1、Four great gates has the city of Damascus.Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disasters Cavern, Fort of Fear.Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing. Have you heardThat silence where the birds are dead, yet something pipeth like a bird?(Gates of Damascus - James Elroy Flecker)Book IChapter 1M
2、AINLY CONCERNING BOOKSBooks! said Tuppence.She produced the word rather with the effect of a bad-tempered explosion.What did you say? said Tommy.Tuppence looked across the room at him.I said books, she said.I see what you mean, said Thomas Beresford.In front of Tuppence were three large packing case
3、s. From each of them various books had been extracted. The larger part of them were still filled with books.Its incredible, said Tuppence.You mean the room they take up?Yes.Are you trying to put them all on the shelves?I dont know what Im trying to do, said Tuppence. Thats the awkward part of it. On
4、e doesnt know ever, exactly, what one wants to do. Oh dear, she sighed.Really, said her husband, I should have thought that that was not at all characteristic of you. The trouble with you has always been that you knew much too well what you do want to do.What I mean is, said Tuppence, that here we a
5、re, getting older, getting a bit - well, lets face it - definitely rheumatic, especially when one is stretching; you know, stretching putting in books or lifting down things from shelves or kneeling down to look at the bottom shelves for something, then finding it a bit difficult to get up again.Yes
6、, yes, said Tommy, thats an account of our general disabilities. Is that what you started to say?No, it isnt what I started to say. What I started to say was, it was lovely to be able to buy a new home and find just the place we wanted to go and live in, and just the house there wed always dreamt of
7、 having - with a little alteration, of course.Knocking one or two rooms into each other, said Tommy, and adding to it what you call a veranda and your builder calls a lodger, though I prefer to call it a loggia.And its going to be very nice, said Tuppence firmly.When youve done with it I shant know
8、it! Is that the answer? said Tommy.Not at all. All I said was that when you see it finished youre going to be delighted and say what an ingenious and clever and artistic wife you have.All right, said Tommy. Ill remember the right thing to say.You wont need to remember, said Tuppence. It will burst u
9、pon you.Whats that got to do with books? said Tommy.Well, we brought two or three cases of books with us. I mean, we sold off the books we didnt much care about. We brought the ones we really couldnt bear to part with, and then, of course, the what-you-call-ems - I cant remember their name now, but
10、the people who were selling us this house - they didnt want to take a lot of their own things with them, and they said if wed like to make an offer they would leave things including books, and we came and looked at things -And we made some offers, said Tommy.Yes. Not as many as they hoped we would m
11、ake, I expect. Some of their furniture and ornaments were too horrible. Well, fortunately we didnt have to take those, but when I came and saw the various books - there were some nursery ones, you know, some down in the sitting-room - and there were one or two old favourites. I mean, there still are
12、. There are one or two of my own special favourites. And so I thought itd be such fun to have them. You know, the story of Androcles and the Lion, she said. I remember reading that when I was eight years old. Andrew Lang.Tell me, Tuppence, were you clever enough to read at eight years old?Yes, said
13、Tuppence, I read at five years old. Everybody could, when I was young. I didnt know one even had to sort of learn. I mean, somebody would read stories aloud, and you liked them very much and you remembered where the book went back on the shelf and you were always allowed to take it out and have a lo
14、ok at it yourself, and so you found you were reading it too, without bothering to learn to spell or anything like that. It wasnt so good later, she said, because Ive never been able to spell very well. And if somebody had taught me to spell when I was about four years old I can see it would have bee
15、n very good indeed. My father did teach me to do addition and subtraction and multiplication, of course, because he said the multiplication table was the most useful thing you could learn in life, and I learnt long division too.What a clever man he must have been!I dont think he was specially clever
16、, said Tuppence, but he was just very, very nice.Arent we getting away from the point?Yes, we are, said Tuppence. Well, as I said, when I thought of reading Androcles and the Lion again - it came in a book of stories about animals, I think, by Andrew Lang - oh, I loved that. And there was a story ab
17、out a day in my life at Eton by an Eton schoolboy. I cant think why I wanted to read that, but I did. It was one of my favourite books. And there were some stories from the classics, and there was Mrs Molesworth, The Cuckoo Clock, Four Winds Farm -Well, thats all right, said Tommy. No need to give m
18、e a whole account of your literary triumphs in early youth.What I mean is, said Tuppence, that you cant get them nowadays. I mean, sometimes you get reprints of them, but theyve usually been altered and have different pictures in them. Really, the other day I couldnt recognize Alice in Wonderland wh
19、en I saw it. Everything looks so peculiar in it. There are the books I really could get still. Mrs Molesworth, one or two of the old fairy books - Pink, Blue and Yellow - and then, of course, lots of later ones which Id enjoyed. Lots of Stanley Weymans and things like that. There are quite a lot her
20、e, left behind.All right, said Tommy. You were tempted. You felt it was a good buy.Yes. At least - what dyou mean a goodbye?I mean b-u-y, said Tommy.Oh. I thought you were going to leave the room and were saying goodbye to me.Not at all, said Tommy. I was deeply interested. Anyway, it was a good b-u
21、-y.And I got them very cheap, as I tell you. And - and here they all are among our own books and others. Only, weve got such a terrible lot now of books, and the shelves we had made I dont think are going to be nearly enough. What about your special sanctum? Is there room there for more books?No, th
22、ere isnt, said Tommy. Theres not going to be enough for my own.Oh dear, oh dear, said Tuppence, thats so like us. Do you think we might have to build on an extra room?No, said Tommy, were going to economize. We said so the day before yesterday. Do you remember?That was the day before yesterday, said
23、 Tuppence. Time alters. What I am going to do now is to put in these shelves all the books I really cant bear to part with. And then - and then we can look at the others and - well, there might be a childrens hospital somewhere and there might, anyway, be places which would like books.Or we could se
24、ll them, said Tommy.I dont suppose theyre the sort of books people would want to buy very much. I dont think there are any books of rare value or anything like that.You never know your luck, said Tommy. Lets hope something out of print will fulfil some booksellers long-felt want.In the meantime, sai
25、d Tuppence, we have to put them into the shelves, and look inside them, of course, each time, to see whether its a book I do really want and I can really remember. Im trying to get them roughly - well, you know what I mean, sort of sorted. I mean, adventure stories, fairy stories, childrens stories
26、and those stories about schools where the children were always very rich - L.T. Meade, I think. And some of the books we used to read to Deborah when she was small, too. How we all used to love Winnie the Pooh. And there was The Little Grey Hen too, but I didnt care very much for that.I think youre
27、tiring yourself, said Tommy. I think I should leave off what youre doing now.Well, perhaps I will, said Tuppence, but I think if I could just finish this side of the room, just get the books in here.Well, Ill help you, said Tommy.He came over, tilted the case more so that the books fell out, gathere
28、d up armfuls of them and went to the shelves and shoved them in.Im putting the same sized ones together, it looks neater, he said.Oh, I dont call that sorting, said Tuppence.Sorting enough to get on with. We can do more of that later. You know, make everything really nice. Well sort it on some wet d
29、ay when we cant think of anything else to do.The trouble is we always can think of something else to do.Well now, theres another seven in there. Now then, theres only this top corner. Just bring me that wooden chair over there, will you? Are its legs strong enough for me to stand on it? Then I can p
30、ut some on the top shelf.With some care he climbed on the chair. Tuppence lifted up to him an armful of books. He insinuated them with some care on to the top shelf. Disaster only happened with the last three which cascaded to the floor, narrowly missing Tuppence.Oh, said Tuppence, that was painful.
31、Well, I cant help it. You handed me up too many at once.Oh well, that does look wonderful, said Tuppence, standing back a little. Now then, if youll just put these in the second shelf from the bottom, theres a gap there, that will finish up this particular caseful anyway. It s a good thing too. Thes
32、e ones Im doing this morning arent really ours, theyre the ones we bought. We may find treasures.We may, said Tommy.I think we shall find treasures, I think I really shall find something. Something thats worth a lot of money, perhaps.What do we do then? Sell it?I expect well have to sell it, yes, sa
33、id Tuppence. Of course we might just keep it and show it to people. You know, not exactly boasting, but just say, you know: oh yes, we ve got really one or two interesting finds. I think we shall make an interesting find, too.What - one old favourite youve forgotten about?Not exactly that. I meant s
34、omething startling, surprising. Something thatll make all the difference to our lives.Oh Tuppence, said Tommy, what a wonderful mind youve got. Much more likely to find something thats an absolute disaster.Nonsense, said Tuppence. One must have hope. Its the great thing you have to have in life. Hop
35、e. Remember? Im always full of hope.I know you are, said Tommy. He sighed. Ive often regretted it.Chapter 2THE BLACK ARROWMrs Thomas Beresford replaced The Cuckoo Clock, by Mrs Molesworth, choosing a vacant place on the third shelf from the bottom. The Mrs Molesworths were congregated here together.
36、 Tuppence drew out The Tapestry Room and held it thoughtfully in her fingers. Or she might read Four Winds Farm. She couldnt remember Four Winds Farm as well as she could remember The Cuckoo Clock and The Tapestry Room. Her fingers wandered. Tommy would be back soon.She was getting on. Yes, surely s
37、he was getting on. If only she didnt stop and pull out old favourites and read them. Very agreeable, but it took a lot of time. And when Tommy asked her in the evening when he came home how things were going and she said, Oh very well now, she had to employ a great deal of tact and finesse to preven
38、t him from going upstairs and having a real look at how the bookshelves were progressing. It all took a long time. Getting into a house always took a long time, much longer than one thought. And so many irritating people. Electricians, for instance, who came and appeared to be displeased with what t
39、hey had done the last time they came and took up more large areas in the floor and, with cheerful faces, produced more pitfalls for the unwary housewife to walk along and put a foot wrong and be rescued just in time by the unseen electrician who was groping beneath the floor.Sometimes, said Tuppence
40、, I really wish we hadnt left Bartons Acre.Remember the dining-room roof, Tommy had said, and remember those attics, and remember what happened to the garage. Nearly wrecked the car, you know it did.I suppose we could have had it patched up, said Tuppence.No, said Tommy, wed have had to practically
41、replace the damaged building, or else we had to move. This is going to be a very nice house some day. Im quite sure of that. Anyway, theres going to be room in it for all the things we want to do.When you say the things we want to do, Tuppence had said, you mean the things we want to find places for
42、 and to keep.I know, said Tommy. One keeps far too much. I couldnt agree with you more.At that moment Tuppence considered something - whether they ever were going to do anything with this house, that is to say beyond getting into it. It had sounded simple but had turned out complex. Partly, of cours
43、e, all these books.If Id been a nice ordinary child of nowadays, said Tuppence, I wouldnt have learned to read so easily when I was young. Children nowadays who are four, or five, or six, dont seem to be able to read and quite a lot of them dont seem to be able to read when they get to ten or eleven
44、. I cant think why it was so easy for all of us. We could all read. Me and Martin next door and Jennifer down the road and Cyril and Winifred. All of us. I dont mean we could all spell very well but we could read anything we wanted to. I dont know how we learnt. Asking people, I suppose. Things abou
45、t posters and Carters Little Liver Pills. We used to read all about them in the fields when trains got near London. It was very exciting. I always wondered what they were. Oh dear, I must think of what Im doing.She removed some more books. Three-quarters of an hour passed with her absorbed first in
46、Alice Through the Looking-Glass then with Charlotte Yonges Unknown to History. Her hands lingered over the fat shabbiness of The Daisy Chain.Oh I must read that again, said Tuppence. To think of the years and years and years it is since I did read it. Oh dear, how exciting it was, wondering, you kno
47、w, whether Norman was going to be allowed to be confirmed or not. And Ethel and - what was the name of the place? Coxwell or something like that - and Flora who was worldly. I wonder why everyone was worldly in those days, and how poorly it was thought of, being worldly. I wonder what we are now. Do you think were all worldly or not?I beg yer pardon, maam?Oh nothing, said Tuppence, looking round at her devoted henchman, Albert, who had just appeared in the doorway.I thought yo
