酷似一场梦。莫瑞斯在学校里做过两场梦。它们能够象征这个时期的他。
在第一场梦中，他感到非常暴躁。他在踢足球，对手是他十分厌恶的一个没有特征的人。他竭力想看清楚，那个不易分辨的人忽然变成了小园丁乔治。但是他不得不小心谨慎，否则那个人会重新出现。乔治沿着田野朝他奔跑，赤摞着身子，从柴火垛上一蹿而过。“倘若他这时变得不对劲了，我会发疯的。”莫瑞斯说。他和乔治刚刚抓住对方的时候事情就发生了，强烈的失望使他惊醒。他不曾把这与杜希先生那番说教联系在一起，更无从与第二场梦联系上，然而他认为自己会患病的，后来又觉得这是为某些事遭到了惩罚。
第二场梦就更难以说明了，什么也没发生。他几乎没瞧见那张脸，勉勉强强听见了一个声音：“这是你的朋友。”就结束了。然而，这使他心中充满了美好，使他变得温柔。为了这样一位朋友，就是赴死，也在所不辞；他也容许这样一位朋友为自己赴死。他们彼此问肯做出任何牺牲，不把俗世放在眼里。死亡、距离也罢，龃龉也罢，都不可能将他们疏远，因为“这是我的朋友”。不久之后，他接受了坚振礼（译注：也译作“坚信礼”。基督教礼仪，象征一个人通过洗礼同上帝建立的关系得到巩固。婴儿受洗后，满七岁即可受坚振礼，自此能获得圣灵赐予的恩典、力量和勇气。）。他试图说服自己，那位朋友肯定是基督。可是耶稣基督蓄着肮脏的胡须。难道他是个希腊神吗？就像古典词典中所画的？很可能是的。然而他最有可能只是个凡人。莫瑞斯克制住自己，不再进一步试图阐明他的梦了。相反地，他把梦拖到现实生活中来。他再也不会遇见那个人，更不会听到那声音，但它们比现实世界的任何现象都更真实，遂引起了这么一件事：
“霍尔！你又做梦哪！罚你抄写一百行！”
“老师——啊！绝对与格。（译注：“与格”是指名词的语法上的格）”
“又做梦，适可而止吧。”
遇到这样的场合，他就在光天化日之下被拖回到梦中去，拉严帷幕。于是重新沉浸在那张脸和那六个字中。当他从帷幕里面走出来时，向往着温柔，渴望与人为善，因为这是他那位朋友的意愿。为了让他的朋友更喜欢他，他要做个善良的人。不知为何，这一切幸福伴随着苦痛。除了这一位，他好像确实连一个朋友都没有。他就找一个孤独的地方去流眼泪，却把这归咎于罚他抄写一百行。
如今我们知道了莫瑞斯生活中的隐私，一部分是肉欲的，一部分是理想的，犹如他的梦。
禸体刚一成熟，他就变得淫猥了。他料想这是受到了一种特殊的诅咒，然而身不由己。因为就连领圣餐的时候脑子里也会浮现猥亵的念头。学校的风尚是纯洁的——也就是说，就在他入学前不久，发生了一起惊人的丑闻。害群之马遭到开除处分，其余的学生整天被繁重的学业束缚着，夜间受到监视。这是幸运的还是不幸的，他几乎没有机会跟同学交换意见。他渴望说些下流话，但很少听到旁人说，他自己更无从说起。他那主要的猥亵行为是独自干的。书籍，学校的图书馆是完美无瑕的，然而在祖父家小住时，他发现了一本未经删节的马提雅尔（译注：马提雅尔(约38/40-约104)，罗马著名铭辞作家，是现代警句诗的开山祖师。人们指责他的诗有两大缺点：谄媚和猥亵。）的书。他磕磕巴巴地读着，两耳热辣辣的。思想，他贮存了一些色情的念头。行为，新鲜劲儿过去之后，他发觉这种行为给他带来的疲劳超过了快乐，从此就克制了。
要知道，这一切都是在昏睡状态下发生的。莫瑞斯在生荫的幽沽里沉睡，离两边的山顶都很远，他对此事一无所知，更不晓得自己的同学也同样在梦乡中。
他的另一半生活好像与伤风败俗相距甚远。进入高班后，他开始将某个少年当做一心追求的目标。不论这个少年比莫瑞斯年龄大还是小，只要他在场，莫瑞斯就大声笑，说些傻话，无法用功。莫瑞斯不敢对他表示友好一那可是有失体面的——更不能用语言来表达钦佩之情。过不了多久，他所爱慕的那个少年就把他甩了，弄得他闷闷不乐。不过，他也报了仇。别的少年有时崇拜他，一旦知道了这个，他就把他们甩了。有一次，双方相互爱慕，也不明白彼此依恋什么，然而结果是一样的。几天之后，两个人就吵架了。从一片馄饨中显露出的是原来他在梦中所意识到的美好和温柔这两种感觉。它们逐年成长，就好像是绿叶婆娑、却丝毫没有开花迹象的植物。在萨宁顿的学业即将结束时，就不再长了。复杂的成长过程受到抑制．伴随而来的是沉默。年轻人非常胆怯地四下里望着。
Chapter 4①①網①文①檔①下①載①與①在①線①閱①讀①
He was nearly nineteen.
He stood on the platform on Prize Day, reciting a Greek Oration of his own composition. The hall was full of schoolboys and their parents, but Maurice affected to be ad-dressing the Hague Conference, and to be pointing out to it the folly of its ways. "What stupidity is this, O andres Europenaici, to talk of abolishing war? What? Is not Ares the son of Zeus himself? Moreover, war renders you robust by exercising your limbs, not forsooth like those of my opponent." The Greek was vile: Maurice had got the prize on account of the Thought, and barely thus. The examining master had stretched a point in his favour since he was leaving and a respectable chap, and more-over leaving for Cambridge, where prize books on his shelves would help to advertise the school. So he received Grote'sHis-tory of Greece amid tremendous applause. As he returned to his seat, which was next to his mother, he realized that he had again become popular, and wondered how. The clapping continued —it grew to an ovation; Ada and Kitty were pounding away with scarlet faces on the further side. Some of his friends, also leaving, cried "speech". This was irregular and quelled by the authorities, but the Headmaster himself rose and said a few words. Hall was one of them, and they would never cease to feel him so. The words were just. The school clapped not because Maurice was eminent but because he was average. It could cele-
brate itself in his image. People ran up to him afterwards saying "jolly good, old man", quite sentimentally, and even "it will be bilge in this hole without you." His relations shared in the tri-umph. On previous visits he had been hateful to them. "Sorry, mater, but you and the kids will have to walk alone" had been his remark after a football match when they had tried to join on to him in his mud and glory: Ada had cried. Now Ada was chat-ting quite ably to the Captain of the School, and Kitty was being handed cakes, and his mother was listening to his house-master's wife, on the disappointments of installing hot air. Everyone and everything had suddenly harmonized. Was this the world?
A few yards off he saw Dr Barry, their neighbour from home, who caught his eye and calle