登陆注册
4708300000081

第81章

Now the remainder of his and her possessions, together with a sum he had borrowed, would not provide him with necessary comforts for half that time. To combat the misfortune, there were two courses open--her becoming betrothed to Manston, or the sending Owen to the County Hospital.

Thus terrified, driven into a corner, panting and fluttering about for some loophole of escape, yet still shrinking from the idea of being Manston's wife, the poor little bird endeavoured to find out from Miss Aldclyffe whether it was likely Owen would be well treated in the hospital.

'County Hospital!' said Miss Aldclyffe; 'why, it is only another name for slaughter-house--in surgical cases at any rate. Certainly if anything about your body is snapt in two they do join you together in a fashion, but 'tis so askew and ugly, that you may as well be apart again.' Then she terrified the inquiring and anxious maiden by relating horrid stories of how the legs and arms of poor people were cut off at a moment's notice, especially in cases where the restorative treatment was likely to be long and tedious.

'You know how willing I am to help you, Cytherea,' she added reproachfully. 'You know it. Why are you so obstinate then? Why do you selfishly bar the clear, honourable, and only sisterly path which leads out of this difficulty? I cannot, on my conscience, countenance you; no, I cannot.'

Manston once more repeated his offer; and once more she refused, but this time weakly, and with signs of an internal struggle. Manston's eye sparkled; he saw for the hundredth time in his life, that perseverance, if only systematic, was irresistible by womankind.

6. THE TWENTY-SEVENTH OF AUGUST

On going to Budmouth three days later, she found to her surprise that the steward had been there, had introduced himself, and had seen her brother. A few delicacies had been brought him also by the same hand. Owen spoke in warm terms of Manston and his free and unceremonious call, as he could not have refrained from doing of any person, of any kind, whose presence had served to help away the tedious hours of a long day, and who had, moreover, shown that sort of consideration for him which the accompanying basket implied--antecedent consideration, so telling upon all invalids--and which he so seldom experienced except from the hands of his sister.

How should he perceive, amid this tithe-paying of mint, and anise, and cummin, the weightier matters which were left undone?

Again the steward met her at Carriford Road Station on her return journey. Instead of being frigid as at the former meeting at the same place, she was embarrassed by a strife of thought, and murmured brokenly her thanks for what he had done. The same request that he might see her home was made.

He had perceived his error in making his kindness to Owen a conditional kindness, and had hastened to efface all recollection of it. 'Though I let my offer on her brother's--my friend's--behalf, seem dependent on my lady's graciousness to me,' he whispered wooingly in the course of their walk, 'I could not conscientiously adhere to my statement; it was said with all the impulsive selfishness of love. Whether you choose to have me, or whether you don't, I love you too devotedly to be anything but kind to your brother. . . . Miss Graye, Cytherea, I will do anything,' he continued earnestly, 'to give you pleasure--indeed I will.'

She saw on the one hand her poor and much-loved Owen recovering from his illness and troubles by the disinterested kindness of the man beside her, on the other she drew him dying, wholly by reason of her self-enforced poverty. To marry this man was obviously the course of common sense, to refuse him was impolitic temerity. There was reason in this. But there was more behind than a hundred reasons--a woman's gratitude and her impulse to be kind.

The wavering of her mind was visible in her tell-tale face. He noticed it, and caught at the opportunity.

They were standing by the ruinous foundations of an old mill in the midst of a meadow. Between grey and half-overgrown stonework--the only signs of masonry remaining--the water gurgled down from the old millpond to a lower level, under the cloak of rank broad leaves--the sensuous natures of the vegetable world. On the right hand the sun, resting on the horizon-line, streamed across the ground from below copper-coloured and lilac clouds, stretched out in flats beneath a sky of pale soft green. All dark objects on the earth that lay towards the sun were overspread by a purple haze, against which a swarm of wailing gnats shone forth luminously, rising upward and floating away like sparks of fire.

The stillness oppressed and reduced her to mere passivity. The only wish the humidity of the place left in her was to stand motionless.

The helpless flatness of the landscape gave her, as it gives all such temperaments, a sense of bare equality with, and no superiority to, a single entity under the sky.

He came so close that their clothes touched. 'Will you try to love me? Do try to love me!' he said, in a whisper, taking her hand. He had never taken it before. She could feel his hand trembling exceedingly as it held hers in its clasp.

Considering his kindness to her brother, his love for herself, and Edward's fickleness, ought she to forbid him to do this? How truly pitiful it was to feel his hand tremble so--all for her! Should she withdraw her hand? She would think whether she would. Thinking, and hesitating, she looked as far as the autumnal haze on the marshy ground would allow her to see distinctly. There was the fragment of a hedge--all that remained of a 'wet old garden'--standing in the middle of the mead, without a definite beginning or ending, purposeless and valueless. It was overgrown, and choked with mandrakes, and she could almost fancy she heard their shrieks. . .

同类推荐
  • 孔子集语

    孔子集语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 玄精碧匣灵宝聚玄经

    玄精碧匣灵宝聚玄经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 道枢

    道枢

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 清微斋法

    清微斋法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Royalty Restored

    Royalty Restored

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 小儿风寒门

    小儿风寒门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 轻,短,散

    轻,短,散

    各种各样的狂想,短篇小说。周更,遇事最迟一个月内必更。半科幻,脑洞向。轻小说、短篇、散文。无尽的铁轨,悠长的旅途。唯有思绪,让你不再孤单。
  • 抓作风(成风化人)

    抓作风(成风化人)

    “成风化人”系列丛书,从机关作风、家教家风、行业行风、学校校风四个角度,记录了和平区培育和弘扬社会主义核心价值观的有益探索,承载了和平人对社会主义文化自信的责任担当,展现了和平人“以身边事,教育身边人”的榜样力量,发挥了讲述和平好故事、传播和平好声音的文化引领作用。
  • 大驾北还录

    大驾北还录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 真龙奇幻

    真龙奇幻

    阿力斯企图要毁灭地球万物,然后再建立新的世界。由于阿力斯被一种不明大自然封锁住了。所以只有命他的一群手下来侵略地球。其中的一个叫姜狄的天才创造家制造出了大量的妖怪投放到地球上,结果世界一片混乱。
  • 世界文学知识大课堂:美洲现代文学大作

    世界文学知识大课堂:美洲现代文学大作

    哥伦比亚现代文学精品,巴西现代文学精品,墨西哥现代文学精品,拿大现代文学精品,美国现代文学精品等美洲地区国家现代文化大作。文学是一种社会意识形态,与社会、政治以及哲学、宗教和道德等社会科学具有密切的关系,是在一定的社会经济基础上形成和发展起来的,因此,它能深刻反映一个国家或一个民族特定时期的社会生活面貌。文学的功能是以形象来反映社会生活,是用具体的、生动感人的细节来反映客观世界的。
  • 紧急呼救

    紧急呼救

    恐怖的海湾。沉船上有一个神秘的密码,它代表什么?为什么要争夺这条被海水腐蚀成破烂不堪的沉船?小鬼精明们如何潜入沉船破译密码?紧急关头三个“飞龙小队”能力王狂澜吗?本书是一段精彩的冒险探案之旅。本书会带你经历一段精彩的冒险探案之旅。
  • 女扮男装:太子很傲娇

    女扮男装:太子很傲娇

    传闻夜国太子嗜血残忍,却长着一张倾国倾城的绝美容颜,就像是盛开在黄泉路上的彼岸花,勾人心魄。
  • 篮坛父子兵

    篮坛父子兵

    社会我三哥,玩球骚话多;篮坛乱不乱,三哥儿子说了算。想看篮球的书友请从12章开始。
  • 王府虐渣日常

    王府虐渣日常

    做王妃就要嚣张任性,肆意妄为,把天戳出来个洞,有人会帮你堵,天大的事都愿意帮你担着,宠妃上瘾!【系统提示:前方高能预警,出现王爷一枚】【系统提示:绑定王爷男主身份,尊享富贵姻缘】【系统提示:请为系统点赞,不谢】上辈子相亲九百九十九次没有把自己嫁出去。穿越而来,绑定‘靠谱’宅斗系统。万种选优,成就美好姻缘。--情节虚构,请勿模仿