登陆注册
5291400000027

第27章 CHAPTER IX.(1)

"I heard the bushes move long before I saw you," she began. "I said first, 'it is some terrible beast;' next, 'it is a poacher;' next, 'it is a friend!'"

He regarded her with a slight smile, weighing, not her speech, but the question whether he should tell her that she had been watched.

He decided in the negative.

"You have been to the house?" he said. "But I need not ask." The fact was that there shone upon Miss Melbury's face a species of exaltation, which saw no environing details nor his own occupation; nothing more than his bare presence.

"Why need you not ask?"

"Your face is like the face of Moses when he came down from the Mount."

She reddened a little and said, "How can you be so profane, Giles Winterborne?"

"How can you think so much of that class of people? Well, I beg pardon; I didn't mean to speak so freely. How do you like her house and her?"

"Exceedingly. I had not been inside the walls since I was a child, when it used to be let to strangers, before Mrs. Charmond's late husband bought the property. She is SO nice!" And Grace fell into such an abstracted gaze at the imaginary image of Mrs.

Charmond and her niceness that it almost conjured up a vision of that lady in mid-air before them.

"She has only been here a month or two, it seems, and cannot stay much longer, because she finds it so lonely and damp in winter.

She is going abroad. Only think, she would like me to go with her."

Giles's features stiffened a little at the news. "Indeed; what for? But I won't keep you standing here. Hoi, Robert!" he cried to a swaying collection of clothes in the distance, which was the figure of Creedle his man. "Go on filling in there till I come back."

"I'm a-coming, sir; I'm a-coming."

"Well, the reason is this," continued she, as they went on together--" Mrs. Charmond has a delightful side to her character-- a desire to record her impressions of travel, like Alexandre Dumas, and Mery, and Sterne, and others. But she cannot find energy enough to do it herself." And Grace proceeded to explain Mrs. Charmond's proposal at large. "My notion is that Mery's style will suit her best, because he writes in that soft, emotional, luxurious way she has," Grace said, musingly.

"Indeed!" said Winterborne, with mock awe. "Suppose you talk over my head a little longer, Miss Grace Melbury?"

"Oh, I didn't mean it!" she said, repentantly, looking into his eyes. "And as for myself, I hate French books. And I love dear old Hintock, AND THE PEOPLE IN IT, fifty times better than all the Continent. But the scheme; I think it an enchanting notion, don't you, Giles?"

"It is well enough in one sense, but it will take yon away," said he, mollified.

"Only for a short time. We should return in May."

"Well, Miss Melbury, it is a question for your father."

Winterborne walked with her nearly to her house. He had awaited her coming, mainly with the view of mentioning to her his proposal to have a Christmas party; but homely Christmas gatherings in the venerable and jovial Hintock style seemed so primitive and uncouth beside the lofty matters of her converse and thought that he refrained.

As soon as she was gone he turned back towards the scene of his planting, and could not help saying to himself as he walked, that this engagement of his was a very unpromising business. Her outing to-day had not improved it. A woman who could go to Hintock House and be friendly with its mistress, enter into the views of its mistress, talk like her, and dress not much unlike her, why, she would hardly be contented with him, a yeoman, now immersed in tree-planting, even though he planted them well. "And yet she's a true-hearted girl," he said, thinking of her words about Hintock. "I must bring matters to a point, and there's an end of it."

When he reached the plantation he found that Marty had come back, and dismissing Creedle, he went on planting silently with the girl as before.

"Suppose, Marty," he said, after a while, looking at her extended arm, upon which old scratches from briers showed themselves purple in the cold wind--"suppose you know a person, and want to bring that person to a good understanding with you, do you think a Christmas party of some sort is a warming-up thing, and likely to be useful in hastening on the matter?"

"Is there to be dancing?"

"There might be, certainly."

"Will He dance with She?"

"Well, yes."

"Then it might bring things to a head, one way or the other; I won't be the one to say which."

"It shall be done," said Winterborne, not to her, though he spoke the words quite loudly. And as the day was nearly ended, he added, "Here, Marty, I'll send up a man to plant the rest to- morrow. I've other things to think of just now."

She did not inquire what other things, for she had seen him walking with Grace Melbury. She looked towards the western sky, which was now aglow like some vast foundery wherein new worlds were being cast. Across it the bare bough of a tree stretched horizontally, revealing every twig against the red, and showing in dark profile every beck and movement of three pheasants that were settling themselves down on it in a row to roost.

"It will be fine to-morrow," said Marty, observing them with the vermilion light of the sun in the pupils of her eyes, "for they are a-croupied down nearly at the end of the bough. If it were going to be stormy they'd squeeze close to the trunk. The weather is almost all they have to think of, isn't it, Mr. Winterborne? and so they must be lighter-hearted than we."

"I dare say they are," said Winterborne.

Before taking a single step in the preparations, Winterborne, with no great hopes, went across that evening to the timber-merchant's to ascertain if Grace and her parents would honor him with their presence. Having first to set his nightly gins in the garden, to catch the rabbits that ate his winter-greens, his call was delayed till just after the rising of the moon, whose rays reached the Hintock houses but fitfully as yet, on account of the trees.

同类推荐
  • 太上升玄消灾护命妙经颂

    太上升玄消灾护命妙经颂

    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。
  • 送傅管记赴蜀军

    送傅管记赴蜀军

    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。
  • 古穰杂录摘抄

    古穰杂录摘抄

    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。
  • 诸经圣胎神用诀

    诸经圣胎神用诀

    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。
  • 霜厓词录

    霜厓词录

    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
  • 角色球员

    角色球员

    什么才算是成功的角色球员。努力,坚持,信心,豁达缺一不可。王朝几经走过,又有几个可堪回首。悉数数来,又有几支球队称得上长盛不衰。联盟的常青树圣安东尼奥马刺自邓肯加入以来首次面临着如此危机,老将离去、核心出走、新秀良莠不济。论起兴衰成败,也只得叹息。本书从16-17赛季开始,详细叙述马刺王朝的彻底崩塌重建,以一名球员的视角,带大家走过这漫长的几年时光。所有媒体都在疯传银黑军团终究落幕时,安崇奕已然成为了马刺新时代的核心人物。“这里是圣安东尼奥。圣城,永不落幕。”
  • 锦瑟哀弦:李商隐传

    锦瑟哀弦:李商隐传

    本书在晚唐时代背景下叙述李商隐的一生,着重写其面对社会压抑和种种困厄所作的抗争,特别是他追求精神自由、实现人生价值、终以杰出成就登上唐诗艺术**的生命历程,也描写了他爱情、家庭和性格的多面。全书富于哲理和诗情画意。——文史专家陶文鹏浓淡相宜的笔墨,勾画出一个真实的李商隐。不讨巧、不曲笔,用平实的描述,托举着传记文学以为标识的真实性,显见了作者在运化资料、筹划结构、通融文字等方面的功力。纪实体的方正严谨,并未局限写作的视野。探究传主如何将文学,特别是诗的作用充分发挥,从而超越和提升了生命的价值;再探究传主何以将汉字之美发挥到难以企及的**。
  • 快穿男神甜甜甜

    快穿男神甜甜甜

    【1V1,苏爽宠,甜文】男神一言不合黑化了怎么办?苏甜桃花眼潋滟无双,笑答:撩!狠撩!使劲撩!撩完就跑!她撩天撩地撩空气,人送外号:撩女王!却不想,终有一日,马失前蹄,一头栽进了自己挖的坑里。当黑化男神不按套路出牌,腹黑的丧心病狂,一言不合就卖萌,该如何?黑化总裁/清冷师父/病娇哥哥……纷纷为她跌下神坛。苏甜埋头痛哭:宠宠宠,除了宠还能怎么办?自己的男人,跪着也要宠下去!友情提醒:本文高甜,书如人名,又苏又甜!男神必杀技——专业黑化+专业卖萌,emmm……反差萌,萌萌萌,萌炸天际,分分钟把女主萌到哭。
  • 京城鹿少情迷申城律姬

    京城鹿少情迷申城律姬

    本不会有交集的两人,因一次他在去浦东国际机场的路上,透过车窗,偶然一次回眸,撞见了与朋友开怀大笑的她。时常回忆起她的笑靥,他想着是喜欢吧!无意中得到她闺蜜的帮助,京城鹿少开始了追爱之路。
  • 九命龙神

    九命龙神

    没落龙族的后裔凌飞度,被奸人暗害,抽干了其一身精血并丢入乱葬岗,但凌飞度的尸身,却没有腐烂,而是被来自异界的星河水晶重新凝聚了新的躯体。重获新生的凌飞度,发誓要报仇雪恨,可是他却发现自己的敌人,远比自己想象的要强大的多。不服输的凌飞度,借助星河水晶的力量,一点点的成长,击败自己的敌人,不过其中过程,却充满了艰辛,他只能一次又一次的复活重生……
  • 谁来买单:走进经济学聊天室

    谁来买单:走进经济学聊天室

    我们的物质生活和精神生活与过去相比简直是飞跃一般的进步,但是人们却“端起碗来吃肉,放下筷子骂娘”;政府机构年年精简,但是却不断地变得更加臃肿;很多个人的小公司渐渐地发展成了巨人,而有些巨人般的大企业却在不知不觉间轰然倒地……这都是为什么呢?用轻松幽默的笔调,为你解答了本书生活工作中这些令人困惑的问题。本书没有刻意追求经济学严谨的逻辑性,而是通过寻常百姓的饮食起居、开销用度、求职谋生、投资办店等活生生的生活故事和真实案例,将以往“高深”的经济学的原理变为浅显的生活常识。
  • 渊星星怠之谜

    渊星星怠之谜

    渊星,一颗充满未知的行星,那是一个巨大的舞台,有的人可以轻易的登上舞台,但有的人需要一点小小的帮助…
  • 寒山子诗集

    寒山子诗集

    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。
  • 穿越之凤命十八萌妃

    穿越之凤命十八萌妃

    十八个少女本是杀手。却没想到,看流星也能穿越……四个女主开店铺、尝美食、寻秘宝,人力资源不用愁,丹药千金难求?她一炼一大把;情敌带人找茬?她传音十七个高手姐妹,虐你们个渣渣;欺负她没钱?她一挥手富可敌国。神兽珍稀孤傲?都跪求她做主人。唯一不好就是有些妖孽总缠着她们。看十八凤女如何玩转这古典皇朝,把这大好江山收入囊中!(甜文一篇,宫斗可能少了点。)
  • 道可道

    道可道

    全本50万字(已完稿),网络版最新章节小说阅读网独家授权发表。包括《伏魔录》、《辟邪录》、《斩鬼录》、《搜神录》四卷全本,最新章节《蹈海录》小说阅读网独家倾情奉献。乱世多魍魉,人鬼不殊途。黑暗的元朝末年之时,世道离乱,人鬼邪魔混杂而处。原为色目人祭拜的五显灵官庙传出以活人献祭之事,一名不忌荤酒嫁娶、属道教符?派的正一教小道士,与一名密宗小僧结识,不期然卷入了这事件中,与此同时,密教高僧也来到了附近……道术、密法、禅机、妖氛,交织成了一幅荼靡诡丽的乱世鬼魅图。