I beg to say distinctly that if the stranger had brought Mont Blanc with him, or had come attended by a retinue of eternal snows, he could not have chilled the circle to the marrow in a more efficient manner. Embodied Failure sat enthroned upon the Long-lost's brow, and pervaded him to his Long-lost boots. In vain Mrs. Flipfield senior, opening her arms, exclaimed, 'My Tom!' and pressed his nose against the counterfeit presentment of his other parent. In vain Miss Flipfield, in the first transports of this re-union, showed him a dint upon her maidenly cheek, and asked him if he remembered when he did that with the bellows? We, the bystanders, were overcome, but overcome by the palpable, undisguisable, utter, and total break-down of the Long-lost. Nothing he could have done would have set him right with us but his instant return to the Ganges. In the very same moments it became established that the feeling was reciprocal, and that the Long-lost detested us. When a friend of the family (not myself, upon my honour), wishing to set things going again, asked him, while he partook of soup - asked him with an amiability of intention beyond all praise, but with a weakness of execution open to defeat - what kind of river he considered the Ganges, the Long-lost, scowling at the friend of the family over his spoon, as one of an abhorrent race, replied, 'Why, a river of water, I suppose,' and spooned his soup into himself with a malignancy of hand and eye that blighted the amiable questioner. Not an opinion could be elicited from the Long-lost, in unison with the sentiments of any individual present. He contradicted Flipfield dead, before he had eaten his salmon. He had no idea - or affected to have no idea - that it was his brother's birthday, and on the communication of that interesting fact to him, merely wanted to make him out four years older than he was. He was an antipathetical being, with a peculiar power and gift of treading on everybody's tenderest place. They talk in America of a man's 'Platform.' I should describe the Platform of the Long-lost as a Platform composed of other people's corns, on which he had stumped his way, with all his might and main, to his present position. It is needless to add that Flipfield's great birthday went by the board, and that he was a wreck when I pretended at parting to wish him many happy returns of it.
同类推荐
热门推荐
天地造化
天地未知处,有一方仙、佛、妖、魔......万灵并存的世界。这方世界中的人、妖、魔、灵......皆以修真,追寻天道为共愿。千古万世的演化,催生了绚烂的法术,奇诡的神通,通天的大道......亿万万生灵,缔造了传唱万古的传奇和丰碑,这些传奇和丰碑又掩埋在了历史的尘埃中......他就降生在这样的世界,意外的背负了一支没落族群崛起的使命,面对天妖巨魔的威胁,历代圣主离奇失踪的谜团……当宗族覆灭就在眼前,继承了圣子身份的他又该何去何从?一桩桩阴谋,一场场绝境,一次次奇遇,铸就了他一次次突破,而当他站得越高……不朽的荣光,背后隐藏着怎样的血泪?且看他是如何带领没落的族群揭开万古的阴谋,超脱于诸天仙佛妖魔之外,最终问鼎长生彼岸……诸葛亮兵书
中国古代八大兵书是一部世界的兵学圣典,被誉为“天下奇书”,更是中华民族引以为傲的奇书圣典。中国古代八大兵书是中国历代兵家计谋的总结和军事谋略学的宝贵遗产。兵者,国之大事,知之者胜,不知者不胜的无上利器,更是流行于商界的商战指南,更是公认的世界上伟大的军事著作。中国古代八大兵书更是一部军事哲学书,把人类生死场上的智慧较量深刻展示出来,成为中华谋略的集大成者。