Chapter 5 chapter Five

"Come with me to the city to find Roth." Walter said to Searle after breakfast the next day. But Searle wanted to stay here.He said that he didn't want to leave this green early spring countryside, even if he left for a day.Besides, he didn't know Roth well, so he thought it would be more appropriate for Walter to talk to him first, and then take him for a formal visit next time. Walt felt a little disappointed, and couldn't determine the real reason for this feeling. On the drive to the radio studio, for the first time his mind was preoccupied with something other than the radio, and he kept thinking of everything about Trinity Manor.

He went to Roth and told him about the "Canoe on Roschmere" project.Roth liked the project very much, and gave him a verbal commitment to publication, but in the end he still had some reservations and said that he would wait to discuss it with Chromatici before making a final decision. Most people were puzzled that Roth had asked Cro-Marty to run the publishing house with him, and everyone thought he was just doing it for fun.Because on the surface, everyone thinks that with Mark Roth's ability, one person should be more than enough to run this publishing house, and there is really no need to find another person to jointly run it, especially an ordinary person like Chromati. character of.However, Mark has a character weakness of the West Highlanders that ordinary people may not notice, that is, it is difficult for him to refuse others.He wants people to like him, so he gets Chromatis to be his smoke bomb.He plays an enthusiastic role in front of the author to welcome them, but in case he wants to refuse, Chromatis becomes a step for him to escape.Cromarty once said angrily: "You asked me to help you reject the manuscript, at least let me know what they look like!" Manuscripts will be dutifully read.

Now facing the nephew of the best-selling female author, Roth finally used his usual delaying tactics, saying that he would go back and discuss with his partner before making a decision.But his flushed face looked very satisfied, and he finally invited Walter to lunch and ordered him a bottle of fine red wine-this seemed a waste to Walter, he liked it. beer. With a stomach full of good Burgundy wine and foggy conclusions, Walter was on the way back to the studio, thinking about what to do next and what to do after returning to Shaka Town, completely indifferent to enjoying staying in the broadcast room of fun.

In his past radio programs, each episode will invite a special guest to chat with everyone, and he will also make some related preparations so that the content of the program can be closer to Whitemore's style.These guests make Walter's show look like a world of poachers, shepherds from Australia, bird watchers, herders from Sutherland, fanatical ladies who go around collecting acorns , amateur falconers, etc.Anyone he can find who wants to be on the show he invites. His guest today is a little boy who has a tame fox.Walter was dismayed to find that he didn't like the kid very much.He has always loved his guests very much, and he treats them like brothers with warmth and warmth.

In his life, almost every time in this conversation with the guests on the show, he is the warmest and kindest to people, and his love for them almost brings tears to the eyes. So now he was really upset that he didn't like Harold Dibb and his stupid fox. He found that Harlow's lips seemed to be underdeveloped and looked like a fox. Maybe the fox could live in harmony with him because he made it feel like home.He felt guilty for his mean thoughts, and tried to make up for his uneasiness with softer, kinder words. It made his voice sound very contrived, and Harlow and his little foxes were the biggest flop Walt's broadcast had ever seen.

Even if today's conversation was successful, it wouldn't be enough to erase his memory of Harlow.Today's topic is "Earthworms in Britain". If someone else is the host, they will definitely talk about the ecology of earthworms or their relationship with nature, but who would be interested in earthworms or nature? He approached these topics in a Shakespearean angle that suited English audiences so well that they adored him even more.Walter's wonderful way of turning a dull gray stone on the West Coast into a green paradise is very British.The first postman to deliver the letter early the next morning will deliver fifty or sixty letters to readers from the northernmost border of the United Kingdom. Of course, this represents how proud Scotland is of the earthworms she has.But to Walter, these enthusiastic responses were all too commonplace.

Walt has a mysterious habit on the show, talking to a mysterious figure every time he broadcasts.This little trick won him quite a few involuntary friendships—in a very Walterian way, people who weren't necessarily real, mostly people he made up from among his readers.Today he decided not to speak to an old lady called Liz, nor to a little girl from the bridge hospital, nor to a Scottish lighthouseman, but to speak to his beloved Elizabeth in the air for the first time.Elizabeth would always listen to his radio, and he took it for granted that she must be listening, but he had too many listeners, so he didn't think about Elizabeth who was so close.

But today, some ambiguous feelings reminded him of her.He longed so badly that she was listening that he decided to speak to Elizabeth today out of the blue as if he were an object in the air.But things didn't go as smoothly as he had imagined. All kinds of things about Elizabeth tossed and turned in his mind, and his emotions made him unable to perform according to the predetermined script.He thought of the scene by the river last night, the dim window sill, the stars on the roof of the mill, the hazy shadows of the lights at dusk—"This is Elizabeth's favorite lighting tone."He stuttered all the way from earthworms and England to Elizabeth, and the beautiful picture he originally painted in his heart disappeared in the end.He was quite annoyed, but not enough to affect the progress of the broadcast.At the end of the show, he prepared some signed biological books for the audience on the air.

On the way home, he bought Elizabeth a large box of chocolate candies. When he was holding the package of presents, he remembered that it had been a long time since the last time he bought something for Elizabeth.He thinks this is a good habit, and he will definitely do it often in the future. Until his car drove out of the crowded urban area and headed for the smooth suburban road, he was still thinking about Elizabeth and her inner world: Searle.Seale.Poor Sorge said he was "the devil from the Midwest." Why a demon? he wondered.Devil, prince of the morning.In his heart, the devil is a magnificent and solemn symbol. At this time, a huge image up to six and a half feet was burning in his heart.It's not like Cyril.

What was it about him that Soggy had such crazy associations with? A demon, a fallen light, a sinister beauty. Then a vision flashed through his mind: Seale and he walked across the farm, his blond hair disheveled by the wind, his body surrounded by layers of English flannel.demon.He almost laughed out loud. But there's no denying that Searle's beauty is truly unsettling.What's wrong? It's a little bit wrong, he's someone who doesn't look like this world. Perhaps this is why Suoji became so nervous that he regarded him as a demon.Anyway, Searle is a good partner at work, they are about to collaborate on a book, and he knows they are engaged, he can't-he is interrupted by another thought before he can finish it.He has no reason to worry about a man with a debauched aesthetic robbing a BBC broadcaster of his fiancée.

He drove home faster than usual, parked the car, took out the gift for Elizabeth, and prepared to surprise her with joy.He also wanted to tell everyone the good news that Mark Roth liked the book. He couldn't wait to come to the living room.He walked through the large and silent manor, and pushed open the old rough door. The living room was bright and warm as usual, and only Lavinia was there. She sat with her feet on the fireplace fender, the Elite Weekly of the day spread across her lap. "It's so strange," Lavinia said, looking up. "It's really immoral to make money from writing." "Auntie, where are the others?" "How much the fellow admired Silas Wickley before he got rich. Aunt Emma should be upstairs, and the others haven't come back yet." "Didn't come back? Where did they go?" "I don't know, they went out after lunch in Bill Maddox's little wreck." "Have you had lunch?" "That's right, I have nothing to do this afternoon, so I let Elizabeth and the others go out. What a beautiful day it is!" "But it's supper time!" "Yeah, it looks like they're late," said Lavinia, her eyes continuing to follow Silas' news. Elizabeth didn't listen to his radio at all this afternoon.He spoke to her and she didn't hear him at all.He felt very annoyed.In fact, it doesn't matter whether the "mysterious person" listens, but Elizabeth always listens, this is her duty.He was Walter, her fiancé, and the whole world would think she should listen.And now she forgot about it and happily followed Leslie.Seale went out to play, leaving him alone to speak to the air in the air. On Fridays, his radio day, she went out without even thinking about it, and God knows where they went to hang out with that guy named Seale, a guy she'd only known for seven days and hadn't come back yet.When he came back with the chocolate candies wholeheartedly to send her off, she was not at home.How strange it was! Then the priest came.Everyone forgot that the pastor was coming to have dinner today.As soon as Walter saw him, he thought, I'm going to have to talk to him for at least another fifteen minutes later about earthworms on today's broadcast until he thinks it's clear enough.The pastor has always been his loyal listener and likes his radio very much.Besides, Walter didn't know what to talk about with him. Then Mrs. Gallopy came in, and after paying reverent greetings to the vicar, she went back to prepare supper.By now, the disappearing pair had been late for a full twenty minutes.Then Mrs. Gallopy decided not to wait for them to start dinner.At this moment Walter suddenly felt uneasy, and instead he thought that something must have happened to Elizabeth. She had never been so late at home before.She must have died in a ditch somewhere, maybe with a car on top of her.Seale is an American, and people say that Americans drive poorly, and they are not used to driving on British roads, so they can't make a crash on a turn. He carelessly stirred the soup in front of him, his heart was dark and terrifying, while he was still listening to the priest at the dining table talking about demonology, but at least this allowed him to get out of the earthworm topic just now and get a moment of rest. Just when his heart was so dark that it almost shrank into a black mushroom, the voices of Searle and Elizabeth sounded in the hall, and they hurried in with red faces, constantly expressing their gratitude to the family members at the dining table for their late arrival. Apologize.Elizabeth introduced Searle to the priest, but she said nothing in particular to Walter until she sat at the table like a starving refugee eating soup.They said they had been everywhere, first visiting the Abbey of Tours and the nearby villages, then meeting Peter Massey and seeing his horses, and then going to Clone.Finally they walked back from the clone, and on the way they found a theater showing "The Train Robber"-of course no one can resist the temptation of "The Train Robber"-they waited a long time to see this movie, which is what they will Reason for being late.But they felt the movie was worth the wait. Later, the topic of "Train Robbers" occupied the entire time of fishing. "How was the broadcast today, Walter?" Elizabeth asked as she reached for the bread. "The pastor will tell you," Walter said, "and he listened." The pastor narrated today's broadcast to them in a soft voice, but Walter found that they were not listening at all. He asked once when Elizabeth handed something to Searle, their eyes met, and she smiled at him. He could feel their affection for each other, and the day they spent together was a joy. "What's Roth's reaction to the book?" Seale asked Walt when the pastor finally finished speaking. "He loved it," Walter said, though he now wishes they hadn't even started working on the book. "Have you heard of their book project, Reverend?" said Mrs. Gallopy. "They're going to co-publish a book on the Roshmere River, written blind from its source to its people. Walter is in charge Text. Searson Niu is in charge of photography." The priest was so appreciative of the plan that he asked if they planned to do it on foot or by donkey. "We will hike to the Autrena area first, and then change to the waterway to continue the second half from there." "Waterways? There are many hidden rocks in the Roshmere River," said the priest. So they explained to him their idea of ​​going in a canoe.The pastor listened approvingly, thinking that a light canoe was indeed more suitable for a river like Roschmere, but he was worried about how to get a canoe. "I spoke to Mark Roth about it today," said Walter, "and he suggested that I ask Chinas, the boat maker in Mill Harbor, and they might have some. Their boats In the marketing world, Joe Chinas is the guy who designed the collapsible lifeboat. If he's free tomorrow, Seale and I plan to visit him." "Okay," Searle said, "very good." Then the pastor asked Seale if he fished, and Seale said he didn't. Then Walter remembered that the chocolate candies he had bought for Elizabeth were still on the table by the side of the dining room, where he had left them before he entered the dining room.He decided to let it stay there until Elizabeth found it herself, then he would pretend to be normal and tell her nonchalantly that it was a gift from him. Regret—he missed her so much, and she threw him aside. When they finished eating and came out of the dining room, he stole a glance to see if the box of chocolates was still on the table.It's still there, but there seems to be an extra box next to it that should have been placed when Elizabeth entered the door.It was a beautiful gift box from a high-end cloned candy store. It was a big box. It seemed to weigh at least four pounds. It was tied with a very gorgeous wide ribbon and a very beautiful bow on the outside.Suddenly Walter's mood was disturbed by this dazzling gift box again. He hated this gift box very much, and felt that there was a kind of American style of rich and powerful.He was so uncomfortable that he didn't even want to see it at all. It wasn't really the box of candy that made him uncomfortable. The reason he was really uncomfortable was an emotion that had built up in him long before that box of candy came along. As he poured Seale the brandy and sipped coffee with the priest, he kept thinking about how he could feel better.Finally, he thought of it. Searle might be able to send her expensive candy, but Walt knows what her favorite candy is. Or—maybe Syl knows too? Maybe it just so happens that the cloned candy house doesn't have it. Thinking about it, Walter also poured himself a glass of brandy. Besides coffee tonight, he also needs a little alcohol.