登陆注册
5291400000071

第71章 CHAPTER XXV.(2)

Thus the subject had ended in the yard. Meanwhile, the passive cause of all this loss still regarded the scene. She was beautifully dressed; she was seated in the most comfortable room that the inn afforded; her long journey had been full of variety, and almost luxuriously performed--for Fitzpiers did not study economy where pleasure was in question. Hence it perhaps arose that Giles and all his belongings seemed sorry and common to her for the moment--moving in a plane so far removed from her own of late that she could scarcely believe she had ever found congruity therein. "No--I could never have married him!" she said, gently shaking her head. "Dear father was right. It would have been too coarse a life for me." And she looked at the rings of sapphire and opal upon her white and slender fingers that had been gifts from Fitzpiers.

Seeing that Giles still kept his back turned, and with a little of the above-described pride of life--easily to be understood, and possibly excused, in a young, inexperienced woman who thought she had married well--she said at last, with a smile on her lips, "Mr.

Winterborne!"

He appeared to take no heed, and she said a second time, "Mr.

Winterborne!"

Even now he seemed not to hear, though a person close enough to him to see the expression of his face might have doubted it; and she said a third time, with a timid loudness, "Mr. Winterborne!

What, have you forgotten my voice?" She remained with her lips parted in a welcoming smile.

He turned without surprise, and came deliberately towards the window. "Why do you call me?" he said, with a sternness that took her completely unawares, his face being now pale. "Is it not enough that you see me here moiling and muddling for my daily bread while you are sitting there in your success, that you can't refrain from opening old wounds by calling out my name?"

She flushed, and was struck dumb for some moments; but she forgave his unreasoning anger, knowing so well in what it had its root.

"I am sorry I offended you by speaking," she replied, meekly.

"Believe me, I did not intend to do that. I could hardly sit here so near you without a word of recognition."

Winterborne's heart had swollen big, and his eyes grown moist by this time, so much had the gentle answer of that familiar voice moved him. He assured her hurriedly, and without looking at her, that he was not angry. He then managed to ask her, in a clumsy, constrained way, if she had had a pleasant journey, and seen many interesting sights. She spoke of a few places that she had visited, and so the time passed till he withdrew to take his place at one of the levers which pulled round the screw.

Forgotten her voice! Indeed, he had not forgotten her voice, as his bitterness showed. But though in the heat of the moment he had reproached her keenly, his second mood was a far more tender one--that which could regard her renunciation of such as he as her glory and her privilege, his own fidelity notwithstanding. He could have declared with a contemporary poet--"If I forget, The salt creek may forget the ocean;If I forget The heart whence flows my heart's bright motion, May I sink meanlier than the worst Abandoned, outcast, crushed, accurst, If I forget.

"Though you forget, No word of mine shall mar your pleasure;Though you forget, You filled my barren life with treasure, You may withdraw the gift you gave;You still are queen, I still am slave, Though you forget."

She had tears in her eyes at the thought that she could not remind him of what he ought to have remembered; that not herself but the pressure of events had dissipated the dreams of their early youth.

Grace was thus unexpectedly worsted in her encounter with her old friend. She had opened the window with a faint sense of triumph, but he had turned it into sadness; she did not quite comprehend the reason why. In truth it was because she was not cruel enough in her cruelty. If you have to use the knife, use it, say the great surgeons; and for her own peace Grace should have contemned Winterborne thoroughly or not at all. As it was, on closing the window an indescribable, some might have said dangerous, pity quavered in her bosom for him.

Presently her husband entered the room, and told her what a wonderful sunset there was to be seen.

"I have not noticed it. But I have seen somebody out there that we know," she replied, looking into the court.

Fitzpiers followed the direction of her eyes, and said he did not recognize anybody.

"Why, Mr. Winterborne--there he is, cider-making. He combines that with his other business, you know."

"Oh--that fellow," said Fitzpiers, his curiosity becoming extinct.

She, reproachfully: "What, call Mr. Winterborne a fellow, Edgar?

It is true I was just saying to myself that I never could have married him; but I have much regard for him, and always shall."

"Well, do by all means, my dear one. I dare say I am inhuman, and supercilious, and contemptibly proud of my poor old ramshackle family; but I do honestly confess to you that I feel as if I belonged to a different species from the people who are working in that yard."

"And from me too, then. For my blood is no better than theirs."

He looked at her with a droll sort of awakening. It was, indeed, a startling anomaly that this woman of the tribe without should be standing there beside him as his wife, if his sentiments were as he had said. In their travels together she had ranged so unerringly at his level in ideas, tastes, and habits that he had almost forgotten how his heart had played havoc with his principles in taking her to him.

"Ah YOU--you are refined and educated into something quite different," he said, self-assuringly.

"I don't quite like to think that," she murmured with soft regret.

"And I think you underestimate Giles Winterborne. Remember, I was brought up with him till I was sent away to school, so I cannot be radically different. At any rate, I don't feel so. That is, no doubt, my fault, and a great blemish in me. But I hope you will put up with it, Edgar."

同类推荐
  • 明伦汇编人事典九十一岁至百岁部

    明伦汇编人事典九十一岁至百岁部

    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。
  • 雍邸集

    雍邸集

    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。
  • OPTIONS

    OPTIONS

    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。
  • Cousin Betty

    Cousin Betty

    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。
  • 憨休禅师语录

    憨休禅师语录

    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。
热门推荐
  • 花易谢情难戒

    花易谢情难戒

    女人情,男人爱,雾中花,水中月。爱是一种禅,是一种信念,只有一心痴往并坚信她存在的人方有机会一睹真容。我爱你,就这么简单!!!
  • 命中注定:你爱我吗

    命中注定:你爱我吗

    王宇昂和我从读中学的时候,就是同学。我们一起上高中,上大学,一直到现在,都有着密切的联系。在我们认识的这数十年里,我对他始终擦不出爱的火花。而他对我,却是一直关心备至,呵呼有加。在某一天,我在网上认识了吕传彬,世界却非常非常小,小到我们在现实生活中都能遇上。当一个人无法取舍的时候,我们就想着让老天来决定---------后来,我和吕传彬恋爱了,可在他知道我当过小三的时候,他放弃了我,而王宇昂对我始终不弃不离,最后,我觉得累了,不想恋爱了,跑到了个另外的城市去上班了,在半年之后,我回来看一个朋友,在路上,我碰巧遇到了王宇昂,他仍然对我那么好那么体贴------
  • 拂过冬季到云来

    拂过冬季到云来

    时间划过风的轨迹,那个少年,还在等你。一直以来,十七岁的柳溪川都能感觉到有一层外壳把自己和世界隔开了,并不是坚硬的盔甲,而是摇摇欲坠的茧。她想躲一天算一天。直到有一天,她收到一条神秘的短信:“如果从来不认识新旬,就好了。”对,她也的确这么想,毕竟在她心中,夏新旬真的是个很讨厌的人。却不承想,这样一个她厌恶的人,反而是她未来生命中深深的羁绊。更不承想,这条短信竟然来自十年后的自己。
  • 喜上眉头

    喜上眉头

    新书《如意事》正在连载 ———————— 大靖朝一夫一妻典范,被誉为佳话的帝后,死后齐齐重生了。这是一个重生的皇帝陛下想替小皇后择良配、拉红线,可拉着拉着却又拉回了自己身上的故事…… …… 正版读者订阅群:734187674
  • 行政工作制度规范与流程设计

    行政工作制度规范与流程设计

    本丛书分为五个分册,分别为《人力资源工作制度规范与流程设计》、《市场营销工作制度规范与流程设计》、《行政工作制度规范与流程设计》、《财务工作制度规范与流程设计》、《生产工作制度规范与流程设计》,为读者提供了在管理工作中所需要的制度范例和工作流程。通过最新流程图的绘制方法,将每一个工作流程以最清晰、最简单的方式呈现出来,使企业管理工作者可以得到最实用的工具。制度范例从现实工作中的细节入手,对每一项工作环节都作了切合实际的论述,使企业管理工作者可以从中得到具有可操作性的考评依据和培训蓝本。
  • 东京东2

    东京东2

    日光机场,第五大道不寻常的一天,红枫密林里的宝藏,加勒比海的冰屋……竹内的死因无从考证,泷泽和春子不知去向,突然出现的异国贵族,密林上空的飞机失事……从急流坠入悬崖!水下五米的拥吻能让爱人回到身边吗?!车祸?!是谁故意制造?!她为什么对千和柏原的恋情恶意阻拦?!她到底是谁?!疑云丛丛,超乎想象,真爱与邪恶的惊心暗战,你想知道答案吗?!
  • 星级厚爱

    星级厚爱

    姜郁甄结婚当天被劫了,劫婚的是媒人席宁桓。他的一句话封住所有人的嘴:上城谁敢惹我不痛快?席宁桓娶了她是逼不得已,她嫁给他是另有算计,两个人各怀心思若即若离,却被命运推搡地越缠越紧。她盯着他的胸膛问:这里藏了什么?他躲开她的视线,情话说不出来:里面藏了一个你。一日秘密被揭开,爱情分崩离析,她推开他伸过来的手:是时候离婚了。席宁桓挑眉:是吗?若干年后,姜郁甄再次风光大嫁,成了万众瞩目的席太太,这次名副其实。他说:喜欢一个人才会奋不顾身,我给你爱情,给你地位,给你家庭,给你我的肾……--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 最妃

    最妃

    命运的齿轮转动,是一见钟情的缘,还是命中注定的劫?当小腹黑遇上大腹黑,谁黑了谁?———轻松宠文,看妖孽男主如何宠妃养成。【小剧场:】慕容妃姒:烬哥哥,我去了东宫,把太子妃打了一顿。南云烬:(神色淡然)打了便打了,让幻觉送点医药费去便是。慕容妃姒:你知道我为何打她吗?她骂我是狗!南云烬:(怒而拍桌)放肆!她当本王是死的吗!!慕容妃姒:嗯嗯,她太过分了,我说她太美了,亮瞎了我的狗眼。南云烬:……慕容妃姒:她说那我一定不是南凤国的,因为南凤国的狗长不出人模样。南云烬:!!!
  • 仙古洪荒之寻仙

    仙古洪荒之寻仙

    【白龙渊文学社,编辑饶安推荐】(寻仙之路,漫长而激情,一次收藏,一次点击,一次推荐,都是你对仙古最大的支持)叶云,地球上华夏古国一位先天境武者,却被莫名其妙的带到了一个陌生大陆,他为了寻找回地球的星空古路,毅然走上了修者一途,在途中,他听到地球上那些远古神话中出现的人物传说,证明这里曾经留下过他们的足迹,只是,这些人最终去了哪里?后来,他决定,追寻前人的脚步,寻找那虚无缥缈的永恒-----仙!
  • 攻略男神小白系统

    攻略男神小白系统

    一次意外,她就开始了穿越之旅,但是!为啥在不同位面还能碰见同一个人,这不科学!“你……你的手往哪放!”“娘子,你不是我娘子吗,我在履行我的义务啊。”