登陆注册
5262200000214

第214章 Chapter 9 SOMEBODY BECOMES THE SUBJECT OF A PREDIC

So, they walked, speaking of the newly filled-up grave, and of Johnny, and of many things. So, on their return, they met brisk Mrs Milvey coming to seek them, with the agreeable intelligence that there was no fear for the village children, there being a Christian school in the village, and no worse Judaical interference with it than to plant its garden. So, they got back to the village as Lizzie Hexam was coming from the paper-mill, and Bella detached herself to speak with her in her own home.

'I am afraid it is a poor room for you,' said Lizzie, with a smile of welcome, as she offered the post of honour by the fireside.

'Not so poor as you think, my dear,' returned Bella, 'if you knew all.' Indeed, though attained by some wonderful winding narrow stairs, which seemed to have been erected in a pure white chimney, and though very low in the ceiling, and very rugged in the floor, and rather blinking as to the proportions of its lattice window, it was a pleasanter room than that despised chamber once at home, in which Bella had first bemoaned the miseries of taking lodgers.

The day was closing as the two girls looked at one another by the fireside. The dusky room was lighted by the fire. The grate might have been the old brazier, and the glow might have been the old hollow down by the flare.

'It's quite new to me,' said Lizzie, 'to be visited by a lady so nearly of my own age, and so pretty, as you. It's a pleasure to me to look at you.'

'I have nothing left to begin with,' returned Bella, blushing, 'because I was going to say that it was a pleasure to me to look at you, Lizzie. But we can begin without a beginning, can't we?'

Lizzie took the pretty little hand that was held out in as pretty a little frankness.

'Now, dear,' said Bella, drawing her chair a little nearer, and taking Lizzie's arm as if they were going out for a walk, 'I am commissioned with something to say, and I dare say I shall say it wrong, but I won't if I can help it. It is in reference to your letter to Mr and Mrs Boffin, and this is what it is. Let me see. Oh yes!

This is what it is.'

With this exordium, Bella set forth that request of Lizzie's touching secrecy, and delicately spoke of that false accusation and its retraction, and asked might she beg to be informed whether it had any bearing, near or remote, on such request. 'I feel, my dear,' said Bella, quite amazing herself by the business-like manner in which she was getting on, 'that the subject must be a painful one to you, but I am mixed up in it also; for--I don't know whether you may know it or suspect it--I am the willed-away girl who was to have been married to the unfortunate gentleman, if he had been pleased to approve of me. So I was dragged into the subject without my consent, and you were dragged into it without your consent, and there is very little to choose between us.'

'I had no doubt,' said Lizzie, 'that you were the Miss Wilfer I have often heard named. Can you tell me who my unknown friend is?'

'Unknown friend, my dear?' said Bella.

'Who caused the charge against poor father to be contradicted, and sent me the written paper.'

Bella had never heard of him. Had no notion who he was.

'I should have been glad to thank him,' returned Lizzie. 'He has done a great deal for me. I must hope that he will let me thank him some day. You asked me has it anything to do--'

'It or the accusation itself,' Bella put in.

'Yes. Has either anything to do with my wishing to live quite secret and retired here? No.'

As Lizzie Hexam shook her head in giving this reply and as her glance sought the fire, there was a quiet resolution in her folded hands, not lost on Bella's bright eyes.

'Have you lived much alone?' asked Bella.

'Yes. It's nothing new to me. I used to be always alone many hours together, in the day and in the night, when poor father was alive.'

'You have a brother, I have been told?'

'I have a brother, but he is not friendly with me. He is a very good boy though, and has raised himself by his industry. I don't complain of him.'

As she said it, with her eyes upon the fire-glow, there was an instantaneous escape of distress into her face. Bella seized the moment to touch her hand.

'Lizzie, I wish you would tell me whether you have any friend of your own sex and age.'

'I have lived that lonely kind of life, that I have never had one,' was the answer.

'Nor I neither,' said Bella. 'Not that my life has been lonely, for Icould have sometimes wished it lonelier, instead of having Ma going on like the Tragic Muse with a face-ache in majestic corners, and Lavvy being spiteful--though of course I am very fond of them both. I wish you could make a friend of me, Lizzie. Do you think you could? I have no more of what they call character, my dear, than a canary-bird, but I know I am trustworthy.'

The wayward, playful, affectionate nature, giddy for want of the weight of some sustaining purpose, and capricious because it was always fluttering among little things, was yet a captivating one. To Lizzie it was so new, so pretty, at once so womanly and so childish, that it won her completely. And when Bella said again, 'Do you think you could, Lizzie?' with her eyebrows raised, her head inquiringly on one side, and an odd doubt about it in her own bosom, Lizzie showed beyond all question that she thought she could.

'Tell me, my dear,' said Bella, 'what is the matter, and why you live like this.'

Lizzie presently began, by way of prelude, 'You must have many lovers--' when Bella checked her with a little scream of astonishment.

'My dear, I haven't one!'

'Not one?'

'Well! Perhaps one,' said Bella. 'I am sure I don't know. I HADone, but what he may think about it at the present time I can't say.

Perhaps I have half a one (of course I don't count that Idiot, George Sampson). However, never mind me. I want to hear about you.'

'There is a certain man,' said Lizzie, 'a passionate and angry man, who says he loves me, and who I must believe does love me. He is the friend of my brother. I shrank from him within myself when my brother first brought him to me; but the last time I saw him he terrified me more than I can say.' There she stopped.

同类推荐
  • Aesop'  s Fables

    Aesop' s Fables

    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。
  • 邵兰荪医案

    邵兰荪医案

    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。
  • 古林清茂禅师语录

    古林清茂禅师语录

    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。
  • 颂古合响集

    颂古合响集

    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。
  • 水镜录

    水镜录

    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。
热门推荐
  • 我为东岳阁主

    我为东岳阁主

    上一世,我为阁主,纵横千秋,制裁东岳,奈何不敌她莲步轻点,挥手舞袖。且看董宇的通天手段,掀起时代的浪潮!开启全民修真。
  • 伤不起的丽江行

    伤不起的丽江行

    要不是那天正好睡到中午时分,本不会发生这些事情。那是我第四次去丽江。要问我为什么去四次,我也说不清道不明,反正潜意识里面隐约有些东西在萌动,当然,最主要的原因仅仅就是喜欢丽江,喜欢那里的懒洋洋,喜欢那里的好空气。在丽江已经蹲了有六七天,每天一觉睡到自然醒,哪里都不去,喜欢坐在小溪边发呆,看看行人,比什么都强,酒吧,嫌吵,不是很愿意去。那天,一觉醒来已经是中午十二点多了,老规矩,去百岁桥发发呆。从木府的客栈走出来,买了两个粑粑,一个喂自己,一个准备拿来喂鱼。除了下半夜连狗都懒得叫唤的时候,丽江永远是热闹的。
  • 太上老君说五斗金章受生经

    太上老君说五斗金章受生经

    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。
  • 这样吃养身防大病

    这样吃养身防大病

    正确的饮食对身体健康至关重要。食材看似简单,却效用非凡,为了健康,也为了食物,是时候该认真了解食物了。病能从口入,病亦从口除,世界食材万千种,所含的营养各不同,所起作用亦不同《这样吃养身防大病》让你全角食物营养奥妙,“私人营养师”精心配制。
  • 世界文学知识大课堂:世界古代文学大家

    世界文学知识大课堂:世界古代文学大家

    希腊文学大家,古罗马文学大家,意大利古代文学大家,英国古代文学大家,法国古代文学大家等世界古代文学大家。优秀的文学作品能使人产生如临其境、如见其人、如闻其声的感觉,并从思想感情上受到感染、教育和陶冶。文学是语言的艺术,是以语言为工具来塑造艺术形象的,虽然其具有形象的间接性,但它能多方面立体性地展示社会生活,甚至表现社会生活的发展过程,展示人与人之间的错综复杂的社会关系和人物的内心精神世界。
  • 太清丹青

    太清丹青

    火龙临世,邪龙崛起,欲夺江湖雄心谁堪御。 正气凛然,余风举步,胸怀满腔热血为心安! 侠义之道,所为何物,促使崂山浪子魔心生。 尔虞我诈,人心险恶,勾结无耻叛徒暗伤神。 异士横出,阵法丛生,谁知洞庭君山实为局? 高手如云,谁人持棋,颠倒芸芸众生妙之极! 【各位朋友,麻烦点下左侧的加入书架,谢谢】
  • 无敌大神

    无敌大神

    主角林凡本是混沌生,却经过在一系列故事中,发生着一系列无敌的故事。
  • 第九个寡妇

    第九个寡妇

    《第九个寡妇》是著名女作家严歌苓的重要代表作,也是她的转型作。作品讲述了中原地区一个叫王葡萄的寡妇在土改时期藏匿其地主公爹的传奇故事,时间跨越二十世纪四十至八十年代。宏大的历史叙事与个人的传奇经历相结合,深远的济世情怀与浓郁的生活气息相结合。王葡萄是严歌苓笔下最光彩照人的女性角色之一,强大而嚣张、坚忍而娇媚,其浑然不分的仁爱与包容一切的宽厚使其超越了人世间一切利害之争。小说的情节从葡萄以童养媳身份掩护公爹尽孝与作为寡妇以强烈情欲与不同男人偷欢之间的落差展开,写出了人性的灿烂,体现了民间大地的真正的能量和本原。
  • 佛说楞伽经禅门悉谈章

    佛说楞伽经禅门悉谈章

    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。
  • 天下聘

    天下聘

    天下为聘,谱一曲凤歌倾城!北漠孤女,身世坎坷,却从不自怨自艾,顽强成长,精通医术!千里迢迢,自北漠而来,与皇子瑞艰难相守,深情不渝,最终辅佐皇子瑞登基,天下一统,颂歌传奇!--情节虚构,请勿模仿