登陆注册
5291400000082

第82章 CHAPTER XXVIII.(3)

He replied with much more reserve. "You are going for a walk, Mrs. Fitzpiers?" he added. "It is pleasant just now."

"No, I am returning," said she.

The vehicles passed through, the gate slammed, and Winterborne walked by her side in the rear of the apple-mill.

He looked and smelt like Autumn's very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat-color, his eyes blue as corn-flowers, his boots and leggings dyed with fruit-stains, his hands clammy with the sweet juice of apples, his hat sprinkled with pips, and everywhere about him that atmosphere of cider which at its first return each season has such an indescribable fascination for those who have been born and bred among the orchards. Her heart rose from its late sadness like a released spring; her senses revelled in the sudden lapse back to nature unadorned. The consciousness of having to be genteel because of her husband's profession, the veneer of artificiality which she had acquired at the fashionable schools, were thrown off, and she became the crude, country girl of her latent, earliest instincts.

Nature was bountiful, she thought. No sooner had she been starved off by Edgar Fitzpiers than another being, impersonating bare and undiluted manliness, had arisen out of the earth, ready to hand.

This was an excursion of the imagination which she did not encourage, and she said suddenly, to disguise the confused regard which had followed her thoughts, "Did you meet my husband?"

Winterborne, with some hesitation, "Yes."

"Where did you meet him?"

"At Calfhay Cross. I come from Middleton Abbey; I have been making there for the last week."

"Haven't they a mill of their own?"

"Yes, but it's out of repair."

"I think--I heard that Mrs. Charmond had gone there to stay?"

"Yes. I have seen her at the windows once or twice."

Grace waited an interval before she went on: "Did Mr. Fitzpiers take the way to Middleton?"

"Yes...I met him on Darling." As she did not reply, he added, with a gentler inflection, "You know why the mare was called that?"

"Oh yes--of course," she answered, quickly.

They had risen so far over the crest of the hill that the whole west sky was revealed. Between the broken clouds they could see far into the recesses of heaven, the eye journeying on under a species of golden arcades, and past fiery obstructions, fancied cairns, logan-stones, stalactites and stalagmite of topaz. Deeper than this their gaze passed thin flakes of incandescence, till it plunged into a bottomless medium of soft green fire.

Her abandonment to the luscious time after her sense of ill-usage, her revolt for the nonce against social law, her passionate desire for primitive life, may have showed in her face. Winterborne was looking at her, his eyes lingering on a flower that she wore in her bosom. Almost with the abstraction of a somnambulist he stretched out his hand and gently caressed the flower.

She drew back. "What are you doing, Giles Winterborne!" she exclaimed, with a look of severe surprise. The evident absence of all premeditation from the act, however, speedily led her to think that it was not necessary to stand upon her dignity here and now.

"You must bear in mind, Giles," she said, kindly, "that we are not as we were; and some people might have said that what you did was taking a liberty."

It was more than she need have told him; his action of forgetfulness had made him so angry with himself that he flushed through his tan. "I don't know what I am coming to!" he exclaimed, savagely. "Ah--I was not once like this!" Tears of vexation were in his eyes.

"No, now--it was nothing. I was too reproachful."

"It would not have occurred to me if I had not seen something like it done elsewhere--at Middleton lately," he said, thoughtfully, after a while.

"By whom?"

"Don't ask it."

She scanned him narrowly. "I know quite well enough," she returned, indifferently. "It was by my husband, and the woman was Mrs. Charmond. Association of ideas reminded you when you saw me....Giles--tell me all you know about that--please do, Giles!

But no--I won't hear it. Let the subject cease. And as you are my friend, say nothing to my father."

They reached a place where their ways divided. Winterborne continued along the highway which kept outside the copse, and Grace opened a gate that entered it.

同类推荐
  • 无常三启经

    无常三启经

    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。
  • 奇症汇

    奇症汇

    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。
  • 大庄严论经

    大庄严论经

    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。
  • 洞玄灵宝道要经

    洞玄灵宝道要经

    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。
  • 摄论章卷第一

    摄论章卷第一

    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
  • 纷生

    纷生

    木筱然醒来时已经失去了过去的所有记忆,她只记得自己的名字跟年纪,却不记得自己从哪里来,为何会晕倒在树林里,也不记得自己过去曾经历了些什么?天生乐观的她为了过好接下来的人生,凭借自己的努力学了一身武艺,后来又成为了长安有名的成衣商,但是却因此卷入了一场蓄谋已久的复仇计划……
  • 最终裁决

    最终裁决

    一路逆天而上,逆天斩道。际遇拜师入宗,遇上神秘老人,得到无上传承。重新出发的他在复仇的路上遇上种种阴谋,不甘就此放弃的他激发了自己无穷的潜力。遇神弑神,遇魔杀魔,遇妖斩妖勇登巅峰!
  • 独白者

    独白者

    心理学博士沈跃曾就职于世界知名心理学实用技术研究所,他是心理学实用技术方面的天才,在微表情、心理分析、心理学技术应用于商业推广等方面都有着极深的造诣。他是测谎专家,更是心理分析大师,每一起复杂诡异的案件都在他专业的触角下拨开层层迷雾,暴露出真相背后血淋淋的人性;他是一个纯粹的学者,内心敏感、脆弱,崇尚独立自由的人格;他是良师益友,时时处处散发出温情脉脉的人性光辉……全省首富阚四通在从分河返回省城的高速路上遭遇车祸死亡,案发现场离奇诡异,警方经过多方调查后毫无线索。作为心理学家,沈跃的调查思路和方式与警方完全不同。他认为,在毫无线索的情况下进入死者生前的内心世界,从中去寻找答案才是最好的途径……
  • 曾国藩冰鉴(第六卷)

    曾国藩冰鉴(第六卷)

    《冰鉴》以冰为鉴、明察秋毫,以神为鉴、相骨 识人。办事不外用人,用人必先识人,识人必先观 人。古今中外在观人、识人、用人方面可以说是有成 有败,为使大家在观人、识人、用人方面不受任何影 响,特编辑了此书。本书通过对人体的神骨、情态、 刚柔、容貌、须眉、气色、声音这七个部位的论述, 以达到正确观人、识人、用人的目的。在这里我们不 谈论观人、识人、用人的大道理,只希望大家在观 人、识人、用人方面能够获得厚益。
  • 慢养好习惯,快改坏毛病

    慢养好习惯,快改坏毛病

    本书告诉我们一个家庭教育的宗旨:家庭教育是培养良好习惯的教育。而良好的习惯不是一蹴而就的,它是一个长期积淀的过程。要培养孩子良好的习惯,家长应从小处着眼,从细节入手,有小毛病马上令其改之,有好行为让其坚持之,不求一时的速度和效率,尊重每个孩子的差异,长此以往,必然能养出一个习惯良好的孩子。本书倡导“小毛病快快改,好习惯慢慢养”的教育理念。用生动、翔实的事例为支撑点,为广大家长提供了一系列习惯培养的具体方法。针对性强,具有很强的实用性。
  • 长安十二时辰(雷佳音、易烊千玺主演)

    长安十二时辰(雷佳音、易烊千玺主演)

    同名电视剧由雷佳音、易烊千玺主演,雷佳音饰演张小敬,易烊千玺饰演李泌。唐天宝三年,元月十四日,长安。大唐皇都的居民不知道,上元节辉煌灯火亮起之时,等待他们的,将是场吞噬一切的劫难。突厥、狼卫、绑架、暗杀、烈焰、焚城,毁灭长安城的齿轮已经开始转动。而拯救长安的全部希望,只有一个即将被斩首的独眼死囚和短短的十二个时辰……
  • The Yellow Crayon

    The Yellow Crayon

    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。
  • 考古:考古领域新发现(青少年科学探索营)

    考古:考古领域新发现(青少年科学探索营)

    本书介绍了令人震惊的满城古墓、清昭西陵隐藏的秘密、吕洞宾墓是真是假、虞姬墓到底在哪里、让人生疑的香妃墓、难辨真假的曹雪芹墓、世界上最大的坟墓、埃及法老塞提墓室秘道、沙丘状的巴林万坟岛苏丹的小金字塔等内容。
  • 独醉亭集

    独醉亭集

    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。
  • 默庵诗集

    默庵诗集

    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。