登陆注册
5291400000044

第44章 CHAPTER XVI.(1)

Dr. Fitzpiers lived on the slope of the hill, in a house of much less pretension, both as to architecture and as to magnitude, than the timber-merchant's. The latter had, without doubt, been once the manorial residence appertaining to the snug and modest domain of Little Hintock, of which the boundaries were now lost by its absorption with others of its kind into the adjoining estate of Mrs. Charmond. Though the Melburys themselves were unaware of the fact, there was every reason to believe--at least so the parson said that the owners of that little manor had been Melbury's own ancestors, the family name occurring in numerous documents relating to transfers of land about the time of the civil wars.

Mr. Fitzpiers's dwelling, on the contrary, was small, cottage- like, and comparatively modern. It had been occupied, and was in part occupied still, by a retired farmer and his wife, who, on the surgeon's arrival in quest of a home, had accommodated him by receding from their front rooms into the kitchen quarter, whence they administered to his wants, and emerged at regular intervals to receive from him a not unwelcome addition to their income.

The cottage and its garden were so regular in their arrangement that they might have been laid out by a Dutch designer of the time of William and Mary. In a low, dense hedge, cut to wedge-shape, was a door over which the hedge formed an arch, and from the inside of the door a straight path, bordered with clipped box, ran up the slope of the garden to the porch, which was exactly in the middle of the house front, with two windows on each side. Right and left of the path were first a bed of gooseberry bushes; next of currant; next of raspberry; next of strawberry; next of old- fashioned flowers; at the corners opposite the porch being spheres of box resembling a pair of school globes. Over the roof of the house could be seen the orchard, on yet higher ground, and behind the orchard the forest-trees, reaching up to the crest of the hill.

Opposite the garden door and visible from the parlor window was a swing-gate leading into a field, across which there ran a foot- path. The swing-gate had just been repainted, and on one fine afternoon, before the paint was dry, and while gnats were still dying thereon, the surgeon was standing in his sitting-room abstractedly looking out at the different pedestrians who passed and repassed along that route. Being of a philosophical stamp, he perceived that the chararter of each of these travellers exhibited itself in a somewhat amusing manner by his or her method of handling the gate.

As regarded the men, there was not much variety: they gave the gate a kick and passed through. The women were more contrasting.

To them the sticky wood-work was a barricade, a disgust, a menace, a treachery, as the case might be.

The first that he noticed was a bouncing woman with her skirts tucked up and her hair uncombed. She grasped the gate without looking, giving it a supplementary push with her shoulder, when the white imprint drew from her an exclamation in language not too refined. She went to the green bank, sat down and rubbed herself in the grass, cursing the while.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the doctor.

The next was a girl, with her hair cropped short, in whom the surgeon recognized the daughter of his late patient, the woodman South. Moreover, a black bonnet that she wore by way of mourning unpleasantly reminded him that he had ordered the felling of a tree which had caused her parent's death and Winterborne's losses.

She walked and thought, and not recklessly; but her preoccupation led her to grasp unsuspectingly the bar of the gate, and touch it with her arm. Fitzpiers felt sorry that she should have soiled that new black frock, poor as it was, for it was probably her only one. She looked at her hand and arm, seemed but little surprised, wiped off the disfigurement with an almost unmoved face, and as if without abandoning her original thoughts. Thus she went on her way.

Then there came over the green quite a different sort of personage. She walked as delicately as if she had been bred in town, and as firmly as if she had been bred in the country; she seemed one who dimly knew her appearance to be attractive, but who retained some of the charm of being ignorant of that fact by forgetting it in a general pensiveness. She approached the gate.

To let such a creature touch it even with a tip of her glove was to Fitzpiers almost like letting her proceed to tragical self- destruction. He jumped up and looked for his hat, but was unable to find the right one; glancing again out of the window he saw that he was too late. Having come up, she stopped, looked at the gate, picked up a little stick, and using it as a bayonet, pushed open the obstacle without touching it at all.

He steadily watched her till she had passed out of sight, recognizing her as the very young lady whom he had seen once before and been unable to identify. Whose could that emotional face be? All the others he had seen in Hintock as yet oppressed him with their crude rusticity; the contrast offered by this suggested that she hailed from elsewhere.

Precisely these thoughts had occurred to him at the first time of seeing her; but he now went a little further with them, and considered that as there had been no carriage seen or heard lately in that spot she could not have come a very long distance. She must be somebody staying at Hintock House? Possibly Mrs. Charmond, of whom he had heard so much--at any rate an inmate, and this probability was sufficient to set a mild radiance in the surgeon's somewhat dull sky.

Fitzpiers sat down to the book he had been perusing. It happened to be that of a German metaphysician, for the doctor was not a practical man, except by fits, and much preferred the ideal world to the real, and the discovery of principles to their application.

同类推荐
  • 张炎词全集

    张炎词全集

    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。
  • Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

    Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

    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 Story of a Mine

    The Story of a Mine

    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。
  • 雷峰宝卷

    雷峰宝卷

    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。
  • 贩书偶记

    贩书偶记

    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
  • 狂帝尊天

    狂帝尊天

    天道无情,神通晦涩,生灵若尘,浩瀚天地,无垠之界,人杰地灵。有天骄横空出世,斗破天地;有大能纵横不败,主宰一方。有人族大帝,轮回九世,功德魂穿。一卷功法,一把玉笛,强势崛起,傲立巅峰,他道:“魔道尽头谁为锋?一见本帝终成空。”纵横荡魔邪,一笛斩群妖!
  • 遼小史

    遼小史

    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。
  • 每天读一点中国史(先秦-隋唐五代卷)

    每天读一点中国史(先秦-隋唐五代卷)

    任浩之编著的《每天读一点中国史·先秦隋唐五代卷》以风趣的语言将我国的历史分为先秦:文明曙光;秦汉:天下一统;魏晋南北朝:民族交融;隋唐五代:帝国再造。读来风趣、幽默、可读性极强,解决了一般历史书的沉闷、古板。是一部难得的,且适合各个层次的人阅读的历史书籍。
  • 小配角的逆袭之旅

    小配角的逆袭之旅

    我叫田小雨,我穿越了,是的,穿越了,穿越到一本有同乡的种田文小说中了。醒来后,就是爹娘悲惨的哭喊声,爷爷奶奶哥哥叔叔的怒吼声,尼玛,神马状况?原来是书中女配被人陷害,我也是懵逼了。好吧,穿越就穿越把,女主光环咱不怕,见招拆招,郎君个个很挑剔,美食勾住他的胃,异世生活乐翻天,且看田小雨怎样颠覆书中女配的平凡命运。
  • 好为人师(中国好小说)

    好为人师(中国好小说)

    小说讲述了硕士毕业的数学老师蔺骥途在从教期间“不务正业”,最终离开学校,自己办起家教的故事。小说着重点描写了蔺骥途憨厚的为人处世方式和他与两位女子的交往过程,突出蔺骥途表面看似对于世事随遇而安,对于周围的人温柔和顺,但内心充满反抗,坚持自我的矛盾现状。
  • 迷途

    迷途

    三个已婚女子分别从上海、北京和新加坡出发,完成她们心心念念的越南之旅。身体是感情的巨大出口,裸露的皮肤,心中的欲望,就像干柴一样被点燃。生命中本就应该有几段值得回味的恣意,不再年轻的女人们一样有年轻的情感困惑。中年女性,婚姻深处多的是落寞和孤独。不同职业、不同经历,却有着同样的深刻到灵魂的寂寞面孔……
  • 型月最古英灵

    型月最古英灵

    一名死宅穿越到了月世界...的古代?!而且是在一个英灵也没被记录前的时间,当他意识到了这一点,他不再平凡......
  • 上清洞天三五金刚玄箓仪经

    上清洞天三五金刚玄箓仪经

    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。
  • 午后三点

    午后三点

    那头由黑炭铸成的硕壮巨牛,牛头向东,盘尾向西,凝卧蛰伏,藏形 匿影,一副敛财聚福之相。前来卧牛安宅的阴阳先生安托儿一再告诫道: “这是卧财牛,宜静不宜喧,宜藏不宜露,安安稳稳,平平静静,方保富 贵仁人。”
  • 巨象

    巨象

    甫跃辉, 1984年生,云南保山施甸县人,复旦大学首届文学写作专业小说方向研究生毕业,师从作家王安忆。在《人民文学》《大家》《花城》《中国作家》《青年文学》《上海文学》《长城》等文学期刊发表中国短篇小说。获得2009年度“中环”杯《上海文学》短篇小说新人奖。