Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty Two

Philip's uncle had an old friend named Miss Wilkinson, who lived in Berlin and was the daughter of a clergyman.Mr. Carey spent his last term as curate under the young lady's father, when he was rector of a village in Lincolnshire.After her father's death, Miss Wilkinson was forced to fend for herself and worked as a tutor in many places in France and Germany.She kept up a correspondence with Mrs. Carey, and spent two or three holidays at Blackstable Parsonage, and she was obliged to pay for board and lodging, as was customary with occasional visitors to Mr. Carey's.When the situation became clear, Mrs. Carey felt that she would only get herself into trouble by insisting on disobeying Philip's wishes, and that she would be better off submitting to him, so she wrote to Miss Wilkinson to ask her advice.Miss Wilkinson recommended that Heidelberg was an ideal place to learn German, and that Philip could board at the home of Professor Olin's wife, where the environment was comfortable and he would pay 30 marks for board and lodging a week.Professor Olin teaches in a local middle school, and he will teach Philip German in person.

One morning in May Philip arrived in Heidelberg.He put his luggage on the trolley and followed the porter out of the station.The sun was shining brightly in the blue sky; the streets they passed were leafy and shadowy; the atmosphere around them gave Philip a sense of freshness.Philip's timidity suddenly entered a new world of life among strangers, and his timidity was mingled with a strong joy of refreshment.The porter took him to the front gate of a big white house and left.Philip was a little displeased and ashamed to see that no one came out to fetch him.A disheveled young man finally let him in and led him into the living room.The drawing-room was filled with a large suite of furniture covered with large green velvet; in the center of the room was a round table, on which stood a bouquet of flowers in clear water, tightly bound by a fringe of paper like the rib of a mutton chop. together; leather-bound books neatly scattered around the bouquet.There was a musty smell in the room.

After a while, with the greasy smell of kitchen food, Mrs. Professor came in.She was not tall, very strong, with disheveled hair, a flushed face, a pair of small eyes that shone like beads, and an expression of enthusiasm.She took Philip's hands, and asked how Miss Wilkinson was.Miss Wilkinson came twice and stayed with her for several weeks.She speaks German with occasional phrases of broken English.Philip could not make her understand that he did not know Miss Wilkinson himself.At this time, her two daughters showed up.They seemed very old to Philip, though perhaps not more than twenty-five.The eldest daughter Tekla was as short as her mother, with the same flexible expression on her face, but she was good-looking and had thick black hair; the younger sister Anna was tall and plain, but she had a sweet smile, and Philip At first sight, I think my younger sister is more likable.After exchanging pleasantries, Mrs. Professor led Philip to his room and went away.The room is on the turret on the top floor, overlooking a treetop and dense leaves in the garden in the middle of the street.The bed was propped in an alcove, so sitting at the desk and looking at the room, it didn't feel like a bedroom at all.Philip unpacked and put all the books out.He finally got rid of the fetters and was no longer restrained by others.

At one o'clock the bell rang, calling him to lunch.He went into the living room and found that Mrs. Professor's tenants were already in the room.She introduced Philip to her husband, a tall, middle-aged man with a large head, blond hair that was grizzled at the temples, and blue eyes with soft eyes.He talked to Philip in an unerring but outdated English, which he had evidently acquired by studying the English classics rather than by actual conversation; I've seen it before, it sounds weird.Mrs. Professor Erlin does not call the apartment she runs a boarding house, but a "tenant's house". In fact, the difference between the two may only be discerned with the discerning eyes of a metaphysician. come out.Philip felt rather shy when they all sat down to dinner in the long, dark drawing-room.He saw a total of sixteen people at the table, and the professor's wife was sitting at one end of the table, cutting cooked meat with a knife.The stupid boy who opened the door for Philip, who served the soup and distributed the food, was clumsy and rattled the dishes; The people who eat the food have already had an empty stomach, but the people behind have not yet got their share.The professor's wife insisted that only German should be spoken at dinner, so that even if the timid Philip had the courage to make a few words, he did not dare to speak rashly.He looked at the people in front of him that he would live with.There were some old ladies sitting beside the Professor's wife, and Philip paid little attention to them.There were two young fair-haired girls at the table, one of whom was very pretty, and Philip heard them being called Miss Hedwig and Miss Cacilie.Mademoiselle Cacilie had a long braid down her neck.They sat side by side, chattering and giggling, and glancing at Philip now and then, and one of them whispered something, and they both laughed.Philip blushed with embarrassment, feeling that they were secretly teasing him.Sitting next to them was a Chinese with a cheerful smile on Huang Huang's face.He is studying the state of Western society at the university.He spoke quickly and with a strange accent, so the girls didn't understand everything he said.As soon as this happened, they laughed openly, and he himself laughed in an easy-going manner. When he laughed, his thin almond eyes almost formed a slit.There were also two or three Americans in black coats, with yellow and dry skin, university students in theology.Philip recognized the New England accent in their broken German, and glanced at them suspiciously.His education had instilled in him the idea that Americans were rash, risk-taking savages.

After dinner, they went back to the living room and sat for a while on the hard chairs covered in green velvet.Miss Anna asked Philip if he would go for a walk with them. Philip accepted the invitation.There were quite a few people walking, including the professor's wife's two daughters, two other girls, an American college student, and Philip.Philip walked beside Anna and Miss Hedwig.He was a little uneasy.He has never dealt with girls.In Blackstable there were only peasant girls and local merchant's ladies.He knew their names and met them a few times, but he was timid and always thought they were making fun of his disability.The Vicar and Mrs. Carey considered themselves superior to the humble peasants, and Philip readily accepted this opinion.The doctor had two daughters, both much older than Philip, who had married two of the doctor's assistants when Philip was a child.Some students at the school knew two or three girls with more courage than dignity, and gossip among classmates said that they had affairs with those girls, which was probably motivated by male fantasies and deliberately alarmist.Such rumors often terrified Philip, but on the surface he always pretended to be aloof and dismissive.His imagination, and the books he had read, aroused in him a desire to be Byronic with women.On the one hand, he harbored a morbid shyness, and on the other hand, he was convinced that he should show a suave and chivalrous demeanor, and he was tossed about what to do.At this moment, he felt that he should appear smart, chic, witty and generous, but unexpectedly, his mind was empty, and he couldn't think of a word even after trying his best.The professor's wife's daughter, Miss Anna, chatted with him from time to time out of a sense of responsibility, but the girl next to her seldom opened her mouth. She sometimes rolled her pair of meteor-like eyes to give him a glance, and sometimes laughed loudly from the sidelines. , making him even more flustered.Philip felt that he must look ridiculous to her.They walked slowly along the foot of the hill among the pine forests, and Philip was delighted by the sweet fragrance of the pine trees.The weather was warm, with not a single cloud in the clear sky.At last they came to a high place, from which they looked down, and saw the Rhine Valley stretch before them.The vast fields and distant cities are bathed in sunlight, shining with golden light.In the meantime, the Rhine River twists and turns, like a silver ribbon.In the corner of Kent that Philip is familiar with, it is rare to see such an open and flat river. Only when you look at it from the sea can you see the wonderful scenery connecting the sky and the earth.The vastness of the field before him stirred a strange, indescribable thrill in his soul.He was suddenly intoxicated with happiness.Although he didn't know it himself, for the first time in his life he had a real appreciation of beauty, and it was not watered down by strange emotions.They, just the three of them, sat on a bench while the rest went on.The two girls chatted quickly in German, and Philip ignored their proximity and enjoyed the beautiful scenery in front of him.

"My God, I'm so happy!" he murmured unconsciously.