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[00:00.00]Lesson Seven Text
[00:04.70]The Model Millionaire (I) Oscar Wilde
[00:08.46]Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow.
[00:15.83]Romance is the privilege of the rich,
[00:20.66]not the profession of the unemployed1.
[00:25.50]"The poor should be practical and ordinary.
[00:30.54]It is better to have a permanent income than to be attractive.
[00:36.78]These are the great truths of modern life
[00:42.06]which Hughie Erskine never realised.
[00:47.02]Poor Hughie! Intellectually,we must admit,he was not of much importance.
[00:55.88]He never said a clever or even an ill natured thing in his life.
[01:03.74]But then he was wonderfully good looking,
[01:08.78]with his brown hair,his clear-cut face,and his grey eyes.
[01:16.43]He was as popular with men as he was with women,
[01:22.49]and he had every quality except that of making money.
[01:29.55]His father, on his death, had left him his sword
[01:35.82]and a history of a particular war in fifteen volumes.
[01:42.87]Hughie hung the first over his looking glass put the second on a shelf,
[01:51.83]and he lived on two hundred pounds a year that an old aunt allowed him.
[01:59.69]He had tried everything.
[02:03.25]He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months;
[02:08.81]but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears?
[02:16.28]He had been a tea merchant for a little longer,
[02:21.43]but he had soon tired of that.
[02:25.68]Then he had tried selling dry sherry.
[02:31.14]That did not answer;the sherry was a little too dry.
[02:37.20]At last he became nothing,
[02:41.96]a delightful,useless young man with a perfect face and no profession.
[02:50.50]To make matters worse,he was in love.
[02:55.26]The girl he loved was Laura Merton,
[03:00.53]the daughter of a former army officer
[03:05.39]who had lost his temper and his health in India,
[03:10.85]and never found either of them again.
[03:15.40]Laura loved him and he was ready to kiss her shoestrings2.
[03:22.84]They were the handsomest couple in London,
[03:27.57]and had not a penny between them.
[03:31.96]Her father was very fond of Hughie,but would not hear of any engagement.
[03:40.21]"Come to me, my boy,when you have got ten thousand pounds of your own,
[03:49.67]and we will see about it," he used to say;
[03:55.02]and Hughie looked very miserable3 in those days,
[04:00.38]and had to go to Laura for comfort.
[04:04.82]One morning,as he was on his way to Holland Park,where the Mertons lived,
[04:12.08]he dropped in to see a great friend of his,Alan Trevor.
[04:18.43]Trevor was a painter.
[04:21.59]Indeed,few people are not nowadays.
[04:26.92]But he was also an artist,and artists are rather rare.
[04:34.16]Personally he was a strange, rough fellow,
[04:39.20]with a freckled4 face and red, rough beard.
[04:45.36]However, when he took up the brush he was a real master,
[04:52.44]and his pictures were eagerly sought after.
[04:57.30]He had been very much attracted by Hughie at first,
[05:02.45]it must be admitted,entirely on account of his personal charm.
[05:09.00]"The only people a painter should know,"he used to say,
[05:15.17]"are people who are beautiful,
[05:18.93]people who are an artistic5 pleasure to look at,and restful to talk to.
[05:26.90]Men who are well dressed
[05:31.34]and women who are lovely rule the world at least they should do so.
[05:38.89]"However,after he got to know Hughie better,
[05:44.82]he liked him quite as much for his bright,cheerful spirits,
[05:51.09]and his generous, careless nature,
[05:55.45]and had asked him to come to his studio whenever he liked.
[06:01.40]When Hughie came in he found Trevor putting the finishing touches
[06:07.46]to a wonderful life size picture of a beggar man.
[06:13.81]The beggar himself was standing6 on a raised platform in a corner of the room.
[06:22.35]He was a wizened7 old man with a wrinkled face and a sad expression.
[06:30.43]Over his shoulder was thrown a rough brown coat,all torn and full of holes;
[06:41.58]his thick boots were old and patched;
[06:46.33]and with one hand he leant on a rough stick,
[06:51.79]while with the other he held out his battered8 hat for money.
[06:57.54]"What an amazing model!"whispered Hughie,as he shook hands with his friend.
[07:05.69]"An amazing model?"shouted Trevor at the top of his voice;
[07:12.54]"I should think so!Such beggars are not met with every day.Good heavens!
[07:20.19]What a picture Rembrandt would have made of him!"
[07:24.63]"Poor old fellow!"said Hughie, "How miserable he looks!
[07:31.27]But I suppose, to you painters, his face is valuable. "
[07:36.59]"Certainly," replied Trevor,
[07:40.67]"you don't want a beggar to look happy, do you?"
[07:45.35]"How much does a model get for sitting?"asked Hughie,
[07:51.69]as he found himself a comfortable seat.
[07:56.45]"A shilling an hour.""And how much do you get for your picture,Alan?"
[08:02.69]"Oh, for this I get two thousand. "
[08:07.26]"Pounds?""Guineas.Painters,poets,and doctors always get guineas."
[08:16.82]"Well,I think the model should have a percentage,"cried Hughie,laughing;
[08:23.95]"they work quite as hard as you do."
[08:27.90]"Nonsense, nonsense!Why, look at the trouble of laying on the paint alone,
[08:36.15]and standing all day in front of the picture!
[08:40.70]It's easy, Hughie, for you to talk,
[08:44.77]but I tell you
[08:47.83]that there are moments when art almost reaches the importance of manual work.
[08:54.49]But you mustn't talk;I'm very busy.
[08:58.64]Smoke a cigarette, and keep quiet.
[09:03.19]"After some time the servant came in,
[09:07.94]and told Trevor that the frame maker9 wanted to speak to him.
[09:14.19]"Don't run away,Hughie," he said, as he went out,
[09:19.15]"I will be back in a moment."
[09:22.99]The old beggar man took advantage of Trevor's absence
[09:29.47]to rest for a momenton a wooden seat that was behind him.
[09:35.53]He looked so miserable that Hughie pitied him
[09:40.68]and felt in his pockets to see what money he had.
[09:46.32]All he could find was a pound and some pennies.
[09:52.85]"Poor old fellow,"he thought to himself,"he wants it more than I do,
[09:59.82]but I shan't have much money myself for a week or two";
[10:04.97]and he walked across the studio
[10:09.12]and slipped the pound into the beggar's hand.
[10:14.16]The old man startled,and a faint smile passed across his lips.
[10:21.53]"Thank you, sir,"he said, "thank you."
[10:26.39]Then Trevor arrived,and Hughie left,
[10:31.04]blushing a little at what he had done.
[10:35.51]He spent the day with Laura,
[10:39.76]was charmingly blamed for giving away a pound,and had to walk home.
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1
unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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2
shoestrings
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| n.以极少的钱( shoestring的名词复数 ) | |
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3
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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4
freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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6
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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8
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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