Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Оскар Уайльд
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books away,’ he said: ‘why don’t you write one?’
‘I am too fond of reading books to care to write them, Mr. Erskine. I should like to write a novel certainly; a novel that would be as lovely as a Persian carpet, and as unreal. But there is no literary public in England for anything except newspapers, primers, and encyclopaedias. Of all people in the world the English have the least sense of the beauty of literature.’
‘I fear you are right,’ answered Mr. Erskine. ‘I myself used to have literary ambitions, but I gave them up long ago. And now, my dear young friend, if you will allow me to call you so, may I ask if you really meant all that you said to us at lunch?’
‘I quite forget what I said,’ smiled Lord Henry. ‘Was it all very bad?’
‘Very bad, indeed. In fact, I consider you extremely dangerous, and if anything happens to our good Duchess we shall all look on you as being primarily responsible. But I should like to talk to you about life. The generation into which I was born was tedious. Some day, when you are tired of London, come down to Treadley, and expound to me your philosophy of pleasure over some admirable Burgundy I am fortunate enough to possess.’
‘I shall be charmed. A visit to Treadley would be a great privilege. It has a perfect host and a perfect library.’
‘You will complete it,’ answered the old gentleman, with a courteous bow. ‘And now I must bid good-bye to your excellent aunt. I am due at the Athenaeum. It is the hour when we sleep there.’
‘All of you, Mr. Erskine?’
‘Forty of us, in forty arm-chairs. We are practising for an English Academy of Letters.’
Lord Henry laughed, and rose. ‘I am going to the Park,’ he cried.
As he was passing out of the door Dorian Gray touched him on the arm. ‘Let me come with you,’ he murmured.
‘But I thought you had promised Basil Hallward to go and see him,’ answered Lord Henry.
‘I would sooner come with you; yes, I feel I must come with you. Do let me. And you will promise to talk to me all the time? No one talks so wonderfully as you do.’
‘Ah! I have talked quite enough for to-day,’ said Lord Henry, smiling. ‘All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to.’
4
ONE afternoon, a month later, Dorian Gray was reclining in a luxurious arm-chair, in the little library of Lord Henry’s house in Mayfair. It was, in its way, a very charming room, with its high-panelled wainscoting of olivestained oak, its cream-coloured frieze and ceiling of raised plaster-work, and its brick-dust felt carpet strewn with silk long-fringed Persian rugs. On a tiny satinwood table stood a statuette by Clodion, and beside it lay a copy of Les Cent Nouvelles, bound for Margaret of Valois by Clovis Eve, and powdered with the gilt daisies that Queen had selected for her device. Some large blue china jars and parrot-tulips were arranged on the mantelshelf, and through the small leaded panels of the window streamed the apricotcoloured light of a summer day in London.
Lord Henry had not yet come in. He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time. So the lad was looking rather sulky, as with listless fingers he turned over the pages of an elaborately-illustrated edition of Manon Lescaut that he had found in one of the bookcases. The formal monotonous ticking of the Louis Quartorze clock annoyed him. Once or twice he thought of going away.
At last he heard a step outside, and the door opened. ‘How late you are, Harry!’ he murmured.
‘I am afraid it is not Harry, Mr. Gray,’ answered a shrill voice.
He glanced quickly round, and rose to his feet. ‘I beg your pardon. I thought –’
‘You thought it was my husband. It is only his wife. You must let me introduce myself. I know you quite well by your photographs. I think my husband has got seventeen of them.’
‘Not seventeen, Lady Henry?’
‘Well, eighteen, then. And I saw you with him the other night at the Opera.’ She laughed nervously as she spoke, and watched him with her vague forget-me-not eyes. She was a curious woman, whose dresses always looked as if they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest. She was usually in love with somebody, and, as her passion was never returned, she had kept all her illusions. She tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy. Her name was Victoria, and she had a perfect mania for going to church.
‘That was at Lohengrin, Lady Henry, I think?’
‘Yes; it was at dear Lohengrin. I like Wagner’s music better than anybody’s. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says. That is’a great advantage; don’t you think so, Mr. Gray?’
The same nervous staccato laugh broke from her thin lips, and her fingers began to play with a long tortoise-shell paper-knife.
Dorian smiled, and shook his head. ‘I am afraid I don’t think so, Lady Henry. I never talk during music, at least during good music. If one hears bad music, it is one’s duty to drown it in conversation.’
‘Ah! that is one of Harry’s views, isn’t it, Mr. Gray? I always hear Harry’s views from his friends. It is the only way I get to know of them. But you must not think I don’t like good music. I adore it, but I am afraid of it. It makes me too romantic. I have simply worshipped pianists – two at a time, sometimes, Harry tells me. I don’t know what it is about them. Perhaps it is that they are foreigners. They all are, ain’t they? Even those that are born in England become foreigners after a time, don’t they? It is so clever of them, and such a compliment to art. Makes it quite cosmopolitan, doesn’t it? You have never been to any of my parties, have you, Mr. Gray? You must come. I can’t afford orchids, but I spare no expense in foreigners. They make one’s rooms look so picturesque. But here is Harry! – Harry, I came into look for you, to ask you something – I forget what it was – and I found Mr. Gray here. We have had such a pleasant chat about music. We have quite the same ideas. No; I think our ideas are quite different. But he has been most pleasant. I am so glad I’ve seen him.’
‘I am charmed, my love, quite charmed,’ said Lord Henry, elevating his dark crescent-shaped eyebrows and looking at them both with an amused smile. ‘So sorry I am late, Dorian. I went to look after a piece of old brocade in Wardour Street, and had to bargain for hours for it. Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.’
‘I am afraid I must be going,’ exclaimed Lady Henry, breaking an awkward silence with her silly sudden laugh. ‘I have promised to drive with the Duchess. Good-bye, Mr. Gray. Good-bye, Harry. You are dining out, I suppose? So am I. Perhaps I shall see you at Lady Thornbury’s.’
‘I dare say, my dear,’ said Lord Henry, shutting the door behind her, as, looking like a bird of paradise that had been out all night in the rain, she flitted out of the room, leaving a faint odour of frangipani. Then he lit a cigarette, and flung himself down on the sofa.
‘Never marry a woman with straw-coloured hair, Dorian,’ he said, after a few puffs.
‘Why, Harry?’
‘Because they are so sentimental.’
‘But I like sentimental people.’
‘Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.’
‘I don’t think I am likely to marry, Henry. I am too much in love. That is one of your aphorisms. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything that you say.’
‘Who are you in love with?’ asked Lord Henry, after a pause.
‘With an actress,’ said Dorian Gray, blushing.
Lord Henry shrugged his shoulders. ‘That