Little Women - Chapter 41

Amy's lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till long afterward ¹. Men seldom do, for when women are the advisers ², the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do. Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel ³ half the credit of it. If it fails, they generously give her the whole. Laurie went back to his grandfather, and was so dutifully devoted ⁴ for several weeks that the old gentleman declared the climate of Nice had improved him wonderfully, and he had better try it again. There was nothing the young gentleman would have liked better, but elephants could not have dragged him back after the scolding he had received. Pride forbid, and whenever the longing ⁵ grew very strong, he fortified ⁶ his resolution by repeating the words that had made the deepest impression - "I despise you." "Go and do something splendid that will make her love you.", ,Laurie turned the matter over in his mind so often that he soon brought himself to confess that he had been selfish and lazy, but then when a man has a great sorrow, he should be indulged in all sorts of vagaries ⁷ till he has lived it down. He felt that his blighted ⁸ affections were quite dead now, and though he should never cease to be a faithful mourner, there was no occasion to wear his weeds ostentatiously. Jo wouldn't love him, but he might make her respect and admire him by doing something which should prove that a girl's 'No' had not spoiled his life. He had always meant to do something, and Amy's advice was quite unnecessary. He had only been waiting till the aforesaid blighted affections were decently interred ⁹. That being done, he felt that he was ready to 'hide his stricken heart, and still toil ¹⁰ on'., ,As Goethe, when he had a joy or a grief, put it into a song, so Laurie resolved to embalm ¹¹ his love sorrow in music, and to compose a Requiem ¹² which should harrow up Jo's soul and melt the heart of every hearer. Therefore the next time the old gentleman found him getting restless and moody ¹³ and ordered him off, he went to Vienna, where he had musical friends, and fell to work with the firm determination to distinguish himself. But whether the sorrow was too vast to be embodied ¹⁴ in music, or music too ethereal to uplift a mortal woe ¹⁵, he soon discovered that the Requiem was beyond him just at present. It was evident that his mind was not in working order yet, and his ideas needed clarifying, for often in the middle of a plaintive ¹⁷ strain, he would find himself humming a dancing tune ¹⁸ that vividly ¹⁹ recalled the Christmas ball at Nice, especially the stout ²⁰ Frenchman, and put an effectual stop to tragic ²¹ composition for the time being., , ,When he looked about him for another and a less intractable damsel to immortalize in melody, memory produced one with the most obliging readiness. This phantom ³⁰ wore many faces, but it always had golden hair, was enveloped ³¹ in a diaphanous ³² cloud, and floated airily before his mind's eye in a pleasing chaos ³³ of roses, peacocks, white ponies ³⁴, and blue ribbons. He did not give the complacent ³⁵ wraith ³⁶ any name, but he took her for his heroine and grew quite fond of her, as well he might, for he gifted her with every gift and grace under the sun, and escorted her, unscathed, through trials which would have annihilated ³⁷ any mortal woman., ,Thanks to this inspiration, he got on swimmingly for a time, but gradually the work lost its charm, and he forgot to compose, while he sat musing ³⁸, pen in hand, or roamed about the gay city to get some new ideas and refresh his mind, which seemed to be in a somewhat unsettled state that winter. He did not do much, but he thought a great deal and was conscious of a change of some sort going on in spite of himself. "It's genius simmering, perhaps. I'll let it simmer, and see what comes of it," he said, with a secret suspicion all the while that it wasn't genius, but something far more common. Whatever it was, it simmered to some purpose, for he grew more and more discontented with his desultory ³⁹ life, began to long for some real and earnest work to go at, soul and body, and finally came to the wise conclusion that everyone who loved music was not a composer. Returning from one of Mozart's grand operas, splendidly performed at the Royal Theatre, he looked over his own, played a few of the best parts, sat staring at the busts ⁴⁰ of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Bach, who stared benignly ⁴¹ back again. Then suddenly he tore up his music sheets, one by one, and as the last fluttered out of his hand, he said soberly to himself . . ., ,Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来 ，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。,a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员