贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > worldly ways and byways >

第14章

worldly ways and byways-第14章

小说: worldly ways and byways 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




difficult。  Finally; for economy; an unfurnished apartment is 

taken。  They send home for bits of furniture and family belongings; 

and gradually drop into the great army of the expatriated。



Oh; the pathos of it!  One who has not seen these poor stranded 

waifs in their self…imposed exile; with eyes turned towards their 

native land; cannot realize all the sadness and loneliness they 

endure; rarely adopting the country of their residence but becoming 

more firmly American as the years go by。  The home papers and 

periodicals are taken; the American church attended; if there 

happens to be one; the English chapel; if there is not。  Never a 

French church!  In their hearts they think it almost irreverent to 

read the service in French。  The acquaintance of a few fellow…

exiles is made and that of a half…dozen English families; mothers 

and daughters and a younger son or two; whom the ferocious 

primogeniture custom has cast out of the homes of their childhood 

to economize on the Continent。



I have in my mind a little settlement of this kind at Versailles; 

which was a type。  The formal old city; fallen from its grandeur; 

was a singularly appropriate setting to the little comedy。  There 

the modest purses of the exiles found rents within their reach; the 

quarters vast and airy。  The galleries and the park afforded a 

diversion; and then Paris; dear Paris; the American Mecca; was 

within reach。  At the time I knew it; the colony was fairly 

prosperous; many of its members living in the two or three 

principal PENSIONS; the others in apartments of their own。  They 

gave feeble little entertainments among themselves; card…parties 

and teas; and dined about with each other at their respective 

TABLES D'HOTE; even knowing a stray Frenchman or two; whom the 

quest of a meal had tempted out of their native fastnesses as it 

does the wolves in a hard winter。  Writing and receiving letters 

from America was one of the principal occupations; and an epistle 

descriptive of a particular event at home went the rounds; and was 

eagerly read and discussed。



The merits of the different PENSIONS also formed a subject of vital 

interest。  The advantages and disadvantages of these rival 

establishments were; as a topic; never exhausted。  MADAME UNE TELLE 

gave five o'clock tea; included in the seven francs a day; but her 

rival gave one more meat course at dinner and her coffee was 

certainly better; while a third undoubtedly had a nicer set of 

people。  No one here at home can realize the importance these 

matters gradually assume in the eyes of the exiles。  Their slender 

incomes have to be so carefully handled to meet the strain of even 

this simple way of living; if they are to show a surplus for a 

little trip to the seashore in the summer months; that an extra 

franc a day becomes a serious consideration。



Every now and then a family stronger…minded than the others; or 

with serious reasons for returning home (a daughter to bring out or 

a son to put into business); would break away from its somnolent 

surroundings and re…cross the Atlantic; alternating between hope 

and fear。  It is here that a sad fate awaits these modern Rip Van 

Winkles。  They find their native cities changed beyond recognition。  

(For we move fast in these days。)  The mother gets out her visiting 

list of ten years before and is thunderstruck to find that it 

contains chiefly names of the 〃dead; the divorced; and defaulted。〃  

The waves of a decade have washed over her place and the world she 

once belonged to knows her no more。  The leaders of her day on 

whose aid she counted have retired from the fray。  Younger; and 

alas! unknown faces sit in the opera boxes and around the dinner 

tables where before she had found only friends。  After a feeble 

little struggle to get again into the 〃swim;〃 the family drifts 

back across the ocean into the quiet back water of a continental 

town; and goes circling around with the other twigs and dry leaves; 

moral flotsam and jetsam; thrown aside by the great rush of the 

outside world。



For the parents the life is not too sad。  They have had their day; 

and are; perhaps; a little glad in their hearts of a quiet old age; 

away from the heat and sweat of the battle; but for the younger 

generation it is annihilation。  Each year their circle grows 

smaller。  Death takes away one member after another of the family; 

until one is left alone in a foreign land with no ties around her; 

or with her far…away 〃home;〃 the latter more a name now than a 

reality。



A year or two ago I was taking luncheon with our consul at his 

primitive villa; an hour's ride from the city of Tangier; a ride 

made on donkey…back; as no roads exist in that sunny land。  After 

our coffee and cigars; he took me a half…hour's walk into the 

wilderness around him to call on his nearest neighbors; whose mode 

of existence seemed a source of anxiety to him。  I found myself in 

the presence of two American ladies; the younger being certainly 

not less than seventy…five。  To my astonishment I found they had 

been living there some thirty years; since the death of their 

parents; in an isolation and remoteness impossible to describe; in 

an Arab house; with native servants; 〃the world forgetting; by the 

world forgot。〃  Yet these ladies had names well known in New York 

fifty years ago。



The glimpse I had of their existence made me thoughtful as I rode 

home in the twilight; across a suburb none too safe for strangers。  

What had the future in store for those two?  Or; worse still; for 

the survivor of those two?  In contrast; I saw a certain humble 

〃home〃 far away in America; where two old ladies were ending their 

lives surrounded by loving friends and relations; honored and 

cherished and guarded tenderly from the rude world。



In big cities like Paris and Rome there is another class of the 

expatriated; the wealthy who have left their homes in a moment of 

pique after the failure of some social or political ambition; and 

who find in these centres the recognition refused them at home and 

for which their souls thirsted。



It is not to these I refer; although it is curious to see a group 

of people living for years in a country of which they; half the 

time; do not speak the language (beyond the necessities of house…

keeping and shopping); knowing but few of its inhabitants; and 

seeing none of the society of the place; their acquaintance rarely 

going beyond that equivocal; hybrid class that surrounds rich 

〃strangers〃 and hangs on to the outer edge of the GRAND MONDE。  One 

feels for this latter class merely contempt; but one's pity is 

reserved for the former。  What object lessons some lives on the 

Continent would be to impatient souls at home; who feel 

discontented with their surroundings; and anxious to break away and 

wander abroad!  Let them think twice before they cut the thousand 

ties it has taken a lifetime to form。  Better monotony at your own 

fireside; my friends; where at the worst; you are known and have 

your place; no matter how small; than an old age among strangers。









CHAPTER 12 … 〃Seven Ages〃 of Furniture





THE progress through life of active…minded Americans is apt to be a 

series of transformations。  At each succeeding phase of mental 

development; an old skin drops from their growing intelligence; and 

they assimilate the ideas and tastes of their new condition; with a 

facility and completeness unknown to other nations。



One series of metamorphoses particularly amusing to watch is; that 

of an observant; receptive daughter of Uncle Sam who; aided and 

followed (at a distance) by an adoring husband; gradually develops 

her excellent brain; and rises through fathoms of self…culture and 

purblind experiment; to the surface of dilettantism and 

connoisseurship。  One can generally detect the exact stage of 

evolution such a lady has reac

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 1 1

你可能喜欢的