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[夜与日].(night.and.day).(英)弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙.文字版-第17部分


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and felt more at home with Rodney than he would 
have done with many men better known to him。 Rodney’s 
room was the room of a person who cherishes a great 
many personal tastes; guarding them from the rough blasts 
of the public with scrupulous attention。 His papers and 
his books rose in jagged mounds on table and floor; round 
which he skirted with nervous care lest his dressinggown 
might disarrange them ever so slightly。 On a chair stood 
a stack of photographs of statues and pictures; which it 
was his habit to exhibit; one by one; for the space of a 
day or two。 The books on his shelves were as orderly as 
regiments of soldiers; and the backs of them shone like 
so many bronze beetlewings; though; if you took one 
from its place you saw a shabbier volume behind it; since 
space was limited。 An oval Veian mirror stood above 
the fireplace; and reflected duskily in its spotted depths 
the faint yellow and crimson of a jarful of tulips which 
stood among the letters and pipes and cigarettes upon 

the mantelpiece。 A small piano occupied a corner of the 
room; with the score of “Don Giovanni” open upon the 
bracket。 

“Well; Rodney;” said Denham; as he filled his pipe and 
looked about him; “this is all very nice and fortable。” 

Rodney turned his head half round and smiled; with 
the pride of a proprietor; and then prevented himself from 
smiling。 

“Tolerable;” he muttered。 

“But I dare say it’s just as well that you have to earn 
your own living。” 

“If you mean that I shouldn’t do anything good with 
leisure if I had it; I dare say you’re right。 But I should be 
ten times as happy with my whole day to spend as I 
liked。” 

“I doubt that;” Denham replied。 

They sat silent; and the smoke from their pipes joined 
amicably in a blue vapor above their heads。 

“I could spend three hours every day reading 
Shakespeare;” Rodney remarked。 “And there’s music and 
pictures; let alone the society of the people one likes。” 

60 



Virginia Woolf 

“You’d be bored to death in a year’s time。” 

“Oh; I grant you I should be bored if I did nothing。 But 
I should write plays。” 

“H’m!” 

“I should write plays;” he repeated。 “I’ve written three
quarters of one already; and I’m only waiting for a holiday 
to finish it。 And it’s not bad—no; some of it’s really 
rather nice。” 

The question arose in Denham’s mind whether he should 
ask to see this play; as; no doubt; he was expected to do。 
He looked rather stealthily at Rodney; who was tapping 
the coal nervously with a poker; and quivering almost 
physically; so Denham thought; with desire to talk about 
this play of his; and vanity unrequited and urgent。 He 
seemed very much at Denham’s mercy; and Denham could 
not help liking him; partly on that account。 

“Well; … will you let me see the play?” Denham asked; 
and Rodney looked immediately appeased; but; nevertheless; 
he sat silent for a moment; holding the poker perfectly 
upright in the air; regarding it with his rather prominent 
eyes; and opening his lips and shutting them again。 

“Do you really care for this kind of thing?” he asked at 
length; in a different tone of voice from that in which he 
had been speaking。 And; without waiting for an answer; 
he went on; rather querulously: “Very few people care for 
poetry。 I dare say it bores you。” 

“Perhaps;” Denham remarked。 

“Well; I’ll lend it you;” Rodney announced; putting down 
the poker。 

As he moved to fetch the play; Denham stretched a 
hand to the bookcase beside him; and took down the 
first volume which his fingers touched。 It happened to 
be a small and very lovely edition of Sir Thomas Browne; 
containing the “Urn Burial;” the “Hydriotaphia;” and the 
“Garden of Cyrus;” and; opening it at a passage which he 
knew very nearly by heart; Denham began to read and; 
for some time; continued to read。 

Rodney resumed his seat; with his manuscript on his 
knee; and from time to time he glanced at Denham; and 
then joined his fingertips and crossed his thin legs over 
the fender; as if he experienced a good deal of pleasure。 
At length Denham shut the book; and stood; with his 

61 



Night and Day 

back to the fireplace; occasionally making an inarticulate 
humming sound which seemed to refer to Sir Thomas 
Browne。 He put his hat on his head; and stood over Rodney; 
who still lay stretched back in his chair; with his toes 
within the fender。 

“I shall look in again some time;” Denham remarked; 
upon which Rodney held up his hand; containing his manuscript; 
without saying anything except—”If you like。” 

Denham took the manuscript and went。 Two days later 
he was much surprised to find a thin parcel on his 
breakfastplate; which; on being opened; revealed the very 
copy of Sir Thomas Browne which he had studied so intently 
in Rodney’s rooms。 From sheer laziness he returned 
no thanks; but he thought of Rodney from time to time 
with interest; disconnecting him from Katharine; and 
meant to go round one evening and smoke a pipe with 
him。 It pleased Rodney thus to give away whatever his 
friends genuinely admired。 His library was constantly being 
diminished。 

CHAPTER VI 


Of all the hours of an ordinary working weekday; which 
are the pleasantest to look forward to and to look back 
upon? If a single instance is of use in framing a theory; it 
may be said that the minutes between niwentyfive 
and nihirty in the morning had a singular charm for 
Mary Datchet。 She spent them in a very enviable frame of 
mind; her contentment was almost unalloyed。 High in 
the air as her flat was; some beams from the morning sun 
reached her even in November; striking straight at curtain; 
chair; and carpet; and painting there three bright; 
true spaces of green; blue; and purple; upon which the 
eye rested with a pleasure which gave physical warmth 
to the body。 

There were few mornings when Mary did not look up; as 
she bent to lace her boots; and as she followed the yellow 
rod from curtain to breakfasttable she usually 
breathed some sigh of thankfulness that her life provided 
her with such moments of pure enjoyment。 She was robbing 
no one of anything; and yet; to get so much plea


62 



Virginia Woolf 

sure from simple things; such as eating one’s breakfast 
alone in a room which had nice colors in it; clean from the 
skirting of the boards to the corners of the ceiling; seemed 
to suit her so thoroughly that she used at first to hunt 
about for some one to apologize to; or for some flaw in the 
situation。 She had now been six months in London; and 
she could find no flaw; but that; as she invariably concluded 
by the time her boots were laced; was solely and 
entirely due to the fact that she had her work。 Every day; 
as she stood with her dispatchbox in her hand at the door 
of her flat; and gave one look back into the room to see 
that everything was straight before she left; she said to 
herself that she was very glad that she was going to leave 
it all; that to have sat there all day long; in the enjoyment 
of leisure; would have been intolerable。 

Out in the street she liked to think herself one of the 
workers who; at this hour; take their way in rapid single 
file along all the broad pavements of the city; with their 
heads slightly lowered; as if all their effort were to follow 
each other as closely as might be; so that Mary used to 
figure to herself a straight rabbitrun worn by their un


swerving feet upon the pavement。 But she liked to pretend 
that she was indistinguishable from the rest; and 
that when a wet day drove her to the Underground or 
omnibus; she gave and took her share of crowd and wet 
with clerks and typists and mercial men; and shared 
with them the serious business of windingup the world 
to tick for another fourandtwenty hours。 

Thus thinking; on the particular morning in question; 
she made her away across Lincoln’s Inn Fields and up 
Kingsway; and so through Southampton Row until she 
reached her office in Russell Square。 Now and then she 
would pause and look into the window o

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