Passer le texte de l’article
BOOK II . OLD AND YOUNG . CHAPTER XIII . 1st Gent . How class your man ? — as better than the most , Or , seeming better , worse beneath that cloak ? As saint or knave , pilgrim or hypocrite ? 2d Gent . Nay , tell me how you class your wealth of books The drifted relics of all time . As well sort them at once by size and livery : Vellum , tall copies , and the common calf Will hardly cover more diversity Than all your labels cunningly devised To class your unread authors . In consequence of what he had heard from Fred , Mr . Vincy determined to speak with Mr . Bulstrode in his private room at the Bank at half - past one , when he was usually free from other callers . But a visitor had come in at one o’clock , and Mr . Bulstrode had so much to say to him , that there was little chance of the interview being over in half an hour . The banker’s speech was fluent , but it was also copious , and he used up an appreciable amount of time in brief meditative pauses . Do not imagine his sickly aspect to have been of the yellow , black - haired sort : he had a pale blond skin , thin gray - besprinkled brown hair , light - gray eyes , and a large forehead . Loud men called his subdued tone an undertone , and sometimes implied that it was inconsistent with openness ; though there seems to be no reason why a loud man should not be given to concealment of anything except his own voice , unless it can be shown that Holy Writ has placed the seat of candor in the lungs . Mr . Bulstrode had also a deferential bending attitude in listening , and an apparently fixed attentiveness in his eyes which made those persons who thought themselves worth hearing infer that he was seeking the utmost improvement from their discourse . Others , who expected to make no great figure , disliked this kind of moral lantern turned on them . If you are not proud of your cellar , there is no thrill of satisfaction in seeing your guest hold up his wine - glass to the light and look judicial . Such joys are reserved for conscious merit . Hence Mr . Bulstrode’s close attention was not agreeable to the publicans and sinners in Middlemarch ; it was attributed by some to his being a Pharisee , and by others to his being Evangelical . Less superficial reasoners among them wished to know who his father and grandfather were , observing that five - and - twenty years ago nobody had ever heard of a Bulstrode in Middlemarch . To his present visitor , Lydgate , the scrutinizing look was a matter of indifference : he simply formed an unfavorable opinion of the banker’s constitution , and concluded that he had an eager inward life with little enjoyment of tangible things .
Précédent Page 89 sur 637 Page 89 sur 637 Suivant Continuez à lire avec les traductions Créez un compte gratuit : 7 jours de Pro, puis 20 traductions de mots par jour ou une formule payante.
