登陆注册
5291400000059

第59章 CHAPTER XX.(3)

Fitzpiers had quickly stepped forward in front of Winterborne, who, disdaining to shift his position, had turned on his heel, and then the surgeon did what he would not have thought of doing but for Mrs. Melbury's encouragement and the sentiment of an eve which effaced conventionality. Stretching out his arms as the white figure burst upon him, he captured her in a moment, as if she had been a bird.

"Oh!" cried Grace, in her fright.

"You are in my arms, dearest," said Fitzpiers, "and I am going to claim you, and keep you there all our two lives!"

She rested on him like one utterly mastered, and it was several seconds before she recovered from this helplessness. Subdued screams and struggles, audible from neighboring brakes, revealed that there had been other lurkers thereabout for a similar purpose. Grace, unlike most of these companions of hers, instead of gasping and writhing, said in a trembling voice, "Mr.

Fitzpiers, will you let me go?"

"Certainly," he said, laughing; "as soon as you have recovered."

She waited another few moments, then quietly and firmly pushed him aside, and glided on her path, the moon whitening her hot blush away. But it had been enough--new relations between them had begun.

The case of the other girls was different, as has been said. They wrestled and tittered, only escaping after a desperate struggle.

Fitzpiers could hear these enactments still going on after Grace had left him, and he remained on the spot where he had caught her, Winterborne having gone away. On a sudden another girl came bounding down the same descent that had been followed by Grace--a fine-framed young woman with naked arms. Seeing Fitzpiers standing there, she said, with playful effrontery, "May'st kiss me if 'canst catch me, Tim!"

Fitzpiers recognized her as Suke Damson, a hoydenish damsel of the hamlet, who was plainly mistaking him for her lover. He was impulsively disposed to profit by her error, and as soon as she began racing away he started in pursuit.

On she went under the boughs, now in light, now in shade, looking over her shoulder at him every few moments and kissing her hand; but so cunningly dodging about among the trees and moon-shades that she never allowed him to get dangerously near her. Thus they ran and doubled, Fitzpiers warming with the chase, till the sound of their companions had quite died away. He began to lose hope of ever overtaking her, when all at once, by way of encouragement, she turned to a fence in which there was a stile and leaped over it. Outside the scene was a changed one--a meadow, where the half-made hay lay about in heaps, in the uninterrupted shine of the now high moon.

Fitzpiers saw in a moment that, having taken to open ground, she had placed herself at his mercy, and he promptly vaulted over after her. She flitted a little way down the mead, when all at once her light form disappeared as if it had sunk into the earth.

She had buried herself in one of the hay-cocks.

Fitzpiers, now thoroughly excited, was not going to let her escape him thus. He approached, and set about turning over the heaps one by one. As soon as he paused, tantalized and puzzled, he was directed anew by an imitative kiss which came from her hiding- place, and by snatches of a local ballad in the smallest voice she could assume:

"O come in from the foggy, foggy dew."

In a minute or two he uncovered her.

"Oh, 'tis not Tim!" said she, burying her face.

Fitzpiers, however, disregarded her resistance by reason of its mildness, stooped and imprinted the purposed kiss, then sunk down on the next hay-cock, panting with his race.

"Whom do you mean by Tim?" he asked, presently.

"My young man, Tim Tangs," said she.

"Now, honor bright, did you really think it was he?"

"I did at first."

"But you didn't at last?"

"I didn't at last."

"Do you much mind that it was not?"

"No," she answered, slyly.

Fitzpiers did not pursue his questioning. In the moonlight Suke looked very beautiful, the scratches and blemishes incidental to her out-door occupation being invisible under these pale rays.

While they remain silent the coarse whir of the eternal night-jar burst sarcastically from the top of a tree at the nearest corner of the wood. Besides this not a sound of any kind reached their ears, the time of nightingales being now past, and Hintock lying at a distance of two miles at least. In the opposite direction the hay-field stretched away into remoteness till it was lost to the eye in a soft mist.

同类推荐
  • 忍经

    忍经

    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。
  • 律抄手决

    律抄手决

    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。
  • Miscellaneous Pieces

    Miscellaneous Pieces

    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。
  • 轩辕黄帝传

    轩辕黄帝传

    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。
  • 融堂四书管见

    融堂四书管见

    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
  • 寒门第一商女

    寒门第一商女

    【包月完结文】夏如晚身为夏家私生女,为夏家出生入死,最终却落得被碎尸而亡!一朝重生归来,玩赌石,买古玩,指点前程,妙手回春!学习不好?抱歉,就算不上学她也是全级第一。家庭条件很差?各种商业名流纷纷哭着喊着要跟她合作让她投资。一手掌生死,一手控命运。该虐的渣虐,该打脸的打,一边玩转商业,一边玩转高干世家,顺便征服征服一下某人。【剧场版】“这个手镯是你的?你不是人?”夏如晚惊疑中加着错愕。“老婆,外星人也是人,你不要嫌弃我,不然……你肚子里的外星宝宝会哭泣的。”某个掌控全世界经济大体的男人一脸哀怨,这表情……吓坏了多少国家总统~
  • 阴影王座

    阴影王座

    这是一个热爱研究的年轻人在阴影巫师的歧路上越走越远的故事!是我研究了世界,还是世界研究了我?——慕岩-----------------------------------------------------书友交流群:850697850
  • 黑鸟送光明

    黑鸟送光明

    异国师生到新疆内陆探寻古墓,步步惊心,竟揭开身世之谜……为走出遭受背叛的情伤,爱尔兰历史系学生布丽德搭上了一支考古团队的末班车,前往遥远的中国内陆沙漠进行勘探。率领这支团队的是来自阿拉斯加的特林吉特人约翰·谢尔登。一件件随葬品重见天日让队员们欣喜若狂,却也引来了中方博物馆负责人的担忧。随着越来越多的文物被检视,布丽德渐渐意识到自己与三千五百年前生活在这里的先民有着千丝万缕的联系,令她与约翰之间的情愫越发剪不断、理还乱。
  • 那时花开别样红:民国十大名媛的传奇岁月

    那时花开别样红:民国十大名媛的传奇岁月

    本书为读者选取了民国时期知名度的十位名媛,讲述她们的美丽与哀。她们之中,有的是诗人、文学家,有的是影后、京剧之皇,有的是画家、交际花。个个才华出众、美丽绝伦。阅读她们的生传奇,悠游花间,一纸书香、一壶清茶,细咂品慢咂!
  • 星空法相

    星空法相

    如来佛、牛魔王、猪八戒、二郎神,邵云作为一个不称职的法相绘师,通通不会画!可他会修。修完了,还是附带威能的真品法相符篆。修啊修啊修……就修出了自己的法相。集合了诸般法相长处的法相,该算第几法相?
  • 后河底(中国好小说)

    后河底(中国好小说)

    通过对小人物——掏粪工许九的生活描写,展现城市发展过程中,底层小人物生存的不易。许九这个掏大粪刷厕所的小工人,面对拆迁,将失去工作。他有着底层人物的勤恳、踏实、忠厚,也怀着爱情、家庭美满等普通愿望。
  • 辛巴达历险记(语文新课标课外读物)

    辛巴达历险记(语文新课标课外读物)

    在历史上阿拉伯文学阿拉伯半岛人民的文学,以后指阿拉伯帝国的文学,即中古时期的阿拉伯文学。这一时期除带有深刻宗教色彩的诗歌外,还有大量骑士文学及反映民族及人生的理性文化,包括富有哲理的脍炙人口的寓言或童话,如《一千零一夜》(又译《天方夜谭》)及《辛巴达历险记》等。本书中主人物辛巴达一夜间沦为乞丐。他不甘清贫,决定出海远航创造财富。他七次出海,大船都半途沉没。他逃生到赛马岛被人追求;他落滩到蛇雕岛遭受猿人王和巨人攻击;他登上吃人岛又被恶人咬伤;他落难生死岛被海盗打伤;他每七次出海,大船卷进神秘漩涡,他被卷到海底王宫,被九头蛟捉住……
  • 陆桴亭论小学

    陆桴亭论小学

    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。
  • 胎息经注

    胎息经注

    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。
  • 清风谣

    清风谣

    一个准大学生的清穿生活,主温馨路线。清穿种田文,纯粹YY,无关史实如有雷同,不甚荣幸。只做亲妈,保证HE,绝不弃坑。