在看——

《雅各布之屋》JACOB’S ROOM

一个有着威灵顿公爵式的鼻子的年轻人坐在票价为七先令六便士的座位上，歌剧结束后他走下石头楼梯，似乎仍沉浸在音乐的影响之中，因而和其他观众之间仍有着一些距离。

午夜时，雅各布听见有人敲他的门。

“哎呀！”他惊呼道。“我正需要你呢！”于是他们毫不费力地找到了他一整天都在寻找的诗句；只不过不是在维吉尔的作品里，而是在卢克莱修的作品里。

“是的，这应该能够引起他的注意。”雅各布停止朗读时博纳米说。雅各布很激动。这是他第一次朗读他的文章。

“该死的猪猡！”他过于放肆地说道；但是这赞扬使他飘飘然起来。里兹大学的布尔蒂尔教授发表了威彻利剧作的一种版本，没有说明他把好几个粗鄙的词和短语给删掉、除去其内容或只用星号表示。雅各布说这太蛮不讲理了；是不守信用的行为；百分之百的假正经；标志着淫荡的头脑和令人憎恶的本性。引用了阿里斯托芬和莎士比亚。批判了现代生活。伟大的剧作出自专家之手，里兹作为传授知识的所在地被大加嘲笑。而是人惊讶的是，这些年轻人完全正确——使人惊讶，因为在雅各布抄写他的文章时，他就知道不会有人登载的；确实，《半月刊》、《当代》、《十九世纪》都把稿子退了回来——雅各布把稿子扔进了他放母亲的来信、他的旧法兰绒裤子、和一两封盖着科尼什邮戳的短信的黑木箱子里。

这只还能看得出用白漆在上面写了他的名字的黑木箱子放在客厅的两扇长窗之间。下面就是大街。卧室肯定在后面。家具——三把柳条椅和一张折叠式桌子——是从剑桥来的。这些房子（加尔菲特太太的女儿怀特霍恩太太是这栋房子的房东）大约是在一百五十年前盖的。房间匀称美观，天花板很高；门道上方的木头上雕刻着玫瑰花或公羊头。十八世纪有自己的突出之处。就连墙上漆成木莓色的镶板也有自己的突出之处。……

“突出”——杜兰特太太说雅各布·弗兰德斯“一表人才”。“极其笨拙，”她说，“但真是一表人才。”第一次见到他时，人们会感到这个形容无疑对他是极恰当的。

A young man with a Wellington nose, who had occupied a seven-and-sixpenny seat, made his way down the stone stairs when the opera ended, as if he were still set a little apart from his fellows by the influence of the music.

At midnight Jacob Flanders heard a rap on his door.

‘By Jove!’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re the very man I want!’ and without more ado they discovered the lines which he had been seeking all day; only they come not in Virgil, but in Lucretius.

‘Yes; that should make him sit up,’ said Bonamy, as Jacob stopped reading. Jacob was excited. It was the first time he had read his essay aloud.

‘Damned swine!’ he said, rather too extravagantly; but the praise had gone to his head. Professor Bulteel, of Leeds, had issued an edition of Wycherley without stating that he had left out, disemboweled, or indicated only by asterisks, several indecent words and some indecent phrases. And outrage, Jacob said; a breach of faith; sheer prudery; token of a lewd mind and a disgusting nature. Aristophanes and Shakespeare were cited. Modern life was repudiated. Great play was made with the professional title, and Leeds as a seat of learning was laughed to scorn. And the extraordinary thing was that these young men were perfectly right — extraordinary, because, even as Jacob copied his pages, he knew that no one would ever print them; and sure enough back they came from the Fortnightly, the contemporary, the Nineteenth Century – when Jacob threw them into the black wooden box where he kept his mother’s letters, his old flannel trousers, and a note or two with the Cornish postmark. The lid shut upon the truth.

This black wooden box, upon which his name was still legible in white paint, stood between the long windows of the sitting-room. The street ran beneath. No doubt the bedroom was behind. The furniture – three wicker chairs and a gate-legged table – came from Cambridge. These house (Mrs Garfit’s daughter, Mrs Whitehorn, was the landlady of this one) were built, say, a hundred and fifty years ago. The rooms are shapely, the ceilings high; over the doorway a rose, or a ram’s skull, is carved in the wood. The eighteenth century has its distinction. Even the panels, painted in raspberry-coloured paint, have their distinction…

‘Distinction’ – Mrs Durrant said that Jacob Flanders was ‘distinguished-looking’. ‘Extremely awkward,’ she said, ‘but so distinguished-looking.’ Seeing him for the first time that no doubt is the word for him.