"Hawthorne, Nathaniel - Egotism or The Bosom Serpent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawthorne Nathaniel)

1843

TWICE-TOLD TALES

EGOTISM, OR, THE BOSOM SERPENT

FROM THE UNPUBLISHED "ALLEGORIES OF THE HEART"

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

HERE HE COMES!" shouted the boys along the street. "Here comes
the man with a snake in his bosom!"

This outcry, saluting Herkimer's ears, as he was about to enter the
iron gate of the Elliston mansion, made him pause. It was not
without a shudder that he found himself on the point of meeting his
former acquaintance, whom he had known in the glory of youth, and whom
now, after an interval of five years, he was to find the victim either
of a diseased fancy, or a horrible physical misfortune.

"A snake in his bosom!" repeated the young sculptor to himself. "It
must be he. No second man on earth has such a bosom-friend! And now,
my poor Rosina, Heaven grant me wisdom to discharge my errand
aright! Woman's faith must be strong indeed, since thine has not yet
failed."

Thus musing, he took his stand at the entrance of the gate, and
waited until the personage, so singularly announced, should make his
appearance. After an instant or two, he beheld the figure of a lean
man, of unwholesome look, with glittering eyes and long black hair,
who seemed to imitate the motion of a snake; for, instead of walking
straight forward with open front, he undulated along the pavement in a
curved line. It may be too fanciful to say, that something, either
in his moral or material aspect, suggested the idea that a miracle had
been wrought, by transforming a serpent into a man; but so
imperfectly, that the snaky nature was yet hidden, and scarcely
hidden, under the mere outward guise of humanity. Herkimer remarked
that his complexion had a greenish tinge over its sickly white,
reminding him of a species of marble out of which he had once
wrought a head of Envy, with her snaky locks.

The wretched being approached the gate, but, instead of entering,
stopt short, and fixed the glitter of his eye full upon the
compassionate, yet steady countenance of the sculptor.

"It gnaws me! It gnaws me!" he exclaimed.

And then there was an audible hiss, but whether it came from the
apparent lunatic's own lips, or was the real hiss of a serpent,
might admit of discussion. At all events, it made Herkimer shudder