和子十二月卦金诀

    玄和子十二月卦金诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 秋星阁诗话

    秋星阁诗话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 全生指迷方

    全生指迷方

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 观无量寿佛经义疏

    观无量寿佛经义疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清五常变通万化郁冥经

    上清五常变通万化郁冥经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 赛尔号战神联盟封忆之恋

    赛尔号战神联盟封忆之恋

    黑夜代表着什么呢,有人说是黑暗,有人说是黎明之前的等待,可对于我来说,他代表的是你,是那个让我倾心的你。为什么,为什么你们都不信我,你们说眼见为实,可是你们不知道的是在这宇宙中很多时候眼见不一定为实,既然你们不信,那就忘了我吧。为什么一定要问以前发生了什么,布莱克,你只要记得,你要信我我是真的爱你。我没有想到即使分离了这么久,即使我们都再不是以前的那个自己,你们依然记得我。还记得我吗,什么?回来?我们始终是朋友,可我不能就这样回来,如果真的想让我回来,那么,雷队,我要和你们的副队长联姻!无论过了多久,你们永远都是我的朋友,而你,永远都是我的最爱……
  • 笼中有仓仙

    笼中有仓仙

    一名能看见异样风景的高三生,遇到了从天而降的仓鼠神仙,一人一鼠今后会怎么生活呢……
  • 快穿之大佬别闹

    快穿之大佬别闹

    系统以为自己绑定了一只只有美貌而没脑子,只知修炼而不知世故的纯情小狐狸。岂料,结果却是这样!女主:姐姐,姐姐,你好美啊,可以做朋友吗?男主:小兮,你要相信我,我的心永远是你的!某兮:呵呵~某男:哦~我的心也是你的哦~某兮:……大佬,别呀!
  • 小反派逆袭之路

    小反派逆袭之路

    穿越到异世,却是一个家世好,天赋高的反派高富帅,貌似还得罪了主角,柳枫表示有点慌!不过,当自己的金手指到账后,柳枫却又充满了信心:"我就不信我堂堂一个带着金手指的穿越者还对付不了一个土著主角!"PS:本书黑暗文,无女主,后期越来越黑暗!欢迎加入小反派逆袭之路书友群,群聊号码:838109425
  • 大女人DNR

    大女人DNR

    两位出生在农村的小女孩不同的人生,反映当代农村的衰落,弱者的的毫无希望的生活,以及从社会底层一路走来,都市打拼者的内心的挣扎。从一个不谙世事的小女孩成长成为一位商业女强人的故事。
  • 四十二章经注

    四十二章经注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 向诸葛亮借智慧

    向诸葛亮借智慧

    本书从管理学和心理学角度出发,运用人力资源管理和组织行为学的知识,解读诸葛亮的一生,对三顾茅庐、舌战群儒、赤壁大战、空城计、斩马谡、六出祁山等大事件都有精辟的分析,从一个崭新的角度观察历史人物和历史事件,既讲故事也分析规律,并与当今现实生活相结合,古为今用,总结出能在现实生活中运用的规律和技巧。
  • 礼仪与道德修养(道德修养集成)

    礼仪与道德修养(道德修养集成)

    礼,是思想道德修养。仪,使其表现,即礼节。因此,礼仪不是培训出来的,是修养出来的,它是道德修养的外在表现。自古中国就是礼仪之邦,秉承和发扬这一优良传统,是作为21世纪接班人的青少年们的必修课。本书具体阐述了礼仪和道德修养之间的密切关系,帮助青少年们提高整体素质。
  • 掌天之尘

    掌天之尘

    这是一片外表看起来平常至极的下等世界,虽寰宇中有神界和仙界的存在,然而守护这片天地的,却是两尊巨魔!修仙九阶,一叶可蔽目,一尘可掌天!
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。