Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty Six

Philip has been in Heidelberg for three months.One morning, the professor's wife told him that an Englishman named Hayward was coming to live in this apartment, and at dinner that night, he saw a strange face.For the past few days, the people in this room have been immersed in excitement.First, after low-key entreaties from the professor's wife, mother and daughter, and implicit threats, and God knows what other tricks, the parents of the young Englishman who was engaged to Miss Tekla finally invited her to visit her in England. them.When she set out she took with her a book of watercolors, as a token of her versatility, and a bundle of love letters, to testify to how deep the young Englishman had sunk.A week later, Miss Hedwig announced again in good spirits that her favorite, the lieutenant of hussars, was coming to Heidelberg with his parents.The lieutenant's parents, on the one hand, couldn't bear the stubborn entanglement of their precious son, on the other hand, they were moved by the dowry offered by Miss Hedwig's father, and finally agreed to come to Heidelberg to get acquainted with the girl.The result of the meeting was satisfactory, Miss Hedwig triumphantly led her lover to the city park, and let everyone in Professor Olin's family see the grandeur... Those old ladies who sat next to the professor's wife, usually Quiet and dignified, but tonight seemed restless.When Miss Hedwig said that she was going to go home immediately to hold the engagement ceremony, Mrs. Professor said without hesitation that she would like to invite everyone to drink Maibowle and congratulate them.Professor Olin is quite proud of his skill in concocting this elegant and mellow wine.After dinner, a large bowl of white wine and sparkling water was ceremoniously placed on the round table in the living room, with some herbs and wild strawberries floating in the bowl.Miss Anna made fun of Philip, saying that his lover was going to leave him, and Philip felt an indescribable sense of melancholy when he heard that.Miss Hedwig sang several songs, Miss Anna played the "Wedding March", and the professor sang "Die Wacht am Rhein".In the midst of this gaiety, Philip paid little attention to the new lodger.They had sat facing each other at dinner, but Philip was busy chattering with Miss Hedwig, while the stranger, who did not know German, was absorbed in eating alone.Philip noticed that he was wearing a light blue tie, and for that alone Philip felt a sudden disgust.This person is twenty-six years old, with delicate features and long wavy hair, which he carelessly raises his hand to caress from time to time.A pair of big blue eyes, but very light blue, with a bit of tiredness in the eyes.The beard was clean-shaven, and despite the thin lips, the whole mouth was beautiful.Miss Anna was very interested in physiognomy, and she wanted Philip to notice in future how well-proportioned the stranger's head was, and how soft the lower part of his face was.The head, she remarked, was a thinker's head, but his jaw lacked character.Miss Anna, who was destined to be an old maid all her life, was born with a pair of high cheekbones and a strange big nose, and she paid special attention to personality.When they were talking about this person's appearance, he had already left everyone, and stood aside, watching the noisy group of people coldly, with a hint of arrogance in his complacent demeanor.He is tall and slender.At this moment, he intentionally put on an elegant demeanor.Vickers, one of the few American students, saw him standing by himself and went up to strike up a conversation with him.The two of them formed a strange contrast: the American was neatly dressed, wearing a black coat and a pair of salt-and-pepper trousers. He was thin and dry, and his demeanor was somewhat ecclesiastical. ; and the Englishman, wearing a loose and fancy woolen suit, has thick hands and feet, and moves slowly in the city.

Philip did not speak to the new lodger until the next day.Before lunch, they found themselves standing just the two of them on the verandah in front of the living room.Hayward greeted him and said: "I suppose you're British?" "yes." "The food here is always as bad as it was last night?" "That's pretty much it." "It sucks, doesn't it?" "It sucks." Philip did not feel at all that there was anything wrong with the food.In fact, he not only eats with relish, but also eats a lot.However, he didn't want to be seen as a layman in eating, and regarded food that others considered unpalatable as good food.

Miss Tekla has gone to England as a guest, and her younger sister Anna has to work hard to manage the housework. She can no longer find time to go for a walk in the wild.Miss Cacilie, who had a small face and a snub nose, and blond hair in long braids, was also often shut up lately, and seemed to be reluctant to socialize with others.Miss Hedwig was gone, and the American Vickers, who used to go out for walks with them, was now traveling in southern Germany, leaving Philip alone, strangely deserted.Heyward wanted to make his acquaintance, but Philip had this unfortunate characteristic: because of natural timidity, or because he had some atavistic inheritance in him-accepted the habits of cavemen, he was at first glance with others. When dealing with them, I always feel disgusted.You have to wait until you are familiar with it later, and you will get rid of the bad impression others left on you when you first met.In view of this, it is difficult for outsiders to get close to him.For Hayward's friendliness, Philip was ashamed to deal with it.one day, the sea.De invited Philip to go for a walk with him, and Philip had to go with him.No, because he couldn't think of a decent excuse.As usual, he made such a sentence of apology, and at the same time, he was very annoyed at the fact that he couldn't help blushing, so he deliberately smiled to cover up his embarrassment.

"I'm afraid I can't go fast." "My God, I don't want to bet on who's going fast. I just like to walk around. You don't remember Pater saying in the chapter of "Marius" that a leisurely stroll is the ideal Conversation booster?" Philip had a good taste for other people's speech.Though he himself was often tempted to say something startling, he waited until the opportunity to say it had passed before he thought of it; Hayward was very eloquent.To someone a little more experienced than Philip, it might have seemed that Hayward simply liked to be heard talking about himself.Philip was deeply impressed by his defiant arrogance.For many things that he regards as almost sacred and inviolable, this person dares to show contempt. This alone cannot but be admired and awe-inspiring.Hayward criticizes the world's blind worship of sports, and denounces those who are enthusiastic about various sports activities as "prize fans"; in fact, Philip does not understand that Hayward cannot escape this stereotype after all. Gotta be obsessed with something else.

They strolled to the old castle and sat down on the platform overlooking the whole city of Heidelberg in front of the old castle.The small town is nestled on the banks of the beautiful Neckar River, showing a tranquil atmosphere of indifference to the world.From the chimneys of thousands of households, green smoke rises, filling the sky over the ancient city, turning into a light blue mist; the tall roofs and church spires are well arranged, giving the small town a pleasing medieval flavor.The whole ancient city has a kind of kindness and warmth that refreshes the heart.Hayward spoke of "Richard Feverel" and of Verlaine, Dante, and Matthew Arnold.At that time Fitzgerald's translation of Omer Khayyam's poetry was known only to a select few of God's people, but Hayward could recite it to Philip word for word.He was very fond of reciting psalms, which he wrote or others wrote, and they were all recited in a flat song.By the time they got home Philip's attitude towards Hayward had changed from perfunctory suspicion to passionate admiration.

They always go out for a walk together every afternoon.It did not take long for Philip to learn every detail of Hayward's life.He was the son of a country judge who had recently died and had inherited an estate of three hundred pounds a year old.Hayward had excelled academically at Charterhouse, and when he entered Cambridge, even the Head of Trinity Hall himself came out to express his satisfaction at his decision to attend there.Hayward is in full swing, ready to do a great career.He socialized with distinguished intellectuals, read Browning passionately, and sneered at Nissen.He knew the details of Shelley's ironic marriage to Heliott; he dabbled in art history (on the walls of his room were G. F. reproductions of masterpieces by painters such as Celli).He himself wrote some bleak but characteristic poems.His friends remarked to one another that he was gifted and brilliant; and Hayward was delighted to hear their predictions of his future success in the literary world.Before long, he naturally became an authority on the art of Yixue.Newman's "Self-Defense" had a great influence on him; the vivid and unique teachings of the Roman Catholic Church hit it off with his keen sense of beauty. Works) were so angry that they did not "convert" and convert to Catholicism.When Hayward received only a passing grade in his final examinations, his friends were amazed; but he himself shrugged and hinted subtly that he would not want to be a puppet in the hands of the examiners.His impressive test scores always tinged with a bit of market spirit.He described the process of an interview in an open-minded and joking tone: a character with a lousy collar asked him questions about logic; Tight boots, the situation was grotesque and ludicrous, and his mind wandered to the rugged beauty of the Gothic church of Kings College.After all, he did spend a good time in Cambridge: there, he entertained relatives and friends with a sumptuous feast that he had never seen before; When discussing the affairs of the world, his elegant speech is often unforgettable.As he spoke, he casually quoted an incisive aphorism to Philip:

"They tell me, Heraclitus, they tell me you are dead." Now, as he got down to business and went on to tell vivid anecdotes about the examiner and his boots, he couldn't help throwing back a laugh. "It's a folly, of course," he said, "but there's a subtlety in it." Philip thought excitedly: It's amazing! Afterwards, Hayward went to London to study law.He rented some very elegant, paneled rooms at Clement's Law Society, and managed to furnish them like college libraries.His ambition is more or less focused on the political and official circles.He called himself a Whig.Someone recommended him to join a club that, although tinged with the Liberal Party, was very gentlemanly.It was Hayward's idea to practice first as a barrister (he intended to deal with the Chancery's litigation, as it was more lenient), and, once the parties' commitments had been fulfilled, to try to become a lawyer in some favorable local and constituency. MP.During this period, he often went to the opera house and made friends with a few like-minded and refined people.He also joined a dinner club whose motto was Whole, Good, and Beautiful.He struck up a platonic friendship with a lady eight years his senior who lived in Kensington Square.Almost every afternoon he and she drank tea by shaded candles and talked about George Meredith and Walter Pater.It is well known that the bar exams are passed by any fool; and so Hayward was weary with his studies.Unexpectedly, in the end, he failed the final exam, and Hayward thought it was because the examiner deliberately made things difficult for him.It was at this time that the lady in Kensington Square told him that her husband was coming back from India for a holiday, and that although he was blameless in every way, he was a mediocre man after all. , for a young man's frequent visits, it may not be fully forgiven.Hayward felt that life was full of ugliness, and at the same time, he was really disgusted at the thought of facing the cynical examiner again.He felt that simply kicking the ball away from his feet would be a good way to cut through the mess quickly.Besides, he was now deeply in debt; it was difficult to live decently on a man of three hundred pounds in London.In his heart he longed for Venice and Florence, two places that John Ruskin spoke of as miraculous.He felt that he could not adapt to the vulgar and busy legal affairs, because he had found that if he first wrote his name on the gate, he would not attract any lawsuits, and modern politics seemed to be undignified.He felt that he was born to be a poet.He vacated his room at Clement's Law Society and set off for Italy.He had spent one winter in Florence and one in Rome, and now he was in Germany, spending his second summer abroad in order to enjoy Goethe in the original.

Hayward has an extremely valuable talent: he has a high appreciation for literature, can pour his passion into his works, make himself feel the same as the writer, see all the essence of the writer, and then cultivate Make reasonable comments.Philip reads a lot of books, but he never chooses them, and reads what he gets. Now he is very lucky to meet such a good teacher and helpful friend who can give advice on the appreciation of free learning.Philip borrowed books of all kinds from the limited lending library of the town, and read book after book of all the good ones that Hayward had mentioned.Although he didn't always find it interesting when he read it, he persevered in drilling down.He felt that he was too ignorant, too shallow, and was eager to improve himself.By the time Vickers returned from South Germany at the end of the eighth month, Philip was completely under Hayward's influence.Hayward disliked Vickers, bemoaned the American's black coat and salt-and-pepper trousers, and shrugged contemptuously whenever he spoke of his New England conscience.Philip was also secretly pleased with Hayward's insults and insults to Vickers, though Vickers was especially courteous and friendly to him; It will instantly catch fire.

"Your new friend looks like a poet," Vickers said sarcastically, a smile twitching at the corner of his troubled mouth. "He was a poet." "Did he tell you that himself? In America, he's called a standard jerk." "But we're not in America now," said Philip coldly. "How old is he? Twenty-five? He just sits around all day, living in a pension and writing poetry." "You don't know him," said Philip angrily. "No, I know him well! I've seen a hundred and forty-seven like him." Vickers's eyes were shining brightly, but Philip couldn't appreciate American humor, and his lips were pursed and his face was stern.Weeks seemed to Philip to be middle-aged, although he was in his early thirties.Vickers was a slender, scholarly, stooped man with an ungainly large head, dull, thinning hair, and earthy skin.Thin lips, a slender nose, and a protruding frontal bone give him a vulgar appearance.His demeanor was cold, his manner rigid, lifeless and unenthusiastic, but with an air of inexplicable frivolity which disconcerted serious-looking people with whom Weeks instinctively preferred. Together.He was studying theology at Heidelberg University, and some of his compatriots who were also studying theology here were wary of him.The man's unorthodox taste was too strong for them to be intimidated.His eccentric sense of humor also disapproved of them.

"How could you have seen a hundred and forty-seven of a man like him?" "I saw him in the Latin quarters of Paris; I saw him in boarding houses in Berlin, Munich. He lived in small hotels in Perugia and Assisi. Stands before Botticelli in Florence; his like fills the seats of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. In Italy he drinks a little more wine; There is no restraint. He worships everything that is correct, no matter what it is. He plans to write a magnificent book in the near future. Think about it, one hundred and forty-seven shocking works are hidden in The minds of one hundred and forty-seven great men; unfortunately, none of these one hundred and forty-seven astonishing novels could be written. And the world, on the other hand, goes on."

Vickers talked in a serious manner, and at the end, his pair of light gray eyes flickered a few times.Philip blushed, knowing that the American was making fun of him. "Nonsense," said Philip angrily.