登陆注册
5229500000065

第65章 Chapter XXVII. Resolution.(1)

Having read Mrs. Linley's answer, Mr. Sarrazin looked out of the breakfast-room window, and saw that the fog had reached the cottage. Before Mrs. Presty could make any remark on the change in the weather, he surprised her by an extraordinary question.

"Is there an upper room here, ma'am, which has a view of the road before your front gate?"

"Certainly!"

"And can I go into it without disturbing anybody?"

Mrs. Presty said, "Of course!" with an uplifting of her eye brows which expressed astonishment not unmixed with suspicion. "Do you want to go up now?" she added, "or will you wait till you have had your breakfast?"

"I want to go up, if you please, before the fog thickens. Oh, Mrs. Presty, I am ashamed to trouble you! Let the servant show me the room."

No. For the first time in her life Mrs. Presty insisted on doing servant's duty. If she had been crippled in both legs her curiosity would have helped her to get up the stairs on her hands. "There!" she said, opening the door of the upper room, and placing herself exactly in the middle of it, so that she could see all round her: "Will that do for you?"

Mr. Sarrazin went to the window; hid himself behind the curtain; and cautiously peeped out. In half a minute he turned his back on the misty view of the road, and said to himself: "Just what I expected."

Other women might have asked what this mysterious proceeding meant. Mrs. Presty's sense of her own dignity adopted a system of independent discovery. To Mr. Sarrazin's amusement, she imitated him to his face. Advancing to the window, she, too, hid herself behind the curtain, and she, too, peeped out. Still following her model, she next turned her back on the view--and then she became herself again. "Now we have both looked out of window," she said to the lawyer, in her own inimitably impudent way, "suppose we compare our impressions."

This was easily done. They had both seen the same two men walking backward and forward, opposite the front gate of the cottage.

Before the advancing fog made it impossible to identify him, Mr. Sarrazin had recognized in one of the men his agreeable fellow-traveler on the journey from London. The other man--a stranger--was in all probability an assistant spy obtained in the neighborhood. This discovery suggested serious embarrassment in the future. Mrs. Presty asked what was to be done next. Mr. Sarrazin answered: "Let us have our breakfast."

In another quarter of an hour they were both in Mrs. Linley's room.

Her agitated manner, her reddened eyes, showed that she was still suffering under the emotions of the past night. The moment the lawyer approached her, she crossed the room with hurried steps, and took both his hands in her trembling grasp. "You are a good man, you are a kind man," she said to him wildly; "you have my truest respect and regard. Tell me, are you--really--really--really sure that the one way in which I can keep my child with me is the way you mentioned last night?"

Mr. Sarrazin led her gently back to her chair.

The sad change in her startled and distressed him. Sincerely, solemnly even, he declared that the one alternative before her was the alternative that he had mentioned. He entreated her to control herself. It was useless, she still held him as if she was holding to her last hope.

"Listen to me!" she cried. "There's something more; there's another chance for me. I must, and will, know what you think of it."

"Wait a little. Pray wait a little!"

"No! not a moment. Is there any hope in appealing to the lawyer whom Mr. Linley has employed? Let me go back with you to London.

I will persuade him to exert his influence--I will go down on my knees to him--I will never leave him till I have won him over to my side--I will take Kitty with me; he shall see us both, and pity us, and help us!"

"Hopeless. Quite hopeless, Mrs. Linley."

"Oh, don't say that!"

"My dear lady, my poor dear lady, I must say it. The man you are talking of is the last man in the world to be influenced as you suppose. He is notoriously a lawyer, and nothing but a lawyer. If you tried to move him to pity you, he would say, 'Madam, I am doing my duty to my client'; and he would ring his bell and have you shown out. Yes! even if he saw you crushed and crying at his feet."

Mrs. Presty interfered for the first time.

"In your place, Catherine," she said, "I would put my foot down on that man and crush _him_. Consent to the Divorce, and you may do it."

Mrs. Linley lay prostrate in her chair. The excitement which had sustained her thus far seemed to have sunk with the sinking of her last hope. Pale, exhausted, yielding to hard necessity, she looked up when her mother said, "Consent to the Divorce," and answered, "I have consented."

"And trust me," Mr. Sarrazin said fervently, "to see that Justice is done, and to protect you in the meanwhile."

Mrs. Presty added her tribute of consolation.

"After all," she asked, "what is there to terrify you in the prospect of a Divorce? You won't hear what people say about it--for we see no society now. And, as for the newspapers, keep them out of the house."

Mrs. Linley answered with a momentary revival of energy "It is not the fear of exposure that has tortured me," she said.

同类推荐
  • 佛说证契大乘经

    佛说证契大乘经

    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。
  • 先觉宗乘

    先觉宗乘

    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。
  • 明词综

    明词综

    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。
  • 黄帝四经

    黄帝四经

    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。
  • The Hunchback

    The Hunchback

    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
  • 剩女无敌之田园喜事

    剩女无敌之田园喜事

    她万万没想到,身为当代超级剩女的自己,穿越回了古代,依然是剩女一枚。而且这次似乎更加凄惨,失去了堂皇的产科硕士研究生身份,寄人篱下、衣食无着。好不容易攀上一户“豪门”,成婚当日却被山大王生生地掳了去,而且过了一夜即被送回,成了众人眼中名节不保的不祥之女…上有刻薄婶娘,下有年幼弟弟,接着又跟“前夫”生了一个不被承认的拖油瓶,凭借双手打出一片天地,将弟弟培养成威远大将军之后,却又碍于“巫医”、“下堂妇”的身份,担心影响弟弟的前途,毅然抱着孩子跳了崖…
  • The Island Pharisees

    The Island Pharisees

    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。
  • 丰盛与静默

    丰盛与静默

    林多,清瘦、矜持,是个安静的女子。苏红雪,丰满、挺拔,是个热烈的女子。一个偶然的机会她们成了好朋友。那是在校园外的一个家庭教会,林多被同年的李安娜拉了去听福音。李安娜是个狂热的基督徒,为了传福音,她几乎要放弃学业了。她与林多是室友,自从安娜信了主,没有两个月,另外两个室友都被安娜发展了去。每个晚上,林多在一片热泪盈眶的祈祷声中想着自己的心事。她没有喜欢,也没有反感,依然我行我素。她白天上课,晚上图书馆,素面布衣,过着没有声张的生活。静静地出宿舍,静静地回宿舍。完全没有安娜她们的生活丰富。
  • 席恩战记

    席恩战记

    在恶魔的蛊惑下,由于战乱失去一切的克丽丝汀远离故土,踏上了寻找女神遗迹的旅程;另一片大陆上,意识残缺的巫师海克西斯虎视眈眈,希望借助一场摧毁世界的爆炸打开诸神之门;美丽的游吟诗人,神秘的银发盗贼,张狂的海盗,恐怖的佣兵组织,被无形的命运之手牵绊在一起;随着诸神的苏醒,一个被后世称为“席恩计划”的巨大阴谋终于浮出水面……这个故事里没有所谓的正义与邪恶,有的只是生存、信仰、忠诚,或者背叛。
  • 不忘初衷,砥砺前行

    不忘初衷,砥砺前行

    曾经的我们也有着为梦想努力的决心,却被现实伤的体无完肤;曾经的我们单纯、善良,却被人心的丑恶伤的变成了另外的人;曾经的我们热情如火,却因为生活的艰辛变得不再相信命运
  • 明伦汇编官常典风节部

    明伦汇编官常典风节部

    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。
  • 究极升级修真系统

    究极升级修真系统

    叶陵穿越修真世界,觉醒究极升级修真系统!“恭喜玩家,爆率触发,获得神技万毒掌!”“恭喜玩家,驯服灵兽赤焰虎,赤焰虎成为玩家战宠!”“恭喜玩家,完成修复伏魔枪任务,获得神技伏魔傲天诀!”“恭喜玩家,抽奖获得神级丹药通天丸!”……自此,叶凌灭杀仇人,横扫劲敌,传奇轶事名动世间,仙缘伴侣追随左右。手握伏魔枪,座下赤焰虎,从南山宗落魄天才到天元大陆至强仙尊,叶凌上演了一段修真传奇之旅。
  • 恐怖的野人族

    恐怖的野人族

    倒霉蛋儿和大馋鬼在回家的路上遇到了一个又一个稀奇古怪的事情。他们机智勇敢,不畏艰辛,与魔鬼展开了生死较量。他们帮助小矮村的人们赶走了强盗六头蛇王、揭开了大森林里小鬼屋的秘密、打败了骷髅精。与女魔头刺疙瘩和粘糊球经历生死较量……故事情节惊险刺激令人惊心动魄,人物个性化语言幽默诙谐回味无穷。
  • 天命贵女:妖孽小邪医

    天命贵女:妖孽小邪医

    她是黑道邪医,医术无双,却没想到被一块破玉玦算计灰飞烟灭。再睁眼,居然换了个壳子。丑八怪?与人私奔?败坏门风?这是在说她?当废物体质化为惊采绝艳的妖孽天赋,当丑陋的容颜褪下伪装露出了真颜,修得至尊神术,谁还能拦住她傲视九天!恩她者涌泉以报,仇她者至死方休!重活一世,她素手纤纤必来个风生水起!
  • 全能声优巨星

    全能声优巨星

    混在人群当中,以杀人为乐,性格扭曲。尽管拥有人类的外观,却是与人类相异的存在…“异人”。负责驱逐、研究”异人”的〔FFE〕;负责秘密关押变态犯罪分子的病特(Sickness);为了完成一个秘密项目,私下秘密开设的一个实验体集团──由病态科学家们组成的团体,几年前突然消失的组织〔森木〕;非「一般人类」的他们,与FFE,他们要面对的东西会是什么──?而因被季璃陷害的普通人〔季君〕——〔嬴懿〕,在碰巧的死而复生后,加入到了“异人”的团体。而也是因为她的重生,一场大战,拉开了帷幕……