English 版 (精华区)
发信人: vincent (GiGi), 信区: English
标 题: The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
发信站: 大红花的国度 (Tue Jun 13 09:58:59 2000), 转信
发信人: tanso (哑哑·卖身求荣), 信区: EnglishWorld
标 题: THE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE RITZ (3)
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Sat Jan 1 23:45:03 2000)
III
MORNING. As he awoke he perceived drowsily that the room had at the same
moment become dense with sunlight. The ebony panels of one wall had slid
aside on a sort of track, leaving his chamber half open to the day. A large
negro in a white uniform stood
beside his bed.
"Good-evening," muttered John, summoning his brains from the wild places.
"Good-morning, sir. Are you ready for your bath, sir? Oh, don't get up--I'll
put you in, if you'll just unbutton your pajamas--there. Thank you, sir."
John lay quietly as his pajamas were removed--he was amused and delighted; he
expected to be lifted like a child by this black Gargantua who was tending
him, but nothing of the sort happened; instead he felt the bed tilt up slowly
on its side--he began
to roll, startled at first, in the direction of the wall, but when he reached
the wall its drapery gave way, and sliding two yards farther down a fleecy
incline he plumped gently into water the same temperature as his body.
He looked about him. The runway or rollway on which he had arrived had folded
gently back into place. He had been projected into another chamber and was
sitting in a sunken bath with his head just above the level of the floor. All
about him, lining the
walls of the room and the sides and bottom of the bath itself, was a blue
aquarium, and gazing through the crystal surface on which he sat, he could
see fish swimming among amber lights and even gliding without curiosity past
his outstretched toes,
which were separated from them only by the thickness of the crystal. From
overhead, sunlight came down through sea-green glass.
I suppose, sir, that you'd like hot rosewater and soapsuds this morning
sir--and perhaps cold salt water to finish."
The negro was standing beside him.
"Yes," agreed John, smiling inanely, "as you please." Any idea of ordering
this bath according to his own meager standards of living would have been
priggish and not a little wicked.
The negro pressed a button and a warm rain began to fall, apparently from
overhead, but really, so John discovered after a moment, from a fountain
arrangement near by. The water turned to a pale rose color and jets of liquid
soap spurted into it from
four miniature walrus heads at the corners of the bath. In a moment a dozen
little paddle-wheels, fixed to the sides, had churned the mixture into a
radiant rainbow of pink foam which enveloped him softly with its delicious
lightness, and burst in
shining, rosy bubbles here and there about him.
"Shall I turn on the moving-picture machine, sir?" suggested the negro
deferentially. "There's a good one-reel comedy in this machine to-day, or can
put in a serious piece in a moment, if you prefer it."
"No, thanks," answered John, politely but firmly. He was enjoying his at too
much to desire any distraction. But distraction came. In a moment he was
listening intently to the sound of flutes from just outside, flutes ripping a
melody that was like a
waterfall, cool and green as the room itself, accompanying a frothy piccolo,
in play more fragile than the lace of u s that covered and charmed him.
After a cold salt-water bracer and a cold fresh finish, he stepped out and
into a fleecy robe, and upon a couch covered with the same material he was
rubbed with oil, alcohol, and spice. Later he sat in a voluptuous chair while
he was shaved and his
hair was trimmed.
"Mr. Percy is waiting in your sitting-room," said the negro, when these
operations were finished. "My name is Gygsum, Mr. Unger, sir. I am to see to
Mr. Unger every morning."
John walked out into the brisk sunshine of his living-room, where he found
breakfast waiting for him and Percy, gorgeous in white kid knickerbockers,
smoking in an easy chair.
--
tanso最大的愿望,就是在明年夏天,和一个穿着
裙子的女孩吃饭……
※ 来源:·BBS 水木清华站 smth.org·[FROM: 166.111.144.141]
--
☆ 来源:.哈工大紫丁香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: charlies.bbs@smth.or]
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