发表于2024-11-07
SEA GRAPE TREE pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024
Every evening, before the hour of sunset, Princess, the<br >young maidservant, starts to light the lamps in the hotel:<br >oil lamps, long glass funnels enclosed in brass containers<br >with handles. Taking one in either hand, swinging them<br >to the rhythm of her languid barefoot gait, she goes down,<br >down the steep spiralling rock path to Captain Cunning-<br >ham s bungalow. As darkness falls she is enfolded in soft<br >light, she becomes a lustrous image, a black Madonna<br >with a golden aura, borne through waist-high hibiscus<br > bushes by invisible bearers to the sea. Her black eyes<br >catch a gleam; and moths and fireflies drift to the lamps<br >and hover round her. Sometimes she has set some object<br >or other nonchalantly upon her shapely astrakhan-capped<br >head: a jug or a bowl for instance, or a roll of toilet paper,<br >or the Cunninghams clean laundry. Down she sails<br >througtl tire electric air, through the thrumming , w)zJrrJng,<br >%~r~r~t ~k~%r~l~q~%~kr~%~k% klk" ~h t~all .~ taking~ these beautiful<br > verandah and their bridge table. This mosquito-proof<br > verandah, its wooden pillars wreathed with bougainvillea,<br > jasmine, clematis and flowering yines, is the social focus of<br > the bay. Every three weeks or thereabouts in the winter<br > months one group of visitors arrives at, another departs<br > from the modest Victorian guest house which crowns the<br > bay: British travellers mostly - stoutly upholstered<br > pair of honeymooners. But now and then appears a<br > solitary person, a retired colonel maybe, or a naval<br > captain (bachelor ? - widower ?), spry, alert, with innocent<br > ideas and courtly manners; or maybe a woman on her<br >6<br >lr<br > own with paints and brushes; or b~<br > valescing; and self-sufficient; or a fe<br > wincing, patfi ntly cherished or tolera<br > to linger; or just now and then, and u<br > one who, though carrying a UK passp<br > around, and ~ot overtly disreputable, l<br > or ignominiously labelled, continues sile<br > to declare - b~t who notices or hears<br > or when ? who asks ? who cares ? - I h<br > to generate the miasma of failure ar<br > thereby causing social discomfort: c<br > anywhere but here.<br > All these, going concerns and other~<br > section as Miss Stay the manageress fi<br > are shepherd~,d, under her strong, le~<br > the Cunninghams bungalow, to add<br >those who have signed their Visitors <br >adding a gratefifl<br >of verse.<br > The island<br >group, not at<br >~933, it has sc<br > an~ creeper,,<br > sion, and va~<br > do not corres<br > Princess is<br > like a sudde~<br > ~g the ~)o~ng<br > mostly they<br >The more abl,<br > Mr de Pas s 1~<br >sunset with tt<br >not smiling<br >tribute, or an approI<br > one of the smallest i<br >ll fashionable. Up to tl<br >vcely begun to emerge<br > ound in immeasurabJ<br >~ty. No snakes. Idyllic is<br >ond.<br > physical exception -<br >:ose in bloom on a wast<br >:h ~]c~ren have a tender<br >~w up undernourished,,<br >bodied, men and wome<br >rotation on the hill. Th<br >ir baskets and cutlasses,<br >en they pass a white-s]<br ><br >
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SEA GRAPE TREE pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024