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Elisha Cuthbert Photos Books: Martin Eden The Pickwick Papers The Sea Wolf |
is as clear-cut as a cameo. And her
eyes are beautiful."
"Do you think so?" Martin queried absently, for to him there was only one
beautiful woman in the world, and she was beside him, her hand upon his
arm.
"Do I think so? If that girl had proper opportunity to dress, Mr. Eden,
and if she were taught how to carry herself, you would be fairly dazzled
by her, and so would all men."
"She would have to be taught how to speak," he commented, "or else most
of the men wouldnt understand her. Im sure you couldnt understand a
quarter of what she said if she just spoke naturally."
"Nonsense! You are as bad as Arthur when you try to make your point."
"You forget how I talked when you first met me. I have learned a new
language since then. Before that time I talked as that girl talks. Now
I can manage to make myself understood sufficiently in your language to
explain that you do not know that other girls language. And do you know
why she carries herself the way she does? I think about such things now,
though I never used to think about them, and I am beginning to
understand--much."
"But why does she?"
"She has worked long hours for years at machines. When ones body is
young, it is very pliable, and hard work will mould it like putty
according to the nature of the work. I can tell at a glance the trades
of many workingmen I meet on the street. Look at me. Why am I rolling
all about the shop? Because of the years I put in on the sea. If Id
put in the same years cow-punching, with my body young and pliable, I
wouldnt be rolling now, but Id be bow-legged. And so with that girl.
You noticed that her eyes were what I might call hard. She has never
been sheltered. She has had to take care of herself, and a young girl
cant take care of herself and keep her eyes soft and gentle like--like
yours, for example."
"I think you are right," Ruth said in a low voice. "And it is too bad.
She is such a pretty girl."
He looked at her and saw her eyes luminous with pity. And then he
remembered that he loved her and was lost in amazement at his fortune
that permitted him to love her and to take her on his arm to a lecture.
Who are you, Martin Eden? he demanded of himself in the looking-glass,
that night when he got back to his room. He gazed at himself long and
curiously. Who are you? What are you? Where do you belong? You belong
by rights to girls like Lizzie Connolly. You belong with the legions of
toil, with all that is low, and vulgar, and unbeautiful. You belong with
the oxen and the drudges, in dirty surroundings among smells and
stenches. There are the stale vegetables now. Those potatoes are
rotting. Smell them, damn you, smell them. And yet you dare to open the
books, to listen to beautiful music, to learn to love beautiful
paintings, to speak good English, to think thoughts that none of your own
kind thinks, to tear yourself away from the oxen and the Lizzie Connollys
and to love a pale spirit of a woman who is a million miles beyond you
and who lives in the stars! Who are you? and what are you? damn you! And
are you going to make good?
He shook his fist at himself in the glass, and sat down on the edge of
the bed to dream for a space with wide eyes. Then he got out note-book
and algebra and lost himself in quadratic equations, while the hours
slipped by, and the stars dimmed, and the gray of dawn flooded against
his window.
CHAPTER XIII It was the knot of wordy socialists and working-class philosophers that held forth in the City Hall Park on warm afternoons that was responsible for the great discovery. Once or twice in the month, while riding through the park on his way to the library, Martin dismounted from his wheel and listened to the arguments, and each time he tore himself away reluctantly. The tone of discussion was Martin Eden page 49 Martin Eden page 51 |